FSO: Several editions of The Vampire Family are floating out there in cyberspace.  Are there any differences between them and the forthcoming edition?
KB: Yes.  As a writer you are constantly in revision of everything.  The most prominent difference is the editing work in “The Immortality Factor” found on rosedog.com versus the published version within Book II.  Actually I had to change the timeline a bit for Books II and III.  But that’s dates and technicalities, not editing work.

FSO: Do share.
KB: Well very early on Vampfam was supposed to begin with Victoria and Samantha telling the events that take place in Book II.  I changed that quickly to just telling Book II as it happens, but later however, I wrote the new events in Book III.  That was in 1996.  Almost 10 years have passed so I upped the ‘25 years later’ to ‘35 years later’ just to keep things contemporary.

FSO: ‘Vampfam’?
KB: Sorry, that’s the nickname I’ve always used.  I’m not good with titles.

FSO: So you’ve been working on ‘vampfam’ for 10 years?
KB: Maybe a bit longer.  I think I started writing Book II when I was a freshman in high school.   I went back and did Book I, then skipped to Book III.

FSO: You’re website says ‘The Vampire Family Anthology: Coming Soon!’ Where does that fit in?
KB: The Anthology will be a collection of short stories cut out of The Vampire Family.  Almost 1,000 years goes by between books I and II.  I had flashbacks on who was made when and where within the books, but in the context they became just background information and not really necessary to the linear story.  When I have the time I would love to polish and release them.  So eventually there will be more vampfam to be told.
 

FSO: If you’re not working on the anthology, what are you working on now?
KB: A few things.  I usually take off major writing during the holidays.  I normally keep a very strict schedule for myself during my writing year.  During the holidays if I find the time to get work done I do it, but I don’t hold myself to work.

FSO: You also wrote a vampire story called “Blood Type V”.  How does that relate to Vampfam?
KB: It doesn’t.  I write everything longhand first, then type it.  I was typing vampfam and needed something else to write in school.  My AP Biology class inspired me to right Blood Type V.   It’s a one shot vampire story and doesn’t even have the same vampire rules as The Vampire Family.  BTV focuses more on the scientific aspects of vampirism.

FSO: What other vampire stories do you have in the works?
KB: None.  I’ve been writing vampfam off and on for so long, I don’t know if I would want to write another vampire story.  It’s possible, but I like the characters in vampfam so much I keep returning to them.  After the anthology and maybe a BTV revision, I have a few ideas, but I’ve got other projects in line.
 

FSO: Why do you write in longhand?
KB: I’m not sure!  As much as l like the sound of clicking keys when you type, I prefer writing everything out first.  I feel more secure having everything hand written, not that it’s really convenient.  I enjoy scribbling and paper and pens, and in the back of my mind, I’m still weary of computer errors.  Knock on wood.  I also hand edit.  Print out everything I’ve typed, mark it all up again, then type the corrections.  I do that three, four, maybe five times before I think something’s done.

FSO: Do you like editing?
KB: No.  It’s like diagramming a sentence.  You know why it’s necessary, it’s a worthy and useful and important thing to do, but I’d rather be creating something new.  Still, you do get a different kind of euphoria once you’ve perfected what you’ve written.
 

FSO: What are these other projects you have lined up?
KB: After my holiday hiatus I’ve got to edit my space opera.  I’ve been writing it my whole life it seems.  Again I don’t know if I could set up another entire universe because I keep coming back to this one.

FSO: How long has this one been going on?
KB: Um, since sixth grade I think.  I am working on two or three small SF stories, and a horror one as well.

FSO: Details?
KB: Nope.

FSO: Are you always so elusive yet willing to talk?
KB:  <laughs> Yes.  I enjoy talking very much,  but I don’t like saying something about a story that might be changed later.  I looked back at early write ups on The Vampire Family, and there are characters listed that I’ve since cut out.  That’s a big change to take back.

