Introducing Author Crystal Bright

My name is Crystal B. Bright. I have 3 books published with New Concepts Publishing, 1 in print and 1 about to go into print at the end of February 2007. My website address is www.CrystalBrightWriter.com I am the author of Revamped, a story about a vampire with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Bio:

A self-professed nerd, Crystal B. Bright has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. After earning her Bachelors of Art degree in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University and her Masters of Art degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, she became serious in pursuing her dream. To know more about this up-and-coming author, please visit her website at www.CrystalBrightWriter.com.

Snippet from Revamped through New Concepts Publishing:

Elaine felt there was something about him that was masterful, something deep-seeded within him that he hadn’t released, or maybe was afraid to release. His authority may have had something to do with the fact that he knew so much about her and her family and hadn’t explained how.

“Don’t you think I’ve been inconvenienced enough?” Mina’s words seemed to have another meaning the way they stared at each other.

Elaine could have sworn she heard a low, rumbling growl. She scanned the room to see if a dog hid in the shadows. To channel her fear, she bit the inside of her bottom lip.

Seth brought himself up to his full height. He lorded over his assistant, still seated. With the venom of a million cobras he said, “Know your place.”

The way he spoke to his assistant sent shivers up Elaine’s back. If this was Seth slightly peeved, she had no interest in seeing him angry.

Mina swallowed hard and with great reluctance from the way she exhaled accommodated his request and moved to the other chair.

When he started pacing once she sat down, Mina folded her arms again. Fear coursed through Elaine’s body making her head feel near explosion. She had to get her thoughts together so she could make a plan to get out.

“You don’t have to explain anything,” Elaine said, keeping her voice low and even. “Besides, I’m sure I have people looking for me right now so I should go soon.”

Since she lived alone in her cramped condo, she knew no one would go look for her. These two didn’t know that. At least she hoped they didn’t. Perhaps her party-animal grandmama or her hermit-like mother would try to find her. Or maybe she could count on her brother who was across the country right now.

Elaine muttered a silent prayer.

“Funny,” he said. “I like the way you think.”

Damn, she was playing this too aloof. Her gaze cut to the door then back at the duo. Maybe she had to play them against one another.

“Look at him.” Mina pointed. “He’s obsessed with cleanliness. He’s afraid of bugs and the small animals.” She folded her arms and huffed. “And spoons? I don’t get that. He has a ritual for everything. Now he’s got this germ-phobia that’s really killing us, and I do mean killing us!”

Mina jumped from her seat and sauntered over to Elaine. Preparing to be grabbed again, Elaine kept her fist at the ready on her lap. Instead Mina pulled up the hem of her shirt and exposed a large bandage on her side. After removing the gauze, she showed Elaine an oozing open wound. It looked like an animal had torn her flesh.

“Can’t really style in a two-piece anymore.”

Elaine felt her stomach churning and her throat closing. “You need help. Have you seen a doctor for this?” Seeing grotesque sores like this prompted Elaine into psychiatry instead of internal medicine.

“Why do you think you’re here?”

“I’m not that type of doctor.” Elaine’s voice quivered. “I could refer you to someone.”

Mina lowered her shirt. “Trust me. If he starts doing what he’s supposed to do and you help him, then I won’t need a surgeon.” She put her hands to her hips. “If he doesn’t feed soon, we’re all going to disintegrate into a pile of mush. But he’s afraid the next person he feeds on will have some germ or something.”

“Hold your tongue, woman.” Once he stopped moving, Seth said to Elaine, “for generations your family has assisted mine in our survival. One would not think that hunters such as our kind would need the assistance of anyone else, especially a mortal.”

Seth and Mina laughed in unison. The sound curled Elaine’s toes.

“As times changed,” Seth began, “your gift is needed again. I have not fed in several months.” Looking pointedly at Elaine, he said, “I need you to help me feed again.”

Clearing her throat first, Elaine tried digesting what he’d said. “What are you people?” she asked again.

