by Temple West
Nathan
I can’t imagine how annoying I must have been as a kid, following you around all the time. But you never seemed to mind as I perched on the back of the couch and watched you and your friends play video games for hours (Final Fantasy VII still holds a key place in my heart). My interest in sci-fi and fantasy grew in direct proportion to yours, as I would often steal the books off the shelf in your room after you’d finished them. Without you, I would never have discovered Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, or Brandon Sanderson (although I claim credit for introducing you to Scott Lynch). It is one of my greater joys to Skype you and geek out over Doctor Who, brainstorm plot options for our various novels, and discuss our mutual love of bacon. I respect and admire you greatly, and miss you like crazy.
Rachel
My entire life, I’ve looked up to you in the best possible way. I took my fashion cues from you (and your hand-me-downs), my love of all things vintage and antique, and my appreciation of beauty even in the midst of disappointment and pain. When I was in high school, you convinced your editor to let me write a guest article for the newspaper, and it was the first time I saw my name in print on a professional publication. This past year, you let me stay in your guest room so that I would have the financial freedom and mental focus to see Velvet through to completion and publication. You are the best big sister I could have asked for: beautiful, intelligent, inspiring, and kind.
Red Twig Cafe Baristas
For keeping me well-supplied in vanilla lattes while I took over the corner of your cafe every week while editing Velvet. For asking me how the book was coming along every time I came in. For sneaking me free coffee. And for having awesome beards. I mean truly, they are fantastic (especially yours, Steven).
Holly West
My dear Holly, I must thank you for a lot of things, beginning with your patience. I had a bizarre list of questions (What are pass pages? What is this squiggle mark on the copyedit? What should I be doing to promote the book?), which you answered promptly, and a bizarre list of fears (What if someone points out something I forgot to answer in the book? WHAT IF EVERYONE HATES IT AND I SUCK AT WRITING?), which you assuaged many, many times. More importantly, thank you not only for helping me craft Velvet into its best form, but for being so darn excited about it. Your enthusiasm was infectious, and it made me believe that perhaps I had a story worth telling after all.
Swoon Reads
When I wrote Velvet, I mostly wrote it on a whim. While I, of course, dreamed about publication, I thought about it in the same way one thinks about what one would do if one won the lottery (say that five times fast). In short, I never really believed it would see the light of day. Thank you for providing a platform where my work could be seen, and thank you for believing in Velvet.
Swoon Reads Readers
I owe a huge debt to everyone who read, reviewed, and rated Velvet while it was a baby manuscript on the Swoon Reads site. Thank you for investing your time in a no-name book from a no-name author, and for providing such great feedback.
Read on for some
Swoonworthy Extras …
A Coffee Date
with author Temple West and her editor, Holly West
“About the Author”
Holly West (HW): Let’s start with my favorite question. You can take a second to think about it. If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?
Temple West (TW): Oh, I already know that. Flight. I have always wanted to be able to fly. Just Superman-esque. Anywhere. No wings or anything. I don’t want extra appendages, I just want to be able to fly.
HW: You’re stranded on a desert island. Who would you bring for company?
TW: I feel that Johnny Depp would be a really good person to take just because, I mean, after that many Pirates of the Caribbean movies, he’s got to know how to get off an island.
HW: That is very true.
TW: Plus, it’s Johnny Depp. So, the company would not be bad.
HW: Also, very true. Other than writing, do you have any hobbies? Since writing can’t really be considered a hobby for you anymore, what with you being a published author.
TW: I do. I have so many hobbies, it’s a little overwhelming. I love sewing. That’s part of why I wrote Velvet, because my mom was a decorator sewer for about ten years when I was growing up, so that was a part of our lives. That’s how she made an income for a while. I can’t sew half as well as she can, but I really enjoy doing it. But I hate patterns, so I just make things up, and they don’t always work, but I really enjoy it. So, there’s that. And I like, tangentially, knitting. My art teacher in high school taught me how to knit. And weaving. I built a loom a couple of weeks ago because I was bored. I’m weaving a rag rug. I also like book art, which is where you actually carve images into the pages of a book, so it becomes a three-dimensional piece of art. It’s super cool. It takes forever, like 14 hours per thing for a simple design. So, there’s that. And leatherworking. My grandfather was into leatherworking and I discovered a box of his tools in the garage when I was a kid. I love being able to carve designs into belts and stuff. What else? Carving things. Swords and stuff out of spare wood. That was a weird hobby of mine as a child. And painting, I like painting. I like singing, but I’m not very good at it, so I don’t do it in front of people. And just crafty stuff. I love crafty stuff. Making something that wasn’t there before, or taking supplies and making something beautiful out of it. That is my happiest time, just making something.
HW: That is an impressive list. I thought I was vaguely crafty because I knit and crochet and occasionally costume and I’ve done some embroidery, but your list is a little bit more extensive.
TW: I have to admit, I’m not very good at any of these things. I just dabble very lightly across a wide spectrum of activities.
“The Swoon Reads Experience”
HW: How did you first learn about Swoon Reads?
