Vampires and Romance Part II: An interview with Michelle Hughes

Last December I interviewed Michelle Hughes, author of A Night At Tears of Crimson and since then she has been unbelievably busy, so I asked her if she was willing to do a second interview with me to tell us what she’s been up to and luckily she said yes!

First of all, thank you so much Michelle for taking the time to come back here and chat with me. Since we last spoke you have done heaps of things including publishing another book, Eternal Crimson, which is now out as both an ebook and as a paperback. Could you tell us a bit about it?

Thank you so much for having me back again, Katheryn.  It's been a busy six months, and so much has been put into place that I just had to force myself to keep up.  Some of the projects I've been working on needed to happen immediately, and then of course the last book in the Tears of Crimson Vampire Series has a very specific deadline it has to meet, so that helped push things along.

You originally said that Eternal Crimson would be released in June 2012, but you’ve actually managed to release it ahead of schedule! How did you manage to work so fast?

Without giving away the plot for the third book, let me just say that Eternal Crimson had to be completed before I could publish the last book in this series.  The third books deadline is in October of this year.  I realized that I wouldn't have time to fully devote to this last book if I didn't have the second one ready earlier.  It was a tough choice, but it needed to happen.

I love the cover for Eternal Crimson. Who did it?

Thank you so much for the compliment, and I wish I could take credit for that incredible cover.  There were four wonderful people responsible.  Sean and Ashlie Nelson, who completed the Luna Fall waterfall background.  Jimmy Thomas, from Romance Novel Covers, is how we found the couple photo, and then Barbara Ivie.  She was responsible for the fonts that you will soon see on all three of the Tears of Crimson books.

I believe you are also republishing your first book, A Night at Tears of Crimson. What changes have you made to the book and why?

My original dream for Tears of Crimson was to put it in Cara's perspective.  I have never considered myself talented in writing first-person stories, but I forced myself to attempt it for the first book.  When Eternal Crimson was put before beta readers the one comment that I received from different readers was the strangeness of having one book in first and the other in third.  Since I really don't enjoy writing in first person, it made sense to bring the first book into third.  Also, with the first book I didn't have a professional editor, something I have regretted.  With the re-edit, it got the third-person view it should have had in the beginning, and the professional edit.

As well as writing, you have set up a great website, The Books Debut. Could you tell us about the site?  

Thanks for asking about that.  When I was first trying to get my book before the public the one thing I had trouble with was finding people willing to take a chance on a new author.  I was constantly getting emails from other author friends about how they could promote their book without spending a ton of money.  The idea for The Books Debut was born.  I won't say that we only focus on Indie Authors, but they are our main focus.  I just don't believe that a book should be judged on whether it was written by someone who has a major publisher.  A book should be judged on an individual basis. 

A group of friends shared the same vision, and we've managed to pull together a site that will debut new books and hopefully give indie authors a platform to promote their work.  There are many sites opening their doors to the indie writers and I for one, am very excited about that.

What are you planning to work on next?

I want to finish up the Tears of Crimson series with the final book and I have a new project underway as well.  I won't get into the new project at this time, because there is still much research to be done before I make a decision on how I'll move forward with that.  I do know that it will fall under the Tears of Crimson books, just not in a vampire genre.

Where can people buy your books and find out more about you?

I can usually be found on twitter via @MichelleHughes_ or facebook www.facebook.com/authormichellehughes  or you can stop by my site, www.tearsofcrimson.com and I hope you'll stop by The Books Debut as well.  We are looking for readers and reviewers to keep up with stream of books piling in.

Do you have any final parting comments or advice?

As you know Katheryn, I'm a big supporter of the Amazon KDP Select plan for authors.  Amazon has been revolutionary in giving Indie Authors the support they need for promoting their work.  I also can't say enough good things about Kindle Nation Daily, when they picked up my book, Eternal Crimson it had the best rankings of any of my previous work. 

I would like all my readers that purchased the first book, A Night at Tears of Crimson via Kindle, to know that the update will be offered free of charge for the new book.  I can't thank my readers enough for sticking by me as I work toward making the Tears of Crimson Vampire series the best it can be.

Would you like a FREE copy of Eternal Crimson? Michelle is giving away a free paperback on Goodreads starting today! Just click here to enter.