Author Interview: Elita Daniels

I am very pleased to welcome Elita Daniels to the blog today! And she has very kindly agreed to take part in an interview for all my lovely followers!

Elita's latest novel, Guardian has recently been released as an e-book, and is available from Amazon. If you want to read my review of it, click here!

I am also hosting a giveaway just now for an e-copy of Guardian, so if you want to be in with a chance of winning make sure you enter, heres the link!

Now onto the interview...

Hi Elita, and thanks very much for stopping by the blog for this interview!

So before we start the book discussions, can tell us a bit about yourself?

Hey Emma, my pleasure. I’m from a small town in North Queensland, Australia. I’m 29. I started writing when I was 25. My husband and I have been married for almost 10 years and we have two cats, Jinx and Lulu. I love creating worlds and characters, it’s intoxicating. Usually every night before I sleep I have a scene playing out in my mind, purely for my own entertainment.

Your book Guardian hasn’t long been released, how do you feel about seeing it out there for

people to buy?

It's exciting to think people will be reading my work and getting to know the characters that I've had chatting to each other in my head. I thought it would be daunting, sending out my work, but it's all come very naturally.

How long did it take you write Guardian?

It took me 3 months to write.

How did you come up with the idea for the book, especially the carrier vampires idea?

For this book I drew inspiration from Equilibrium, True Blood, Girl with the dragon tattoo, resident evil. The idea for the carriers just seemed to fit into the story and make sense that not all of them would be infectious. It also gave me an opportunity to make Anna unique.

What was the main inspiration behind the character Anna?

When I first thought about what it would be like if we had vampires living among us - how would we control them and what would happen if they were all treated like criminals, and forced to have human guardians to monitor them - I thought it would make a great story to see through the eyes of a young female vampire. I wanted her to be a kickass vampire, but also vulnerable.

I hope to expand on the world even more in the second book. It doesn't have a release date yet, but I'll be keeping everyone updated, so keep a look out for it :)

Wow, I'm excited for a second book, I'll be keeping an eye out for that!

A lot of popular vampire books nowadays are set in America, why did you choose to set

Guardian in the UK?

To me London seemed like it would have the perfect atmosphere for vampires, dark, foggy, drizzling rain. Also, I thought the character Selene out of Underworld was an attractive vampire with her British accent. :)

I loved Selene as well, and I completely agree with your point that London would make a good scene for a vampire story, I think most large UK cities would.

What made you decide to self-publish?

My husband and I were excited and impatient to get our books out. We didn't want to have to spend hours sending out inquiry letters, especially when self-publishing was so accessible and seemed to be achieving great results. Also, I loved the idea of being in charge of my own career.

Are you working on anything new just now?

I'm working on a new paranormal romance called “My Boyfriend is a Zombie.” Originally I had it planned that the main character's dead boyfriend was going to be progressively getting hideous and falling apart. That was going to be one of the main obstacles, the man she loved was basically rotting away, so would she still care for him when he was all corpsified and somewhat less attractive. It was going to be all very tongue-in-cheek. Now the story has morphed into something else entirely. It still has a similar theme but I've gone in a different direction. I kind of fell in love with my Zombie and his world, and it developed into something unusual, I think. It should still be a light, fun read and hopefully a little enchanting for the readers. It's due for release in December.

That sounds brilliant! Another one I'll be keeping my eye out for!

Do you have any advice for budding authors out there who are considering self-publishing?

I think it could be a good idea to check out the traditional publishing route first, you never know what opportunities that may hold for a new author, but they should definitely give self publishing a shot if they're willing to take charge of their career and take on the responsibilities of marketing. I say go for it!

Thank you so much for your time today Elita, and I hope you stop by the blog again soon!