AnnetteCurtisKlause

Annette Curtis Klause

Author of "Blood and Chocolate"

I was born in Bristol, England, in 1953. My early influences were the classics such as “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, and the stories of the great horror movies which my father told me as I sat in his lap. I was probably the only five-year-old in England who knew who Sweeny Tod, Demon Barber of Fleet Street was.

The first book I remember owning was about birds' eggs. I especially liked the picture of a swan's egg. I'm sure I must have shared it with my best friend—an imaginary ghost called Gulliver.

When I was seven, we moved up north to Newcastle upon-Tyne. That’s where I first decided that I’d save everything I wrote, including my first horror story, created when I was about ten—“The Blood Ridden Pool of Solen Goom”. In each chapter, a ghostly hand lured an unsuspecting traveler over a cliff to his death. All the chapters ended, "And more blood flowed into the blood ridden pool of Solen Goom."

My father took my sister and me to the library every Saturday. I could hardly wait to get home and start on the giant pile of books. I discovered The Chronicles of Narnia there and read them over and over. Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels were among my favorites, too, especially Dawn Wind. At the point where Dog dies, I would lock myself in the bathroom and cry my heart out under the mistaken assumption that no one would hear me, when actually my wails probably echoed through the entire house. "She's reading that stupid book again," I expect they said downstairs.

When I was fourteen, I read my first vampire book, which inspired me to write a heart-felt poetic epic, “The Saga of the Vampire”.

When I was fifteen my family, (which now included an additional, much younger, sister), moved to the United States where I concentrated on writing soppy love poetry while attending a Washington DC high school. My brother was born in this country and my parents let me name him in a misguided move to avoid sibling rivalry, I suppose. I named him after the vampire in the saga I had written. He may not have forgiven me.

I left behind the supernatural writings for a while. In college, my poetry did sometimes feature body parts but wasn’t actually intended to be horror unless you count the reaction of my teachers. I also acquired a future husband at this time and we began to have cats together.

When I left the University of Maryland with a Masters in Library science, first I got married and then I returned to writing fiction. But it was my science fiction and fantasy poetry that was first published in small magazines, along with a few cat poems, although I try not to mention Cat’s Magazine to serious poets even if I did become quite the poet laureate of the vet’s office.

Ten years of hard work later, my first young adult novel, The Silver Kiss (Delacorte, 1990; Dell, 1992), was published. Not that I’d advanced intellectually – I stole the idea from “The Saga of the Vampire”--after I'd finished laughing hysterically at how absolutely awful the poems were, that is. (In 2001, Atheneum published a prequel short story to The Silver Kiss in the anthology The Color of Absence. The story is called “Summer of Love”.)

My second book, a children’s science fiction adventure called Alien Secrets (Delacorte, 1993; Dell, 1995), featuring a feisty twelve-year-old girl, was a reaction to those years growing up when to read a SF book, an adolescent English girl had to mentally turn herself into a thirty year old American man.

My horror story “The Hoppins” appeared in an anthology entitled Short Circuits (Delacorte, 1992; Dell, 1993); and another story called “The Bogey Man” was in Night Terrors edited by Lois Duncan (Simon & Schuster, 1996; Simon Pulse, 1997). I think they show a deep-seated aggression toward young people, so perhaps it is strange that currently I work as a children’s librarian in Montgomery County, Maryland.

My third book, Blood and Chocolate (Delacorte, 1997; Dell, 1999) is a passionate love story that just happens to feature lots and lots of werewolves, and is now a movie produced by MGM and Lakeshore Productions. I even have my own page on the Internet Movie Database. Whoa! My neighbors were hoping when the book was finished they’d stop hearing that horrible howling late at night, but every time I hear the latest news about the movie….

Since Blood and Chocolate another book of mine has come out. This one is published by Margaret K. McElderry Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster). The title is Freaks: Alive, on the Inside! It’s a historical adventure with a fantasy twist feature a large cast of very unusual characters. The hardback came out in January 2006 and the paperback, with a cover I like much better, is due out in the summer of 2007.

In the fall of 2007, a new short story of mine called “Kissing Dead Boys” will appear in an anthology from candlewick Press entitled The Restless Dead.

Currently, I live with my husband and six cats in Hyattsville, Maryland. Three of the cats are from Siamese Rescue in Virginia--Lily, Quenby, and Serafina. We found Mr. Tod in our front bushes, Esmé was a pet store rescue placement, and Chloe just needed to get out of home where the people were irresponsible and didn't neuter their pets.

I’m working on a new novel, but it’s a bit early to tell too much about it. Just think—sex, demons, and rock ‘n roll.

Contact info:
Annette Curtis Klause
c/o Margaret K. McElderry Books
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020-1586

On the Web:
http://www.childrensbookguild.org/klause.htm

Movie Links:
Blood and Chocolate MGM site
Blood and Chocolate IMDB info
Blood and Chocolate On Myspace
Blood and Chocolate On Yahoo