Our guest today has been writing forever, and works for a legal publisher in London. Unable to make a choice between becoming werewolf or vampire, A. M. Harte would rather be a hybrid of the two.
Seriously, how cute is she? 
GL: Welcome, and tell me, what will be your weapon of choice when the Zombocalypse strikes?
AMH: That would depend on the type of zombie! Overall I imagine I’d be more of a flight than fight person, but if I had to choose a weapon I’m thinking flame-thrower. I doubt I’d be any good at aiming with a gun, and a flame-thrower would allow me to burn them to a crisp from further away. Of course, there’d be the problem of refuelling…
GL: Well, every weapon would eventually have problem with finding its fuel! What are you working on right now?
AMH: Right now I’m editing/rewriting Above Ground, a post-apocalyptic science fantasy novel in which humans live underground, and the infected live on the surface. The book will launch in mid-September and I will also be serialising it on my website, which will be an interesting experiment!
Also on my to-do list is to polish off DarkSight, a horror novella set in contemporary London where small-town Irish girl Maeve battles against demons only she can see. I’m looking at a February 2012 release on that. AND I wouldn’t mind slotting in another project or so in-between, too, but the details on those are still secret. 
GL: Cool beans! What is the thing you enjoy the most about being a writer?
AMH: I adore that honeymoon period when a new story still hasn’t lost its shine, when you’re super excited about the project and the words flow effortlessly. I love the feeling of holding a book — MY book — in my hands, seeing my name on the cover, riffling through the pages. But perhaps the best thing is getting to talk to my readers, and to watch them respond to my stories and enjoy my worlds.
GL: I sometimes can’t get over the fact people have read and liked my stories. It’s awesome.
How did the idea for Above Ground appear?
AMH: I had a nightmare about being stuck in the audience of a freak show theatre where there were werewolves shapeshifting on stage, and I could hear their bones cracking and breaking. It was pretty freaky! So I wrote that scene out, and that’s when the idea for the setting started developing.
A while later I found the first dozen chapters of an untitled novel I’d abandoned about a girl who decides to liberate the slave class — genetically modified beings considered as little better than animals — only to realise that they don’t need her help at all.
I combined my post-apocalyptic setting with traces of that plot and voila! Above Ground was born.
GL: Do you find it difficult coming up with names for characters?
AMH: Ugh, yes! Impossibly so. Some characters spring into my head with their names fully-formed — but that’s rare. And I can’t write without a name; it bothers me immensely.
Generally I spend hours on baby name sites, trying to match the character’s name to a meaning or sound pattern that represents them. I also take the character’s culture into account, so that all those of the same race share similar-sounding names.
For example, in Above Ground, the ewte race often have fricatives (and especially sibillants) in their names, to evoke their reptilian qualities, such as Sla’ik and Li’sso. The stein (a rock race) have harder-sounding names like Petra or Craig.
But not every name has a reason or meaning behind it. Sometimes it’s only a question of personal preference!
GL: What’s your must have snacks during writing binges?
AMH: I don’t tend to snack during writing binges because I get so caught up with writing that I forget to eat! It drives my brother crazy actually, to the point that he’ll pester me as to what I’ve eaten to make sure I’m feeding myself properly, haha.
If anything, I end up having a lot of tea and buttered toast.
GL: Tea is good. It usually tastes better than cold coffee. So would I be right in thinking that you’re Team Furry?
AMH: I know I’ll ruffle some feathers by saying this, but I’m on the fence! Why only lust after one hot man when you can lust after two? After all, True Blood wouldn’t be True Blood without Alcide (yum!) or Eric (double yum!).
GL: Argh! Considered my feathers ruffled. Though you do have a point. Or two. Heh.
I appreciate your taking the time to do this. Thanks, and good luck with your upcoming releases.
AMH: Thank you for having me — and for hosting such a great event!
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Links for A.M. Hart are her site, Facebook, and Twitter. Click on the cover to see purchase options for the ebook.
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