With The Nightlife Paris due out next Wednesday (May 1), I caught up with author Travis Luedke to find out what we can expect in the next explosive part of the his hit vampire series and what drew him to writing in the first place. So throw your Twilight DVDs into the bin, we're going vampire hunting (I promise not to cover my eyes).
Can you start by telling us a little bit about The Nightlife Series?
What is it about for those who have not read it?
The Nightlife Series is about all the seedy
criminal corruption found in metropolitan areas blended with two vampires
trying to slip between the cracks of society. You have every kind of excess:
sex, drugs, alcoholism, prostitution, pimps, corrupt police, gangs, cartels and
mafia. Imagine living in these elements night after night, trying to escape the
corruption and the debauchery unscathed. Vampire Master Michelle and her slave
Aaron are two vampires against the world, and they have no one to rely on but
each other when things get out of hand, as they so often do in the nightlife.
Can you tell us about your next novel in the series, The Nightlife
Paris? What is this going to be about?
In Paris, we reach the confrontation point in Aaron
and Michelle’s relationship, where Aaron begins to question everything.
Michelle is a complex woman of secrets, and she finally comes clean about
her past in a series of startling revelations. It’s a novella within a novel,
the savage story of Michelle’s survival of her wicked master and the German
occupation of Paris in WWII.
Aaron is shocked, and Michelle still lives with a
certain amount of denial and self-deception over her grisly past. Neither
of them handles the truth very well. To complicate matters, they were shadowed
by an investigator from Vegas. This man, Michael Jamison, has an agenda
of his own, and is waiting to make his move against them.
Paris changes everything between Aaron and
Michelle, and introduces more complexity to the underworld of supernatural
creatures, new characters in the mix. And for all those fans of the series
who have been patiently waiting, Paris reveals in great depth, the gritty,
gruesome truth about Michelle. There will definitely be one of those “cover
your eyes” moments.
Let's talk about vampires. What draws you to them
and why have you based an entire series around these creatures?
My first addiction to fiction was horror novels.
I devoured them as a teenager. I strayed here and there to sci-fi,
fantasy, and other things in-between, but the supernatural creatures from
horror novels called to me. Brian Lumley has a wonderful series called
Necroscope, and who could talk of vampires without mentioning Anne Rice?
I blame JR Ward and Laurell K. Hamilton for sinking
in my vampire fiction addiction to a deadly dangerous level. I loved the
dark, passionate, violent and horrific, yet erotic nature of these series
novels.
Having read everything from YA urban fantasy to the
very adult material, I started to envision creatures that are the perfect apex
predator on humanity.
Their scents, their bite, their every nuance
seduces victims into a willing and voluntary offering. People literally
want and need to be bitten. The Nightlife Series has heavy themes of
addiction, because victims easily become addicted to the vampire’s bite, a.k.a.
bloodslaves.
You've had an avalanche of five star reviews for the series and it has
been a huge hit, are there any plans to have the books adapted to TV or film in
the future?
Well isn’t that every novelist’s fantasy come real?
To have our work made into film? It would definitely be ‘R’ rated.
But YES, I would love to see the Nightlife Series adapted to TV or film.
I have considered a graphic novel series, and the
recent publishing platform improvements with Kindle allow for much easier image
layout and formatting for self-publishing graphic novels as ebooks. And a
graphic novel is a very good step towards film, because it helps people
visualize the scenes as they unfold. It can be a powerful tool to
convince Hollywood producers.
Let's talk about you. How did you get into writing? Is it something that
you've always done or are you quite new to it?
In 2010, when the ideas came to me for the
Nightlife New York, the first in the series, I had never attempted to write a
book. But I had read many hundreds, and I knew I had a somewhat uniquely
styled creature with my vision. So I just did it. About halfway
through my first draft, I realized the premise of the story was very much adult
fiction. Everything about these creatures is a sensual seduction.
So I decided to embrace that aspect, and I began
pouring through romance and erotic romance novels to absorb the writing styles
and speech patterns and plots.
I never intended to write vampire erotic thriller,
but the stories ended up that way. And Michelle’s back story spiralled
out into a novella in itself. Then the rest of it came to me, the myriad
misadventures of these two vampires making their way through the nightlife of
various metropolitan areas.
A series was born.
What does the future hold for you? Will there be more Nightlife novels
or stories of a similar nature?
I have several more novels planned, starting with
The Nightlife London in August. Next year will see Moscow, Hong Kong, and
another stand-alone Nightlife novel set in San Antonio. And there may be
a historical novel set at the height of the Persian Empire that details the
origin of the vampire--stewing on that one. Fans of my stand-alone Nightlife
novel Blood Slave want a sequel, so I am thinking on that as well.
I also have the beginnings of an occult paranormal
series that revolves around the modern practice of witchcraft, Wicca, Voodoo,
Hoodoo, and Candomblé. It’s a struggle between the light and dark sides
of magical practice, and the far-reaching consequences of delving too deeply
into the darkness. And yes, there will be some smokin’ hot scenes. Sex
magic anyone? There are numerous rites of sex magic practiced today in every
major city in America).
I've heard you are planning to move into young adult fiction? Can you
tell us about why you are switching gear and if you have any books in the
pipeline in that genre?
Well, I would like to publish something my children
can read in this decade. I wrote The Shepherd, my first YA paranormal
thriller novel, as a Christmas gift to my teens.
It has since seen much editing, and will begin
final edits in a few days. I hope to have it released between May and June
under a pen name of my initials TW Luedke.
This is a story of a very troubled teen, and the
double life he leads as he spends his evenings with a very special and
dangerous friend. Their mutually obsession crosses all the boundaries of
friendship. Skate punks, teen angst, and reincarnation. There’s another
YA novel I have plotted out to write this year for release in December, also a
paranormal thriller, an exploration of some unintended consequences of identity
theft.
Travis can be found online at:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/
Website http://www.twluedke.com/
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