Take Five Interview: Ray Rhamey and THE KITTY-CAT VAMPIRE CHRONICLES, BOOKS 1 & 2

We are delighted to bring you a sneak-peek at the new duology from longtime contributor and creator of hugely popular Flog a Pro segment, Ray Rhamey. Ray is launching not one but two novels this month, a duology from his popular Kitty-Cat Vampire series. What’s the pitch?

“In small-town Bloomsburg Illinois, newbie vampires Patch, a calico tomcat, and Meg, a pinkish human being, are targets for vigilante vampire hunters. Patch and Meg come out of the coffin to run for sheriff so they can stop the vampire killers.”

Ready to hear more? Here’s Ray!

Q1: What are the premises of your books?

RR: I have always struggled with understanding what a premise is, so I guess my answer is, “I dunno.” These novels are about a cat and a young woman who struggle with a curse that is destroying their lives. Or maybe it’s that vampires do not monsters make. Or that people need people?

But the stories are satire, too, a tongue-in-cheek poke at the whole idea of vampires and what they truly are—which is human beings with existence issues. They crave community and belonging—as Meg, half of the vampire duo says, “We don’t stop being people.” (Well, except for Patch the cat.) But their condition makes them deadly for us “breathers.” They want escape from the “otherness” caused by becoming vampires—but there is none.

Q2: What would you like people to know about the stories themselves?

RR: That they are both fun and a worthy read no matter what their customary reading fare is. As one beta reader said,

“Not a vampire fan, not a cat lover, but I was thoroughly entertained.”–Richard Weber

Regarding worthiness, a professor of English literature, editor, and publisher, said this about The Hollywood Unmurders:

“This is a serious story.”

Let me add that they are serious fun in the way only satire can be.

By the way, while The Hollywood Unmurders follows Support Your Local Vampire Kitty-Cat temporally, it is a stand-alone story.

Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?

RR: In the first story, Support Your Local Vampire Kitty-Cat, their challenge is to survive what is, in essence, a fatal disease, and to escape destruction by vigilantes out to kill vampires. They run for election as county sheriff to go after the vigilantes.

In the second, The Hollywood Unmurders, they have to overcome being charged with murder and then, ultimately, catching the murderer. To do that, they have to help a LAPD detective who happens to be a werecoyote. There’s a bit of a romantic element, too, an attraction between Meg (a writer) and the cop. It’s a relationship doomed to be doomed.

Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?

RR: I’m a pantser, so there was the challenge of discovering what was going on in the story and making sure that it was both entertaining and added up to something. It was a joy to just let my imagination go where it wanted to and to discover the true nature of vampirism.

Pantsing does have its trials and tribulations, though—at one point in The Hollywood Unmurders I realized that I was going to be thousands of words short of a novel. The solution was to add a trial scene that turned out, at least for me, to be very interesting and fun, and it brings out some of the themes in the story.

One other thing–perhaps it was a challenge—was to give what could be cartoony characters depth and humanity that touch you in the midst of entertaining you. Did I succeed?

Q5: What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written these books?

RR: The sheer fun of it, and the bite of the observations about the human condition delivered by the feline protagonist, Patch (I really channeled “cat” for that character). Plus exploring the characters in depth, going beyond humor to reveal people who are, despite differences such as being undead, just like us.

I hope folks in the Writer Unboxed clan are curious enough about how well the Flogger walks his talk to look into them.

Congratulations on the new books, Ray! Thank you for this enticing look behind-the-scenes.

WU Community, you can learn more about Ray’s latest novels on his website, or by following him on Facebook or by following the buy-links below. Read on!