88. BRITNEY S. LEWIS: Giving Vampire Diaries' Bonnie Bennett a better story

This week's episode of LiteraryHype Podcast is for the Twilight and Vampire Diaries girlies. We're coming up on the 20th anniversary of Twilight hitting shelves, so it's the perfect time for Britney S. Lewis to release her latest book, Blood Moon. Britney rage-wrote this book after seeing Bonnie Bennett not get the storyline she deserved on The Vampire Diaries and deciding black female characters deserve to be main characters.

We're talking all about vampires, werewolves, and West Coast Swing in this week's episode.

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Transcript

00;00;02;29 - 00;00;26;03
Speaker 1
Hi and welcome to Literary Hype. I am Stephanie, your literary hype woman. And today's author Conversation for Literary Hype podcast is Super Fun, especially if you are like me and you grew up with Vampire Diaries and Twilight, the vibe surviving on this book. Brittany Lewis is the author of a couple other books, but her new one is called Blood Moon, and it is definitely for The Twilight and Vampire Diaries girlies.

00;00;26;10 - 00;00;48;23
Speaker 1
I'm so excited to chat with Brittany S Lewis about this book because it is definitely bringing the vibes that we are looking for, especially as Twilight approaches its 20th anniversary. So without any further ado, here's my conversation with Brittany S Lewis Well, welcome to Literary Hype. It's so exciting to have you on to talk about your brand new book, Blood Moon.

00;00;50;15 - 00;00;54;19
Speaker 1
Yeah, I've not seen this book already. Tell us what it's about.

00;00;54;19 - 00;01;21;20
Speaker 2
Yes. So Blood Moon follows our main character, Mira who is from Amy, the town in Kansas City, Kansas. And she is in this town that is known for their legends of werewolves and vampires. But she actually ends up getting mysteriously accepted into a university in this town. And it's on the campus of the university when she realizes that these legends of the town are actually true.

00;01;21;28 - 00;01;33;15
Speaker 2
And she finds herself in a very tumultuous enemies, two lovers romance with one or two of them, and in the middle of an ancient magical war. Because, of course.

00;01;33;19 - 00;01;44;29
Speaker 1
As one does. Yes, definitely some heavy vampire diaries and Twilight vibes. So talk a little bit about crafting a story for the fans of those books.

00;01;45;07 - 00;02;08;03
Speaker 2
Oh, my goodness. Well, this is so OK, this is funny. So I got the idea for Blood Moon, like back in 20, 22. And I was looking up information about like when I kind of started writing the book because I was working on like an article. And I remember I had sent a single email to myself that was like Blood Moon question mark.

00;02;08;10 - 00;02;43;11
Speaker 2
And then it was like werewolf question mark. And then it was just like this random thread that I never really, like answered my questions do. They eventually started writing that winter and I got the idea for it because one, I've always wanted to write vampires and werewolves story, but two, I had just started watching two different TV shows, one of those shows being Siren, which is a like young adult fantasy about this siren that washes up on, I don't know, in Washington on the coast.

00;02;43;20 - 00;03;06;17
Speaker 2
And while on this while on this island or in the city, she's looking for her sister. But anyway, she ends up falling in love with two of the characters on the show. And anyway, I loved it. There was a black female main character who I was obsessed with, but I was upset because she was getting, like, booted out of this romance.

00;03;06;17 - 00;03;34;07
Speaker 2
Race, and I just it just made me really, really, really upset. So then I started watching rewatching The Vampire Diaries. I actually had started it since like maybe, oh, nine or 2010, like right when it first came out. So it's been years, and I didn't remember any of the plot points, but watching the first season alone, I was already pretty pissed off about what was going on with Bonnie Bennett, and I was like, OK, this is it.

00;03;34;10 - 00;03;59;15
Speaker 2
I'm pressing pause on this. I'm writing this story. This is my revenge novel. And so when I thought about like writing anything involving vampires and werewolves and people that would really love that kind of media, I just went back to some original sources. So everything comes from everywhere. But The Vampire Diaries, while I do cop Blood Moon do it a lot, I didn't actually use a lot of it.

00;04;01;11 - 00;04;25;23
Speaker 2
I guess it's juices that make it what it is. I hate using that word juices but I was really super inspired by Van Helsing and the Underworld series. I kind of rewatched all of that, and that was like my core because I love that there was a war between vampires and werewolves in the Underworld series, but it was all very much like literally underground in this very dark kind of sci fi setting.

