Pump Up Your Book Chats with Harris Gray, authors of Vampire Vic

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ABOUT VAMPIRE VIC

Would you give up donuts…for blood?

Fat, balding accountant Victor Thetherson hoped becoming a vampire would turn his life around. But Victor can’t stomach confrontation and gets queasy at the sight of blood. Instead he gets it from the blood bank, diluted in bloody Bloody Marys. The result: a vampire who doesn’t bite, and a man who gets no respect.

Victor’s slacking staff mockingly calls him Vampire Vic. Victor’s boss amuses his wife by intimidating Victor on video. His ex makes him stay out late while she entertains boyfriends in the house she insists they continue to share. One night it finally boils over, and Victor bites someone. And then another…and very soon, he’s no longer visiting the blood bank.

Muscle replaces fat, and his comb-forward widow’s peak takes root. Victor basks in newfound attention and respect, at the office and at home. But real vampires get hunted, and as the transformation reaches the tipping point, Victor must decide how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the power of the vampire.

Purchase the book on Amazon:

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Q: Can you tell us why you wrote your book?

Vampire Vic grew out of a discussion on all the reasons why we couldn’t write a vampire novel. We don’t know sexy. We haven’t studied the genre. We can’t imagine biting someone. We’re too middle-aged, too fat, too bald(ing). That’s when we realized we had the perfect vampire – Victor Thetherson, a dude with all kinds of human troubles and deficiencies, none of which are solved when he becomes a vampire.

Q: Which part of the book was the hardest to write?

Allan: For Jason, it was keeping the sex out. I kept cutting it on the revisions I would receive from him, and then the next version, it would all be back in.

Jason: I was just worried our word count wasn’t high enough. Could have ended up a novella if we weren’t careful.

Allan: I wasn’t upset. With each revision, the sex kept getting better. I think he figured at some point, it would be too good to leave out. I saved a lot of it, for personal reference and for future novels, in case a plot ever actually calls for it.

Q: Does your book have an underlying message that readers should know about?

Allan: Praying for a change in your circumstances to improve your life can backfire. Money, cosmetic surgery, vampirism, hair, etc.

Jason: My dad told me a joke, a long time ago. This little boy was born with a golden screw for a bellybutton. Every night before he went to bed, the little boy would pray for God to take away that golden screw. Each morning when he woke up, that golden screw was still there. But he continued to pray, “Please God, that’s all I want, I’ll do anything, if only you’ll take away this golden screw.” Then one morning he woke up to find the golden screw was gone. The little boy was so excited, he leaped out of bed to go tell his parents, and his ass fell off.

Allan: Someone should have told that one to Victor.

Q: Do you remember when the writing bug hit?

Allan: I used to write horror stories when I was in grade school. Mom kept some of them. Of course I wrote in soft lead pencil, making them tough to read, but my penmanship was much better than it is now, so it evens out. I notice that these stories never had a true happy ending – the kid didn’t always survive, and if he did, it was more of an escape than a victory. I remember being a little more upbeat than that. Maybe I understood that evil is never truly defeated. Maybe I was just setting up the sequel.

Jason: I started by writing lyrics for my high school band. I was an early, dirty Weird Al Yankovic.

Q: Besides books, what else do you write? Do you write for publications?

We do write for publications, but they choose not to publish us. The Denver Post was a nice exception, Allan was a guest columnist for a year. We’ve written a lot over the years for each other—one of the benefits to being a writing duo, it comes with a built-in audience. We created a website, HarrisGray.com, to promote our books, and then realized we had inadvertently created a perfect home for our other stuff.

Q: Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

Crowfoot Valley Coffeeshop and the Crowbar, our home away from home. Jason owns them, Allan treats them like his den with built-in refreshment center. The coffeeshop and the bar are actually the same place, sort of like the two faces of Harris Gray. There’s a ripple of excitement in the air at that wonderful moment when coffeeshop becomes bar; sometimes that switch is flipped a little earlier in the day than it should be. We owe a lot of creativity to the right blend of caffeine and alcohol.

Q: What do you do to get away from it all?

Pretend we own Allan’s in-law’s cabin at the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park, and hunker down for a weekend of writing.

