Fallen Angel Reviews would like to welcome all-around author Billie Rae Bates. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to answer our questions.

Before writing out the questions for you, I went to your site to find out a little more. I gotta ask, why is your name drawn into the cover of #34 Cheryl Blossom?

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to meet legendary comic-book artist Dan DeCarlo. He's the one who really created "the look" of Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper in Archie Comics, and he worked for Archie for a whopping 50 years. I interviewed him for a weekly newspaper that covered the comic-book industry (I'm at least one part "geek," by the way). I enjoyed the interview, and I met up with Mr. DeCarlo at a couple comic-book conventions after that point. I even bought two of his original, signed comic covers (he did a great deal of the cover illustrations for Archie titles).

Mr. DeCarlo and I joked about my having red hair like the character he created to rival Betty and Veronica, who was named Cheryl Blossom. He knew I LOVED that Cheryl Blossom character. This was the late '90s, and I was subscribing to the "Cheryl Blossom" comic book while living in downtown Detroit. I remember receiving this No. 34 issue in the mail and tossing it on my "to read" pile without looking at it closely. The next time I headed downstairs to the workout room and was looking for something to read while on the stairstepper, I grabbed the comic book. It wasn't until I was settled into my 30-minute workout, and had the issue there in front of me, that I looked closely, and my eyes popped out of my head! That stinker had drawn my name onto the cover, right over Cheryl's boogie board, and had never said a word about it!

Mr. DeCarlo unfortunately passed away a couple years later, in the midst of a legal fight with Archie Comics over his "Josie and the Pussycats" characters (he was their creator, too), and ever since I've been searching for the original art of that No. 34 issue. His widow, Josette (whom he named Josie after), cannot find it among his things, so evidently a collector has it out there somewhere ....

What would we find on your bookshelf? What do you do to relax?

My bookshelf has recently grown a hundredfold, since I just retrieved a very large collection of books out of storage at my brother's place after many years (thanks, Bro!). I have a lot of classics that I was blessed to be introduced to when I was in college: Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dosteovsky, Camus, Homer, Shakespeare, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and the like. I favor those. I also have a large section of entertainment reference books in my library; I've used those for my BRBTV work over the years. I have the full collection of yellow hardback Nancy Drews from my childhood, as well as some Laura Ingalls Wilders and quite a few Harlequin and Silhouette romances from THAT phase, which was my late teens! I have a large section of religion-related books, everything from Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ" to Kay Arthur's "Lord, Is It Warfare?"
As far as relaxing, Sunday is my "R & R" day, and I have a penchant for Western movies and anything truly dreadful playing on the Sci Fi Channel.

Of all things you have accomplished, is there one accomplishment you are most proud of?

I think the accomplishment that has always been the most meaningful to me was the one-act play I wrote while I was living in Saginaw, Mich., in the mid-'90s. It was performed by a small theater group in Flint, Mich. I have no idea if the play will ever see the light of day again, and I may try to shop it around again someday, if the time seems right, but it was a work that meant a great deal to me. I love live theater and have another play "in me" that I hope to someday have the opportunity to sit down and write.

From what do you derive the most inspiration for your writing?

A few years ago, it was my own ego. Nowadays, it's my Heavenly Father. Right now I'm working on a third novel that I am quite convinced HE is actually writing.

How was it making the transition from writing non-fiction to writing fiction? Where are you writing them at the same time?

Everything I've done so far, I've always seemed to do all at once. I keep all the balls up in the air at any given time, so to speak. While I'm writing this third novel, I'm working on an update of two of my BRBTV books. I find it difficult to put one project down completely to work on another. (Perhaps I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive, too!) But the BRBTV projects begin in 1998, and I've never stopped working on them since then, at the same time as completing two novels.

What would you like to accomplish with your writing career?

My purpose and priorities have evolved so much since I started doing all of this, and for that I'm very thankful. A few years ago, I set out with the idea of creating written works that would have an emotional effect on the reader, fiction that would evoke feelings or particular responses. I've always been intrigued by the power of human emotions. Now, that's basically the same goal for me, but it has evolved to a much higher purpose. My writing is much more evangelistic. One theme I keep returning to is the theme of REDEMPTION, that no human being is beyond saving. That is the thrust of the third novel, and it played heavily into the second novel, as well.

While writing, how does the story develop for you? Do you go from start to finish or create scenes as they come to you?

