INTERVIEW WITH LENA HILLBRAND

Hi ! Readers, 

It is a great pleasure to have Lena Hillbrand and her book, THE SUPERIORS review today. A very warm welcome, Lena and thanks Lena for giving us the chance to get to know you more and also for allowing us a glimpse of the world that you have created inside your writing. Thank you very much. Let her walk through her profile and book, as appended below, before we kick off the Q + A session.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -Lena Hillbrand
Lena Hillbrand is the author of the book below.


The Superiors

The Superiors, Book One in The Superiors series

Q&A portion:

James: When did you begin to write?

Lena : I've always written, or at least as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I'd make up stories and write them in little journals.

James : What made you choose this genre and the title of your book?

Lena: I'd read a few vampire books, and I kept wondering why these intelligent, powerful, nearly invincible creatures would hide in the dark instead of trying to overpower the much weaker human race. I started talking about it with my family, and got so involved in thinking about it that I decided to write it down. The first book in the series, The Superiors, introduces the world and the race. The title was an easy pick for me. Superiors is the name the vampires have given themselves, as they consider themselves superior to all else on earth.

James: Where do you get the inspiration for your stories?

Lena : Everywhere. In classrooms, restaurants, outside. Of course other books have inspired me to write when I see a really beautiful passage that makes me want to write. And mostly my life, my encounters, experiences, and surroundings, all inspire my writing.

James: Can you enlighten us a little more about your books?

Lena : The Superiors series is my only adult series. Most of the books I've written are young adult, but the content of The Superiors got too adult along the way, so I changed it. I wanted to be able to put in anything I wanted, even disturbing parts, to give a true picture of the world. I thought if humans were kept as slaves or livestock, some things would be bleak, depressing, and even horrifying. So the book is a bit dark. It follows the journey of one Superior, Draven Castle, as he begins to rediscover his humanity with the help of a human runaway he captures one night.


James: Is there anything else you would like your readers to pay special attention in regards to your book, which you have not mentioned above?

Lena : The Superiors are advanced from humans, but they aren't the traditional pop-culture vampires with super powers and unbelievable beauty. They are as 'realistic' as I could make them, considering they are supernatural beings! Also, the book takes place 200 years in the future, once the takeover has already happened and Superiors are well established as rulers of humanity. The takeover is left mostly to the reader's imagination.

The character's aren't always completely self-aware, so at times you'll have unreliable narrators. There are a hundred other little devices I used to amuse myself, but I'll let people find them if they want to read into it that deeply. Or they can just enjoy the surface level story! There's lots going on.

James: When do you plan to publish your book 2.

Lena : I am in the process of editing book 2. It takes me much longer to edit and polish a piece than to write it the first time around. I want things to be as tight and consistent as they are in the first book, and that takes a while. I hope to have book 2 out sometime this summer.
James : How many volume of books for the above series ?

Lena : There are seven books in The Superiors series. I hope people enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. And thanks for the great interview, James!

Thank again Lena Hillbrand for joining us today. Let us wish her a fulfilling day.

James Oh