YA Feature: Introducing YA author Julie Campbell

This week's YA author is Julie Campbell. Julie is the author of YA novel Senior Year Bites. Please welcome Julie to Reading Away The Days by checking out her book, Senior Year Bites and leaving a nice comment below!

A little about Julie:

The very basic me is that I write, ride my horse and play with my dog. I don't have time for much else (except for the day job). I have a degree in Equine Science, and I've been a truck driver, a 911 dispatcher, worked in the computer industry and yes, I've worked on a horse farm. Fantasy novels are my passion. I've been telling stories since I was little and I even wrote a self illustrated picture book about a bookworm when I was very little. I didn't even think about writing novels until Ms. Fox in the 6th grade told me I was going to be an author one day. I didn't believe her.

I started my first novel in late middle school, by hand in a notebook. It was a sci fi set in a galaxy far far away. I never did much with that, but several years later the bug really hit me and I started writing seriously. I'm honestly not sure why I truly started writing. It just seems to be the way things were supposed to happen.

Can you tell me a little about your novel Senior Year Bites?

 

The short of it is, it's about a girl who gets turned into a vampire her senior year of high school. She has to cope, then the murders start. Her and her friends start their own little "Buffy" gang, trying to solve the murders and end up thrown into the middle of everything.

Where did you get the idea for Senior Year Bites?

It actually literally came from a dream. I had this dream about a girl who got turned into a vampire her senior year of high school and decided to write a little bit down, just for fun. The story wouldn't leave me alone and over a year I wrote the whole thing. I was treating it as a side project so I'd write a chapter here and there... until I got to the last 1/3, then I couldn't stop writing, the words were coming so fast.

Senior Year Bites is about a high school girl who is a vampire. Vampire's have been big in novels in the last few years with regards to Twilight, Vampire Diaries & True Blood, however all the vampires vary with different traits. How do your vampires differ?

Big difference... I wrote mine first... LOL. Actually I did, but that's not really relevant since it took until last summer to get it published. I don't go in for angst. My main character, Meg, does have some angst and issues to deal with. After all, her life just got turned more than upside down, but the 'my life is over' angst just isn't there. All vampires have different sets of powers, and Meg is no exception. She can go out in the sunlight, sort of, though no one else (but me) knows why. Stakes wound and paralyze her but don't kill her. She can't eat food, she doesn't need to breathe unless she's talking, and over all she's kind of like a teen who all of a sudden has super powers, but at a very high cost. I think the biggest thing is that she doesn't really go through the denial angst that a lot of vampires in fiction do. She accepts that her life has gone to hell and is trying to deal.

Why should we read Senior Year Bites?

It's a fast paced, fun read with action, interesting characters and a fair amount of sarcastic humor.

Are you currenty working on any new projects?

Hahahaha.... yes... I have a list too long to put here. The sequel to Senior Year Bites is out with Beta readers right now and I will submit it to my publisher in January. I'm editing another novel that is under contract that is a young adult fantasy, and I'm working on publishing a Novella about a vampire-hunting Border Collie. I hope to have the last out later this month. There's more, but those are the main projects right now.

A few fun Christmas questions:

Favourite Christmas read and why?

I'm not sure I have one honestly.

Favourite Christmas film and why?

The old claymation Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Why? Who doesn't love claymation? LOL. Such a classic.

What do you want for Christmas?

A new sheepskin cover for my endurance saddle. Mine is 7 years old and a little squished.

Favourite Christmas song?

I'm fond of Abney Park's version of Winter Wonderland.

Thanks to Julie for the awesome interview! Make sure too leave a nice comment and check out Julie's book. Senior Year Bites at the links below!

www.writerjacampbell.com
http://phoenixfirewolf.livejournal.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/PFirewolf
https://www.facebook.com/Phoenixfirewolf

All links to buy my book are here:
http://writerjacampbell.wordpress.com/senior-year-bites/