Interview with Karina Fabian

Author Karina Fabian

Please welcome Karina Fabian. She and her co-author, Colleen Drippe, have a new book out called Frightliners. If you are looking for some scary stories to read for Halloween, check this book out! You won’t be disappointed.




Karina was kind enough to take the time to answer my questions for this blog post.



How long have you been a writer?

Professionally, since around 1995, but I was mostly doing non-fiction until around 2007. I enjoyed writing articles, but I was homeschooling three kids at the time and found I needed to cut back on the writing, and I’d been wanting to go back to fiction, which I’ve always loved writing. I’ve had such fun with it that I’ve not gone back!

What inspires your writing?

It’s easier to ask what doesn’t inspire my writing, but I can’t really answer that, either. I’ve written stories inspired by conversations, other books I’ve read, challenges, and even songs. In fact, the main character in the story “Accidental Undeath” included in Frightliner came from a Micheal Loncor song, “Truck Driving Vampire.”

What do you write?

Mostly science fiction and fantasy, often very funny but sometimes kind of eerie—like my latest novel Mind Over Mind, which is about a psychic whose powers drive him insane and his fight for control and sanity. My science fiction tends to be more serious, as well. My horror can also be humorous—like Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator—or it can be creepy, like Frightliner. I also wrote a devotional with my father and he’d like to do another about deacons when I can fit it. I write school calendars and have also written craft books. So I’m all over the place, which keeps things fresh and fun for me.

Who came up with the idea for Frightliner?

It was kind of a synergy. I’d written about a truck-driving vampire based on Michael Longcor’s humorous song. My story wasn’t humorous, but the vampire was a good ol’ boy in a traumatic situation. Colleen wondered that we never saw vampire stories where the vampire really was evil and we decided to write one.

How did you and Colleen Drippe collaborate on this project? Did you each write a chapter or...? Was everything done through email or...?

We each wrote a section, then the other tweaked it and continued on. It was all over e-mail and took us a couple of months, but it was just a lot of fun. I know Colleen stretched my writing abilities and made me write in a style I don’t usually use in order to match her better. (She’s much better at description and enjoys that. I’m a dialog-action person.)

Were there any issues you had to grapple with as a writer as you worked on this book? Please explain.

Actually, as I recall the story went very smoothly. I think out only issue was what to do with it when we finished. We first sold it to Twilight Times as a short story several years ago, and I decided to give it a try as a novella. We added a couple of stories and Crossroads took it. I’m pretty happy about that—not only did they do an awesome job of putting it together, they are handling the royalty split for us, which is a relief because I’m awful with finances that way.

How would you describe your experiences collaborating with another writer for one book? Was it a challenge? How did you both work out any problems that came up?

Like I said, Frightliner was pretty easy. We’re working on another that’s a little slower going because we’re both much busier. (It’s in my court now and I feel so bad that I’ve not gotten to it.) Also, we’ve got different ideas about where this one should go—Colleen’s plot pace is faster than I want, though I love the ideas she has. Also, we’re still feeling our way around the priest characters and how to treat them; some things I think are okay, she feels aren’t respectful, and a few things she’s wanted to do I feel are too extreme. However, we’re adults, professionals and friends, so we’re working through them pretty smoothly.

What is Frightliner about?

A truck-driving vampire is terrorizing the interstate between Arizona and Texas, and when it marks trucker Jay as its next victim, he’ll need to come to terms with the impossible in order to save his own life.

There are so many stories of things that happen to people because they hitched a bad ride or because they encountered something otherworldly on the road. How did you and your co-author make sure these stories were different?

We really didn’t do an analysis of other books or anything to make sure ours was different. We wrote the story as the characters told it to us. Since Colleen’s husband was a trucker, there’s a lot of great detail, and I especially enjoy the showdown in the abandoned church.

What other types of books or projects can your readers look forward to seeing from you in the near future?

The next book I have coming out is Live and Let Fly, which is a humorous fantasy starring my dragon detective and his partner, a magic-slinging nun, who take on a demigod who wants to destroy the worlds. It’s super-spy spoofing as only DragonEye can do it. To get folks ready, I have a DragonEye, PI Christmas story that will go serial in November: http://christmasspirits.karinafabian.com

Frightliner: And Other Tales of the Undead
By Colleen Drippe and Karina Fabian

Evil sits behind the wheel.

