Monday, March 4, 2013

Interview with Vicki Pettersson, author of The Lost


 If someone looked at your browsing history right now, what kind of
things would we find.

Outside of my own Facebook and Twitter pages, I have home design blogs filling my feed, and I hit those pages every morning with my first cup of coffee. It's easy reading, I get to look at pretty things, it requires nothing of me, and I feed my inner voyeur. I love to see the way other people live. Then, at the end of the day if I've been good and have gotten all my work done, I get to play on Pinterest. So nothing really author or writer-related.
LostCover.jpg
 If you could write about any subject that is near and dear to your
heart, what would it be and why?

I already do. Every thought, issue, or idea that I'm trying to process, I do so through my writing. If something's important to me then I need to explore and expand on it in words. A big one for me has always been what it means to be a woman walking around in a man's world. Misogyny really gets under my skin.

Do you have a favorite song, album, or playlist to write to?

No, I need silence, or something soothing like spa music. Another person's words tend to get in my head and mess with my own, so I can't listen to that while writing, though I will try to surround myself with mood music while driving or cooking or moving about in my real life. I've had a lot of Cherry Poppin' Daddies on Pandora for Celestial Blues.

 What was the first thing you did after the debut of the first book you wrote?

My first two books were released back-to-back so I was already talking about the second book on my signings for the first. I did meet my readers for coffee the day after my first Vegas signing, though. Harper did such a good job of getting advanced word out about the book that people were already talking about it, and I was thrilled to finally be able to talk about it with them. So we had a little klatch the next day in the bookstore, I signed more books, and answered every possible question. It was great.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

That the gawd-awful MS Word dominates word-processing in this industry. It shuts down, freezes up, makes assumptions -- just won't get out of the way, really. I hate it.

 Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Are you kidding? There's no end to the things I feel guilty about. But my favorite are: tacos and cupcakes and margaritas (not all at the same time) and sexy social science books (like The Power of Habit, I eat that stuff up) and binging on series tv: entire seasons of Mad Men, Damages, House of Cards ... I'm trying Enlightened next.

What was your favorite book as a teen?

My teen self was a book fiend. There's no way I could narrow it down to just one. Everything from C.S. Lewis to Blume to V.C. Andrews. I was all over the place. I still am.

 If an aspiring writer asked for advice what would you tell them?

It's been said enough times to be boring, but it really is true: read a lot, write a lot, don't ever stop. You have to put in your time and words (estimated to be ten thousand hours and one million words) before you can get out of your own way enough to know what you're really thinking. That's the one pitfall I see right now in self-publishing. Impatience leading to work being put out there before it, or the author, is ready. You don't want to cut off your legs before you get out the door, yanno?

 What is the one thing that scares you more than anything else?

I have a gnawing sense that things can spiral out of control at any minute. I'm always one day away from completely upending my balancing act. I move very quickly from one task to the next, and there's always a fear that if I slow down, my life is going to come undone. I know it's all in my head, but I seriously have panic attacks about this. I'm working on it.

What book are you reading right now?

Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. It's very cheery.

Optional questions :)


Favorite Meal: There's a restaurant in Dallas called Javier's that serves real Mexican food. I use it as a treat and carrot for big achievements. Anything I have there is great.

Favorite Drink (alcoholic/non-alcoholic): Margarita from the above.

Sweet or Salty snacks? Salty, always.

All time favorite movie: Matrix. Though a close second is French Kiss. Isn't that odd?

Best book to movie adaption: Harry Potter.

Worst book to movie adaption: Well, I wouldn't say it was the worst, but the Hunger Games movie was vastly inferior to the book. It made me sad.


Purchase links for THE LOST:

B&N
AMAZON
POWELL'S
INDIEBOUND

Author bio:

Vicki Pettersson is the New York Times bestselling author of the completed six-book 'Signs of the Zodiac' series, which features reluctant superhero, Joanna Archer, and are set in her hometown of Las Vegas.
Her latest novel is THE LOST, the second of three paranormal mysteries which pair a P.I/angel from the 50's with a modern-day rockabilly reporter. Together, they fight crime.
Though she'll always consider Sin City her home, she now divides her time between Vegas and Dallas, where she's learning to like good Tex-Mex (easy) and the Dallas Cowboys (easier than you'd think).
For more information on Vicki's books, please visit: http://vickipettersson.com/

From now until March 13 each e-book in Vicki Pettersson's Zodiac series is available for just .99 cents.

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