Q&A: Steffanie Holmes, Author of ‘A Grave Mistake’

We chat with author Steffanie Holmes about A Grave Mistake, which is a cosy paranormal romance featuring enemy vampires who were once lovers, a meddling book club, a compelling murder mystery and endless cups of tea, from the bestselling author of Fangs for Nothing.

Hi, Steffanie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’m Steffanie Holmes, NZ author of kooky, spooky romance. I have over 50 novels out, and my most popular books centre around Nevermore Bookshop, which is a magical bookshop that brings infamous fictional villains from classic literature to life and attracts all kinds of strange and wonderful characters. I’ve been indie publishing for a number of years before my Nevermore Murder Club and Smutty Book Coven series (about a book club that meets at Nevermore bookshop) was picked up by Atria Australia/Simon & Schuster. It’s a lot of fun to see my books in bookstores!

As I’m legally blind, many of my characters are blind/low vision or have other disabilities. I love to write positive disability rep in my books.

When I’m not writing, you’ll find me in the mosh pit at a heavy metal show, brewing mead, exploring ancient ruins, swinging a sword around, or buried under a pile of cats.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve always loved writing and making up stories. I remember when I was about ten, my sister and I loved Goosebumps books, and I got the idea that I need to write a series if I wanted to be a career writer. I wrote a series about my cat Benji, who was a detective at the Alleyway Cat Detective Agency, and each story was a new case he had to solve. (The first one was The Case of the Golden Catbiscuit). I believe there were four in all. I read one in front of class and everyone was laughing and that made me so happy. I just want people to enjoy themselves reading my books.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Meg, Mog, and Owl. by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pieńkowski. Even as a kid I had gothic sensibilities!
• The one that made you want to become an author: Goosebumps by RL Stine.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

A Grave Mistake is the second instalment in your Nevermore Murder Club and Smutty Book Coven series and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Half revenge, half unhinged obsession.

For readers who haven’t picked up Fangs for Nothing, what can readers expect?

Fangs for Nothing is about a centuries’ old (but hot, because it’s the law) vampire named Alaric who has spent his life shut away in his castle pursuing every kind of artistic hobby you could imagine. He spent a century making tapestries, then he had a ceramics phase, then it was blacksmithing and model trains and making teddy bears. There is a loom in his ballroom. His whole vibe is undiagnosed ADHD with a side of brooding 🙂 The castle is now completely cluttered with his various hobbies…and his mother is coming to visit. So Alaric hires Winnie, a sunshiney human professional organiser, to come and help him declutter, and she ends up taming his heart along with his mess. It’s very cozy and funny, with lots of candelabra jokes, a mischievous cat familiar, hot chocolate, and a meddling village book club of quirky women who recruit Winnie to help them catch a vampire murderer…

And what’s to come in A Grave Mistake?

Book 2 follows another member of the book club, Arabella, and Alaric’s friend Gideon. They were once lovers during Belle Epoque Paris, before Gideon betrayed Arabella, and she thought he was human and long dead until she bumps into him in the supermarket and realises he’s a vampire now, too. She wants revenge, he loves her so much he wants to braid their bones together, so he recruits the book club to create excessively elaborate ‘grand gestures’ to try and win her back…all while more murdering is going on.

A Grave Mistake has all these goodies:

🦇 Vampiric black cat heroine with top-tier snark.

🦇 Golden retriever lover with fangs.

🦇 Half enemies-to-lovers (One thinks they’re enemies, one is obsessed.)

🦇 Centuries-old grudges.

🦇 “Taste is subjective. Except for my taste, which is immaculate and above reproach.”

🦇 Meddling small town book club.

🦇 Dressing up for solving crimes.

🦇 Dressing up for COMMITTING crimes.

🦇 “I will name a dinosaur after you.”

🦇 Cellars stocked with NOT red wine.

🦇 Midnight gardens, sworn oaths, & ancient curses.

Where did the inspiration for A Grave Mistake come from?

It actually came from a random internet meme I saw one day. It said something like, “Imagine being a vampire and fighting your enemy in the Trojan War and then 3000 years later you see them in the vegetable aisle at the supermarket.” Something about that image really stuck with me – the idea that if you’re immortal, you’ll keep seeing the same immortals over again as the world changes around you, so that formed the spark of the idea for Arabella and Gideon falling in love in one time period (1870s Paris), him betraying her, and them meeting again in the present.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I’m a bit of a history nerd (ex-archaeologist here) and art lover, so I adored writing the scenes set in 1870s Paris. I got to travel to Paris last year, walk the same streets as my vampires, and do a bunch of research into the lives of the artists who float around Arabella’s vampire cabaret. I saw Monet’s Water Lily Cycle in person for the first time and I cried. I even saw a traditional French cabaret, one of the oldest in Paris! Also, as a pole dancer myself, writing Arabella’s pole dances – especially the scene where she tries to teach Gideon – were a lot of fun!

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Because this is a second-chance romance, I was combining two romance stories into one – their romance in the past and present. I had a lot of trouble doing this AND the murder mystery in a reasonable word count. I handed in the book at 145,000 words (this is long. A normal novel is more like 90) and my editor asked me if I could cut 20-30,000 words. I said I’d give it a go, but instead I cut 3,000 and handed it back in and hoped they wouldn’t notice!

What’s next for you?

I’ve just handed in book 3 in the Nevermore Murder Club and Smutty Book Coven series. It’s called You’re So Vein, and it centres around a rivals-to-lovers relationship between a human and a vampire both battling it out to be the mayor of the small village. There’s guerrilla gardening, inventive uses for vines, a cursed village festival, and of course lots of murder and mayhem and vampiric shenanigans.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?

I am OBSESSED with horror at the moment, specifically cozy horror, so I am excitedly awaiting T Kingfisher’s Wolf Worm to land on my kindle, as well as the new Sierra Simone romance – Devil.

Will you be picking up A Grave Mistake? Tell us in the comments below!