As part of author Mike Kearby‘s blog tour, he’s stopping by 1889 Labs today for a little interview about his horror/thriller release Kavachi’s Rise.

You can find the full blog tour schedule here if you’re interested in following along.

In the meantime… Lights! Camera! Action!

Tell us about yourself. You’re a novelist, inventor, ex-English teacher, history enthusiast… but what aren’t you?

MK: I am most definitely not a follower and seem to have a genetic aversion toward humans that organize into groups.

You’ve written over ten novels. How does Kavachi’s Rise differ from your previous works?

MK: My early novels all have an overwhelming storyline based on real events in history. The Devouring contains a very brief historical set-up of the Romani Holocaust and prey mimicry. Other than that, the book is a story of pure fiction.

In a market that has seen many new vampire novels released, what makes the vampire protagonists in Kavachi’s Rise unique?

In my mind, the story would replace the undead vampire of lore with the idea that vampire are actually an evolved animal species with the ability to mimic their prey: Man. I wanted vampire that were very much alive and could move about in the daylight. The vampire in the story still take blood, but for a very different reason: to harvest a specific amino acid that fuels their molecular furnaces.

How much do you relate to your characters?

MK: I think as all writers do; I have a tendency to take acquaintances and parts of myself and fuse those together to form the main characters in each novel.

Many of your works have a historical context. What unusual facts did you have to research for this novel?

MK:  The first historical event I had to understand was the Romani Holocaust and the liberation of prisoners from German death camps. Of course the entire plotline was dependent on discovering whether or not some predators mimic their prey for hunting. The discovery that this does occur in nature made the plot (for me) believable in my writing the story.

Kavachi’s Rise is the first in The Devouring series. What can readers expect from the sequels?

MK: The first installment set-up was to transform the main characters, Kavachi and Tetanya, from domesticated vampyre into feral vampyre, then into government-controlled assassins. Future books will show the two fighting – and here’s a cliché – evil in the world.

Finally, what question should we have asked you, and why?

MK: The question: Will the Mayan prediction regarding the 13^th Baktun come true on December 21^st 2012 thus ending all life on the planet?

The why? I wanted to remind your readers to buy their copy of The Devouring well ahead of the planet’s end.

About Kavachi’s Rise (The Devouring #1)

A Dark Secret. Thomas Morehart and his sister, Kara are vampyre, not the undead, but creatures evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to mimic their prey, man. Then – rescued from a Nazi Prison Camp, Thomas and Kara are brought to the U.S. and forced to work inside government-owned mortuaries. Now -betrayed by the government sixty-seven years later, Thomas and Kara are in a race against time to transform back to their feral states or risk Exsanguination by government sanctioned hit squads.

Purchase from Damnation Books | Amazon | B&N

About Mike Kearby

From Wikipedia: Mike Kearby (born 1952) is an American novelist and inventor. Since 2005, Kearby has published ten novels, one graphic novel, and written two screenplays: (2011) Boston Nightly, with fellow writer Paul Bright and (2012) The Devouring. Boston Nightly is scheduled for filming in the spring of 2013.

Kearby was born in Mineral Wells, Texas, and received a B.S. from North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) in 1972. He taught high school English and reading for 10 years and created “”The Collaborative Novella Project”" The project allows future authors to go through the novel writing process from idea to published work.

Find out more at his website, twitter or blog.