Sara M. Harvey likes to tell people that I stalked her until she signed a book deal with Apex. That’s not necessarily untrue. Having met Sara a fan convention, I was swept up by her force of personality, her wit, and her writing. In short, a great person for a small press company to publish. Fortunately, she was sitting on a steampunk novel about a heroine and her ghostly lover. I was sold.

Jason Sizemore: One of my favorite questions to ask is how writers pitch their books to potential buyers. So…imagine I transform from your publisher to a gushing Sara M. Harvey fan boy. Now coerce me to part with my $13.95.

Sara M. Harvey: My “elevator pitch” pretty much boils down to “Half-angel, lesbian demon-hunters in a steampunk universe.” That usually gets people interested. It certainly worked with you.

JS: Now that you’ve sold our readers on your book, tell us a bit about your upcoming Apex book, The Convent of the Pure.

SH: The Convent of the Pure plot starting out as a dream I had three years ago about living in an evil boarding school with the boy down the hall plotting to kill us all so he could take the treasure hidden in the cellar. I foiled his dastardly plot by calling the cops.

The book takes a slightly different turn. There is a creepy boarding school of sorts in the Penemue Chapter House, where young Nephilim children are raised to be members of the powerful secret society of the Grigori. There is a young man who is brewing a dark plot that lives there, but what he is after is not some silly trinket in the basement.

Portia and Imogen are called out to a supposedly abandoned convent on the outskirts of town and find out they have been lured there for nefarious purposes. Instead of just fighting demons, they are fighting for their lives and for the safety of humanity.

JS: You had a rather successful and well-received mass-market book, A Year and a Day. How do you feel you’ve grown as a writer from that book to The Convent of the Pure?

SH: I was in a very different place when I wrote A Year and a Day. Having recently moved from New York City where I’d lived for two years, I was working for Disney in Orlando and not enjoying it. A Year and a Day was my therapy and a way to alleviate my homesickness for the Big Apple. The book grew organically from chapter to chapter (mostly through LiveJournal posts) and I shaped the plot as I went. Before I knew it, I had written a novel! Little did I know that I had not taken things like genre and market into consideration as I went and unleashed a hybrid of urban fantasy, magic reality, and romance that was exceedingly difficult to sell to publishers. It ended up published under a romance imprint.

Coming into The Convent of the Pure, I had written another novel and a lot of short stories and had a little bit of a better idea of how to plan my story. And I *thought* I had learned my lesson about genre and market. Ha, ha, ha.

But the more I write, the better I get. And I can definitely see my improvement coming out of the process of writing Convent and into the next two installments. Deb Taber (ed: Apex Books senior editor) is a great editor and has really helped me grow my craft quite a bit.

JS: The dynamic relationship between your two female leads, Portia and Imogen, should hook readers from the opening pages. The twist is that Imogen is dead—a ghost. Was this an evil ploy to add a nuanced level of sexual tension between Portia and Imogen.

SH: Evil ploy? ME? How dare you!

I mean, I don’t do these things just to be evil (but that is occasionally a pleasant side-effect). But from a very young age I have been fascinated by ghosts (reading The Dollhouse Murders at age 8 will do that!) and it was a natural choice for the two characters because it created an instant conflict allowing me to explore sexual and romantic tensions that an ordinary relationship would not encounter.

JS: And interesting discussion that me and you had was how to categorize The Convent of the Pure. Personally, I’ve yet to come up with genre label…maybe paranormal-steampunk?

SH: Yeah, I *still* can’t hit the broadside of a barn when it comes to genre. I had intended to write a horror set in a steampunk universe. I had it all: demons, necromancers, creepy locales, Biblical legends. And then, somehow, it got some dark fantasy mingled in and a heavy relationship element—so much so that Publisher’s Weekly tossed the word “erotica” around in my review a couple of times, even though *SPOLIER* there is no sex in this book. I’ll take it as a compliment that the sexual tension was ratcheted up so high that they imaged sex where there was none.

“Paranormal-steampunk” is a pretty good fit. I defy conventional genre definitions! I cannot be categorized!

I weep for librarians and bookstores everywhere as they try and figure out where to shelve me!

JS: So The Convent of the Pure is the first in a trilogy. Did the original concept come out this way, or was this a novel you broke into three to get me to buy three books, hmm?

SH: The original concept grew into a larger story arc pretty immediately that I knew could not be contained in a cap of 40,000 words. (My other two novels weigh in at 135,000 and 120,000 words!)

I thought the first story was pretty strong on its own, but could easily merge into a larger plot.

I would NEVER try and rook you into signing me to a multi-book deal just to keep me working for a couple of years.

JS: I find it interesting that you have a Masters Degree in Costume History. What’s it like being a costume designer?

