FSO: Thank your for speaking to us again!
KB: Always!  I love working with FSO.  It benefits us both.

FSO:What did you get for Christmas?
KB: Don't you read the blog? <laughs>  Homicide Season 3, The 4400, an autographed Bee Gees record, a Wentworth Miller pillowcase, you know, clothes.

FSO: You also had some heartache since the last time we spoke.  Your dalmatian was put down, correct?
KB:  Yes she had cancer in her leg and several other complications which made amputation impossible.  If we had not put her down, she would have had a painful last few months.

FSO: You posted about it briefly,and you have written about your previous dog in The Adventures of Pave.  Are we going to see more dog books?
KB: Perhaps.  I've written a few things down about Sadie.  I don't know if any of it is publishable in it's current state, but as a writer I write about everything that effects me.  I have many poems about my parents separation and reunion, but I doubt anyone will see them.  For the first time in my life I don't have a dog.  It's weird to me and I need to express that.
 
 

FSO: Have you returned to your regular writing schedule?
KB: For the most part.  There is much to do.  I still have some more web reviews to complete for the month, but I've also started writing my next story.  I have typing and editing to do in the next few months as well.  Submittals always.

FSO:  What have you submitted this year? How do you handle the inevitable rejections?
KB:  I'd like to submit two short stories. Mrs. Murderer and Blood Type V have been around the block before.  I'm also looking to reprint The Adventures of Pave.  Rejection is part of the business.  Sometimes you have to realize maybe your work didn't fit with that editor or that publication.  Too short, too long, but maybe it simply has some flaws to be worked on.  After I edit something 10 times, if it gets rejected 10 times, you simply have to buckle down and edit another 15 times.

FSO: What goes through your mind during the waiting process?
KB: Many things.  You have to continue working or it will drive you crazy.  I think of everything from what I will do next, if I dotted the preverbial i's and crossed the t's in my submission, to who I would cast if it were a movie.

FSO:  Why do you envision who would play who?
KB:  Besides the delusions of granduer?  Honestly I like to get a feel of how my character might look or behave, and ideas springboard from that.  I also go through Victoria's Secret catalogues and pick out what my characters might wear.  The women anyway.
 
 

FSO:  Would you tell us about the newest characters your creating?
KB: I'd like to, but they are still in the earliest stages so things like blonde hair or blue eyes might change.  This is my first foray into a romance in the strictest sense of the genre.  There is a major relationship between Jean and Samantha in Vampfam, but this current couple is nothing like them.

FSO:  Speaking of The Vampire Family, when will we see it on bookshelves?
KB: That's what I'd like to know!  I'm working on another submission package, including detailed summaries and outlines.  I'd like to see it complete and on bookshelves, but a serialized ebook is also a possibilty.  Excerpts are also posted at Authorzone.

FSO:  Any more horror ideas?
KB:  I was working on a short story about a habidasher that uses more than fabric for his work, ie a person or two, but I got the inspiration for this new romatic thing, so bad habby been's put on the back burner for now.

FSO:  Tell us about The Adventures of Pave.
KB:  The Advenures of Pave was first published in January 2005 as an ebook with Lilac Books.  The company has since closed, but I recently submitted it to a children's book publisher.  It's a collection of theories and conjecture from my dog Pave's point of view. I find animals are an incredible source of inspiration.

FSO: Have you written children's stories before?
KB:  When I was a child I wrote children's books.  Some of those were pretty hokey.  The editor is a wonderful lady, but she actually rejected The Adventures of Pave because it was beyond a child's comprehension.  I'd like to polish my old stuff in the future.

FSO: What kind of stories did you write as a child?
KB: Genrewise? The same as I do now.  A lot of SF and fantasy, horror.  There's one about a mummy, animals, miniature worlds,  secret agents in space, but they are pretty bad.  I have the old construction paper covers I made for them.  Most are dated 1989!

FSO: How many stories and books do you actually have?
KB: At least a dozen complete works.  Half that perfect, the others could use a redo.  Then maybe another dozen incompletes or unfinished ideas.  I keep a binder of all the ideas or quips that come into mind.  When I was in high school, I really didn't have the time to submit or really focus on the finer points of the business.  I just kept writing.  I thought it was best to maximize what little time I had in creating a working portfolio.  Now I've got four books in the can and ready to go.

FSO: Wow!
KB:  Well, it wasn't overnight.  This is 10 years of work and my huge space opera is not in publishing condition.
 
 

FSO: You always elude to this space opera novel.  Any details?
KB:  Well, it has all the staples of space operas.  Good guys with issues and ruthless bad guys.  Scientific debates, cloning, planterary destruction, wars, alliances.  I'm not sure how big it is since about half of it is still hand written.

FSO: The long hand hasn't changed for 2006?
KB: Not really.  By the end of this year, I'm hoping to invest in a laptop and network system.  I will attempt to eliminate the long hand work, not because I really trust computers, but timewise I could do so much more.

FSO: You seem very busy right now.
KB: True.  I've hit a creative stride so far in 06.  Look for the new Essays page to fill up shortly as well.

FSO: Where do you get your ideas?
KB: Dreams mostly.  And animals.  In my dreams lots of unusal things will happen that aren't just me in a situation, but whole senarios of people, places, and things that are just ripe with genius.  My cats are also fascinating.  I do have a play I'd like to turn into prose that generated from observing my cats.

