Fallen Angel Reviews is pleased to welcome H.E. McVay to an evening of probing questions and getting into the mind of a rising star at Liquid Silver Books. H.E., welcome and thank you for spending an evening with our FAR fans!!! I’m pleased you’ve given our readers and myself a chance to get to know you better.

I’m thrilled to have the chance to interact with my readers anytime I can, and FAR is such a great website that, of course, I had to jump at the chance to share and be a part of such a lovely group!

Now before we get started I have to ask, can I call you Heidi? I feel as if I need to be on my best behavior when I say H.E. and what fun is that?

Of course! The whole H.E. Heidi-Elizabeth thing is just for my writing. My friends and family call me Heidi. But if you sneak in a Didi, I might have to cry.

So Heidi I have to admit I’ve yet to have the pleasure of reading your book Avatar’s Awakening. Can you tell the readers and myself about the story?

Avatar’s Awakening is the story of Elizabeth de Maigne and Adam Montrose, of what happens when two very unlikely people who would not otherwise ordinarily come together not only do so, but at the same time discover a love that spans time and realms. I wrote it as an experiment of sorts. I’m usually a pretty perky person; to the point where my friends have said it can even get sickening. So the chance to explore a much darker world, one that you couldn’t pay me to live in, was one I couldn’t pass up. I never really intended it to be a series. AA was a one off to me, until I realized what a can of worms I’d opened and well, let’s just say that I’ve never been able to leave well enough alone.

I used the story as a vehicle to let every ounce of darkness that I’d dared to think a person capable of out to play, unleashed without restraint. Elizabeth and her evolution, and in fact the entire story, it’s an exploration of what humanity is. I believe that the sensuality that innately a part of us shouldn’t be pushed aside for the sake of delicate sensibilities. It’s raw and earnest, and as much a part of us as the rest of our minds and bodies. I think it’s something to be celebrated and I tried to get that point across in AA.

I also wanted to make sure that it was a good read for if someone just wanted a great story. I did my best and I hope that it gives my readers as much pleasure reading it as I got from writing it.

Avatar Awakening is only Part 1 of your new Predators series. Just have to ask what was the inspiration for the series because you’re going full steam ahead with its successor being recently released and another story on the way.

I’d have to say the true inspiration for the series came from wanting to build a world that was believable and wanting it to be one that though, fascinating, seemed forbidden at the same time. Vampires represent a ton of taboos that we normal folk tend to gravitate toward, that ability to blur the lines between right and wrong and do it without apology.

Pure hedonism is a huge factor in my work. If I’m having a bad day, some poor bastard in my story will meet his doom. But over all, the first story just came out so easily, as did the second, that I feel like at this point in my career, it’s what I’m supposed to be creating, and so I’m just going to keep plugging away at it until the series is ready to let me go. There could just be the third book, or there could be more.

You mention a book called Legacy of Light and have 2006 as the release year. Can you give the FAR readers a glimpse of what they can expect when this story is published? Also is it with your current publisher Liquid Silver Books?

I really need to update that website! I’ve been traveling so much these last few months that I’m horrible about e-mailing my webmistress with the updates that need to be put up. Legacy of Light was the working title for the second book, Scion’s Rebirth. The title refers to a very special character in the book named Zazu, a little girl with a very special destiny.

And yes, it’s been released through Liquid Silver. I’m going to be sticking with them for as long as they’ll have me. They’ve been so good to me over there and they’re such wonderful people to work with. The other writers are a great group too, and I’m proud to be a part of the LSB family.

In your website gallery of images I came across the place you used as visual inspiration for a location in your latest book Scion’s Rebirth. The place was fabulous and I have to ask did you have the book release party there?

