And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:

Meet Kensington author, JACKIE KESSLER.

Some kids want to grow up to be doctors, or movie stars, or political assassins. Me, I wanted to draw comic books. Not Archies, either—superhero comic books. Maybe it was all the heavily muscled guys in spandex...

Around the time I was 15, I realized that as much as I enjoyed drawing (note that I’m saying nothing about the quality of those pics), it was a lot of fun putting words in the characters’ mouths. I didn’t know the term “fanfic” back then, but I started writing stories about the X-Men, Alpha Flight, and the Teen Titans. Didn’t do anything with those stories, other than horrify my mother. She asked why I couldn’t write nice stories, you know, about bunnies. Nope—me, I wanted to write about power. About magic. About hot guys in spandex. And about beating those guys bloody and senseless. (In retrospect, maybe I really did want to horrify my mother. Hey, not my fault. When I was a kid, I busted her doodling on the cover of New Teen Titans Number 6. Argh!)

So maybe it’s ironic that the book I wound up writing had nothing to do with overly muscled men and everything to do with scantily clad women. (Well, temporarily scantily clad.) Oh, right, and demons.

*Biography from Kensington Books, photo from http://www.jackiekessler.com/

1. I popped into your MySpace and you appear to be a Nickleback fan. Can't say they are too shabby at all myself. Who else do you like to listen to?

Ooh. Let's see. In no particular order, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Gabriel, Aerosmith (old stuff; Permanent Vacation and earlier), Matchbox Twenty, Five for Fighting...tons of 1980s and early 1990s stuff...(er, am I showing my age?)

2. And a phone thong is what? (cut me a break - I've only had a cell for a year, mk? *G*)

Heh. It's so that your cell phone doesn't go commando. It's a phone holster. A cute one.

 

3. Tell us about your family—the husband and 'two Precious Little Tax Deductions' LoL

I fell in love with Loving Husband when I was 15 and he was 16. Of course, he didn't know it at the time. Ten years later, we re-met and started dating. Sure enough, I was still in love with him. And this time, he fell in love with me too. Huzzah for happy endings!

My two Precious Little Tax Deductions are brothers, ages five and three. Absolutely love them, even when they're possessed. (Just goes to show that I've had demons on my mind for a while...).

4. What does the hubby think about being married to an author?

Let's just say that he loves the perks of being the subject of a romance author's "research." And then there was the time when I took him to a strip club... (No, really.)

5. I want to hear about your comic collection. 9,000 comics? That is A LOT of comics! When did you start collecting? And what do you do with that many comics? Are they in boxes? On display? Do you collect all comics or are there certain genres that you are partial to?

My dad and I used to read comics every Saturday. (Yes, I was the son he never had. At one point, I was collecting something like 20 titles a week. Easy to do when you don't pay for it...)

I stopped collecting when I went to college (note the whole paying thing), until junior year. That's when a friend walked into my dorm room, plopped SANDMAN #23 onto my bed and said, "Jackie, read this." I said, "I don't read comics anymore." And he said, "You want to read this." So I did. And that's how I was introduced to Neil Gaiman. Later that year, another friend told me about Matt Wagner's MAGE and GRENDEL. I found Garth Ennis's PREACHER all on my very own. For a while, I was all about DC's VERTIGO line -- BOOKS OF MAGIC, HELLBLAZER, etc.

I don't read anything regularly anymore, but every once in a while, I'll stop in a comic store and will buy a graphic novel/collection of individual comics. My most recent purchase was a fabulous Batman story arc called HUSH. The comics I have are all in boxes—I better bag and board them before they disintegrate! And no, I am NOT a fangirl. (But I play one on TV.)

6. How excited are you about your books being published? From the line up, it looks like you'll be busy for a while.

What, me excited? Did you hear my whoop for joy when I walked into my local B&N and saw HELL'S BELLES on the shelves? ((happy dance!))

7. Tell us about "Hell's Belles". I love the sound of it—you have to admit a 4000 year old succubus who is an exotic dancer isn't your typical character.

HELL'S BELLES is about a succubus who runs away from Hell, hides on Earth as an exotic dancer, and learns the hard way about true love. Sex, strippers, and demons. What's not to like?

8. Who or what were your influences as a writer ? Not strictly DC and Marvel, right?

Not strictly, heh. But Neil Gaiman (SANDMAN) is a huge influence, as is Garth Ennis (HELLBLAZER, PREACHER), and Matt Wagner (MAGE, GRENDEL). I also absolutely love Chris Moore's work—if I had a favorite novel, it probably would be LAMB. Toni Morrison's BELOVED left a lasting impression on me. And I'll always hold a special place in my heart for JRR Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS.

And then there's Shakespeare, Dante, Poe...the list goes on.

9. The portraits of your Magical Minxes are gorgeous. Can you tell us about this talented artist, Rainfeather Pearl, who created them? How did she come up with them—did you have much input as to what you wanted or did you just luck out to have this beautiful cover work?

All credit goes to my fellow Kensington succubus author, Richelle Mead (SUCCUBUS BLUES, March 2007) for finding Rain. Richelle and I had talked about getting character portraits for our Magical Minxes blog, and she found Rainfeather Pearl on Deviant Art. Rain was terrific to work with: we gave her basic descriptions of the characters, and Rain presented us with a few "renders" (no, I still don't know what that means). After a few rounds, with feedback from us, she gave us our finals. Love her work!

10. What are some of your favorite movies? For some reason, I can see you liking some of the more off the wall and maybe lesser known films...

If I tell you that Batman Beyond's RETURN OF THE JOKER is up there, will you laugh? I also love ...SAY ANYTHING and THE USUAL SUSPECTS. For a while, I was very into HEATHERS. The first part of STRIPES never fails to crack me up, and the first GHOSTBUSTERS still leaves me in stitches.