00;04;26;05 - 00;04;50;26
Speaker 2
And that really drew me in. And then Van Helsing is just such a classic that I love when I was younger, and I love that it's a of movie that's drawn out and there's this female main character who is just super badass, and she was one of my inspirations for my character as well. So that's kind of how I got into the idea of writing for in this genre and how I got super inspired by some of the things that came before me.

00;04;51;05 - 00;04;59;05
Speaker 1
I did notice the Likens and Underworld, because you don't often see people calling the werewolves like in Legends.

00;04;59;05 - 00;04;59;18
Speaker 2
Yes.

00;05;00;16 - 00;05;07;03
Speaker 1
He was the one I was just watching. So low leveling. There's like it and I was like, Oh, that's not common. Yes.

00;05;07;20 - 00;05;32;19
Speaker 2
Yes. I love I love that you noticed that too, because I'm like, how can I, like, feel inspired? And also, like, ready anything in this genre is so hard because there's so much in this genre. So it's like, how am I going to make this feel different? I still like similar and that people who love reading the genre have something to hold on to, but what can I do to make it feel different for me?

00;05;32;28 - 00;05;45;03
Speaker 2
And being able to take a few different things I love from a little bit of everywhere and then, like, adding my own twist on it was so much fun to do. It was definitely like a challenge, but it was a good challenge.

00;05;45;10 - 00;06;09;17
Speaker 1
Since we're talking about the lure, let's dove in deeper on that because you do take pieces of law that are already out there and put your own twist on it. And we've seen that kind of backfire with Twilight, with the sparkly vampires and all that yes. So how did you approach picking what pieces of vampire and werewolf lore that you wanted to use?

00;06;10;00 - 00;06;17;01
Speaker 2
Oh, this is a hard question. Also, I will say I do have on a Twilight Cure, specifically New Moon, because love.

00;06;17;11 - 00;06;22;10
Speaker 1
I was going to wear my twilight, but then opted for Kansas City because of books and Kansas City.

00;06;23;10 - 00;06;48;13
Speaker 2
We are on the same vibe together. Yes. So I picking and choosing like what to use was super hard and to be honest with you, because so much of the first book is like taking a step into the world. I did not have to have everything figured out, like, how do you kill a vampire? I didn't have to have that figured out yet, but I do have it figured out now and I have an answer for it.

00;06;49;07 - 00;07;13;26
Speaker 2
And honestly, like there were some things where I was like, I can't and I won't do that because it's way to like a literary vampire is absolutely Twilight all day. There is no way that I would be able to do that. And also, like, I just couldn't I could never see a world in which anything has a literary sparkly vampire in it ever again, unless it was a fake.

00;07;14;17 - 00;07;36;21
Speaker 2
So it would have to be like a mix between the two. But for me, I really love the idea of vampires being able to walk in the day but without any limitations. Right? So like The Vampire Diaries, you have new readings for Twilight. They can be in a slum with the exception of they or and then you have traditional vampires that generally burn with the day of the sun.

00;07;36;21 - 00;07;58;15
Speaker 2
And while that is so interesting, it would cause a lot of different plot holes for what I would do with the Lord. So I was very strict in using giving myself a little bit more openness because this is my first time really worldbuilding. And I knew that if I set too many liberties up front, it would be so hard because you need to build off of that.

00;07;58;25 - 00;08;21;28
Speaker 2
So I wanted to give myself as much room to play with so I would be less stressed out in the future. So I chose different pieces that I really loved. For example, with the Where Was I love the idea of werewolves being more like shapeshifters and then being like super scary werewolves that you would see in Van Helsing, for example, where it's like an uncontrollable change.

00;08;21;28 - 00;08;41;06
Speaker 2
It's under a full moon always. And when they're in this different shifting, when they're in this different form of themselves, they are set to essentially kill anything and everything gets in the way. So I wanted something a little bit different than that just because I knew that at some point there was going to be a romance in there.

00;08;41;14 - 00;09;02;03
Speaker 2
And how do you create a romance with a werewolf that is completely uncontrollable and out for blood and all moments, all the time, it would be impossible. So yeah, I did a lot of different things that would benefit me and my future self because she needs a lot of love and support. Writing a fantasy series.

00;09;03;08 - 00;09;13;11
Speaker 1
With the lure in this book being so tied to the Kansas City area, did you come across anything in your research that did include werewolf or vampire lore for the area?

00;09;13;24 - 00;09;41;11
Speaker 2
Oh man. I was hoping and I was looking and I was searching and no I did not. But I did find out a lot of other information that was cool. So like the Kansas area in general, the Plains were known to have Timberwolves and that kind of got me started on like naming town, naming the university and coming up with a mascot just because I had no idea that there were a very specific type of wolves in the Kansas area.

