Author Susan Grant’s Otherworldly Sci-Fi Romances

How does a pilot become a paranormal - slash - romance - slash - sci fi author? Author Susan Grant (Moonstruck) shares her inspiration for her out-of-this-world novels…

By Susan Grant, author of Moonstruck (HQN)

I’m often asked how a commercial airline pilot ended up writing romance. “Easy,” I say. “Too little time on the ground coupled with way too much time to think!” Trust me, nothing aids plot-hatching and character-developing like fifteen straight hours stuck in the cockpit of a 747 with lukewarm coffee and a sky so black you can see every star in the Milky Way.

The sights, smells, and tastes of the exotic locales I visit, and the conversations I have with people I’d never normally meet, provide the most amazing material to weave into my stories. With a little imagination, a dark alleyway in Shanghai ripe with the stench of sewage, garlic, and moped exhaust becomes a lawless, backwater planet in the Borderlands, a region in the stars where my newest series takes place. A Chinese restaurant where I nibbled on pickled jelly fish, stir-fried fungus, and sautéed morning glory transforms into dinner-for-two with a warlord on a distant planet. Sometimes I think I have the perfect “day” job for a paranormal author.

When I’m not a jet-lagged daydreamer wandering around Sydney, Shanghai or Saigon soaking in ideas for new stories, I’m a suburban mom raising two teens. When they were much younger I used to bring them, and usually the neighbor boy, too, to the local park to play . One day the boys ran off, each clutching a laundered-too-many-times Beanie Baby (the only two toys in the car), leaving my daughter empty-handed. “But, Mom,” she said, grief-stricken. “Now I have no one to be!”

To be…

Whoa. Simple words, but what a concept! My daughter, with the boundless, easily accessed imagination of a child, intended to be a Beanie Baby, slipping into the fluffy body of a kitten, or duck, or crocodile to live through its eyes. And, boy, did I understand her disappointment. That’s exactly how I feel when I open a book and can’t lose myself in it, when I’m unable, for some reason, to form that seamless emotional connection with the characters that allows me to live the story right along with them.

Think of the books on your keeper shelf. What made them so special the first time you read them? Did they engross you to the point where when you turned the last page you looked up blinking because you forgot who and where you were? Did they sweep you away to another time, another place, another body? Then those authors succeeded in giving you someone to be.

If you’d like to come along on some of my flying adventures, visit my blog and check out the archives. No luggage required! Oh, and for a peek at the stories these adventures have spawned over the years, stop by my website, www.susangrant.com, where I maintain a printable list of all my books and what series they belong to.

~Susan

Blog for a cause: online auction for diabetes research

By Jenny B, Digital Content Manager

Want to win some great prizes from some of your favorite authors and the chance to have your name in a book? Visit Brenda Novak’s 4th Annual On-line Auction for Diabetes Research.

I copied this from Brenda’s website: “Welcome to my 4th Annual On-line Auction for Diabetes Research. Thank you for supporting my efforts to make a difference to my son and all those battling diabetes. In the first three events, we raised over $250,000. Our goal for this 4th auction is $300,000!

“Once again I’ll be offering a fabulous prize package to the person who places the highest number of bids over all (even if that person doesn’t win a single item). This year it will be a brand new Camcorder (retail value of at least $1,000), Your Name In My Next Book, an autographed copy of TRUST ME (on sale 5/27/08), and chocolate (lots of chocolate)!”

It’s a great cause and there are lots of good prizes including a weekend getaway at Susan Wigg’s guesthouse, mentoring and more! Visit: http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/

 

Author Patrice Michelle on Free Will vs Destiny

Does prophecy equal destiny? Patrice Michelle talks about her SCIONS trilogy from Silhouette Nocturne and how it explores the notion of predestiny versus free will…

By Patrice Michelle, author of Scions: Insurrection

The definition of “Prophecy” is as follows: Prophecy is the prediction of future events or the speaking of divine words (divine Revelation) through chosen human messengers (prophets).

