I love Twitter because it puts me in contact with other writers who are amazing and interesting and who I would’ve never met otherwise. Mina Vaughn is one such authorly type, and so I’m happy to have her here talking about her debut: How To Discipline Your Vampire.
Tell Us About Yourself: Who The Hell Are You?
I’m Mina Vaughn, a pin up princess and a shoe whore with a heart of gold. I’m a vicious foodie, a globe-trotter, and a writer of comedic smut.
Give Us The 140-Character Story Pitch for How to Discipline Your Vampire:
A punishment-seeking vampire meets a role play-obsessed Domme and hilarity ensues.
Where Does This Story Come From?
I like combining genres and just sticking my head into the echo-chamber of pop culture and seeing what sticks together. For me, nothing was a funnier or more relevant concept than vampires and bondage.
How Is This A Story Only You Could’ve Written?
Well, I think to pull off such a strange combination, you really need to have a sense of humor and the ability to NOT take yourself too seriously. Which I think is hard for writers, especially debut authors. When my agent said she wanted to read this, I was sort of stunned. Then, when Simon and Schuster wanted to buy it, I realized that– my god– other people thought this was funny and not completely weird and insane.
What Was The Hardest Thing About Writing How to Discipline Your Vampire?
I’d say balancing the sex and the humor. I really had to take a good look at where jokes were in relation to the steamy scenes. The last thing you want during a sensual moment is to laugh, since that breaks the mood. And there is a lot of sex in this book. But there is also a metric fuckton of humor. So yeah, balance.
What Did You Learn Writing How to Discipline Your Vampire?
I learned that quirks define us. There are billions of people in the world, zillions of stories. To write one that sticks requires originality of epic proportions. I think part of the reason that my story was picked up by such a major house was the fact that they hadn’t seen anything like it before.
What Do You Love About How to Discipline Your Vampire?
The girl power. Cerise is a Domme, and in a genre dominated (pun intended) by alpha males, I have a badass heroine and a submissive hero. He is still swoonsauce, he still makes all her dreams come true, but he doesn’t growl at her or stalk her. I would like to see more non-alphas in the world of romance.
What Would You Do Differently Next Time?
Next time I’d push the envelope with stakes. This story is more about characters, not earth-shaking consequences, so I think that if I write a sequel, it would have to up the excitement factor.
Give Us Your Favorite Paragraph From The Story:
Reveal to me only what you choose. Show me only what I deserve to see. I await.
I smiled at his wording. He was being very careful with me, as he should. Every sub understood that his Domme should set the pace, and even though he knew we were entering a sexual relationship, he didn’t want to assume too much. Good. This move empowered me and put me in the right mindset. I couldn’t be swooning and falling all over him—what kind of message would that send? They say in the teaching world, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” Essentially, if you were a softie from the start, they had full reign to walk all over you.
Remember not to smile, remember not to smile, I kept telling myself as I got into character– Muffy the Vampire Spanker.
What’s Next For You As A Storyteller?
I’m currently working other books in the vein of my debut. Namely, funny Dommes taking over the world one unsuspecting gentleman at a time.
Mina Vaughn: Website / Twitter
How To Discipline Your Vampire: Amazon / B&N
delilah says:
5 points for using the word SWOONSAUCE! And have your lovely cover plastered all over the XOXOAfterDark site at Pocket. <3 Can't wait to read it!
August 15, 2013 — 8:38 AM
Elizabeth Poole says:
Pre-order! What BS is that????? I want it NOW! I LOVE funny romance books with actual character development. This looks hilarious and sexy!
*grumble* Guess I’ll wait a few days. It’s preordered, so now we play the waiting game…
August 15, 2013 — 9:32 AM
Paul Weimer (@PrinceJvstin) says:
I think I might have to read this. For the laughs.
August 15, 2013 — 10:02 AM
Mina Vaughn says:
Thanks for having me, Chuck! I enjoy sharing my terrible mind with others.
August 15, 2013 — 10:12 AM
Shannon says:
I’m way excited for this! Mina is such a fun & sexy writer!!
August 15, 2013 — 3:37 PM
Roselle Kaes says:
I can’t wait to read this! Sounds like a lot of fun.
As for the fanfic comparisons, I find this unjustified. Just because there’s a vampire in the novel doesn’t mean it’s fanfic drivel, etc. Judging anything by a trope is unfair to both the writer and the work.
August 15, 2013 — 3:38 PM
msdebraanastasiaD says:
Love this book and this author!!!
August 15, 2013 — 5:00 PM
deadlyeverafter says:
It doesn’t really matter what inspired the author to write the story, just that the writing was good enough to get picked up by a Big Six publisher. This is a fun and sexy story that I enjoyed tremendously.
Sigh.
