When I first started book blogging, Marta Acosta was the first author to take notice. I have a soft spot in this dark little pixie heart of mine for her. But then she went & blogged about me, which led to The Mighty Buzzard appearing on my website & never leaving. So what better way to pay her back for that “favor” then by doing a joint interview with Buzz? Muahahah.

WLP: Thanks for stopping by again Marta! Tell us about Haunted Honeymoon.

MA: “Pixie and Buzzard” sounds like a morning drive-time radio duo. Thanks for having me here! Haunted Honeymoon is the fourth book in my fabulous, funny, exciting, and romantic Casa Dracula series.  In the previous books, we’ve seen Milagro de Los Santos, the only human survivor of a vampire infection, go from being an aimless party girl to finding a home, love, and furthering her writing career, while also battling enemies and befriending eccentrics.

She’s carrying on a torrid affair with Ian Ducharme, a decadent aristovamp, but she still longs for her ex-fiancé, Oswald. When Ian’s shenanigans go too far, Milagro reacts and sets in motion a chain of terrible events. She’s being set up for murder and escapes to Oswald’s ranch. An accidental blow to her head causes her to lose her memory and she reverts to the happy-go-lucky chick she once was. Will she be able to find out who’s after her and will she get a do-over with Oswald…or will she make the same mistakes again?

TMB:  If you’re going to write amnesia for a main character, you either have to be a literary badass or have your tongue so far in your cheek you could lick your own ear.  What exactly made you decide on that?

MA: Who doesn’t love an amnesia story?  My initial thought was to have Milagro fake amnesia. I thought it would be funny to have her pretending that she doesn’t remember anything while the vampires jerk her around because they think she’s faking, but can’t prove it. Then I realized it would be even funnier to have her actually forget. The humor also balances out the more somber reasons why she’s forgotten.

WLP: Please excuse Buzz, he gets a little over excited when he’s let out of his cage. Why is Haunted Honeymoon the last book in the series?

MA: Yes, this book is the conclusion to the Casa Dracula series. I’ve tied up all the loose ends. People love Milagro, though, and it might be fun to write stories about this new stage in her life, as a married woman. I can see her and her sexy husband solving crimes, flirting, and partying, like Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man.

TMB: Ok, so it’s a given that girlie girls like the Pixie here are going to dig on your books but how do you manage to write something that testosterone addicts like me enjoy?

MA: Well, TMB, it will shock you to learn that I wasn’t a writer of “women’s fiction” until my publisher declared it. Because I wrote under my initials, many readers assumed I was a dude and many of my readers were of the male persuasion.  But men don’t buy books, or, rather, men don’t buy very many books by women.  (This Buzzard is a very rare bird indeed!)  I was asked to soften up some of the satire, to girly up some of the descriptions, etc.

I think male readers probably appreciate that my male characters aren’t alpha male fantasies. That’s worked against me because many women readers want a fantasy alpha male. I prefer guys to be, you know, their usual screwed up, imperfect, and interesting selves. 

WLP: I’ll show you girlie girl, pfft. Sorry once again Marta, where were we? What will you miss most about the Casa Dracula Series?

MA: Oh, I’m so very fond of all the characters, especially Milagro. She’s always doing or saying something outrageous, but her intentions are good. She’s fun and you want to hang out with her.  I love writing the dialogue between her and Edna Grant, the snarky and chic vamp grandmother who becomes a maternal figure to Milagro.

TMB: Authors are fairly notorious for having weird quirks in how they write (odd hats, must have specific music playing, only write in their pajamas), what are yours?

MA: I have my Slinky Jr. by my laptop and fidget with it, or flip to a game of Spider Solitaire while I think. I play this card game at the Difficult level and will play the same hand until I win. I don’t care if it takes weeks.

WLP: What is your favorite trait in Milagro? Any you’d wish to have yourself?

MA: It would be very nice to have Milagro’s cheerfulness and optimism, rather than my own dark and bitter cynicism.

TMB: The main character of the Casa Dracula series, Milagro, has issues with what she wants to write not being what publishers want to shell out cash for.  Personal experience or just an interesting character quirk?

MA: You might notice that I never specify if Milagro’s stories are very good. I’ve always loved Kilgore Trout, who was one of Kurt Vonnegut’s reoccurring characters. Kilgore is a terrible writer with brilliant ideas. I made Milagro’s stories quite loony, but they may actually be fabulous and visionary.  Is she ahead of her time and unappreciated, or just crazy?  I leave it up to the reader to decide.

WLP: What’s next for Marta Acosta?

MA: Tor Books is going to publish The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove, my young adult gothic, in 2012. It seems far off, but I’m going to start working with my editor on that soon. I’m also writing an adult gothic that’s set in the 1850s and 1990s. It’s gritty and smutty. Speaking of smut, I wrote my very first romance story and it will be published in The Mammoth Book of Scottish Romance in February 2011. It’s not really smut, but I thought I’d get your attention if I said it was.

WLP: Thanks for dropping by Marta, I hope we haven’t scarred you for life!

MA: Alas, you are too late. I am already irrevocably damaged!

Because Marta is so awesome, she is giving away a copy of Haunted Honeymoon!

US/Canada Only & Ends on November 3rd, 12am EST.

Tell us one quirk about yourself that others would find weird.

Marta, it’s great to finally have you over to Writings of a Wicked Book Addict. Thanks for dropping by.

Marta:   Thanks for having me, Natasha!

WLP: Can you tell us, what your favorite Christmas related smell is?

Marta:  That’s an easy one.  It’s fresh pine branches.  I like green, clean scents.  I’ve just made an executive decision to keep a pine tree in my house all-year long.  Don’t look at me that way – I’ll trade out dry ones for newly cut ones.