Allan: I do the best I can to convince Jason to go for hikes. They have all these great hiking trails around the Park. Jason doesn’t like to stay on the path, no matter how many times it leads to disaster. I like to stay on the trail and watch, and jot notes. They make for great anecdotes.

Q: What was the first thing you did as far as promoting your book?

Allan: Hired experts. The best move we’ve made.

Jason: Actually, it was attending the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, where we met fellow writers Anne Eliot and Cindi Madsen. Anne and Cindi write for young adults—they are great writers, and they are having great success. They told us to hire experts. And then basically hired them for us when we were slow to make the move.

Allan: We did not realize experts had so much ability. From DeAnna Knippling’s formatting to Peter Freedman’s cover design, to our publicist Jennifer Halligan’s brains, energy and effort, we simply wouldn’t be here without them.

Q: Do you have a writing tip you’d like to share?

Yes. Write for years and years, one novel after another, rewriting and editing and polishing them until they are ready for prime time – but do not, we repeat, do not land a publishing deal. That way, when you finally decide to strike out on your own, you will have a nice pipeline of finished novels. This is important, because marketing and social networking will take up all of your time, and you may never write another novel again.

Q: Are you familiar with the social networks and do you actively participate?

Thanks to Jennifer, we are and we do. And we’re loving it. We never realized that it is all such a creative writing process. In the end what we really want to do is entertain, and our website, blog and tweetering provide outlets we never had before.

Q: If you had one wish, what would that be?

To convince our wives we’ve made it, whether we have or haven’t, so that they let us quit our jobs and buy a writermobile RV. We would all four climb in and go touring the country together, writing, attending conferences, and convincing book stores to let us do signings. Our own special form of social media.

Q: Thank you so much for this interview, Harris Gray. Do you have any final words?

Thank you, for doing what you do. Through you we’ve found authors we love, and we’re looking forward to connecting with other bloggers and readers. If sometime in the near future you see a huge rickety RV coming at you, flying a “Harris Gray Writermobile” banner, don’t be afraid, at least not after it’s safely parked. We would love to meet you and talk a little writing.

ABOUT HARRIS GRAY

Harris Gray finish their third pint and mull over their next writing project, simultaneously deciding on a vampire book. Because the women in their lives eat up every vampire story on the shelves. And for the gratuitous T&A. But hunky, smoldering vampires are beyond their grasp; and dammit, T&A should mean something. Deciding to write what they know, Harris Gray return to their wheelhouse: An aging, uncomfortable man, not so happy with his lot in life. A man bitten by a vampire, unsure what to do with his new…skillset. Vampire Vic – VV – is born. Perfect.

The latest book is Vampire Vic.

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

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Pump Up Your Book and Harris Gray are teaming up to give you a chance to win a new Kindle Fire HD!

Here’s how it works:

Each person will enter this giveaway by liking, following, subscribing and tweeting about this giveaway through the Rafflecopter form placed on blogs throughout the tour. If your blog isn’t set up to accept the form, we offer another way for you to participate by having people comment on your blog then directing them to where they can fill out the form to gain more entries.

This promotion will run from May 6 – July 26. The winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter, contacted by email and announced on July 27, 2013.

Each blogger who participates in the Vampire Vic virtual book tour is eligible to enter and win.

If you would like to participate, email Tracee at tgleichner(at)gmail.com. What a great way to not only win this fabulous prize, but to gain followers and comments too! Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

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Vampire Vic Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

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Monday, May 6 – Book featured at Margay Leah Justice

Thursday, May 9 – Book featured at Review From Here

Monday, May 13 – Interviewed at Digital Journal

Wednesday, May 15 – Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book

Friday, May 17 – 1st Chapter Reveal at Book Him Danno

Tuesday, May 21 – 1st Chapter Reveal at As the Pages Turn

Thursday, May 23 – Guest blogging at Literarily Speaking

Monday, May 27 – Up Close and Personal at Between the Covers

Wednesday, May 29 – Interviewed at Literal Exposure

Friday, May 31 – Book featured at Plug Your Book

Award-Winning Book Publicity Company Since 2007

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How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

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