As the sun sets and the darkness begins to settle in,
they come out of the shadows to terrorize family and friends,
to steal their loved ones from their very homes, and to shed the
blood of the innocent victims to satisfy their hunger.
No we're not talking about a band of wild animals, in fact, they aren't
even real. Or are they? They are the creatures created in the
imagination of a local Middleboro Massachusetts woman in her
recently released horror book titled Twilight Predators -Book One.
The author, Carol Camara, is originally from Provincetown, where her mother Ann Souza still resides. She was the oldest of five children, graduated from Provincetown High School and then attended Salem State College and more recently Bristol Community College. She moved to Middleboro about twenty-two years ago with her two children Ann and Victor and works at the Winthrop Atkins Company as their Systems Administrator. Along with her husband Michael who is from Mattapoisett, they enjoy working in their yard and spending time with their families and especially their grandchildren Stephen, Jeremy Devin and Jessica.
We asked Carol a few questions to try to understand how and why she wrote in the genre that she did and how she finally decided to get her novel published in POD (Print on Demand) format.
Why horror and not romance or adventure?
I have always been a fan of the older horror moves like Dracula and the Vincent Price movies. Dracula was always my favorite and scared me more than all the others. I also remember watching other movies like Premature Burial at the old Provincetown Movie Theatre with my friends and then being scared to death walking home. I tried writing a romance book a while ago and ended up deleting the whole thing. It just didn't sound natural. When I started Twilight Predators it just seemed to come naturally and flow smoothly. The strange thing is I watch horror movies with a blanket ready to cover my eyes at the real bad parts, and I know if they ever made a movie of my book I'd never be able to watch the whole thing without that blanket.
Where do you get your inspiration for some of the scenes in your book?
Where do I get my inspiration? I really don't know. I'll just sit down with an idea of where the story is going and type whatever comes into my head. I usually know how the book is going to start and how it will end, but not too much about what is going to happen in between until I actually start writing it. Then I'll change the events five or six times before I'm happy with them and can start the finished draft. I'm sure a lot of it is part bits and pieces of movies and books I've seen or read just reworked to fit my ideas and part just ideas that seem to be there when I start writing.
How hard was it to get your book published?
As any first time author knows, getting a book published is a long and sometimes brutal process. The first thing I did was give the completed draft to a few people who I knew read Ann Rice and Stephen King type books, and a few who didn't usually read those types of books, to see what they thought. I got real positive feedback and a few good constructive remarks on how I could improve it, so I took all that into consideration and decided to go on with the book. (Thanks guys, you know who you are!!). First I contacted a few publishing houses only to find that they don't look at manuscripts from authors, you had to submit it through an agent. Then it's trying to find an agent you feel comfortable with, that handles the genre you write in, and who is handling new clients. After that you submit your manuscript and wait to see if it was accepted or rejected. The whole process is very time consuming and nerve wracking. Some agencies charge you reading fees or other charges whether they accept your manuscript or not. I decided to look into a process called Print on Demand (POD) to see if it would fit into my plans for the book rather than invest years of my time to try to get it published in the "traditional" manner. I did a lot of research on the individual POD publishers before I chose the one I went with. Just like anything else, you have to do your homework and be sure of the company you're dealing with.
What is Print on Demand and how does it work?
With Print on Demand, your manuscript is stored in digital format along with your cover art. Through this new technology, the books are printed as they are ordered. The print-on-demand network allows books to be printed and bound one or more copies at a time, economically and quickly. The result is a high quality paperback book with four-color laminated cover and perfect or saddle-stitch binding. Books range from 100 to 800 pages in all standard trim sizes: 5x8, 5.8.5, 6x9, 7.5x9.25, 8.25x11. So if a store orders one hundred for resale, then one hundred are printed. There is no warehousing of the book until it is sold, so therefore no inventory problems, and no large overhead for the publisher.
Is this similar to Vanity Press?
Not really. In Vanity Press printing, you as the author pay to have so many books printed. You have paid the cost associated with the printing, which can be quite high if you print a lot of them, and if the books don't sell, you have invested a lot of money. Most vanity presses will print anything you send them because you are paying for it and it doesn't matter to them whether they sell or not. With Print on Demand you may pay a small up front fee to cover the cost of converting your file to their format, the time spent proofing the document and correspondence back and forth, but that is all. Usually the publisher will offer your book for sale to the public on their site and some, like the one I chose (www.iuniverse.com), also have it listed on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. They issue the book an ISBN number so that if a bookstore wants to carry the title they know where to purchase it. Retailers can contact iuniverse to purchase the book for resale at 877-823-9235. You, as the author, have to promote your book to bookstores and other outlets like that but they handle all the sales both through websites and to bookstores. They keep track of sales and send you a royalty check for the books sold. We also have a website up www.twilight.freewebspace.com that will keep our readers up to date on release dates and any other titles being worked on. From this site there is a link to the website where the book can be previewed and/or purchased. We also have an email address on the site (twilightpredators@yahoo.com ) and look forward to both comments and questions from our readers. If you send us an email we will keep you informed as each book is released. We are hoping to get local booksellers to also carry the book but right now that is still in process.
What is Twilight Predators about?
Well I'll make this real brief so as not to give too much away. It is the story of a small New England town that is stalked by creatures bent on destroying them. People begin to disappear and only one man knows what is stalking them and how to destroy them. He must get at least some of the people to believe him and help him and his group destroy these Félhomály Ragadozó (Twilight Predators) before they increase their numbers and take even more victims. It also focuses on one little boys "imaginings" and how his connection with these creatures affects him and those around him.
I notice it is book one. Is their another coming out?
Yes, there are two more. Also The Kindred is now out and the third one - the Encounter - should be out by the end of 2008. There is also a rough draft hanging around my office for a book about a serial killer called A Single Flower. But that will have to wait until I finish at least TheEncounter.