Advance Booking

I would like to welcome Chloe Neill, author of the popular Chicagoland Vampire series, starring Merit, a powerful vampire who is initiated into the controversial Cadogan House. Thanks Chloe, for taking the time to answer my questions!


Hazra: Can you tell us about Firespell, the first book in the Dark Elite series?

Chloe: Absolutely! FIRESPELL introduces us to sixteen-year-old Lily Parker, who's thrown into a world of magic and evil that lurks in the secret underground tunnels of Chicago.

Hazra: How did the idea for Firespell come to you?

Chloe: I actually got the idea over lunch one day! I thought it would be interesting to explore a world in which a person's magic is only temporary, which is true for the Dark Elite.

Hazra: That seems like a really unique take! Who is your favorite character among all the books you have written?

Chloe: I really love Merit, since she's my first published heroine, but Scout from my Dark Elite series is also a favorite.

Hazra: How do you incorporate writing in your daily schedule?

Chloe: I have a day job, so I try to follow a daily word-count requirement. More writing on the weekends, less if I'm editing other projects.

Hazra: You are quite a voracious reader. What are the best books you have read in the past year?

Chloe: I'd say I used to be a voracious reader, but I haven't had much time lately. I always read the new J.D. Robb In Death book. I also read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer was outstanding.

Hazra: The Road has been on my wishlist for so long! Which authors have you been inspired by?

Chloe: I love the attention to detail in Stephanie Laurens' Cynster novels, especially Devil's Bride. They're one of my favorite romance series.

Hazra: What is the best thing about being an author?

Chloe: Having a reader tell you that they for the few hours they were reading your novel, they weren't thinking about work or the dishes or the bills.

Hazra: That is truly the best thing an author can hear! Tell us something about your upcoming projects.

Chloe: I'm currently finishing up the edits for TWICE BITTEN, the third book in my Chicagoland Vampires series, and writing HEXBOUND, the second book in my Dark Elite series. I have two additional series in mind, but no time to work on them. :)

Hazra: Finally, if you could organize a dinner with five of your favorite fictional characters, who would they be?

Chloe: Hmmm. How about Claire Fraser, Eve Dallas, Merit, Mallory and Buffy. All strong, brilliant women. :)

Thanks Chloe, for your wonderful replies. You can learn more about Chloe by visiting her website.

When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.
The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster. Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet...

Firespell is the first book in Chloe Neill's Dark Elite series.

I'm really excited to welcome Beth Fantaskey, author of the popular Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, a tale of a young girl who finds that she is betrothed to a vampire. Watch this space tomorrow for a fantastic giveaway. Thanks so much, Beth, for taking the time to answer my questions!


Hazra: Tell us something about yourself.

Beth: Aside from the basic stuff, like I’m a 44-year-old mom who sometimes teaches at Susquehanna University, I:

•  like to do endurance-type sports, like running and biking.
•  have a difficult time writing if there’s no music playing.
• am a terrible cook who can barely make scrambled eggs!

Hazra: Can you tell us about your upcoming book, Jekel Loves Hyde?

Beth: Jekel Loves Hyde is a paranormal romance about two teenagers who gradually discover that they share a mysterious (and possibly deadly) connection to the old novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As Jill and Tristen work against the clock to solve that mystery, they become more attracted – and more dangerous – to one another. It’s a love story with lots of dark twists and turns, and some humor, too, as shy Jill accidentally tastes a chemical formula that unleashes her wild side…
There’s a longer synopsis and preview chapter on my website, bethfantaskey.com. And I’m hosting a Jekel Loves Hyde book trailer contest there through March 15. Anyone who creates a video preview of the novel is eligible for some fun prizes. Or visitors can comment on the trailers that are already posted.  There are some great entries already!

Hazra: Sounds really exciting! What do you love about being an author? Is there anything you don’t like?

Beth: My three favorite things about being an author are:

• using my imagination on a daily basis;
• the freedom to work from home (in pajamas, some days!); and
• interacting with readers (which is the most fun part, actually.)

There’s nothing I don’t like, really… It’s a pretty good job. Much better than my first job selling fried chicken!

Hazra: What advice do you have for writers who are just starting out?

Beth: My biggest advice to new writers is to practice every day. I think a lot of people believe that you either “have talent” or you don’t. But writing is also a skill that you can improve upon, just like playing an instrument. You wouldn’t expect to sit down and play a beautiful song the first time you touched a piano. It’s the same with writing. The more you work at it, the better you get. Along those lines, be open to revising your work. I don’t think many people write perfect first drafts, either. I know I don’t!

