Interview with Foz Meadows

Hola! Today I have the huge honor to introduce you to a debut author from Australia, Foz Meadows.

Before you guys go wild reading the interview, please take a look at the blurp of her very first published novel, Solace & Grief.

"Solace Morgan was born a vampire. Raised in foster care, she has always tried to keep her abilities secret, until an eerie encounter with a faceless man prompts her to run away. Finding others with similar gifts, Solace soon becomes caught up in a strange, more vibrant world than she ever knew existed. But when the mysterious Professor Lukin takes an interest in her friends, Solace is forced to start asking questions of her own. What happened to her parents? Who is Sharpsoft? And since when has there been a medieval dungeon under Hyde Park?"

Sounds good right?

So keep an eye out! Release date is March 1st, 2010.

Would you like to introduce us to your first book, Solace & Grief?

Solace Morgan is a teenage girl who suspects she might be a vampire. Growing up in foster care, she's always done her best to keep her abilities - like the fact that she can bend metal - hidden, but some things, like her being weak in sunlight, are common knowledge. Just before her seventeenth birthday, Solace has a strange dream, and then encounters a frightening, faceless man in the streets near her group home. Realising how little she knows about either herself or the everyday human world, she runs away, and finds herself mixed up with her first ever group of friends. They live together in an abandoned warehouse, and the more Solace gets to know them, the more she realises that she's not alone in being strange - that maybe some of her housemates are even stranger. Together, they decide to learn about themselves. But when they run into Professor Lukin, a man who claims to be researching people with unusual gifts, things take a turn for the weird.

In one sentence, how would you describe the main character? How did you choose their name?

Solace is stubborn and cynical in some ways, but hesitant in others. She's never had to live in the real world, and although growing up surrounded by the damaged or dangerous inhabitants of the group home has given her a solid grounding in the negative extremes of human behaviour, she's only just learning how to interact with friends. I called her Solace because, well - I have a thing for words-as-names. It's a weakness :)

Your blurp mention "abilities", what kind of abilities can we expect? Or is it to secret to mention? hehe
In Solace's case, she's abnormally strong; she dreams true things, uses thrall, and can prise secrets out of people, although she tries not to. When it comes to her friends, though, you'll have to wait and see!

Vampires are all over paranormal bookshelves, How do you think your book will stand out?

Solace & Grief isn't set at school, it isn't primarily a romance - although there are some tender moments - and it's not exclusively about vampires. Don't get me wrong: I am an absolute sucker for stories featuring vampire romance at school, as can be evidenced by the fact that I've watched every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer an absolute minimum of four times. (Seriously. I need help.) But when I sat down to write, Solace wasn't having a bar of normal teenage routine, and I think the trajectory of the book ultimately reflects that.

How was your publishing journey? Any tips for a aspiring author?

From my perspective, lucky - part of me still can't believe it's happened. I sent my manuscript to Ford Street during a period of open submissions, but I was still unsolicited, and their first response was to ask for some major edits. Fortunately, I agreed with just about all of them, and some I'd even been planning to make anyway. I decided relatively early in life, when I was about twelve or so, that I wanted to be an author - all through school, but especially in my last two years, I was constantly working on something, printing out manuscripts to edit on the train (or in class, when I could get away with it!) and trying to make my stories better. The most valuable thing I learned from that was to self-edit; to not be afraid of scrapping something and starting over. It's easy to get attached to what you've written just because of how long it took you to write, but if you keep something dodgy just because fixing it seems too hard, you won't learn how to structure things better next time. That being said, I still have a long way to go!

Let's learn more about you =)

What's your favorite book ever? No your can't pick your book ^.--

I'd have to go with The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling - and yes, I mean books, plural: it's sort of a two-in-one, although they're sometimes published separately. I grew up thinking there was just one, because I only had the first volume as a child; it wasn't until I was about fifteen that I found its companion, and fell in love with the world all over again. The first time I finished the second part all the way through, I was catching the train home from school: I cried when Baloo and Bagheera, Kaa and Grey Brother sang the Outsong of the Jungle to the grown-up Mowgli, and since then, I always choke up. The logic of wolves is a powerful thing.

Your favorite perfume?

I don't have one - actually, I'm not sure if I've ever owned any perfume. I've only had my ears pierced for a couple of years, and my makeup collection consists of two kinds of gloss and some hand-me-down lipstick from my mother. When it comes to basic femininity, I'm what you call slow on the uptake.

Last movie you saw on big screen?

Like most of the moviegoing world, Avatar in 3D. Despite all the controversy and the fact that it was basically Disney's Pocahontas with blue people and dragons, I really liked it - but then, I like Disney's Pocahontas, too. Aesthetically, it was like being inside a Final Fantasy game. (Avatar, not Pocahontas.) If Squall Leonhart had shown up in the Ragnarok with Kimhari on board to help in the climactic battle, I wouldn't have been surprised. Also, if they had done? Geeky squee factor of ten to the million.

One of your guilty pleasures?

Cheese. Good cheese, on many biscuits, eaten in such vast quantities that I have to roll away afterwards.

The silliest thing you ever did?

Oh, man. There are too many, and they are not for public recitation! Or at least, not the sort of recitation where I write them down for posterity. Hand me some wine, point me in the direction of a cheese platter, wait ten minutes and then ask - it's that sort of silliness :)

Thanks for having me!

Cheers,
Foz

Thank you very much for your time Foz! Best of luck with the release ^^ !

Posted by Tynga at 01:16

 Interview  1 Person left their mark

Tynga is a 32 years old mom of two, from Montreal, working as a lab technician in an hospital specialized in heart disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading all things Paranormal and photography.

Follow Tynga on: Facebook | Twitter