Q: Tell me a little bit about the main characters.
SC: There are three main characters. The first character is Alex. She's from a special breed of witches called "Weirns." They're witches who are paired with guardian demon spirits. Alex is a moody, brooding type of girl. I'm actually making a point to make fun of her for being so moody and serious. She's kind of a female Matt! (laughs)
The other two main characters are Renee and Rochelle. They're sisters who are also Weirns. Rochelle, she's the happy-go-lucky character, very friendly and open. She likes to stick her nose into everyone's business, and it never goes well!
And then you've got Renee. She's the one who'll get voted as "Most Likely to Take Over the World After Graduation." Very driven, tall and beautiful, she's also very smart and very capable with magic – the total opposite of her sister. She's just cool. I look forward to working with her.
There's actually quite a lot of characters. I don't think there'll be a central pair like there is was in Dramacon. Probably Alex and Rochelle will be the ones who'll be in the spotlight most of the time, but there'll be a little bit of romance in there sometimes.
Then there are Hunters. They're kind of like Slayers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The short way to describe Night School is that it's kind of like Harry Potter meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's a magic school, but they have problems because they're also hunted by the Hunters at the same time. There are several Hunters, and their touch is deadly to any demon-like being. Working hard on this, but I'm having a lot of fun creating this world.
Q: What kind of story would you consider it to be? A dramatic story? A supernatural story? Fantasy adventure?
SC: It's a drama, it's a suspense, it's a little bit of everything. I guess the best tag for it would be "urban fantasy mystery." There will be mysteries to solve. For example, Alex enrolls in the school to find out the fate of her sister who went to work one night and ever came back. So Alex tries to find out what happened, and what really happened was something seriously spooky. So she'll spend the first book looking for her sister, and figuring out what the school is all about.
BEYOND DRAMACON: FUTURE PLANS AND STORIES YET TO BE TOLD
Q: It sounds great! I'm looking forward to reading this. So you've accomplished a lot in a relatively short time. Do you have any goals you'd like to meet in the next few years?
SC: I'd like to keep doing this for as long as possible. I'd like to finish Night School, and do more than three volumes for this one. I found three books to be very constraining. I'd like to spend more time developing the characters. We'll see how it goes.
I still have a billion other ideas! And I still have Chasing Rainbows to finish (Chmakova's web comic series on Girlamatic.com), and I have other stories that I haven't even started yet. I'd like to be able to draw many more books.
Q: Do you have any messages you'd like to pass on to your readers?
SC: Thank you very much for reading! I so did not expect to have so many people read my stories and laugh at my jokes! (laughs). It's been great, so thank you.
See more of Svetlana's artwork at her personal homepage, Svetlania.com and at TokyoPop's Dramacon pages. Also look for Night School in Summer 2008 as it debuts in Yen Press magazine.
