Pamela Skjolsvik: Character Interview
In Skjolsvik’s latest, the cure for vampirism is much like the 12-step treatment for alcoholism, and Veronica goes to meetings just to make bearable the maddeningly boring life of being a middle-aged female vampire.
An event as mundane as a trip to a tanning salon has Veronica facing her hunger for the dim-witted Britney, her complicated urges, and her immortality. On the plane to visit her daughter in San Francisco, she meets Jenny, who is on her way to Santa Barbara for rehab. Veronica’s path to mortality is laid out in her Big Book, and she must atone for each life she turned into a vampire or stay an old maid forever. In this must-read adventure, many states are crossed amid much horror and humor. – Booklist
We asked Pamela if she could interview Veronica and she said, Yes!
Pamela: Before we begin, I just want to thank the man who was seated in the aisle seat for letting me switch with him so I could talk to you. As promised, this won’t take long. So, Veronica, where are you headed to on this red eye flight?
Veronica: San Francisco. That is if we ever get back in the air. (She taps her foot nervously.)
Pamela: Yeah, I know. That emergency landing was scary, but they’ll get the plane fixed before you know it. Will this be your first-time visiting California?
Veronica: Yes. It’s also the first time I’ve ever flown. On an airplane.
Pamela: Really? I’m so sorry your first flight has been such a nightmare.
Veronica: (eyeing the young woman seated next to her) You have no idea. Listen, my phone is dead. Do you happen to know what time the sun is supposed to rise in New Mexico?
Pamela: Google, when is the sun going to rise today?
Google: The sun will rise at six-twenty-six a.m. in Clovis, New Mexico.
Veronica: Thanks. (She peers out the window.)
Pamela: So, are you visiting someone in California?
Veronica: Yeah. My daughter.
Pamela: Well, that should be nice.
Veronica: You would think, but our relationship is a bit strained. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other.
Pamela: How old is she?
Veronica: Fifteen.
Pamela: So, um, how old was she the last time you saw her?
Veronica: Fifteen. It’s complicated.
Pamela: I gathered that. Well, I better get back to my seat. Thanks for your time.
Veronica: You’re welcome. I’ve got nothing but time…
—
FOREVER 51
Full of vampires with spray tans and menopause trying to twelve step their way to salvation, Forever 51 takes vampire fiction into terrifying new territory: middle age. A very funny, very bloody book about growing older and getting dead. – Grady Hendrix, New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Veronica is eternally fifty-one years old with a proclivity for problematic drinking. Like most hormonally challenged women negotiating the change of life, she is a hot mess. To retain her sanity, she attends weekly AA meetings and adheres to a strict diet of organic, locally-sourced, (mostly) cruelty-free human blood from the hospice facility where she works. Her life stopped being fun about a hundred years ago, right about the time her teenage daughter stole her soul and took off for California with a hot, older guy. These days, Veronica’s existence is just that – an existence, as flat and empty as her own non-reflection in the bathroom mirror.
When her estranged daughter contacts her via Facebook, Veronica learns that she has one chance to escape her eternal personal summer: she must find and apologize to every one of the people she’s turned into vampires in the last century. That is, if they’re still out there. With raging hormones and a ticking clock, Veronica embarks on a last-ditch road trip to regain her mortality, reclaim her humanity, and ultimately, die on her own terms.
Fans of Alice Hoffman and Grady Hendrix will love the snarky and supernatural storytelling found in Forever 51.
BUY HERE
Pamela Skjolsvik has been published in Creative Nonfiction, Witness, Ten Spurs, The Moment, The Dallas Morning News’ Death Penalty Blog, Writer’s Digest, CNN and in the anthology Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives. Death Becomes Us, which began as her MFA thesis at Goucher College, won second place at The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. Pamela has been interviewed on several podcasts (Death! The Podcast, The Drunken Odyssey, Dan Reads Books, The Passionista’s Podcast, and the Trust Tree Podcast) and was featured on NPR’s Think with Krys Boyd.
In March of 2020, Pamela founded the 2020 Quarantine Book Club on Facebook to assist debut authors affected by the pandemic. The book club now has over 1400 members and was featured on Fox 4 in Dallas and in Reader’s Digest.
Her debut novel, Forever 51, came out in November of 2020.
You can follow Pamela on these social media platforms:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamelaskjolsvik/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pamelaskjolsvik
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelaskjolsvikauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14422836.Pamela_Skjolsvik
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/pamela-skjolsvik
Category: Interviews, On Writing
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