Interview with Sarah Bailey…in a cat emporium…with High Tea!

​It’s not often I get the opportunity to meet published authors but after striking up such a friendship with Paranormal Romance writer, Sarah Bailey, I thought it would be nice to interview her during our first meeting.
Please note, I am not a professional blogger, I don't really carry out interviews so this was a spur of the moment thing. This interviews may differ from other interviews because it was quite informal.
I’ll set the scene for you:

I enter the cat emporium first and immediately clock eyes on a water dispenser which, on any normal day, would not have looked as attractive as it did but considering I’d walked through the Sahara Desert (aka London), I practically sobbed and cradled it.
After replenishing my quickly overheated body, I had a peruse around the tiny café, knowing I wouldn’t be called in until my booking at 2pm. So I admire the cat magnets, playing cards, mugs, colouring books and then to my right, I see Sarah Bailey enter the shop.

We hug and, like all Brits for the past 2-3 weeks, we complain about the heat. We complain about the heat even as I hand her over a cold cup of water, then we complain about the heat some more. It’s not long after are we then led through the doors to another small room with sinks and a hostess. We’re explained the house rules (because there are indeed house rules when dining in a house of cats). No camera flash. No waking the cats if they are sleeping. Basically let them come to you and feel free to use cat toys to play with them when and if the opportunity presents itself.

After washing our hands, we are led into the next room where every table we pass is occupied with hoomans. cats are sleeping in their beds or along the walls on shelves. We’re led downstairs to a very Alice in Wonderland/fantasy forest room where there are more tables and less cats, fans are on full blast in every corner of the room. And thankfully we’re seated in the corner at the Carbonelle table (yes, Carbonelle is, in fact a cat and every table had been named after one of the furry friends).
We had wooden bridges over our heads, shelves where they could wander around freely, little cubby holes in the massive tree where they could sleep. At this point, we’re just trying to take it all in and I decide to jump straight into interview before the tea and food arrives (because I’m way too enthusiastic). I ask if I can record, to which she grants permission and I press the button and begin.

