Q+A with Michele Vail (Undeadly)

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Michele Vail.  Michele is the author of Undeadly.

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Michele:   I knew I wanted to be a writer from a young age. I started penning stories and poems around the age of 12. I loved reading and my English and literature classes were my favorite subjects. I was the typical diary-writing teenager, too, and soon my angst and worries found their ways into fictional tales and poetry.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Michele:  I love stories with supernatural elements. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches ... I loved it all, even before paranormal became so popular within fiction markets. My most recent fascination has been with zombies and reapers, and that's how Molly and her world came about. I wanted to answer the question, "How do you become a reaper?" I really enjoy ancient Egyptian mythology, and I thought: Making mummies is really close to making zombies, right? So that's where my zombie-making mythology begins.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Michele:  Wow. This is a difficult question to answer. I would like to be able to clean the house with a twitch of my nose--much like Samantha from "Bewitched." Immortality would be great, too, simply because I would like to see how the world progresses with technology. I think there may come a day when we can fix the troubles that plague our world ... creating a place where no one goes hungry, war is irrelevant, and chocolate becomes an official food group.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Michele:   It's fun! Imagine a world just like ours only zombies and ghosts are commonplace. You can get a zombie made the same way you might order a custom suit or a flower arrangement. You can purchase machines that harness ghost energy, so you can have after-life servants. Or in the cases of movie stars and rock musicians, dying doesn't mean your career is over. Thrown into the mix is Molly, who has the ability to make zombies, but finds out she has a larger destiny and a secret past.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Michele:   I think Taylor Lautner should turn in his werewolf fur and go reaper. He'd make a great Rath, the boy who is preparing Molly for her eventual transition into reaperhood (and you know, saving the human world in the mean time). As for Molly, Jennette McCurdy has the right kind of attitude and look (I love her as Sam on "iCarly").

Undeadly (The Reaper Diaries #1) by Michele Vail.

The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...

Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper-and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she’s shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath. Who seems to hate her guts.

Rath will be watching closely to be sure she completes her first assignment-reaping Rick, the boy who should have died. The boy she still wants to be with. To make matters worse, students at the academy start turning up catatonic, and accusations fly-against Molly. The only way out of this mess? To go through hell. Literally.

Thank you Michele for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Michele Vail and her books, please visit her website.