Hazra: What is the most difficult part about being published? How do you suggest aspiring writers deal with it?

Beth: The most difficult part about getting published is all of the competition out there. You have to be persistent and have faith in the face of rejection. Don’t give up.

Hazra: Which authors have you been inspired by?

Beth: I am a big fan of the classic authors, like Dickens, Melville, Austen and the Brontes – some of whom are referenced in Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. (And of course Jekel Loves Hyde draws directly from that classic tale.)
My biggest influence is probably Dumas, though. I love his cliffhangers, and Edmond Dantes (The Count of Monte Cristo) is my favorite hero/anti-hero.  I’m in awe of how Dumas created a character who is so intense and imposing and vulnerable, all at the same time.

Hazra: You have been to India researching the Dalit struggle for human rights. What would you say about your Indian experience?

Beth: India is the most beautiful, amazing country, but it’s also a place with pockets of incredible poverty – especially among the population of Dalits (formerly known as “untouchables.”) Because they are traditionally considered “unclean,” Dalit individuals are usually relegated to doing the dirtiest, most humble jobs and may be segregated from broader society in other ways, too.
My research involved documenting how Dalit leaders are trying to use media to expand interest in their fight for equality. It was fascinating and inspiring to be at the heart of a growing civil rights movement and meet the people who are making it happen.
Anyone who’s interested in learning more can go to leadforwardinc.org, an organization dedicated to providing education for young Dalit students.

Hazra: That is really good work. Thanks for sharing it with us. Tell us something about the books you are working on. Will we see more of Jessica and Lucius from Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side?

Beth: I am working on a possible sequel to Jessica’s Guide, but it’s too soon to make a formal announcement. In the meantime, anyone who wants to read more of Jess and Lucius’s  story can check out the “mini sequel” on my website. It’s 23 chapters of new material that I wrote to thank everyone who’s asked to see what’s next for Jess and Lucius. (I won’t give away more here…)
I will give one hint though: If the sequel does become a reality, it will start where the on-line story ends, so readers can expect to see more of the new characters I introduced. (Including Lucius’s closest vampire friend, Raniero Lovatu, who seems to be piquing a lot of interest!)

Hazra: I'm sure a lot of people are waiting eagerly for that one! Finally, if you could organize a dinner with five of your favorite fictional characters, who would they be?

Beth: Edmond Dantes (The Count of Monte Cristo); Pip (the tortured protagonist in Dickens’ Great Expectations); Sirius Black (from Harry Potter); Athos (the mysterious Musketeer); and Mr. Darcy (really, who doesn’t want to meet him??)
Gee – I looked at my list and think I must be drawn to dark, troubled and complex heroes!

Well, I'd say that you'd have a lot of trouble getting any sort of conversation going! Thank you Beth, for your wonderful responses. You can learn more about Beth by visiting her website.

Shy Jill’s father has always insisted that the Jekels are distantly related to THE Dr. Henry Jekyll, whose story inspired the 1886 novel about a scientist who creates an evil alter ego in his lab. In fact, Jill’s dad swore that a box locked away in his home office contains documents that detail Dr. Jekyll’s diabolical research.

And Tristen, a talented young pianist with a decidedly dark edge, has even closer – and worse – connections to the 19th century tale.Because if Tristen’s family legends are to be believed, he is a direct descendant of the monster, “Mr. Hyde,” and doomed to repeat a history of violence if he can’t find a “cure” for the evil that lurks inside of him. When Jill's father is murdered and her college savings disappear, she is tempted to break her parents’ rules and examine the forbidden papers, in hopes of winning a lucrative chemistry scholarship by re-creating the old experiments and determining whether the Jekyll-Hyde story really could have been true.

Can Tristen and Jill control the most frightening aspects of themselves in time to not only win a scholarship but to save their souls? And ensure that the love that’s growing between them won’t lead to their mutual destruction? Read Jekel Loves Hyde to find out!

I'm really excited to welcome author Gary Stelzer, who has just penned his first novel, The Cost of Dreams. It is a powerful story of a young Mayan woman's extraordinary journey of survival, and is sure to touch a chord in every reader's heart. Thanks a lot to Gary for taking the time to answer my questions!

Hazra: Can you tell us something about your debut novel?