When I sat down to write my Scions trilogy, each story was intended to stand alone, but I wanted to make sure all three stories were also tied together, not just through the characters’ interacting in their own story and then returning to play roles in future books, but through unveiling bits and pieces of an underlying prophecy that comes to light as each story progresses. Not only does the prophecy act as a running subplot to the overall trilogy story arc, but what I liked about working with a prophecy goes back to the definition I gave above.

Once the characters in book one, Scions: Resurrection , discover the prophecy’s relevance to them, it’s now up to the characters in book two, Scions: Insurrection, to work their way through the meaning behind the prophecy as it relates to them.   In writing these two books and then the final one in the trilogy, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed exploring the concept of destiny versus will.

What do I mean by that? Well, a prophecy is a prediction of the future, but does that mean that the outcome is predestined? Does one have a choice? Or do the people, who are flawed and fallible, with their own motivations and desires, bend the prophecy to their will by their own perceptions and ultimate actions? Or is it a combination thereof?

That’s what the underlying core of my SCIONS trilogy is about–not only are these books action-oriented, sexy romances with a mystery to solve, but they’re about how following one’s strong beliefs and “desire” to make things happen collides with the normal course of nature. The result is a learning curve of collaboration and cooperation, where the characters are forced to make choices and decisions that will hopefully leave them in a better place at the conclusion of their own personal stories as well as the over-arching trilogy storyline once it’s finally revealed in the third book SCIONS: REVELATION.

I hope you’ll check out my books and follow my characters’ adventures, discovering the answers to life and love in their dark, dangerous and seductive SCIONS world right along with them.

All the best, Patrice Michelle

Author Michele Hauf’s Sexy Familiar Meets Hot Werewolf

What is a familiar, and why would she fear having sex with a werewolf? Michele Hauf, launch author for Nocturne Bites, explains…

By Michele Hauf, author of Racing the Moon

My latest short story, Racing the Moon, features a sexy alpha werewolf on a desperate race against the full moon to put himself safely away from anyone who could be harmed when the beast inside him emerges. Unfortunately — or rather, fortunately for romance fans — his car breaks down and he’s stranded alone with a sexy familiar who would love to help him keep the werewolf at bay with a little sexual healing, but she doesn’t want to release deadly demons in the process.

Sound interesting? Confusing? What the heck is a familiar, you ask? And why the demons?

My concept of familiars begins with the age-old myth of a cat being a witch’s familiar. Centuries ago, women suspected of being witches were often accused of being in league with the devil if they had a pet cat. They were hung for the offense, and the cat could even be burned alive or strangled.

Whew! I’m glad I didn’t live hundreds of years ago. I love my two cats (Sebastian and Toast). And even though there are days when I suspect they may be in league with the dark forces, I feel privileged to have them in my life.

So I took the cat as familiar idea and morphed it into a shape-shifting human (most often females) whose main purpose is for bridging demons from the dark realm into the mortal realm. How is that done, you wonder? Well, the familiar (in human shape) must be receptive to allowing the demon to come through her body and manifest — which means that familiar needs to be completely and utterly sexually sated. Are you beginning to see where major complications could come into play when the familiar finds a man she really loves and wants to have sex with him? 

It would be cruel of me to curse my familiars with this awful side effect all the time. So naturally a familiar has nine lives. The first life is all about learning to master the bridging. By about life number three or four, they’ve become experts at controlling their craft, and sex doesn’t have to result in the sudden appearance of a horned nasty thing. But the heroine of Racing the Moon is still experiencing her first life, and she hasn’t mastered the art of bridging demons.

Do you think a werewolf will be scared off by a few demons? Heck, can a wolf even get along with a cat? I hope you’ll check out the story to learn more!

So what kind of paranormal heroines would you like to see that haven’t been done yet? Have you read about familiars before? If you’re curious, I’ve an excerpt of the first chapter available at my website. Also look for updates and upcoming releases at my blog.

-Michele

 

Author Bertrice Small’s Wild and Sexy Faeries

Paranormal romance meets fantasy when author Bertrice Small shares her thoughts on creating the world of Hetar…

By Bertrice Small, author of The Sorceress of Belmair

Several years ago my agent said to me, “Do you think you could write something paranormal? I suspect it will be the next hot trend.” I told him I wasn’t into wolves or vampires. What did he think of a faerie tale?