TW: From my mother. She saw an ad for it. I still don’t know where (I think it might have been on Facebook or maybe one of her friends had posted a link to it or something). I was actually at her condo sewing. I had totally taken over her living room with all her supplies out and was making costumes for something, and she said, “Hey, there’s this thing called Swoon Reads and it sounds like it’s right up your alley. It’s a competition-based, young adult, romance novel division of a company.” I said, “Yeah, that sounds great, but it’s probably a scam.” I didn’t even look at the link until a couple of days later. I read the terms of service and all the finer points and I thought, “Oh, no, this sounds fantastic! I should submit to this because I have a novel,” and then I did.
HW: Before you were chosen, what was your experience like on the site?
TW: Really good. It was really fun to be able to see the other community members, not only what they were writing, but what they were doing. Like what their backgrounds were. Were they a stay-at-home mom, were they a college student, were they in high school? Just to see the different people who were attracted to Swoon Reads and to these types of stories.
HW: Are you going to have a big celebration when the books actually end up in your hands?
TW: My plan is to go to the nearest Barnes & Noble or bookstore and grab every copy that I can and just kind of roll with them on the floor and giggle uncontrollably.
HW: That sounds great. No, really, we need video of this!
“About the Book”
HW: Where did you first get the idea for Velvet?
TW: After reading Twilight. I had kind of been into vampires before. I thought that they were really cool creatures. A lot of creatures in mythology are part animal or so inhuman, they’re a little bit hard to connect to, but vampires are basically humans with some teeth and some undead-ness, depending on which book you read. So, they seemed a lot more relatable. Then Twilight came out and it was this huge thing. The movies were just coming out as I was reading the books and my roommate was super into it, and that’s kind of what sparked my idea of, “Okay,
I want to do my take on this now. All the frustrations that I have with previous versions of vampire stories, I want to address those and make my perfect vampire, if you will, or my perfect vampire story.” So, that’s what I attempted to do with Velvet.
HW: So, we selected the book and gave you the call, and then you got my huge edit letter with the “Don’t panic, I love your book, really!” e-mail. What was that like?
TW: I was really nervous. I was really, really nervous. While I had edited it as much as possible, I hadn’t really touched Velvet in a long time, so I knew there were things about it that I wasn’t satisfied with when I submitted it to Swoon Reads. I was really nervous to have your notes come in, knowing that there were things that even I didn’t like about it. And then I actually read your notes, and I think I literally laughed out loud at the fact that I agreed with all of them and that they were so kind. I was expecting this scathing, “This is wrong, this is wrong,” and it was just so sweet and kind. I won’t spoil it, but your notes about adding that one scene to the ending, I know I literally laughed out loud and said, “Of course, yeah. That definitely needs to happen.” I just thought it was so funny. So, it was a very good experience, the editing process.
HW: When you get your edit notes, how does the revision process work?
TW: What I like to do is read the notes, talk them over with you if I have any questions, and go through and just be like, “Page 147, go make that change. Page 287, go make that change,” whatever it is, kind of spot-check it, and then go back and read through the entire thing cover to cover and make sure that those changes work. With some of the deadlines we had, I couldn’t do that every time, but that’s how I like to do it just to make sure that things are flowing correctly and that the old material works with the new material. A lot of times, it doesn’t. The changes are good changes, but it’s just not quite flowing.
“The Writing Life”
HW: Where do you write? Do you have a writing ritual, or have to be in a certain place?
TW: That’s a good question. When I wrote Velvet, I’d write it in my dorm room. My roommates and I had three people in our room, so the other bunk bed was just like bed-bed, but mine was like bed-desk, with the desk underneath my bed, so I had this little writing cave. I could pull my blanket over and make a space. It was awesome. I wrote Velvet there, at least the first draft. Nowadays, I try to write from home and it sometimes works, but I often get really distracted, so if I really need to power through and get stuff done, I go to a café. And have coffee.
HW: Coffee always helps.
TW: It really does. I think it’s like a Pavlovian response now. If I have coffee, I want to write, and if I write, I want to have coffee.
HW: What’s your process? Do you outline everything or do you just start at the beginning and make it up as you go?
TW: I have tried to make myself become an outline person, but it has not really worked so far. Most of the time when I get an idea for a story, I just sit down and write for as long as I can on that spark of an idea. So for Velvet, I think that was like the first chapter. I think I wrote the first chapter in one go. Generally, it’s a scene, a bit of dialogue, something. And then I’ll stop and kind of think, “Okay, what genre is this in, what story am I telling, where is this going?” And I’ll try to kind of think through it a little more and that’ll generate more ideas and I’ll write those into a scene. So, I kind of go back and forth between thinking about the story and just vomiting the story onto the page.
HW: If you could give a piece of writing advice to someone, what would it be?
TW: I would say study your favorite stories, whether it’s a movie or a book or whatever, and figure out what makes that story work. Why do you like it? Why is it satisfying? What did they include in the story that makes it satisfying? Basically studying other stories, dissecting them analytically. And obviously just keep writing. That’s a given, just keep writing all the time.
