Saturday, October 27, 2012

Interview with Charlie Daye author of The Gypsy's Dance





What inspired you to become an author?

I have always had a fascination for great stories and when I discovered that I had a talent for writing it just kind of exploded from there.

Do you have a specific writing style?

I like to think of my writing as funny sarcastic with a slight edge. I tend to jump back and forth between first and third person.

Do you write in different genres?

No, I’m strictly a paranormal romance girl. Although at some point I would like to try my hand and YA books.


How did you come up with the title for your latest book?

Gypsy’s Dance title came from my heroine, Oralia. Since it was her dancing that got her noticed it seemed only fitting that that be the title of the book.

Do you title the book first or wait until after it’s complete?

It depends on the story. Sometimes I have a title before I have an idea for a book and some times that title doesn’t come until I’m half way through the book.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

I’m a sucker for happy endings and you’ll always get with me.

Is the book, characters, or any scenes based on a true life experience, someone you know, or events in your own life?

Some, although I have promised not to say who they’re based on!

What books/authors have influenced your life?

I love Dean Koontz. I think he’s amazing and I own almost every book he’s ever written.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Mr. Koontz, hands down.

What book are you reading now?

Rapture by Lauren Kate

What books are in your to read pile?

Too many to list! I have several near to 100 I think. All paranormals.

What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?

My current WIP is called The Breeders.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

It’s about a race of people and can not procreate with each other so they have to breed with humans and after the babies are born they come back for them. And that, is where the drama begins

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Writers block. It’s this pesky little things that tends to rear it’s ugly had at the worst time possible.

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

Dean Koontz. I love the suspense and the suttle bit of paranormal that he sometimes adds. I would love to be able to spend a day in his mind.

Do you have to travel much to do research for your books?
Not really. The internet it my friend.

Who designed the cover of your latest book?

The Gypsy’s Dance cover was done by me, my  husband and an a very talented sketch artist.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Perseverance is key. Don’t give up. Only when the things seem darkest are you really reaching for the light.

Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that you think represents this book?

I don’t. Although, Shakira was my inspiration for Oralia’s character.




The Gypsy’s Dance
The Hunter’s Series book 1
Charlie Daye

Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 978-1478278634
ASIN: B008NZ1KYY

Number of pages: 334 approx
Word Count: 81,888


Book Description:

Oralia Simone just turned eighteen and discovered that she has been promised to someone by her parents for marriage. Not wanting to shame her family she agrees to participate in the matching celebration where she will dance for her betrothed.

Niko Raydon is a Hunter. He and his kind are what police the magical community and make sure that no one uses dark magic to harm another. Niko finds himself drawn to a small Gypsy village on the night of their annual matching celebration because of the use of dark magic.

Tobias McGrath is next in line to lead his clan of Gypsy's. He's been promised Oraila Simone - the most beautiful woman in the clan and intends to make her his no matter the cost.

When Oralia meets Niko the connection between them is instant and despite her impending marriage to Tobias she wants to be with Niko and he with her. But will their love be enough to set her free or will Tobias's use of evil magic tear them apart for good?

 About the Author:

Charlie Daye began writing at the tender age of thirteen. With an obsession for romance, happy endings and the supernatural she delves into your greatest fantasies and worst nightmares. She will have you laughing, crying, falling in love and getting angry. She will always give you a HEA but getting there is the journey worth taking.

Charlie Daye was born in Lynwood, California. Her greatest passions are music and writing. Her first short story was written at the age of thirteen. At the time her entire class was asked to write a short story for Halloween as part of a homework assignment. Most of the kids in the class wrote one to two page stories... Charlie wrote eight. The short story titled The Haunted House went on to win her district wide awards and was published locally. From there she began writing poetry as means of expression. Since then Charlie has written five full length novels, three of which are currently available for sale, and one novella. She has several other books in the works and looks forward to sharing her various worlds with you.





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Interview with JA Huss




Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

When I first started writing Clutch I always felt that the action and fight scenes were difficult, but looking back, I almost never change an action or fight scene once they’re written.  In Clutch, there’s a point where Junco and friends are in a tunnel and they’re looking for answers.  It ends up with a massive firefight and I wrote those scenes from beginning to end in about two hours and never changed a word.  Mostly because I didn’t want to read them again…but I thought for sure my editor would say they were terrible and needed to be fixed.  She didn’t change one word either.  The same thing happened in the third book, those action scenes were never changed after they were written.  So, even though my editor likes them, I still have it in my head that action and fight scenes are beyond my capabilities.