FSO: Do you write out or kill characters often?
KB: When I have to.  It’s a reality that comes with the territory.  I’ve killed off characters I’ve really loved simply because the plot needed it.  I’ve killed off weak characters because they had nowhere else to go, and I’ve combined characters instead of having several vague things.  That is one thing I like about genre.  Somebody doesn’t always have to stay dead.
 
 

FSO: Do you only write genre?
KB: No.  I’ve written horror, science fiction, some fantasy, poetry, mystery, even some mainstream work and humor.  I also write non fiction pieces and articles.  Writing is writing.  As long as you write everyday, regardless of what it is.  Any kind of writing is practice for itself.  I’m paid more for my newspaper work but to me it’s practice for the fiction.  Go fig.

FSO: What are your favorite sci-fi shows?
KB:  I’m not as into sci-fi shows as I used to be.  I used to watch anything remotely close to the paranormal but my tastes over bad sci-fi have cooled.  The only genre show I currently watch is The 4400.

FSO: Why don’t you like sci-fi TV anymore? Why The 4400?
KB: I don’t like CGI and special effects dominated shows.  I’m not an astrophysicist like Asminov, so even when I write, I give very little technical details.  Why non corporeal beings don’t fall through the floor of the starship is of no concern to me.  I like the characters, the story, the people, whether they are humans, ghosts, aliens, vampires, whatnot.  I like The 4400 because what little science fiction that’s in it is just setting up the premise.  You just have to suspend your belief for these people to deal with their extraordinary situation.  And when you think about it, being different, dealing with high school and college, racial intolerance-these things are part of The 4400, and they aren’t sci-fi at all.

FSO:  It seems sci-fi has had a big impact on you, more so than horror.
KB: I think that is safe to say.

FSO: Why?
KB: I watched a lot of old time SF as a kid.  Science fiction to me says things that people can’t.  It’s the mirror to ourselves for me. I believe science fiction predicts science fact. Horror I find is more internal, a one on one approach.  I prefer horror that scares a person individually.

FSO: What shows did you watch?
KB: If I had to narrow it down…Star Trek and Blake’s 7.  And The Twilight Zone.  All look really hokey today but the stories are incredible, and now of course cliché.

FSO: Blake’s 7?
KB: It’s an old 70s British show by Terry Nation, similar to Doctor Who.  I used to think Star Trek was some kind of window in my television where I could see all these things going on up in space.  Man has learned from our evil ways and is trying to spread our positive philosophy to others.  In Blake’s 7 the Federation is a totalitarian society that drugs people into submission.  Blake and his crew seek out to destroy them, and never quite make it.  Today the show would never be on the air.  Blake is basically a terrorist with grandiose hit and run plans that destroy him.

FSO: How hokey was this show?
KB: Very hokey, even in the eighties on PBS when I saw it.  My sister thought the clothes and sets were hysterical, and my father would contest that it was a ‘character study’.  The sets would fall over in front of them and they had characters that were nothing but blinking lights in boxes.  B7 makes Dark Shadows look awesome. Yet the dialogue and relationships may be the best I’ve seen on television.
 

FSO: You brought up people and places versus action again.
KB: I write sociological SF.  People with problems taking a hard look and conflict and change and dealing with it.  I like SF that you can take the aliens and space ships away and you’ve still got the story, drama, and emotion.  Now I’m more into crime dramas and cop shows.

FSO: Cop shows?
KB: I don’t know where I was when Homicide: Life on the Street was originally on, but the dvds are awesome.  It’s a cop show with no car chases and shootouts.  Their best episodes are cops locked in tiny rooms talking about their problems.  Brilliant writing, and I’ve only seen the first 10 episodes.  I’m more interested in intelligent TV right now.  I like that Prison Break makes me think and I have to watch an episode three times before I understand it.

FSO: You said you’re a Dark Shadows fan?  Not really intelligent TV.
KB: Yes.  Dracula, Lestat, Barnabas!  Although my favorite character was Quentin.  It’s a soap yet it manages a great redemption story.  In the beginning you hate Quentin, the ghost haunting and possessing children.  Yet by the end, you totally feel for the cursed man haunted with his own guilt and being a werewolf.  Dark Shadows didn’t take itself seriously, that was part of its charm.

