Laura Thalassa: Making Deep, Dark Topics Un-Put-Downable Reading!

As you can obviously see, Laura Thalassa has the face of an angel. She also has the sweetest, kindest personality to match.  It is a lovely combination and a delight to be around.  Why and how then, can this beautiful person come up with the darkest and most challenging and layered topics to write about?!  To say anti-heroes and super villains is a laughable understatement when reading her riveting and addicting work!  The genius is that Laura can take the most horrific character and slowly recreate him into something even the most cynical of readers can love.  It is magic, I swear!  That is also why I was so excited to get to sit down and visit with this incredibly talented lady.  And, as it turns out, I still can’t imagine how she does it.  But I’m just glad she does!

InD: When Grace [Draven] recommended you and you agreed to this interview, I actually jumped up and down in my seat because I absolutely adore your books!
LT: It is such a thrill when I get to talk to other authors and find out they have read my stuff. I am already a fan girl of so many of them and I don't know how to act professional. I really, really love people like Grace’s stuff. That is what's really weird because, technically we are colleagues, but I’m also a fan!
InD: Double that with me being a journalist and reading so many books and then getting to sit down with somebody I just adore, but I am supposed to act professional!
LT: Yes! It's so much easier to write down stories. I feel like I trip over my words when I speak. Writing comes so much easier for me.
InD: I think that is so true with so many writers. I know some incredibly famous authors who are absolutely beautiful with the written word, but that doesn't necessarily translate into actually speaking well.
LT: I was in college and I had to give a presentation, and I remember having anxiety the whole week before. Now, as an author, I think I have gotten a lot more comfortable. I still have a type of stage fright, but not the paralyzing fear type.
InD: Of all of the authors I have met over the years, the vast majority are very much the same as you. I think we often gravitate toward careers that are compatible with our personalities. Introverts so often have these amazingly, fabulous imaginations that help them create and write amazing stories because they spend a lot of time observing the world and processing it rather than talking it all out.
What were you like as a child?
LT: I would probably say I was a pretty normal kid from Fresno, California. I got into reading in about 5th grade when I found R.L. Stine's books. I was an awful speller, though. I think my strengths were more in math. I didn't really want to go to school, but once I found the books I liked, I would just fly through several of them in like a week. For a child who thought she wasn’t very good at reading or spelling, that was a huge confidence booster. By the time I was in high school, I was reading three or four books a week.
InD: What were you reading in high school?
LT: It was mostly YA books. I would gravitate toward Paranormal. I also loved Romance, but the fantasy escape of Paranormal was really where my heart was. I loved vampire books. I loved all Anne Rice’s books, but especially "Interview with a Vampire". Any kind of supernatural aspect, I loved, and if it had romance in it, that was a bonus. This was before "Twilight" took off. I think it was literally R.L. Stine's book, "One Last Kiss", that started my journey. It was a vampire book I read in 8th or 9th grade. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I like vampire books!”
InD: That is kind of funny, you went from R.L. Stine to Anne Rice... what a jump!
LT: Her book, "The Mummy", really did that for me. I really loved it. I actually remember finding "Twilight" while scouring the YA shelves, just to see if they had anything new each week. I noticed that one because it had a really innocuous cover. I really wasn't sure what it was going to be about because it was just an apple, but I decided to give it a try. This was actually a week before it was officially released and I remember telling all of my friends, “You have to read this book, it is so good!”
InD: You were one of the original fans! [both laughing]
LT: It was funny because I was in college and I didn't have a lot of time for reading, to be honest. I think it is really cool that “Twilight” inspired a whole new generation of writers.

Read the entire fun and informative interview in the October 2021 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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