The Qwillery

Interview with Kristen Callihan and Giveaway - January 27, 2012

2012-01-27T09:55:00.000-05:00

Please welcome Kristen Callihan to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Firelight (Darkest London 1), Kristen's debut, will be published on February 1 along with Ember, a prequel..

TQ: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Kristen: I don’t know if it’s a quirk, but I write in bursts –something I probably have to change. So if I’m into it, I’ll put down 60k in a month. If I’m not, I stare at the walls for days. Yeah, I’ll probably have to address that unevenness at some point. Lol. Other than that, I always write in my PJs. But don’t all writers do this?

TQ: Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

Kristen: Favorite writers, oh, wow, there are too many to list. My favorite genres, however, are romance and mystery. And of course anything paranormal in flavor.

As for influence. I’ve realized that the writers who have influenced me the most are the ones I first read when I discovered books. As a teenager, I read what was lying about the house, from Jackie Collins (yes, I know), Robert Ludlum, Jean M. Auel, and Hemingway, to C.S. Lewis and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Looking back on that, and comparing those books with what I write now -historical romances with suspense, mystery, and fantasy- I can see the seeds taking root. These are not my favorite writers, per say, but perhaps they had more time to sink into my subconscious.

The first author I picked up on my own was Anne Rice. The richness of her prose and depth of her characters are something that I admire greatly. And Diana Gabaldon’s, Outlander, with its wild mix of genres and incredible love story, outright got me into trying writing myself.

TQ: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Kristen: I used to be a pure panster. But when I started adding mysteries into my stories, I needed to plot a bit. Now, I am somewhere in between. There is a plot in my head, like the framework of a house. The story flows around that. I may add a wing, tear down a wall or two, but I have a good idea of end design.

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Kristen: Revisions! Lol. Revisions are that point in the process when everything feels like it’s tumbling down. Nothing is working the way I want it to, or the whole story is so large and twisted, it’s like wrestling with a twenty-foot anaconda.

TQ: Describe Firelight (Darkest London 1) in 140 characters or less.

Kristen: Oh boy, I’m absolutely terrible at summation. Let’s see… Firelight is: A Victorian gothic Beauty and the Beast tale in which a cursed man must choose to give up his soul in order to save the woman he loves.

TQ: What inspired you to write Firelight?

Believe it or not, Disney’s Beauty and The Beast. Lol. My daughter was watching that movie when I got the idea. But more deeply, the Norwegian tale that inspired B&B, West of the Moon and East of the Sun. In that tale, a polar bear claims a young maid as his bride and takes her off to his castle. At night, he becomes a man and joins her in bed, hidden by the dark. But when she accidentally burns him with candle wax in an attempt see his face, he is whisked off, and it is up to her to save him.

I loved the idea of this hidden identity. Could you love someone who hid his face from you? Someone everyone else thought an inhuman beast? To me, there is such great conflict to play with. Miranda and Archer must both learn to trust each other. And they must ignore logic and follow their instincts.

TQ: What sort of research did you do for Firelight?

Kristen: When I started Firelight, there was the idea and the characters. They started talking immediately. But what era should the live in? If you are going to write a historical, I think it should resonate with readers of today in some way. For that reason, I chose the Victorian era. I think there is a huge parallel to that time and ours. They experienced a burst in technology just as we have –and all the issues that come with it! And like us, they were homebodies for the most part, but it was very important to keep up with the Jones.

However, I didn’t know much more than that about my chosen era. I had to start from the ground up. So research included learning as much as I could about the Victorians, London of the 1880s, English peerage, dress, slang, medical technology of the time –Archer is a surgeon- and everything in between.

TQ: Why did you set the novel in London, England?

Kristen: If I was going to go Victorian, then London was the natural setting. It was wonderfully atmospheric, haunting and haunted. Thick fog, cobble stone lanes, the sharp whistle of the Watch, and the mournful wail of foghorns…who could resist? :)

TQ: Who was the easiest character to write and why? Hardest and why?