S.R: Okay, so thank you for meeting with me *we both laugh* This is so nice! So, I’ve got ten questions but hopefully they aren’t difficult ones. My first question is, Demon’s After Dark is mainly set in London. Why choose London & what is your favourite thing about the city?
S.B: I think I chose London because it’s such a big place and it seems to be one of the places where you could, you know, potentially have a bunch of supernaturals hiding under the surface so it was kind of the ideal choice because I love the UK and being British *laughs*. I think my favourite thing about this city—god, I don’t often come here but…I do like walking by the Thames because even though it’s horrible and dirty, it’s such an open space in comparison to wherever I go. London in general is a bit compact and crowded so it’s just nice to go along the Southbank.
S.R: I definitely agree.
*A waitress comes over with our pot of English Breakfast and places it between us daintily. She tells us out High tea will be arriving soon and we thank her*
S.R: Okay! Second question…*I pause to let S.B take a photo of the set up and another waitress turns up with the High Tea and rattles off what each tier consists of (Vegetarian High Tea. Sweet layer has vanilla cupcake, lemon berry and raspberry cupcakes, 2 shortbread biscuits & 2 macaroons. Second tier of 2 scones with jam and cottage cream and the bottom tier, tomato & hummus sandwiches and savoury cakes*
Okay, you’ve mentioned other supernatural beings in your book, so I definitely have to know, if you could be one of your many fantastical occults, what would you choose to be and why?
S.B: *laugh* Oh my god…okay, I’ve always, always, always had an affinity for vampires. I don’t know what it is about them, maybe it’s the whole blood lust or whatever. I just think that vampires are very sexy in a weird way…if that really makes sense?
S.R: *smirks* It’s not even weird at all. *at this point I resist the urge to make a bad Interview with the Vampire pun*
S:B: *laughs again* No, it’s not weird.
S:R: It’s not weird at all, it’s why we’re here!*I giggle because when you’re on the subject of sexy vampires, how can you not?*
S:B: So, literally my second book is about vampires so I was very excited to write the second book because of my love for them.
S.R: *beams* Cool! Leading on to that, do you have a release date for Vampire’s Kiss yet?
S.B: *gasps in thought* Ummmm, I’m hoping it will be released on the 26th of July.
S.R: 26th! *dances in chair*
S.B: Provided that my cover artist does the cover first, I am booked in, but that’s what we’re waiting for.
S.R: I’m looking forward to it! What’s the best and worst thing about writing for you?
S.B: Oh my god, the best thing is being able to create a world, a fantasy world, essentially all the worlds we create are fantasy worlds because they’re not real *laughs* and being able to get lost in them is the most exciting thing for me really. The real world is sometimes not very fun.
S.R: No, I have to agree on that one too.
S.B: the worst part is when my characters do not leave me alone and I’m tired and I want to go to sleep and they won’t stop harassing me. Or they harass me when I’m trying to write another book, that also happens which is not very funny, it’s the worst part about being a writer, not being able to turn it off.
S.R: I can relate to that, I’m sure. Next question, which character do you feel you relate most to?
S.B: Okay, this would be telling, *laughs and then arches brow* can it be a guy? *laughs* No, that was a joke. Um, Jesus…across the entire series or just in general or in Demon’s Destiny?
S.R: Um, I would say…the series in general.
S.B: Okay, the series in general. There is a character in…*thinks hard* book 3. The main character in book 3. I wrote this incredible quirky character—not quirky— but she’s got all sorts of anxiety issues. I didn’t want to write a heroine who was your typical badass—I like badass heroines, don’t get me wrong—but I wanted a heroine who was not your normal girl, I wanted her to have, I don’t know, she wrote herself essentially, she got in my head and told me how she wanted to be written. I think she’s probably most like me out of all of them, I do inject myself into every character, that’s just a thing. I’m not going to say more because book 3 is not coming out until August--
S.R: Of course! No spoilers!
S.B: No spoilers.
S.R: I know what you’re like *laughs*. Okay would you say that you’re a believer in the supernatural?
S.B: Oh, yeah definitely.
S.R: *nods in agreement* Definitely. Because a non-believer would be somewhat living a boring life otherwise.
S.B: Definitely, I agree
S.R: If your series made the big screen, would you prefer it to be a tv series or a movie?
S.B: A tv series because there are more episodes and can explore more as a tv show and also because there are so many different characters, it makes more sense to me.
S.R: There’s more depth to a series and there’s more time to explore the characters.
S.B: Exactly, you’re not condensing the story into a 2 hours or 1 and a half hours which kind of feels like it’s rushed, although my books are rather fast paced so maybe it would work.
S.R: Which character would you like to meet in person and what would you say to them?
S.B *laughs and shakes head* That’s a really hard question! The thing is I really want to meet all of them! They’re so cool! That’s such a really impossible question to ask me right now.
S.R: I mean I suppose you could say all of them in one room but it might be a bit much.
S.B: Actually, I guess I would lie to meet my lead from book 5 because…I don’t want to give spoilers away, but he is one of the loudest characters in my head that I’ve ever experienced. I think it would be interesting because of what he is…who he is.
S.R: I like the cryptic-ness. It’s what I expect from you. In this current heatwave in the UK, what would Lukas and Ella be doing right now?
S.B: What would they be doing? *wonders* probably…I imagine them out in this garden together sunbathing because they like to spend time together, no spoilers, if you’ve read the books you’ll know why they don’t like being apart.
S.R: *whimsy voice* Together forever. Okay, now last but not least, if you could give one tip to writers, published or otherwise, what would it be?
S.B: Keep writing! Don’t stop writing. I think that’s the thing, when I started this journey just over a year ago and it’s weird to think it’s just over a year ago, the one thing my aunt – who is also a writer – told me was to just keep writing until you’ve finished your first draft, whatever it is you’re writing. Just don’t stop because if you stop you’re going to get all worked up about it and you’ll want to go back and change things – not that I don’t go back and change things, I do, well, now I do, when I first started writing I didn’t. It’s only through completing something did I realise I could do it and that I could replicate it several times so just keep writing. Every time you write you get better.
S.R: Brilliant. I’ll take that advice as I myself am struggling. But it is a sound piece of advice to keep writing, it doesn’t matter how much you write as long as you get yourself in that mind frame and have it in front of you even if it just a sentence, it’s something.
S.B: Exactly, you can’t fix something you haven’t written. That’s my biggest thing, you can’t go back and change it and make it better if you haven’t actually written a story in the first place.
S.R: *grins* Well thank you for answering all my questions.
S.B: That’s alright, I hope they were satisfactory.
S.R: They were perfect!
S.B: *laughs* I do try.

Recording ended and…we ate! In company of somewhat lazy, tired kitty cats but the food was great, we talked loads more and…I got my copy of Demon’s Destiny signed so I was over the moon!
If you haven’t yet gotten your hands on Demon’s Destiny, you’re missing out big time!
You can find Sarah Bailey’s links below, go and show her some love & support!
Website – www.sarahbaileywriter.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/sbaileyauthor
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/sbaileyauthor/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sbaileyauthor/
Newsletter sign up – https://www.subscribepage.com/sarahbaileywriter

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