Sadly, I haven’t been able to go back to Durham, North Carolina where the home is. I probably won’t be able to make it back until Christmas. That house is the one that I had in my head for Rachel’s home during the writing, and I’ve never been more grateful for nepotism because my aunt and her partner were gracious enough to let me take the pictures for reference when I visited over Valentine’s Day. My birth mother and her partner and my aunts live in the area, so I go there often and it’s a great place to just sort of relax and enjoy life.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet managed to have a book release party. I keep intending to, and then I get an itch and have to fly off to some random part of the country to visit family or explore and I don’t get the faboo parties I desire. But being with family during a release more than makes up for it.

Heidi, you have a completion date of July for Part 3 of your Predator series so of course I’m going to put you on the spot and ask is it finished? If so do you have a tentative date for release?

I actually intended to get the book finished by the end of July, but that’s been delayed by a few weeks. I traveled to Louisiana for a month and my laptop crashed four days into the visit. As luck would have it, my backups didn’t survive either thanks to a horrible collision of my husband’s Coke can and my flash drive. O.o. I lost the entire beginning, over a hundred pages and had to start over from scratch.

Just as I got going on the second version, I got the sad news that my grandmother passed away and I had to fly back to Louisiana again to be with my family. I’ve only been home for three days and so it’s been touch and go. But I am working on it hard and the finish date should only be delayed by a couple of weeks. It takes roughly six to eight weeks to finish the rough draft, so I hope that I can get it finished up and ready to send to the delightful people at LSB for a yay or nay by mid-August. If they pick it up, it should be out by the end of the year. Let’s hope!

A lot of authors have different styles when it comes to getting ready for practicing their craft. Do you have any special rituals that help get you in the mood to write?

I do have rituals. I have the silliest little habits, things that when my husband looks at me while I’m ‘working’ don’t really seem like it! I have to have a cup of coffee, I work best when it’s Community (which I have to bring back with my when I visit home) or a Danish brand called Merrild that I’d otherwise have to pay out the nose for. That’s brought back from Denmark when my Inge-mor goes home for a visit.

My prepping process involves copious rounds of Solitaire and pretending I’m Alanis Morissette before while staring at a blinking cursor. It helps, strangely enough, to have my hands getting into the groove at the computer while my mind’s free to wander around the story and the mood of the music. It gets me in my zone so to speak. Not very exciting, but hey, you did ask! LOL.

Now that the business stuff is complete I’m sure our readers would love to know more about Heidi, the woman, Navy wife and owner of cats with exotic names. How are Miyoko and Nanashi doing and are their names based on your travels to the Far East or desire to go there one day?

My cats are my joy, at least until I have a baby and they get the rude awakening of being ‘just cats’. They’re three-year-old Siamese mixes from the same litter. I got them one day because I was jonesing to have a baby in the house. I didn’t tell my husband that I was bringing them home and he was, to say the least, mildly irritated to find them snoozing on his pillow when he got home from work that day. He demanded I take them back. I told him if he wanted them gone, he could take them back. Needless to say, their still here.

Miyo’s actually snoozing on the chair next to me. Their names are a reflection of my need to surround myself with a rich tapestry of color; either that or I’m just a sucker for exotic names! Miyoko’s was the easiest to pick out, it’s Japanese and means ‘beautiful child’. Nanashi’s name is also Japanese. It literally means ‘no name’.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m an anime junkie. I’m a huge fan of Gundam Wing and when I couldn’t come up with a good name for Nashi, I just started calling her that as sort of a place holder until I could come up with something really good. Nanashi is the Japanese name for my favorite GW character and pathetically, it stuck. I would call her Kirby, after Kirby Morrow, the hottie voice actor for the character, but she’s a girl. And I’m not THAT much of a stalker. Tehehe.

The hobby of yours that really caught my attention is TRAVELING!!! What is one of your favorite vacation spots? The part of the world you want to visit next?

I’ve been traveling since I was a little girl with my family and that itch is still with me. So much so, that I’ve been away from home for 4 months out of this year. It’s only July and already I’ve been to Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, and I intend to go somewhere I’ve never been to surprise someone very special whom I haven’t seen in years, so I can’t reveal the location, or they’ll catch on!