Kristen: Diana Gabaldon has this wonderful classification for characters. The can be onions with many layers that you have to delve through, or nuts that are very hard to crack, or mushrooms that simply pop up fully-formed. In Firelight, most of my characters were mushrooms. Archer and Miranda were extremely easy for me to write because once they started talking, they never stopped. It was simply a matter of keeping up with them.

The hardest character to write was Billy Finger. Not because I didn’t get him as a character but because of his damn slang! Lol. I’d constantly have to stop, check slang dictionaries, find Victorian street slang that worked with what he was saying, and so forth. Hard, but also very fun.

TQ: Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in Firelight?

Kristen: I don’t really have favorite scenes –I love them all! Heh. Ahem. What I like best, however, is Archer and Miranda’s verbal banter, which is much like foreplay for them. Watching them match wits and circle around each other was great fun for me.

Then again, there is this scene that includes a certain back alley wall… That scene was bloody hard to get right, and therefore all the more satisfying when I got it down the way I wanted it.

TQ: What's next?

Kristen: Up next is Moonglow, Daisy’s story, which includes a mad werewolf of London, and the lone werewolf who must save her, without turning mad as well. Then it is Winterblaze, which takes us deeper into this other, supernatural London and the organization that keeps all these hidden beasties in check.

I also have a short story coming out alongside Firelight. This is a companion piece to Firelight and features Miranda and Archer in the years they were apart.

TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Kristen: Thank you so much for having me! I really enjoyed the visit.

About Darkest London

Firelight

Darkest London 1
Forever, February 1, 2012
Mass Market Paberback and eBook, 400 pages

London, 1881
Once the flames are ignited . . .
Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .
Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

Pre-order - Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Ember

Firelight Companion
Forever, February 1, 2012
eBook

After a fire consumes the Ellis family fortune, the beautiful and resourceful Miranda finds herself faced with an impossible dilemma: enter a life of petty crime or watch her family succumb to poverty. But once her fiancée learns of her descent into danger--and of the strange, new powers she's discovered --saving her family may come at the high price of her heart.

When Lord Benjamin Archer's one chance for redemption is destroyed by corrupt London antiquarian Hector Ellis, he vows to take what Ellis values most-his daughter Miranda. Forced to hide his face behind masks, Archer travels the world hoping to escape the curse that plagues him so that he can finally claim his prize.

But once Archer returns home to London, will it be revenge he seeks? Or will the flame-haired beauty ignite new, undeniable desires?

Pre-order - Amazon Kindle : Barnes and Noble Nook

Moonglow

Darkest London 2
Forever, August 1, 2012
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

Once the seeds of desire are sown . . .

Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy's door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors . . .

Their growing passion knows no bounds . . .

Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret, and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.

Pre-order - Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

About Kristen

Kristen Callihan is a child of the 80’s, which means she's worn neon skirts, black-lace gloves, and combat boots (although never all at once) and can quote John Hughes movies with the best of them. A life long daydreamer, she finally realized that the characters in her head needed a proper home and thus hit the keyboard. She believes that falling in love is one of the headiest experiences a person can have, so naturally she writes romance. Her love of superheroes, action movies, and history led her to write historical paranormals. She lives in the Washington D.C. area and, when not writing, looks after two children, one husband, and a dog — the fish can fend for themselves.

Her current manuscript, FIRELIGHT, a gothic retelling of Beauty and the Beast set along the shadowy lanes of Victorian London, will be published by Grand Central Publishing in February of 2012.

Kristen's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

The Giveaway

THE RULES

What: One commenter will win a copy of Firelight (Darkest London 1) from Forever! US/Canada Only.

How: Leave a comment answering the following question:

What is/are your favorite fairytale(s)?

Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a US or Canadian mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Friday, January 27, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

*Giveaway rules are subject to change.*

2012 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars - January

2012-01-26T19:57:00.001-05:00

As part of this year's Debut Author Challenge I thought it would be fun to choose a favorite cover from each month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to chose the 2012 Debut Novel Cover of the Year.

But I'm not going to choose the winning covers - you are. Welcome to the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars!

Here are your choices for January 2012:

Interview with John Love - January 26, 2012

2012-01-26T09:20:00.002-05:00

Please welcome John Love to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Faith, John's debut, was published this month by Night Shade Books.