00;09;41;20 - 00;10;03;27
Speaker 2
So that was like, yes, I can really use this little bit in like start to build off of it and kind of use like where it was like they were kind of at and it really was sporadic. Obviously, there were less wolves in the metropolitan area, but also like Kansas City, Kansas used to be all forest at one point.

00;10;03;27 - 00;10;29;24
Speaker 2
And the reason why most of it is not forest anymore is because summer farmers settled here. We used crops and we started building a city in competition with Kansas City, Missouri. What a fun story that is. And so we ended up having way left for a few things and way more city things. And so I really wanted to bring it back to kind of like where I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas.

00;10;30;03 - 00;10;52;04
Speaker 2
It was an interesting mix of like a little bit of city. But then the further you go out, it's just like literally country trees, flat land. And so how could I take this small area and kind of expand it to what it could have been a little bit. And if we still had werewolves in that area, well, wolves, I should say, not werewolves in the area.

00;10;52;04 - 00;11;11;01
Speaker 2
So that was really fun to kind of track off of. And then I do a lot of research on kind of how Kansas City, Missouri got started and a lot of the French fur trappers that were actually in Saint Louis, which isn't too far from Kansas City, they when they migrated here, a lot of them did that migration via water.

00;11;11;10 - 00;11;33;10
Speaker 2
And so a lot of the city kind of started setting up on the river side, which is where our river market is today. And Kansas City, Missouri. And I did a spin on that part of the history in Kansas City where, yes, they were definitely settling there in that area. But there were other things that were also settling in that area.

00;11;33;11 - 00;11;36;29
Speaker 2
Two scarier things with sharper teeth.

00;11;38;01 - 00;11;44;00
Speaker 1
That's a bummer because I was really hoping that there was some real vampire werewolf story for Kansas City. I was like, Oh, this could be.

00;11;44;00 - 00;12;07;21
Speaker 2
Really so sad. No, but there was actually in Kansas City, Kansas, kind of, by the way, meant county league, which is where I'm from. There is actually a law that there's like a dark cult in that area that can only really be found under certain circumstances. Like obviously at night in the middle of the night. And probably by a cornfield.

00;12;07;29 - 00;12;15;17
Speaker 2
So I not seen it. I don't want to see it, but I've heard that like there is a scary quote that exists in that part of the area.

00;12;15;17 - 00;12;20;18
Speaker 1
So I hadn't heard that one. Are you going to do anything with the tunnels under Kansas City?

00;12;21;15 - 00;12;28;27
Speaker 2
God, I forgot about the tunnels under Kansas City. I don't know. Should I? I mean, it.

00;12;29;08 - 00;12;30;25
Speaker 1
Are good, spooky places.

00;12;31;23 - 00;12;35;25
Speaker 2
That could be a spot where werewolves definitely are vampires, too. For sure.

00;12;36;01 - 00;12;39;00
Speaker 1
I'll be looking for that book to be like, oh, yeah, there we go.

00;12;39;14 - 00;12;40;20
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah.

00;12;41;01 - 00;12;47;22
Speaker 1
Do you have any favorite Easter eggs from other vampire werewolf books or movies that you worked into this book?

00;12;47;27 - 00;13;13;09
Speaker 2
Yes. So from Underworld specifically, I did kind of use the like is just because I love that terminology lycanthropy and like where it kind of comes from, especially in history. So I use that. I also use there's one specific, but in the book where I do say like hop on in reference to like Hop On Spider Monkey from the Twilight Saga.

00;13;13;18 - 00;13;31;16
Speaker 2
Thank you for understanding but I don't use Spider Monkey because that's obviously Super Twilight. But it was just the perfect moment in which the characters need to get away really fast. And I just saw an opportunity and I took it and I love it so much. So there was that. And then let's see, what else would I say?

00;13;31;17 - 00;13;59;01
Speaker 2
I have use and or borrowed like a little Easter eggs those are the two biggest ones I'm trying to think. Obviously, I reference Van Helsing for sure in the story. And while again, like, I don't I don't think I actually end up using much Vampire Diaries lore, but I am rewatching the season, the series right now. And I will say that man, that season is crazy.

00;13;59;23 - 00;14;22;07
Speaker 2
I'm on season five right now. Everything's chaotic, but I will say that like there are some bits and pieces of like, at least like the idea of having witches and having other kind of like thing in the world. Like, I could say that those things are similar for Blood Moon and then for The Vampire Diaries. And then lastly, similarly to True Blood.