I’ve made my reputation writing good historical romance novels with accurate history, a good story, and characters that readers seem to like. It wasn’t that I was getting bored, but I really was ready for a challenge. And so The World of Hetar came into being. Hetar, as many of my readers have figured out is an anagram for earth. But whose earth? And earth in a far distant past? Or an equally distant future? Even I can’t tell you the answer to that.

I have had, am having a great deal of fun creating this world, and the characters who people it. LARA, the first book in the series, began it all. It is the story of a young woman’s adventures as she pursues her destiny. Lara is the daughter of a mortal man, and a faerie woman. In Book II, A DISTANT TOMORROW, Lara continues on her mystical path, now widowed, and the mother of two children. She remarries the ruler of Terah, and finds herself involved in the politics of Hetar.

With Book III, THE TWILIGHT LORD, Lara suddenly finds herself unable to use her faerie powers, and at the mercy of a powerful lord who rules the dark side. Of course she triumphs. And now we come to Book IV, THE SORCERESS OF BELMAIR in which Lara’s eldest son, Dillon, now grown and a great sorcerer, is called to Belmair, a distant world from Hetar. Belmair’s great dragon, Nidhug, has chosen Dillon to be Belmair’s new ruler, and the dying king’s daughter, a sorceress named Cinnia, will be his wife.

The characters who people these books are such fun to write. Ilona, the queen of the Forest Faeries who is Lara’s mother. The great Shadow Lord, Prince Kaliq, a sexy, mysterious man who is Lara’s mentor. Lara’s talking horse, Dasras, her singing sword, Andraste and the staff she carries with an elderly spirit named Verica. There is a proper villian in Gaius Prospero, a great Hetarian merchant lord, and his ambitious wife, Vilia. Not to forget his duplicitious secretary, Jonah. Lara’s husbands, Vartan, the great chief of the Outlands, and Magnus Hauk, the Dominus of Terah. Lara’s father, John Swiftsword. But right now I would have to say my favorite is Nidhug, the great dragon of Belmair who has a taste for gourmet meals, and great sex with her lover, Lara’s half-brother, the faerie prince, Cirillo.

If you like wild and sexy faerie tales you are really going to enjoy the books in The World of Hetar. I am having one helluva time writing them. And as I begin Book V it would appear the ride isn’t over yet.

-Bertrice

Author Sharon Sala’s Healing Dreams

What inspires an author to write a paranormal plot? Bestselling author Sharon Sala talks about the dream and the love that were her inspiration for the paranormal elements in her latest novel, The Healer. 

By Sharon Sala, author of The Healer

The Healer was a dream. It started with a wolf bringing a baby into an Alaskan hunting camp. I wish I could tell you why and where these “dreams” come from, but I can’t. All I know is that I’m forever grateful for them.

My fiance, Bobby, who died in June of 2005 used to talk about Alaska all the time. He, along with thousands of other men back in the 1970s, helped lay the Alaska pipeline. His stories about the tundra and the hardy people who called it home were fascinating to me.

He used to say he was going to take me back to Alaska some day and show me all the places he’d come to love. He was Native American of the Muscogee (Creek) Indians and told me so many things about the Inuit people of Alaska that he identified with.

His stories and my dream became one book, The Healer. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it.

-Sharon Sala

 

Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe prove author videos can be fun

By Jenny B, Digital Content ManagerWhile catching up on one of my favorite book blogs, booksquare, I found this older post featuring a hysterical author video with Jill Monroe and Gena Showalter. Check it out!

Beyond the fact that a giggle is always a nice capper to a Friday afternoon, I love that booksquare is making a valid and too-often ignored point — author videos can be fun, funny, irreverent, and satirical while still promoting the author and her books.  Well done booksquare for pointing this out, and well done Jill and Gena for making a video that’s genuinely entertaining!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

By Jenny B

Yesterday — Monday, Dec. 17th — was the 10th anniversary of blogs according to WIRED.  And I didn’t even get you anything!