A Slice of Cake With... Chloe Hammond

Chloe Hammond is an Aquarius, very Aquarius. Born in Liverpool in 1975, she grew up in West Wales, but now lives in Barry in South Wales, with her husband and rescue cats and dogs. She always wanted to write, but life got in the way. Last year she was diagnosed with extreme anxiety and depression, which caused nightmares and sleepless nights. In her typically contrary way she used this to her advantage and the nightmares became this novel, and the sleeplessness nights were when she found time to write it. 

She has a lovely sea view from her desk, which she gazes at to still her mind so her characters can burst forth and have their say. Darkly Dreaming is her first novel, but Rae and Layla are demanding book two and three in the trilogy are written as soon as possible, they have adventures to live.

What kind of books do you write?

I write books about my characters dealing with the day to day problems in life- what to have for Lunch, who’s turn it is to sort out the leftovers, and how to pay the rent. My characters just happen to be vampires. 

Can you describe your writing why?

I first got the writing bug when I was about nine and our teacher read us a poem and then got us to write our own versions. I was hooked on playing with words to get them to say exactly what I want them to. I wrote continually after that. I even pestered my tutors at university to let me include creative writing as ¼ of my behavioural sciences degree until they gave in and let me. After university though, with the pressure of an all-encompassing vocation working with homeless teenagers, my writing fell by the wayside. Which attributed to be eventually becoming very I’ll with anxiety and depression. Which is why I refuse to get stressed out about marketing, or writing as much as other people. I write because I must, it keeps me balanced and well. And I write the books I would like to read- funny, vicious, grown-ups’ novels about best friends, who are vampires. 

Share with us your favourite passage from the book you enjoyed writing the most

Annie looks tiny, childlike and vulnerable, sitting there and I need to remind myself how easily she would be able to protect herself against a human if she needs to. Although it’s a balmy night, this isn’t a tourist beach, so there’s no one else here and she is sat out of the line of sight of the little cottage on the point. The rest of us have merged with the shadows under the trees and we wait, crouched in the shadows. I spend the next forty minutes wrestling with my emotions. On the one hand, I have been adamant that I’m not going to become a killer, and I’ve always abhorred the idea of even squashing an earwig. On the other hand, I never knew that vampires existed outside of my nightmares, but I did know about the human monsters that prowled the internet and residential Children’s Homes, picking their victims like ripe plums. I hate the predator abusers, with a passion born of supporting so many of their victims, and I know that many of the cold, calculating perpetrators escape justice and run rings around the legal system, which I don’t feel can deal with such soulless monsters. To remain fair to ordinary people, there are too many loopholes they can wriggle through. We have set this trap so that no one with innocent intentions will fall into it, and I admit to myself that I don’t feel they are any loss to humanity, and my friends need their blood, I am finding that I can be coldly dispassionate about the maths of this equation. There is another part of me that I can feel stirring, despite my best attempts to quash and ignore it, a part of me that has awoken as I ran to the beach, that I can feel uncoiling and flexing like a newly woken cat, excited at the prospect of stalking, toying, and killing. The scents of humans still linger from the locals who have picnicked on the beach this afternoon. They choose it because it’s kept secret from the tourists, so there is somewhere peaceful for the locals to go. Their smells stir the hunger in me and stoke the desire to hunt I am battling. Eventually, I hear a car crunch over the gravel as it pulls slowly into the carpark. My new vampire limbs mean I’m not at all cramped from stooping in the shadows for so long, and my vampire hearing means it is easy for me to listen as the man leaves his car, quietly clicking his door shut and slowly approaches Annie. He appears to be in his mid-thirties, average height and build with brown hair. He wears a t-shirt featuring one of the older bands we had ‘liked’ for Verity, and dark jeans. He looks utterly average, utterly nondescript. ‘Verity?’ Annie turns towards him. ‘Verity, I saw your posts. I was worried about you,’ he calls softly as he approaches her, crunching slowly through the sand in his Converse. Once he has obliviously passed by my hiding place, intent on his prey, I turn my back on the beach and I turn my mobile on. It is set to Verity’s Facebook page. I’ve had a good look at his face, so I can scroll quickly through the profile pictures on her friend list. He’s not on there. Ah, cunning: leaving no trail. The hunter in me wriggles in anticipation. This was not your common or garden pervert; we’ve hooked ourselves a proper monster. I almost pant in anticipation, and then, horrified, I remind myself that I am not supposed to be enjoying this. No matter who, or what, he is, I am about to be involved in killing a human being. I have to remember to consider what this will make me, who I could become. I must not lose myself in the thrill of the hunt. I must not let myself become a monster.

Tell us about your latest project

I am in the process of creating my first audiobook. I’m working with a lovely local actress to record Darkly Dreaming, Book 1 of The Darkly Vampire Trilogy. If things go well we will collaborate on the rest of the trilogy. I also plan to start writing Darkly Dazzling, Book 3 of the trilogy.

What is your favourite cake?

I have to pick 1???? I can’t do that. Oh Lord. Um, Victoria sponge. With raspberry jam and proper buttercream.

It's a classic choice and one of my favourites as well. 

You can connect with Chloe on Facebook and Twitter and find out more about her books on her website.

Join me next week when I'll be having a slice of cake with Jennefer Rogers.

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Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find all her books on Amazon. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.