Kristen
August 15, 2013 — 6:15 PM
abuzzinid says:
I love it already. Pre-order here I come. As for being fan-fic. Who cares? It’s not tied to the original. BTW–Laurell Hamilton paired BDSM with vampires over a decade ago.
Thanks, Chuck.
August 15, 2013 — 6:58 PM
terribleminds says:
There’s been some discussion here as to the origins of this story, and I’m not really interested in having that discussion here. Please have it elsewhere.
Much appreciated.
— c.
August 15, 2013 — 7:16 PM
sour dizzle (@carenl) says:
Really disappointed you’d allow your readers to be misinformed about this books’ origins by deleting or not approving comments.
August 15, 2013 — 7:30 PM
terribleminds says:
This is a place to promote the book, not a lie detector test.
I don’t care where the origins of the story come from, nor am I particularly concerned if Mina wants to divulge them. Fan-fic or fever dream, it matters little to me.
She is a guest of this place. So are the commenters here. I ask that everyone behave themselves. That may not be seen as fair by some, and that’s unfortunate.
But the reality is, this is not a conversation to be had here.
Again, if you want to have it elsewhere, please do.
Just not here.
Thanks for respecting that going forward.
— c.
August 15, 2013 — 8:07 PM
Kate (@katinki01) says:
To the comment: “It doesn’t really matter what inspired the author to write the story, just that the writing was good enough to get picked up by a Big Six publisher.”
I’ll respectfully disagree by pointing out that Big Six publishers care only for cash. If that’s all that matters… well, okay then.
August 15, 2013 — 9:12 PM
Matthew Brown says:
Writing stuff that readers buy is how they get their cash. Readers tend to buy books they enjoy, especially since a lot of book buying is via recommendation.
Cash is hardly the only measure of value, but it’s certainly one valid one, because it reflects a real-world, (ideally) no-bullshit measure: that people are willing to part with money for it.
August 15, 2013 — 9:39 PM
Rhonda Rakes says:
Muffy the Vampire Spanker. LOVE it! I have a feeling I’m going to like this book.
August 15, 2013 — 10:20 PM
Jeanne says:
I’m sad that you felt the need to delete the comments that gave background on the origins of this book. I understand your desire to protect authors from abusive comments, but couldn’t you have either asked for them to edited out the offensive or inflammatory language in their comments or posted your own comment with the relevant information they provided. I’ve seen other book blogs (like Dear Author, Smart Bitches, etc) handle these kinds of issues more diplomatically, allowing for the information to be shared, while still keeping offensive off topic harassment out of their comment threads.
As a reader, and someone who also does not wish to buy or read repurposed fan fiction, I would like to feel that I can trust you to not censor information that might directly affect my decision to read/purchase this book.
Again I respect your instinct to protect authors in this space, but I also ask you to consider tactics that preserve the trust of your readers that you will not conceal or obscure important information that may affect their decision making. We have a right to make fully informed decisions about what we read and how we spend our money.
Thank you for your time and consideration
August 15, 2013 — 10:36 PM
terribleminds says:
I appreciate your viewpoint. But a promotional interview is not meant to be a fact-finding expedition.
Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor inclination to vet the origins of every story that get promoted during the Thursday interviews. I did not hire private detectives to suss out the true origins of Mike Underwood’s CELEBROMANCY, for instance.
So, folks coming on here and making accusations of the author is baseless and, at times, bullying. If her work originated with fan-fiction matters little to me and I don’t require her to divulge that information. If it DIDN’T come from fan-fiction, I don’t require her to divulge that information. I don’t care if it came from an acid trip in the jungles of Borneo nor do I care whether she’s honest about if it came from said acid trip in the jungles of Borneo. Some fantasy novels are practically D&D fanfiction but nobody is asking them to “come clean.”
What I see here is a small cabal of very vocal, very unpleasant commenters who are being bullies to an author because they don’t like the idea that someone seems to have found origin material from a novel they apparently adore — TWILIGHT? — and that seems to give them license to show up here and pick on the author. As if any of that even matters. If she found inspiration from TWILIGHT or fan-fiction about TWILIGHT or Anne Rice or Tiffany Reisz’s novels or, or, or, I really don’t care, nor is it my job to perform the due diligence to find out. She wrote a book. A publisher is publishing it. It looks fun. Good for her.
What I also know is that this same cabal of authors has seen fit to jump my shit on Twitter, suggesting that I have no integrity, that I “sicken” them, or that they find this whole thing “disgusting,” etc. — basically calling me to task to somehow make this right unless I’m wrong.
There’s nothing to make right. I’ve seen this kind of gang mentality before and it’s cruel and mean-spirited and frequently baseless. If someone had chosen instead to write me a diplomatically-worded email, this might be a different conversation, but that’s not what happened.
This has taken up way too much of my time.
