She has lived all over New York, in New Mexico, New Jersey, North Carolina, and even Japan, but currently lives in Brooklyn. When she's not out wakeboarding, snowboarding, or finding a new way to break something, she's hard at work writing another book while her cat sits on her lap.

A conversation with Chris Salvatore about how her life as a publicist specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror inspired her to be a “nightmare author” herself.

Q: NECKING is basically a novel about the publicist to the underworld - a book publicist who promotes horror novels, horror novelists, and just plain horror, being that her publishing house specializes in authors who are the real deal. How did you come up with that idea?

A: Well, once upon a time I was a book publicist too... you know what they say: write what you know. I got my start in science fiction, fantasy, and horror and some of my authors were "out there." So much so, that I always wondered: what if my authors were real? What if that novelist who wrote about another planet had actually been there? What if that vampire novelist, was a vampire? How terrible would the logistics be to plan a book tour for a werewolf? I certainly had enough material to draw on after over a decade in the business.

Q: So did you get most of your ideas from actual experiences with the authors you've worked with over the years?

A: Some of my ideas, yes, others were 'what if' scenarios, but others were just plain imagination or in Johnny's case... wishful thinking. Where's a tall, dark vampire when you need him? Johnny, if you're out there, I'm single!

Q: Ok, so your main character, Gia is a publicist, and you are a publicist. What other similarities are there between Chris Salvatore and Gia Felice?

A: Well, we're both adorable blonds who are terribly modest. We both love high heels, we both sing bad karaoke, we're both suckers for pale scrawny guys, and neither one of us sleep. Come on, could you sleep when you really believed that there were monsters under the bed? I keep camping out in hopes that they'll come out and party.

Q: If there was going to be a NECKING movie, who would you cast in the major roles?

A: Well, I always imagined Lola as Angelina Jolie, and Lois seemed to be the Candace Bergan type. Johnny, would naturally be Johnny Depp, and if anyone is going to be cast in the role of the woman who gets to kiss Johnny Depp, well then that would be ME!

Q: Being that this book is about a publicist, and it was written by a publicist, does your publicist at Pocket consider you a "nightmare author."

A: I sincerely hope not. I take painstaking efforts to let Jessica know that I mean her no harm and I've promised to keep my nightmares fictional.

Q: So what's next for Chris Salvatore?

A: Hmmmm, well since NECKING was written when I was a publicist and it was about a saucy young publicist... perhaps the next one will be about a saucy young horror novelist ;)