Gary: This a tale about a young woman from Central America whose parents were murdered in a civil war, and who, with her siblings, walked and begged rides to California. She trusted that she’d found safe haven for her young family in the remote US southwest, only to discover that all of her life’s greatest challenges, by far, still lie before her.

Hazra: You are a doctor by profession. Why did you decide to switch to writing a novel?

Gary:The physician work was very intense and interesting, for the almost three decades that I practiced medicine. But as the health industry threw up such enormous cost & bureaucratic barriers, denying more and more people care essential to life and health, I felt I must leave. At the same time, a remarkable number of astonishing tales presented themselves in my work that I decided I wanted (and needed) to write about, rather than simply allowing them to accumulate in my brain with no reasonable outlet!!

Hazra: How have your experiences as a doctor shaped you as a writer?

Gary: The work of a health professional, be it nurse, paramedic, or physician, requires one to really, really reach deeply into ones mental and emotional reserves to answer the circumstances of health crises, day after day, for a number of years. Especially in so-called primary “frontline” care, one has to be on ones toes, paying alert attention all the time, and coming to work with the A game everyday.
Which I would say is decent preparation for the serious writer, enabling him to plumb the depths of his brain to flesh out, with real feeling and astuteness, a fine story.

Hazra: That is such a wonderful thought! Well, who is your favorite character from the book?

Gary: By far, Flora. She just will not quit until she obtains what she must have to survive and position herself for the care and mothering of her children (by her own very strange standards!). And she is just absolutely unafraid, of anything!! Very admirable attributes indeed! And though Marguerite was utterly lost and insane in the US, I cared (care) for her greatly.
And poor flawed and intoxicated and cowardly Monte is not all that unlikable either.

Hazra: Your book deals with a young American Indian, and also explores American Indian culture. How did you undertake your research to give the authentic Indian feel to your book?

Gary: Actually, there are two “sets” of indigenous persons in the book:
The first is the Mayan highlanders of Central America, which is where Flora Enriquez was born, and from where she flees with her siblings for her life.
And the second is the “natives” that are the very ancient inhabitants of the Barrancas del Cobre in Chihuahua, Mexico, called the Raramuri, also called the Tarahumara Peoples.
For both peoples, I bought a pile of research books and drew upon the best information I could find. The “Acknowledgements” page at the end of my book explains further.

Hazra: Which authors have you been inspired by?

Gary: Dickens, Faulkner, Dreiser, Steinbeck, Traven, Smiley, McMurtry - to name a few.

Hazra: Stalwarts indeed! Can you share how it feels to be a debut writer?

Gary: Insecure and uncertain, especially starting this late in life. But, for me at least, it is work that feels really important to be doing.

Hazra: Tell us something about the projects you are currently working on.

Gary: I’ve begun reading for the next book which is to be set in New Orleans during the time of Katrina. I have spent some time there already, and I’ll be returning soon to look for the thread of a story.
And, I’m trying to collect some deeper background (than I possess in my brain at the moment) on Detroit, site of the third planned book and home to the epicenter of America’s industrial collapse. There are thousands of tales wanting and waiting to be told there. Writers, heads up!!

Hazra: Finally, if you could organize a dinner with five of your favorite fictional characters, who would they be?

Gary: Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae from LONESOME DOVE, by Larry McMurtry,Ginny Cook Smith and Rose Cook Smith from A THOUSAND ACRES by Jane Smiley, and…Atticus Finch from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee.
THAT would be an interesting evening, would it not!!!

In The Cost of Dreams , Flora, a Mayan teenager, has escaped Talapa, her civil war-torn Central American village where herparents have been slain-and where even being seen in native wear could result in summary execution. Following her dream with nearly superhuman determination, she makes her way to San Diego, and against all odds, becomes a wife, mother and teacher. By hard work and shrewdness, she even obtains legal U.S. status. But her life takes a horrific turn when she's shot by her drug-dealing brother in-law.

Nearly a year later, still gravely wounded and disfigured, a freed Flora arrives at the Lake Michigan home of Kate Bowman, an American aide worker who had previously befriended Flora in Talapa. Kate's nephew had vanished on that mission, leaving Kate devastated and overwhelmed with guilt for permitting him to remain in a civil war ravaged Central America while she returned home.

Now Flora, eager to heal her injuries and desperate to restore what remains of her family, reignites in Kate a fire to learn the fate of her long lost nephew. The two women embark on a harrowing journey that takes them to the ancient caves of northwestern Mexico in the Barrancas del Cobre, an exceedingly vast abyss of canyons, in search of a storied Indian healer. The cost of healing borders on the unendurable.

