I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome author, Jess C. Scott.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

Hello! Sure — I’m a writer/novelist/poet, artist, dreamer, doer, and non-conformist.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

Since I could hold a pencil (terribly cliched as that sounds). I just published a literary collection containing samples of my writing (and a small selection of artwork / 10 images) over the past decade or so (I turn 24 this September). You can download a PDF copy on my website .

Tell me what inspired you to write this particular novel?

I’d been wanting to write a story about an incubus for some time. I started working on a short paranormal romance story, while working on my second book (an erotic short story collection). I like the combination of dreams (since an incubus “descends upon sleeping women”) and desire — these are fantasies that tap into powerful subconscious forces in both men and women.

I have a keen interest in dark fiction. Tell me how you would classify this book and what’s dark about it?

I’d classify The Devilin Fey as paranormal romance, and dark urban fantasy. The novella explores the depth, complexity, and intensity of the realm of love/sex (they’re one and the same to me, as an “ultimate” supreme value, lol). I’ll let my blurb and a couple of reviews do the rest of the explaining.

BLURB: A novella of two stories, featuring an incubus and succubus. Story #1 features a demure young woman unleashing the "devil in" her, through the intimacy with an incubus. Story #2 features a voyeuristic succubus driven by jealousy and a dangerous fixation.

REVIEWS:

"[The pages] were filled with passion, adventure, mystery and a love that pulls at the heart strings." — Review @ Addicted To Romance

"[The Devilin Fey] was erotic without being pornographic, emotional without being sappy, spiritual without being preachy…just enjoyable reading. Kudos to Jess Scott."
— Paul G. / Amazon review, July 2010

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

I like keeping things lean, so I’m not really adverse to hitting the ‘delete’ key. What I had trouble with this novella was the navigation between the real-life scenes, and the dream sequences [which are key scenes, as Caitlin Fey "gets intimate" with the (devilishly delicious) incubus, Lucius]. The storytelling had to make sense, yet still contain a certain amount of fantasy to bring out/enhance the supernatural/paranormal elements of the character and the plot.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something you’re particularly fond of.

In this scene, the incubus pays Caitlin a surprise night visit, and presents her with a bouquet of purple and white (her favorite colors) lilies. This is his response, when she stutters a “thank you” for the flowers–

Lucius: "They're straight from the underworld, by the way. They are everlasting. They won't die."

What can we expect from you next?

I’m getting ready to launch the first book (lust) in a contemporary/multicultural “seven deadly sins” series. It’s a teenage version of Dirty Dancing meets Punk’d. I think I’ll be fiddling with the website soon enough @ http://sins07.wordpress.com — I recently slightly tweaked the first version of the cover. I enjoy coming up with my own book cover designs.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Web Site
Twitter
My book trailers

Any final comments or thoughts?

I’m only just getting started (with the whole writing/publishing escapade ).

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Wow, Jess! You have lots to keep you busy! Thanks for the interview and best of luck with The Devilin Fey and the new series!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Smashwords

I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome back author, Scott Nicholson.

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I interviewed you for The Skull Ring a couple of months ago. Tell me about this new book.

Speed Dating with the Dead is an urban fantasy thriller, a term I invented that’s probably meaningless. “Urban fantasy” means you have demons and angels and sex (in my case), or werewolves and vampires and sex in the case of bestselling urban fantasy, but it’s not really a funny or erotic book, paced more like a thriller. I wish I could just do things normal and have a vampire shag something and make lots of money, but that’s just not my style.

What inspired you to write this particular novel?

I hosted a paranormal conference a couple of years ago at an old haunted hotel here in the Blue Ridge mountains and informed all the ghost hunters I was writing a novel about it. Of course, we didn’t stir up any demons that I know of, but the hunt stuff is real.

Which of your characters in this book was the most difficult to write about? Why?

Digger Wilson is loosely based on me, going metafictional because I play “Digger” in my own comic book series DIRT. Are you confused yet? He’s a cynical, alcoholic guy worried about being a good father and finding faith.

