Since it's Halloween in a few days, let's talk about creepy, scary things, and monsters--all the things that make our hearts beat unsteadily when we hear an unusual noise in the darkest part of night.
If you like ghosties and goblins, witches and vampire, you'll enjoy meeting today's guest.
Please welcome
Margarita Felices, author of the
Judgment of Souls series.
About Margarita Felices
Margarita lives in Cardiff, Wales, with her partner and three little mad dogs. She loves where she lives because, for all its modernization, Cardiff still bears remnants of an old Victorian city.
She works for a well-known TV broadcasting company. She loves writing and bases her stories in Cardiff because it has such character. She says: "The coast is great for photographs, mind you, we have a lovely castle in the city centre and a fairytale one just on the outskirts, so when I feel I can't write anything, I take a ramble to those locations and it clears my head."
"I suppose it was inevitable that some day I would write a novel. My teachers at school used to limit me to no more than 10 pages. When I left school, I wrote short stories for magazines, and it paid my way through college. I am Gothic, I love the fashion, the architecture and the music. The club in my novel is real. When I was writing book one, I got all my club material and clientèle from here, I wouldn't have finished that section without it."
Visit Margarita Felicies Online: Amazon UK Author Page * Amazon US Author Page * Facebook * Instagram * Twitter.
12 Questions: The Author and Her Writing Process
Q1. In which genre do you write and why that particular genre?
Margarita: I have written in several genres, but my favourite is paranormal. This genre is very interesting to write. You don’t have to conform to any rules with your characters, they can fly through the air, move at speed, express an unimaginable intelligence and no one bats an eyelid. You can take a story to some of the deepest and darkest nightmares that will evoke such emotions in your reader that it makes the whole writing process a joy.
Q2. What inspired your Judgement of Souls series?
Margarita: I grew up with all those cliché vampire tales.
The weak females and the gallant hero who saves the day, and I needed to change it. Vampires don’t have to be a ‘blood sucking, kill all mortals’ fest!
I created my story from the vampire perspective. Much like
Anne Rice did for her novel
Interview with the Vampire. I was interested to take a story from their lives, are they much different from ours (immortality aside)? Their loves, their lives, their sorrow. My story revolves around a vampire family that starts from the time of the Crusades to finish in modern today.
An important artefact has been stolen from the vampire Elysium and it needs to be found before it unleashes demons onto this world. It’s a journey of discovery for a young female vampire who I hope the readers will see as vulnerable, yet also as a dark killer. I wanted to show that a vampire can fall in love, have her heart broken and then unleash a fury on the one that caused her world to come crashing down. It’s basically a story about a vampire family and a quest for revenge. Its love, revenge and a few laughs along the way.
Q3. As an author, what can readers expect when they read one of your books?
Margarita: I’m hoping that they will experience an exciting journey full of twists and turns and an understanding of the vampire genre. Each page makes you excited to turn the next one. Laugh and cry at my characters and their situations and when the books are finished, be sad that they are leaving behind good friends.
Q4. How did you "become" an author? For instance, was there a moment when you said: "I think I'll write a book."
Margarita: I’ve always been a writer. I wrote a piece of fanfic when I was 7 years old. In school whenever my teachers used to set essays, I would write… and write… and write. Until they couldn’t take it anymore and I was set a word and page limit.
I wouldn’t think twice about filling three exercise books for any assignment. It broke my heart when I was finally reduced to ten pages… but it was a good learning curve in a way because when I left school and started college, I began to write short stories for various women’s magazines and you were always regulated to word counts etc.
I have pages and pages of notes for new stories that will eventually see the light of day. I write if only to silence those voices chatting in my head with different stories… the joys of being a writer, but at least you always have company!
Q5. What's the best thing about being an author?
Margarita: I love being transported to another world. Each day I may hear a line of dialogue said in the street or I see a scenario that I think ‘that would fit in my story now or in another story later’ you never really ever switch off as a writer. When you create your world and you put in your characters, you make new friends and you want to spend as much time with them as possible. You get them into all sorts of perils and then you help get them out of there. It’s very satisfying.
I love researching for my stories – and I do quite a lot if it involves certain historic events. For JOS1 I had to research the Crusades and the world of the church at that time. It was fascinating. I found out things I never knew existed. For JOS2 it was all about the French revolution. I visited Malta, Rome and London and took pictures of buildings that my characters could have walked in. For JOS3 I needed information on Lilith, so I visited the main Jewish synagogue in London and the Chief Rabbi there let me look at an old Hebrew bible they had. I was able to put some pieces together and get vital information about that person and also a few new facts that I also used.
And of course when you publish your work and you get reviews that are all positive, well, that just fills you with such an accomplishment, just to know that you were able to transport your reader to your special place is a huge honour.
Q6. What's the worst thing about being an author?
Margarita: Edits and letting your baby go. When you write, you are your own worse critic. Every time you finish a chapter and you read it over, you pick holes in it. You are forever adding words, re-arranging scenarios. You can’t stop editing. You never stop thinking about where your story is going. You never think your story is finished – when really it is.
I get to a point when I say ‘right, that really is it, it’s done.’ So I let it rest for a few days before I decide to send it off. But I always double check certain points and end up writing a bit more.
