Interview with Richelle Mead, author of the Vampire Academy Series

Richelle: I’m afraid Dimitri came straight outta my brain. People have asked this and I have contemplated that maybe I should have mentioned it a long time ago, come up with a story to stick to and tell people. I can make up this great thing about maybe my car broke down and a hot Russian came and helped me fix my tire. I basically built a lot of mystique around the character. But I’m afraid the truth is he was born straight from me.

Question: I have a question about Rose in particular. You have chosen to have her kind of own her sexuality more than you see in most YA books and we were just wondering if you got any pushback on that or if that was kind of hard to sell in the beginning?

Answer: Not so much really. I’m trying to, I am trying to think now … There was none from my publisher and I never heard much about readers either having a problem with that. I think that a lot of people like how in control she is. And even in regards to sex, it’s not a callous or something she necessarily treats lightly. I think that’s what’s key. It’s not someone who gets used or isn’t thoughtful about her sexuality. She very much is and I think that’s the important part of being strong about it is being decisive and knowing what you will do and what you won’t do. And I think that was the most important piece to care about with that.

Question: Are there any scenes in particular with Dimitri and Rose that you are excited to see? One that is particularly sticking out?

Answer: Are you hoping I’ll say the love charm? It’s a big fan favorite … Nah, I am excited for all of them. Really I just want to see them together. I think Zoey and Danila are such amazing casting choices for it. And they get along great off-screen as well which I think is fun. I love that everyone working on the movie is having such a good time with it. There are so many great scenes in the evolution of Rose and Dimitri’s relationship. I know that the love scene charm is the big hot one that people are excited about. I‘m excited for that too, but even just their initial meeting which is done really well in the script, you know where they had this standoff in the beginning, is just powerful as well. You know where they are sizing eachother up. You know, she’s this reckless scrappy fighter girl, and here he is, seasoned calm veteran. There is power in that. I am just … any of it, I am overjoyed to see.

Question: What are you writing right now that you can talk about?

Answer: I just finished copy-edits for the ‘Fiery Heart’ which is ‘Bloodlines’ number 4 … ‘Bloodlines’ being the spinoff of ‘Vampire Academy.’ And then I am working on the sequel to ‘Gameboard of the Gods’ which is my new futuristic adult novel. Busy, lots of stuff going on! All good stuff. I love it!