"Who in their right mind wouldn't want to read a book by Mark Barry!" (Mary Quallo, St Louis)

"Who in their right mind wouldn't want to read a book by Mark Barry!"  (Mary Quallo, St Louis)
Coming next week - Carla Eatherington

Wednesday 14 November 2012

An Interview with S.K Whiteside

The Crushed Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing Interviews - Winter 2012.


One day in October, wearing my other hat as the proprietor of The Independent Paperback Gift Shop, I put out a call for paperback books to fill the Christmas Catalogue. 

You can find the catalogue to your right - you can even download a copy. 

A professional (Linna Drehmel) at Crushed Hearts and Black Butterfly contacted me and sent loads and loads of books on behalf of SJ Davis, the owner of the company.


Crushed Hearts is focused on young adults, and those adults who think young, and they have authors queuing round the block to work for them. 

The usual YA mix, the stuff modern readers cannot get enough of. 

Horror, paranormal, erotica and romance and every combination in between: You'll find it here. 

Over the Christmas Period, with the exception of two special editions, we'll be meeting the young authors at the company and also, I hope, we'll be meeting the publisher, SJ Davis  (a player in Indielit herself),  for a really serious interview about the future, e-books, paperbacks and the world of Indielit. Erotic paranormal zombie vampires are bound to make an appearance, I'm sure. 

We kick off with up and coming author S.K.Whiteside.

I'm going to call her Miss Whiteside for the duration of the interview for very good reasons - not even I know her name, which adds a veneer of mystery and suspense to the exchange. She wishes to remain anonymous.  I don't know where she lives or who she is. I don't even know if the accompanying photograph is her or not. I'm assuming it is. 

S.K Whiteside
Tonight, she contacted me from an underground car park underneath a big building in America somewhere and I rang her back on the Wizphone. Here's what she had to say, static and traffic noise permitting.

Tell us a bit about yourself (Miss Whiteside). What do Wizard Watchers need to know about you as a writer and as a person?

 I like to take history and twist it with a bit of modern and paranormal flare. I like to show the evolution of my characters and more often than not, my work comes off a bit dark. 

My style has been coined as being “Cinematic Literature”, I kind of like that term.  
I’m not really into romance and I hate weak female characters. I think I tend to be a literary feminist.

 I am a mother of two, a wife, and spend my non writing employment time as a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Mental Health field. I love to read, write, and of course Horror Movies.

Other than that I am just a southern girl out of New Orleans – the paranormal capital of the world (the setting for many of my stories). (hmmm debatable. Ed)

Mardi Gras
What genre do you write in. ~ I am a writer of Paranormal Fantasy, Horror, and Psychological Thriller/Suspense. I also write Paranormal Erotic Romance under a pen name.

What have you written so far?~ My debut published works were my erotic fiction.
My debut mainstream fiction was Fallen which was introduced as a teaser for my Dark Anthology, Morbid Seraphic



I not only selected the stories contained in the anthology but it also contains my stories Fallen From Grace, and Haunted.

My current published work is Vexed.



I find it particularly hard to find time to write with so much on my plate and hope that one day I am able to do so full time. 

Maybe someone has an eccentric old uncle on his last leg I can borrow?


This is my cousin Igor. He lives in Carpathia and as a Cauldron Maker, he's quite well off.

I was just kidding, Wiz.

Honestly. He's a nice bloke. Encourages writers.


Let's move on, Wiz hahaha

Ok. Has anything been you've written been particularly successful? 

In my opinion ALL of my work has been successful but in terms of numbers Morbid Seraphic reached #1 for Anthologies on Amazon.

Number one, huh? Our first ever...congratulations.

I was very proud of that, Wiz. Vexed stayed in the top 10 on Amazon for Drama for over a week and currently sits in the top 100 after being released for 2 weeks.

Well done. I'll bet everyone at Crushed Hearts were buzzing.

The response has been fantastic and a bit overwhelming.

Tell Wizard Watchers about your latest project? What are your ambitions for it? 

Next up is VICE AND VIRTUE with guest author and Morbid Seraphic Contributor Nathan Squiers. 

Is that the young man known as the Literary Dark Prince? I'm looking forward to interviewing him.

Classic Literary Dark Prince for Wizard Watchers to
look forward to in December - Nathan Squiers


That's him, Wiz.! His expertise in torturing people in his works is just the touch I needed for this particular story (they don’t call him the Literary Dark Prince for nothing) and while I may be the Morbid Mistress, his brand of Dark brings the pain and suffering that is sure to leave readers with Post Traumatic Stress.

I think Vice and Virtue is brilliant and will hopefully be out at the end of the month in print and for e-reader. As for ambitions, I just want the readers to love it.

A swarm of giant vampire bats swoop down from the sky. One takes you in his talons and sweeps you off to Castle Drax and throws you into a dungeon. A kindly gaoler, Oleg, shambles up to you and offers you three books, two CD's and a DVD to pass the time until the Vampire Patriarch visits you on Walpurgisnacht. What would they be?

Three Books ~ Beautiful Creatures.


The Odyssey



Hamlet


or



Two CD’s ~ Any Evanescence or Linkin Park Album.

Evanescence - rescued from the "Where are they now" file by Gothic boom
after epochal first album and er, a bit shit second.

Bubbly Stateside Popsters Linkin Park
(Wiz Ed notes: Nice one - Effervescent and Evanescent in one link. You're on fire.)

DVD~ Gone with the Wind…don’t judge me. (As if I would, SK! Ultra popular on here!)

No joke! The most popular Cauldron Interview
film choice by far!

How do you relax away from the word processor? 

What is this word relax? hahahaha. I read.

What next for YA literature? What will the next five years bring for the genre

I am not quite sure. In a perfect world it will bring some of the most talented writers our generation have seen but perfect world would be the operative words, wouldn’t they?

Yes they would be, SK. So finally, what do fans of SK Whiteside have to look forward to in the coming year

Wow, well there is Vice and Virtue coming out soon, then I have my Time Keepers Daughter series coming soon, There is my Psycho Thriller “Thicker than Water” and the much anticipated “Book of Malachi”. I just hope everyone continues to read my work!

Wow. That's a lot of work.

Yes it is. I work hard at my craft.

I can see that! S.K. Whiteside, thanks for speaking to us here in the UK!

You're welcome, Wiz.

Contact SK at:



Twitter: @skwhiteside


3 comments:

  1. Ok, I must admit this was by far the most entertaining interview I have done! Thanks for having me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great job almighty Wizard - loved cousin Igor's photo.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Literary Dark Prince is in stitches over here (and I thought it was funny as hell, too)!

    ReplyDelete

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