Countdown to Christmas Day Four: A Holiday Conversation with EVOLVE authors Natasha Beaulieu, Kevin Nunn and Tanya Huff

Your name: Natasha Beaulieu
EDGE title(s) of 2010: EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

EDGE:  Are you more of a Santa or Scrooge?

Natasha Beaulieu:  I feel closer to Santa but I prefer to give gifts through the year whenever I see something that can please a friend or someone else I appreciate.

EDGE: Do you have anything unique or special thing you do to celebrate the holiday season?

Natasha Beaulieu: The fact that I can still enjoy my mom and dad presence. They come at my place for Christmas diner. It is the only day in the year I cook a real big meal but that is a great pleasure and every time we spend a wonderful memorable evening ;)

EDGE: What was the strangest Christmas/Hanukah/Yule/insert other celebration here gift you ever received?

Natasha Beaulieu: Sorry, I can't tell. But it was bright pink and you can add batteries in it. I never used it. Let's say it was a turnoff....

EDGE: What is your favorite holiday treat (sweet or otherwise)?

Natasha Beaulieu: Fruit cakes.

EDGE: If a character in your book/story was celebrating Christmas how would they do it?

Natasha Beaulieu: Choosing more bloody red than green for decoration ;)
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Your name: Kevin Nunn
EDGE title(s) of 2010: EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

EDGE: Are you more of a Santa or Scrooge?

Kevin Nunn: I'm a jolly old Scrooge! I'm not a bad person, I've just spent so long in the arts that I've gotten used to doing everything on the cheap.Or I guess you could call me a miserly Santa. Hard to say. Jolly and Happy and very cheap.

EDGE: Do you have anything unique or special thing you do to celebrate the holiday season?

Kevin Nunn: It's not Christmas until we watch out Christmas movie. We're no Angels with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Basil Rathbone. Awesome movie, hard to find, but highly recommended.

EDGE:  What was the strangest Christmas/Hanukah/Yule/insert other celebration here gift you ever received?

Kevin Nunn: A jeweller's desk. A large sheet of brass. 500 saw blades. a gallon of white glue. No shortage of stuff there! I'm always receiving odd stuff since I'm always on the lookout for odds and sods for my art projects.

EDGE:  What is your favorite holiday treat (sweet or otherwise)?

Kevin Nunn: My Mom's cloverleaf rolls. Of course I make a wicked molasses cookie myself!

EDGE: If a character in your story was celebrating Christmas how would they
do it...

Kevin Nunn: Kenneth (from my story in Evolve) would have a quiet day reading by a fiery Yule log before going out to a formal dinner in white tie and tails. He's an inconvenient sort like that.

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Your name: Tanya Huff
EDGE title(s) of 2010: EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

EDGE:  Are you more of a Santa or Scrooge?

Tanya Huff: Kind of a harried Santa.  I worry about buying the "right" gift most of
the time -- well, except for our Angel kids.  Every year we "adopt" a pair
of siblings from the local CAS Angel Tree and try to give them the kind of
Christmas both Fiona and I remember as kids.

EDGE: Very cool. Do you have anything unique or special thing you do to celebrate the
holiday season?

Tanya Huff: Well, there's the pig-in-a-can solstice tradition that started when one of
our boys brought us a Pepperidge Farm box and we've continued even though
all our boys have grown up and moved away. (the neighbourhood teenagers
used to fight to shovel our driveway; we're 22K from town so jobs are few
and far between before you can drive)

EDGE: What was the strangest Christmas/Hanukah/Yule/insert other celebration
here gift you ever received?

Tanya Huff: I'm sure there must've been something over the years that others might
consider weird but for the life of me, I can't remember any specifics...

EDGE: What is your favorite holiday treat (sweet or otherwise)?

Tanya Huff: I love the little marzipan pigs you can get at this time of the year!
Haven't seen any this year though.  ::is sad::

EDGE: If a character in your story was celebrating Christmas how would they
do it...

Tanya Huff:  I've actually written that story: SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS, collected in Blood
Bank, where Vicki learns to be less Scrooge-like.

Tony stared at her suspiciously for a moment, then continued. "You will be
visited by three ghosts."

"You have got to be kidding me."

His shrug set the lunch boxes clanking.  "Yeah, surprised me too.  I'd
have bet you were more the IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE type."
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About EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead


Vampires have Evolved and They are Here!

Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff and twenty-two other Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers re-imagine the future of vampires in this new collection of all-original short fiction. One of the most unusual and original vampire anthologies ever compiled.

EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead includes works by:
Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff, Claude Lalumière. Mary E. Choo, Sandra Kasturi, Bradley Somer, Kevin Cockle, Rebecca Bradley, Heather Clitheroe, Colleen Anderson, Sandra Wickham, Rhea Rose, Ronald Hore, Bev Vincent, Jennifer Greylyn, Steve Vernon, Michael Skeet, Kevin Nunn, Victoria Fisher, Rio Youers, Gemma Files, Natasha Beaulieu, Claude Bolduc, and Jerome Stueart.

Amazon Link
EVOLVE:Vampire Stories of the New Undead

Tomorrow, join us for many of the authors of Tesseracts Fourteen: Strange Canadian Stories edited by John Robert Colombo, and Brett Alexander Savory