I have a keen interest in dark fiction. Tell me how you would classify this book and what’s dark about it?

I could give it a lot of labels. Paranormal works because of the paranormal investigation (though again, the phrase “paranormal” in publishing means something entirely different, because it’s shorthand for creatures shagging), or “supernatural thriller,” which I generally use for my books. I don’t like the term “horror” because I don’t think a lot of my stuff is horrific. I am more interested in psychological suspense.

What’s your dream job?

I’m pretty much living the dream. I’m a journalist and I garden. I write. I have two chickens. That’s about enough.

You have been very active in the indie author community. Tell me about your experiences of being a traditionally published author vs an indie author.

Six novels with a mid-major publisher and two paper collections from a small press. I was treated fairly but there was no “next level.” It was a great learning experience but today the field is so wide open, being able to connect directly with readers through e-books and build my audience organically instead of the 30-day panic to push a paperback release before you’re toast. I love this era. My new motto is “We’re all in it together.”

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something you’re particularly fond of.

“Maybe ghosts are like clouds on a windy day. The ether merges in tapestry—then is torn away, and all you were is never again. A memoir writ in invisible ink.”

–Digger’s daughter Kendra, in the words of her comic book character Emily Dee, a ninja Goth version of Emily Dickinson.

What can we expect from you next?

I just put out a collection called Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, collecting eight zombie short stories, the comic script of the Murdermouth comic, and a bonus piece from Jack Kilborn, as well as a “Zombie Apocalypse Survival Scorecard” from Jonathan Maberry of Patient Zero fame. I’m about to embark on a 90-day blog tour in September and I’ll probably release two or three more books this fall.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Many places: Web, Blog, Indie Books Blog, or Twitter and Facebook.

Any final comments or thoughts?

Thanks for doing what you do for our indie community. As someone once said, “We’re all in it together.”

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My pleasure, Scott!! I agree. We ARE all on this together. And thanks again for dropping in. I look forward to hearing more about your blog tour when that comes around!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Smashwords

I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome author, Kiki Howell.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

First and foremost, I am a wife and a mother of two teenage boys. I am an avid bookworm, almost to the point of addiction. LOL I am a dreamer, a romantic, and one who over-analyzes life. Mostly a cerebral person, when I find the time, I also like to express my creativity baking and knitting. I am a home-body, happier home than out. Yet, having two boys into sports keeps me from being a true recluse. Also, I am a Certified Feng Shui Practitioner. I love it. And, I credit it with helping me to achieve my success.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

After being a stay-at-home mother for years, I tried to get back into writing – a passion I had let go for over a decade – while my kids were at school. It happened quickly for me. In the summer of 2007 I wrote two stories based on a call for submissions I saw. A few months after submitting the manuscripts, I got my first publishing contract with Whiskey Creek Press. Life has been a fabulous whirlwind since. I now have well over a dozen stories published. Most are paranormal romances which are classified as erotic, but lately I have been writing a few sweet romances as well.

Tell me what inspired you to write this particular novella? It sounds like your husband's music was very inspirational for this.

It was! This story started with one specific song called, "The Road." Click here to listen to the song. The song just screamed storyline to me…the regrets, the forlorn tone, the passions untouched… However, once I started letting my imagination go, it seemed that others of my husband's songs echoed in my head as the plot progressed. So, I went and grabbed his newest CD, Weathervanes. The idea struck me to try to see how many of them I could use. It was sooo much fun listening and playing with the songs to create a storyline. Only, once that step was done, and they were all arranged, the story would not be stopped! I was writing over five thousands words a day on it for the first few days, not able to walk away from it without having to grab a pencil and paper to scribble down notes on. I think that is a testament to the caliber of songwriter Steven is.

