Vamps and Scamps Blog Interview with Joss Ware:

V&S:  What kind of stories can we expect from Joss Ware?

Joss Ware: Sexy, fast-paced, gritty ones. With zombies. J

V&S:  I understand it’s a new series. Care to tell us about it?

Joss Ware: My new series is a paranormal romance set in a post-apocalyptic world, about fifty years after the major catastrophic events that destroyed most of the human race and the bulk of its infrastructure.

Unlike the world of Mad Max and his Thunderdome, the world of Envy (which is the largest city in this post-cataclysmic environ) is one of lush overgrowth and Mother Nature flexing her muscles, showing Man that she is, after all, The Boss. Now that man is not there to maintain his buildings, she’s taken over with a vengeance.

There are zombies, some villainous immortal beings who wear crystals and keep the humans repressed, and lots of wild animals on the loose. And, of course, some sexy heroes that appear on the scene to save what’s left of mankind from the immortal Strangers.

Fifty years after the Change, these five men emerge from a mysterious cave to find their world has been destroyed. Nothing is left.

While in the cave, these heroes have each acquired their own paranormal ability, and must learn to live with the blessing—and curse—that it is. In the mean time, they join the fight of the Resistance against those who would repress the human race and find the women meant to be by their sides.

Action and adventure, romance and mystery abound in what I think of as a gritty, edgy world.

V&S:   Where did the idea for this new series come from?

Joss Ware: I’ve read so many thriller novels (Clive Cussler anyone?) and seen tons of movies where the safety of the world is at stake, where the villains are power-hungry people bent on destroying the human race as we know it. In the end, the good guys and gals always get there in time to foil their plans…but what if, one time, they didn’t?

That’s where I got the idea to write a series set in a world in which the bad guys succeeded with their plan…and now the good guys have to not only find a way to survive in this new world, but also to destroy the villains.

V&S:  Do you listen to music while you write?  What kind?

Joss Ware: I do! I listen to a lot of different things, but one of my favorite artists to listen to is Michael W. Smith. I also love Jeff Buckley and the Harry Potter soundtracks. The idea for me is to listen to something I know so well that it can fade into the background.

I also have a little bit of a playlist that I put together for the Envy books because the songs seemed to fit. Some day (heh) I’ll be posting it on my website!

V&S:  I know some authors don’t like to read as much while working on a project.  What about you?

Joss Ware: I do read, but not as much as I would like to. And I rarely read in the same genre that I’m writing in. While I was working on the Envy books, I did a lot of mystery reading and also historical romance. As well as some other comfort reads (ie, re-reads of favorites).

V&S: What sort of projects you have the future?

Joss Ware: I’m messing around with a bunch of ideas for books to continue the series after this initial triple back-to-back. I also have an idea for a young adult novel without paranormal elements. (Wow!)

V&S:  How about some fun questions… name two in your TBR stack.

Joss Ware: Um…*shuffling over to towering TBR*…Kathryn Smith’s latest Nightmare book, and the new J D Robb.

V&S:  What is your favorite color?  If you had to pick a color to suit Joss’s books, what would it be?

Joss Ware: My favorite color is green. All shades of it, because there’s one for any mood or object. My kitchen is lime green. I love avocados and their color. I think a rich velvet green is gorgeous!

A color to suit my books would be a deep forest green because, as I mentioned above, the books are dark and they’re also in an environment that’s overgrown and sprouting everywhere. J

V&S: If you had to pick a song to describe your books, what would it be?

Joss Ware: There’s one line in the Jeff Buckley song “Lover, You Should Have Come Over” that completely describes the series, at least from the heroes’ points of view: “Sometimes a man must awake to find…he has no one.”

This is just exactly what happened to the men in my books. They went into a cave and came out fifty years later, unchanged and unaged, but to find that everything they knew was gone. Completely destroyed.

V&S:  What was the last movie you saw?

Joss Ware: Julie & Julia. Loved it!

V&S:  What is the next book you plan to read?

Joss Ware: **closes eyes, points to TBR**opens eyes** The Mistress of the Art of Death. I love a good historical mystery, and the Middle Ages is my favorite time period.