Speaker 1: Shelby, Shelby, Shelby, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good, how are you?
Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic?
Speaker 3: But you know, as a fan of your words on
a page, it's like, how can you bring this to
an end?
Speaker 1: Please? Please you? This has got to be a stunt,
a Hollywood stunt. You know.
Speaker 4: Some days I wish that it was, and some days
I'm so glad that it's five books of the universe.
I am very sad to say goodbye, but I'm also
excited for new projects. So I'm like right there in
that bittersweet, you know, emotional ground.
Speaker 3: I was wondering about that because I mean, I I've
never done a well wait, I'm gonna take that back.
I do have a book that that that needs a
second part to it. But the only reason why I've
never released it is because there's never been a calling
for it. It's like everybody read the end of the book
and they thought, wow, okay, it does there's no reason
to continue it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and yet I still have the whole story,
and it's.
Speaker 4: Like, come on, it's not the end, guy.
Speaker 3: Well this relationship with with Saley and Michael, come on,
how did you even feel this inside your mind and body?
Because for us to feel it, you had to have
done it first.
Speaker 4: So their relationship was very interesting because I had to
rework it. So for those who don't know, Salie's the
main character of The Shadow Bride, Michael is the mortal
vampire who kidnapped her by accident, and then you know,
of course they very slow burn fall in love and
the course of the Carlet Veil. But I had to
revise the relationship because there was such a power and
balance in the original draft, because he is a mortal,
you know, he's all powerful all of these things. And
my critique partner read it and she's like, I'm just
not feeling this, Shelby, And I was like, what you're not?
And so I did. I brought it back down to
the foundation. I reworked it. I kind of had them
play more on each other's like he's, you know, he
is all powerful, she's very she's very like naive. It
was kind of I made it more opposites attract, if
that makes sense. They're the chemistry and the tension and
everything kind of stems from she's so different from him,
so like, how does it work? And yet it does
because they they see all these different versions of themselves.
You know, Sale has grown through five books. Michael sees
all of those past versions of her, and not only
does he see them, he respects them. He really revers them.
He revers Saily, and I think that that's why it works.
That was what was missing in that original you know draft.
Of course, you know writing is revising, so thank goodness,
I did well.
Speaker 3: This is going to age me. But I really, honestly,
when I'm going through the through the storylines, I feel
like this is a Luke and Laura on General Hospital moment.
Speaker 4: I'm not familiar with that.
Speaker 1: Are you that young? Oh?
Speaker 2: Is it the opposite.
Speaker 3: Attract It is one hundred percent? I mean, is they
took over the nineteen eighties? And I feel like that this,
this story here, it needs to become a soap opera
of sorts.
Speaker 1: Not not a binge watch, but a soap opera.
Speaker 4: It's very soapy. I can I can get down with that. Yeah,
I'm thirty two, so I don't think I was around. Well,
I love an opposite of track, so maybe I'll check
it out for sure.
Speaker 3: Well, if Michael shows off his his his strength in
the way that he now makes Shaley, you know internal
I mean and yeah, the internal vampire in the way
of bringing her to a place where she can't go
away anymore. Now he's got his hands on her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he so like threw out the.
Speaker 4: Whole of the Starlet veil. He's very you know, brooding,
very angsty, and he is very like, I will not
turn other people into vampires because he turned someone close
to him and they resented him for it for like
the rest of their undead existence. And of course at
the end of the show, at the end of the
Toilet Mail, that's the same thing again.
Speaker 2: You're he he's a mistake.
Speaker 4: He just can't let her go, and now there's really
no power and balance at all. In the Shadow Ride,
they are very much on even footing, and even I
don't want to spoil anything, but he goes further than
that to make it so that they are actually on
even footing throughout the course of that book. So that
was that was fun. It was fun to watch kind
of bring Michael to his knees.
Speaker 2: Well, but this love of this like human girl.
Speaker 3: See I call those giggle moments because I can just
picture readers sitting there giggling when things like that happened,
because it's you put us in that place of being
right there like a fly on the wall, a close perspective.
Speaker 4: So that's like the ultimate compliment for me.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Oh, we're just getting started with Shelby. Do
not move.
Speaker 3: We've got more on the way next. Hey, thanks for
coming back to my conversation with Shelby.
Speaker 1: Maharan.
Speaker 3: You have somewhat of a twist here with Flippa returning
as a shadow of herself. I mean, were you at
a Starbucks when this happened? When it came to you,
I mean, how did you you know when to do this?
Speaker 4: I knew that we were working towards Philip up. So
that Sally's sister, who she actually died at the at
the beginning off page at the beginning of the Serpent
and Dove trilogy, which is the original trilogy. She's dead
all throughout the original three books. She's also kind of dead,
she is not kind of She is dead in the
Scarlet Veil, and she does return in The Shadow Bride.
She returns as a revenant. So you know, vampires aren't
the only undead roaming the earth. Now we have a
we have a huge problem because that people aren't staying dead.
But I wasn't sitting at a Starbucks when I decided.
I think that it was. I was always leading towards it.
When I came up with the idea for the scarlet veil,
Philippa was kind of right there at the heart of
it with Saley, and I tried to throw that through
with like Saley's memories of Philippa, like, you know, just
like flashbacks of their relationship, just so that it wouldn't
be so out of nowhere that Philippa is, you know,
back she's back in business in the second book. But
it is funny to think about all of these kind
of big, larger than life, almost melodramatic things happening in
our heads while we're just sitting at a coffee shop,
or like I am, I'm just sitting at my desk
by myself with my dogs like rustling behind me. It's
funny to like to zoom out and like look at
that from a bird's eye view.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you talk about your dog.