I was really nervous for him to read it. Yet, once he did, he said that often it was just uncanny how the songs fit the story so well, as if the hero, Adam, would have wrote them just for the situation her was in. That was the greatest compliment, as I hope the book, the use of his creative genius in such a way, was to him.

I am just so excited, and so grateful to my husband, Steven Howell, for letting me use his music!

I love stories with fantasy and magical elements. How would you classify this book and what's magical about it?

It is a paranormal romance. The hero is a sorcerer, and he uses his music to weave his spells for him. Once I had the idea to write the story from my husband's song, I immediately began searching for a paranormal element to add. Since music can so easily influence people, I made the hero use his songs as spells.

The inspiration for this story was very personal. What other of your books have been written from personal experiences?

None are as deeply personal as this collaboration with my husband in The Sorcerer's Songs. Yet…

My novella, Rituals, was written when I heard the tragic story of a friend. I had trouble dealing with the despair and the insanity if the whole situation. In order to reconcile it in my mind, I guess, I wrote this story giving a heroine in a similar situation a happy ever after ending, and thus myself hope that they exist.

Also, my short novel, A Modern Day Witch Hunt, came from an absurd personal experience that I just decided was to have some fun with. Silly me thought that people around me may have a problem with the fact that I write erotica. Now, while some have, I was shocked to find a few had more of a problem with the paranormal elements. The writing of this story was very cathartic in being able to file away appropriately the silliness of the situation.

You have to love fiction, not only for the escape it provides, but for the hope, the subtle messages, and sometimes the play with fantasy. I am grateful to read and to write it.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

Actually, I guess I had not done this well on my own. During work with my editor, she pointed out that one chapter/song seemed forced while all of the others just flowed together. Reading it again, I found that she was absolutely right. Yet, it was still hard to cut one if the songs.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something you’re particularly fond of.

I am giving you a mix of my words and my husband's song lyrics…

As she looked down to stop her tears, each note of each chord he hit on that old piano rang through her heart as if they were living, viable things.

I'm not a poet, I've got no money,
My words are riches to make you swoon
I've got this heartbeat, and my piano
They're my offering to you

What can we expect from you next?

I have a few short stories coming out in Anthologies this year, but I am most excited about my first full length novel coming out in January 2011, titled Torn Asunder. It has a great mix of genres: Historical (Regency), Paranormal (Witches & Shifters), Erotic Romance.

Blurb: Aubrey Griffen is a witch whose true reasons for coming to London soon fall to the wayside when she catches the eye of Edmund Bryant, the Marquess of Dalysbury. He seduces her into a whirlwind romance until the lies and threats of his mother force her to flee to Triaill Brimuir, a secret island of her ancestors off the coast of Ireland. Edmund goes after her only to be hit by Aubrey's confusion and anger when she magically transforms him into an elemental beast of her own creation.

However, it is when Edmund's lust mysteriously turns him back into a man that the couple are forced to deal with a family secret and untold of powers. Now, Edmund must learn to shift himself into the beast in order to save her in a battle of black verses white magic.

Fraught with scenes of explicit intimacy, romantic spells and mystical shapeshifting, Torn Asunder is a unique blending of the age of manners with sexual magic.

Where can we find you on the internet?

My website is here.
My blog, Authors by Authors, is where authors review books and interview each other.
You can friend me on Facebook here and my Fan Page is here.
Follow me on Twitter.
Watch my book trailer videos here.

Any final comments or thoughts?

A trade paperback version of the novella, The Sorcerer's Songs, and the CD, Weathervanes, can be purchased through the author only at my website. There is a discount for ordering both. **If you would like the book or CD autographed, please specify in space provided during checkout.

Ebooks can be purchased at FIDO Publishing, Amazon, All Romance Ebooks, etc.

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Kiki, it’s so exciting that you got to work with your husband’s music like this. What brilliant inspiration!

