Sandy's Interview with Booboo Kitty about 'Divinity'

We’re through the looking glass here, people. Okay, folks, listen up, this is a story that takes us well beyond fanfic territory. I’m talking about Divinity by booboo_kitty.

Summary: Bella is a ruthless demon hunter for the Lebriga Corp’s L.A. branch. Will her new trainee, Edward, finally be the one to bring out the woman inside the tough-chick? Or will the presence of a new demon clan in town make it impossible to get through to her?

But before you scamper off to soak it all up, let’s have a chat with the author and I’ll rave about this piece some more.

Now I’m sure you all know the drill. Fan Fiction is where you take established characters from a certain genre and write your own story. Some of us do it because we get the chance to write the kind of story we would like the original to have been, or because we want to know more beyond the official ‘end’ of the books.

There are other authors – and you’ll be seeing me interview a few more – who have taken the characters and breathed an entirely new life into them.

Divinity is one such example, and I absolutely love it.

I can’t remember how I stumbled across this one, but as soon as I read the prologue I was hooked:

Demons.

They're everywhere, hiding in plain sight. Lawyers, doctors, politicians, Hollywood agents, the guy on the corner, the lady ringing up your groceries, your kid's principal or the over exuberant PTA mom that runs every bake sale and fundraiser at the school.

Chances are you've interacted with one or two in your lifetime without even realizing it on a conscious level. But your body knew.

Deep down in your bones you sensed something wrong and unholy about them. Something in the cut of their jib that just really made your skin crawl and set your teeth on edge. A natural, inbred reaction to their unnaturalness. Instinct. 

My name is Isabella Marie Swan. I work for the Lebriga Corporation. And I hunt demons.

If you were to see me on the street I would look like any other twenty-three year old, give or take a year or two. And once upon a time, I was.

See what I mean?

All the usual suspects are here in this story, but in ways that you have never seen them before. Edward’s the rookie, Bella is old beyond her years. Throw in some life threatening situations, mystical tattoos and hard bitten sass, and you’ve got a winning combination.

My advice? Run, do not walk, to read this story.

But first, on with the interview!

INTERVIEW

1. What was it that gave you the ‘spark’ for your story? Was it a picture? A moment or event? Can you remember the initial inspiration?

My brain in constantly buzzing with ideas and I see parts of a story in flashes, like bits of a movie, if that makes any sense. Divinity is something that has been kicking around inside my head for quite awhile so I decided to jot it down because a lot of these things sound good initially but once you start to flesh them out, they never come into fruition.

I initially wrote the prologue as a one shot for an original fic contest but after the contest was over I couldn’t get the main character out of my head. So, I started outlining it, just to see what would come out and then pitched the idea to my beta.

2. Do you have a particular process when it comes to your writing, perhaps a certain mood, environment or music? Do you have any ‘triggers’ to get you in the writing mood?

I have certain spots in the house that I like to be in when I write that, for whatever reason, the words flow better in those places than in others. Quiet is also good trigger for me, a nice quite house when everyone else has gone to sleep or when everyone is at school.

Music is hit or miss with me and it really depends on what I’m writing whether or not I want music on or not because sometimes it’s just more of a distraction than a help.

3. Give us an elevator pitch. Say you’re in an elevator with a prospective reader for 2 minutes – what would you tell them about the story?

Oh God, I suck at these. I guess I’d just tell them something similar to the summary…Bella is a bad ass demon hunter in LA and Edward is brought in by corporate as the trainee assigned to her. It’s an adventure/romance fic with a lot of humor and action.

Like I said, I suck at this type of thing, I’m probably the worst self pimper on the planet. Of course, I’m sure there is a good chunk of authors that feel the same way LOL.

4. Do you picture particular actors for your characters, or are they someone else entirely? If so, who?

Someone else entirely I think. I know I have Rob & Kristen on the banner for the story on Twilighted, but only because they are what’s familiar and identifiable to the majority of the fandom. There isn’t one person that I can say point to and say “Yes, that’s my Bella/Edward” I mean, I see them in my head, but they don’t look like one identifiable person.

