I recently was able to meet author Natasha Rhodes (at Comic Con!) and talk about her latest book, The Last Angel!
Q: Tell us a about your newest release The Last Angel, in your own words.
When an angel is found murdered on the streets of Sunset Boulevard, all hell breaks loose. To the media gossip mongers, it’s the biggest story ever. To the Hunters, an underground monster-fighting hit-squad, it’s just another case of ‘whodunnit’. To Kayla Steele, their youngest and newest member, it means a last, desperate chance to bring her murdered fiancé back from the dead, and to others with a far darker purpose it is the means to destroy the human race. If the Hunters are to stop the onset of Armageddon they must join forces with their most hated enemies, the werewolves…
Q: One of my favorite parts in Dante’s Girl was the tension between Kayla and Mutt. Will we be seeing more of that?
Absolutely! Love him or hate him, Mutt is here to stay, for the next couple of books at least. He wasn’t supposed to be in the series beyond the first book, but he kind of snuck his way back in. Mutt is the exact opposite of everything Kayla’s true-love Karrel Dante was: he’s arrogant, chauvinistic, over-confident and totally self-obsessed – in other words, he’s completely irresistible to most women. When Karrel is murdered, Kayla becomes easy prey for Mutt…. who in return finds himself falling for her, despite the fact that he’s both Karrel’s best friend and a werewolf! It’s the oldest story in the book, but Kayla is fighting back. She has the rather unique chance to get rid of Mutt for good by resurrecting Karrel – but will she choose to take it?
Q: Did the experience of writing about vampires in the Blade: Trinity tie-in novel carry over to this series?
It did indeed! Writing Blade: Trinity was great fun, and it was a wonderful opportunity to work with one of my childhood heroes. I always loved the Blade comics when I was growing up, and it was a great honor to be chosen to write the novelization. The experience was a definite help to me when it came to developing my own vampire series.
Q: You don’t shy away from gory, violent scenes. Did you watch a lot of horror or action films growing up?
I think I watched every horror movie ever made growing up, and as a result spent a worrying amount of time hiding under the bed with the lights on every bedtime, clutching a flashlight and hoping that Freddie or Pinhead wouldn’t come and get me! The only horror film that ever defeated me as an adult was Saw 3 – I had a bad food-poisoning episode as a student, and there was this one scene in the movie that involved a liquidizer and a bunch of dead pigs…… oh, excuse me, I gotta go run to the restroom again….
Q: What’s up next for the Kayla Steele series? Are you working on anything else?
Right now I’m working on the third book in the Kayla Steele series, in which Kayla and her friends come up against the ultimate adversary, none other than Lucifer himself. They say there’s a devil in all of us, and Kayla gets to experience this for herself when master vampire Harlequin makes a pact with Lucifer to restore his soul and get back into heaven, with potentially devastating consequences for Mankind. Book 2 is all about angels, so in Book 3 we’ll be plumbing the depths of hell, ending in a showdown between Good and Evil that will really test Kayla to the limits… I hope you’ll enjoy the ride!
Q: What are you reading now?
I have a very short attention span, and so most of the books I’m reading right now are just for research purposes, to help me write my next ‘Kayla’ book. Right now I have six books open on my desk in front of me, which are (in no particular order): Handguns and Self-Defense by Dalton Fowler; The Deeper Meaning of Life by Douglas Adams; The Heroine Diaries by Nikki Sixx; Monty Python’s Guide to Philosophy, by Gary L. Hardcastle; The Ultimate Duct Tape Book by Jim and Tim; and Lose Weight Through Great Sex with Celebrities (The Elvis Way) by Colin McEnroe. I bought the last book because I liked the title and thought it would look good on my bookshelf. Yes, I’m shallow like that.
Q: What drew you to LA?
LA is a fantastic melting-pot of so many different cultures, ideologies and religions – it’s truly a fascinating place to live, and gives me a lot of inspiration to write. I worked as an in-house Videographer for one of the biggest rock clubs on Sunset Strip until last year, shooting some of the biggest-name bands and Hollywood celebrities who played shows at the club, so I have a lot of material to draw on for my series. I’d write a book about some of the crazy goings-on I witnessed over my two-and-a-half years of working there if I wasn’t afraid I might get sued!
Q: And for a completely random question: Who is your current celebrity crush?
Now, that would be telling! I’ve just got back from the cinema after watching The Golden Army, so right now, I’d have to say it would have to be Ron Perlman, the guy who plays Hellboy. Not your typical crush, I know, but Hellboy’s not your typical kinda guy. We have so much in common – he likes pancakes and kittens, and he has a tendency to regularly make an enormous ass of himself in public – I think we’d get on like a house on fire.
Q: Thanks for your time! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’d just like to thank SciFiChick.com for all their support and kindness over the years, and remind you once again to go buy my book The Last Angel, the second book in the Kayla Steel series, which is available in stores and on Amazon.com from 29th July. Check out my blog on www.myspace.com/natasharhodes for more details. And as always, a big “thank you!” to my readers and friends everywhere, I couldn’t do this without you!
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