VERONICA MASSEY: MOTHER AND AUTHOR
We seem to have a fair number of distinguished authors we will be talking to for a while. As a young girl growing up in Nigeria, I enjoyed Bessie Bunter comics and from there graduated to the romantic novels of Barbara Cartland and Denise Robins, As I got older I started writing comics myself and followed my childhood tales of Bessie Bunter, Archie and the like but I never thought there would come a time I would meet a lady who would answer to male nick name. We met on the social networking site and there were so many wonderful authors that socialized. I felt it would be a nice opportunity to get to know them not with the virtual hello and sharing, but really talk to them. I have the pleasure thus to welcome Veronica Massey known as the author Ronnie Massey.
Author Ronnie Massey gives the reader a bloody good time through a unique combination of captivating story line and the female narrator’s disrespectful tone. Violence, sensuality, tense conflict, and intense drama roll at full speed against the backdrop of North and South Carolina. “Crimson Dawn” manages to be almost everything to every fantasy fan, however, with a number of surprising twists and turns, a feat not easily pulled off.
CRIMSON DAWN
When vampire Valeria Trumaine comes home one morning to find her father waiting for her, she knows she's about to get trouble in spades. But she never imagined it would come in the form of her ex-fiancé. Now she must confront old demons and face new possibilities as she struggles to bring the rouge vampire to justice.
After she left him, Valeria avoided Tristan like the plague, but now that he's gone rogue, she's going to have to utilize every thing she's learned as a sentinel to find him. Finding Tristan proves to be more dangerous than anyone realized. He's changed in ways that go against nature, and has become more powerful than anyone ever imagined.
Refusing to let her face the abomination that Tristan has become alone, Val's best friend and powerful Sidhe princess, Irulan joins the hunt. Valeria will find that Irulan's motives for keeping her safe aren't what she thinks. And soon she's faced with an undeniable attraction that makes her question everything she knew about herself.
Can she accomplish her task and prevent more innocent lives from being destroyed? Can she do it and not loose herself to his madness? In the middle of all the madness, can she embrace the unexpected love that fate has thrown her way?
1. Why do you use Ronnie Massey as the author of the book when you are actually a lady? I thought I was going to have a man as my guest.
Ronnie is a nick name that I have had all my life. Most people know me as Ronnie and don't even know that my first name is Veronica. My father named me after Ronnie from the Betty and Veronica, Archies Comics.
2. Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I am a single mother with two wonderful daughters. I have been writing since I was in high-school and drawing for longer. The drawing lead me to learn tattooing. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty. Aside from writing paranormal themed work, I also love to write poetry. My poetry is very different from my other work, most of is it very introspective and afro-centric in nature. I also love to sing and write songs.
3. Do you think Romance has taken a violent turn these days?
I think it has in some ways. A lot of women like their hero's tall dark and brooding. And their heroines to be defend themselves just as well as the men now a days. With authors writing stronger characters, they also have to write harder situations for them to get out of.
4. Who were your role models in the dark fantasy genre?
I love Kim Harrison who writes the Rachel Morgan, Hollows novels. Laurell K. Hamilton is one of my favorite authors also, as well as Gena Showalter, Steven King, Rachel Vincent, and Lynsay Sands; although Lynsay Sands is more of a paranormal romance author than dark fantasy.
5, You have explored the dark depths of the human mind in this book, could you tell us why?
With my vampires, Val specifically, I wanted to have a clear struggle between her vampiric nature and the person that she wanted to be. My vampires struggle to prove to the world that they aren't the monsters that humans expect them to be, but some of them fail miserably. I think the same can be said of a lot of people in the world today. Not everyone is born with this driving need to do good or make a difference, a lot of people have to work at it.
The thing I love about fantasy is that you can have these off the wall situations and seemingly insurmountable odds thrown at these characters and somehow, some way they overcome. And if you look deep enough you can usually find some small instance where the fantasy mirrors reality.
6. Has anything within the human society influenced your preference for this genre of writing?
My preternatural races live in a world where humans know all about them. While some humans have accepted them, there are many that still many that don't want to share the world with races that are different from them. My Extras face the same prejudices that anyone for various reasons, may face in the world today.
7. Authors generally tend to have a personal message they send or disclose in their writing, what is yours?
With my main characters Valeria and Irulan I just want to show that love is love no matter what form it may come in. Gay, Straight, Bi...A heart doesn't have eyes and love does not know color, creed, or sexuality.
8. A vampire, or vampires are concepts that are steeped in myths and some will say ignorance, do you beleive in vampires?
I'm not sure if I believe in the 'rise from the dead', immortal being, kind of vampire. But who knows, maybe they are out there watching us and laughing at the media's many interpretations of them and wondering who will finally get it right. I believe that a person can believe that they are one. I do fully believe in ghost and spirits though.
9.As a lady, have you felt a need to identify a strong woman syndrome in your writings.
Yes. I am a diehard Xena fan and in my head any type of female that I write will have to project some of the strength that the Warrior Princess did. I like writing strong female that are able to take care of themselves and while they might not need a partner to complete them, the love of one just makes them that much stronger.
10 Who are your favorite female authors, why?
Kim Harrison and Laurell K Hamilton are at the top of the list because while they write very strong female characters, they aren't perfect. The characters face struggles and actually grow during the course of their stories. There is also Lynsay Sands who writes the Argeneau vampire series. I so totally love how she has taken one central family and picks different members to write about. Through the family members readers are still able to keep up with characters from past story line's and also begin for form connections with upcoming characters.
11. Self publication or traditional publishers, take your pick and tell me why?
A year ago I would have said traditional, but with self publishing on the rise I am leaning towards self. There are some people that look down on authors that choose to self publish. I've read articles that said self published authors lacked the drive to query traditional publishers and do what it takes to make their work sell-able. I've seen articles that say authors choose to self publish because their work wasn't good enough for traditional publishers. I think that is crazy. I have read plenty of works by self published authors that was just as good, if not better than the works of some traditionally published authors.
Whether it's an author that has received rejection after rejection and just wants to see their work in print for their own satisfaction, or an author that has decided to forgo the traditional route all together and is ready to put in the effort that it takes to build their audience; with platforms such as Kindle Direct Publishing, Create Space, and Smashwords, among others, the self publishing industry is offering authors opportunity's that weren't here ten years ago. At the end of the day an author should do what feels right for them. Crimson Dawn was published traditionally but that is not going to stop me from self publishing my book of short stories and poems.
12. look into the crystal ball and tell me the fate of bedtime stories to children before the turn of this century.
I think that fairy tales will never go out of style as go to bedtime stories. Every little girl dreams of being a princess at one time or another but those same girls are also watching tv shows and movies with strong female characters so some stories will have to adapt. Little girls will need stories that show them they can be strong and not sacrifice their femininity. Young boys will need stories that show being sensitive and understanding does not affect their manhood and that strong women are nothing to be afraid of.
...And vampires and werewolves wont be the monsters, they'll be the hero's.
Thank you for coming on Center Stage
For more information, including a preview of the first chapter, see http://crimsondawn.copperhillmedia.com/.
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