“Sanguinarians. Life-force extractors. Human predators.” He adjusted his glasses on his nose.

“Vampires?” Elaine asked, deducing his politically correct statements. Sweat trickled down between her shoulder blades and for a brief moment, her gaze became blurry like she wanted to pass out.

Mina huffed. “Come on. It’s the new millennium. Call us plasma connoisseurs.”

Elaine sat in disbelief. These people claimed to be vampires, blood suckers in this day and age. She wrung her hands this time and tried swallowing down her sandy dry throat.

“You’re obsessive-compulsive and you want me to help you so that you feel comfortable enough to kill again?”

Moving to the edge of her seat, she prepared to leap from it soon and head to the door.

“It is your duty.” His tone made it seem like she couldn’t turn him down.

Seth appeared a little paler than before. A strange but instant pang in her wanted to help him, cure him of what ailed him. It had nothing to do with his sullen look.

She wanted to help him? She couldn’t be feeling this way. However, she couldn’t deny the stirring in her stomach and the guilty feeling that swarmed in her head. The feeling went beyond the empathy she would feel for her patients in need and in pain. It was as though his pain was now her pain. The hell she would feel that way for this cruel stranger.

Elaine shook her head. He and Mina personified evil. She had to worry about getting herself out of the house.

“I can’t do that. I can’t aid a serial killer to kill again. You all need help.”

In a whine that rivaled any child’s, Mina said, “I knew we should have fed from her. What good is she to us? And now she knows our secret.”

“Mina, not another word.” Seth’s voice echoed off the walls but even with his commanding voice he kept his arms folded over his chest.

“Or what?” Mina strolled to the fireplace. “What are you going to do to me?” She stretched her arms across the mantle and smirked.

Seth snorted and charged toward her. If Elaine didn’t know any better, she could have sworn he flew. She didn’t remember hearing footsteps pounding the carpeted floor but the throbbing in her head muted most sounds so she could have been mistaken.

When he reached her, Mina placed her hand flat on the mirror behind her head. The man split his attention between her and the palm print on the glass.

Mina.

Mirror.

Mina.

Mirror.

Then he directed his full attention to the mirror. He grumbled and darted from the room into another. For a big man, he glided. Elaine knew he would have caught her for sure if she tried running away. Didn’t mean she still wouldn’t try.

Mina slipped back to her chair and reclaimed her position. As soon as she took her seat, Seth returned to the room with a bottle of blue liquid cleaner and a roll of paper towels.

“The oils in your hand can ruin this antique glass,” he muttered as he cleaned the mirror. The scent of ammonia wafted over to Elaine as he sprayed the reflective glass.

She suppressed a sneeze, clamping a hand over her nose and mouth. The emission of her germs would probably send the man into a frantic tailspin.

“This came over from Mexico with the family,” he said. “It has managed to get through wars, burnings and customs. I want to make sure it outlasts you.” He sneered at Mina.

“Very funny.” Mina cocked her head.

Mexico. Elaine had been right about his accent. Good info to remember when she talked to the police. Holding her in this house against her will was definitely a crime even if she couldn’t prove his involvement in her father’s death.

As Elaine watched him she noticed something strange, something shocking, something unreal. The reflection only showed the paper towel moving over the mirror but nothing else. Not this Prince of Darkness. Not even Mina. The police wouldn’t understand that.

Mina must have noticed her observation. When Elaine glanced at her, the woman winked.

Elaine forgot about acting cool and found her breath to scream. She sprang from her chair, stumbled to the side, her hands grasping at air. Her otherworldly scream burned her throat and squeezed every bit of air from her lungs. She ran to the door, making it this time without Mina’s intervention.

“Why do they always run?” Mina screamed after her.

Elaine yanked the door open and a rush of wind almost knocked her backward.

“Do not walk out that door!” Seth pointed at her with yellow gloves covering his hands.