00;14;22;07 - 00;14;40;19
Speaker 2
True Blood also features so many other miserable creatures. And so that's kind of what I'm starting to build on in the world of Blood, because I love the idea that there's not just vampires and werewolves, but there are also like witches that exist. Maybe some other things that you might find in book, too.

00;14;41;03 - 00;14;51;26
Speaker 1
Who do you think would win in a fight? The Werewolves of Vampire Diaries or The Werewolves of Twilight and the Vampires of Twilight versus the Vampires of Vampire Diaries?

00;14;52;10 - 00;15;14;00
Speaker 2
Oh, my God. OK, so there is a creator. I think that name is Corina, and she is a huge Jacob fan, and she knows all of this lore about the Twilight saga, and she has answered the vampires versus vampires question. And I found her answer very interesting to the point where I was like, Yeah, that actually makes sense.

00;15;14;10 - 00;15;40;13
Speaker 2
And so she chooses the Twilight Vampires to win only because Stephanie Meyer essentially makes them indestructible. Like they are impossible to kill. They are literally like made of stone. And when it comes to The Vampire Diaries, vampires, I mean, really, it just is like they could be taken out by a wolf bite easily, and then they could also just be taken out.

00;15;40;13 - 00;16;08;22
Speaker 2
I think it's just like straight things to the heart. I think wooden stakes to the heart and that's it. Like they could easily go. So the vampires from the Twilight saga they definitely win as far as like the wolves go. Like, I think honestly, the wolves might have a leg up here, too. In the Twilight Saga, just because they are way bigger than the Wolves and The Vampire Diaries and they seem more dense.

00;16;09;00 - 00;16;28;19
Speaker 2
What I will say from everything I've watched so far, like the rewatching The Vampire Diaries, the wolves really don't get that much love in The Vampire Diaries. Like there is a mystery kind of leading up to them and then we discover what Tyler is. And then that's kind of hate and it kind of sucks. Like, that's yeah, that's it.

00;16;28;19 - 00;16;48;00
Speaker 2
It's a class comes in with this intense ness, like wolves, but like that's all that we really get as of so far. Five seasons and which is a lot to like kind of drop off on this floor. That could have been something really big and really epic. So yeah, I'm going to say to my like kind of wins in this round.

00;16;49;00 - 00;17;04;27
Speaker 1
I feel like you also have a nod to Twilight on your cover, which your cover is absolutely beautiful, but you have a pomegranate and there's a pomegranate on the cover of Midnight Sun. A Twilight from Edward's perspective. So talk a little bit about the cover creation process for this book.

00;17;05;19 - 00;17;34;29
Speaker 2
Oh, my goodness. The cover creation was pure chaos. And so coming onto the page routine, it was very new for me because I'd only been in a different publishing house before this, and I was nervous because prior to this, my other two books, I really got to be pretty involved in the cover and the design process and the choosing of the illustrator so when we got to page three, I was nervous about this, but they were like, Yeah, we really want to keep you involved as hard as possible.

00;17;34;29 - 00;18;02;29
Speaker 2
And they truly, truly did. Like even to the point that the graphic designers pitched me a proposal of what they wanted the original cover of Blood Thing to look like. Now, the original cover, The Pitch to me, which was beautiful it had a person on the cover and I strategically was like, I really don't want a person on the cover, and I really want a cover that is more thematic, just because I feel like this story where I wanted to go, I would love to lean on a theme.

00;18;03;15 - 00;18;31;08
Speaker 2
And with this being my first time ever really diving into paranormal, really diving into the fantasy romantic realm, I wanted it to be distinguished from my other two books, which are both people on covers so I wanted to let my readers know that like, Hey is doing something different, let's move away from a face. And also I really wanted something that leaned into the romance aspect, and I feel like it just looks so beautiful.

00;18;31;11 - 00;18;57;29
Speaker 2
It's just like very romantic. Obviously, it's kind of creepy in theory, but like, it's a pretty kind of eerie that makes you curious to know what's underneath. So originally there was a person on the cover which again, love that but didn't love it for what I wanted to see Blood Moon to be in the future. So I sent them over some cover concepts that were similar to books that were selling well in my genre.

00;18;57;29 - 00;19;24;08
Speaker 2
So that was like anything being like fantasy romance and then anything really like including vampires, there wasn't there's not a whole lot of werewolf romances that are traditionally published. So I really wanted something with a black background. I really wanted the theme, and I was obsessed by the idea of pomegranate. Yes, I have Midnight Sun sitting on my bookshelf over yonder, and I honestly enjoyed Midnight Sun.