(Also, a sex-writing strumpet I am not!!!  I need to practice this for an upcoming paranormal romance I have planned because so far, Junco’s sex life, while active, is not well documented!)  :)

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
Richard K. Morgan is my current favorite author and actually his Takeshi Kovacs series was a major influence on the creation of Junco. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be a soldier who was as hard and ruthless as Kovacs, except from a young female perspective. My favorite book of his is Woken Furies. This book is the last in a trilogy about a ruthless killer who comes back to his home planet after hundreds of years of crime and soldiering and gets sucked back into local politics as he carries out a revenge agenda.

I love this book because it’s a deep character-driven novel disguised in an awesome twisty plot and filled with just about every science fiction element you can think of. This is a story about people more than anything, and lots of readers never got that about the book. I try to make my stories the same way in that they are always about the characters, not the action going on in the plot – even though there is a lot of action and a lot of twistiness in my books as well.

But Jane Smiley wrote a literary book called Horse Heaven that had racehorses as major characters and that started me down the road to understanding how this character development thing worked.  I have an undergraduate degree in equine science so I love, LOVE, love that book, but it’s also the epitome of a character-driven novel and I’ve read it dozens of time just trying to figure out how she pulled it all together in the end.

So I prefer authors who put their character development first, but then can also pull off an original plot as well.

Do you have to travel much to do research for your books?
The setting for Clutch is my current home in Colorado as well as the high plains just east of where I live.  I do travel out there extensively for my regular job, but other than that, I didn’t travel to do research.

Who designed the cover of your latest book?
James Ledger of http://www.jamesledgerconcepts.com/ is my cover artist for the second, third, and fourth books.  He’s an exceptional digital illustrator and I’m so lucky that he keeps accepting my requests for work!  :)  We are just getting ready to start our third project together and I can’t wait to do the next cover reveal.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
My advice for writers is to start with your characters first.  There’s a very well-written book called GMC: Goal, Motivation, & Conflict by Debra Dixon – find this book and study it if you want to learn how to write believable characters.  Of course, that’s not enough - you really have to invest your whole self into them to make them great.  Lots of people can write average characters, but to write exceptional characters, you must figure out who they are before you start plotting.

Which brings me to plotting.  Learn how to plot – believe me, it will save you time later.  Try The Plot Whisperer or Story Engineering to get a better idea of what this involves.

What book are you reading now?
I’m currently reading Red Fox by Karina Halle. 

What books are in your to read pile?
My TBR pile includes all of the books in the Premonition series by Amy Bartol.  I’m participating in a group read-along with some other book bloggers and readers in anticipation of her next book release.  Since I run a new adult book blog called New Adult Addiction, I’ll eventually feature each of these books on the blog.

I’m also eagerly awaiting Christmas vacation so I can lock myself away in a room and read Iain M. Banks’ new Culture novel, The Hydrogen Sonata.

What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?

My WIP is the fourth book in the I Am Just Junco series.  In this book Junco is still reeling from the after effects of book three (Flight).  She’s got a lot of personal issues to sort through in addition to many physical challenges as the prophecy she’s involved in nears completion.

This book is called Range and will be released on April 1, 2013.

I am also working on a novella told from Tier’s point of view that takes place after the end of Range.  This book will fill in some gaps that readers have been asking for regarding Tier and his past. It doesn’t have a title or release date yet, but will probably be available in early summer.

Thanks for having me on your blog Roxanne!  It’s been a pleasure to tour with you this month!






Flight
Book 3

Escape from Earth. Check.

Morph into an avian body. Check.

Survive Fledge and Deliverance, soul intact. Check.

Bring her Siblings back to Amelia and restore the avian race? Not so fast, darlin’.

There’s a new twist on an old prophecy and this one brings the End of Days. Junco must make a choice, but the choices all confirm her only worth is tied up in killing.

Lucan has secrets. Secrets that will make the Stag Camp look like playschool. And the lies are flowing like a mountain river during spring thaw. But he needs Junco to cooperate just a little bit longer or it all falls apart.

The Siblings on Earth are waiting for the Seventh to return and pull their clutch together. But Earth has secrets too -- secrets that change everything.

Junco has survived against impossible odds, but the cost of survival is higher than she ever imagined. Luck is about to catch up with Junco Coot and her debt must be paid.

Fledge
Book Two


Junco Coot can’t even remember her trip off Earth; she was too busy being morphed into her new avian body.  But reality hits her hard when she wakes up to find her new life is not what she expected. Not even close. Tier is on trial for disobeying his commander’s kill order and only Junco seems to care.