With the first novel, "Rubi," I just started writing it and kept writing it, and I really didn't know where it was going. I just knew I had this crazy character, and I felt her personality was what drove the book, not whatever action was happening around her. In the second novel, I started with a basic premise, and I drew up a very rough outline in my head, then I filled in the blanks as I went along. I knew where that story was headed, but a lot of the scenes and details came later.

With this third novel, I got the big picture while I was sitting at my kitchen table in northeast Michigan on May 18, 2004 (yes, I do remember the day clearly -- a very unusual experience). At the time, I thought, hey, that sounds fabulous. But I was not convinced I should write a third novel. So I really casually cast it aside, in my mind, for the next year. (I'm another part journalist, and us journalists are quite skeptical, you know.) The idea kept coming back, though; it wouldn't go away! And before I knew it, in the ensuing weeks after that date, I was envisioning whole scenes, characters, locations and lots of other details in my head. I started a notes file on my computer, almost for fun, without any real pressure or intention to actually WRITE this thing. But the more time that passed, the more notes I typed in, the more the book solidified in my head, and the more I became convinced that I really needed to write this book, that it is an important story that needs t! o be told. So I started the initial research for it on THIS May 18, appropriately enough, and I started writing the scenes in July. And this words have literally TUMBLED onto the page. I feel very blessed by this project, and it's been like no other. Usually things do not come this easily!

You currently have 4 non-fiction books and 2 novels, please correct me if I'm wrong, could you tell us a bit about them?

The four nonfiction books are, of course, the four BRBTV titles. BRBTV began as a tongue-in-cheek creative outlet when I was living in Detroit and working at one of the large daily newspapers there. It was 1998, and I wanted to get into this whole new Internet thing! So I decided to learn how to build a website, and I decided that some fun websites to create would be ones that focused on the classic TV shows I loved: "Dallas," "Dynasty" and "The Dukes of Hazzard." So I built them, using notes and clips I'd written and compiled years earlier when the shows originally aired, and I kept maintaining the sites over the years, adding content to them (episode guide, cast list, character guide, "fun and useless information" on the shows and their stars, etc.).

Finally, in 2003 I decided to parlay them into electronic books. By then, my first novel "Rubi" had been published electronically. I was just getting my feet wet in the new publishing world the Internet had created. With the BRBTV books, though, there was greater potential to create a neat product: the PDF format enabled me to embed hyperlinks into the books, so the reader can navigate from chapter to chapter from a menu at the top of each page, and can connect with websites through links, too. The BRBTV books have done pretty well, though e-books are a pretty hard-sell, still.

Meanwhile, I got my "Rubi" novel into print in 2004, and I'm working on getting the second novel into print, as well. Both of those first two novels are about young, single females living in the City of Detroit, but that's where the similarities end. The tone of "Rubi" is quick, witty, sarcastic, quite dastardly, as Rubi's voice comes through in the first person. While "Call Me Mary Magdalene" is written in the first person, too, this female (who's never named in the book -- in part, a play off the title, because she admires this Biblical character) is much more introspective, and has a little bit more of the victim mentality. This second novel is really a modern take on Biblical prophecy, which has always intrigued me.

Any chance we'll be seeing a M*A*S*H BRBTV?

I'm sorry -- I didn't watch "M*A*S*H"! If I had more time (and a publisher who was interested!), I would do BRBTV titles on a "great triumvirate" of chick shows from my childhood: "The Bionic Woman," "Wonder Woman" and "Charlie's Angels."

Can you tell us a little about your other upcoming works?

Besides the third novel I've been alluding to, and the updates to the current BRBTV titles, there's an idea I've had rattling around in the back of my brain for about a year: I may at some point publish a set of BRBTV "Miniguides" to a few other TV shows I've compiled information on over the years. These would be smaller, less-expensive (probably $2), quick-hit PDF books with an overview of each show and an episode guide. They would be geared for the reader who just wants a good episode guide, basically, without all the other info. This is the first time I've aired the idea, and I'm not sure yet if this is a direction I should go in. So we'll see what happens.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I'd like to thank you for the opportunity of the interview, Serena!

Thanks again for answering our questions! If you'd like to explore more about Billie Rae Bates you can explore her website at http://www.billierae.com. Ms. Bates' books can be found a number of places so I suggest that you look at her site for her titles.

Interviewed by: Serena