FSO: Do share.
KB:  It's sounds crazy to start I know.  Cat people! No, really it's a high fantasy tale.  A queen and rival duke, the feuding children, good magic and bad magic-all of it came from my cats.  There's always a lioness, some bad ass tomboy cat causing trouble, and some cats that you swear are downright evil.  The stuff makes for great fiction.

FSO: When will we see all this?
KB: Next year sometime I hope.  I have a tight schedule now through the summer.  Four Submittals, Three short stories to write, my major typing and editing of the space opera, plus my regular newspaper articles.  I also try and do webwork once or twice a month.
 
 

FSO: What is The Definitive Booklist?
KB:  It's going to be a constant work in progress but I'd like to have FSO post a list of my favorite and not so favorite books.  Even the books I don't like might be good and necessary books that must be read.  I don't read as much as I used to, I wish I had the time.  Sometimes I think I can do better than my book a month, but then it just sits.  I might also just post the booklist on the blog.  We shall see.

FSO: What was the last book you read?
KB:  A Christmas Carol. I read it every Christmas.  I even wrote a column about it in The Reminder.

FSO: What do you think the state of reading with young people is today?
KB: I hope it's very well!  With Harry Poter and all its imitators I think there are kids still reading out there.  Manga is popular, but I can't get into it.  I do feel nonfiction reading might be slipping about kids and teens.  You hear about American statistics on how little students know about history or how bad our SAT scores are.  It's embarassing.  And preventable.

FSO: What do you think is the cause of our education troubles?
KB: In a nutshell, social demographics.  People only want to be teachers because of the amount of money they can make, and many children come from households where both parents work.  Family dynamics have changed.  My sister is a teacher, and some of her students have a parent in jail, don't even know one or the other parent, or live with their grandparents.  Rich schools waste their resources and the amount of under funded yet over crowded schools is pathetic.  We must make education and our future the priority.

FSO: How do you intend to raise your children?
KB: I'm starting early when I have kids.  I'm going to listen to the best music, watch all the classics, read aloud all the books I've read.  Knowledge is power, that's what I want my kids to know.  I think kids today perceive knowledge as being nerdy or uncool. I disagree.  I used to read on the school bus everyday on the way home, and I took the school bus up to and through my senior year.  I'll never forget when the supposedly cool kid sat with me and said, "How do you read a book?"  I kind of though, um, duh.  But then she said, "No, how do you read a book?" She wanted to know how you could invest your time from beginning to end with these fake people, learn from their actions, and then incorporate it into your life.

FSO: Do you remember what book you were reading?
KB: You know I don't think I do!  It was middle school, so maybe Anne Rice.
 
 

FSO:  Tell us about this new romance story.  It doesn't seem your genre.
KB: True.  I don't think romance is the right word.  Is there a category for sex in space?  Two people from rival factions are forced into an alliance and potential sparks might fly-if it weren't for war and space troubles of course.  Not porn with plot but serious sociological looks at love and war, and to make it more angsty, its in space.

FSO: Wow.
KB:  There are other issues that have come into the work also that I didn't intend.  Chemical weapons, globabl destruction debates.  Good stuff!

FSO: When can fans read this?
KB:  Not for awhile.  I'm still in the writing phase now.  Editing, marketing blah.  By the end of the year I hope.  Hell I don't even have a good title.  I thought of one before I fell asleep last night, but it's gone now!

FSO:  Speaking of marketing, how do you submit something so cross-genred?
KB:  This sex in space thing does have a market.  There are most definately solid, reputable erotica e-book companies in cyberspace that I'd like to try this new fangled story at.  Serializing might be nice.
 
 

FSO: Your work seems to fill up all your time.
KB:  Work and sleep.  Lyme loves Sleep!

FSO: True, but where do you see yourself in 3 years?
KB: Married and published!  Seriously I'd like to have The four books I have ready published, my new sex in space in reader land, and my space opera completed.  Finally!

FSO: You just turned 25, I hear tell.
KB: Yes, on February 7th.  I got a new writing program for my computer, the extended cut of Underworld, gift subscriptions to The Writer and Writer's Digest, and the new Writer's Market.  I got a new Bee Gees CD for Valentine's Day.

FSO: Speaking of which, Is it true that you and your paramour hang out in cemeteries?
KB: I don't think hang out is the right term.  We occasionally go to cemeteries and take pictures.  I believe in ghosts, Jason does not.  Look to jsnouff.com/ghosts to become our orb archive.

FSO: Have you captured definitive proof?
KB: Defne proof.  We have a lot of pictures with orbs and balls of light and energy, but that doesn't mean they are ghosts.  One of the most active places seems to be my bedroom, and nothing has died or is dead in there.  I'm not that pale.
 

FSO:  I take it you don't scare easily, living in a seemingly haunted room.
KB: No, but I also don't go to a graveyard at midnight on Halloween, light black candles and chant either.  If you respect the dead, they will respect you.

FSO: How do you 'respect the dead'?
KB:  It's tough but I try not to walk on any graves.  We've been to a lot of cemeteries that are not upkept or have had headstones destroyed.  I don't understand how anyone can be so mean to our ancestors.  You have to take a moment, read the headstone, remember and apprieciate the people that came before you.  Only then they might show themselves!

FSO:  Good luck writing and ghost hunting!  We'll talk again!
KB:  Thank you, and most definately!
 
 

Halloween 2005
 

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