In most places the avian coming-of-age Fledge ritual would be nothing more than mass murder, but here in the capital city of Amelia, it’s called growing up. Junco has no choice; either fight to the death to prove her worth or get sent back to Earth in the hands of her enemies.

Her new military team is hostile, her body is being taken over by an illicit artificial intelligence, the avian president wants her dead, and her only friend is a ten-year old throwaway boy.

On a foreign habitat, in a foreign culture, and surrounded by people she can’t trust or count on, Junco must find a way to save herself and Tier without losing her immortal soul in the process.

Book  Trailer: http://youtu.be/b_LYS0N1OAY


Clutch
Book One I Am Just Junco
By J.A. Huss


BLURB

In 2152 the avian race is on Earth looking for something stolen from them decades ago – their genetics.  At the center of the search lies the Rural Republic; a small backwards farming country with high hopes of military domination and a penchant for illegal bioengineering.

19 year old Junco Coot is the daughter of the Rural Republic’s ranking commander. She’s the most foul-mouthed, wildly unpredictable and ruthless sniper the Rural Republic has ever trained.  But when her father’s death sparks a trip into forbidden places, she triggers events that will change everything she knows to be true.

As an elite avian military officer, Tier’s mission is to destroy the bioengineering projects, kill Commander Coot’s daughter, and return home immediately. There’s just one problem. Junco isn’t who she claims to be.

With no one to trust, not even herself, Junco must confront the secrets of her past and accept her place in the future, or risk losing herself completely.


About the Author:

J. A. Huss never took a creative writing class in her life. Some would say it shows. Others might cut her some slack. She did however, get educated and graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Equine Science. She had grand dreams of getting a Ph.D. but while she loves science, she hated academia and settled for a M.S. in Forensic Toxicology from the University of Florida.

She went on to write science curriculum for homeschoolers and now runs a successful home business that creates and offers online science unit studies. When she’s not writing science curriculum or fiction, she works as a farm inspector, traveling the Eastern Plains of Colorado in variety of environmentally friendly vehicles that never have four-wheel drive, so when she gets stuck in the mud in said vehicles, she has to beg for assistance from anyone who will help her. She is not bitter about that at all.

She’s always packing heat and she is owned by two donkeys, five dogs, more chickens and ducks than she can count, and of course, the real filthy animals, her kids. The I Am Just Junco series was born after falling in love with the ugliest part of Colorado and the Rural Republic is based on the area of the state she currently resides in, minus the mutants, of course.






JA Huss newsletter http://bit.ly/Pw58W4

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Interview with Jonathan Lister

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Interview with J.T. Geissinger



What inspired you to become an author?

Plain and simple, I love to read. Also, I read Twilight and honestly thought that if Stephenie Meyer could write a book, so could I. She didn’t have any prior experience, no contacts in the business, no author friends to help her along, no agent…etc. She just went for it, and I found that inspiring.

The inspiration for my series was a stray cat I adopted that looks exactly like a black panther in miniature. She appears and disappears at will.

Do you have a specific writing style?

It’s been described as “poetic” and “lyrical” which just means I have a big vocabulary and like to throw it around. Sometimes that’s a plus, other times—especially with readers of urban fantasy who prefer action over atmosphere—it’s not. But I’m finding with each successive book the pacing gets tighter and the action gets ratcheted up, so that’s been great.

How did you come up with the title for your latest book?

My publisher, Montlake Romance (one of the publishing imprints of Amazon) had a Facebook poll on the Kindle Facebook page! There were four titles, and people voted on their favorite. Rapture’s Edge won, but the other ones were close seconds so we are using them all in the series!


Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

My core message is always the same: Love conquers all. Which is why I write romance!

What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?

I’m currently working on book 3 of the Night Prowler novels, Rapture’s Edge. (Books 4-6 will be coming out in 2013 and 2014.) The current work in progress focuses on the derailed love between a princess and her father’s bodyguard, whom she believes killed her father. I’m finding I’m enjoying writing much more action than I anticipated, so the heroine in this book is an ass-kicking, leather-wearing, hard-drinking fighter with a thirst for revenge, and there’s a group of warriors and a group of assassins hot on her trail. Fun!