TQ: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

John Rather grandly, I used to tell people that I preferred writing key passages with pen on paper first: the texture of the paper, the feel of the nib, and so on. Like a real auteur. Pretty soon into writing FAITH, all that got thrown out. Word lets me put key phrases at odd positions, then fill in the gaps, until the whole moves into focus. More impressionist than linear.

And I like some malt whisky, and a cat, within easy reach.

TQ: Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

John Hitchhiker’s Guide is one of my SF favourites, in all its early forms: the original BBC Radio 4 programme, the equally original BBC TV adaptation, and Douglas Adams’ unequalled “Trilogy of Five Novels.” But not the Hollywood movie. I didn’t like that at all.

Some other SF favourites are:
Alfred Bester: his novels and stories from the fifties.
Ursula LeGuin: almost anything of hers.
Jack Vance: the Demon Princes novels especially (most of his others too, but sometimes he goes on autopilot).
Iain M Banks: almost anything of his.
China Mieville: Perdido Street Station especially, but most of his other stuff.
Brian Aldiss: Hothouse and the Helliconia trilogy especially, but most of his other stuff.
William Gibson: especially Neuromancer, also The Difference Engine and the Bridge trilogy.
Fritz Leiber: most of his stuff.
Frederik Pohl: The Heechee trilogy, and (with Cyril Kornbluth) The Space Merchants.
R A Lafferty: especially Past Master.
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: almost anything of theirs.
Stanislav Lem: known mainly for Solaris, but his output covered a huge range. For example, Imaginary Magnitude and A Perfect Vacuum (reviews of, and forewords to, nonexistent future books); the Pirx the Pilot and Ijon Tichy stories (surreal but perfectly logical political satires); Cyberiad and Futurological Congress (more satires, almost Swiftian); and The Invincible (page-turning hard SF).

Non-SF favourites include:
Giant nineteenth-century novels, especially from England, Russia and France. Great literary works, and great page-turners. Crime and Punishment, for example, works equally well as serious literature about Life, The Universe And Everything, and as a whodunnit. Except that the person who dunnit is known at the outset and has a cat-and-mouse game with the equally clever examining magistrate, wanting both escape and capture.
Jane Austen: How did she do it? No sex or violence, mostly just people having tea, but totally unputdownable.
Metaphysical poets: neutron-star language: ultimate concentration of meaning.
World War 1 poets, especially Wilfred Owen.
James Joyce, especially Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses.
Doctor Johnson, or more precisely Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. Johnson was a great bear of a man, a pompous High Tory and High Church figure with opinions on everything – always original and sometimes unexpected, like his opposition to slavery. And he liked cats.
Herman Melville: Moby Dick of course, but also Billy Budd and Bartleby The Scrivener.
Richmal Crompton’s William books: children’s books mostly set in the nineteen-thirties and forties. Great children’s books, because Richmal Crompton used unashamedly literary words whose meaning you could figure out by their context. A good way to learn and remember words. Her style was dry and ironic, with absolutely no talking down.
Shakespeare, for all the obvious reasons, and also some of his contemporaries: Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe.
Chaucer, for his characterisation.
Cormac McCarthy: everything of his that I’ve read so far.
Elizabeth Bowen: her stories exist on the tipping-point between the everyday and the mysterious. Her famous story The Demon Lover is only six pages long, but hints at immensities.
Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (like Gormenghast, it defies genres).
Any books which manage to be both literary works and page-turners: too many for an exhaustive list, but titles like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, William Boyd’s Brazzaville Beach, Thomas Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. The book I’m currently reading is that kind of book: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I’m alternating it with The Windup Girl. I like alternating reads: each one seems to gain by the contrast.

TQ: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

John Boring answer, but a bit of both. I only have experience of one-and-a-bit novels so far - FAITH, and the one I’m currently writing – but it’s been the same both times. The overall idea comes almost fully-formed and is not altered, but details of plotting, characters, back-stories and so on, can alter radically as I’m writing.