Then of course there are those dreaded edits that come back. Even though your editor will make it read smoothly and takes out all that doesn’t make much sense, you do get notes attached saying ‘Huh? What does this mean? What are you trying to say/show.’ And often when you get your pages back it’s covered in red edit marks that make you want to cry.
This is your literary blood spilt over those pages.
Q7. What device do you use to read ebooks?
Margarita: I do own a Kindle. I love my Kindle and take it whenever I am travelling. I have lost count what’s on there. I try to support any author that has a promotion. I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to reading them all though. I download them for later with good intensions of reading and then leaving reviews and then I start writing, and I leave them for another day. (Bad author, bad bad!)
I try never to read someone else’s novel while I’m writing my own. There’s always that scene that you write and think it’s incredible and then in the middle of the night you wake up with the realisation that you’d read the same thing in a book not long ago and have to start again. So I avoid reading while I write. But to be honest, is there anything like holding a paperback?
Q8. Do you have editions of your books available other than ebook editions?
Margarita: Yes they are all available on paperback – except for two short stories. I had a lot of messages from reviewers and readers asking for JOS paperback copies to be available so I decided to get them done that way. I love seeing them in print. I have two large bookshops in Cardiff that are going to start stocking them soon too. Just in time for Halloween with my posters in the windows.
Q9. Do you listen to audio books? If so, where can readers find them, and what device do you use to listen to audio books?
Margarita: I don’t anymore, but I used to because I did a lot of driving. I’m actually looking for a British voice to read the JOS trilogy. I don’t use it as much anymore but that’s going to be my next PR step because it’s starting to become popular and can be easily downloaded onto small devices these days, and are as popular as downloading music. And it’s less bulky when going on holiday!
Q10. If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring author, what would it be?
Margarita: Oh there’s more than just one piece…But Ok then… DON’T GIVE UP! You will get publishers that will decline your work – we’ve all gone through it. Famous authors went through it. J.K.Rowling was rejected for TEN YEARS! Just move on to the next agency because if you have a story to tell, do whatever it takes to get it out there.
Q11. If you could tell readers one thing, what would it be?
Margarita: Sit back and enjoy the ride and if you feel you want to reward the author for all their hard work – LEAVE A REVIEW.
Q12. What is your current big dream (or goal) as a writer and what is your next book and when will it be out?
Margarita: Obviously the big dream is to have my books in the Top 100 on Amazon and on the shelves or the most popular book shops. Not so much for the financial security that it brings, but more so that you know your time hasn’t been wasted.
Right now I’m working on getting the
Judgement of Souls trilogy onto the big screen. I have 3 U.S. producers interested, and we are putting together an option to get into production. It’s a long and hard struggle.
Funding and communication is an issue, but we will be in talks with some studios so watch this space eh? But these things can take years in the planning – worse luck.
I know that vampires will be back. Anne Rice is re-making I
nterview with the Vampire. The TV series based on it will be in production soon too. It’s all just a matter of time.
In the meantime, I have two more stories coming out very soon--completely different genres. One is a creepy tale of what happens to you while you are in a coma. It’s a nightmare inside your head that you can’t escape from, however hard you try. You can scream – but no one can hear you.
The other is a very naughty (erotic) comedy about two hapless girls who go on holiday and get involved with two men who have just committed a robbery. It’s a new genre for me so I enlisted the help of a friend, and I think we’re having a little too much fun with it. I’m also considering sending that story to a local production company, it sounds right up their street!
After those have been released, I have another story about a Welsh witch that I want to start as soon as I can. Plus a few other stories waiting their turn to come to life.
About Judgement of Souls
My vampire trilogy,
Judgement of Souls, started off as one story. But a few pages in I realised that it wasn’t going the way I wanted so I started again from scratch. Unfortunately in doing that I also realised that I had a lot of back story that needed to be told and it couldn’t be included in the one I was writing. I began my story in modern day… and in reverse order.
Judgement of Souls 1
The story centered around the Crusades and the love/hate relationship between a handsome vampire and a hard headed proud female vampire. The discovery of an ancient artifact, a mortal child being born to vampires… and… well that’s for the reader to find out.
Judgement of Souls2
Goes back in time to cover 300 years of mortal and immortal history. I incorporated our mortal history into the vampire story to make it more realistic – which was not easy. I took my characters to several locations… I even had one start the French revolution! I wanted my books to be stand alone stories as well as part of a trilogy.
Judgement of Souls 3
This is the latest book and was so easy to write because the club and the people I wrote about are real. I would visit the club and talk to my ‘characters’ each week. It was shortly before finishing this book that I realised I had to go back in time and tell my readers why Rachel (my lead) was where she was.
For fun, watch Margarita's videos. There are three, in order from oldest to latest:
Video 1 *
Video 2 *
Video 3.
Also, she has a Facebook Page set for
Judgement of Souls 3.
Buy Judgement of Souls Trilogy at
Amazon US: Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3.
Buy Judgement of Souls Trilogy at
Amazon UK: Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3.
Takeaway Truth
Trick of Treat? These paranormal books in a different vampire mythology may be the treat you've wanted. Try them today.
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