Kyra Davis‘s books could be viewed as quintessential beach reads: breezy, hilarious, fast paced.  Her protagonist Sophie Katz solves mysteries and puts up with a lot from her friends and family — and in her new adventure LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS — a ghost.

But it hasn’t been all mocha lattes and air kisses on the road to publication for Davis. It’s been a tough slog, and staying in the game takes plenty of hard work.  She found a way to set her books apart by delving into her bi-racial heritage, which provided endless inspiration for her novels.  Write what you know, goes the old adage, and Davis took it and ran with it.

Missed part one of our interview with Kyra?  Click HERE.

Please enjoy part two of our two-part interview with Kyra Davis.

Q. You joke that because of your bi-racial heritage, you consider yourself to be a one woman Benetton ad. How did your heritage inform your development as a fiction writer?

KD: Oooh, another tough question. I’ll be honest; I didn’t initially plan on giving Sophie my ethnicity. As I said earlier, the original reason I wrote the story was to provide me with a personal escape and making the protagonist look like me made the story a itsy bit closer to my reality and that wasn’t something I was going for. But when I did decide to try to publish it my friend and fellow author, Alina Adams suggested that being a biracial Jewish woman gave me a unique marketing angle IF I gave Sophie the same ethnicity. I realize that sounds like cold capitalistic manipulation but for better or worse this is a business like any other. But then once I did give Sophie my ethnicity I was able to use a lot of my own experiences to flush out Sophie’s character and add more humor to the book. For instance when I go to a club or lounge in LA anywhere between four to ten people will come up to me and ask my ethnicity. People I don’t even know and this is what they LEAD with. Not hello, not how are you doing but WHAT are you. Eventually I’ll start making stuff up. So now I can profit off of all those snappy comebacks and ridiculous made-up stories that I was previously wasting on losers.

Q. Tell us about your upcoming release LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS. Did you set out to tell a ghost story?

KD: I did. I had been reading a lot of Anne Rice’s early stuff and I was just totally inspired. Of course I had to tell my story in my voice in a way that fit into the Sophie series. It’s not a fantasy series so I had to be very careful about how I sculpted the story in order to keep the series from jumping the shark, as they say here in Hollywood.

Q. After four books, can it be challenging to work in a cast of characters beloved by fans into new stories? What’s your rule of thumb (if any) for having characters from past books make appearances in newer releases?

KD: The only absolute rule at this point is that Sophie has to be the protagonist and Anatoly has to be involved in the story on some level. I can’t imagine writing a Sophie book without giving at least a few scenes to her friends Marcus and Dena but it could happen. For the first three books Mary Ann always played a main role but in Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss I send her off to Italy for a month. Sophie’s mother makes an appearance in three of the four books but in Obsession, Deceit And Really Dark Chocolate I send mama on a cruise. And then there’s Jason Beck (Dena’s plaything) who we only met in a few scenes in Sex, Murder And A Double Latte but then I brought him back with a vengeance in Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss. But Sophie IS the story so she has to be up front and center and there are now too many readers lusting after Anatoly for me to give him the boot so he stays too.

Q. What aspect of the industry has surprised you when you became a full-time writer?

KD: The short answer is everything. But I’ll only give you two examples in the interest of brevity. On the negative side I’ve been surprised by the total lack of marketing research done by the publishing industry. No one has any idea who is buying what books or why. Publishers just cross their fingers and hope that they’re promoting the right book to the right target demographic. Sometimes they get it right but a lot of times they don’t. Before Amazon no one even knew what people thought of the books they were reading. But on the positive side I am always surprised by the amount of contact I have with my readers. With the advent of social networking this aspect of my career becomes more prevalent every day. I hear from them via e-mails, Facebook , Myspace and Twitter. These people share their lives with me. I know about their loses, challenges and triumphs and apparently I know how to make them laugh and (in the case of So Much For My Happy Ending) inspire them. In the end it’s the comments and e-mails from readers that have made my work so rewarding.

Q. Do you have any advice for aspiring novelists?

KD: Embrace constructive criticism. It’s hard to hear anything that isn’t 100% positive about a work you have poured your heart and soul into but you have to remember this is a craft. Nothing you ever write will be perfect and if you’re not able to listen when others try to help you improve on your project your not ready to be published.

Q. What inspires your creative juices?

KD: Before I write I always sit down with a book written by one of my favorite authors; one who writes in an entirely different style from me and who excels in one of the areas I consider to be my weakness. For instance I am constantly trying to find ways to make the scenery part of the story and establish a sense of place without interrupting the flow of the story with choppy or boring description. Fitzgerald, Anne Rice and Alice Hoffman are all masters in this area so I will frequently read a passage from one of their books right before writing mine. I don’t have to worry about inadvertently stealing from them because their voice is so different from mine I couldn’t imitate them if I tried but they do inspire me and make me a better writer.

Q. What’s next for you?

KD: I’m currently writing the fifth Sophie book: Vows, Vendettas and A Little Black Dress which will be out in June 2010. Once I’m done with that I would really like to try my hand at a fantasy YA novel but that’s just an idea I’m playing with at the moment.

LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS releases June 19.  Order it at IndieBound, other online retailers, and bricks n mortar stores everywhere.