FSO: You like Anne Rice then?
KB: I read most of the vampire chronicles as a kid as well as Dracula.  I read a lot of vampire non fiction and comics books, too.

FSO: As a kid?
KB: Yes.  My parents weren’t very restrictive when it came to reading.  I read something because it intrigued me.  Even the classics I like I read because I want to.  I hated when a teacher made you read a book in school.
 
 

FSO: What books in school were you forced to read that you ended up liking?
KB: Hmm….Great Expectations, To Kill A Mockingbird, Macbeth.  I remember being so excited that we were going to watch Charly, because the class read Flowers For Algernon.

FSO: What are your favorite classics?
KB: I like Dickens.  Hornblower and Tarzan are classics to me.  I like some Shakespeare, and for some odd reason Wuthering Heights.  However I cannot stand Jane Austen!  I hate Hemingway and Fitzgerald.  And Hawthorne.  I do like Twain.  I can’t believe Twain is still banned in some places.  I think every kid should read Huckleberry Finn.

FSO: Any SF or fantasy?
KB: Actually I have The Hobbit and The Two Towers but I’ve never read them.  I would like to get more into LOTR, but I don’t have the time.  My favorite Asminov book is The End of Eternity.  The EU Star Wars books are really tough to get back into now.  I stopped reading when the X-Wing books first came out.  I think I’ve read Heir To The Empire more times than any other book, except maybe Shane, or the V novelizations.
 

FSO: What kinds of comics do you read?
KB: I have a lot of Star Wars comics and classic Phantom, Shadow, and Flash Gordon books.  My dad used to read them to me as a kid.  I’d have to say Flash Gordon is my favorite comic book character.  He’s just a regular guy in space.  I’ve got Batman and Superman, too.  When I was very young I was into Spiderman, probably because of the crappy TV show that was on for a few months.  I’ve never read an X-Men comic but I love the cartoons and movies.

FSO: Does what you read or watch influence how and what you write?
KB: To some extent sure.  What you see can inspire you, but for me it’s what I don’t see that inspires me to write.  When I watch a show and think I can write it better, that’s both good and bad, depending on your point of view.  That is how I started writing The Vampire Family.  I was so sick of modern vampire comedies.  I wanted something realistic and honest, yet surreal.  So I wrote it.

FSO: And the state of horror TV today?
KB: Crappy.  I liked Buffy, but not Angel.  Everybody is in love with Lost yet they forget Matthew Fox was on some “I see dead people” show on UPN.  Psychics, however, are popular on Medium and Ghost Whisperer.  I’m boycotting Threshold because of the way Brannon Braga killed Star Trek.  None of them are really horror even.  I liked Forever Knight and Tales From The Darkside.

FSO: You are displeased.
KB: I don’t like the way the mainstream public can’t admit they like a little skeletons in the closet.  Lost and Desperate Housewives are popular because of their unconventional elements.
 

FSO: Do you think books are on the down?
KB: I hope not.  True there is a lot out there to compete with media, computers, but I think these things go hand and hand.  Am I the only person that loves comparing a book and a film?  I read Wuthering Heights because of a film.  And no matter how many times I read Shane, I will see a man entirely unlike Alan Ladd, yet no one can ever play Shane like Alan Ladd.  The availability of literature online is a plus I hope as well.

FSO: What do you read online?
KB: It depends on my mood.  I frequent message boards pertaining to my current obsessions.  News, research, sometimes even fan fiction.

FSO: Are you a night owl?
KB: Oh yes.  Sometimes I will type all night, or have a TV marathon.  I do however admit to doing my fair share of surfing overnight as well.

FSO: What is your daily routine?
KB: I wake up and I write or do other computer business.  Sometimes I watch TV while I write.

