Shah Fazli
Morgann Roddy, Welcome, and thanks for joining Spotlight, this interview is going to be very special and different, we know that, do you want to start saying something about yourself, something different and unique please?
Morgann Roddy I'm not sure how different and unique I can be, but I'll try. I was born in Canada, and lived there until I was almost fourteen. When my family moved down here - bringing me with them kicking and screaming - I had no idea I would meet the love of my life here in Florida, in the United States. I met her at sixteen, and we have been together ever since.
Shah Fazli Thanks a lot, is your book about that love, or any close to that love?
Morgann Roddy Well, she had a lot to do with it! The main characters are two characters we worked on together, from stories we were writing in high school. Keith D'Ameron and Javier Estas have been around nearly as long as we've been together, but Undisclosed Desire (US link here: http://www.amazon.com/Undisclosed-Desire-ebook/dp/B008EEAM2K/ref=la_B008HF2O4U_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341757324&sr=1-2) came about as a result of me staring at the screen during my first year of National Novel Writing Month and she suggested that I should write "their story". So it's Keith and Javier's story, not ours - but she IS in it. Mentioned as the lovely young woman whom Keith mentions as he is speaking with Amaroq - his werewolf friend and manservant -- somewhere in Chapter Five.
Undisclosed Desirewww.amazon.com
Keith D'Ameron has wandered the world as a vampire for three hundred years, tra...See More
Shah Fazli Thanks, tell us more about Undisclosed Desire, please?
Morgann Roddy Well, as I mentioned before, Undisclosed Desire is a result of my first participation in National Novel Writing month - which I've "won" (completed the goal of writing fifty thousand words in a new novel in thirty days' time) four years running. This year's "book" will be the sequel to Desire, but more on that in a minute. Undisclosed Desire is the story of Keith and Javier's romance. They meet during the mid sixteenth century in Seville, Spain, over a card game. Keith is a three hundred year old vampire who is wandering around Europe, not really 'looking' for anything in particular, but he comes across Javier in a 'tapas' house, or pub, and is immediately arrested not only by his beauty but by something ... more. He - Keith - has a lot of secrets, some of which you discover in Desire, some of which you'll learn about in the sequel, and he's never wanted to share them with ANYONE before ... and the book details both his journey towards opening up and sharing those things with Javier, and Javier's own response to these new and 'undisclosed desires' he has for another person other than his wife - indeed, for another MAN.
Shah Fazli Why did you entitle it Undisclosed Desire, any particular reason for that please?
Morgann Roddy Undisclosed Desire is actually the name of a song by a group called Muse that my fiancée and I heard from a friend of ours who thought we might like the style. Turns out, it was the lyrics which fit Javier and Keith so well that drew us over and over to the song - so I used the title of the song as the title of their story. And Javier's fight against - and toward - Keith must be kept from his wife and from all the other members of his society, so it fit quite nicely, I thought.
Shah Fazli Do you want to tell us about what happens to the relationship between your two main characters, do they stay together till the end?
Morgann Roddy *chuckles* A lot of people have asked me that, actually, although their questions concern the sequel, rather than the end of Desire. They don't actually come together - and say those magic words about loving each other - until the end of the book, after Javier's death. (And yes, I'm putting teasers in there on purpose.)
Shah Fazli Thank you, do you want to describe a few adventures in the book, do we see a lot of blood, action and drama, what they are like please?
Morgann Roddy The book is definitely rated 'R', but that rating is mostly for the explicit sexual encounters. It's definitely not meant for a reader under the age of sixteen or seventeen. But there are some graphic parts, I should think, in the description of Keith's 'hunting' - as a vampire, he does require blood to survive, and I took a lot of inspiration from Anne Rice's vampires in that he follows their heartbeats, can read their thoughts - as he can near the end of the book, where a quartet of thieves are following him - and can choose to either drink their blood until he has slaked his thirst (which usually ends in the human's demise) or simply take a little here or there. I suppose Keith's meeting with the vampire hunter gets a little graphic, too, but I'm not the best judge of that, since I prefer Stephen King's works, and anything less than his stuff isn't considered graphic to me.
Shah Fazli Tell us more about your vampires please, what do they wear, how do they travel from one place to another, how do they look like, for instance, please?
Morgann Roddy Keith is a tall, slim-built Frenchman whose Celtic roots (from where he gets the height and his blue eyes, apparently) are barely visible in his visage. My vampires are very humanoid in appearance; they don't sparkle or fly like bats or turn into mists and peek through keyholes ... Here's a description of him just before he meets Javier: "He drew some attention as he passed, for he was obviously not Spanish; as it was, with his tall, slim build and gardenia-touched complexion, he barely resembled a member of the Gallic blood which ran in his veins. His lips were a shade too thin to be described as sensuously full, but when they curved in the gentle, quiet smile that warmed his silver-edged blue eyes, they turned into a weapon far more dangerous to their audience than the deadly fangs concealed behind them." Undisclosed Desire, Chapter One.
