Interview with M. Beth Bloom and More
Kicking off the week is another fabulous interview. I’ve joined up with Mundie Moms, Hobbitsies, and many others on the Drain You blog tour. On this stop, author M. Beth Bloom answers my interview questions, and there’s also a book trailer!
Author Interview with M. Beth Bloom
Please tell us more about Drain You. What is it about? What was your inspiration for this novel?
‘Drain You’ is about a teenage girl living in LA in the mid-90’s, who finds the summer before her senior year to be unusually filled with vampires. I was inspired by my own teenage years growing up in Los Angeles, and also my love for 90’s vampire fiction and film like ‘The Lost Boys’ and ‘Interview With The Vampire’ and Bret Easton Ellis short stories.
Quinlan Lacey is the main character of Drain You. Tell us more about her character. What are her likes, dislikes, quirks, and flaws?
She’s eccentric, self-centered, funny, charming, a little obnoxious, and she has a really big capacity for love, and very much wants to be loved.
Are you working on any other books or writing projects?
I recently finished my second novel for HarperTeen and a screenplay as well.
Who are your favorite authors and what are some of your favorite books?
Lorrie Moore, Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis. Some of my favorite books are ‘Karoo’ and ‘Anagrams’ and ‘Sense Of An Ending’ and ‘American Psycho.’
Do you have any funny pet peeves or quirks?
Sure… well I’m kind of a prude, so I get kind of weird when things are too crass. Like I don’t like bathroom humor or excess cussing. A recent pet peeve is generic book jackets – I just can’t stand how artless so many of them are.
Is there anything else you would like to say to readers or fans?
Thanks for supporting a kooky character (me, and my protagonist!).
“Summer. The 90s. The rich, sun-bleached neighborhoods of the Los Angeles canyons. Enter Quinlan Lacey, a cool, bored, sarcastic, sexy 17-year old with a dull part-time video store job and a mild case of teen ennui. That is, until she meets the alluring, River Phoenix-esque James, and realizes the hills are alive with the undead. Inspired more by the early, dry L.A. short stories of Bret Easton Ellis than the current crop of serialized vampire fiction, the supernatural grunge romance, Drain You, narrates the headaches and heartbreaks Quinn undergoes in her quest to stay sane and cool and in love and alive.”
Book Trailer
Author Bio
Bloom’s first short story, “Love And Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape” was featured in Story Quarterly and selected by Dave Eggers for inclusion in The Best American Nonrequired Reading: 2003 (Houghton-Mifflin), which he curates annually. Bloom is the founder of underground dance label 100% Silk (profiled here in LA Weekly) AND the producer/lead singer of the band LA Vampires (written up in The Guardian as well as Pitchfork and Fader). Her next book will be published through HarperTeen.
Author Links: Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter