Interview with Eppie Award Winning Author Margaret L. Carter

An Eppie award winner, Margaret Carter is the author of Sealed In Blood, Crimson Dreams, The Vampire In Literature, Dark Changeling, Different Blood, and many other dark works, both fiction and nonfiction. Some of her stories have appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover anthologies. She received her MA in University of Hawaii and Ph. D. from the University of California, both in English. Her magazine, The Vampire’s Crypt, enjoyed a long run. When she isn’t creating nightmares, she works part time as a proofreader for the Maryland General Assembly.

Visit her website at www.margaretlcarter.com

BARBARA CUSTER: Margaret, thank you for being the first to join the NTD blog. Could you tell me when you first began writing?

MARGARET L. CARTER: At the age of thirteen. I was inspired by DRACULA, which I read for the first time when I was twelve. The public library didn’t have enough readily available horror fiction for my taste, and I had trouble finding any of the kind I wanted — sympathetic to and from the viewpoint of the “monster.”

BARBARA CUSTER: The Vampire’s Crypt enjoyed a healthy run. Any chance of revisiting the Crypt in the future?

MARGARET L. CARTER: Not a chance — too much work! Fortunately, NIGHT TO DAWN fills the same niche.

BARBARA CUSTER: Where may the readers order back copies?

MARGARET L. CARTER: The top page of my website, www.margaretlcarter.com, has a link for THE VAMPIRE’S CRYPT. It leads to the distributor’s website and also to my own pages listing tables of contents for each issue and summaries of the book review columns.

BARBARA CUSTER: What is your favorite theme as a writer?

MARGARET L. CARTER: The Ugly Duckling — the misfit whose apparent defects turn out to be gifts when he or she finds where he or she truly belongs. My other favorite theme is the allure of the Other, expressed in relationships between human and nonhuman characters.

BARBARA CUSTER: How did you come up with the idea for your particular vampire species?

MARGARET L. CARTER: My husband, Leslie Roy Carter (see his page on my website), wrote a story, “Vanishing Breed,” for my first book, an anthology of vampire fiction. (This story is still available in the SF vampire anthology TOMORROW SUCKS, edited by Greg Cox.) Although extraterrestrial vampires had existed in movies and fiction for a long time, this is the first story I know of to use the premise that the vampires who’ve lived among for thousands of years originated on another world. I was excited by the idea of vampires as a naturally evolved species and began transforming the characters I’d already created into natural rather than supernatural blood-drinkers. As my fictional universe developed,the biology of my species was influenced by other authors such as Suzy McKee Charnas, George R. R. Martin, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Elaine Bergstrom, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (although her Count Saint-Germain is, of course, traditionally supernatural). My website link labeled “Vanishing Breed” lists all the available stories and novels in my vampire universe in internal chronological order.

BARBARA CUSTER: What do you find most difficult about your work-in-progress?

MARGARET L. CARTER: The first-draft writing process. I feel anxiety when facing a blank screen, and I’m a very slow writer compared to what I’d like to be.

BARBARA CUSTER: What do you enjoy most about the creative process?

MARGARET L. CARTER: Outlining. I love conceiving the characters and planning the story in detail. It’s the *execution* that gives me trouble.

BARBARA CUSTER: I notice that you also teach and proofread. How do you budget time for your writing?

MARGARET L. CARTER: I work as a legislative proofreader only two days a week during the nine-month interim and a heavier part-time schedule during the annual 90-day session. I try to get in at least a few hours every week on my days off. I haven’t taught any classes in many years.

BARBARA CUSTER:Tell the readers about your current work in process / latest release.

MARGRET L. CARTER: In May, Ellora’s Cave (www.ellorascave.com — or google Jasmine-Jade for their new website, if the forwarding doesn’t work to bring up the latest books) released a “Quickie,” a short erotic paranormal romance, called “Lion’s Bower.” It’s a Beauty and the Beast type of story, in which a maiden desperate to help her brother get a potion to heal his sick daughter finds forbidden fruit in a catlike sorcerer’s secret garden. I’ve just sold Ellora’s Cave a short ghost romance set at a bed and breakfast in the Blue Ridge Mountains region of Virginia.

BARBARA CUSTER:What advice would you give to a person trying to get their short story / novel published?

MARGARET L. CARTER: The annual WRITER’S MARKET always contains many useful articles on how to get published. WRITER’S DIGEST magazine is a good resource, too. A writer could also look into Internet resources, starting with the website of the professional organization in whatever genre one is interested in, e.g., Romance Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, SFWA. Polish your craft, of course, and seek a good critique group or critique partner to give feedback before submitting a story or novel. Never give up.

BARBARA CUSTER: Where may someone order a copy of your books?

MARGARET L. CARTER: My website has links to purchasing pages for each book listed. To buy directly from my publishers, go to Amber Quill Press (amberquill.com), Hard Shell Word Factory (hardshell.com), Ellora’s Cave
(ellorascave.com), and Cerridwen Press (cerridwenpress.com). Also, I have many books and short stories on Fictionwise (fictionwise.com). Search “Margaret Carter” with no middle initial to bring up all of them, including stories from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s SF anthologies and the e-book version of my Silhouette vampire romance, EMBRACING DARKNESS.

About Barbara Custer

Author of: Twilight Healer Steel Rose Life Raft: Earth City of Brotherly Death Close Liaisons Infinite Sight When Blood Reigns Infinite Sight Publisher / Editor of Night to Dawn Books & Magazine
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