Interview with Lisa Shafer, author of CONFESSIONS OF AN AVERAGE HALF-VAMPIRE

Welcome, Lisa Shafer, to the blog. She is the author of Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire.

Lisa, how long did it take you from idea to publishing your novel?

The basic idea of Eric, the half-vampire who can't handle sunlight, began as a joke one day in a ninth grade class with a boy who had an odd sunburn due to a golf glove he'd been wearing.  During an explanation on reflexive pronouns, I made a joke about the boy not being able to see himself in a mirror because he might be a vampire.  The class laughed hard, and the idea for the book came right there and then.  That was early October of 2003, and I finally self-published the book (after many, many edits) in August of 2011.

That's such a cool way to create a novel idea. Are you a plotter or pantser?

I am most definitely a plotter, but I change things as I go, and sometimes the plot gets switched around a great deal by the time I get to the end.

I think it's great to plot but be open to change too. What are you writing now or have forthcoming?

A sequel to Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire is ready for a final revision and should be ready (I hope) by summer.  I also have a completely different book called Becoming Brigid (based on Celtic mythology) which is just back from my editor and is ready for my final version to be finished and sent out for copy editing.

I'm also working on a rough draft of a novella about a girl who accidentally turns herself invisible.  It's called The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay.

(For more info about any of these, you can visit my blog at lisashafer.blogspot.com.)

I'm looking forward to reading more from you. I always find it interesting to learn what other authors are reading. If you could recommend a book—not your own—what book would that be?

I'm an English teacher, so I love the classics.  I'm a Shakespeare freak, and I love Poe, Twain, Washington Irving, Conan Doyle, and many more.  Naturally, I love Bram Stoker's Dracula.

My 20th Century favorites are Tolkien's works and Rowling's.  Of really current YA fiction, I loved Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavor (a prequel to Shelley's Frankenstein), and I'm nuts about Alan Bradley's Flavia DeLuce series.  My favorite contemporary books for adults include Ian Rankin's John Rebus series (Tartan Noir!! Yea!) and Steve Hockensmith's Holmes On The Range series (very funny stuff).

Wow! Lots of books to recommend there. *grins* I wish you the best on your future endeavors. 

CONFESSIONS OF AN AVERAGE HALF-VAMPIRE by Lisa Shafer

Title: Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire

Author: Lisa Shafer

Format: eBook

Source: Author

To Purchase: Amazon Kindle  

Description: Lurking in the nuclei of a few rare human cells is an as-yet unstudied gene. It is a gene that makes the inheritor crave mammal blood and faint in bright sunlight. It is a gene that prevents the bearer from appearing normally in digital or mirror images.
It’s a gene that makes life heck if you’re in junior high and trying to fit in.

Eric Wright is a half-vampire with a problem. Several problems, actually. He can’t tell bloodlust from his rollercoaster adolescent hormones. The cutest girl in first period English wants him to become a vegetarian. And the assistant principal suspends him when he refuses to explain why his skin appears translucent in a school security video.

Then Eric’s non-vampire mom, who’s definitely not telling everything she knows, takes him with her on a business trip. To Scotland, where it never stays sunny for very long. The perfect
hang out for a vampire. Or several. If only Eric can find one to talk to before he makes any more stupid mistakes....

Review: Lisa Shafer’s Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire is a fun coming-of-age tale perfect for upper middle-grade to lower young adult readers.

Eric Wright is a half-vampire trying to figure out the vampire part of him while keeping it secret from everyone else. Although he would rather be more normal, he struggles to fit in and not bite his fellow classmates. He decides to find another vampire to teach him his vampire ways, but he discovers it might be easier said than done.

Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire is a fun story sprinkled in with more serious issues like bullying. Eric is a cool kid, intelligent, thoughtful, a bit quirky. The voice is great for a young teenage boy, even if he rambles a bit too much at times. His friends and enemies are well-written. I love how the vampires are born that way through a genetic trait. Shafer does a wonderful job slowly introducing the other vampires to the plot and letting the reader get used to the world she created.

Overall, I liked reading Lisa Shafer’s Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire and look forward to the next book in the series.