You can read reviews of this book at
Cheryl's Book Nook
Raging Bibliomania

I'm really happy to welcome author Stephanie Burgis, whose debut novel, A Most Improper Magick, will be releasing in April 2010. Thanks so much, Stephanie, for taking the time to answer these questions!

Hazra: Can you tell us something about your debut novel, A Most Improper Magick?

Stephanie: A Most Improper Magick is set in Jane Austen’s Regency England, with glittering balls, snobby aristocrats, and highwaymen lurking in the darkness.
In this version of Regency England, magic is the greatest scandal of all - but Kat Stephenson, the twelve year-old daughter of a vicar and a witch, is ready to break all the rules of her society to win her older sisters their true loves.

Hazra: How did the idea for A Most Improper Magick come to you?

Stephanie: I was actually in the middle of chopping onions for lunch when the first two lines popped into my head, spoken very clearly in Kat’s voice:

“I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy, and set off to save my family from impending ruin.
“I made it almost to the end of my front garden.”

At the time, I was actually in the middle of writing another novel, one for adults which was MUCH darker and more serious, but those first lines completely hooked me. I just had to write them down for safe-keeping...and then I had to figure out what happened next...and then I ended up writing the whole of Kat’s first novel, having the time of my life with Kat and her sisters! I’ve never had so much pure fun in writing as I have with all three books in this trilogy. (I’m working on the third book right now.)

Hazra: Oh, I love the first line! Kat sounds like a great heroine: spunky and fun. Tell us something about the other characters of the book. Any favorites (excluding Kat)?

Stephanie: I love all three of Kat’s siblings so much. Kat’s brother Charles doesn’t feature much in this first book (although he will later in the trilogy!), but both of her sisters, Elissa and Angeline, are major characters in the book and I LOVED getting to write them. Elissa is very, very proper--except that she has a guilty love of Gothic romance and a secret yen to be a real Gothic heroine; Angeline is smart, sarcastic, and 100% confident in all of her crazy plans...but they don’t always work exactly as planned, to say the least. As Kat’s older sisters, both of them try to keep Kat in line, but Kat is way too strong-willed and smart to let them get away with it!

Hazra: What is the best thing about writing in the historical fantasy genre?

Stephanie: I’ve always been a big history geek - by the time I was eight or nine years old, I was devouring history books about the kings and queens of England and the American revolution. As I grew up, my focus changed (I’m now much less interested in kings and queens and more interested in ordinary people in history), but my love of history has gotten even stronger. Although I’m grateful to have been born in the modern era, I love getting to imagine myself into past eras by reading and writing historical novels. Adding fantasy to the mix is just another layer of fun! Long skirts, balls, highwaymen AND magic - how could I possibly resist? :)

Hazra: How do you incorporate writing in your daily schedule?

Stephanie: With great difficulty! ;) I have a bright & active one-year-old son and no childcare, so I write either while he’s napping or while my husband is looking after him. I don’t get very long writing sessions any more, so I’ve had to learn to be efficient with my writing time.

Hazra: Can you share one great and one not-so-great aspect of being a debut writer?

Stephanie: The best part is the sheer excitement. I can still hardly believe that my books are really going to be published! I’ve been wanting to be a professional writer since I was seven years old, and I’m 32 years old now, so this is literally a lifelong dream come true.

The not-so-great aspect is the set of nerves that comes with it. Will people like it? Will people buy it? All those worries about what people might think could eat my brain if I let them. I have to work really hard nowadays to ignore that anxious part of my mind and just focus on having fun with Book 3 of the trilogy.

Hazra: Which authors have you been inspired by?

Stephanie: Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer are definitely my two strongest inspirations for The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson (I LOVE their Regency romantic comedies!), but some of the other writers who inspired me as I grew up were Elizabeth Peters, JRR Tolkien, and Emma Bull.

Elizabeth Peters writes wonderfully quirky characters, and her Amelia Peabody historical adventures (starting with Crocodile on the Sandbank) are told in a great, fun voice that just sweeps me away.

JRR Tolkien was my first introduction to fantasy, and I can’t even count how many times I’ve re-read The Lord of the Rings.

And Emma Bull writes fabulous historical and contemporary fantasy with great romantic subplots; I read her first book, War for the Oaks, when I was 14, and immediately decided that I wanted to focus on writing fantasy rather than historical romance, which I’d been writing until then.

