We are so thankful that Richelle took the time to answer a few questions for us!  We also want to thank all of our readers for submitting questions!  Wait no more… Here are some answers to your questions about the Vampire Academy Series!

1. What made you decide to write about vampires?

I’d already been writing adult books that featured fairies and demons, so I wanted to work with something different for my YA. Vampires seemed like the next step in paranormal creatures.

2. Was there a particular myth that helped or inspired you to come up with the social structure of Moroi, Dhampirs and Strigoi?

Moroi, Strigoi, and Dhampirs as types of creatures already existed in Romanian mythology.  The way they live and interact in the modern world was my creation.

3. Do Moroi and Dhampirs believe in God? Do they have Christian beliefs?

Moroi and Dhampirs often live among humans and share lots of human beliefs, including different religions.  Most of the religious characters in the series practice Eastern Orthodox Christianity (with a few vampire saints thrown in) since their culture is based in Russia and Romania.  Rose’s dad is Muslim.

4. Since Moroi and dhampirs go to school together from an early age, how do they make sure that Moroi children control themselves and don’t bite their classmates or friends? And how do they handle giving blood to the children? From what age do they drink from feeders?

Who and how to bite is reinforced so much from the time a Moroi can really comprehend such things that it becomes as second-nature as, say, not sticking your hand into a fire.  Babies and young children are given blood indirectly via bottles or cups until school age—around or six or—when they can start drinking for themselves (while heavily supervised).

5. Where did u come up with the idea of Spirit, and how is it they have so many ‘gifts’, but those who don’t have Spirit only have one ‘gift’? (i.e. Fire)

In a lot of magical and religious systems (Wicca, for example) spirit actually is an element.  Spirit traditionally encompasses mental/psychic energy and seems to have so many abilities simply because the mind is capable of a large variety of things.  Fire can be used for a lot of things too; they’re just not so widely varied.

6. In the beginning of the series we learn the backstory of the accident–where Lissa saves Rose. What was the draw for you to have her save Rose and not the rest of the family?

Part of that is just storytelling.  The books are about two best friends.  If Lissa had saved her brother and not Rose, we’d have no series.  But, the reasoning for how it happened was that Lissa wasn’t even aware of what she was doing.  Rose was sitting next to her, things happened quickly, and Lissa’s instincts to help her friend just took over without her realizing what she’d done in the heat of the moment.

7. Queen Tatiana, seems to have had it “out” for Rose from the beginning–but upon her death in SB–she leaves a note for Rose–for her help in solving it. Did you have that planned out from the beginning? Or, did you envision that part of the story line changing?

I never intended for Tatiana to be all-bad throughout the series.  Characters like that are one-dimensional, and I’m intrigued when we see characters we thought were noble show a dark side or vice versa.  So, it was always my intent for Tatiana to have a lot more to her than what we initially saw.

8. A fairly standard question that you must get alot–is what happens at the end? Does Rose end up with Dimitri…or Adrian… Dimitri is the “silent but deadly” type where as Adrian is the reckless and dangerous one. Without giving away the end, was it a hard decision or easy–for you to wrap up the series?

I knew the ending the day I wrote the first page of the first book.  For any series I write, I have to know where I’m going, so everything is planned out from the beginning.  I always knew the series would have to end at this point in order to make the story work, so that wasn’t a hard decision at all.  The craft of ending a series is much more difficult—especially when you like to end on cliff hangers!  You can’t do that in a last book.

9. If you could pick the perfect guy for yourself, from the series, which guy would it be? (Dimitri, Adrian, Christian?)

That’s a trick question to try to figure out who Rose will end up with! I’m not falling for it. J

10. How do you think you relate to your characters? Is there one your relate to more? Why? (Is there a character you dislike?)

My characters aren’t based on me or people I know.  I relate to Rose the most, not because we’re alike (we’re not), but simply because I know her the best.  When you’ve written a character for six first-person books, you can’t help but pretty much know everything inside her head.  Technically, there are no characters I dislike.  They all play essential roles in the stories, though certainly, many of them do things I dislike!

11. With the spin-off series following The Last Sacrifice—what characters from the VA series are you planning to have be the focus?

The only character I can reveal is Sydney.  There will be others (ones you already have met), but they’re being kept under wraps for now.

12. Are you an omniscent author when it comes to the worlds you create? (Some authors know everything that goes on in their world, even if they don’t write about it. Some only decide on things when the time comes, and they have to. And some discover things about their world when their characters tell them what’s going on.) Which kind of author are you when it comes to those things?

I’ve always subscribed to the “iceberg” school of writing.  I know a ton of information, but only allow some of it to break through the surface.  I always know a lot more than the readers do, sometimes for the sake of a mystery and sometimes simply because the book doesn’t need every single detail dumped into it.  An author should be on top of all those details, though, because if you’ve got loopholes or things you haven’t thought through, you can run into problems farther along in the series.