00;19;24;16 - 00;19;48;21
Speaker 2
Edward is depressing, but it was a fun read and I love the idea of having this like fruit because pomegranate is a forbidden fruit. And I felt like there because there is a forbidden romance takes place and blood moon, it would be so perfect to be able to incorporate that. And so when I pitched that idea to the head publisher, they were like, Oh my God, I don't know if we can do that.

00;19;48;21 - 00;20;11;22
Speaker 2
That's too similar to Twilight. Like, I don't know if that's going to be a thing that people go for. And I'm like, Please, please, please, just take a chance on this. OK, let's just see what we can do. And so the designers were like, OK, cool, we'll try to work with you on this. They pitched me a different idea that was pretty close to what the main cover is today, and it featured a pomegranate but it also featured a person as well.

00;20;12;04 - 00;20;41;14
Speaker 2
So it had like these really pretty flowers at first, if you can imagine, like the flowers were here, but then there was kind of like a person kind of coming in through the side here. And there was like a pomegranate kind of existing in the corner here. And I like the concept that they came up with and then when they sent it over to the illustrator, what we got back was a little bit confusing because as I looked at it more, I realized why would there be a pomegranate covering a person's face?

00;20;41;20 - 00;21;01;27
Speaker 2
Like in what world would a pomegranate be that large to cover a person's face and how can we actually make this work? And so we did a lot of noodling back and forth. And there was one point where I just was like, you see the design? Can you just send me that image? And I dropped it into Canva and I took everything apart and I put everything back together again.

00;21;02;04 - 00;21;25;06
Speaker 2
And we got essentially what we see now for the final cover of Blood Moon. It was the worst version of it. Clearly, and then they sent that over to the illustrator, and she made it this version here, which I am obsessed with. So that's how we got the cover of Blood Moon. I'm definitely a little bit inspired by Twilight because I wanted to be like, Yeah, this is going to be a paranormal book for sure.

00;21;25;24 - 00;21;27;29
Speaker 2
But also it's going to be a little romantic, too.

00;21;28;02 - 00;21;40;24
Speaker 1
It is kind of perfect timing to have a book come out that is kind of hinting at Twilight with its cover since Twilight is the 20th anniversary this year, which how how is 20 years old? I don't understand.

00;21;41;02 - 00;21;42;07
Speaker 2
It's crazy. It's crazy.

00;21;42;07 - 00;21;58;21
Speaker 1
Awesomely baffling. But what? So Twilight kind of made a major impact on society in publishing. If your book was to reach the levels of Twilight, which it's good, you should all read it, what would you want? The series to be remembered for?

00;21;58;29 - 00;22;26;18
Speaker 2
First off, I can't even dream that big, so that's a great question. I would want the series to be remembered for. I would really want it to be remembered for the main character in this book. Mira, I feel like, you know, we all love we all. There's a piece of twilight that we all love while we love to hate the story it really is resonant to us because it really speaks to the teenage experience and the idea of, like, really falling in love with something that's unattainable.

00;22;26;26 - 00;22;50;00
Speaker 2
Like a vampire, for example. And I know a lot of the reason people really were drawn to Isabella Swan was really because of her romance with this vampire. But I want people to remember Blood Moon, and I want them to remember our main character, Mira, because she really is super witty. She's super snarky. And she was so fun to write.

00;22;50;00 - 00;23;14;02
Speaker 2
And I love that she really kind of like deals with this kind of hidden, quiet anger where she's frustrated that her mom has left her and she didn't have answers for that. She's also just angry and she doesn't really know how to where to put her anger until her father puts her into therapy and she starts running that she hates running, but like it's something that kind of helps her over time.

00;23;14;02 - 00;23;24;10
Speaker 2
And so I really want people to remember the main character in this story more than the remember, you know, the lure in more than they remember the werewolves in the vampires hybrids.

00;23;25;03 - 00;23;40;22
Speaker 1
And you've talked about this a lot on social media of the lack of female black characters, leading books in the paranormal romance space. And you've talked at length about this on social media. So tell us a little bit on how important that is to have more books with these characters.

00;23;41;07 - 00;24;07;00
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's just it's so important. Honestly, I have done so much research on the I'm trying to find more representation of black girls in fantasy. And while we do have a bit more representation of black girls in sci fi, there really is a big lack when it comes to the paranormal space. It's almost like nonexistent. And it's scary to think because black readers are reading everything.

00;24;07;00 - 00;24;33;06
Speaker 2
You know, we're not just reading contemporary novels that touch on real subjects. We're reading literally anything or all the subsets of fantasy that that it can come in, you know? And so when it came to writing Blood Moon, one of my passions, one of my reasons was to be able to give my younger self an outlet in a book and a film that she could obsess over.

