Today’s interview is with Sonya Clark, author of the newly released Bring on the Night. She talks about how music plays a large part in her work, the importance of opening a story with an action scene and getting over the anxiety new authors may have when it comes to marketing.

SC: Thank you for this opportunity, Lux. It’s my very first interview and I’m nervous, but hopefully I can give your great questions some decent answers.

LZ: According to your Facebook fan page, reading books were a “constant” for you, being “an Army brat”—what led you to write your own? What was the first story you ever wrote about?

SC: The longest we ever lived anywhere when I was growing up was 2 ½ years, so I think my attachment to books helped me deal with a lot of the upheaval. I could re-read a favorite book and I guess find some comfort in the familiarity there, while in real life I might be struggling with learning my way around a new place, a new school, new people. I think that because I read so much, I had a better grasp of writing than some kids, and I just liked it, whether it was basic school reports or fiction. My English teachers always loved me. Writing was just something I loved doing. I can’t remember ever not being a storyteller. I’ve been writing so long I don’t even remember what my first story was about, but I’d bet something paranormal. Maybe a ghost story.

LZ: What influences your writing/inspires you the most?

SC: I grew up reading Stephen King and Anne Rice, loved anything paranormal. I loved mysteries, too, and developed a real taste for noir eventually – both old school stuff like Raymond Chandler and newer stuff like James Ellroy. With urban fantasy I can have both. Music is also a huge influence and inspiration. It seems like I always have to have musical references in my work, and at least one character that serves as a mouthpiece for my musical nerdery. Once I met an Englishman at Graceland who called me a trainspotter – being both a music nerd and a book nerd, it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

What I wanted to do with Bring on the Night was try to combine my love of the paranormal with my love of those tough guy anti-heroes of noir mysteries. Since I like playing with gender stereotypes, too, I made my tough guy vampire a girl, and she loves music. It calms her down when she’s trapped inside during the day. That feeling of hating to wait for sundown is what inspired the title, which is taken from an old Police song.

I think maybe fear inspires me too. I’m such a nervous person, and I think that all these monsters—vampires, werewolves, demons, whatever—are a stand-in for all that free-floating anxiety. I create characters who defeat the monsters, or in the case of my vampire Jessie, insist on being more than just a monster and by doing so still conquer the dark.

LZ: For those who may not know, what is a “trainspotter” and why did the gentleman calling you that make you proud?

SC: “Trainspotter” has a few definitions but the gentleman was calling me a music geek, the kind that pays attention to all sorts of little details about music and musicians. That happened not long after I read Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh and High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, and didn’t need anyone to explain the music references to me. It’s always nice to meet someone who speaks the same language, and I felt almost like I’d passed some sort of test.

LZ: What types of music or musicians do you most often reference in your work?

SC: It depends on the flavor of the story. There’s a scene in Bring on the Night where I mention The Black Keys and Buddy Guy, because that sort of trance-y, almost psychedelic blues really fit the mood of that scene and the one that followed. Blues gets referenced in a lot of my work, actually: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, RL Burnside, T-Model Ford, Junior Kimbrough.

LZ: Can you tell readers about a favorite scene of yours in your newest work, Bring on the Night?

SC: Bring on the Night is about a vampire that’s a sort of enforcer in the paranormal world. Part of her job is to prevent mortals from finding out about vampires and werewolves and the like. There’s a series of murders that are getting too much attention that look like the handiwork of monsters, and she’s sent to put a stop to it.

In its earliest incarnation, Bring on the Night had a very different opening scene and I was never happy with it. It was all conversation, no action. I got the idea for a short story about the main character, Jessie, and liked it so much I decided to work it in as the opening scene. When you first meet her, you think she’s mortal and about to be the victim of a rapist who drugs women he meets in nightclubs. Let’s just say, once he finds out she’s a vampire things don’t end well for him. I think it establishes right away that Jessie is not going to frolic in the forest with you. She is a vampire and though she has a certain moral code, she loves finding people that in her view need killing. It shows that she’s up to the job that she’s sent to do in the next scene.