Thank you very much for dropping by and answering these questions! Good luck with the The Sorcerer’s Songs and your upcoming release of Torn Asunder. Hope you’ll come back again when it’s released!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Smashwords
Paperback

Jerusalem, 33 A.D. The vampires of the era have long sought to gain a foothold into Israel, but the faith of the local Jewish population has held them in check for centuries. When one of their own betrays them to follow a strange young rabbi from Galilee, the elders of the vampire race dispatch Theron, a nine hundred year old assassin, to kill them both. The rabbi’s name is Jesus. Killing him should be easy.

Let me preface this with the following: I am not into vampire novels. The genre does absolutely nothing for me. This particular book caught my attention when I saw the cover and the title. The description sold it. Vampires trying to assassinate Jesus – brilliant idea!!

I was not disappointed.

It’s written by indie sensation, David McAfee. If you haven’t heard of his name, you will, because this man knows how to write a thrilling story and grab a reader’s attention.

I could NOT put this book down.

The story is based in Jerusalem in 33 A.D., the week leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. It is an incredible ride, this story, as McAfee weaves an intricate tale of Bachiyr (vampire) secrecy with the events surrounding the crucifixion. The cast of characters are flawed, yet you love them anyway. They lift off the page and you cannot help but empathize with their respecitve plights, whether their intentions be diabolical or not.

In all this, McAfee handles the character of Jesus deftly. He places him in all the key areas and in the few scenes that include dialogue with him, he sticks to what would be very much in character – that of a simple man.

I’m not a religious person, and my first thoughts when I saw this title was that this might be Christian fiction. I tried it anyway, and I can’t tell you how thoroughly impressed I am, not only with the story (which is quite neutral around the Christian theme), but also McAfee’s writing. It is riveting material that makes you yearn for more.

If you read anything this summer, make sure it’s this book. I, for one, will be looking at McAfee’s other books – vampire or not.

He’s that good.

Purchasing info:

Amazon: Kindle
Amazon: Paperback
Smashwords
Barnes & Noble: Paperback

I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome author, Dawn McCullough-White.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself? My name is Dawn McCullough-White. I grew up just outside of Rochester, NY. I live with my husband and my son in the house my grandparents lived in. The property butts up against the Erie Canal on one side, a defunct cemetery on another side and dates back to 1840. When my grandfather dug out our basement back in the 1940′s he discovered a rubbish pile of old clay pipes, which I find really interesting. There’s speculation that the oldest section of our house may have been part of a tavern. This really helped to lead me into creating the setting for the "Cameo" series of books.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

I began writing my first novel when I was fourteen; finished it when I was sixteen. It was no masterpiece but that’s how I learned to write, simply by doing. I’ve written many unpublished novels over the last twenty-six years. I used to handwrite them, type them up, send them to the copyright office and then not really know what to do with them. With this one I determined I wanted to publish it, and then somehow everything just fell into place. My sister-in-law, an editor, offered to edit the novel and an old friend offered to do the cover.

I have a keen interest in dark fiction. Tell me how you would classify this book and what’s dark about it?

I would classify it as a historical dark fantasy I suppose. Cameo, the main character is an assassin who seems to possess a certain, otherworldliness. She has a master that she works for at a place called The Association, which is a company of assassins, and a secret master who is a vampire. She’s sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, she hates working as an assassin but she’s afraid if she breaks from the company they’ll kill her, and she has a vampire master who seems to delight in tormenting her by killing the people she loves. Up to this point in her career she has steered clear of any sort of friendship entanglements, until she meets up with two somewhat charming highwaymen.

It’s set in a sort of faux 18th century, so it’s pretty gritty. The characters have scars and bad teeth from clay-pipe smoking, and hang out in dirty taverns. Death comes pretty quick and dirty, I don’t generally let characters with grievous wounds survive my novels. I try to stay fairly realistic to the medicine of the time except for an element of the supernatural and some magic. I really enjoy history so I try to inject odd bits of history into the story.

What made you choose to go the Indie route when publishing?