00;24;33;17 - 00;24;52;01
Speaker 2
And I know that there are other readers that are looking for that, and they want representation in this space where, yeah, a black girl can fall in love with a vampire and a werewolf and it can all work out and be totally OK and not taboo. And so that's one of the reasons why I really wanted to write a story that was like this.

00;24;52;01 - 00;25;16;29
Speaker 2
And for me personally, being a Twilight fan growing up, it was like the book that got me back into reading. And the reason why I wanted to tell my own story that could be existing in the same realm of Twilight was because I could never connect with Bella. I know a lot Will couldn't connect with Bella just because her personality was a bit different.

00;25;17;23 - 00;25;47;06
Speaker 2
However, I could not connect with her on the level of just being diverse, right? There wasn't really any diverse characters other than Jacob Black in that story that was represented, and even then it wasn't really represented represented in a way that was not not harmful especially to the native people in that area and the way that their lives have been kind of like over over worth all of their stories have been kind of overworked and overwashed due to the Twilight saga.

00;25;47;06 - 00;26;05;09
Speaker 2
And so anyway, I always want to be open to that. I really wanted there to be an entire cast of diverse people, and I really wanted people that look like me and the people that want to see themselves and stories that are similar to me to find a place in blood.

00;26;05;29 - 00;26;21;08
Speaker 1
In one of your posts about this, I believe, if I saw this correctly, got liked by Kate Grimm, who plays Bonnie on The Vampire. What is it like for you to have that moment of like this, the person who played this character that helped inspire the book, like in a comment about the book.

00;26;21;20 - 00;26;40;29
Speaker 2
OK, hey, this is crazy. So this is what happened. So I actually I love Kate Grant, and a year ago I was posting, I don't remember what it was, but she had posted something. I liked it and I share her information. I shared her post to my story because I was super geeked about it. And then she liked my story.

00;26;40;29 - 00;27;01;23
Speaker 2
So that's how I have her like liking that. It wasn't actually the blood movie, however. Caveat she does know about Blood Moon. And so what happened was there's an incredible book, Survivor. Her name is Zine, and she just so happened to be in the exact same event as Cat Grab. I'm not kidding you. She goes up to her table and she's a cat.

00;27;01;23 - 00;27;23;04
Speaker 2
Like, there's this book coming out called Blood Moon. It's written by this outstanding Brit being. I think she would love to get a video from you and together they record a freaking video and there's this cat and she's like, Hi, Britney. And I'm like, Oh, my God. They sent it to me on my actual birthday. And cat essentially says, like Britney, like, I've heard about Blood Moon.

00;27;23;04 - 00;27;39;23
Speaker 2
I've heard about, like, your love for Bonnie and like, your wish that she had better happen to her. I love what you're doing in the space and I just want to wish you so much success and so much happiness, like we're rooting for you. And I just melted. It's like one of my favorite videos ever. It's gonna be on my phone for forever.

00;27;40;04 - 00;28;02;17
Speaker 2
And if I could share it to, like, my actual rules, I would. But I don't want to be disrespectful. There was one time when I was able to kind of share it to my actual stories, and geek out with a lot of other people that they were able to see it. But like, the fact that she knows about it and that, like, her character was one of the reasons to motivate me to write Blood Moon was just completely unreal.

00;28;02;26 - 00;28;11;01
Speaker 2
I still can't. I still can't believe it. I think I cried. My husband was like, What's wrong with you? It was great, great moment.

00;28;11;05 - 00;28;12;21
Speaker 1
The encounters are always so much fun.

00;28;13;24 - 00;28;16;00
Speaker 2
Yes. Oh, my God. Yes.

00;28;16;17 - 00;28;29;28
Speaker 1
So one thing I liked about this book that was very fun is the little letters from Anon at that start, each chapter, did you write out like a full letter or did you just write the sentences to fit the theme of the chapter?

00;28;30;13 - 00;28;51;10
Speaker 2
This is a great question. I love that. Yes. So at the beginning of each chapter, we get a little piece of a nugget from a Don who is one of the original. There was in my fantasy and my law, and I did not actually tie it thematically to each chapter. It was just as I was writing about me.

00;28;51;19 - 00;29;15;05
Speaker 2
I thought it would be so cool to kind of like tie in another piece of history so it feels more rounded and more real in the story. And so I just started writing random lines that felt like it could create a story about a Don writing to his brother. And so I just started writing random pieces out. And then as we progress, I would start to like plug it in at random chapters.

