AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Today I am running a bit behind due to my youngest getting her Kindergarten physical. Five shots-many tears-and an ice cream later, I am finally able to get a post up.  I have the pleasure of introducing you to Kathryn Meyer Griffith.  Let's get started!

To start off, welcome and can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I'm a wife of 32 years (husband, Russell), mother (one son, James) and grandmother (two grandchildren, Caitlyn and Joshua). I was a graphic designer in the corporate world for over 20 years and I've been a writer for 39 years...and have published thirteen (fourteen by September) books and seven short stories in the last 26 years. And by next September seven (*please see list below) of my older Leisure and Zebra paperbacks going back 26 years will be re-released again by Damnation Books and Eternal Press in revised and updated paperbacks (with new covers) and in e-books for the first time! I consider myself a horror writer but I’ve also written paranormal romances, time travel and murder mysteries. I love chocolate, cats and nature, classic rock and country music (my brother is a singer/songwriter and does the songs for all my self-made book trailers that are on my websites).

* Evil Stalks The Night 1984; The Heart of the Rose 1985; Blood Forge 1989; Vampire Blood 1991; The Last Vampire 1992; Witches 1993; an erotic novella called The Nameless One in Dark Seductions; The Calling 1994.

Other available novels: Scraps of Paper 2003; All Things Slip Away 2006. E-book & paperbacks: Egyptian Heart 2007; Winter’s Journey 2008; The Ice Bridge 2008, and two ghostly short stories, Don’t Look Back, Agnes and In This House. BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons, an apocalyptic saga from Damnation Books, June 2010. The Woman in Crimson, a vampire novel, from Eternal Press, September 2010. ***

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming or latest release?
BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons by Kathryn Meyer Griffith out from Damnation Books May 31, 2010 is an apocalyptic saga about traveling brother and sister musicians, Cassandra and Johnny Graystone, and their friends, who must fight evil demons, with the help of angels, in the end days (like the Left Behind series or Buffy The Vampire Slayer). The sister is developing supernatural powers to aid them in the final war as they seek out and convince others with powers like them to help.

THE WOMAN IN CRIMSON, out from Eternal Press in September 2010, is  a contemporary vampire novel, about Willowwind, a beautiful Civil War era bed and breakfast, run by a loving couple, Adrian and Caroline Stone. It’s also haunted by a long dead Civil War era vampiress, Lilith, who was once a witch and who believes the man, Adrian, is her reincarnated soldier/lover Jedidiah – and she’ll do anything to have him, body-heart-and soul, for her own again. But Adrian’s wife, Caroline, along with the help of a psychic and the ghost of her dead father, will do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen.

I am a fly on your wall.  What would I report back to my master about a day in the life of Kathryn?
Right now you’d see my sweet husband getting up at 4 a.m. four days a week to go into his 10 hour work day at Lewis Pumps in St. Louis, and about four or five hours later, me get up, feed my two cats, Sasha and Cleo; and after I get cleaned up, make myself something to eat and sit down to the main computer in our computer room in our tiny two-story old house in a small town across the river from St. Louis, I check/answer my daily e-mails…then it’s to the living room and my laptop to edit, revise or update all those old releases coming out again. That’s pretty much my day until my hubby comes home and I make us dinner. I’ll write a little more but try to quit at seven or eight for television and to read. Updating seven books I wrote as long ago as 30 years is daunting, time consuming…but interesting. It’s like having a child and not seeing it for 30 years…you look at it and it seems so familiar but still so different. I try to take weekends off for my family and fun.

When you are not writing, what kind of books do you like to read? Do you have any favorite authors, that are must reads?
I read what I like to write. Spooky books. I also like an eerie mystery and some historical romances. My favorite authors ( I have so many, too many to list all), of course, are Stephen King, Dean Koontz and, right now, Sara Gruen…Water for Elephants was great!

What are 3 things that are "must haves" for you when you sit down to write a new book?
In my front room before my large-screened television, turned down low, my feet up on the reclined couch with (1) my trusty old laptop that my singer/songwriter brother, Jim, gave me…(2) my combination Dictionary/Thesaurus nearby and (3) a steaming hot cup of a chocolate coffee concoction I make up myself.

Do you have a blog or website that your readers can keep up with you and your books?  Twitter?
Alas, no twitter or blog…you kidding? With all these books I’m churning out I barely have time to eat and suck in air, keep up my ten social websites and banter on my publishers’ reader/author loops! Here’s the best of my many websites:

http:// www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith  (See all my new covers and self-made book trailers; some with my singer/songwriter brother Jim Meyer’s original songs!)

http://kathrynmeyergriffith.intuitwebsites.com/

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

Now for some fun stuff:

1. What came first--the chicken or the egg? The egg…I ate the chicken.

2. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle? It’s too shy?

3. If you choke a Smurf, what color do they turn? Breath-deprived red, of course.

4. If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him? Some people just have too damn much time on their hands?

Favorite perfume: Dial soap. Ha, ha.

Favorite TV show: Supernatural, of course! And Buffy The Vampire Slayer before that.

Favorite Movie: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (a real oldie that somewhat reminds me of my poor childhood)

Favorite Drink: My own special chocolate coffee.

Favorite Dessert: Anything chocolate…or ice cream and chocolate.

Thanks for joining us on My Overstuffed Bookshelf!! Well thank you so much, Amy! I’ve enjoyed it…now back to the old grind. Write. Write. Write. Signing off, Kathryn Meyer Griffith