Tanya Huff, author of the best-selling Blood Books novels upon which Lifetime’s new show “Blood Ties” is based, very graciously gave of her time to answer questions about her book, share insight into her characters and talk a bit about the show. A very big thank you goes out to Ms. Huff for her time. “Blood Ties” airs Sunday nights at 10 PM on Lifetime.

Harrell:  How did you come up with the concept for your books?

Huff:  I get the ideas for my books from a number of different places. I remember that Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light was inspired by the historical belief that "simple" people could see fairie. Fifth Quarter grew out of a very short dream. Mostly though, I don't get concepts, I just tell stories...

Harrell:   What inspired you to write the Blood Books? Huff: I was working at Bakka Books, an SF bookstore in Toronto, and I realized that vampire readers are incredibly loyal. They'll buy anything with fangs in the hope of finding something worth reading. So I thought, I should write these guys a good vampire book -- they'll have the story they want and I'll be able to get a mortgage and we'll all be happy.

Harrell:  Do you have a favorite Blood novel?

Huff:  That's kind of like asking a parent if they have a favourite child. I love them all equally.

Harrell: When you wrote Blood Price, did you intend for it to spawn a series of books centered around Vicki, or was it originally just supposed to be a one shot novel?

Huff: The Vicki Nelson books were sold as a minimum four book series with the emotional story arc always aiming for that pivotal scene in Blood Pact where Mike thinks he's going to lose her by saving her and Henry knows that if he saves her, he loses her. If he doesn't -- both he and Mike suffer, if he does, he suffers alone. I intended to use traditional monster movie monsters and had I been able to slip in a book staring the creature from the Rideau Canal, I would have. We should probably all be grateful I never managed it.

Harrell: What made you decide to end the Vicki Nelson series the way you did with Blood Pact and Blood Debt? Huff: Blood Pact was always intended to be the end of the series. That was where I was aiming for right from the beginning. Then, in the years after Pact, I wrote two short stories using the same characters and realized that I still had something to say about them, that there were loose ends to tie up. So I wrote Blood Debt, tied them up, and have nothing further to explore at novel length about these characters. I've said everything I have to say. I think Henry's last line to Vicki is a terrific way to end the series, "Be mystery to him."