I had the chance recently to chat with YA novelist Nina Soden about her current projects and her love for vampires. (The full interview can be viewed at my blog site, evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com.) Soden, a spirited redhead from Michigan (with the accent to match) who now lives down south, started writing poetry while living in Los Angeles, pursuing an acting career. She did appear in several independent films, some commercials and in numerous stage productions before moving on to see her first novel, AWAKEN, published in 2012. Two subsequent sequels made for a trilogy, the BLOOD ANGEL series, and she is now at work on a new ongoing story; the second installment of the SECTOR C series, called THE HUNTED, is now available.
Soden credits a childhood love of Horror movies, both good ones and bad, with sparking her love for the undead. That’s a promising sign. But I had to ask her the same pressing question I put to all the authors I interview: Your vampires don’t SPARKLE, do they? Soden replied that: “While I love the traditional vampire myths . . . my books don’t really follow those same guidelines for vampires.” This made me a little nervous, as I wanted a concrete guarantee that no sparkling would occur, but Soden went on to tell me that in her work, as in the novels and TV series THE STRAIN, vampirism is a virus. Adhering more to THE STRAIN than to TWILIGHT? Good call, blood sister.