Interview: Melissa Marr, author of 'Made for You'

Paste BN and New York Times bestseller Melissa Marr, author of Made for You, joins HEA to answer some questions about her new release, dredging up really bad memories to make the book more authentic emotionally and writing in multiple genres.

Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Melissa! Please tell us about Made for You.

Made for You is your first shot at romantic suspense. How was writing it different from your usual YA paranormal?

Melissa: This was a completely new experience for me. I typically write third-person past tense paranormal fiction (with strong romance threads). This is first-person and present tense, so it was a completely different style of writing on a fundamental level.

Additionally, it's set in North Carolina, where I lived when I had a stalker. To give the sense of fear and helplessness I wanted, I dredged up memories I prefer to keep boxed up. I wanted to use those feelings, though, so that I had a better chance of letting the reader experience those emotions.

The biggest difference for me was that in Made for You, I also wrote from the killer's point of view, and getting into his head — creating that voice of obsession and skewed reality — was extremely unnerving. It took a few years before I was ready to write this one, but I'm really pleased with the result and I'd love to do more books in one of the suspense genres.

Joyce: Did you do any research for Made for You that might raise some law-enforcement eyebrows?

Melissa: I think I lucked out a bit. The handgun aspect didn't require research since I've been firing weapons since I was younger than Eva, and I'm married to a retired Marine. For the criminal aspects, I consulted a police chief who actually had a case similar to Eva's, a detective for the investigative process, an officer in an N.C. town for regionalism, and a forensics expert.

That said, there were still parts of my research that were red-flag invitations. I had to check out the absorption rate of different drugs in order to best incapacitate a victim within other parameters for the time schedule, and I needed to look up cell phone-signal blockers and the use of electric shock collars on humans. Any one of those three would be odd. Altogether ... I'd raise my brows if I saw them on a search history!

Joyce: Do you have a favorite scene in Made for You?

Melissa: That's a tough one. I have a few, but one of them is a scene where Eva (my main character) is talking to the killer (who also narrates part of the book). By then, the reader will have him as a clear suspect, and the subtext of the conversation that he would hear because of his obsession with her makes the scene very creepy. It was one of the hardest to write, but it was fun to find a way to get the echo of the killer's voice into a scene where we weren't in his head.

Joyce: What can readers expect to see from you next?

Melissa: In YA, I'm working on a new book, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Before it, however, I have my first picture book out in April 2015 (Bunny Roo, I Love You), which I wrote when I spent seven weeks in the hospital with my newborn son who was in severe withdrawal from the drugs he'd been exposed to from his birth mother.

I also have my third co-authored (with Kelley Armstrong) children's book (Thor's Serpents) out in May 2015. Sometime in 2015, I also have a romance coming out. That one will be under a pseudonym because it has spicy content that my younger readers should not be reading.

Joyce: Is there anything you'd like to add?

Melissa: I want to say that I really appreciate that readers are willing to work with my tendency to write in several different genres and for different age groups. I also want to thank HEA for periodically sending me questions. As a lifelong romance reader, it's always satisfying to get to talk to other romance readers!

Joyce: Thanks, Melissa!

Find out more about Melissa and her books at www.melissamarrbooks.com.

HEA curator and contributor Joyce Lamb is a Paste BN best-selling author of romantic suspense and three-time RITA finalist and has been a professional journalist for 25 years. You can reach her at jlamb@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter (@JoyceLamb). You can also follow HEA on Twitter (@HEAusatoday).