Let’s get the nagging question out of the way first, just to clear the air. What does the H stand for?
I have no idea. It’s a pen-name. My publicist had a lot to say about my public identity, including my name.
Wow, so you’re like an actor playing a part all the time.
Ha. Yeah, sometimes I feel that way. Luckily, the changes aren’t too radical. They don’t have me running around in face paint and a kilt or anything like that. Not yet, anyway.
Let’s talk about the books. When did you write Sheltered?
That was over ten years ago now. It got published in 2001 by a small press and then was rereleased after I got a contract with the house that I’m at now.
A lot of your stories take place in the Southwest. Do you have much experience there?
You know, I never lived there, but that area has been interesting to me since I was pretty young. Just the desert landscape, the canyons, the wildlife. It’s so different than anything that we have on the east coast. I did spend some time there when I was doing research for the first book. I’ll probably go back to Arizona at some point as the series progresses.
Is there an ending in sight for the Angela Beam books?
Not really. I’d like to say that I’m not going to be writing this series forever, that I’d like to try something new eventually. But does that mean there’s going to be a book that ends it all or will it just sort of slope off? I’m not really sure. I don’t have her death planned or anything like that.
How did you come up with the character of Angela?
It’s weird because a few people I know or grew up with have asked me if she’s based on them. She’s not really based on anyone—not consciously. I think she was kicking around in my head a few years before she showed up on paper. She’s just the perfect voice to tell these stories. For horror, you need a protagonist that you’re going to be scared for but also not someone who’s so scared that she hides in the closet until everything blows over. She has just the right balance of fear and courage.
You write horror, and vampires are really popular now. Do you think you’ll write a vampire book?
I thought about this, actually. If I do a vampire book, it’s going to be something very different. I wouldn’t make the vampires scary like The Strain or sexy like Twilight. They’d probably be incredibly unsensational. Like middle-aged book nerds.
Like you?
Ha, ha, ha. Please. Am I middle-aged? I don’t think so. It wouldn’t make for a good horror novel, though, I suppose.
Let’s talk about Lark Cohen. He’s a unique sidekick. And very popular with the readers. Where did he come from?
Originally, he was just going to be in High, the second book. I saw this famous painting called The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli. I really like myths and the supernatural, so I was determined to do something with The Nightmare. That’s basically how the whole second book came together—I wanted to do something with dreams and sleep. Lark was an essential tool to get the plot moving along, but somehow he really came to life and begged to be in the next book. And now he’s in the book I’m currently writing, Countdown. I think he helped bring in some of the younger audience as well as the female portion of the audience. Lark’s kind of dark in mysterious at times.
Any romance between Lark and Angela in the future?
Well, I don’t want to say no because I feel like half the readers are reading in anticipation of that. But she’s his high school teacher, really. I mean, yeah, he’s older than he pretends to be, and he’s not even really human, but I don’t know, I think it would be weird to bring them together in that way. Don’t get me wrong: I’m always testing the boundaries and skirting the edges of it, but if I release the tension, will people keep reading?
Last Question. What do you look forward to in your career?
I guess experimenting with my range of writing. I haven’t gotten to do that much yet. Also, an international tour would be amazing. We’ll see.
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