WLP: What is the worst gift you’ve personally given someone?

Marta:  I gave my husband a saxophone, because I thought he wanted to learn to play.  He went to one lesson and then put it in the closet.  Eventually, he let me give it away to a high school’s music program so someone could actually use it.

WLP: What about the worst gift you’ve received?

Marta:  My parents gave me a very life-like, life-size doll when I was six.  The blue glass eyes would open and shut.   It scared the willies out of me, and I thought it was going to come alive at night and kill me.  It was a gift that kept on giving – specifically, it kept on giving me nightmares for years.

WLP: Best gift received?

Marta:  It wasn’t a Christmas gift, but The Husband let me get another rescue dog for my birthday last year.  Her name is Betty Von Snoggle, and she is all kinds of fabulous.  She brings dead things in the house and drops them at our feet.  When people come to our door, she lets loose a crazed howl that I call “The Howl of Death.”    Also, she’s very loving and wiggly.

WLP: What kinds of food to you serve for Christmas?

Marta:  Well, my mother always made tamales for Christmas, but my sister-in-law made prime rib when she had all of us over. I’m usually in charge of the appetizers, and I do a lot of antipasto.  But I’m cooking the family dinner this Christmas and will have to find some way to reconcile everyone’s tastes.  My parents are old-school – green-beans  casserole, Jello mold old-school  – but I’m more of a free-range, organic blah-blah-blah type, and we’ve also got vegetarians in the family.

WLP: Do you have any holiday traditions?

Marta:  The husband and I usually have a holiday party with lots of food and fizzy wine.  I love to buy and make gifts for friends, and I like packages with lots of shiny ribbons.  I used to make my own Christmas cards.  They could be a little peculiar, though, and I stopped going to all the trouble of making them when I realized that no one was putting them up.

WLP: Favorite Christmas Movie or Favorite Christmas Song?

Marta:  My favorite classic movie is “The Bishop’s Wife” with Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young.  My favorite quasi-classic movie is “A Christmas Story,” with Darren McGavin and Peter Billingsley.  It’s one of those movies I can watch over and over again.  Among new movies, it would have to be “Just Friends,” when Ryan Reynolds’ visit home goes disastrously wrong, and “Elf,” which is very sweet.

My favorite song would be the Andre Champagne jingle.  It’s just a bunch of chimes.  I sing it to annoy people.

WLP: On to the books, you have a new releases in 2010. Can you tell us about it?

Marta:  Casa Dracula Book Four will come out in October.  I haven’t figured out a title yet, but I’m thinking of Dead Man’s Dance at Casa Dracula.  My heroine, Milagro, is living in the city, seeing the dangerous and secretive Ian Durcharme, and still longing after her ex-fiancé, Oswald.

Milagro’s furious when Ian imports thralls to act as his servants.  She thinks that there must be a better way to live with her condition, and she goes to London to meet with the leader of a progressive vampire movement.  He’s a lot like her and they start a relationship.  But someone uses violence against him to scare Milagro. 

Then the story devolves into a lot of mayhem, which includes Milagro’s return to Oswald’s ranch, which she calls Casa Dracula, unknown enemies, and Milagro being forced to make life-changing decisions.

WLP: Can you give us any hints about the next Casa Dracula novel, since it’s going to be so long before we get our Milagro fix.

Marta: I will tell you that Milagro gets to have the ending that readers have been asking for.  I don’t know if there will be other Casa Dracula novels, so I threw everything in the pot.  We’ll also get answers to some other mysteries.

WLP: What has been your favorite book of 2009?

Marta:  It’s tragic, but most of my reading has been non-fiction and news.  It’s like homework and I complain a lot as I toil through boring essays about politics.

WLP: Not only do you run your own website & blog, but you also have Vampire Wire. What do you love about vampires?

Marta:  The cool thing about vampires is that the mythology is so flexible.  It can be used for thrillers, gothic tales, comedies, romance, etc.  Vampirism can be an analogy for alienation, or transition into adulthood, or whatever.  I’m not strict on adherence to any specific rules, since vampire myths have occurred in many places and cultures.

I enjoy paranormal/urban fantasy stories where a character is thrown into a crazy, dangerous situation and can’t go to the cops or use ordinary resources.  I especially like it when these characters use humor to cope with the insanity.

WLP: Since you are all things Vampire, who is your favorite Vamp of all time?

Marta:  My favorite vamp is Spike from “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.”  He was snarky, bitter, sexy, and kind of a loser in many ways.  But when it came to the end of the world, Spike stepped up and was the hero.  He was constantly battling against himself, battling others, and somewhere deep inside was the sentimental human who had written bad poetry.  I love that about him.

WLP: Yesterday, author Jennifer Rardin got the chance to ask YOU a question…Jen’s question for you is: 

Hi, Marta!  Here’s what I want to know…if Santa were to leave a vampire under your tree, what would you do with him?

Marta: The last thing I need is a present that’s going to cost me time, money, and trouble.  So I’d ask Santa if he kept the receipt for the vampire, and if I could exchange him for something useful, like one of those toasters with wide slots for bagels or a panini maker.  However, if the vampire enjoying housecleaning and yard work, I’d keep him.

WLP: Tomorrow, we have author Jenna Maclaine here. Ask Jenna ANYTHING and she has to answer!

Marta:  Okay, Jenna, if you had witchy powers, which power would you secretly misuse to make life a little easier?

Happy Holidays Marta, thanks for dropping by!

Marta: Thanks for asking me to be here and asking such fun questions!

CONTEST ALERT!!

Marta is offering up book one of the Casa Dracula series to one lucky reader. All you have to do is:

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