I really hate the "machine" that traditional publishing has become. I don’t want someone to determine whether or not I should be heard and I don’t want someone to tell me what to write. I want to have the freedom of my own creativity that all artists yearn for.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

This novel has several intertwined plot lines and as I was going along in the writing process I realized one had just hit a dead-end, so I had to go back in and remove and rework that particular plot which spanned something like four chapters at that point. That was pretty miserable.

The blog is called Random Musings so give us a random quote from the book- something you’re particularly fond of.

She looked up at him with her dead eyes. The coach was dark, and she could only make out the indistinct shape of his face in the shadows. "Stop talking to me."
He laughed, "You’ll feel better after we kill someone."
"I’ll feel better after I polish off a bottle of wine."
"Whatever vice you prefer."

What can we expect from you next?

Well, Cameo the Assassin is the first in a series of undetermined length as of yet. The second book in the series, Cameo and the Highwayman is due out this fall. Probably around October.

Where I can be found on the Internet?

Most of my information can be found on my website: www.dawnmccullough-white.com Although I have my novel listed for a more reasonable price (than the links on my website hint to) here for Kindle and here on Smashwords.

Any final comments or thoughts?

I’d like to just mention that the person who does my covers and website is Kurt Hanss, a very talented artist. And I’d like to thank David Burton for this interview.

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Dawn, I love gritty story telling and although I’m not into historical fiction, I think you may have grabbed me with this one. Thank you very much for dropping by and answering these questions! Good luck with the Cameo series – I’m sure it will do well!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Smashwords

I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome author, Julie Ann Dawson.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

When I'm not working or writing, I operate a small boutique press called Bards and Sages Publishing that produces speculative fiction and roleplaying games (no, not video games…the old fashion pen and paper, Dungeons & Dragons style roleplaying games). I decided to publish The Doom Guardian through my own imprint instead of searching for another publisher because, well, I don't think it would have made my authors feel very good to know that their publisher was chasing after some big contract with a New York publishing house!

Besides, I'm a project junkie. I love taking a project from start to finish. I'm constantly looking for projects to consume any free time I might have. By the time I finish one project, I've already got three more lined up in the pipeline. But there are worse addictions, I suppose, and at least this sort of a problem produces something productive.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

I started seriously writing when I was thirteen. I had found a copy of Salem's Lot in the school library and fell in love with the book. I remember thinking how amazing the story was, and then thinking "I can do that."

I made it a point to learn as much as I can about publishing and writing. I had wonderful teachers in high school that taught the art of writing, not just enough to pass a basic skills test. I worked on the school newspaper. I majored in English in college, where I continued working on school publications and started to take freelance work. I started publishing professionally while I was still in school.

I read a lot of industry publications and attend workshops, conventions and book festivals when I can in order to keep up with changes in the industry and to keep my skills sharp. I think I'm at a point in my career where I am comfortable with the fact that I still don't know everything there is to know, and I'm willing to keep learning.

Tell me what inspired you to write this particular novel?

The Doom Guardian actually started as filler fiction for a roleplaying supplement I was developing called Mythos: Gods of the Dead. It's part of a series of PDF only supplements that provide players with pre-made gods for the game worlds. When you write these types of supplements, you often include filler fiction to illustrate a thematic point. I ended up writing the opening scene that appears in the book, and then going back and rereading it and thinking "I need to tell this woman's story."

But then I sat on it for a year, not sure with the direction to go with it. Then one day it finally hit me, and I just took off with it.

I have a keen interest in dark fiction. Tell me how you would classify this book and what’s dark about it?

It's definitely a dark fantasy. I'm actually a horror writer, and this was my first attempt at a full-length fantasy novel. The protagonist, Nadia Gareth, is a dhampir. In the world of Cambrea, dhampirs are an artificial creation of the Necromancers, who use their magic to breed human women with vampires. The original intent of the dhampirs was to breed an unstoppable army, because when a dhampir dies, it rises again as a full vampire to continue fighting.

