Q. Hi Rachel! I’d just like to know what inspired you to do the Morganville series? I am a huge fan and I absolutely adore Claire, Eve, Micheal and Shane! Who inspired the characters? What inspired you to have the setting in Texas? I thought the bullet in The Dead Girls Dance was really clever with the silver, holy water and cross! I have plenty of questions but I’m sure you’ll have lots of other fans to answer to! Thanks! Naomi Jade Rosin, Aberdeen

A. Naomi, I was inspired to write the Morganville Vampires series basically because … the publisher asked! They offered me the chance to write a young adult series, and I was really torn about that because I’d only ever written adult novels before. They suggested something paranormal, ‘like vampires,’ but I was very resistant to write about vampires because I had done that early on in my career and didn’t think I had anything new to say on it.

But I had a conversation with a good friend, and she dared me to come up with something she hadn’t heard before … so I started talking about the town. And she loved it, and then I peopled the town with characters I thought were interesting.

Claire was mostly inspired by my first year at college — I actually DID have my laundry stolen from the washing machine my first week there, and couldn’t buy more because I had no money. Eve is very much like a friend I had in school, and Michael stands in for a lot of my fellow musicians (although he’s much cuter, generally) … and Shane, I’ve decided, is my first boyfriend, only much better. 🙂

I set the story in Texas because (a) I live there, and am very familiar with it, and (b) the deserted areas of the state always seemed very creepy and intimidating to me. It made sense that if you want to hide, you’d hide out there.

I think I totally swiped the bullet idea from a much better writer, but that’s what we do. 🙂

Thank you very, very much for writing to me!

Rachel Caine