Author Crush Friday with Marlene Perez

Today we’re talking to Marlene Perez, author of the bestselling Dead Is series, and the new paranormal young adult novel, The Afterlife of the Party (February 2, 2021; Entangled Teen). A little bit of swoon-worthy romance and enough twists to keep the reader turning the pages until the end. If you haven’t picked up The Afterlife of the Party yet, run, don’t walk, to grab it.

GLITTER: Tell us five things that people might not know about you.
MARLENE: 1) My first published work was a poem for a community college anthology. It was also the last time I wrote a poem I would show to anyone.

2) I love music, but I can’t sing or play an instrument.

3) Under a pen name, I wrote a middle grade novel set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons for Wizards of the Coast.

4) I learned to read before kindergarten (I have 11 older siblings, so I had a lot of help) and I still think it’s one of the best things to ever happen to me. Books are magical and I appreciate every single person who takes the time to pick up one of my novels.

5) I’m the mother of identical twins, which is why I sometimes roll my eyes at the way they’re portrayed in pop culture. Hint, I’d KNOW if they tried to pull a switcheroo. It’s also why there are identical twins in the Afterlife trilogy, although I’m pretty sure my kids aren’t vampire hunters. Pretty sure.

GLITTER: How would you describe your writing to a new reader?
MARLENE: I am an eclectic reader, so my writing is eclectic, too. I mostly write snarky paranormal novels for teens, but even the contemporary novels have some humor.

GLITTER: Do all of your ideas turn into books, or do you write a ton down until one resonates with you and then start writing that book?
MARLENE: I write a ton down. When I get an idea for a novel, I start a word doc and save it. Often what happens is that I’ll work on multiple ideas until one starts to call to me. Sometimes, I’m thinking about two or three things and will use those themes/story ideas in one book. With The Afterlife of the Party, I had this idea about a girl who goes to a party and it changes her life as well as the idea for a vampire novel. It’s a little bit like when you’re casually dating versus being in a committed relationship. I like to have projects in various stages of completion, but it’s also important to finish something.

GLITTER: How do you find the emotional truths in your writing?
MARLENE: A lot of it is listening and observing, but everyone has something that hurts their heart and often, authors write about those hurts. I also have four children and although I don’t use their specific experiences, I do listen to them and to their friends.

GLITTER: What one question sparked the whole plot of the Afterlife series, and The Afterlife of the Party in particular?
MARLENE: What if the Cullens were monstrous jerks? Only I used a different word. Heh.

I had an email discussion with two writer friends about the mythology of vampirism and themes of consent and lack of consent in the vampire canon. My brain is a very weird place to visit. I don’t have encyclopedic knowledge about music, but I love it and I love vampire tales. There were some things happening in the entertainment world that were upsetting and then I started doing research about musicians and their fans/followers/groupies. Those two things meshed in my brain and that’s when The Drainers appeared.

GLITTER: Are Tansy, Skyler, and Vaughn loosely based on anyone you know?
MARLENE: Skyler is loosely based on someone I knew who once trusted the wrong person and her friends weren’t around to help her. Their friendship was inspired by my good friends. Friends show up. They don’t leave you behind, no matter what. Writers always puts a bit of themselves into their characters, though.

GLITTER: We love the band name, The Drainers. How did you come up with the name?
MARLENE: Thank you. It came to me as soon as I knew the vampires were going to be in a band.  I have a weird sense of humor and I wanted a name to convey that they were predators in hot guy clothing. Vampires who feed from willing victims are different from vampires who don’t ask before they drain their victims. Slight spoiler alert, more band names ahead for the second and third book.

GLITTER: Do you have any particular writing rituals?
MARLENE: I usually make a playlist to create a mood for a first draft, but I don’t always listen when I’m writing. I like to listen to the playlist before I start working. It’s a way to bring me back into the emotions of the story.

My biggest ritual is a combo of procrastination and showing up. I give myself time away doing other things and that’s often when ideas come to me. But the other side of that is I have a little saying, which is “One K a day.” In other words, I try to write a thousand words a day, good or bad. It’s doable, even when life gets in the way.

GLITTER: What character do you relate most to?
MARLENE: I always relate most to the character I’m writing. I relate to Tansy in the Afterlife trilogy because she is loyal to her friends and has a dark/quirky sense of humor. She’s stubborn and sometimes doesn’t know when to admit defeat.

GLITTER: How is this series alike or unlike your Dead Is series?
MARLENE: Like the Dead Is series, The Afterlife trilogy has a multitude of paranormal characters, both good and bad, and a music component throughout the books. In Dead Is, there is the jukebox that gives Daisy clues through songs and in the Afterlife trilogy, there is a vampire band who used music to compel. I think the love stories are similar in that Daisy and Ryan from the Dead Is series start out as friends and so do Tansy and Vaughn. The main difference is that the Afterlife trilogy is a little darker than the lighthearted Dead Is books.

GLITTER: Do you have anything that you love to collect?
MARLENE: My husband and I like to collect vinyl records. I like both classic and new music. We also, not surprisingly, have a lot of books.

GLITTER: What book of yours do you hope to see on either TV or as a movie and why?
MARLENE: It’s a tie! I would love to see the Afterlife trilogy on TV because everyone loves a good funny vampire show. Can you imagine the casting call for The Drainers? And Tansy and Vaughn’s slow-burn romance?  I would also love to see the Dead Is series make it to either the big or small screen because I’d love to watch three psychic sisters solve paranormal mysteries.

GLITTER: What one piece of advice could you give any teen going through difficult times now?
MARLENE: That you are not alone and that things do get better. I had a not-great time in high school and I still remember that it sometimes felt like it would never end, but it does. And the people who made my life miserable are no longer in my life, except as a memory I might use in something I write.

GLITTER: Did any of the authors you read in high school affect how you write now?
MARLENE: Definitely. It’s hard to pin down authors because I was a voracious reader in high school. Maybe Anne Rice and Judy Blume. I was really into J.R.R. Tolkien for a while and my book boyfriend was Strider/Aragorn.

GLITTER: What are you passionate about in life?
MARLENE: Besides family and friends, I’m passionate about getting books into readers’ hands and that’s why our libraries are so important. I grew up poor in a small town and the library was essential to me. Books can change lives, but I don’t like how we sometimes ruin the joy of reading by making it prescriptive. I see the same books that were required reading for me in middle school and high school still showing up in my kids’ curriculum. I say read what you want. I don’t like the term guilty pleasure because we should be able to like what we like and read what we want to read, no guilt, just pleasure.

GLITTER: What are you working on right now?
MARLENE: I recently finished a draft of the second book in the trilogy I’m with the Banned and I’m working on the third book in the Afterlife trilogy, A Sucker for You and after that, I want to revise a monster manuscript.

Marlene Perez is an author of paranormal and urban fantasy books, including the bestselling Dead Is series for teens. The first book in the series, Dead Is the New Black, was named an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers as well as an ALA Popular Paperback. Her novels have been featured in Girls’ Life, Seventeen, and Cosmopolitan. She grew up in Story City, Iowa, and is the youngest of twelve children. She now lives in Orange County, California, with her husband and children. Visit her online at marleneperez.com.

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