Obsessed With Death?

In interviews, I'm often asked what's with my obsession with death. Honestly, I never put much though into this until I realized four of my five novels have dealt with death as part of the main storyline, my favorite shows are Dexter and The Walking Dead, and I've started a collection of Day of the Dead statues from Mexico. On second thought, maybe I do have a thing with death. Okay, time to panic.

As pretty much anyone else would do with today's technology, I went on the internet with the intent to self-diagnose. Here are some of the signs I discovered:

1. Your favorite things to do are visit cemeteries to look at graves.

Uh, I seriously have a major issue with cemeteries, and have given my husband strict directions not to bury me in one. I think they're creepy, and that it's morbid to think you're standing over the rotting corpse of someone you love. If I want to remember someone, I would much rather do so with pictures from their happy times on this earth.


2. You have all the Faces of Death movies, and love to look at graphic images of real deaths.

I do enjoy a good zombie movie, though there are more often times than not that I have turned away when a scene become too gory. I usually have to remind myself that it's all Hollywood magic, just so I can continue to watch. I can't imagine I would be able to stomach one minute of the Faces of Death movies—I just Googled it out of curiosity, and about lost my cookies after what I found.

3. You wear black clothing and black makeup.

My daughter would tell you a majority of my wardrobe consists of black and white (she's trying to break me of the habit), but I have yet to don black Doc Martins with black pants and a black top. I do wear black eyeliner, but a very modest amount, like a perfectly normal woman who isn't so great with makeup does. Pretty sure I have a long ways to go until I resemble Winona Ryder's character in Beetlejuice.

4. You're afraid of doing anything for fear of dying or some other tragedy.

While the occasional thought of plunging to a firey death has come to me a time or two when riding an airplane, I would say I'm not fearful of doing things in general. Although terrified of heights, I still climbed part of Mount Rainier, zip-lined and parasailed in Cabo, stood on the top deck of the Empire State Building, and rode dozens of rollercoasters. Looking back, I'm starting to think that maybe I'm a bit too adventurous, and it wouldn't hurt to tone it down a bit.

5. Your favorite thing to write is poetry and journals that speak of death.

Okay, maybe it could be proved in a court of law that I'm guilty of this one, although I suck at poetry, and I stopped writing a journal years ago. But then again, there's the books...

So 4/5 negative answers must prove for something, right? At least I'm telling myself that. I like to think that as death is a natural part of life, I'm just extremely conscious of it, and not trying to pretend like the possibilities aren't looming over our heads. All I know is that I won't be checking into Death Junkies Anonymous anytime soon.

Writer Wednesday: Lauryn April

I first met Lauryn April after discovering her book Into the Deep on Goodreads. Into the Deep is the story of a girl who develops an unusual ability and is forced to protect her school from being blown to pieces by an angry teen. I liked it so much that I *may* have stalked her on Twitter. Now we're on a group blog together. It's funny how things sometimes happen in strange ways.

Where did the idea of Into the Deep come from?

Initially it was inspired by an episode of Buffy titled “Earshot”, and some notes I’d written in Abnormal Psychology.

Have you personally ever experienced something that could only be explained as paranormal?

Oh yeah. When I was a kid I lived in this old farmhouse with my mom and sister, and I swear the place was haunted. I have a few stories, but one really good one. I doubt anyone will believe this but I swear it’s true. When I was about twelve I was having a slumber party with one of my girlfriends and we fell asleep on the couches in the living room. In the corner of the room was a fluorescent bulb from the closet that had died. We'd set it aside planning to buy a replacement the next day. In the middle of the night my friend and I woke up to the bulb glowing. Dead, not plugged in to anything, just sitting there, glowing. We stared at it for the longest time watching the light pulse and flicker. I think we even picked it up and carried it into another room to see if it would stop, but it didn't. By the next morning it stopped glowing and I've never seen anything like that since.

Favorite songs on your writing playlist?

Oddly enough, I often write in silence, but when I do listen to music and write I have a playlist on Youtube with some really chill, moodly kind of stuff. “Breath Me” by Sia, “Use Somebody” cover by Laura Jensen, and “Always” by Saliva are some of my favorites on it.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve recently finished the first draft of “Hidden Beneath” which is the sequel to my debut novel “Into the Deep” and I’m in the process of re-reading, making changes and getting it ready for beta readers.

Do you plan to stick to the paranormal genre, or do you think you will venture out to other areas?

I think I’ll stick to the paranormal. I’ve written some contemporary short stories in the past, but I just like monsters so much more. Everyone has their demons, when I write I just like to make those demons a little more literal.

What’s the best thing about being self-published?

Having total control, and not just with writing what I want, but with choosing what I publish next and when to have it out. I tend to be really scatterbrained and I jump from one project to the next. I have, I think, twelve books that I’ve started writing. Some are no more than sheets of notes, others are 10, 20, 30 thousand words in. So, half the time I don’t even know which one I’m going to finish next.

Hardest?

The work. I’m not just a writer, but a publisher, cover artist, promoter, ect… I do hire an editor, but other than that I do it all, even the formatting for both the paperback and e-books. It can be a lot, especially with trying to finish a BA in Psych and working part time.

Favorite scary movie?

I love scary movies, so I don’t think I could pick just one, but at the top of my list would have to be “The Silence of the Lambs”, “The Lost Boys”, and the director’s cut of “Alien”.

If you could spend a day with any celebrity/author, who would you choose?

Either Stephen King or Joss Whedon, but probably Joss Whedon because I think Stephen King would be a little too intimidating.

What are some of your favorite books?

“The Talisman” by Stephen King, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. I’m also really into the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout at the moment.

Ways to follow Lauryn: Twitter, Goodreads, her website

Where to find her book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble 

Lauryn is from a small town about thirty minutes outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She started writing in high school but never thought seriously about being a writer until college where she spent some time working for the school newspaper. Currently she lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she’s studying Psychology and lives with her boyfriend and two dogs. In August of 2012 Lauryn published her first novel, INTO THE DEEP, which looks at the intricacies of the adolescent mind and explores how teenagers deal with feelings of loneliness and judgment. She continues to write in the YA and NA Paranormal Romance genre, and when she’s not writing she likes to spend her time out on Lake Winnebago, snowmobiling, or just hanging out at home watching movies.