But the corrupting influence of the Necromancers' magic made all the dhampirs mentally unstable. Nadia is one of the few that somehow managed to retain her wits and escape. At the start of the book, she is actually in the employ of the Crypt Keepers, who despite the ominous sounding name are actually one of the benevolent groups in the world. The Crypt Keepers serve Nadru, God of the Dead, who shepherds the dead to their proper place in the afterlife. He is at war with his father, Vagruth, God of Undeath, who wants to turn the world into an undead wasteland. Nadia is a Doom Guardian, the sect's equivalent of a paladin. Her primary objectives are to hunt down demons, which try to steal the souls of mortals, and the undead.

Cambrea is a pretty dark place. Besides the Necromancers, you also have the Felsworn, which are demon-tainted mercenaries. There is an undercurrent of a cold war between the free kingdom of Ebernia and the slaver state of Zaronbar. There is a brewing class war between the wealthy merchants and nobility that control the Ebernian interior and the poorer rural areas along the borders. The reader also gets glimpses at some of the political intrigues that plague the world throughout the book, much of which is the reason the Necromancers weren't stamped out long ago.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

I had to make a decision regarding one of the characters that I know broke the hearts of quite a few readers, but it was necessary for the integrity of the plot. It wasn't a decision I made lightly, particularly because I had grown somewhat attached to the character myself. But it definitely needed to be done and if I hadn't it would have felt like I was cheating.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something you’re particularly fond of. Nadia is the primary protagonist in the book, but Nigel, the dark elf con artist, really ended up with all the best lines. I think he sums up Nadia nicely when he says:

"You aren't a monster," said Nigel as he sat on a nearby stool. "You're arrogant, brooding, hypocritical, temperamental, and ever so slightly unhinged. But that doesn't make you any different from most women with authority I've met."

Don't worry. The line isn't nearly as misogynistic as it sounds when read in the context of the scene.

What can we expect from you next?

Right now I'm finishing up a modern horror novel titled A Game of Blood. I'm toying around with releasing it for free in instalments. It's a vampire novel about a detective that stumbles upon the truth regarding the existence of vampires while investigating a series of brutal murders. Unfortunately, the vampire he is investigating, a three hundred year old sociopath named Darius Hawthorne, takes a strange liking to him and decides that he will make the perfect nemesis for the bored immortal. The relationship between the two evolves in some rather bizarre ways, and they become somewhat dependent on each other even as they are trying to destroy each other.

Where can we find you on the internet?

My main website is wwww.bardsandsages.com from there, you can find links to my Gather, Goodreads, Twitter and Facebook pages. Just recently, I launched a new forum to help independent authors with the business end of publishing. Folks interested in that can go to http://positivepublishing.freeforums.org to join.

Any final comments or thoughts?

I'd just like to thank my readers. Its fun having a book on the market where one of the characters (Nigel) has his own stalkers! The reader response to the characters themselves has been wonderful, even when those same readers are mad at me for doing "bad things" to their favorite characters.

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Thank you very much for dropping by, Julie. Best of luck with The Doom Guardian as well as with Bards And Sages Publishing! You must be so busy!!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Amazon – Paperback
Smashwords

I often check how people come across my site. When the referring site is something like Google, Yahoo, or Bing, I check on the keywords that brought them here. I get all kinds of humdingers.

For example, one of the more recent visits was someone looking for “nose picking“.

I thought it would be fun to list a few keywords that have brought people to my site over the last year, and the posts that brought them here:

• two dads are better than none
• straight guys kylie minogue
• kobo drm ebook
• older child adoption
• north american house hippo
• darth benedictus
• google wave publishing
• tough guise
• what it means to be a dad
• natasha rhodes – go buy her books!
• david mcafee – go buy his books!
• david dalglish – go buy his books!
• andy remic – go buy his books!
• list of reputable publishers
• commercials with social message
• ebook polls
• kaaron warren – go buy her books!
• mike resnick – go buy his books!
• things not to say to adopted children
• scott nicholson – go buy his books!
• locus magicalicus – go buy this book!
• “this child is mentally unstable. he is violent and has severe psychopathic issues. i was lied to and misled by”

I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome author, Daniel Arenson.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

I was born in 1980 and spent my early years moving around a lot. I moved between countries five or six times. I currently live in Toronto, and have been living here for several years.