FSO: Do you watch anything special when you write?
KB: Not really.  When I was really sick with Lyme I couldn’t concentrate on doing both at once so now I find something I like and leave it on.  Hockey, SVU.  I listen to music sometimes when I type, too.
 
 

FSO: That’s right, you have Lyme Disease.
KB: Yes it’s a weird thing to discuss because there is so much misinformation out there.  I remember finally being diagnoses and the doctor saying, “Lyme patients are the vampires of the world.”  I though, oh the irony!

FSO: Does it make it difficult to work?
KB: Sometimes.  It messes you up, and I get dyslexic or don’t speak as well as I used to.  It’s a constant battle with who you used to be and who you are now.  It comes and goes, but you are never cured of Lyme.  Some days are better than others.  I write, I deal.  Oddly, I’m at my most creative when I’m off my rocker.

FSO:  Based upon a your work at Bee Gees Chain Reaction, you’re a very religious person.  Does that conflict with the dark fiction you write?
KB: Not at all.  I think we have to admit there are things darker than ourselves, darker things with us.  We need to confront our fears and expose the truth.  I seek to inform, inspire, and entertain.

FSO: You’ll talk to us again?
KB: Always!
 

FSO: Thank your for speaking to us again!
KB: Always!  I love working with FSO.  It benefits us both.

FSO:What did you get for Christmas?
KB: Don't you read the blog? <laughs>  Homicide Season 3, The 4400, an autographed Bee Gees record, a Wentworth Miller pillowcase, you know, clothes.

FSO: You also had some heartache since the last time we spoke.  Your dalmatian was put down, correct?
KB:  Yes she had cancer in her leg and several other complications which made amputation impossible.  If we had not put her down, she would have had a painful last few months.

FSO: You posted about it briefly,and you have written about your previous dog in The Adventures of Pave.  Are we going to see more dog books?
KB: Perhaps.  I've written a few things down about Sadie.  I don't know if any of it is publishable in it's current state, but as a writer I write about everything that effects me.  I have many poems about my parents separation and reunion, but I doubt anyone will see them.  For the first time in my life I don't have a dog.  It's weird to me and I need to express that.
 
 

FSO: Have you returned to your regular writing schedule?
KB: For the most part.  There is much to do.  I still have some more web reviews to complete for the month, but I've also started writing my next story.  I have typing and editing to do in the next few months as well.  Submittals always.

FSO:  What have you submitted this year? How do you handle the inevitable rejections?
KB:  I'd like to submit two short stories. Mrs. Murderer and Blood Type V have been around the block before.  I'm also looking to reprint The Adventures of Pave.  Rejection is part of the business.  Sometimes you have to realize maybe your work didn't fit with that editor or that publication.  Too short, too long, but maybe it simply has some flaws to be worked on.  After I edit something 10 times, if it gets rejected 10 times, you simply have to buckle down and edit another 15 times.

FSO: What goes through your mind during the waiting process?
KB: Many things.  You have to continue working or it will drive you crazy.  I think of everything from what I will do next, if I dotted the preverbial i's and crossed the t's in my submission, to who I would cast if it were a movie.

FSO:  Why do you envision who would play who?
KB:  Besides the delusions of granduer?  Honestly I like to get a feel of how my character might look or behave, and ideas springboard from that.  I also go through Victoria's Secret catalogues and pick out what my characters might wear.  The women anyway.
 
 

FSO:  Would you tell us about the newest characters your creating?
KB: I'd like to, but they are still in the earliest stages so things like blonde hair or blue eyes might change.  This is my first foray into a romance in the strictest sense of the genre.  There is a major relationship between Jean and Samantha in Vampfam, but this current couple is nothing like them.

FSO:  Speaking of The Vampire Family, when will we see it on bookshelves?
KB: That's what I'd like to know!  I'm working on another submission package, including detailed summaries and outlines.  I'd like to see it complete and on bookshelves, but a serialized ebook is also a possibilty.  Excerpts are also posted at Authorzone.