Travel is done by way of normal human conveyances of that time, mostly - carriages and the like - but Keith does note that they can move much, much faster than humans can. When a vampire runs, a normal human won't see him move, so they can get around as quickly as they please.
Shah Fazli Thanks so much, why do you write vampire stories?
Morgann Roddy I've always been interested in taking my own spin off Anne Rice's ideas of vampires - as a couple of my fiancée's (more modern) characters have quipped, "That Anne Rice - she either knew one of us or has the gift herself and changed a few things - like the ability to make love - to protect the guilty."
Shah Fazli Thank you, do you want to read from your book for us please?
Morgann Roddy Most of my excerpts are very long indeed, but today I'll post one that was featured on Blak Rayne's blog most recently: “Keith, it … Keith, I care for my wife,” Javier whispered. “In my own way, I love Ofelia. But … it is not ... love. She does not make me feel the way you do. I … I want to share that eternity – to explore the world – with you. Not her. But I cannot abandon her … I can only damn myself for not being able to feel the way I should about the woman I married!”
Again, Keith drew Javier to him, pressing his face against the folds of his linen shirt. Cloth whispered and he shivered as he felt Javier’s hands wind beneath to press against the cool expanse of his moonlit skin. “Javier – my Javier – it is not up to anyone to be the decider of who they will love. No person, human or vampire, could ever hope to command – to control – in whose arms they will fall prey to love’s bite. Someday, you will find a woman who captivates you as much as I have captivated you now – of that, I am very sure.” He smiled faintly as Javier glanced up, angry denials coming immediately to his lips.
“You --”
With a fingertip, Keith silenced him. “I do not know if I am as you are, as prone to enjoying the company of a woman’s bed as I do a man’s. I think I am not, but then – I do not know. For now, I have captured your heart, and for now, that is enough for me. I have forged a bond with you that is unlike anything I have ever experienced before, my Javier. Amaroq is my eldest and dearest friend, but there is something in you which defies explanation – something in your very heartbeat which called to me above the beats of an entire populace the night I entered this city. That call is impossible to ignore, and though our relationship will shift even as time ebbs around us, I will never, ever be able to forget the feel of your hands as they closed around my heart.”
Javier managed a faint smile. “It was not your heart I was reaching for, you know. It was somewhere lower.”
Shah Fazli Interesting, thanks, do you mind what people say about your book, and tell us what do people say?
Morgann Roddy I haven't had many actual reviews yet, but I've been told by several people that if I don't put the sequel out within the next year, I'm going to have some very unhappy people tying me to my desk chair and forcing my fingers to the keyboard - one of my reviewers among them. Probably the best story I have to share about a reader's reaction to Desire was a story she shared with me that concerned a neighbour of hers. This neighbour in question is in her late nineties, but hasn't let that stop her for a moment, and when Mrs. Parker - the person who originally bought my novel - told her neighbour what she was reading, the dear old woman immediately asked if, since she herself couldn't get online to purchase the book, she could possibly borrow Mrs. Parker's Kindle. Well, this was allowed, and poor Mrs. Parker didn't get her Kindle returned to her until the dear woman had finished the entire novel. Her comments, relayed to me by Mrs. Parker on the possibility of the book being a little too ... erotic, perhaps: "Oh, Mrs. Parker, at my age a good fruity story is as close as it gets! No, I wish I had more time to just sit down and finish the book with out interruptions, and I can't believe that you know the Author. If the other book is as good as this one then it is well worth reading too."
Shah Fazli Thanks, what is your tips on writing?
Morgann Roddy Always write with music on. The surroundings have to be quiet for me to write - if there's people talking, watching a movie, etc, I can't concentrate well - but there MUST be music. Music inspires entire scenes for me. Secondly, never let someone - anyone - tell you how or what to write. What you write needs to come from YOU, FOR you and BY you. No one else can write your words.
Shah Fazli Thank you so much for being our guest tonight, it was really special, we had great answers from you. Hope to see you on our show again.
Shah Fazli Visit:http://shahsightshop.blogspot.de/2012/10/undisclosed-desire-m-peters.html
ShahSight Literary Book Shop: Undisclosed Desire - M. Petersshahsightshop.blogspot.com
Morgann Roddy I had a lot of fun - thank you very much for having me!
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