Hazra: Great to meet another Tolkien fan! You have a degree in historical musicology. What role does music play in your life and your writing?

Stephanie: I love music, both listening to it and playing it myself. I actually thought when I was a teen that I would be a professional musician as my non-writing dayjob, and although I changed my mind while I was in college, making music is still one of the biggest pleasures in my life. Even while writing, I find it much easier to focus when I’m listening to music that fits the characters or story.

As a historical fiction writer, I also found the years I spent studying music history enormously helpful, since I absorbed an awful lot of European history along with the wonderful music. I wrote my Master’s Degree thesis (and researched a PhD dissertation) on late 18th-century opera and society, and all of that research I did in grad school has been really useful for my short stories and novels.

Hazra: Finally, if you could organize a dinner with five of your favorite fictional characters, who would they be?
Stephanie:
• Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet (but probably not Mr Darcy, since he’s shy in company and would just sit there silently looking aloof and distinctly unimpressed, even if he didn’t mean to be unfriendly);
• Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson, my favorite literary couple;
• Georgette Heyer’s Sarah Thane (from The Talisman Ring);
• Catherine Morland from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey

Thanks so much, Stephanie, for your lovely responses. I'm waiting to read about Kat when your book is released. You can find out more about Stephanie Burgis by visiting her website.

A Most Improper Magick introduces the spunky Kat Stephenson. Kat's mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her stepmama is determined to sell Kat's oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off - so what can Kat do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune!

When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers - and Kat is her heir.

A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis is the first in The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson trilogy. It will be published by Atheneum Books on April 20, 2010, and you can already pre-order it from Amazon.com, Borders.com, Chapters.indigo.ca, or any of the international branches of Amazon.

I'm thrilled to welcome Michelle Moran, author of the bestselling novels Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen, and the newly released Cleopatra's Daughter, in my first author interview.



Hazra: All three of your novels are connected to Egypt. How did your interest in ancient Egypt begin?

Michelle: My inspiration to write on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti happened while I was on an archaeological dig in Israel. During my sophomore year in college, I found myself sitting in Anthropology 101, and when the professor mentioned that she was looking for volunteers who would like to join a dig in Israel, I was one of the first students to sign up. When I got to Israel, however, all of my archaeological dreams were dashed (probably because they centered around Indiana Jones). There were no fedora wearing men, no cities carved into rock, and certainly no Ark of the Covenant. I was very disappointed. Not only would a fedora have seemed out of place, but I couldn’t even use the tiny brushes I had packed. Apparently, archaeology is more about digging big ditches with pickaxes rather than dusting off artifacts. And it had never occurred to me until then that in order to get to those artifacts, one had to dig deep into the earth. Volunteering on an archaeological dig was hot, it was sweaty, it was incredibly dirty, and when I look back on the experience through the rose-tinged glasses of time, I think, Wow, was it fantastic! Especially when our team discovered an Egyptian scarab that proved the ancient Israelites had once traded with the Egyptians. Looking at that scarab in the dirt, I began to wonder who had owned it, and what had possessed them to undertake the long journey from their homeland to the fledgling country of Israel.
On my flight back to America I stopped in Berlin, and with a newfound appreciation for Egyptology, I visited the museum where Nefertiti’s limestone bust was being housed. The graceful curve of Nefertiti’s neck, her arched brows, and the faintest hint of a smile were captivating to me. Who was this woman with her self-possessed gaze and stunning features? I wanted to know more about Nefertiti’s story, but when I began the research into her life, it proved incredibly difficult. She’d been a woman who’d inspired powerful emotions when she lived over three thousand years ago, and those who had despised her had attempted to erase her name from history. Yet even in the face of such ancient vengeance, some clues remained.
As a young girl Nefertiti had married a Pharaoh who was determined to erase the gods of Egypt and replace them with a sun-god he called Aten. It seemed that Nefertiti’s family allowed her to marry this impetuous king in the hopes that she would tame his wild ambitions. What happened instead, however, was that Nefertiti joined him in building his own capital of Amarna where they ruled together as god and goddess. But the alluring Nefertiti had a sister who seemed to keep her grounded, and in an image of her found in Amarna, the sister is standing off to one side, her arms down while everyone else is enthusiastically praising the royal couple. From this image, and a wealth of other evidence, I tried to recreate the epic life of an Egyptian queen whose husband was to become known as the Heretic King.
So given how far I’ve come since that day our team first found an Egyptian scarab in the dirt, I would say that my time in Israel has had the biggest impact on my writing. If not for that experience, it may have taken me years to discover that what I wanted to write was historical fiction.