00;29;15;19 - 00;29;41;25
Speaker 2
Some chapters, it lines up perfectly, and it just so happened to work out that way. But as the book was like kind of going through copyediting, it was being completely finished. I had to figure out how I was going to find different pieces for all the rest of the chapters. And it was generally just like me, like just going off on a riff with things that I thought like Adam would write to his brother and or about his time.

00;29;42;25 - 00;30;04;23
Speaker 2
As this were progress between the vampires and the world of the story, so I loved every second of it in my heart. There is a letter and multiple articles written, and I feel like that we might venture more into that into book two because I would love to have a full letter written out in the second book, but we'll see what happens.

00;30;05;02 - 00;30;07;22
Speaker 1
What can you tell us about Book two at this point?

00;30;08;04 - 00;30;37;26
Speaker 2
I can tell you that Book two has a lot more chaos. I can tell you that we had to continue to follow Miro on this journey, and without any spoilers, we can I can tell you that Mira is struggling with the idea of monstrosity and what does it mean to be good and or evil in this realm of vampires and werewolves and life and death so yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun.

00;30;37;26 - 00;30;46;24
Speaker 2
There might be, you know, a lot of lustful moments and lots of reasons and needs for blood in the second book.

00;30;47;12 - 00;31;04;00
Speaker 1
You are in Kansas City, as we have already discussed our Kansas City connections, but you are also part of the great group of writers that are in the Kansas City area and meet up and encourage each other. So what has that group of people been like for you in your writing career?

00;31;04;06 - 00;31;32;14
Speaker 2
Oh, they've just been lovely. I love every single one of them. I was just thinking about them today, and I think it's just incredible to have a group of people that are doing the same thing that you're doing, because writing a book can be so lonely. There are so many, few people that actually want to write a book and make it a career, and then doing the work of that actual thing.

00;31;33;01 - 00;31;55;26
Speaker 2
It turns out to be just sitting at a desk staring at a screen for hours on end, which is not that fun. Like we can kind of glorify the idea of being an author and being a writer and like waxing on poetically, maybe in a coffee shop on a rainy day. But the real lipstick point of that is like, we don't get paid very much and it takes a long time to do what we do.

00;31;55;26 - 00;32;16;15
Speaker 2
And a lot of us have full time jobs outside of being authors. And so being able to connect with a group of authors in the same area as me has been so lovely. Just because I get to hear about their experiences in traditional publishing, their experiences in publishing, I get to all who just hear about their experience in general whenever they go out and meet other authors.

00;32;16;15 - 00;32;20;10
Speaker 2
It's just so fun. It's great. It it's like a little blessing.

00;32;20;28 - 00;32;31;19
Speaker 1
Another thing you've been talking about on social media a lot lately is dancing. So talk a little bit about how you got into West Coast Swing and how it's helped you in your creativity as a writer.

00;32;32;02 - 00;32;59;17
Speaker 2
Oh my goodness. I love this question because I am obsessed with West Coast Swing, and if you follow me anywhere, you will probably start seeing more and more videos of me performing a dance called Let's Go Swing. So I got into West Coast because I had a friend that was a teacher, so my last year of college she essentially was like, Britney, you have to come to one of the studios and I'm like, Girl, what are you talking about?

00;32;59;17 - 00;33;26;04
Speaker 2
That sounds terrible. I am definitely not going to do that. But she convinced me I'm easy to convince. So I went down to a dance studio in Kansas City and I attended. It actually was originally East Coast Swing that I learned how to dance first. East Coast Swing and West Coast Swing are different in that. East Coast is more bouncy and it comes from kind of a in world.

00;33;26;04 - 00;33;56;02
Speaker 2
So if you ever see people dancing in the 1920s and they're like bouncing all around that's similar to East Coast Swing and or Lindy Hop and then West Coast Swing is way more new and it's dance to your top 50 Billboard music. So it's super contemporary, it's dance on a floor and all of it is improv, which is what makes it so fun because every time that you dance even with the same person, it's always going to be different every single time.

00;33;56;02 - 00;34;14;16
Speaker 2
And you can even dance to the same song and still have a completely different dance every single time. And so I love the chaos of it. It's just so much fun. Yeah, and essentially once I learned East Coast Swing, she was like, OK, now take a waltz. With Swing class. And I'm like, my friend is literally she's crazy.

00;34;14;16 - 00;34;34;10
Speaker 2
Like, I don't understand why she's invited me to these dance classes. So I'm doing the West Coast swing class and I was immediately hooked. I left East Coast swing behind. Who is she? We don't know her. I never went back. And so since then, I've been dancing with the swing probably for the greater half of this last decade.

