13 Questions with...Rebecca Carter

1. You’re hosting a dinner party. What is the menu, and do you cook it yourself, or do you call a caterer? 
Pasta and french bread pizzas. I'm a horrible cook but, if I do say so myself, I can make some awesome pasta dishes. I wouldn't hire a caterer, that's just not the kind of person I am. We even had Chick-Fil-A trays at my wedding instead of hiring someone to cater it.

2. What is your beverage of choice?
Mountain Dew. I'm addicted. 

3. Physical book Vs an E-Reader. Your preference and why?
Nothing can beat the way that a physical book feels and smells and flipping pages is satisfying in a way that scrolling on a screen can't be. I appreciate eBooks but there are things they can't replace. 

4. What kinds of books make up your personal library?
Unfortunately my library is understocked at the moment, but we were very tight on space until recently. If you looked at my bookshelf you would see lots of Accounting and Networking textbooks alternating between non fiction books on religion, mythology, history and art/film history. I love non fiction. Most of the fiction I read are shorts downloaded online, even though I prefer a physical book sometimes it isn't practical. 

5. How and when did you catch the writing bug?
I have been writing since I could remember but I only decided to continue to pursue writing in 2010. I was really disappointed in the horror genre and knew I had better stories to tell than what was coming out so I self published as a (successful) exercise. Now thousands of people own something that I wrote and that is very, very addictive. I couldn't stop now.

6. What is your writing routine? 
I don't have one. When I get an idea or the urge to write I just do it. My brain works at a thousand miles a minute so I have to let it go where it wants or I will lose the thought. 

7. If you ever encounter writer’s block, what steps do you take to get past it?
I just walk away for as long as it takes for me to want to finish a story. That probably doesn't work for someone on a deadline, but that's what it takes for me.

8. Do you have a hidden talent?
Is balancing ledgers a hidden talent? No? I guess probably not. Writing really is my "hidden talent". Sales Manager by day, horror author by every other waking minute.

9. What was your best subject in school?
Accounting. I was getting a business degree and in my first accounting class I realized that I liked it-and everyone else hated it. I switched to Accounting and got my degree in it.

10. As in any entertainment, there are current trends. How much do these “current trends” influence what you write?
I try not to let them influence me greatly but I have to admit that the reason I wrote "Hunger" for Moonlit Daydreams is I knew that there were people really into vampires and that if I left out a vampire story I would be isolating a big customer base. In the end I think I made sure it wasn't a paranormal vampire romance and I made the story mine.

11. Mac or PC?
PC! Mac's were great back in the day when you couldn't do what you needed on a PC. Now a Mac is just three times the cost with none of the customization. Then again I used to work in networking technical support, so my needs may be different than some other peoples.

12. Where do your ideas come from?
My brain. All kidding aside, I really don't know how to answer this one. I try and make my stories female centric because no one else does. Women are really overlooked as the "bad guy" or "the monster" unless there is a man romantically involved; we really deserve an equal run as the antagonist. 

13 What advice would you pass on to an aspiring author? 
Write for you first, your genre second, your fans third and the publishers last. If you can't get your work out with a publisher you can do it yourself. I didn't even try with a traditional publisher because that wasn't the vision I had. Don't compromise your art but don't forget the genre you are writing for. If you want genre fans to accept your work you have to respect their lines (or blow them out of the water if you're writing horror).

Review: Moonlit Daydreams

Moonlit Daydreams
by
Rebecca Carter
Available through Amazon in trade paperback or Kindle e-book, Lulu in paperback, on Smashwords as an e-book, and on Barnes & Noble's website as a Nook e-book.

Good evening constant reader. In a nutshell, if you like off the beaten path, into the darkened woods stories, that are short, to the point and visceral, exposing an interesting mind at work, then this book is for you.


Rebecca Carter has carved out a nice little niche for herself in the story telling world.
She spins five tales of oddness, that seem to begin out of no where, and end up right where she wanted you the reader, to be.

Story first is "Of the Children", a fevre dream of a story, about a scientist and her creation gone horribly wrong.
You see, Dr. Shaver and her science figured out how to make raptors ultra intelligent, and they were used to replace our military. Yes, you read that right. Raptors...as in the dinosaur, not the bird. Then came the outbreak...and chaos as the entire world is affected...and infected...including the raptors. And the raptors are smart enough to know they were used and are coming home to their creator.

Story second is "Hunger". We are the silent observer to Sarah's workaday world of frustration - working customer support is always fun, but there's something not quite right about Sarah. We follow her through a night out, and an incident which results in Sarah getting sick and having to resort to pig's blood and milk to feel better.
An unfortunate tale...where Mike meets Sarah and will wish he never had. Sarah isn't like everyone else - she's a vampire.

Story the third is "Midnight Strolls", where we the reader get to accompany Honna out on her prowls for prey. We have kidnapping and brutality from the female perspective, and it gets quite twisted and nasty. It seems chloroform is a girl's best friend...as well as a taser, shackles, knives, and that perennial favorite, duct tape. Oh and did I mention the gas soaked cotton balls down the throat?
I could go on, but you really should read this nasty nice piece of work for yourself.

Story the fourth is "Love", where one man's show of love, true love and caring, is one woman's one way ticket.

Story the fifth is "Special", the tale of one "special" young woman and her painful transformation into a werewolf. Think the transformation scene in the film An American Werewolf in London, times 10. Carter's detail makes you feel precisely what's happening.

Five little gems, short and to the point, but full of good writing. It's like you happened to stop by and pause a moment and look into the lives of these characters at very precise points in time and what points they are.
These are fully realized shorts, don't misunderstand. But if these are the sprouts from the seeds of Carter's imagination, good grief, imagine what the forest would be like!

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