Maria was born in Cuba and emigrated to the United States as a child. She began writing fiction eight years ago, and has worked writing non-fiction for over twenty years. Maria identifies as bisexual, and includes various types of queer characters in her stories, so she’s very happy to promote LGBTQI  speculative fiction with The Outer Alliance.

When she’s not writing, Maria works for an interactive web agency in the Washington DC area. She also keeps a blog at www.chickwriter.com, and posts to Twitter as chickwriter. Maria’s short story, “The Butler Didn’t Do It” received an Agatha Award nomination in 2004. Pocket Books reprinted her novels Matters of the Blood (originally published in 2007) and Blood Bargain (originally published in 2008) in August and September of 2009, and the third in her Blood Lines series, Blood Kin will be available for the first time on the 27th of October.

Your series is set in the Texas Hill Country, a distinctive choice. Do you have any personal connections to that area? If not, how did you end up deciding to use it as a setting?

Yes, I spent a good deal of my high school days in the Hill Country, then moved away for a time and came back to San Antonio (near Hill Country) to stay, until 2000. I love the area! It has beautiful countryside, lakes, people of all sorts. Small towns, medium size, etc. Though close to big cities, the Hill Country area retains a certain quality of being out of place and time; a perfect setting for my books.

Can you tell us a little bit about your queer characters? Do you have any favorites?

All my characters, except for the humans could be queer identified. In Keira’s family (my protagonist), since they have such extremely long lives, the accepted one man/one woman couple arrangement doesn’t make sense to them. They are primarily omnisexual–it’s the person, not the gender (or the people, in the case of the group marriages). For the vampires, same goes. They are less likely to form a marriage, per se, but a blood bond–a contractual partnership that may or may not include sex. In my books, I try to explore several facets of romantic love/sex–Keira with Adam Walker, a het couple, but there’s more to it than traditional het pairings. Tucker, Keira’s brother pairs up with Niko, Adam’s 2nd–a committed and loving male/male partnership that seems to be a favorite with many readers…including me. ::g:: In Blood Kin, I mention that two other brothers are in a trio relationship, a pattern that will continue more prominently in book 4 (which I’m currently writing).

Urban fantasy and paranormal romance are very popular genres right now. What sets your stories apart?

I like twisting tropes and messing with the standards. In my books, Keira isn’t the traditional human hot chick in leather sent out to fight the bad guys. Though strong and very self-aware, she’s not human, not a fighter–she’d rather just be left alone. Unfortunately for her, things don’t work out that way.  My vampires aren’t emo-tastic angst-ridden creatures, nor are they vicious killers. Again, they are mostly just people, with a certain dangerous bent, of course, but with all the emotions and concerns of others. Their challenge is to live within a human community without exposing their secrets, plus, learning to live with the pressures and issues that come from family–whether blood family or chosen family. Granted, their issues are *very* different from what most of us would ever experience!

What has your publication journey been like? How long did it take you to write and sell the first three books in the Blood Lines series?

My road to publication was fairly rocky – a study in how not to do it. I’d written Matters of the Blood over about 5 years, several versions/drafts and eventually sold it to a small press. Sadly, shortly thereafter, they went under. Lucky for me, Wildside was just starting a paranormal romance line, Juno Books, and I’d met the owner, John Betancourt, at a local convention. John offered to reprint Matters, then subsequently offered for 2 more books in the series. After researching their history, I signed the contract. Then, in January 2009, Pocket Books took over Juno Books and reprinted Matters and Blood Bargain, and are releasing Blood Kin (book 3) in late October. Via my new agent, I sold book 4 in the series, due out sometime in late 2010.

And finally, do you have any book recommendations for us?

Tanya Huff’s Smoke series, which are a follow up to her Vicky Nelson books. The Smoke series features Tony Foster, a young gay man, as their main character. Fabulous books! I also recommend her Keeper’s Chronicles series, humorous and fantastic reads. The protagonist’s sister is a lesbian.

I’ve got tons and tons of other book recs, I’m sure, but my brain is just going blank right now.

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Thanks, Maria! Look out for another Outer Alliance Spotlight Post next Friday, and in the meantime, check out Matters of the Blood.