Cazz’s Radio Debut

This has been an exciting week in the life of Dunraven Road. I’ve received reviews from TeensReadToo, who said that “DUNRAVEN ROAD was an enjoyable way to curl up and pass the evening. Although, granted, it’s not one I’d want to read on a dark night, alone!” (mission accomplished!); Mookychick, who described the book as “…a refreshing change of pace from the bloated, sugary-sweet Twilights of this world. A novel about the often bittersweet pain of passionate love set against a backdrop of sadism, drug abuse and violent inhumanity – this will appeal to fans of real vampires with bite” (ace!); and Fatally Yours, who confirmed a lot of the feedback I’ve been getting when they said “As for the human characters who take center stage for most of the book, unfortunately they are a rather unlikable group. Most are hopeless addicts, womanizers, cheaters, thieves, killers or doormats. Also, it takes a while for anyone to be identified as the lead character in the book… the story itself is nonetheless engaging… so that you wanted to keep reading” (very fair comments… I think I’ve unwittingly created a bit of an Emma. No, I haven’t written a novel about gossip and privilege in an isolated English village, but I do seem to have created characters that not many people can warm to, yet they’ve still enjoyed the story. I’m strangely proud of that because if I don’t like the characters in a novel, I usually don’t continue reading it. Jane Austen wrote of Emma: “I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like”; and I suppose I did the same with my character, Sapphire. Everyone seems to like the vampire Dylan though, which is handy because he’s currently in the last stages of starring in his very own sequel )

The week culminated with my interview on the reassuringly nice Mr Richard Green’s afternoon show on BBC Radio Devon. I’m pleased (and extremely relieved!) to announce that I didn’t say anything butt-clenchingly awful during my first live radio interview. I had worried about this event all week, trying to guess what his questions might be and coming up with suitable imaginary answers (although when I told Richard I’d been doing this after the interview, he gave me a very strange look…) After actually getting into the BBC Radio Devon building – I had to go through the strange rigmarole of holding a button in to speak through a locked door (“Um, hello, I’m Caroline Barnard-Smith!”) – I sat with my mum in the lobby (she was so excited about my first radio outing, I couldn’t keep her away) and made ridiculous small talk to allay the knowledge that I was about to speak to the third largest county in the UK live on air, not to mention all the friends and family members who were waiting with baited breath to hear the show online. Mum was quite content to wait in the lobby and listen to me over the tannoy system, but when she was told she could sit-in in the actual studio, she jumped at the chance. That was her first mistake. I’m sure when Richard Green told her that anyone inside the studio was expected to speak on the air and placed an obscenely large microphone in front of her face, she wished she’d waited in the car with my husband. She could have joined him as he listened to me while chewing on his fist, hoping I didn’t say anything ridiculously stupid that I could never live down. Ah, the sweet benefit of hindsight.

I was placed opposite Richard and provided with my own obscenely large microphone; which stared at me and dared me to answer his questions like some squat, eyeless monster. Thankfully, I refrained from descending into a mute panic attack and actually provided answers I was fairly satisfied with. He asked me about my background and about growing up in Devon (“As you can probably tell by the accent, I’m an Essex girl”); then moved on to my inspirations and my reasons for wanting to be a writer. During one short break, he asked me if it was sexist to wonder why a woman would want to write about vampires and horror (!) When I told him I’d always loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer and she was a feminist icon if ever there was one, he omitted that particular question once we returned to the air…

I’d like to thank Richard Green and BBC Radio Devon for having me and for making me feel so comfortable when I was nervous

I’ve uploaded the interview to YouTube so if you fancy a listen, follow this link. Listen out for my mum’s cameo appearance! My dad still hasn’t let her forget about the “bursting” comment… Poor woman!

The Twilight Diaries?

I have some news that is both exciting and pant-wettingly terrifying in equal measure – I’m going to be appearing on Richard Green’s afternoon show on BBC Radio Devon to talk about my book, vampires and life in the Westcountry. If you want to tune in, I’ll be on at 2.30 on Friday October 9. If you’re in the UK, you can listen live online, or catch it later on the BBC iPlayer. I’ve never done anything like this before so it may well be, um, interesting…

I finally got around to watching the first episode of The Vampire Diaries and was pleasantly impressed. I wasn’t expecting another Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I was hoping it was going to be better than True Blood (I can’t help it, even after getting excited over the awesome pilot, I’m just not warming to big-headed, self-important Sookie Stackhouse). Main character, Elena, seemed to have some actual balls; and I was genuinely interested in the mystery surrounding the return of vampire Stefan (did anyone else think he looked like a younger Angel?) and the feud between him and his brother, Damon. There were a couple of ‘oh my god!’ moments… The terrible, fake stage smoke that filled the graveyard and frightened Elena away immediately springs to mind; as does Candice Accola’s full-on, vixen act as Caroline Forbes (do teenagers really behave that way? Really?!) Overall, I enjoyed it and I’m loving the fact that Twilight mania has led to such a healthy crop of new vampire shows (even if I’m not loving the Twilight bit…) But I have to say that British offering, Being Human, is still yet to be beaten. This is a series about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost sharing a house in Bristol. It sounds like it should be crap but I actually found it was scarily addictive (and truly scary… werewolf transformations have freaked me out ever since Michael Jackson’s Thriller video gave me persistent nightmares as a kid). Plus, series one ended on a completely genius cliff hanger.

I’m not surprised The Vampire Diaries was fairly decent; it was, after all, based on the novels of the same name by L.J. Smith. I became addicted to her Night World series when I was an impressionable teenager and devoured them as quickly as my local library could stock them. I think Smith’s work is better written and more engaging that Stephanie Meyer’s (gasp!) Plus, her female characters aren’t simpering Victorians who will give up everything to be with a freaky, glowing stalker. L.J. Smith has just returned to writing after a 10-year hiatus due to family problems; during which she left the Night World fans who were expecting a spectacular conclusion coinciding with the millennium, firmly in suspense. I remember being extremely frustrated by this at the time, but there’s good news for new fans of the Night World series: The long-awaited conclusion, Strange Fate, will finally be published in April 2010.