Hazra: Your novels are usually told from the viewpoint of a young girl. Is there a reason behind this?

Michelle: I feel that it’s always easier to relate as a woman to the struggles that women have gone through. Also, given how perceptive women are with emotions, relationships, and details, they also make for much better narrators!

Hazra: How did you undertake your research for Cleopatra’s Daughter?

Michelle: I do a great deal of traveling both for research and for fun, and most of my destinations are archaeological sites. On a trip to Alexandria in Egypt, I was afforded the amazing opportunity of participating in a dive to see the submerged remains of Cleopatra’s ancient city. More than ten thousand artifacts remain completely preserved underwater: sphinxes, amphorae, even the stones of the ancient palace. Although I'm not a fan of diving, it was an incredible experience, and it changed the way I looked at Cleopatra. I immediately wanted to know more about her life, and it was mere coincidence that my next trip took me to Italy, where her ten year-old children were brought to live after her suicide. While in Rome, I was able to retrace her daughter's steps, and upon seeing where her daughter had lived on the Palatine, I knew I had my next novel.

Hazra: You have written about the slavery system in ancient Rome. Can you tell us something about it? How does it affect the lives of Selene and Alexander?

Michelle: Yes, a slave’s life in Rome was a daunting prospect. In the case of Cleopatra Selene and Alexander, their Roman blood ensured much better treatment, and perhaps so too did the status of Egypt in the Roman worldview. But for conquered Barbarian tribes such as the Gauls, the treatment of captives was far more severe. Ironically enough, for Selene and Alexander, who themselves wanted freedom from Rome, their opulent lifestyle in Octavia’s palace was underwritten by the labor of thousands of slaves. Without giving too much away, the theme of slavery plays a bigger role in the novel than I initially intended, perhaps because it looms so large in our modern consciousness.

Hazra: If Cleopatra’s Daughter were to be made into a movie, who would your ideal star cast be?

Michelle: I try not to tempt fate by speculating! But…… Selene is the sort of role that a director would choose a promising young unknown for.
I liked James Purefoy from HBO’s Rome as Marc Antony, though! Catherine Zeta Jones as Cleopatra?

Hazra: Catherine Zeta Jones is indeed a great choice! I understand that you’ve traveled to India as well. Which places have you visited? What is your impression of India and its history?

Michelle: I visited India as a teenager, at the invitation of a close friend. I really got to spend time in a traditional household for several weeks, and got a sense of the rhythms of village life, in addition to the standard tourist destinations. Being able to do that, and have that balance was a tremendous experience, and taught me a traveler’s most important lesson: that I knew nothing, that I had barely scratched the surface, and that to a place as ancient and overwhelming as India, I would have to return many times.

Hazra: You started publishing your stories at a very young age. What was the first story you published?

Michelle: I have a rather hazy recollection, but most of my early childhood stories seem to have been biographies that starred my cats!

Hazra: Tell us something about your next project. When can readers expect it?

Michelle: Yes. I am hard at work on Madame Tussaud, and it will be released in March, 2010. As someone afflicted with almost Jeffersonian levels of francophilia, the chance to write a novel set against the backdrop of the Bourbon court was too much to pass up! Tussaud’s story fascinated me, as much for what she saw and did before the revolution as for her famous death-masks. Something about her brazen self-promotion was charming, as was her tremendous impulse to survive during very dangerous times. And she saw everything and met everyone- from Voltaire to Franklin, from Napoleon to Marie Antoinette. The story of her life is the story of two ages- before and after the fall. I’ve had a fabulous time travelling for, researching and writing this one!

Hazra: That sounds exciting. Lastly, if you could organize a dinner with five of your favorite fictional characters, who would they be?

Michelle: In gratitude to my characters, I would have to invite Cleopatra (who knew a thing or two about fine dining), Nefertari (for her spirit), Selene (for her kind companionship), Marcellus (for his stories), and Nefertiti (who would be insufferable if I left her out!)

Cleopatra's Daughter is Michelle Moran's new historical fiction novel. It's the story of young twins Selene and Alexander, taken in chains to Rome by Antony's rival Octavian, after their parents Marc Antony and Cleopatra choose to die by their own hands. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian’s family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts.