You are working on a companion book to your book "Bleed", could you tell us a little bit about this book?
Bleed is a collection of overlapping short stories that explore chance and coincidence and the way our decisions – even the small ones – can affect other people, even those we don’t necessarily know. It all starts off with one girl’s decision to either A.) go after her best friend’s boyfriend since Best Friend is away visiting her father across the country, or B.) resist the temptation…even though he’s right next door mowing the lawn…even though she’s been crushing on him since the third grade…even though her best friend (supposedly) knew about her crushdom and still went after him.
The outcome of that decision has a domino effect, affecting all the other characters in the collection. The collection takes place over the course of a single day – a Saturday, in August. And, during that day, the lives of ten teens will intersect in powerful and unexpected ways. Among them are Nicole, whose decision to betray her best friend will shock everyone, most of all herself; Kelly, who meets the convicted felon she’s been writing to for years; and Maria, whose definition of a true friend is someone who will cut her. Derik discovers his usual good looks and charm won’t help him get the girl he really wants, while Joy, a fifteen year old waitress, hoping for true intimacy, narrowly escapes a very dark fate.
These interconnected short stories – often about betrayal, heartbreak, and loneliness – is at once funny, moving, and often very haunting.

Did you base any characters from your books on yourself or your friends?
Not really. I mean, there are always tiny bits of myself, character quirks of me or people I’ve known, or kernels of experience in there, but my work mainly explores my interests and I go from there, creating fictional characters and events.

Do you base any of your books on real life situations that you have been through?
No. I write fiction. As I state above, there are always bits of truth in there, but they wouldn’t be recognizable to anyone but me.

If you had to choose one of your books that you wrote which one would you say you liked writing the most?
Probably Blue is for Nightmares because I learned so much from it. It was my first full-length novel and I wrote it in graduate school – purely for the love of writing. I wasn’t thinking about sales or marketing or anything else at the time except the pure joy of writing and experimenting with fiction. Plus, not being an avid reader as a young adult, I really wanted to write a book that would have appealed to me at that age. I wanted it to be a page-turner, something that reluctant readers would like as well as those you loved to read. It was really exciting for me to look back on my own adolescence and delve back into the page-turners that I enjoyed at the time, focusing on suspense, romance, and drama. I also wanted my main character (Stacey Brown) to be really relatable – not the prettiest girl in school, or the smartest, or most popular. Of course she had to have a life riddled with secrets, had to be harboring guilt from years past, had to be in love with her best friend’s boyfriend. And, without a doubt, there had to be a stalker in there. The idea that Stacey turned out to be a witch actually happened by accident during a free-writing exercise in class. It was one of the best things that happened because I found that readers really gravitated toward her ability to channel her inner strength and make her life better. It also enabled me to delve into research about my own family – asking lots of questions and finding out about old card readings, tea readings, and family remedies that have been passed down.

How long did it take you to write your most current book "Bleed"?
About a year.

If your book "Bleed" ever got turned into a movie who would you want to play the characters Nicole and Kelly?
Wow, that’s a tough one. I get asked that question a lot about the Blue is for Nightmares series and I almost always picture Eliza Dushku for Stacey. But for Nicole and Kelly…? Maybe Sarah Drew as Nicole and Amanda Seyfried as Kelly.

Are you working on any other novels besides the companion to "Bleed"?
I’m working on the edits for the companion book. The companion book, tentatively titled as Project 17, is about a group of teens who break into an abandoned asylum – which is also haunted – to film a movie. I’m also working on promoting Bleed as well as the boxed set edition of the Blue is for Nightmares series, which also includes a copy of Stacey’s spell book.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring authors what would you say?
Perseverance is key. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. Always strive toward your goals. Always be open to learning and getting better at your craft – whatever that may be – but never lose sight of what it is you really want.