What inspired you to become an author?
I started writing in high school for newspapers and
wrote a bit through the years but I didn’t start writing fiction until 2011. A
friend of mine packed up and moved to LA to pursue his dream of acting. I
figured if he could take that drastic a step to follow his dream, I could climb
the stairs to my office and give fiction writing a go.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I think I’m fairly economic with descriptions. I let
the readers fill in some of the minute details. I know I always form my own
mind pictures despite what the author gives me. That’s probably one of the
reasons movies made from books are often disappointing to me. I think my
writing style is somewhere between Patricia Briggs and Charlene Harris.
Do you write in different genres?
No. I love the monsters most. I stick to urban
fantasy and paranormal romance :D
How did you come up with the title for your latest
book?
I wanted to make it clear the story was about a
ghost and had romance. It just seemed perfect!
Do you title the book first or wait until after it’s
complete?
This is my fourth book and each has started with a
title. The title sets the tone for the book.
Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp?
Never give up. No matter what the odds. That’s the
great thing about paranormal and urban fantasy. Even death isn’t necessarily
the end.
Is the book, characters, or any scenes based on a
true life experience, someone you know, or events in your own life?
This story idea germinated from the first real-life
ghost hunt I participated in a couple of years ago. My husband was reluctant
about the idea of me going ghost hunting. He worried, “What if something
follows you home?” Of course, that only made me start asking, “What if it
did?!” I went on the ghost hunt and came home with a story.
What books/authors have influenced your life?
The books which influenced my writing life most are
J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Those guys! Erm…vampires! I love
them hard! Once I began writing, Stephen King’s On Writing was the only book I
read. You could spend a lifetime reading about writing but you don’t really
learn how or why to do it until you sit down and start pounding out the words.
Lots and lots of them.
If you had to choose, which writer would you
consider a mentor?
Cara Bristol has been a great friend and mentor to
me. She’s the hardest working author I know. She’s doing everything right and her books are amazing.
What book are you reading now?
I’m reading an ARC of Not Quite Darcy by Terri
Meeker. It’s a hoot!
What books are in your to read pile?
On my nightstand now are Silver Borne by Patricia
Briggs and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I’m also really looking forward
to Cara Bristol’s next sci-fi/fantasy romance The Goddess’s Curse. Don’t even
get me started about my Kindle reads.
What is your current “work in progress” or upcoming projects?
My next project is book four of the Reaping series.
The title is Reap & Reckon.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Ha! Sure…erm…this is very green and unedited but
these two just sort of started without me. Here are the first lines (so far) of
chapter one of Reap & Reckon.
“You
aren’t squeamish are you?”
“No.” Samkiel answered.
“Well
that’s good, because this one’s head is detached,” the officer said.
Samkiel’s
stomach did an unintended lurch despite his previous answer. Not because he
hadn’t seen a decapitated corpse before. Hell, he’d made plenty himself. The
reaction was because if this were his partner—his friend—then Raguel would be
well and truly dead.
There
were two rules to being a reaper:
Keep
your energy.
Keep
your head.
Everything
else was survivable. Mostly.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging
in your writing?
Time to do it. I generally stay up late and work
from 8 or 9 p.m. until midnight. We’ll sleep when we’re dead, right?
Who is your favorite author and what is it that
really strikes you about their work?
J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Those
guys! Erm…vampires! I love them so much. Ward really gets into the deep end
with her characters and I enjoy the multiple POVs in her work. It’s rubbed off
because I use multiple POVs as well, just not as many. Her world is BIG.
Do you have to travel much to do research for your
books?
Most of my travel is via Google Earth, but I’d love
to do more as finances allow. I do try to incorporate places I’ve been into my
stories.
Who designed the cover of your latest book?
Jaycee from Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs.
That’s the real Chatham Manor in the background!
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Stop reading books about writing and start WRITING.
After you’ve written a good many words, THEN go back and see what you could
have done better or differently. Collect
a gang of first readers to help you figure out what’s working and what isn’t
and join a writing group for support and feedback. It will make all the
difference. Finally, finish the work and LET IT GO. Don’t pick at it forever.
It could always be better, but it won’t matter if no one ever gets to read it.
Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that
you think represents this book?
There’s actually a song by David Garza called Haunt
My Heart, which is good. Later into the writing I came across Coldplay’s Ghost
Stories album, and I love, love, love that!
Haunt My Heart
Lisa Medley
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Big Cedar
Date of Publication: January 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9908856-03
ASIN:
Word Count: 68K
Cover Artist: Sweet ‘n Spicy Designs
Book Description:
A Civil War soldier dies to save his men. Can he find true love to live again?
Sarah Knight has a job she’s good at, a quirky BFF, and a boyfriend who’s bad for her. When Sarah unearths a Civil War artifact on a ghost hunt at Chatham Manor, she brings home more than a souvenir.
