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Who is Terri Garey?

I’m a Southern girl with an overactive imagination, who grew up in Florida, always wondering why tropical prints and socks with sandals were considered a fashion statement. I survived the heat by reading in the shade, and watching cool shows like the The Twilight Zone and the classic gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. Born too late to be a hippy and too early to be a Goth, I did the logical thing and became a computer geek. Balancing a career with marriage and motherhood convinced me that life was too short to rely entirely on the left side of my brain, and quirky ideas about life among the undead began to replace the dry logic of computers. Deciding imagination was my best weapon in the war against reality, I dove even deeper into the world of the unexplained, and started writing my own demented tales from the dark side.

DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY (October 2007), was my first published novel, followed by A MATCH MADE IN HELL (July 2008), a novella called GHOULS NIGHT OUT (June 2008, as part of the Avon anthology “Weddings From Hell”), and I’ll have two more novels released next year, YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I HAUNT (March 2009) and another, as yet untitled, in November.  Each one features Nicki Styx, a former Goth girl who survives a near-death experience to become an unwilling “ghoulfriend” to the dead.

How did you develop your protagonist, Nicki Styx?

Weird as it may sound (particularly to those who’ve met me!) I must admit that I consider Nicki, in some ways, to be my alter ego.  She’s who I’d like to be (minus the seeing dead people part!)  I got married very young, had children, worked full-time in the computer industry, and never really got the chance to be young and carefree, much less Goth—I was always too busy being responsible!  Her wicked sense of humor is mine, but Nicki’s much more comfortable saying things out loud than I am.    I felt like adding a gothic aspect to her personality would make her life more interesting—it’s one thing to be “into the dark side”, but it’s a whole other ballgame when the dark side becomes interested in you, don’t you think?  

My husband and I have done a lot of volunteering in the arts community, so I’m very comfortable with people who are willing to be a little “out there”, so to speak.  I’ve never seen a ghost, but I know some very credible people who claim they have.  So basically, the idea of Nicki Styx came from playing the “what if” game:  What if a free-spirited young woman, who thought the darker side of life was cool, actually died, then came back to life and started seeing spirits herself?  How would she deal with it?  How would it change her as a person?  Would it still be cool?  Her character really fell into place in my mind after that.

You never give Nicki a break through her ghoulish adventures. With each page, there is always something that she has to deal with - and it typically adds another twist to the plot. How do you come up with that many ideas?

Bottom line, as a writer, you’ve got to keep your protagonist on her toes!  Sometimes the “twists” come easy, and other times I’ve got to give them a lot of thought by asking myself the question, “What happens next?”  I’m not good at plotting out an entire book before I’ve even started – I like to begin with an overarching idea and theme, and see where it takes me.  Sometimes it takes me some strange places, and I really enjoy taking the reader along with me!

Why this genre?

I’ve always been fascinated with the paranormal – ghosts and vampires, in particular.  When I was growing up, there was a very campy Saturday afternoon horror movie host named Dr. Paul Bearer, who showed old movies like “Dracula”, “The Wolfman”, “The Blob”, “Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy”, etc. on a show called Creature Feature.  I absolutely adored how he took “scary” and made it funny.  I also loved shows like The Addams Family, The Munsters, and Tales from the Crypt.  There’s a lot of paranormal romance out there, but not much of it combines the “light” with the “dark”, and I wanted to do that.

When you first started writing, did you set out to create a character like Nicki?

Not at all.  I actually wanted to write historicals, and usually found myself with protagonists who were male instead of female.  But when the idea came for Nicki Styx, I knew I had to make her come to life on the page. 

How much of yourself is in Nicki?

Not enough, I think.  

I love the store Nicki and her friend, Evan, run, in Georgia. Totally vintage, with mannequins dressed as celebrities. Where did this idea come from?

The idea for the store itself came from a visit to Little Five Points, Georgia (it’s an area of Atlanta that actually exists, you know).  There are several vintage stores in the area, but I wanted to “upscale” Nicki’s into something special.  As I said, I’ve been involved in the arts community, and the idea just occurred to me that a talented, artistic person really could “personalize” those blank-faced mannequins into something really cool.  Who better than old film stars who actually wore those vintage fashions back in the day?  (Maybe some of those artsy thoughts have rubbed off on me through the years.)

Who are you reading?

I just finished an awesome book by an Irish author named Tana French, called The Likeness, and I have a stack of books to read from the Romance Writer’s of America conference that I attended just last week.  I think the next book I read will be Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.

What inspires you?

Confident, talented people who make me laugh.  The beauty of nature.  The memory of my mother.  My wonderful husband.  Random kindness.

What’s next for you?

Well, I just turned in Book #3 in the Nicki Styx series, YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I HAUNT, and I’ve just begun work on Book #4 (no title yet).

You gotta tell us. Nicki Styx and the hot doc. Will they make through her next ghoulish adventure?

Now where’s the fun in telling anybody what’s going to happen next?    I will tell you that there’s another man in the picture, but as to who Nicki ends up with, you’ll have to read it and find out!

Where can we find you on the Web?

She’s everywhere!  She’s everywhere!  LOL Seriously, you can find me on my personal website at http://www.tgarey.com, or my HarperCollins site at http://www.harpercollins.com/terrigarey, or my blog at http://www.tgarey.com/blogspot , or my group blog, Writers At Play, at http://www.writersatplay.com/wordpress.

Thanks so much for having me today, Angela!