For any of you that do not know MaryJanice Davidson, she is the bestselling author of the Undead series starring Betsy the Queen of the Vampires. However, that is not her only series. She also has a series about a mermaid named Fred and another with were wolves. In total, MaryJanice has over sixty-five published books. Personally I feel MJ's books should carry a warning label: CAUTION THIS BOOK CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH...YOU MAY HURT YOURSELF LAUGHING. I am not kidding, here is a woman who puts her car in a ditch, but has you laughing about it. If you don't believe me check out her blog: http://maryjanicedavidson.blogspot.com/ I had to stop reading MaryJanice's books in public, because people give me the strangest looks when I just start laughing aloud and they aren’t in on the joke.
Without further ado, here is MaryJanice to tell you how Betsy came to be.
I came up with Betsy because I got a little tired of running across the same basic vampire in the Romance section of the book store. It seemed like the vampires were always male, always gorgeous, always rich, always well hung, always lurking or sulking in dark alleys, and always bitching about what a burden it was, being eternally rich and young and hung. I remember thinking, "Where are the plumber vampires? Where are the accountant vampires? Why are they always moody Scottish lords?" And Betsy was born from that speculation. She's kind of my anti-vamp: she's not ancient, she wouldn't be caught dead lurking in an alley or sleeping in a coffin ("Oh, that is just guh-ROSS!"), and she routinely handles crosses and holy water.
As for Betsy's love of shoes, I wanted to give the character a habit that, again, you normally wouldn't run across in a more traditional vampire story. An administrative assistant who has to save for months and months to be able to buy just one pair of designer shoes...that was a character I could relate to. I figured a lot of us could...who *doesn't* know what it's like to have to put money aside and save for something we really, really want but just don't need?
What's funny is that most readers assume I'm into designer shoes, too, when I couldn't be more indifferent. I'm a Payless girl: buy one pair, get the second half price. You can't beat that! Also, I refuse to drop $350 on shoes that I'll just end up getting mud or dog shit on, anyway. (I'm a small town girl, and we have two dogs.)
There are sneak preview chapters from UNDEAD AND UNDERMINED at MJ's blog and Facebook page, if you want to find out what's coming down the pike for Betsy and the gang.
July 5th.
Undead and Undermined
Stop by tomorrow and hear how Maggie Shayne came up with her vamps.
2 comments:
I would NEVER have believed that MJ didn't care about shoes, unless it came from her very lips. I'm shocked!!!
Hard to believe, but true. It was Betsy love for shoes that endeared me to her. She reminded me of a good friend who has more shoes than I could wear in a lifetime and still kept buying them.
Post a Comment