I know some authors won’t read in the genre they write. What about you? Do you read urban fantasy? Why (or why not)?

Okay, I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t even know what urban fantasy was until last year when an agent told me that a different book I was pitching was urban fantasy. I mean, I’ve always called my werewolf stories “horror.” I knew that wasn’t right because there weren’t any jump-out-and-scare-you scenes. So, that said, I guess I have read urban fantasy, but honestly, I don’t read much fiction about shapeshifters because I don’t want to subconsciously pull someone else’s new ideas into my series. I still buy them, and intend to read them … someday.

Do you write anything other than urban fantasy? How were you drawn to the genre?

A lot of what I’ve written really is straight-up horror. I suppose you could say I was drawn to urban fantasy because of the “glitter” of horror. You know, the body counts, the gore, the adrenaline, but then I realized I needed something more than a good disemboweling, so a lot of my writing became about characters dealing with their paranormal dilemma. It’s hard to call Shara a horror novel when Shara (the character) is the monster.

I do write other things. I still write horror. High fantasy and sword-and-sorcery fiction were early loves for me, as a reader, and I have a fantasy series I’ve been nursing along for years, trying to get that first book right. That would go a lot faster if I could name the people in it Bill and Sarah; coming up with fantasy names that aren’t just stupid is very hard for me.

What kind of reading experience are you hoping to create for your readers?  What do you want them to come away from your books saying, thinking and feeling?

The capitalist in me wants them to come away saying, “I must buy more books by this guy!” The artist in me wants them to close the book and re-evaluate their own values in light of what I’ve revealed about the human condition. But really, I’m happy if they finish the book and feel they got their money’s worth in the form of simple entertainment.

You write about werewolves, right? If you could be one of the characters in your book for one day, who would it be? Why?

Ah, good question. Who would I be? I think it would have to be Josef Ulrik. He has some flaws, but he’s the wisest of the werewolves. He is stoic, solid and strong … and for some reason female readers really seem to like him. Honestly, when I began writing about werewolves, Shara Elaine Wellington was a female version of me (note the same initials?). Ulrik was who I wanted to be. Ulrik has an Old World style. He’s unflappable and capable of handling anything that comes at him.

What future project are you working on–what else do readers have to look forward to?

Right now I’m working on a book that involves astral travel and split personalities. Next year I’ll have a novelette published by Bad Moon Books. That is a ghost story called Little Graveyard on the Prairie. It’s a story I’m really proud of. Is the hero seeing ghosts, or is it his Alzheimer’s? Maybe it’s both. Going back to what I want readers to come away with, there’s one scene in that book where all my early readers said the hair stood up on the back of their necks. That’s a sweet feeling when you can do that.

Otherwise, I have a couple of other novels being looked at by publishers; one is a horror novel about anger with a mad scientist, a ghost and a zombie, and the other is an urban fantasy with a seductive and mischievous fallen angel. I’m also doing some final edits (if they’re ever “final” before publication) on an historical romance with a werewolf mixed in. I hope to start submitting that later this spring.

How do you research for your werewolf books? Do you use established lore, or make it up as you go? Or both?

It’s all personal experience.

Okay, maybe not. Although, I’ve had many e-mails asking me to turn the writer into a werewolf. One young man claimed he is a werewolf and became very irate when I explained that I am not a werewolf, but only the author of some werewolf fiction.

Anyway, I read all the non-fiction I can on the subject. I love case histories on the Inquisition, transcripts of the trials, legends about werecreatures, etc. A lot of it is repetition, but I read it anyway. I have a particular fondness for the Germanic and Nordic werewolf legends.

I use a lot of  “common knowledge” about werewolves, too. The whole silver bullet thing, you know, was made up by Kurt Siodmak for the Lon Chaney film, but today everyone knows you need a silver bullet to kill a werewolf. Silver has always been a sacred metal, so I’ve incorporated silver into my mythos. And wolfsbane. But I’ve done some things that are different, such as female werewolves not being able to reproduce, the werewolf cycle replacing menstruation, and such.

You’re asking readers to suspend disbelief when they read about werewolves. I think it’s too much to ask them to not only suspend their disbelief and accept your creatures for 400 pages, but to go a step further and throw out EVERYTHING they’ve come to expect about the creature.

Do you listen to music when you write? If so, are there any songs you particularly associate with certain characters, or books?

Well, Nazereth’s “Hair of the Dog” has come to be associated with Shara’s son, Joey, in my mind. That’s kind of obvious, though. I like to listen to dark instrumental music when I write … Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana, Danny Elfman movie soundtracks. Lyrics distract me when I’m writing. I can’t really associate any one piece with a character or book, though. I would so love it if Nox Arcana did an album based on my werewolf series. I’d be happy with any dark instrumental album focusing on lycanthropy instead of vampires, but if it was MY werewolves …

When I was first writing Shara I listened to the Interview With a Vampire soundtrack a lot, and there are some selections on there now that take me back to that room in that house at that time in my life more than they remind me of their scenes in the film.

What’s your favorite part of the writing process? Your least favorite?

Used to be, I hated to edit. Now, I can’t wait to have that first draft finished so I can go back and fix it, smooth it out, say what I really meant here, straighten out a crooked sentence there. Having that finished rough draft now is like giving the perfect stone to a sculptor, I guess. I still love the rush of writing the first draft. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing like getting up from the keyboard and realizing that an afternoon has slipped away while you wrote 80 pages of brand new material. But I’ve come to really love the editing process, too.

My least favorite part is the marketing. I’ve had two bad agents in the past, neither of which did anything to advance my career. I don’t have one now, so I do all my own query letters and submissions. And waiting. I’d love to find a good agent who would take care of all that for me, but that’d take time, too, and I’m still a bit jaded from the past experiences.

How can readers best get in touch with you? Are you attending any conferences this year?

Yep. I was at Texas Frightmare Weekend back in February. It was the first time they included authors in the programming and I was very proud to be part of that. It was a lot of fun. I’ll be at SoonerCon in Oklahoma City in June, Conestoga in Tulsa in July (I’m part of the FFF con-within-a-con), FenCon in Dallas in early October and TrickConTreat in Oklahoma City in late October. I hope to do some book store signings, too, but haven’t scheduled them yet. I’m also planning to attend Robert E. Howard Days in Crossplains, Texas, in June, but I’ll just be a slavering fanboy, not part of the programming.

The best way to get in touch with me is through one of my Web sites. The main one is www.stevenewedel.com. I have another site devoted completely to my werewolves at www.werewolfsaga.com. I also have a MySpace at www.myspace.com/sewedel.