This man lived on another plane of insanity. He talked to her like she worked for him. Seeing Mina race toward Elaine like a gazelle gave Elaine the motivation to keep running. If she hadn’t closed the door in time, Mina would have had her.

As Elaine ran down the long driveway, she scanned her surroundings. Woods lined the path. Her car. Thank goodness she decided to park it in the street instead of inside his gated property.

In between the trees, she spied glimmering lights, or maybe they were eyes peeking through the leaves. She took a deep breath and inhaled the salty sea air with a mixture of a rose scent coming from the rose bushes that lined the perimeter of the expansive front yard.

“You can be food for me or something else!” Mina screamed from the open doorway as Elaine kept up her jog down the brick way.

As though the cryptic line cued it, something large sprang from the woods and pounced on top of Elaine, knocking her to the ground and pinning her already sore shoulders to the hard surface.

~Making your day BRIGHT one story at a time!~

www.CrystalBrightWriter.com

Musings Reports Exclusive interview with Crystal Bright:

I love Vampires, and apparently you do too. How did you come to write about the genre and who were some of your influences?

Believe it or not, I really don't read or write a lot of vampire books. Revamped, my vampire novel through New Concepts Publishing, came about after a weekend of watching back-to-back episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Monk." The vampire in my novel has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I thought about that idea and what it would mean to be a vampire and be afraid of germs.

Now I have read Lynsay Sands' vampire novel Single White Vampire and I enjoyed it. And I have every L.A. Banks books in her vampire huntress series but I have yet to read them. My man has and he loves them. Even my niece begged me for her books. So I understand how popular the genre is.

What does your writing process consist of? Do you use the outline method or build chapters as you go or something else entirely?

If I'm writing something short, less than 100 pages, I'm what we call in the writing community a "pantser." That means I write by "the seat of my pants" from beginning to end without notes. Now when I write a novel, I do break out my trusty notebook. The first thing I do is a character profile on my main characters. I talk about their looks, what they do for a living, where they live, if their parents are living or deceased, their internal and external conflicts, everything. I even write down the actor or actresses name who the character most resembles. For example in Revamped, my hero Seth Overkill looks a lot like professional wrestler/actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and the heroine Elaine Shrink looks like Jennifer Lopez.

After that I do a brief chapter-by-chapter outline. I note what should happen in each chapter all the way to the end. This keeps me focused so that I'm not going off on wild storyline tangents.

What is one word that describes you as a writer?

My friends and family would say "prolific." I would say, "consistent."

Tell me about your characters, how do you create them or build them?

As I mentioned earlier, I usually draw from celebrities for my characters' looks. Sometimes the characters will come to me in my dreams like with the Casanova character in Kissing Casanova, also through New Concepts Publishing. Every time I closed my eyes to go to sleep, Casanova, the hero in the book who is a professional wrestler, kept saying, "You're going to write about me, right? I know you are. Come on. What are you waiting for?" At the time, I heard from other industry people that publishers do not like stories with characters who are athletes or actors, so a professional wrestler was a big double whammy. But I couldn't resist writing him so I did. With that character, I knew from the very beginning that he looked like pro-wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. And I knew the heroine would look like Ashanti, a young, beautiful African-American woman who is confident and very sexy---if not a bit spoiled.

Basically the characters come to me either in my dreams or when an idea hits me. Sometimes I'll see someone and feel compelled to write a story about that person.

How has your extensive education helped with your career as a writer?

Getting my Bachelor of Arts degree from Old Dominion University and my Master of Arts degree from Seton Hill University has definitely helped me structure how I write to make me a more efficient writer. I never used to outline my stories before and that prevented me from producing a lot of stories.

I also learned that rejection is not always a bad thing. I didn't submit my work for a long time because I was always afraid of rejection. Just like with a lot of other authors, I have enough rejections to wallpaper my house. To me, they are just tools for me to improve my craft.

