Can you tell readers a little bit about
yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?
Hey, great to meet
everyone. I was born and raised a farm
girl in small town Ontario and still love living in the country, though the
farm’s long gone. I spend my days
working at a high school, and my nights playing with my little girl and
writing.
Urban fantasy has
settled into my heart and made a home there.
I used to be a die-hard Stephen King horror fan, and I still am, but
when a friend put me onto Laurell K. Hamilton, I was finished. That was it.
I didn’t even know I could write, but I suddenly wanted to, and I wanted
to write that kind of book, dark, gritty and filled with neat creatures and
romance.
Please tell us about your latest
release.
Stone Chameleon is
the opener to my Ironhill Jinn series.
Lou Hudson is a preternatural pest exterminator, and also the last of
the jinn. She’s living in secret as her
species is condemned and was all but wiped out shortly before she was
born. Her element is earth, and she can
transform herself into stone. When her
emotions rise, she can even cause an accidental earth quake. Add in a bad murder wrap, a gorgeous and
grouchy highland vampire in a kilt, some mystery and romance, and you’ll have
Stone Chameleon.
Was one of your characters more
challenging to write than another?
Oh yes. I don’t usually have much of a hard time
feeling out characters, but Amun Bassili, Lou Hudson’s potential love interest
in Stone Chameleon, really had me stumped for a while. Beta readers hated him, so I had to do a lot
of tweaking to get that love/hate thing to a perfect balance. Easier said than done.
Is there a character that you
enjoyed writing more than any of the others?
I’m smiling right
now. I kind of have a thing for really
good villains, and while Isaac (the highland vampire) isn’t truly a villain, he
makes a damn fine antagonist. He’s
arrogant and demanding, but he’s got a softer side when it comes to Lou that
slips out now and then. I wasn’t sure
how much he’d play into the series, but after book one, I’ve decided to keep
him around and give him a bigger role.
Do you
have a formula for developing characters? Like do you create a character sketch
or list of attributes before you start writing or do you just let the character
develop as you write?
It depends on the book and how I’m writing it. I’m a total pantser, so I often just start
writing and the characters pretty much tell me who they are. When I’m participating in the novel marathon
I do each year to raise money for adult literacy programs, I do sketch out
basic attributes, both physical and personality, but those often change as I
write anyway, so I’m not sure why I bother. J
What is your favorite scene from the
book? Could you share a little bit of it, without spoilers of course?
This is one of my
favorites. It’s so very Isaac.
I must
have dozed a bit, because something woke me.
A sound? Remnants of a
dream? The cool water sloshed over the
side of the tub as I sat upright and looked around. The lack of light suggested the sun had gone
down, putting the hour at around nine at least.
“Miss
Hudson, do not test my patience,” Isaac bellowed from somewhere beyond the
bathroom door.
Definitely
not a dream. My heart tried to escape my
throat as I leapt from the bath and wrapped my terrycloth robe around me, still
cinching the belt when I entered the living room.
Once
again, I found Isaac on the patio, his shoulders heaving to add to the huffing
bull image he pulled off so nicely. I
should have known he’d show up after receiving my message upon waking, but it
still surprised me.
He’d
shed his sash and wore nothing but his kilt, a wide black belt, and a brass
buckle the size of my head. Growing
visibly calm, he took a few steps nearer, his dark gaze sweeping my body before
landing back on my face. “You’re all
pruny. What have you been doing, trying
to pickle yourself?”
Maybe
I could blame it on sugar aftermath, or possibly stress about Mum, my impending
death, or that I’d caused an earthquake with my drunkenness, but his comment
cracked me up until I held my aching belly.
When I finished wiping tears from my eyes and shook off the last of my
giggles, I found him grinning at me, though it held more petulance than
amusement.
“You
have a lovely laugh, Miss Hudson.” The
grin flattened. “It would be a shame to
extinguish it.”
Can you tell readers a little bit
about the world building in the book/series? How does this world differ from
our normal world?
Ironhill stands on
the ground that had been Philadelphia before a preternatural war all but
destroyed it thirty years ago. So many
of the jinn fell there that the soil is rich with power, drawing creatures of
all kinds to live there. It’s causing a
few problems with the regular old humans who are now well in the minority and
are beginning to notice. Lou does her
best to keep the peace and acts as an advocate for all of the non-human races.
With the book being part of a
series, are there any character or story arcs, that readers jumping in somewhere
other than the first book, need to be aware of? Can these books be read as
stand alones?
I tend to keep the
backstory to a minimum as I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to feel like
I’m reading all of the previous books in a series every time I pick up a new
one. There is enough information in book
two that a reader shouldn’t be too lost, but it’s still best read in order.
Do you write in different genres?
I do,
actually. I have another pen name that I
write adult erotica, both contemporary and fantasy. Under this pen name, I write contemporary
romance, urban fantasy, paranormal romance and a little bit of horror, mostly
in short stories. Under yet another pen
name, I’m developing my first young adult literary novel about a child of rape
growing up in a small town. Juggling
personalities is rough, but sometimes the muse goes wherever he wants to, and I
tend to follow. J
What are your guilty pleasures in
life?
I don’t have a lot
of those. Once in a while I like a
little bit of Jack Daniels and gingerale.
I’d also go to the end of the earth to have a great piece of toast and
honey. I share that with my main
character in Stone Chameleon. Yum.
What was the last amazing book you
read?
That would be
Iced, the latest of the FEVER series by Karen Marie Moning. I didn’t expect to like it so much since the
main character is so young and I prefer adult books, but she writes fascinating
characters and hooked me right from the first chapter. I can’t wait to read the rest of Dani
O’Malley’s adventures in Dublin.
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