I have a university degree in computer science. It taught me a lot about writing! Managing large applications, thinking logically, and solving problems–all the skills you learn in software development–are invaluable for an author.

I’ve always loved books. I think a great novel is one of the best things in the world. When I’m not writing or reading, I enjoy painting.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

I’ve been writing since high school. I sold my first short story in 1998, when I was eighteen. I’ve been writing seriously since then, and have sold a couple dozen stories and poems. Firefly Island, my first novel, was published in hardcover in 2007, and has just recently been released as an ebook.

Tell me what inspired you to write this particular novel?

Firefly Island is my first novel, and is inspired by hundreds of fantasy novels I read growing up. I loved authors such as Roger Zelazny, Tolkien, Weis and Hickman, George R. R. Martin, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, and many other authors of fantasy and science fiction. I wrote Firefly Island because it’s the kind of book I love to read, and I wanted to share my story with others.

An epic fantasy full of wars and battles, Firefly Island is also inspired by history; its conflicts, triumphs, and tragedies.

Finally, fairytales inspired me. Firefly Island has a strong fairytale feel–not happy Disney fairytales, but the darker Grimms Brothers fairytales which blend the magical with the creepy.

I have a keen interest in dark fiction. Tell me how you would classify this book and is there anything dark about it?

People are often surprised by the darkness in Firefly Island. I don’t categorize it as dark fantasy–there are no vampires, no werewolves, no demons. It’s a high, epic fantasy, and that means adventure, magic, and romance… but also battles, sacrifice, and destruction.

In Firefly Island, I deal with contrasts. I illuminate the lighter scenes by interposing them with dark, violent scenes. You appreciate the fragile light when you see the darkness. You fear that darkness when you’ve felt the light it can extinguish.

Booklist called Firefly Island “dark and gory”, and it certainly includes those elements, but it also has a magical, lighter feel.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

I cut so much from Firefly Island. Pages and pages. Entire scenes and characters. I tossed out and rewrote the opening few chapters at one point. It’s all hard to do. You say goodbye to so many magical locations, so many characters. But it’s part of being an author; we have a pen in one hand, an axe in the other. We create with the one, cut with the other. I don’t know if one deleted scene was harder to cut than another. Ultimately I’m happy with all the choices I made. You can’t include everything, not if you want an exciting story that flows well and keeps the reader turning the pages.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something you’re particularly fond of.

Well, it’s not exactly random, but here is the first sentence:

The little girl huddled in the corner, weeping silently.

What can we expect from you next?

My dark fantasy Flaming Dove will be released later this year. Half angel, half demon. Outcast from Hell, banished from Heaven. Laila–of tears and blood, of sins and of piety. Flaming Dove tells her story.

Where can we find you on the internet? On my website, you can learn about me and my works, read free stories, and find free writing tips. The URL is: http://www.DanielArenson.com

My facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DanielArenson

My twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DanielArenson

Firefly Island in the Kindle store

Any final comments or thoughts?

I’d like to say how thrilled I am with the surging popularity of ebooks. Firefly Island was released in hardcover back in 2007. It’s only been an ebook for several weeks now, and has already sold hundreds of copies in the Kindle store. It’s soon coming to iBookstore and other places. I love connecting with ebook readers and selling digital copies. This is the future of literature.

And thank you, David, for the interview! It was a pleasure.

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Thank you very much for dropping by and answering these questions, Daniel! Good luck with Firefly Island, sounds like it’s doing great, and I look forward to Flaming Dove when it’s released!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Amazon – Hardback
Smashwords

I’ve been running a series of interviews with authors that are releasing new books. I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work. Today, please welcome author, Jenna Johnson.

