Across the Beer Bar with...Seleste Delaney

Welcome to my beer bar Seleste what can I pour for you to start?Vodka with anything but pineapple juice J *rolls eyes* BEER BAR---hello??? does ANYONE BUT ME do homework? I own a brewery and this place ONLY serves beer. Beer my brewers make. Here---have a glass of  water.

You really have a wealth of variety in your books. What is your absolute favorite sub genre to read? to write?I love variety. Spice of life and all that jazz. To be totally honest, I write what I read. Right now I’ve been reading a lot of YA. One of my favorite things about YA is that they don’t officially separate by genre, so in saying YA, I can include dystopian, urban fantasy, steampunk, and romance and no one seems to mind J My favorite to write is a harder one to answer because my favorite depends (heavily) on my mood. If I’m stressed out and want to kill/destroy things, urban fantasy since it allows me a creative outlet to do so (ie—I won’t go to jail for it). If I’m needing swoonage, romance (either contemporary or paranormal)—nothing gives you that romantic high quite like making people fall in love. And then there’s steampunk. My favorite thing about steampunk is that more than any other genre, it embraces the creative and the absurd. I have a steampunk dragonfly tattoo on my foot. Insects made of clock parts… and they’re deadly. I love that shit! Steampunk worlds allow so much freedom to stretch the craziest parts of your brain (and believe me, I have a lot of crazy parts).

Tell about your new book coming out.My next release (unless something happens between now and then :P) is due in August from Mundania Press. Kiss of Death is the first full-length novel in my Blood Kissed series (I’ve taken to referring to the short stories as prequels since they are written very differently than the novels: first person versus third, present tense versus past). It starts a couple months after The Ghost of Vampire Present and really delves into what “blood kissed” means and why Max tried to keep Jocelyn in the dark about everything… as well as why he failed. Yes, Chad is in it too, being all arrogant and sexy and Chad-like. As is Jocelyn’s grandma <3 There’s also a host of other characters including the local council of vampire elders, a vampire hunter, some werewolves, and a sorcerer. And Remy… this book would not be complete without my favorite vampire ever.
Explosions, near-death, blood, a cat, death, more blood, more death, and of course, sex. Fun times should be had by all.

I will admit, when I read the descriptions of your books I immediately bought Forever Summer! Thank you! That story was a lot of fun (and almost didn’t happen). A couple of my editors—the ones who worked on the Blood Kissed prequels, in fact—urged me to enter this contest at 1 Place for Romance last summer. The contest called for 5,000-7,000 word stories about summer and romance. I started one, and 5k in I knew it was going to be too long, so I almost didn’t enter anything. Then, with a little (okay, a lot) more nudging, I started over and entered Forever Summer, never in a million years expecting it to win. But it did, so *happy dance*.

oh look, empty glass. what can I pour for you next?Surprise me, but not rum. Mixing rum and vodka does messed up things to my brain. And none of us want that. *NO COMMENT* here, drink more tap water.
You have an alter ego that writes Young Adult. Tell us about some of those books.
As I said earlier, I love young adult books. I’m one of those weird people who liked being a teenager and still remembers all the good and bad that went on in those years. It’s a point in life full of firsts and crazy-deep friendships and new romance. *happy sigh* Anyway, I like to tap into that. Right now, I only have the first book in my Paranormal Response Team series out. It’s kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer-ish but where the heroes themselves are supernaturals. The series centers around a pair of fosters sisters—Elle and Cass. Elle is a werewolf who saw her family get killed in the same attack that changed her. She’s the “heart” of the team, the one who follows her instincts and her nose, even though she struggles to accept here werewolf half because it’s a constant reminder of what she’s lost. Cassidy is a half-vampire. She puts on a mask of shiny, happy, pink-loving, cheerleader during the day but slips into all black and brooding at night. She’s the brains. Not only does she have a photographic memory, she’s also an accomplished computer hacker—the kind that will probably never get caught. Her morals are a little more vague than Elle’s because she kind of sees herself as more than human. I adore both of them so very much.
ok I will admit Badlands sounds kick ass!  congrats on getting a Carina contract with it. Tell me a little about it...*finger hovering over "buy" button*
*whispers* Press “buy”… 