Lieutenant James “Tanner” Dawson fought for the Union, working as a supernatural liaison for his Major General in a secret Masonic offset called the Brothers of Peril. When he’s hexed by a witch, he learns the only way to save his men is to die himself. But death is not the end. Awakening 150 years later, he knows if he wants to be corporeal again, he has to find true love to break the hex—a task no easier in 21st century than it was in the 19th.
Excerpt:
Chapter One
“Hurry up,
Sarah. We’re going to miss the ghost!”
Sarah Knight
rolled her eyes in the cold December darkness, but trotted after Ellie’s
bouncing flashlight beam. Sarah’s heels crunched through the frozen topsoil as
she crossed the lawn, and she worried about the damage being done to her only
pair of sensible work shoes. Ellie had failed to mention this would be on an
outdoor excursion.
Ellie had been
dragging her out on girls’ nights against her better judgment since they
graduated from college. Last month, they’d gone to a mixed martial arts fight,
complete with blood, screaming and more than one missing tooth. And that had
been the spectators.
It was only in
the car on the way over that Sarah had learned tonight’s adventure would be a
ghost hunt. Ellie had a strange idea of fun.
Sarah and Ellie
caught up to the tour group as the leader, a tall dark-haired man in his
mid-forties, wrapped up his ghost-hunting protocol explanation. She’d missed
the rules. Ellie wouldn’t care about missing that part. She hated following the
rules, but Sarah was a little miffed. If she was going ghost hunting, she
wanted to know exactly what the boundaries were.
“Great,” Sarah
whispered. “We missed the rules.”
“At least we
didn’t miss the ghost,” Ellie pointed out. “And they haven’t doled out the
equipment yet.” Ellie’s mouth split into a mischievous smile, and she angled up
closer to the group leader.
“Again, my name
is Allen, if you have any questions during the tour. Since we have such a large
group tonight, we’ll split into two teams. Carla will take this half.” Allen sliced
an imaginary line through the group of twenty or so ghost-hunters. “And the
rest of you will go with me.”
Relieved she and
Ellie were on the same side of the line, Sarah snuggled up closer to her friend
and surveyed the rest of their team. A middle-aged couple, a grandmotherly
woman, and a group of ten sorority girls—exactly the type of girls she’d
avoided in college—made up Team Allen. The girls sported matching
Greek-lettered sweatshirts, scarves and mittens and tittered incessantly. Sarah
was fairly sure their chance of seeing a ghost with this group was nil. Fine
with her. Ellie was the one who went for the paranormal stuff.
“We’ll walk the
path where the Lady in White has typically been spotted. Carla’s team will
cover the grounds around the house,” Allen said. He nodded to Carla, and she
gave him a little salute, then led her team around to the side of the building.
Allen’s group stayed put in the doorway.
“First, I’ll
need a couple of volunteers,” Allen announced.
Ellie’s hand
shot up before Sarah could register what was happening. “We’ll do it.”
Classic Ellie,
leaping before she looked. She didn’t even know what she was volunteering for.
It could be anything. If Allen wanted virgins to sacrifice, however, he was out
of luck.
Allen pulled two
little handheld meter devices out of his messenger bag. His brows lowered a bit
as he studied Ellie, cast his eyes around the group, then settled back to her.
Ellie’s enthusiasm won out and Allen handed one device to her and the other to
Sarah.
“This is the Anomaly
Detector,” Allen said with all the reverence of presenting the sword Excalibur.
“It measures EMP and temperature. If these lights change, it’s your job to let
us know. I’ll be taking photos and interacting with the ghost, trying to draw
her out. I can’t keep my eyes on all of the devices at once. Can you manage
this?”
“Absolutely,”
Ellie squealed.
Sarah resisted
rolling her eyes again. She accepted the detector and did her best to reduce
her scowl.
“It’s okay to be
skeptical,” Allen said. “It makes it all the more exciting when we convert you
to a believer.” His smile warmed and Sarah realized he was actually handsome.
Old, but handsome. What an otherwise normal and attractive man—who was way old
enough to know better—was doing leading a bunch of ghost hunters, she had no
idea. People were strange. She supposed she’d have to include herself in that
judgment, considering she now held a ghost detector.
About the Author:
Lisa has always enjoyed reading about monsters, and now she writes about them, because monsters need love too.
She adores beasties of all sorts, fictional as well as real, and has a farm full of them in her southwest Missouri home, including: one child, one husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of Italian bees and a guinea pig.
She may or may not keep a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her trunk at all times, including a machete. Just. In. Case.
Website http://lisa-medley.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/lisamedley
Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/medley3/
Amazon Author Page www.amazon.com/author/lisamedley
Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/lisamedleyauthor
3 comments:
sounds interesting
Thanks so much for hosting me today :D Happy haunting!
Congratulations on the release of Haunt My Heart, Lisa!!!! It's on my wishlist!
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