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To start, can you tell me a little about yourself.

Hello, my name is Jenna Elizabeth Johnson and I’m a fantasy writer. It wasn’t until my time in college that I realized I wanted to write novels for the rest of my life. I grew up on the Central Coast of California and attended college in the Bay Area. I have since returned to my hometown to work in the education system. In my spare time, I work on my writing, as well as catching up on my favorite books. I also enjoy gardening, bird watching and camping. My goal is to someday make enough off of my books in order to take up writing full time.

How long have you been writing and how did you get to this point in your career?

I’ve been writing consistently for about five years now. Getting to this point in my writing ‘career’ has been itself a work in progress. Once I decided I wanted to write, I sat down and just began typing. At first it wasn’t necessarily organized, but I kept at it; learned to polish the raw material I had before me. I’m still learning how to write that ‘perfect’ novel, and I hope someday to do so.

Tell me what inspired you to write this particular novel?

I must admit, I can’t exactly pinpoint it; it was a combination of things. I’ve always been inventing stories, ever since I was very little. Unfortunately, I never really wrote anything down. In college, I took several art classes and a good number of Celtic and Scandinavian mythology classes. I think it was the Norse and Irish myths and legends that finally inspired me to write it all down.

Sometimes we have to be ruthless in writing/editing. We cut scenes, eliminate characters or even kill them off. Tell me what was the hardest of these in this book.

I had a hard time letting go of some of the stories Hroombra (one of my dragon characters) would tell Jahrra (my heroine) and her friends. They were simply an embellishment; they weren’t needed. I think I liked them and had originally included them because of my joy of myth and legend. The stories he told explained some of the natural occurences in Jahrra’s world, but they were something extra, so I had to shorten them immensely or cut them out completely. Perhaps one day I’ll gather them all in a book of legends.

Eliminating characters is another thing completely. The first characters I had to eliminate died rather early on, and although they played an important role in the main character’s life, I accepted that and was able to deal with it rather well. I will admit that a major character dies in the second book, but I can’t say who. This was another character I knew would not survive to the third book, but this one was harder. I just had to accept that my protagonist would not be able to grow as a person and move on if this character wasn’t taken out of her life. Still, it is no easy thing killing off someone you’ve grown to admire.

This blog is called Random Musings, so give me a random quote from the book – something you’re particularly fond of.

Here’s a few lines from chapter seventeen, ‘Dealing with Dragons’. I particularly like this quote because it shows the uneasy relationship between the dragon Jaax and Jahrra, something that is central to the plot:

Jaax's voice finally interrupted Jahrra's thoughts, "Shall we continue?"
"What?" Jahrra said, not realizing she'd stopped to ponder the scene before her.
"I want to be done with this as much as you do, so it would help if you paid attention."
Jahrra turned pink. Stupid dragon! He shouldn't be allowed to be so rude all the time.

What can we expect from you next?

I have several works in progress. I expect to write two or three more books to complete the Oescienne series, and I’m working on a few more YA fantasies, some parts of series, some not. I also have a few fantasy ideas and novels for the older crowd (some of these are also parts of series, some stand alone). I’m also toying with the idea of writing a few fantasy adventures for children.

Where can we find you on the internet?

I have a website, where you can find everything you would like to know about The Legend of Oescienne series. I also have a blog. I don’t write on my blog often, but if you would like to have a more inside view of Jahrra’s world, it is set up as a journal from her perspective. I also have a twitter account and a fan page on Facebook. The best way to contact me is through my website or on Facebook.

Any final comments or thoughts?

I can’t think of anything more. Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity!

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Jenna, thank you very much for dropping by and doing this interview! Good luck with The Finding and I’ll keep my eyes open for the next book in The Legend of Oescienne series!

Purchasing information:

Amazon – Kindle
Amazon – Paperback