Moonlit Reads: {Interview & Giveaway} Wynne Channing, author of What Kills Me

EEP! Today Wynne Channing is on the blog you guys!!

She is the author of What Kills Me (one of my all time fav vampire books)

Not only do we have one awesome and funny interview but a really cool giveaway so...

let's get started!!

The Author:

Wynne Channing is a national newspaper reporter and award-winning young adult novelist. Wynne loves telling stories and as a journalist, she has interviewed everyone from Daniel Radcliffe and Hugh Jackman to the president of the Maldives and Duchess Sarah Ferguson. The closest she has come to interviewing a vampire is sitting down with True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard (he didn’t bite). She briefly considered calling her debut novel “Well” so then everyone would say: “Well written by Wynne Channing.”

~Website~Blog~Goodreads~Facebook~Twitter~Pinterest~Amazon~Youtube~Google+~

The Interview:

1. Now, not only are you a YA writer you are a well known (AWARD-WINNING!!) newspaper reporter. What makes these two jobs different? The same? Actually, I started writing creepy, gory, weird, dystopian etc. fiction when I was young; so my friends thought it was strange when I decided to study journalism and write about politics, business and crime. (Though those topics can involve creepy, gory and weird elements as well.) Both styles of writing require strong story-telling skills. Both are about observation and capturing a reader’s imagination. But reporting is about being fair and relaying the facts. Never came across any vamps on the job ;-)

2. Does your newspaper reporting get in the way with your writing..or vice versa?

Reporting keeps me pretty busy so it gets in the way by taking up all of my writing time! Being a young adult author is starting to affect my day job: since I talk a lot with my fans via Twitter, Facebook, emoticons and exclamation marks are creeping into my work emails to politicians, etc. (Hi Mr. Mayor, I’d love to interview you about the budget :-P Chat soon!) Not professional!

3. There are a lot of different vampire lore out there. What made you decide on the one you chose. What vampire legends, books, and/or movies helped influence What Kills Me?

I've always been fascinated by these lonely monsters. I loved Christopher Pike’s Thirst and my favourite show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m writing the sequel to What Kills Me and I’m having a lot of fun creating the vampire world and history. The Monarchy is a place of extreme traditional and ritual, from a vampire’s creation to its class system. The complexity is hurting my brain a bit, but it’s still fun.

4. Did you ever think that one day you would be an award winning newspaper reporter and a YA writer?

I’ve never wanted anything else but to be a writer so I feel uber lucky to have people read my work.

5. Where did the idea for What Kills Me come from?

I was living in Taiwan for a few months and at night, I could hear cockroaches scurrying around my room. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep, afraid they’d rent out my mouth for a party. So I would lie there, thinking all sorts of crazy things: “What would happen if I suddenly disappeared?” “What if I fell into a hole? What if that hole was filled with blood?” Man, that would suck. That image, of a young woman climbing out of a well, soaked in blood, was what started it all. Yay for cockroaches!

6. Both you and Zee are from Canada. What other similarities do you have? What similarities would you want from Zee? While I’ve never been hunted to the death by every vampire in the world, Zee and I are similar in a lot of ways. We share a self-deprecating sense of humor and an openness with strangers (which is Zee’s gift as well as her undoing). Our fathers address themselves in the third person and our best friends rescued us from bullies. We both talk when we're nervous (my grade school teacher told my mother that I suffered from "verbal diarrhea"). But I’m definitely not as brave as Zee. If vampires were after me, I’d hide under my bed.

Q. And now for the question I have been dying to ask...Please!! Please!! Please!!!!! Tell me there is going to be a sequel to What Kills Me! If so, what can you tell us about it? If, not (pouty face) any new projects you have been working on? Yes! I’m working on Book Two now. At the end of What Kills Me, Zee finds herself in a very unique position. How will the Monarchy handle the startling development? Will they take her in and worship her? Or will they imprison her forever? I’m busy pinning inspiration for Book Two on Pinterest and storyboarding the plot. Zee’s powers will continue to grow. Her relationship with Lucas will evolve. You’ll meet a new cast of characters including members of the rebellion, Lucas’s brother, etc. Maybe you’ll get to meet Zee’s family and her best friend. But for sure, there will be more twists, more deceit, lots of action, and well, blood.

The Book(s):

What Kills Me

~My Review~

Release Date: June 6, 2012

by, Jet & Jack Press

Buy on: ~Amazon(US)~Amazon(UK)~B&N~Itunes~Kobo~

Pages: 209

The fight for survival begins.

An ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the vampire race.

So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally, the vampire bladesmith Lucas, must battle to survive.

How will she convince the empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals? {Goodreads}