This scene also taught me the value of starting with an action scene of some kind. It doesn’t have to be a fight scene but something needs to be happening. It doesn’t even necessarily need to be directly connected to the plot, as long as your reader learns something about the characters.

LZ: What marketing tips can you offer new authors?

SC: The first thing a new author has to realize is, this is part of your job. You may be scared of having to do marketing and publicity—I know I am—but you just have to jump in with both feet. Facebook is a great tool. If you don’t want to open up your personal profile to the world, start a group or a fan page. I was really nervous about Twitter at first but now I enjoy it. I enjoy blogging, though admittedly I’m not always the most focused blogger. Goodreads is a book-centered social networking site I’m starting to do more with. Take advantage of these and other free opportunities, like an Amazon author page once your work is listed there. One thing a new author needs to remember is that while these are all methods for promotion, you need to provide more content for your audience than simply, “please buy my book.” If that’s all you have to say, people won’t come back, they’ll unfollow you. On my blog, I do talk about my work, but I also talk about other things. Books I’ve read that I really liked, my passion for music, how much I love Dean and Castiel on Supernatural. Instead of being scared of this stuff, you have to remind yourself—or at least I do—that we writers are storytellers, we’re entertainers. That potential reader who follows your blog or on a social network is saying, “Here I am now, entertain me.” Think of it as an extension of your fiction writing.

Most important of all: have a Web site! And keep it updated and easy to read. More than once, I’ve clicked away from a Web site that was hard to navigate or hard to read because of poor color choices; for instance, a font color that is nearly impossible to read on the chosen template color. You can be a little more creative with a blog, but your Web site needs to be easy to read and navigate.

As far as non-internet related opportunities, it really depends on where you live. I live in a small town so my opportunities are a bit more limited than someone who lives in a big city, but I’m going to talk to someone at my local paper and I’ve had some cards made of my cover to share. Since Bring on the Night is a novella, it will only be digital, so a signed cover card is the closest I can get to signing a book.

LZ: What aspect of marketing makes you most nervous?

SC: All of it. ;-) Actually, I’m really nervous about talking to my local paper. I think that’s sort of related to how I’m more afraid of people I know reading my work than strangers. Guess I need to get over that, though. :-)

LZ: According to your blog, your next story, Mojo Queen, has just been accepted by Lyrical Press—congratulations! Can you tell readers what it’s about?

SC: Thank you! I’m really excited about this story. Here’s the blurb I wrote when I submitted it to my editor:

She’s got 99 problems and a hellbitch sure is one.

Roxanne Mathis can see auras and spectral entities. She can mix herbs and roots for spells to do good or ill. She can even light a candle without benefit of a match. But when she’s hired to exorcise a demon from a young girl, she finds out what she can’t do. With the help of her vampire cousin and the dark sorcerer who’s getting over a bad breakup with the demon, she sets out to send that evil entity back where she came from. Nothing is as it seems and Roxie’s in over her head. It’s not going to be enough for her to just be a paranormal investigator and old school root worker – to defeat this demon, Roxie’s going to have to be the Mojo Queen.

It’s got a root worker who’s beginning to really tap into her own power for the first time, her vampire cousin who’s really her ancestor but it’s easier to tell people they’re cousins, and a sexy sorcerer who may or may not be evil depending on how much trouble he feels like getting into. Good times. I love these characters!

LZ: What’s next on your writing/publishing to-do list?

SC: I’m excited about getting into the editing process for Mojo Queen and I already have ideas for a sequel. One of the things I’d love to do is write a series and I think these characters would be great for that. I would also like to try stepping outside my comfort zone of urban fantasy and writing something that’s completely new and different for me, like maybe erotic romance. There’s no romance in Bring on the Night and I had a heck of a time with the love scene in Mojo Queen, though I think that was partly because it’s in first person. Had a major case of the awkwards with that. While I know I may have limitations as a writer, I still want to challenge myself. It’s kind of like being scared of the marketing and promotion—I have to make myself just jump in and see what I can do.

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To purchase Bring on the Night, visit www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=245.

For details about Sonya Clark, visit sonyaclark.webs.com.