FSO:  Any more horror ideas?
KB:  I was working on a short story about a habidasher that uses more than fabric for his work, ie a person or two, but I got the inspiration for this new romatic thing, so bad habby been's put on the back burner for now.

FSO:  Tell us about The Adventures of Pave.
KB:  The Advenures of Pave was first published in January 2005 as an ebook with Lilac Books.  The company has since closed, but I recently submitted it to a children's book publisher.  It's a collection of theories and conjecture from my dog Pave's point of view. I find animals are an incredible source of inspiration.

FSO: Have you written children's stories before?
KB:  When I was a child I wrote children's books.  Some of those were pretty hokey.  The editor is a wonderful lady, but she actually rejected The Adventures of Pave because it was beyond a child's comprehension.  I'd like to polish my old stuff in the future.

FSO: What kind of stories did you write as a child?
KB: Genrewise? The same as I do now.  A lot of SF and fantasy, horror.  There's one about a mummy, animals, miniature worlds,  secret agents in space, but they are pretty bad.  I have the old construction paper covers I made for them.  Most are dated 1989!

FSO: How many stories and books do you actually have?
KB: At least a dozen complete works.  Half that perfect, the others could use a redo.  Then maybe another dozen incompletes or unfinished ideas.  I keep a binder of all the ideas or quips that come into mind.  When I was in high school, I really didn't have the time to submit or really focus on the finer points of the business.  I just kept writing.  I thought it was best to maximize what little time I had in creating a working portfolio.  Now I've got four books in the can and ready to go.

FSO: Wow!
KB:  Well, it wasn't overnight.  This is 10 years of work and my huge space opera is not in publishing condition.
 
 

FSO: You always elude to this space opera novel.  Any details?
KB:  Well, it has all the staples of space operas.  Good guys with issues and ruthless bad guys.  Scientific debates, cloning, planterary destruction, wars, alliances.  I'm not sure how big it is since about half of it is still hand written.

FSO: The long hand hasn't changed for 2006?
KB: Not really.  By the end of this year, I'm hoping to invest in a laptop and network system.  I will attempt to eliminate the long hand work, not because I really trust computers, but timewise I could do so much more.

FSO: You seem very busy right now.
KB: True.  I've hit a creative stride so far in 06.  Look for the new Essays page to fill up shortly as well.

FSO: Where do you get your ideas?
KB: Dreams mostly.  And animals.  In my dreams lots of unusal things will happen that aren't just me in a situation, but whole senarios of people, places, and things that are just ripe with genius.  My cats are also fascinating.  I do have a play I'd like to turn into prose that generated from observing my cats.

FSO: Do share.
KB:  It's sounds crazy to start I know.  Cat people! No, really it's a high fantasy tale.  A queen and rival duke, the feuding children, good magic and bad magic-all of it came from my cats.  There's always a lioness, some bad ass tomboy cat causing trouble, and some cats that you swear are downright evil.  The stuff makes for great fiction.

FSO: When will we see all this?
KB: Next year sometime I hope.  I have a tight schedule now through the summer.  Four Submittals, Three short stories to write, my major typing and editing of the space opera, plus my regular newspaper articles.  I also try and do webwork once or twice a month.
 
 

FSO: What is The Definitive Booklist?
KB:  It's going to be a constant work in progress but I'd like to have FSO post a list of my favorite and not so favorite books.  Even the books I don't like might be good and necessary books that must be read.  I don't read as much as I used to, I wish I had the time.  Sometimes I think I can do better than my book a month, but then it just sits.  I might also just post the booklist on the blog.  We shall see.

FSO: What was the last book you read?
KB:  A Christmas Carol. I read it every Christmas.  I even wrote a column about it in The Reminder.

FSO: What do you think the state of reading with young people is today?
KB: I hope it's very well!  With Harry Poter and all its imitators I think there are kids still reading out there.  Manga is popular, but I can't get into it.  I do feel nonfiction reading might be slipping about kids and teens.  You hear about American statistics on how little students know about history or how bad our SAT scores are.  It's embarassing.  And preventable.

