Interview: Kelly Meding

NRR: Can you share with us how you got started into writing?

I've been making up stories in my head since I was a small child, but I didn't start writing anything down until the end of junior high, and going into high school.  I mostly did it for fun, because I had this strange idea that only certain people could be writers and I wasn't one of them. But then in college I received a lot of support from professors, and I thought maybe I could do more than just scribble stories for fun.  It was a few more years before I began seeking publication, but I've always enjoyed telling stories.  Now I just have a means to share them more widely.

NRR: How were you inspired to write the Dreg City series?

The Dreg City series came about from a combination of things. I was fairly new to urban fantasy as a reader, but I loved what I was seeing and decided I wanted to write one.  I knew it was going to be traditional UF in the sense of having a snappy, first-person heroine, with a modern city setting. But I wanted to it as a melting pot kind of world, and have the more familiar creatures (werewolves, vamps, ect...) play a smaller role, and to be able to highlight other, less known creatures (like trolls and gremlins). After I had my setting, I needed a heroine.

Evy came to me in a very odd way.  I had a scene in mind that I never ended up using, because the Dreg City mythology didn't allow it, but it had to do with a woman in Purgatory being asked to go back to earth and save the world.  Needless to say, Evy never got a choice about coming back to life, but that was the genesis of both my heroine and my world.

NRR: What is a day in the life of Kelly Meding like?

Depends on the day. *grin* I have a part-time retail job, which means my schedule is different from week to week.  But most days, I do some version of wake up, drink coffee, surf the net, check favorite websites, write, day job, coffee, surf the net.  When I'm in the middle of a manuscript, the large majority of my non-day job time is spent writing because that manuscript is usually all I can think about.  When I'm in between manuscripts, I'll do a variety of things, whether it's editing, researching, or doing promotion.

Oh!  I cuddle my cat.  That's always a big part of my day.

NRR: Which actress do you think would play a good Evy?

I've always imagined Evy as being played by Erica Durance (Smallville). She has the look and the attitude, and I think she'd rock the part.

NRR: What is your guilty pleasure?

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  There's just something amazing about that specific combination of peanut butter and chocolate. Yum!

NRR: Your books are full of action,how long does it take you to put one together?

Generally I can write a first draft in about three to four months. I'm a speedy writer, and I do tend to get intently focused when I have an open manuscript. Once I have the story in mind, the characters tend to take over and do the rest so the words just flow.

NRR: Can you share with us the storyline of Another Kind Of Dead?

Another Kind of Dead introduces us to a new villain in the Dreg City world.  His influence as been felt in previous books, because he's the creator of all those hybrid monsters Evy discovered at the end of Three Days to Dead.  And now he's taken a very specific interest in Evy and her ability to heal herself.  Evy and Wyatt's relationship continues to develop.  We see a lot of familiar faces in this book, both human and Dreg, as well as a few new characters, and an ending that will change everything as we know it (and I'm not just saying that).

NRR: What is next in the works for you?

The fourth Dreg City book, Wrong Side of Dead, releases January 31, 2012.  But before that, I'm launching a brand-new series with Pocket on 10/25.  The first book is called Trance, and the series deals with original superheroes.  The second book in the series, Changeling, will come out sometime in 2012.