And with the program at Seton Hill University, I made many contacts and learned so much about the behind-the-scenes process of publishing. I was a student along side multi-published authors Susan Mallery, Nalo Hopkinson and Suzanne Forster. One of my professors was award-winning and multi-published author Felicia Mason. And I got to meet agent Donald Maas and author Octavia Butler before her untimely death recently. I wouldn't trade my educational experience for anything. It's because of it that I even started submitting my work.

Tell us more about how you came to be an author under the New Concepts Publishing Company?

Before submitting my manuscript to them, I did extensive research. I checked out New Concepts Publishing's website and saw what they had to offer in terms of what stories they published and where readers can buy their books. I really liked the fact that New Concepts Publishing's books are stocked at Walden's and Border's book stores. I was so excited to see Kissing Casnaova on the shelves at my local Walden Books, so much so that I screamed like an idiot when I saw it on the shelf. The booksellers were kind enough to allow me to sign the unsold copies so that was thrilling for me.

So with those factors, I submitted Kissing Casanova. When they made me a contract offer, I submitted Gray's Anatomy, another novel with a professional wrestling backdrop. That got accepted. And when I saw they had a new line called Harmony, I submitted Revamped and that got accepted into that new line. Revamped should be out in print soon.

What would you tell aspiring writers not to do as they attempt to publish their first

Novels or poetry books?

Actually, I have two pieces of advice. First, don't sell yourself short! There are a lot of publishers out there, small and large, who will take advantage of the fact that you are a new author and willing to do just about anything to get your work published. There is one fairly large epublisher that now offers a contract where they want the full rights to your work for the lifetime of your work! For some authors this may not be a big deal to them. However for me, I wouldn't want to give up my "baby" to a publisher for the rest of my life. I work hard to write a story. I want that story to work hard for me. Just because they own the rights to your work does not mean it'll be on sale that way for the rest of your life. The publisher could release it right away, shelve it for several years, then release it again. They could release it after you die. It's their work so they own it. That's what I don't like. So if you're ever offered a contract, read over it carefully. If you have another author friend who has been published, maybe ask that person to read it over. There's a website called EPIC for electronically published authors and publishers that offers a great, short tutorial on the do's and don'ts of a publishing contract. Go to www.epicauthors.com Authors should also check out the National Writers Union at www.NWU.org if they suspect there's a problem with their contract.

My second piece of advice is to keep writing. A lot of authors, including myself, as soon as you type "The End" you sit back and bask in your glory that you finished your book or your last poem. That's great. Celebrate. But after you celebrate and while you're submitting that book, keep writing. I guarantee you that as soon as you publish that book, your publisher or agent will say, "What else do you have?" They want to make sure you're going to be a career author and not just a one-trick pony. So keep up your catalogue. Trust me. It'll pay off in the end.

What’s the hardest thing you had to deal with as an establishing writer in this field?

The promotions! Agh! Some days it's hard to write and promote at the same time. I don't have enough hours in the day to do it all. But this is what I want to do so I'm going to keep chugging along until I'm a household name.

I love how you blended two genres together – the horror with an health crisis of your character in Revamped. What inspired you to do that?

A "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Monk" marathon. I wish I could say it was something deeper than that. I did find, though, that after writing Revamped that I discovered my own obsessive-compulsive behavior. They're not as bad as Seth's but it did help me get into his character.

Are you releasing any new works and where can we find out more about your books?

Revamped will be out in print sometime in March 2007. And right now I'm working on a novella for Parker Publishing called "After the Storm." It's for a proposed anthology surrounding interracial romance. Not sure of that release date yet. And I'm working on the sequel to Revamped that will be centered on Elaine's brother.

For more information on what I'm doing and how to buy my books, go to my website at www.CrystalBrightWriter.com

Thanks Crystal . We appreciate your time and efforts. Continued success as you write and publish more books. We applaud your efforts!

Thanks so much for agreeing to interview me! I truly appreciate this wonderful opportunity!