FSO: What do you think is the cause of our education troubles?
KB: In a nutshell, social demographics.  People only want to be teachers because of the amount of money they can make, and many children come from households where both parents work.  Family dynamics have changed.  My sister is a teacher, and some of her students have a parent in jail, don't even know one or the other parent, or live with their grandparents.  Rich schools waste their resources and the amount of under funded yet over crowded schools is pathetic.  We must make education and our future the priority.

FSO: How do you intend to raise your children?
KB: I'm starting early when I have kids.  I'm going to listen to the best music, watch all the classics, read aloud all the books I've read.  Knowledge is power, that's what I want my kids to know.  I think kids today perceive knowledge as being nerdy or uncool. I disagree.  I used to read on the school bus everyday on the way home, and I took the school bus up to and through my senior year.  I'll never forget when the supposedly cool kid sat with me and said, "How do you read a book?"  I kind of though, um, duh.  But then she said, "No, how do you read a book?" She wanted to know how you could invest your time from beginning to end with these fake people, learn from their actions, and then incorporate it into your life.

FSO: Do you remember what book you were reading?
KB: You know I don't think I do!  It was middle school, so maybe Anne Rice.
 
 

FSO:  Tell us about this new romance story.  It doesn't seem your genre.
KB: True.  I don't think romance is the right word.  Is there a category for sex in space?  Two people from rival factions are forced into an alliance and potential sparks might fly-if it weren't for war and space troubles of course.  Not porn with plot but serious sociological looks at love and war, and to make it more angsty, its in space.

FSO: Wow.
KB:  There are other issues that have come into the work also that I didn't intend.  Chemical weapons, globabl destruction debates.  Good stuff!

FSO: When can fans read this?
KB:  Not for awhile.  I'm still in the writing phase now.  Editing, marketing blah.  By the end of the year I hope.  Hell I don't even have a good title.  I thought of one before I fell asleep last night, but it's gone now!

FSO:  Speaking of marketing, how do you submit something so cross-genred?
KB:  This sex in space thing does have a market.  There are most definately solid, reputable erotica e-book companies in cyberspace that I'd like to try this new fangled story at.  Serializing might be nice.
 
 

FSO: Your work seems to fill up all your time.
KB:  Work and sleep.  Lyme loves Sleep!

FSO: True, but where do you see yourself in 3 years?
KB: Married and published!  Seriously I'd like to have The four books I have ready published, my new sex in space in reader land, and my space opera completed.  Finally!

FSO: You just turned 25, I hear tell.
KB: Yes, on February 7th.  I got a new writing program for my computer, the extended cut of Underworld, gift subscriptions to The Writer and Writer's Digest, and the new Writer's Market.  I got a new Bee Gees CD for Valentine's Day.

FSO: Speaking of which, Is it true that you and your paramour hang out in cemeteries?
KB: I don't think hang out is the right term.  We occasionally go to cemeteries and take pictures.  I believe in ghosts, Jason does not.  Look to jsnouff.com/ghosts to become our orb archive.

FSO: Have you captured definitive proof?
KB: Defne proof.  We have a lot of pictures with orbs and balls of light and energy, but that doesn't mean they are ghosts.  One of the most active places seems to be my bedroom, and nothing has died or is dead in there.  I'm not that pale.
 

FSO:  I take it you don't scare easily, living in a seemingly haunted room.
KB: No, but I also don't go to a graveyard at midnight on Halloween, light black candles and chant either.  If you respect the dead, they will respect you.

FSO: How do you 'respect the dead'?
KB:  It's tough but I try not to walk on any graves.  We've been to a lot of cemeteries that are not upkept or have had headstones destroyed.  I don't understand how anyone can be so mean to our ancestors.  You have to take a moment, read the headstone, remember and apprieciate the people that came before you.  Only then they might show themselves!

FSO:  Good luck writing and ghost hunting!  We'll talk again!
KB:  Thank you, and most definately!