Short Synopsis: A truck-driving vampire terrorizes Interstate 10 in New Mexico and Texas. When he targets trucker Jay Carlson, Jay finds himself unwillingly teaming up with an illegal alien and a tough-talking custodian--both of whom claim to be vampire hunters. However, they are injured in the fight, and Jay will have to conquer his disbelief and
destroy the vampire himself before it kills them all.

Marketing Synopsis: All Jay Carlson wants is to get his load delivered on-time, and the mysterious murder on a lone stretch of I-10 is just a slow-down. Things get freaky as a stranger suggests the murderer is a truck driver—and Jay has seen the truck. Thus starts a game of cat
and mouse as the mysterious truck stalks him on his route. No one else seems to see his phantom pursuer except for two unlikely allies: a custodian claiming to be a vampire hunter, and an illegal alien who trusts his faith to defeat the monster. When the truck-driving vampire traps them in an abandoned church and his only defenders are injured in the fight, Jay must swallow his own disbelief and destroy the vampire himself before he kills them all.

Bios:

* Karina Fabian: Karina Fabian writes fantasy and science fiction, with the occasional foray into the world of horror. Her first novel, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, the 2010 INDIE Award for best fantasy. Her latest book, the comedic horror, Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, was a
top ten in the Preditor and Editor reader’s polls and winner of the Global E-Book Award for best horror. Learn more about her works at http://fabianspace.com

* Colleen Drippe: Colleen Drippe has been writing since age 6 and has had a lot of science fiction, a moderate amount of horror and fantasy, and assorted nonfiction scattered throughout the small press and online. She also writes for children and has had three children's books published so far (The Little Blue House, Christmas at the Little Blue House, and Mystery at Miners’ Creek) and another one (Growing with the Little Blue House) due out any day. She has had one sf book published (Godcountry) and another (Gelen!) coming out this year. She is the former editor of Hereditas (of happy memory but dried up funding) and is currently working on another sf book along with various other projects.

Excerpt:

Of course that was why he had not come out to check on her, she thought with a surge of relief. He probably thought it was an abandoned car. But now--she stepped out onto the gravel, hearing for the first time how loud the crickets sang. She smelled the strong scent of the cooling air. Too early for snow. Too warm, still anyway, though she cursed herself for not thinking to put on jeans before making her big exit. She peered at the cab, but nothing moved.
“Hello!” she called, moving closer. She could not make out a logo on the truck. It was dark, dark paint. She had an impression that the shape was--not wrong exactly, but not usual. It was an older model, she decided. An old truck.
She had reached the door.
“Anyone there?” she called, hesitating to step up and look inside. What if something had happened to the driver? What if he were dead? What if she opened the door and a body spilled out onto the road?
But that was silly. He had just pulled up. Probably he was rummaging around in his berth for some tools.
But what if he was dead? What if she took hold of the door and--and what if he was right there, watching her?
She had almost decided to go back to her own car. But the thought of the semi parked behind her, silently cutting its chunk from the sky, was in some strange way even more frightening than opening the door. She reached up for the handle and pulled herself up level with
the window.
The handle turned in her hand.
It was then she knew she had done the wrong thing. If only someone else had come—she prayed for someone else. A cop. Even a car full of good old boys. Anyone.
The crickets fairly screamed their shrill and mindless song, the scent of the Russian knapweed was overpowering. But it wasn’t strong enough to hide another smell, a dark earthy smell. A smell of death mellowed by long usage.
The door opened.
Reba froze, clutching the handle, balancing there with the driver’s seat in front of her.
She tried to speak, to call, but nothing would come out. She hung there, thinking of death, while the night passed and the stars moved and the moon looked in over her shoulder. Finally, she climbed into the truck.
“Daniel,” she whimpered. She was ready to forgive the new pickup, but it was too late.
Something moved in the back and she turned in the driver’s seat and saw a pale face, caught in the moonlight, eyes gleaming. She had an impression of lank hair, grizzled beard. And then two hands reached up to take her shoulders and she saw the mouth open.

Video trailer link: http://youtu.be/pEi6y0IuOlI

Amazon link: http://amzn.to/lJDL9b

Website: http://fabianspace.com