And so, with that, this conversation is now over.
If anyone cares to pursue this particular line of inquiry, I’d advise you to do it elsewhere lest you find your comments marked as “spam.”
— c.
August 16, 2013 — 7:04 AM
Jeanne says:
Could you make it clearer on your blog that this is purely a promotional space, not a place for open discussion (or dissenting opinions). At first glance this site and interview post looked no different than any other blog post I’ve seen on the book blogs I listed in my previous comment.
Therefore it seemed reasonable to expect open, uncensored discussion of the book and the controversy associated with it. If not, it would be helpful to future readers to make it explicit that if they have an issue with the content or subject of a post to email you rather than commenting. There was nothing here to indicate that commenting was unacceptable, so your expectation of an email doesn’t make sense to me.
While it’s reasonable for you want to manage how people interact with the content on your site and to want to protect the authors you’ve invited into this space from what you perceive to be bulling. But without having seen the “bullying behavior” in question, due to your deletion of their comments, I can only go off of is your behavior and tone, which at the least is unprofessional.
I understand that you do not want to be part of this published fan fiction issue, but you cannot completely divorce yourself from the controversy when you’re promoting one on your blog (whether you believe it was fan fic or not). While I believe you were ignorant of this fact, though a quick look at the GoodReads profile for the book would have made you aware that it was in question, now that you know it’s unrealistic to think you can ignore it. You do not need to prove or disprove if it was once a fan fic or not, but it’s irresponsible to say it is not your problem when you are actively promoting something questionable on your blog and actively censoring dissenting opinions about it.
By promoting this book you are entering the space of erotica, romance and (whether you believe it or not) Twilight fan fiction. You are not an expert or authority in these spaces. Yet, you presume to tell these women, who are active readers and bloggers in these genres and members of these communities, to shut up because YOU know better. When you clearly do not.
You completely mischaracterize what publishing fan fiction for profit is and blithely dismiss the negative impact of it has on both the community of fans it exploits and the industry that rewards and perpetuates that exploitation. A negative impact that even the RITA awards recognizes is enough of an issue that they now excluded books that “have been previously available as fan-fiction.”
As a guest in this space, seeking to promote a book to the readers who know far more about it than you do, I would expect you would respect our views, and opinions even if you don’t agree with them. That you would handle these kinds of situations in a professional manner and not resort to reductive name calling.
What bothers me the most is your inability to grasp how the dismissive and condescending tone you employed in this situation impacts women, like myself, who encounter similar contempt every day, no matter the subject. Where outsiders come into our spaces to make fun of our interests, to question our intelligence and authority even when it’s in regard to books we’ve been reading longer than they have. We get called names and mischaracterize our behavior as “crazy, catty, bullying or bitchy” in order to discredit and silence our valid opinions.
People who look down their noses at us even as they take our money, and waste OUR time.
I won’t be surprised if you put on your spam filter, but I hope I’ve given you something to think about, and that the next time you are promote a book in an unfamiliar genre and community you will think about the readers you’ve alienated with your condescending tone and dismissive attitude.
August 16, 2013 — 8:30 PM
terribleminds says:
At this point, you’re putting a whole lot of words in my mouth. I’m not telling anybody that I’m an authority. I’m not telling anyone to shut up. I’m saying that this is not the venue to discuss it. I’ve said that I don’t know how many times now here and over Twitter.
This is the last time I will say it.
This is not the venue for this discussion.
Go have it on Goodreads or some other blog. Not here.
— c.
August 16, 2013 — 9:37 PM
Leisa Rayven says:
My care-factor from where a story originates is in negative digits. I care about how a story speaks to me. If I’m engaged, it could have started as Pokemon fanfiction for all I care. (Wait, no, I lie. Pokemon really is my hard limit.)
Looking forward to reading Mina’s book. 🙂
August 16, 2013 — 9:13 AM
Traci Olsen says:
“I would like to see more non-alphas in the world of romance.” <–ermahgerd THIS. I totally get that everyone loves billionaire alphas, but this girl loves her some subby hotness. I can't wait to read this book.
Also: Ugh. How many former fics must be published and loved on their own merits til it's clear nobody cares except these 10 people? The arguments have been made. We're all over it. Let's just read some smutty smut and call it a day.
August 20, 2013 — 1:37 PM
Sarah Brabazon says:
Due to the juxtaposition of Vampire and Vaughan in the title of your post (that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it), I misread the title as ‘How to Discipline Your Vagina’. The cover seemed to back this up… until I got to the gothic font. Dammit, nobody disciplines a vagina in Gothic.
August 21, 2013 — 3:51 AM
Louise Curtis says:
I misread this as “Ten Ways to Discipline your vagina”. Thought you’d be pleased.
September 5, 2013 — 6:10 AM