A bit like building a three-dimensional engineering construction: while writing I might have an idea for a back-story or a character-trait which strengthens the construction like a strut, passing through it three-dimensionally and reinforcing every bit it touches.

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

John I’m always asking, Is this page enough to make a reader want to turn to the next page?

TQ: Describe Faith in 140 characters or less.

John Motiveless, invincible alien ship. Almost-alien human opponent. Moby Dick meets Kafka meets Duel. Irresistible force meets irresistible force.

TQ: What inspired you to write Faith?

John Moby Dick, with the meeting of two titanic opponents. The movie Duel, because one opponent is unknown and unknowable. Kafka, for the sense of looming menace and the idea of struggling against a world where normal laws are inverted, where water flows uphill.

And I wanted to try writing a novel with a mix of “literary” and action content. But with no simple good and evil: where one bleeds into the other.

TQ: What sort of research did you do for Faith?

John I’ve always liked reading authors like Stephen Hawking to get an idea of how physics might develop new views of the universe - the clockwork of Newton, the apparent chaos of Einstein, the apparent illogic of quantum mechanics – and playing with ideas of what might come next.

Similarly, I’ve always read up on Boys’ Toys like spaceships and cars, and played with ideas of where they might go next.

So I had a headstart for a lot of the research into those areas, but while writing the book I also did some reading on psychological conditions. I didn’t do that before, because it was only as the characters developed and started striking sparks off each other that I realised there was a need for it. None of the characters are exactly nice or conventional.

TQ: Who was the easiest character to write and why? Hardest and why?

John An uncomfortably good question. Foord was the easiest, possibly Thahl the hardest.
Foord because he was central to the book and so I’d had him in mind for longer. Thahl because he is genuinely nonhuman but had to have some features which would enable him to relate to the humans around him. Also there was a need to balance his capacity for violence with his gentle sense of irony, and to balance his (partial) ability to sense human feelings with his inability to understand human sexual dynamics.

TQ: Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in Faith?

John The opening scene, and the courtroom scene, for similar reasons: to balance an info dump with action sequences (opening scene) and to balance another info dump with characters and politics (courtroom scene). Also, the courtroom scene reminded me (in the assembling of arguments, and the cut and thrust of cross-examination) of things I used to do in the music industry – fighting legal cases in an abstruse area (copyright) which still had huge financial and precedental risks.

And the last scenes: the challenge to balance increasing strangeness with the need to keep the reader turning the page.

TQ: What's next?

John I love this genre. I’m currently writing a second novel, and again I turned automatically to SF as the best medium for saying what I want. It will be a kind of political thriller, but with strange edges. I set it in the future (about fifty years from now) so I can play with ideas about how politics, economics, technology, culture and religion could develop by then.

TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

John Thank you, Sally. And thank you for your interest in my book.

About Faith

Faith

Night Shade Books, January 2012
Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Ebook

Moby Dick meets Duel in John Love's debut novel of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction! Faith is the name humanity has given to the unknown, seemingly invincible alien ship that has begun to harass the newly emergent Commonwealth. 300 years earlier, the same ship destroyed the Sakhran Empire, allowing the Commonwealth to expand its sphere of influence. But now Faith has returned! The ship is as devastating as before, and its attacks leave some Commonwealth solar systems in chaos. Eventually it reaches Sakhra, now an important Commonwealth possession, and it seems like history is about to repeat itself. But this time, something is waiting: an Outsider, one of the Commonwealth's ultimate warships. Slender silver ships, full of functionality and crewed by people of unusual abilities, often sociopaths or psychopaths, Outsiders were conceived in back alleys, built and launched in secret, and commissioned without ceremony. One system away from earth, the Outsider ship Charles Manson makes a stand. Commander Foord waits with his crew of miscreants and sociopath, hoping to accomplish what no other human has been able to do -- to destroy Faith!

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million
IndieBound : Baenebooks

About John

Photo by Gemma Shaw

John Love spent most of his working life in the music industry. He was Managing Director of PPL, the world’s largest record industry copyright organisation. He also ran Ocean, a large music venue in Hackney, East London.

