Kristen shares a birthday with Steven Tyler and Diana Ross. She spends each day striving to be half as fabulous as they are. She’s worn many hats, none as flattering as her cowboy hat: banker, retail manager, fledgling web designer, world’s worst cocktail waitress, panty slinger, now makeup artist and aspiring author. She loves sunshine, live music, the middle of nowhere, and finding new things to put in her house. Kristen is represented by Pam van Hylckama Vlieg of Foreword Literary.
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Melanie Vaughn’s job ruined everything. Her social life, nonexistent. Her relationship with her boyfriend, a hostile roommate situation. She resolves to fix everything one snowy afternoon, but instead comes home to discover her boyfriend is already exploring other options. Blonder, bustier options. Rage drives Melanie to do the unthinkable.
When Soul Divider was on the top of the world, so was Ryder Maddox. When the band faded into obscurity, Ryder’s luck plummeted with it. In a last ditch effort to rekindle the band’s heyday, Soul Divider teams up with powerful vampire clan leader, Talis de Rancourt. In return for her services, the band pays the ultimate price for never ending fame.
Now on the run, Melanie meets Ryder in a middle of nowhere hotel. She never expected her teenage rock star crush to be as lost and as in need of a companion as she is. Their connection is all consuming, even before they find they share another kinship: murder.
The newly turned vampires in Soul Divider still have a lot to learn. The police and public begin to connect the girls that go missing or die in sync with the band’s tour schedule. Back at home, clues are also adding up against Melanie as well. Between constant media coverage and unrelenting attention from the authorities, Melanie and Ryder find themselves in uncharted territory.
When I started NIGHT MOVES, I just finished a major revision on BECAUSE THE NIGHT (book 1), and I needed a break from those characters for a little while. NIGHT MOVES started as a short story, which is basically chapter one. I kept asking myself “now what would Melanie do?” and once she met Ryder, I realized the story was part of The Night Songs Collection. Knowledge is power, so then I knew I had to get them to Vegas to join up with the rest of my vamps.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
The first draft took about three months. I try not to take longer than that on any first draft, because after that, I get antsy. I used to feel the same way about the end of a school semester. Editing takes a couple weeks each round.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
The pure, creative expression of it. It can be anything you want it to be. I feel like I know myself better because I come face to face with my hopes, fears, and dreams every day that I write. The characters might be fictional, but they all have a little bit of me in them.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
The world isn’t exactly begging for new books, so sometimes I feel a little bit like a door to door salesman trying to get the word out about my work.
Me: ‘Hey, I wrote a book, do you want to read it?’ *hopeful face*
Insert Random Person here: ‘Hey, no.’ *Kristen dies a little*
Okay, that’s exaggerating a bit, but it can feel like that sometimes.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
This is the hardest question you asked me! I honestly don’t think I’d want to be famous. Too much attention, and not enough opportunities to go out in public in yoga pants. But if I have to pick someone, maybe Justin Timberlake, because pretty much everything he does is awesome.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Oh man, there’s never any food in my fridge. I cannot win at food shopping. *gets up to check* There are some green olives I bought for a party last year, but they claim they’re good to go until 2015. Who am I to question?
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
WE OWN THE NIGHT is coming late summer, and that combines the characters from the first two books and cleans up the messes they’ve all created. There are more books in The Night Songs collection beyond the trilogy as well. I have some secondary characters that are begging me to tell their stories. The Night Songs trilogy has just sold to Audible, and Jessica Almasy will be narrating. She did some of Gena Showalter’s books, so I’m psyched about that. I’m also putting the finishing touches on a NA contemporary romance. It doesn’t have any vampires, but it does have a rock star. You can’t ask me to go cold turkey.