Speaker 3: And the reason why is because everywhere I go, my
little girl is sitting behind me. Right now, she is
with me at all times. I believe that that dogs
are our muse They give us the energy to be
creative people.
Speaker 4: It's so true. It's when I'm having a bad writing day,
it's so nice. I have three dogs.
Speaker 2: Oh, I have three dogs and four cats and four kids,
and it's just the surface.
Speaker 4: Of my house all the time. But yeah, my pets,
my dogs are with me all the time. And then
there's one cat who follows us around two And it's
so nice when you're having like a bad writing day,
be able to just turn around and there are all
these these creatures who are just like love me, love me,
you know, and it is very it's very rejuvenating to
be able to pause, you know, kind of refill the
well with them and then turn back to the computer.
Speaker 3: What do you do during those moments though, where you're
trying to write and they want the attention? And sometimes
I wonder what is it about their their personality that's saying,
why are you bothering me when you know I'm writing?
But then they must feel something or see something in
you that says, no, you need to get the heck
out of.
Speaker 4: Here, right. They are very intuitive, So I don't know.
Speaker 2: Whenever I know.
Speaker 4: This is my editor just hates me for even like
saying it. But whenever my dogs want attention, I stop
what I'm doing and I give them attention.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even if I'm on a deadline whatever, I'm turning
around and I'm gonna pat the dogs that they're coming
up to me and like nudging me.
Speaker 4: I'm like, hey, I have no choice.
Speaker 2: You know, this is what it is.
Speaker 4: They need something or like you said, they sense that
I need something. So that's why I'm always late.
Speaker 3: Probably what is the fast nation with with vampires? Because
if you really pull the lens back and look at
the situation with any vampire, this is a pretty messy
sit Come on, this is a mess. How is it
that we're so in love with this?
Speaker 4: But that's why it's so interesting, It's because it's a nuss.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I've always loved vampires, so like Twilight's Vampire Diaries, Underworld's
True Blood, they were like pillars of my adolescence. And
I think it's because there's just something really seductive about
a vampire. Yeah, Bram Stoker kind of brought a more
refined like facade to them with Dracula, but they're still
super powerful. There's still they have that prenatory speed, strength,
they're immortal, they never grow old. They're like forever young,
they're forever hot. They've seen things we have and they
know things we haven't, and it's just kind of like
the ultimate fantasy, isn't it, Like aside from the drinking
blood part, but even then, modern media has turned that
into something that's like ooh, you know, instead of like oh, so,
it's like it's just kind of very fantas pasticle for
such an all powerful creature like we see in most
vampire fiction to fall in love with a human, just
with the shadow right. Specifically, I thought that vampires they
fit so well with Sale's character as like a backdrop
to Sale's character because Siey she was very devout in
the original trilogy, and traditional Western vampire lore is very
it kind of has all of these religious undertones, like
they can't walk on hallow ground, they can't speak the
name of God. And Sale as kind of she's a
strong character, but not strong in the traditional masculine sense.
It was very fun to kind of drop her into
a playground where it was like it doesn't matter if
you would be physically strong, like they're stronger than you,
and we get to watch all of that, Like you said,
mess kind of play out around her. I just thought
it was the perfect backdrop for her.
Speaker 1: You said something here.
Speaker 3: Now I've got to bring this up and hopefully I'm
not going to step on anybody's toes. You said that
vampires live forever. Okay, how are you bringing this book
to an end? And if they live forever, come on,
come on tell me right now.
Speaker 4: I don't spoil anything.
Speaker 2: Definitely ever appen.
Speaker 4: It's such a thing exists.
Speaker 3: Where can people go to find out more about you?
Because I mean, every one of your books are in
our library and it's just it's just amazing what you
have brought to us as entertainment.
Speaker 2: You thank you so much.
Speaker 4: So you can find me at my website shelbymhurrent dot
com or on Instagram at my name. My handle is
at Shelby Mahuran and from there you can plan up
for my newsletter, which is probably where I'm most active
on substack, but yeah, that's where That's where I'm at
online with all the announcements and updates and tours and
special editions and everything. All of that information is there.
Speaker 1: You're still on TikTok, though, aren't you.
Speaker 2: I have a TikTok I've made.
Speaker 4: I made like two tiktoks like three years ago. Think
you're like, yeah, I can get into this, and it's just.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I'm with you. I'm with you. It's scary.
Speaker 3: It's because I I don't know, it's it's it's I
feel bad vibes for some reason, right.
Speaker 4: I just I just think that there's no there's no
filter at all, and it's kind of like people go
into the comment sections and there's there's they can say
whatever they want. It doesn't matter if it's me, if
it's nice, whatever. There's like no, like I said, no filter,
And that's very scary. It's like a creative as somebody
who's putting a creative work out there, because people will
have opinions on it and they're going to tell you
what they are, whether you ask for them or not.
On TikTok, I feel.
Speaker 3: Like, oh yeah, and if you reply then they come
back with another I'm going, God, why did they even
start this?
Speaker 1: Why did I start this?
Speaker 4: Exactly there's no good there's never a good ending for
like that.
Speaker 1: Because they're not vampires. That's why.
Speaker 2: Oh exactly right, agreed, Well.
Speaker 3: You got to come back to this show any time
in the future. The door is always going to be
open for you, Shelby.
Speaker 2: This is so much fun.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having men love to come back.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, how you too,