He lives just outside London in north-west Kent with his wife Sandra and cats (currently two, but there have been as many as six). Sandra and John have two grown-up children.

Apart from his family, London and cats, his favourite things include books and book collecting, cars and driving, football and Tottenham Hotspur, old movies and music. Science fiction books were among the first he can remember reading, and he thinks they will probably be among the last.

John's Link : Website

Interview with Katie Reus and Giveaway - January 25, 2012

2012-01-25T06:55:00.002-05:00

Please welcome Katie Reus to The Qwillery. Alpha Instinct, the first novel in Katie's Moon Shifter series, will be published on February 7, 2012.

Thank you so much for having me here today at the Qwillery!

TQ: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Katie: I don’t think I have one! I don’t need a soundtrack to write to or to write in a certain place or…anything. Well, I do need a cup of coffee (or three) for my morning writing but I don’t know if that’s quirky. :-)

TQ: Are you a plotter or a panster?

Katie: A bit of both. With novellas, I’m not big on plotting because I can usually envision the whole story beforehand. But with my upcoming new series (Moon Shifter) I’ve had to become a plotter. There are too many characters and story threads not to plot. Not to mention my editor wants a synopsis before I write the books so that means I MUST plot.

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Katie: Since I write mainly romantic suspense and paranormal romance, I’d say pacing is often challenging. It’s sometimes difficult to keep that steady pacing of suspense/intrigue/drama while keeping the romance front and center.

TQ: What inspired you to write Alpha Instinct (Moon Shifter 1)?

Katie: There wasn’t just one thing. I feel like I discovered paranormal romance really late. For me, romantic suspense was the genre that really introduced me to the romance genre. Only later did I realize there was a LOT more to romance; contemporary, erotic, paranormal, historical you name it, it’s probably out there. A few years ago I discovered a couple different vampire series’ and became hooked on the world building (I love Sherrilyn Kenyon!). Even though I love vampires I’ve always had a love for shifters and werewolves so the Moon Shifter series was born. Though at the time, I hadn’t planned an entire series and I wasn’t even working on Alpha Instinct full time when I first started it. I worked on it in between other projects and ironically it’s the story my agent and I sold to New York.

TQ: What sort of research did you do to create the world of the Moon Shifters?

Katie: I researched various legends and lore on mythical creatures, mating habits of wolves and pack life (the majority of my paranormal characters are lupine shifters), and I grilled my uncle who is a retired police Captain on different police procedures because my shifters have interactions with local law enforcement.

TQ: Describe Alpha Instinct in 140 characters or less.

Katie: Alpha Instinct features sexy shifters, dangerous villains & an Alpha who will do anything to protect his intended mate & newly founded pack.

TQ: Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in Alpha Instinct?

Katie: There’s a scene where Ana and Connor are out running in their animal form and Connor shifts back to his human one. Because of the circumstances Ana thinks danger is nearby so she shifts too and is infuriated when she realizes he just wanted to see her naked (so typically male!). There’s also another scene at the end where Ana is in mourning (can’t say why without spoilers) and I love the way Connor comforts her and refuses to leave her alone in her sorrow.

TQ: Who was the most difficult character to write and why? The easiest and why?

Katie: One of the villains, whose identity is a secret until the end. He is a complex character because he didn’t view the atrocities he committed as evil (even though killing a large number of shifters is exactly that!). Writing from his point of view and tapping into that mindset was frustrating at times, but totally worth it for a well-rounded villain and story. The easiest would probably be Connor, the hero. He came to me fully developed and knew exactly what he wanted (Ana!) before I even started the story.

TQ: How many books are planned for the series?

Katie: Officially, three books and 1 novella. Obviously I’m hoping for more, but that’s what I currently have contracted. Maybe in a month or so I’ll have a different answer. :-)

TQ: What's next?

Katie: I’ve got a few things scheduled this year. In April I have a novella releasing from Harlequin Nocturne (their erotic Cravings line), in August a novella in the Moon Shifter world, in September, Primal Possession comes out (book 2 in the Moon Shifter series), and depending upon my schedule, I hope to also release a category length romantic suspense (self-publish) in the spring.

TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery

Katie: Thank you so much for having me!

About Alpha Instinct

Alpha Instinct

Moon Shifter 1
Signet Eclipse, February 7, 2012
Mass Market Paperback and e-book, 368 pages

After all the males in her pack are murdered, lupine shifter Analena Cordona is doing the best she can to keep her remaining family safe. She doesn’t want to depend on anyone, but someone is targeting her pack and the threats are getting worse every day. When violent attacks also start escalating in town against humans, she knows that sooner or later, people are going to start pointing fingers at her kind regardless of proof. Unless she can figure out who wants to hurt her pack and why, a few cattle mutilations and property damage will be the least of her worries.

Connor Armstrong has waited fifty years to claim what’s rightfully his: Ana. And with the pack vulnerable, he knows the time is right to return to his hometown and the woman he once called his best friend. In exchange for his pack’s protection, he demands that she be his. But things don’t go quite as planned. Ana is as stubborn as she is sexy and if Connor doesn’t gain her trust, he’ll never get the chance to claim the one woman who’s never left his thoughts. And if he can’t, the evil hunting her will destroy everything they both cherish.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

About Katie

Katie Reus fell in love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her mom's stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as she loves writing it. However, she didn't always know she wanted to be a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated with a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love. Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense.

Katie's Links

Website
Blog
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter

The Giveaway

THE RULES

What: One commenter will win a copy of Alpha Instinct (Moon Shifter 1) from Signet Eclipse! US ONLY

How: Leave a comment answering Katie's question:

What is your favorite type of paranormal being? (shifter, vampire, etc.)

Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a US mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Wednesday, February 1, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

*Giveaway rules are subject to change.*

Interview with Theodora Goss and Giveaway - January 24, 2012

2012-01-24T06:59:00.000-05:00

Please welcome Theodora Goss to The Qwillery. The Thorn and the Blossom was published by Quirk Books on January 17, 2012.

TQ: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Theodora: I'm not sure this is a quirk, but I tend to use very specific things to write: notebooks from Bob Slate Stationer in Harvard Square, specific kinds of pens. I also use a word processing program that almost no one uses anymore: Word Perfect. But it does exactly what I want it to. Wait -- I tend to think of things to write in the shower, and then sometimes I have to run and get a notebook and pen, wrapped in a towel, with dripping hair. I don't know if that's quirky. It's certainly messy!

TQ: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Theodora: I tend to be both. I'll usually have a sense of where the plot is going, and if a plot is intricate, I'll need to write it out. But often, I just sit there and sort of go. I let the story and the characters guide me. Of course, that often means I have to go back and revise, so plotting ahead of time is probably more efficient. But it really depends on where I am in the story, and where the story is going. If it is going -- if my hand keeps moving across the page (I write first drafts longhand) -- I don't stop to plot things out. When I can't write anymore, when the details are too tangled in my head, that's when I need to stop and untangle the plot.

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Theodora: Finding the time! I teach writing and literature at Boston University, and until recently I was also finishing a PhD in English literature. So I have to fit writing in where I can. Often I'll write at night or on the weekends, when everything is quiet and no one can disturb me. I need that intense focus . . .

TQ: What inspired you to write The Thorn and the Blossom?

Theodora: The initial inspiration came from my editor, Stephen Segal, who asked me to write a book in an accordion format. I was so intrigued by the idea that I started working on it right away. I knew it had to be a love story -- that's the sort of story in which seeing events from two different perspectives matters the most. And Brendan and Evelyn came to me shortly after that. Once I had the characters, they started talking to me, telling me their stories -- that's the way it usually happens. The format inspired me, and the story of the Green Knight, the mythical background of the story, inspired me. But finally, it was the characters and the story they had to tell.

TQ: Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in The Thorn and the Blossom?

Theodora: I like the scene in the forest! That's *one* of my favorite scenes, at any rate, and it was actually the first one I wrote, part of the proposal I sent my editor. It was interesting writing it twice, from two different perspectives, because Brendan and Evelyn experience it in very different ways. And they have different emotional reactions to it.

