V.J. Chambers was first mentioned on Edward-Cullen.Net during our '30 Days of Edward' Celebration. However, for those of you who may not recognize the name, V.J. Chambers is the indie author of the novel Breathless. You may also find the name fimilar because we have a Breathless button on our sidebar. During '30 Days of Edward' ECN dubbed Breathless as an "Edward-worthy" story, and we still stand by our word. Breathless is definitely not your typical story, but still, there are elements of it that remind me why so many people fell in love with Twilight. There's a certain something that draws you in, and it doesn't hurt that there's a bit of forbidden love in the mix.
Jackie (webmiss @ ECN) was honored and glad to be able interview V.J. Chambers via MySpace. In the interview she talks Breathless, Twilight, books, and writing your own book! So, enjoy the interview, and hopefully it gets you interested!
Q: For people who may not read your work, can you please explain Breathless?
A: Breathless is the story of Azazel, a teenage girl who lives in what she thinks is a pretty normal town. When Jason--dark, haunted, and chased by covert forces--shows up, though, everything starts to get weirder and weirder.
Q: When did you start writing Breathless, and how did you get the idea for this story?
A: I got the idea for Breathless in September of 2008. I vaguely outlined the story then and did some research. I didn't actually start writing it until the week of Thanksgiving, when I wrote it at breakneck speed over nine days!
The original idea for the story happened while I was watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, because I got the idea for the character of Jason. I wondered what would happen to a guy who'd been raised in a situation where he was considered the savior of the world, but then suddenly had to interact with people like a normal teenager.
I didn't find a way into that story until I conceived it like Twilight, as a young adult romance-thriller.
Q: Why did you choose to post Breathless as an online serial novel?
A: Originally, I attempted to get Breathless published traditionally. But the publishing industry is in bad shape right now and isn't too much into acquiring work from no-name authors. I had started a myspace page for the book, hoping to prove to agents that the book had an audience. The agents weren't interested, and I got form letter rejection after form letter rejection. After my myspace friends continued pushing to read it, I decided I would go ahead and publish it myself.
Q: On banners, you sometimes use the tagline: Edward is married, Jason's still single. Does that mean your a fan of Twilight? If you are a fan, which was your favorite book and why?
A: I am definitely a fan of Twilight, but I came to the party a little bit late. I teach high school, and all through the 2007-08 school year, I saw my students toting around Twilight. I asked one of them about the book once, and she told me in a gushing voice, "Oh, it's so good. It's about a girl who falls in love with a vampire."
I rolled my eyes and thought, "Oh, that's never been done." And didn't read the book.
That summer, I was off, and suddenly single, so I picked up the book, thinking to myself, "Can thousands of teenage girls be so wrong?" They weren't. I was instantly hooked. I read Twilight in a few days, and was off to the bookstore to buy both New Moon and Eclipse. The wait for Breaking Dawn was excruciating, but I only had a month! I can't imagine what it was like for everyone else.
My favorite book of the series is New Moon. I think it resonated deeply with me, because at the time of reading it, I was going through a devastating break up with a guy who I thought was the love of my life. When Edward leaves, and I turned those blank pages that just said the names of the months, I thought, "Yes! Exactly. It's like that!" I felt half dead during the months after that break up. It was amazing to me that I even breathed.
Luckily for me, that guy wasn't my "Edward," and I found him later. Good guys are worth waiting for, even if you have to go through heartbreak to find them.
Honestly, I worried that my "Edward is married" tagline would offend fans of Twilight, because I thought it was a little too sassy. Mostly, so far anyway, people have found it amusing, which is what I intended.
Q: I remember when you first added me on Myspace, you said that I would probably like Breathless because I liked Twilight. (And, you were right!) Why do you think Twilight fans will like your story?
A: It's funny, because on the surface, Breathless isn't a lot like Twilight. After all, there aren't any vampires. I think, and this is difficult to be sure of, that I knew when I wrote Breathless that I wanted to try to create a story that "felt" like Twilight. I wanted to write a story about desperation and forbidden love and intrigue and suspense and the kind of romance that is just so intense, it swallows you.
I'm not sure if I did that, but for me, Breathless was always connected to Twilight in some ways. I wrote it a gallop after watching the Twilight movie, because something within the story made me want to tell a story of my own like that.
Sometimes I worry that the comparison doesn't really fit and that Twilight fans will be disappointed because of the lack of vampires or the lack of werewolves or even the lack of sparkling. But so far, the response to the book has been overwhelmingly positive, and I'm flattered and grateful.
Q: You've said Breathless will be available to buy in book form. Do you know when this might be and where people can buy the book from?
A: Yes! There is a link on my website (vjchambers.com) to buy Breathless. Currently, the book is only available through createspace. It will also be available through Amazon, but it takes 15 days to create the Amazon page, so you'll be able to buy it there sometime in mid-July.
The entire text of Breathless is still being posted one chapter at a time on Mondays and Thursdays at vjchambers.com, and it will remain there for free forever. The book does contain about twenty pages of extras, including a chapter-by-chapter commentary, an interview with Jason, and the first scene of the sequel, Trembling. None of that material will be available on the web.
Q: Was Azazel (the voice of your story) based on anyone you know or possibly yourself?
A: Certainly there are aspects of me that have found their way into Azazel. For instance, when I was in high school, I was extremely interested in having sex, but couldn't find anyone to do it with me. (I still contend that this was because boys were intimidated by my intellect and not because I was ugly, because once I got to college, no one thought I was ugly.)
The person that's probably actually the most ME in the story is the English teacher, Ms. Campbell, although she's way cooler than I actually am.
Q: What are some books that you enjoy that you would recommend?
A: OMG, I just finished The Morganville Vampire series, by Rachel Caine, and I cannot say enough good stuff about it. It is seriously one of the most fabulous series of vampire books I've ever read.
I could probably write about three pages on books I really, really like, so I'll try to limit this to some stuff I've read recently that's really been great. The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld is absolutely brilliant. And I'm a huge, huge fan of Holly Black. Oh—I think the person writing the best vampire novels right now is Charlaine Harris. And the best horror/dark fantasy author of like all time is Caitlin R. Kiernan. She writes the richest, most beautifully disturbing prose.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for people who want to write a book?
A: Two things that helped me specifically actually finish a book for the first time were writing an outline and setting daily goals. I don't always use either of these when writing, but I know that they are tools that are there for me when I need them.
If you want to write a novel and never have, a great time to start is to try National Novel Writing Month in November. (nanowrimo.org) It's kind of cool to know that authors all over the world are trying to do the same thing you are and that you can support each other.
As a final note on that, I'd just say that there's sometimes a vague sense of snobbery in the writing world, as if we writers are looking at other people's work and simply trying to pick it apart for errors. I think we sometimes worry way too much about whether our stuff (or other people's stuff) is "good enough," and focus less on having fun. Writing is playing pretend. It's like being able to go back to being a kid. So if you want to write—do it. And don't worry about whether or not it's good. Just worry about what it is you want to say and how to say it the best you can. The world is a very big place, and your audience may be small, but it's also probably out there, waiting to find you.
Q: Do you have any other stories you are working on? And anything else you would like to say?
A: Currently, I'm finishing up the last book in the Jason and Azazel trilogy, which is called Tortured, and is set (mostly) in Italy. I'm also throwing around some ideas in my head for a fantasy novel that involves a hidden world and a boy who never talks. I've got about eight unpublished manuscripts sitting around, so I'm sure there will be more out soon.
Intrested? To start reading Breathless, please click here.
To buy Breathless, please click here.
To add V.J. Chambers on MySpace, please click here.
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