Interviews of the Wattpad AUTHORS

Dark Ruby

Hello this is a interview with foreverlosttear

What inspired you to come up with the idea of Dark Ruby and how did you come up with the idea of it?

I was seventeen I think, and was currently hooked on Pride and Prejudice. I had always loved vampires from a young age, but decided I wanted to try my hand at doing something historical because I have always been big on history too. So I decided to put both my great loves together, with some awesome, forbidden, death defying love thrown in for good measure. My other favourites, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Andrew Lloyd Webbers Phantom of the Opera musical (which I went to see while I was writing Dark Ruby) and the classic Disney film Beauty and the Beast also hugely inspired me.

Why did you kill Anton in the book?

Because he had to die after what he did. I feel it's as simple as that. It wasn't to make a big impact, or to upset people, or annoy them. I am a big lover of vampire/ human relationships (vampire man/human woman) but I wanted to do something credible, and if a vampire came and killed your family would you want to spend the rest of your life with him in darkness, causing other people the same grief? I doubt any sane person would.

By sacrificing his own life to protect her from himself, and all the pain he could inflict on her still, he redeemed himself in death, by this one, unselfish act.

Anton is a dark evil character yet he is kind and caring. What inspired this character?

I just love the inner conflict of a villain, because nobody is outright evil. Everyone has good and bad feelings, and desires, but some choose to act on them while others don't. I have always been a fan of vampires that have to choose between loving the girl and eating her. If they can make the right choice, the choice to love her, if they can overcome their basic primal natures and craving for blood then I think that makes the love all the more powerful and beautiful.

Plus, everyone loves it when a bad boy starts to show emotion. Anton is probably the badest boy I have ever written, but he has a very special place in my heart, and in the hearts of my readers I hope!

Why did Anton admit that he is a vampire and that he is in love with her when they first meet instead of waiting till she too develops feeling for him?

Anton is a novice at this. For all of his seducing women this is something different, this is the first time a woman's blood has awoken him, freed him from torment. He owes Ruby his life (or existence) and I think at first maybe Ruby is right, maybe Anton is confusing gratitude for love, but when he begins to spend time with her, to see her for the kind, strong, caring woman that she is she touches a part of his humanity he had thought long since dead. Sometimes that gets confused with his vampire nature, which leads to the screw ups like when he kills her sisters and tortures her boyfriend Edward.

Perhaps if he had come to her, acting as a mortal man, she would have accepted him at first, but when he revealed his true nature to her she still would have turned on him because that's the sort of person she is. She is very good, very pure, very protective of humanity, which is why she begins to respond to Anton more when he shows some.

If you didn't kill Anton would the ending have been different? Would she have turned into a vampire and lived an eternity with him?

I am not a fan of human women turning into vampires, in fact, apart from Dark Ruby, I think I have only used it once in a story and that was to save her life. For me it takes the romance away, the reason the romance was so special, as I said above, is because he is able to overcome all his violent urges to care for someone who should be nothing more than a meal to him. The woman still being alive, and human, is a testament to their love.

I don't think the ending would have been different because after everything he did he had to die. It was the only way to redeem himself and prove his love to Ruby beyond all doubt.

Why did you kill Ruby's sisters?

Because this isn't Twilight and in real vampire stories people die. In Dracula Lucy died. I do believe that Anton thought if he could turn her sisters Ruby would come to him more willingly, that she wouldn't deny her own family, but it didn't work. I think the wicked side of him also wanted to punish Ruby for rejecting him.

Throughout the novel we see her writing n her journal. What made you want the character write in the journal?

I thought it was a useful tool to progress the story and also have a better look into her mind. I can tell a lot of what has happened in a few lines, and what Ruby thinks about that. I think it worked well, I'm not sure about what the fans thought, but for me it fulfilled its purpose.

At the beginning where you planning on having Ruby be with Anton?

Probably. It was so long ago that I wrote this I can hardly remember. I was 17 when I started and I finished it when I was 18. I turn 25 in August. Memory starts to fade with age. I was a much different person then to what I am now.

Usually in my vampire stories I do have them together at the end, but as I was writing this, all this horrible stuff Anton was doing, it became less and less realistic to have them happy together at the end (yes I know vampire stories aren't realistic lol) I think I used the mature, true to real life ending instead of the fangirly ending I would have used when I was younger. That's what fan fiction is for. I would be flattered if someone did some fan fiction based on Dark Ruby.

You have a lot of people reading and voting for your book. Where you expecting this much success?

If I say yes, I am big headed aren't I? In truth no, I wasn't expecting quite this much attention for it. I knew it wasn't awful, because I did a Professional Writing degree and used the Halloween Ball scenes and the first scene in the graveyard where they unearthed Anton, I submitted them for my final major project and received the top grade, a 1st which I suppose is like an A. It gave me the courage I needed to believe in myself a bit more. 

 I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my fans. They are now the reason that I write.

Who is your favourite character and why?

Usually my favourite character is the bad boy, the vampire, the demon, the devil, whoever I am writing about. But in his story it has to be Ruby, probably because I have been inside her head, I know how she ticks, I can't see much of me in her to be honest but I respect who she is and why she does what she does, and I understand how she can forgive Anton in the end.

What is your favourite scene and why?

My favourite scene is the Halloween Ball, when they are dancing in the mirror hall, when Anton is behaving himself. There is something so romantic about it, so enchanting, and Ruby almost surrendered herself to him there. I just loved the imagery with the costumes, the glittering light and the mirrors. But if anyone is reading this, what was your favourite scene?

Also check out this video, was a big influence for the Halloween scene, the lyrics, music and video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSTV99Uy8hk

Team vampire, werewolf, hybrid or human?

Team vampire, always team vampire. I rarely write about werewolves, and typical human stories bore me. I could never do straight up romance, I always need the horror element, and a monster to make a mess.