Velvet
Discussion Questions
1. Are Velvet’s vampires different from what you would typically picture for a vampire? If so, in what ways? Did you like them more or less than other vampire characters you’ve read about?
2. What is the significance of the title, Velvet? Would you have given the book a different title, and if so, what would it have been?
3. After Caitlin loses her mother, she’s forced to move from her home in Connecticut to her aunt’s house in New York. After such a terrible loss, do you think it would be better to get a fresh start somewhere else, or to remain in a comfortable and familiar place?
4. What did you think of Caitlin’s reaction to Adrian’s vampire-ness? How would you have reacted?
5. Is the explanation of vampire physiology/need for blood satisfying or distracting? Would you prefer to know or not know how vampires work?
6. Caitlin’s friends go behind her back to buy the Green Thing for her to wear for Adrian. Do you think they were out of line? How would you have felt if your friends did that for you?
7. Adrian says he found solace in fiction, and that he learned about bravery, friendship, compassion, and loyalty from books. Have you ever had a similar feeling toward a book or books? Which one(s)?
8. In Chapter 16, Caitlin says velvet is a difficult fabric to work with because, “If you messed up, you had to cut it off and start all over. That’s just how velvet was.” How do you think this relates to the story?
9. Mariana is over a hundred years old, and has become a skilled cook in that time. If you could live forever, what skills would you want to perfect?
10. Have you ever played Obscure Hangman? If you haven’t, go do that right now.
What if you were fated to NEVER fall in love?
When Fallon Dupree's (100% accurate) love fortune from Zita's Love Charms says that she will never find love, she's devastated. But a rebellion is brewing and other students, including notorious heartbreaker Sebastian, are fighting back.
A LINE SNAKED THROUGH VERBEKE SQUARE, curving through a maze of café tables and around vendor stalls. The line began in front of Zita’s Lovely Love Charms shop, the only shop in a row of old brick buildings that sold something other than lace.
Zita’s shop had been painted a shade of pink lemonade with bow windows and a second story used only as a backlit display of Zita’s finest love charms that glittered with gemstones and gold. Sunlight made the shop gleam beside its drab companions. No one looked at the lace while they waited for their fortunes.
“Nico better be at the front of the line,” Anais said. “My sandals aren’t made for standing.”
Fallon glanced at her friend’s flat, faux-leather shoes. They looked cobbled together by a blind shoemaker, not a factory, and she doubted that the straps would last the walk back without breaking. “I’m sure he’s got us a good spot.”
The majority of the line consisted of Grimbaud High students. Tradition dictated that every high school student get a love fortune before the beginning of each school year. This particular love fortune was different than the other charms sold in Zita’s shop: It foretold your romantic future for the entire school year. Zita’s one hundred percent accuracy kept the townspeople coming back to her shop.
The line moved, releasing a smattering of students trying to process their fortunes. Some cried–good tears or bad–while others stared at their ticker-tape fortunes with stunned disbelief. The students with the best fortunes glowed like stars, one step away from dancing on the cobblestones. Nico stood in the middle of the line, twisting his damp shirt in his tanned fingers. He had brown hair burned gold from the sun and a sinewy body.
“Couldn’t you have gotten here earlier?” Anais said, pinching his arm.
“Hey! It doesn’t make a difference. The line’s been here since dawn. Just be glad you’re not in the back of the line,” Nico said, “because I’m nice enough to let you cut me.”
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“Nah. I can’t stomach it.” Nico rubbed the back of his head;
his fingers paused over the thinning hair.
Fallon and Anais squeezed in front of Nico in line, much to the chagrin of the students behind him.
“After we all get wonderful fortunes,” Anais said, “we’ll have to indulge in a good brunch.”
Nico pressed a hand to his mouth. “Please don’t talk about food.”
Fallon worried about the green tinge of his skin. “Sit down right now,” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders. “Put your head between your legs.”
Nico obeyed. He gulped down a few deep breaths before struggling to his feet again.
“Could you be seasick?” Anais teased.
“Not possible. Sailing the canals is nothing like the sea. The water’s smooth, like gliding on mirrors.”
“The better to see your bald spot with.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m just excited, okay? And out-of-my-mind nervous. This could be the year I get Martin’s attention. Or not. Oh God, or not.”
“Deep breaths,” Fallon warned.
“You don’t understand,” he said. “Martin broke up with Camille over the summer. I might have a chance.”
Fallon had only known Nico for a month, having been introduced to him through Anais, but she already felt invested in his longtime crush on Martin Pauwels, the student government president. As a sophomore, Nico had secured the unwanted position of treasurer, enabling him to work side by side with Martin during the new school year.
Nico’s full name was Nicolas Barnes, of the Barnes family that owned the most popular canal cruises in town and famous tourist attraction, the Tunnel of Love. Nico spent his days cleaning the boats, manning the Barnes booths spread throughout Grimbaud, and sometimes giving tours when the cruises were booked low. Over the weeks she got to know him, she had learned how to speak above the roar of boat engines. Nico had mastered that skill long ago and had no trouble bemoaning Martin’s now ex-girlfriend and the fact that, to anyone’s knowledge, Martin didn’t like boys.