*whispers: drink craft beer and I might consider it....*
The full story of Badlands is kind of funny. It started with meeting Jeremy Lassen (Nightshade Books editor) at a convention. He told us this story about what he does to mess with new authors. It had to do with titles, and I decided I wanted to write something with his bogus title…. I just didn’t know what. Then a month or so later, Angela James (Carina Press editor, though at that time I think she was still with Samhain) tweeted that she wanted a space western. The original idea for Badlands came from that. It was a space western and it was…terrible. LOL. I wrote it during NaNoWriMo and didn’t even bother finishing it—it was that bad. I shelved it and moved on.
Then, a while later, people started talking about wanting steampunk novellas. I’d been learning a bit about steampunk, and had recently realized that while the very Victorian London steampunk didn’t appeal to me, one of my favorite TV shows way back when was steampunk (Briscoe County, Jr. for those checking on my age). That western style steampunk was so very me that I dusted off the NaNo manuscript and re-looked at it. Out went spaceships, in went dirigibles. Out went nanotech, in went clockworks, and then I took the very bare bones of the story I had and warped US history in order to create a world where my story could take place. The history of Australia as a penal colony had always intrigued me, and from that, the idea of the Badlands was born. I did lose a couple characters in the change—and a few others went through drastic changes—no alien races in my steampunk America L--but that was the book I went on to sell.
I will say that as a romance, some people have issues with Badlands. There is a major role-reversal in that Ever is the alpha. She’s very volatile and sexual (even though she’s a man-hater) and doesn’t like anyone else to have any control over her life. Spencer, on the other hand, is the steady one. The one who does what he has to but prefers life to be calm and drama-free. Because of that reversal, some things that readers are fine with heroes doing, they are forced to see the heroine do.
I wrote Ever that way because she’s a “real” person in my head, and that’s precisely how she would behave (and it’s how she behaved in the original, horrible version too). Same with Spencer. Same with all my characters. The truth is I knew some readers might not like that. But I don’t expect everyone to love my characters or their actions. I do hope they understand them though J
Finally, what are your new projects coming in the rest of 2012 and 2013?
Kiss of Death comes out in August, and I have another Cupid’s Conquests story that may be out before then (if I can get my butt in gear and finish it LOL). I also just got word on another sale that I haven’t announced yet since I’m waiting to get word that I can! LOL. I will say that one probably won’t be until 2013, but I could be wrong. I’m probably going to do another holiday short this year as well (just because I love those damn elves). Outside of those, you’ll just have to keep an eye on my website (http://selestedelaney.com).
night cap time! What's your poison?I don’t have to be coherent anymore? Awesome. *gets devious gleam in her eyes* Tell me, have you ever made “Sex with Captain Tightpants”? *even more devious gleam* NO but I pay 2 guys to brew amazing craft beers for me at my brewery that is growing by leaps and bounds....so here, more water for you!*
Links:Website: http://selestedelaney.comBlog: http://selestedelaney.blogspot.comFac... Profile: http://www.facebook.com/seleste.delaneyFacebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seleste... https://twitter.com/#!/SelestedeLaney... http://pinterest.com/selestedelaney/
Buy Links: Of Course I Try: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=143&osCsid=tlt51qr3nuts8kpqkev4to5hg0 The Ghost of Vampire Present: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?cPath=75_82&products_id=196&osCsid=7alo8jcn02tnrcph56ggqfcf64 Forever Summer: http://1placeforromance.com/romantic-fiction/forever-summer/prod_5911.html GunShy: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/products/GunShy-by-Seleste-deLaney.html Badlands: http://ebooks.carinapress.com/4208F3D9-7391-4969-A917-0A73EFC045D7/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=%7B688F4AF3-7FBD-4D82-8438-A34BD335E74C%7D