SH: Being a costume designer is a lot like being an author. There is research to be done, characters to study, balance to achieve. The clothing someone wears says a lot about his or her personality, lifestyle, interests, income level, career, etc. So when I create a look for a character, I have to take all of that into account—some of which is in the script of the play, some of which the director and actors have decided. I lot of times I get to assist with that process because the clothing often helps make the characters feel more real to the actors. Conversely, it is really helpful to have that training as an author. I can provide descriptions and visual cues through the clothing that hint at a character’s background without stating it overtly.

“Her pale green linen skirt brushed the tops of her grey running shoes as she waited in line at the cafe, her long hair falling loose from its braid.”

Girls with long braided hair and long skirts are not uncommon at a coffee shop, playing into the reader’s expectations. But why the running shoes? It immediately sparks some curiosity and creates plot opportunities. I never did get the chance to ask her about the shoes before she left, because I was curious too.

JS: One of the things that I LOVE about you is that you’re friends with a large number of burlesque dancers. Was this something that might have tied into your work as a costume designer, or do you dance and entertain on occasion?

SH: I met the fine ladies of the Syrens of the South at Chattacon some years ago. We hit it off immediately from a costuming standpoint, and just plain personal chemistry—I love Katherine Lashe and Tahloolah Love and Renea la Roux! They were short some folks for their show and I volunteered to help backstage as a dresser, helping with wardrobe—those costumes are really complex with parts that come off and things that tie on, etc. Next thing I know, I am the Syrens’ new “pick-up girl,” the person that dashes on stage to grab all the bits of clothing the performer has cast off. And that is a role that is half wardrobe and half Burlesque performer as during that time between sketches, the pick-up girl is the entertainment. I get to ham it up and engage the audience and the MC. It is really fun!

I have performed with them at Chattacon in Chattanooga and at Hypericon in Nashville. And they are coming out to perform at my book release party! One of these years, I am going to put together an act for them and do a number all my own!

JS: Not many people know, but you saved my life. While dressed up in corset and stockings, you drove to a derelict St. Louis hospital to save me (I had kidney stones and had driven around the city in a haze of blinding pain until I had found a hospital). Just another day at the office for you?

SH: Actually, yes.

Especially the corset part.

And you skipped the part where I drove you home to Lexington with my poor newlywed husband driving my truck behind us, trying to keep up. And then we had to head back to Nashville because we both had to work the next morning.
It was not exactly the mini-honeymoon weekend we’d had planned (our wedding was the weekend before the convention), but it makes for one hell of a story!

JS: I would like people to know that I had already signed you to a book deal prior to your lifesaving adventure. Come to think of it, that’s why you saved me, to make sure I was alive to publish you. Admit it!

SH: Oh, you got me there. After writing this awesome novella with the “world’s best elevator pitch” according to Ian Randall Strock over at SFScope, I couldn’t let you die before you published it!

JS: After having a successful mass-market novel, how does it feel to work with a small press company such as Apex?

SH: I like it a lot better, actually. As much as the exposure and distribution were great with mass-market, there were about 18 authors being published in groups of 4-6 at a time. I got no individualized guidance or attention. And once my book was out the door and in CVS pharmacies, that was it. No one markets mass-market stuff because it has such a wide distribution and it is seen as a “consumable” good—a book people buy cheap, read, and either throw away or donate to Goodwill. Not a book to be kept and re-read and collected. In a small press, each author is more like a part of the family, a large and often dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. We all sink or swim together. And I have really enjoyed getting to be closer to the whole process. From the edits to the cover art selection to the back cover copy and such. And the books Apex creates are the kind that readers will cherish for years to come. Plus, an extrovert like me just thrives on the attention!

JS: You’re having the coolest book release party ever for The Convent of the Pure. I’ll let you take us out by outlining what you have in store for the party….

SH: There is a steampunk bar here in Nashville called Past Perfect. It is in an old machine-shop and has kept that industrial look while adding in great Victorian bits of flair like an antique back bar that runs the length of the building and a framed print of Abraham Lincoln’s Inauguration portrait hung with patriotic bunting.

Awesome place! It was the first place I approached about the party, expecting them to say no. Not only did they say yes, but they were really excited about it and committed to making it a memorable experience for them and the whole town! They have been super supportive through the planning stages and I can’t wait to see all the hard work come to fruition!

I am encouraging people to come out in their best steampunk gear and I will be having a costume contest!

And I mentioned my friends the Syrens of the South, well, they will also be coming into town and performing a few numbers for us as well. There will be great food, excellent beer, a good book, and women in corsets. What’s not to love? In fact, it sounds a lot like my life.

The party happens March 14th, so there might be time for some of y’all to make it out to see us!

Order The Convent of the Pure to get your fix of “Half-angel, lesbian demon-hunters in a steampunk universe.”