5. Is the story all planned out or do you do it as a fly by the seat of your pants thing?

This is actually the first fic I’ve ever worked with an outline and it’s a VERY loose outline. I’ll write down a rough outline for an individual chapter if I don’t have time to sit down and write out the entire thing, that way I don’t lose the initial idea, which has been very useful. But I do like to keep it loose because I do prefer the freedom of letting the story flow naturally.

6. Have you got any other projects going on? Any planned for the future?

I do have a little side project going on but I try not to have too many irons in the fire. I like to update on a regular basis and if I have too many things going I can’t do that.

7. What was it that brought you to Twilight fanfic? What is it that has kept you here (besides your own writing)

I think it was the same thing that brought a lot of people to the fanfic, wanting more. I didn’t know anything about fanfic and stumbled across it on Twilight fan site and thought, “Oh hey, what’s THIS?”

I’d always written and had written something for some friends of mine before I’d ever known about the fanfic community. I found Twilighted and after a gentle shove from a very good friend of mine, I submitted the first chapter of my first fic.

What keeps me here is the amazing women I have met. They amaze me and crack me up.

8. Do you have a background in writing? Has the fanfic experience expanded your creativity? 

I’ve always written, albeit as a hobby, and knew virtually nothing about punctuation when it pertained to quotation marks and what not. But I have an amazing beta that has taken me under her wing and I have learned so much from her and made an amazing friend.

9. How about your creative self-confidence? By nature writers tend to be a notoriously insecure lot so how are you finding the online writing experience?

I think I’m a decent writer and I know I still have a lot to learn. I’ve been told that I have an unusual style, but I don’t know about that. I just write down what’s inside my head and this experience has made me more confident as a writer. I still suck at self promotion and feel nauseated every time I post a new chapter or a new fic or even tweet a link to my fic.

You know, written little drabbles for friends and what not over the years and they have always told me that I was a good writer. Which is awesome, but they are my friends. It’s something completely different when a stranger, from halfway across the globe that doesn’t know me from Adam and has no reason in the world to say that they like something I’ve written to say that they like something I’ve written. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that it means more to me but it is a great confidence booster, not gonna lie.

10. Do you tell your friends and family that you’re an online author with a devoted following, or is this something that you tend to keep for yourself? 

LOL! I don’t know about the devoted following part, but yeah, everyone I know in real life knows what I do.

My philosophy is this, those that matter don’t care and those that care don’t matter. Honestly, my true friends and family are thrilled that I am happy and that I’m doing something that I love and that brings me joy. Hell, even my husband pimps out my fic to the nurses he works with that are Twilight fans. I think that’s awesome! The people in my life that would judge me and look down on me because I write something that they feel is silly or a waste of time, I say screw them and odds are I probably never liked them to begin with.

12. Is there a particular character in your story that you identify with the most? 

Oh gosh, probably a compilation of all of them really. I think it’s just natural and inevitable to put an amount of yourself into your characters. If I had to pick one, though, I’d say Emmett. Mostly because I am the joke cracker and I am very easy going like him.

13. Which RL author(s) inspires you?

Stephenie, of course, mostly because I’m a stay at home mom as well so I can identify with that aspect. I know that sounds horribly cheesy and cliché, but it is what it is LOL.

14. Did any FF authors inspire you? What was it that had you reading FF and thinking “I could do this”?

They all do. Every single woman that has the courage to put their stuff out there for the world to devour inspires me every day.

I do have to give big props to my beta, vjgm. She has inspired me more than I can even begin to express. I call her my Jedi Master, my Yoda. She has really taught me so much and encouraged me to spread my wings and try something different. I just adore her.

15. I have a hard time winding these things up so let’s have some fun. What would your porn star name be? That’s the name you get when you combine the name of your first pet with the first street you lived on – personally I’m *cough* Fluffy Brockman.

LMAO! Duchess Holms.

Sandy's Interview with Booboo Kitty about 'Divinity'