TQ: In The Thorn and the Blossom, who was the most difficult character to write and why? The easiest and why?

Theodora: Brendan was easier to write, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps because he's more reasonable, more sensible, at least for most of the story. Evelyn is more complicated in some ways -- she's more damaged, for one thing. More afraid. I remember my editor telling me that she needed to be more sympathetic. And we did work on that, but in the end, I wanted her to be herself, whether she was sympathetic or not. I wanted her to be Evelyn.

TQ: What's next?

Theodora: I always seem to have stories coming out. In 2012, I have a story called "Woola's Song" coming out in Under the Moons of Mars, an anthology of stories about Edgar Rice Burroughs' world of Barsoom. "Lessons with Miss Gray" will be in an anthology called Witches: Wicked, Wild and Wonderful, "The Mad Scientist's Daughter" will be in The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination, and "Beautiful Boys" will be in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. I'm also working on a poetry collection that will probably come out next summer. The big project now is a novel based on "The Mad Scientist's Daughter" about the daughters of all the mad scientists: Justine Frankenstein, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, Mary Jekyll, and Diana Hyde. They get together in London and form a club!

TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery

Theodora: Thank you! It's been a pleasure.

About The Thorn and the Blossom

The Thorn and the Blossom
Quirk Books (January 17, 2012)
Slip-cased Hardcover, 82 pages

One enchanting romance. Two lovers keeping secrets. And a uniquely crafted book that binds their stories forever.

When Evelyn Morgan walked into the village bookstore, she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. When Brendan Thorne handed her a medieval romance, he didn’t know it would change the course of his future. It was almost as if they were the cursed lovers in the old book itself...

The Thorn and the Blossom is a remarkable literary artifact: You can open the book in either direction to decide whether you’ll first read Brendan’s, or Evelyn’s account of the mysterious love affair. Choose a side, read it like a regular novel—and when you get to the end, you’ll find yourself at a whole new beginning.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Read The Qwillery's 5 Qwill review of The Thorn and the Blossom here.

About Theodora

Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Although she grew up on the classics of English literature, her writing has been influenced by an Eastern European literary tradition in which the boundaries between realism and the fantastic are often ambiguous. Her publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology coedited with Delia Sherman; and Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and Mythopoeic Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List, and has won the World Fantasy and Rhysling Awards.

Theodora's Links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

The Giveaway

THE RULES

What: One commenter will win a copy of The Thorn and the Blossom from Quirk Books. US/Canada Only.

How: Leave a comment answering the following question:

Which unresolved love story or stories would you like to see have a happy ending(s)?

Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a US or Canadian mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

*Giveaway rules are subject to change.*

Guest Blog by Tiffany Allee - Banshee — Divine Portent or Misunderstood Maiden?

2012-01-23T08:14:00.000-05:00

Please welcome Tiffany Allee to The Qwillery.

Banshee — Divine Portent or Misunderstood Maiden?

Banshees are Celtic spirits who were thought to keen under a person's window, announcing that poor soul's impending demise to them and their family. She has been described as old woman with frightening, glowing eyes, as ghastly or beautiful, as being draped in long red hair. But the banshee is always quite alone, and mournful.

I wanted to write something I knew I would enjoy, so I combined my love of romance, the paranormal, and mystery for Banshee Charmer. The story needed a main character who was not universally loved—in fact, it felt fitting for her to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder. But she couldn't be unloved either, she did, after all, have to care a lot about her partner and have the capacity to love the man I had in store for her.

Having spent far too much time reading about mythical creatures, I was pretty familiar with banshees. And I decided that this generally morose creature—in my mind a misunderstood one at that—would be a perfect fit for my heroine.

I have adjusted banshees in my world to be a little different than banshees in lore. Fully powered banshees have the ability to kill with their mournful screams, and they can see when people are going to die. Because of their dangerous nature, banshees do not go among humans except to breed (banshees are all women) and humans fear them. When one of them is born underpowered—like our poor heroine, Mac—they are referred to as half-banshees and are almost always killed.