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

Here’s a brief excerpt. In this scene, Demetrius, the man Eliana believes killed her father, catches up with her after three years:
In one lithe, lightning-fast move, she sprang to her feet, turned and sprinted in the opposite direction toward the open door, thinking only of escape, her blood scorching like liquid fire in her veins and her vision narrowed to the rectangle of light at the end of the hallway.
In the seconds that followed, she heard just below the whine of the alarm and the ringing in her ears the distinctive muffled pop of a semi-automatic hand gun fitted with a silencer. Then another. A bullet whizzed past her head with a acrid whiff of gunpowder and ricocheted off the stone wall with a piercing twang and a puff of smoke. She feinted left, then right, desperately trying to make herself an uncertain target, but another bullet flew past, then another, and before she could twist away again one of them found the tender flesh of her hip.
Eliana crashed screaming to her knees. There was a different noise behind her now, a horrible garbled snarling, vicious and wild, like a hungry predator tearing into a meal, but she didn’t turn and look and didn’t give herself the option of staying still. She struggled to her feet again, pain shooting in furious sparks down her entire leg, and limped, one leg dragging, forward.
Just as she reached the end of the hallway, something heavy hit her from behind.
She staggered, but didn’t fall because she was caught.
And held.
And turned around by a pair of huge, strangling tight hands wrapped around her arms.
Eliana stared up into Demetrius’s eyes. Black and wild, they burned down at her with the lucid incandescence of rage and she knew this was the end. She braced herself for it, stiffening, ready for the snap of her neck or a knife through her ribs or a gun barrel shoved into her mouth.
And then a thought flashed through her mind, horrifying in its treacherous clarity:
I remember how you taste.
Then the man who murdered her father leaned in close and growled, “Gotcha!”



Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Yes – the first draft. I absolutely hate that first draft. It’s like pulling teeth. But once it’s out and down on paper, the editing process begins, and that’s where the real magic happens.



Do you have to travel much to do research for your books?

My current release, Edge of Oblivion, is set in Rome, a city I visited on an anniversary trip with my husband. I totally fell in love with Rome, and that’s why I decided to use it as the setting for the book. Unfortunately I’ve never been to Paris, which is where my third book is set, but thank God for Google.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

First off, I know it sounds trite, but you have to believe in yourself. Getting published can be a punishing process, and if you’re not your own cheerleader, no one else will be. Never give up. Secondly, join a writer’s group. You need honest critiques of your work in order to grow as a writer. Third, write what you love, not what you think the “trends” are. Readers can tell when you’re faking it. Finally, give yourself writing goals and deadlines. Daily, weekly and monthly, with a deadline of no more than six months to finish an entire manuscript. After that, the work starts to get stale, or you’re just not committed enough.



Edge of Oblivion
Night Prowler Novels, Book Two
J.T. Geissinger

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Montlake Romance

ISBN: 1612184197
ASIN: B007SX0246

Number of pages: 384
Word Count: 98,000


Book Description:


Morgan Montgomery is waiting to die. Branded a traitor by her tribe, the Ikati shape-shifter has no hope for mercy—until Jenna, the Ikati’s newly crowned queen and Morgan’s former ally, offers one last chance for redemption. Morgan must infiltrate the Rome headquarters of the Expurgari, the Ikati’s ancient enemy, to destroy them once and for all. The beautiful renegade has just a fortnight to complete her mission or forfeit her life. Because she does not travel alone…

Xander Luna is a trained assassin and the Ikati’s most feared enforcer, famed for his swift brutality and stony heart. Fiercely loyal, he is prepared to hate the traitor under his watch—until they come face to face. For Morgan Montgomery arouses something unexpected inside of him, something that threatens everything he believes in and the fate of the tribe itself: a love as powerful and passionate as it is forbidden.

Sensual, thrilling, and action-packed, Edge of Oblivion will enthrall readers with nail-biting suspense and heart-pounding passion.



About the Author:

A life-long lover of reading and a self-professed “book addict,” J.T. Geissinger didn’t realize her dream of writing a novel until a milestone birthday forced her to take stock of her goals in life. Always believing the right time to commit to putting pen to paper would magically announce itself, it took waking up one cold January morning with a shiny new zero as the second number in her age to kick start her determination.

More than a year and two unsold novels later, it was time to take stock again.

But her determination matched her initial procrastination, and she kept on writing and learning and trying to improve, trusting that if it was meant to be, it would be.

Then, during a trip to Italy in honor of their 10th wedding anniversary and the honeymoon she and her husband never took, she received an email that would change her life. It was from a literary agent, and it contained the three words every aspiring author longs to hear: “I loved it.”

The manuscript was sold to Montlake Romance who published it six months later. Hitting the Amazon bestseller lists in both the US and the UK within weeks of publication, Shadow’s Edge was book one of the Night Prowler Novels. Book two, Edge of Oblivion published October 2nd, and book three will follow in the spring of 2013. Three additional installations in the Night Prowler series are planned for the future.











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