My absolute favorite place to go is Denmark, I’ve been there twice and each time was just such a great experience that I can’t wait to go back. I even lived there for a few months several years ago. London would run a close second, but since the deportation, I haven’t gone back. You may think I’m joking, but I’m not! LOL.

I would really love to go to Japan, preferably Tokyo, but that’s a few years off. Realistically, my next big trip will be in the fall to that place I can’t name. I would also love to make it up to Vancouver, being the fangirl that I am, to tour one of the voice acting studios.

When you’re not traveling, writing, or reading books by your favorite authors what are some of your favorite things to do for fun?

I have a strange addiction to coffee. I go every day, sometimes twice a day, to a local restaurant here in Washington called Shari’s. The staff are great and all wonderful people. I’ve made some very dear friends there. A good 80 percent of the first book in the Predator Series was written there. I also adore music and I’ve been known to make Miyo and Nash break into wails by playing my violin for relaxation. And I adore thrift stores and collecting old coffee carafes. Weird I know, but after my last trip to the ER when I cut myself, hubby said no more collecting swords!

Besides MacAllister and Sands, who else might our readers find on your personal bookshelf?

I just picked up a copy of Scarlet by Margaret Mitchell. And I also really like the Hana-Kimi series by Nakajo Hisaya and Fruits Basket by Takaya Natsuki. As for English language authors, I love anything by Edgar Allen Poe (the man was a master of horror) and Victoria Holt. Anything that tickles my fancy, I’ll read. I have everything on my bookshelf from romance to horror to a layman’s guide to astrophysics.(Not that I understand any of that one…)

If you could credit anyone with motivating you to write and become a published author whom would that person be?

It’s really hard to narrow it to just one person, you know? Because no one ever achieved greatness on their own. And I’m trying to achieve greatness in my own way. Not by being famous, but by being my own person and embracing my life as it’s been given to me to live. My mothers taught me that.

As for my writing, there were two key people who told me and made me really understand that I have a rare combination of talent and passion for that talent, and they are the ones I dedicated AA to. Jeremy Jinks, my high school English teacher. He’s a completely awesome guy and I didn’t realize until recently that he’s NOT ancient. He’s only a couple of years older than me and it’s really great to see him and be able to talk to him as a peer. He told me to take my writing seriously, so I did, and here I am.

The other is Pamela Peak. She taught a class I took the same year I had Jeremy, it was called Novels and we were taught to analyze what we had written and it made me rethink the drivel I was churning out. It helped me to understand the different levels that people wanted to read, either a simply story for enjoyment, or something with depth to it. And I made it my mission to try give both, at the same time, to anything I write. And so far it’s working, I think, and they are to thank for it.

Heidi, for readers who would love to know more about you and your work do you have any upcoming chats or personal appearances scheduled? If so, please let our fans know where they can find additional information.

Any information about forthcoming events can be found on my yahoo group, there should be a link to join through my website, and once I update my site, I’m going to post a link to my Livejournal for those who would care to brave the abyss that is my psyche.

It’s been fun and before you head out could you let us know where we can find updated information about H.E. Mcvay and your future projects?

The most up to date information is usually on www.heidimcvay.com and my mailing list. I’m also really good about responding to e-mail, so I can be harassed by just e-mailing me. heidi@heidimcvay.com

Heidi thank you for taking the time to sit with me this evening and I’m sure the FAR readers will agree we learned tons of fascinating information about a rising star at Liquid Silver Books.

I’m not sure if I’m fascinating, but I do thank you for the lovely compliment. I had a blast talking and I really do hope that everyone enjoys this as much as I did. Thanks so much for bearing with me through my rambling. I’m so grateful to everyone who reads my work, and I’m happy to be able to do what I love, so thanks so much for giving me the chance to talk to you. You’re a doll!

Interviewed by: Rachelle