Thankfully for my story (and for its hero), Mac is not killed at birth. She is raised among humans, never quite fitting in. And when her best friend and partner, the one person she felt accepted her, is killed, she will stop at nothing to find the murderer.

Are banshees and similar creatures really something to be feared, or are they just misunderstood?

About Banshee Charmer

Banshee Charmer

From the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency 1
Entangled Publishing (January 2012)

When she’s sent to a crime scene and finds her second dead woman in as many weeks, half-banshee detective Kiera “Mac” McLoughlin is convinced a serial killer is on the loose. Incubi are extinct, her boss insists. But what else can kill a woman in the throes of pleasure? When her partner is murdered after using witchcraft to locate the killer and Mac is thrown off the case, her frustration turns to desperation.

Certain the killer is an incubus, Mac works behind her department’s back to chase down slim, sometimes perilous leads. While the killer eludes her, she does discover handsome Aidan Byrne, an investigative counterpart from the enigmatic Otherworlder Enforcement Agency. Mac typically runs her investigations fast and hard, but with Aidan at her side, she’s running this one “hot” as well. But Aidan knows more than he’s letting on—something that could shatter their blazing romance and add Mac to the killer’s growing body count…

Amazon : Barnes and Noble

About Tiffany

Tiffany Allee currently lives in Phoenix, AZ, by way of Chicago and Denver, and is happily married to a secret romantic. She spends her days working in Corporate America while daydreaming about sexy heroes, ass-kicking heroines, and interesting ways to kill people (for her books, of course). Her nights are reserved for writing and bothering her husband and cats (according to them). Her passions include reading, chocolate, travel, wine, and family.

Tiffany's Website
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter
Goodreads

The Giveaway

THE RULES

What: One commenter will win an ecopy (PDF or ePub) of Banshee Charmer from Entangled Publishing!

How: Leave a comment answering the following question:

Which paranormal being or beings do you think is/are most misunderstood?

Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Monday, January 30, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

*Giveaway rules are subject to change.*

The View From Monday - January 23, 2012

2012-01-23T07:57:00.002-05:00

We're 4 weeks into January. I hope that everyone has been finding good books to read! The Qwillery is again very busy this week [updated on January 27 to reflect changes in the schedule]:

Monday - Guest Blog by Tiffany Allee, author of Banshee Charmer (From the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency 1).

Tuesday - Interview with Theodora Goss, whose most recent work is The Thorn and the Blossom (January 17, 2012).

Wednesday - Interview with Katie Reus. Alpha Instinct (Moon Shifter 1) will be published on February 7, 2012.

Thursday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interview with John Love. Faith was published earlier this month.

Friday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interview with Kristen Callihan. Firelight, Kristen's debut novel, will be published on February 1, 2012.

Saturday - Interview with Claire Ashgrove, whose most recent novel, Immortal Hope (The Curse of the Templars 1), was published on January 3, 2012.

Sunday - Authors After Dark Author Spotlight Interview with T.J. Michaels.

It's another light week for books:

January 24, 2012

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Darker After Midnight	Lara Adrian	PNR - Midnight Breed 10
The Three Scepters	Kevin T. Collins	EF
Resurrection (ri)	Arwen Elys Dayton	SF
The Man in the High Castle (ri)	Philip K. Dick	SF
Against the Light	Dave Duncan	EF
Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon	Mark Hodder	SP/F - Burton and Swinburne 3
Claimed by a Vampire	Rachel Lee	PNR - Claiming 2
Horizon	Sophie Littlefield	SF - Aftertime 3
Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic	Eduardo Jiménez Mayo Chris. N. Brown, editors	SF/F - Anthology
Once Upon a Wish	Lisa Anne Nichols	UF
A Warrior's Desire	Pamela Palmer	PNR - Esri 3
Boneyards	Kristine Kathryn Rusch	SF - Diving Universe 3
Swords & Dark Magic (tp2mm)	Jonathan Strahan (ed) Lou Anders (ed)	F - Anthology

January 26, 2012

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Tamed	Douglas R Brown	H

January 28, 2012

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Closed Horizon	Peter Lantos	SF