00;34;34;18 - 00;35;03;11
Speaker 2
And it wasn't until recently when I started kind of getting serious about competing I've always kind of started competing once I started learning the dance, but I got serious about competing once I started to become a teacher in the local area. So I wanted to learn more about the dance. And in order to learn more about the dance and to teach you dance, you kind of have to like be decent at the dance and so yeah, that's kind of how I got into school swing.

00;35;03;11 - 00;35;25;27
Speaker 2
It kind of played into my creativity just because it gives me a chance to break away from being in my head. We talked about being out there and how it can be really sometimes. And while it's great to have that opportunity, another thing that comes with being an author is you're sitting in your being in one spot for long periods of time, which can be harmful on your body.

00;35;26;05 - 00;35;45;28
Speaker 2
And so West Coast Swing is the opposite of that in that I'm dancing and sweating in a ridiculous amount for hours on end, and I'm still able to be creative by kind of creating a story with each dance and with each song and with random people that I may or may not know. So it's been great for me.

00;35;45;28 - 00;35;55;15
Speaker 2
And my very first book that came out featured a bunch of West Coast swing and a lot of little cute Easter eggs and the Kansas City West Coast swing community.

00;35;55;28 - 00;35;57;17
Speaker 1
Is there anything else you want to talk about?

00;35;58;11 - 00;36;26;00
Speaker 2
I don't oh, yes, I will, actually. I just say no, I don't have anything. But like literally today I was just able to talk about like the new addition of like rain which I'm so obsessed with. Essentially, if anyone that is listening have an Outbreak subscription, this is a exclusive group subscription of women, which to me is wild because I could never dream of having a special edition of anything.

00;36;26;09 - 00;36;50;20
Speaker 2
But working with the team has been phenomenal. There have been so many different artists that went to play, just like creating the cover, the reverse jacket, the case, rapping, the character art in this book is just phenomenal, and I'm obsessed with it. So that is something that I'm so excited about. It's just hard to think that like I have two covers in the same book that I love.

00;36;50;20 - 00;36;53;03
Speaker 2
Equally Wild. Yeah.

00;36;53;23 - 00;36;55;22
Speaker 1
And you got your person on the cover for that one.

00;36;56;25 - 00;37;15;18
Speaker 2
I know, and it's like I got, you know, honestly, this works out because because this is not the original edition and they really wanted to put a version on the cover. I was like, You know what? Like, go for it. Let me see what you have. I'm curious. And then what they had was this. I was like, OK, yeah, let's go with the person on the cover.

00;37;15;19 - 00;37;16;29
Speaker 2
I love it. Great idea.

00;37;17;22 - 00;37;22;05
Speaker 1
The last question we always ask is this is literary hype. What books are you hyped about right now?

00;37;23;20 - 00;37;48;09
Speaker 2
I'm hype about so many books. I'm hype about the next book in the Immortal Dark Series by Titus Girma. Sorry if I butchered your name. I'm also hype about Nicole's next book, which is in our in our cane inheritance. It might seem right. It's crazy. I just keep seeing that, like the actual book cover in mind. And the cover sold me alone.

00;37;48;09 - 00;38;09;18
Speaker 2
Like, I don't even know what it's about. I just know that I want to read it immediately. And right now, I'm so excited about that book. And I'm also excited about this is super random, but I haven't read it yet, and it's been out for a while, but I'm really excited about everything. And tuberculosis, I'm creating this because I love this nonfiction work.

00;38;09;18 - 00;38;24;20
Speaker 2
It's so fun. So we're going to Himmler's brother, Hank, have an incredible podcast, and they just go on about the most random things that I've ever heard of in my entire life, and I love it every single time. So those are the things that I'm really excited about.

00;38;25;01 - 00;38;28;10
Speaker 1
Well, thanks so much for hanging out with literary House to talk about your brand new.

00;38;28;10 - 00;38;32;05
Speaker 2
Book, Blood Moon. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

00;38;35;11 - 00;38;49;06
Speaker 1
Thanks again to Brittany for hanging out with me and talking all about her brand new book, Blood Moon, and the love that we share for vampires and werewolves stories. If you'd like to check out Blood Moon for yourself, the links to do so are down in the description for you, as well as Where to find Britney on social media.

00;38;49;11 - 00;38;59;24
Speaker 1
If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the Literary Heist Podcast Give us some stars. Leave a comment and share it with your friends. Thanks so much for listening to the Literary Hype podcast.