What is your newest book on the market?
Solstice Publishing just released my fourth book, COYOTE NIGHT, a follow-up to the immensely popular BLACK DOG AND REBEL ROSE:
Skriker, half-demon bad boy, and his Nephil love, Rose, are inseperable. They've been through thick and thin, thin and thinner...and the hunt is calling them once again.
Rumor of a skinwalker draws the notorious pair to Shiprock, New Mexico, a place sacred to the Navajo and a site of enormous supernatural power. The classic Route 66 awaits them and their Harleys, as do open stretches of desert where they can camp under the stars and rut like horny teenagers…the chance of slaying the skinwalker is simply the icing on Skriker’s gore-soaked cake.
But when they finally cross paths with the enemy, the ancient desert monster develops an insatiable desire to capture Rose and posess her...leaving Skriker fighting with all he's got to keep the love of his life from being snatched from his arms forever.
I am a huge Skriker fan. Did you base him on any specific TV or pop culture figures?
Nope, I didn't. Skriker very much "wrote himself". There are a lot of comparisons that come up where readers try to guess what TV character, rock star, or popular book character he's "based on". The most common include Billy Idol (to the point that I have worked a running joke into the storyline where Skrike gets very annoyed at the comparison), Spike from "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", or the vampire hero Bones from Jeaniene Frost's bestselling Night Huntress Series (which, I think, just swings back around to the whole Spike thing).
None are correct. I was never a huge Buffy or Angel fan (and always thought that Spike wasn't really all that hard-edged and more campy than badass). I have never made it through more than a few chapters of the Night Huntress Series because most paranormal romance just falls flat for me, and even though I dig Billy Idol, I never planned a direct correlation. Skriker was originally created as a "secondary" character to Rose: I worked to make him very much her opposite. His blond hair and generally pale coloring were meant to contrast to Rose's dark hair and frequent black moods. I wanted to illustrate him as the half-demon bad boy that even the fierce daughter of the warrior angel Alexius could not resist. I could not have been happier with the result...and I am proud to say that Skriker is very much his "own character".
Will Rose and Skriker ever get married?
Ha! The classic question...I get this all the time in emails, in interviews, at signings, and on Facebook. The answer is (tentatively) yes. There are plans for them to eventually marry...but how easy getting there is going to be for them, you'll just have to be patient and see. ;-)
What inspired you to write your first book, Psyche's Gate?
I began to write Psyche's Gate on a whim. Around late 2008 I was facing a very stressful time in my life: my husband was entering law school and could no longer work, which left me handling all of the finances. I was suddenly faced with the immense job of paying all the bills and keeping house while my husband hit the books day and night. I began working two jobs and struggled at the same time to maintain my creative drive; all of this put enormous stress on me, which I was having trouble relieving. I had enjoyed writing as a teenager, publishing poetry and short fiction in student arts journals and newspapers, and began to ponder attacking that activity again simply for fun and stress relief. I spoke to my husband about it and he encouraged me strongly, so I sat down and began to write out the first skeletal "bones" of Psyche's Gate.
The basic concept was simple at best: I wanted to write a story about an artist who gets a commission. Initially, that was all there was to it. After a while I began layering my love of mythology and folklore onto that skeleton and gradually the story was fleshed out. The romance between Alexius and Psyche became a major part of the story, but I sought the entire time while writing to make the characters individually rich and believeable, despite their extraordinary histories and circumstances. Psyche's struggle represents the struggle of all creative types trying to make their way doing what they love; I was able to express a lot of my frustration through her.
What generally inspires your characters and the storylines that surround them?
Oh, boy. So much shit you couldn't cram it on this page...mythology, theology, folklore, magic, mysticism, modern art, ancient art, other novelists, my art, other people's art, really old art, my family and friends, my marriage, tattoos, music, world cultures, history...etc, etc, etc. You get the picture.
The big question : why angels and demons?
The concept of angels and demons, both mythologically and anthropologically, has intrigued me since my adolescence. I grew up with grandmothers and a mother who believe firmly in angels; to this day my mother always "asks her angels" to keep an eye on her loved ones and their affairs. Images of winged beings--male, female, or beast--can be found in many ancient cultures. From Mesopotamia to the Greco-Roman empire to the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, images and beliefs in angels and "proto-angels" have been strongly embraced and depicted in cultural and religious art and folklore. When I began to work on Psyche's Gate I was pondering society's concept of an "angel" and, in comparison, what my own concept would be. It seems that angels have become almost innocuous--fluffy, Xmas card-esque figures that seem more like poufy, androgynous cliches than the formidable supernatural hitmen that do God's work by any means necessary. I am not into this "vision" of the angel: I want to see the supernatural badass back on the battlefield. The same concept applies to demons: cultures around the world have their versions of "dark" beings that are as much apart of the Universe as the light ones.
How did you develop the concept for your angels in Psyche's Gate? Does this concept reamin in other books?
I wanted to return to the concept of the angel as warrior: the immensely powerful celestial mega-soldier who would cast down Evil (in whatever form you view it) and instill fear and awe in the hearts of those who invoked the wrath of the Universal Presence. My soldier angels are like Spartans: powerful, physically imposing beings who have a taste for the fight hard-wired into their very being. I wanted to make them immensely strong and achingly beautiful, just as I would picture them to be in fleshly form. My angels are both alluring and frightening, which makes them more complex and, I feel, therefore more interesting. In all of my subsequent books, I have maintained this image.
How do you balance being an author, fine artist, illustrator, and now, mommy?
I'm a psycho!
No, just kidding. The truth is that I'm passionate about all of my creative activities and that passion keeps the fires burning, pushing me to make time for it all. I was a painter/ fine artist practically from birth, so that will always be a very big (if not the biggest) part of "who I am". And, of course, I have my husband, family, and friends, all of whom are so very supportive! I am very, very blessed. It just becomes a matter of balancing things (not an easy feat sometimes, lemme tell ya!). Being a mom is shaping up to be my greatest challenge yet...and my son, Ryker, is worth every moment of that! He's my greatest creation. :-)
In your debut novel, Psyche's Gate, is the heroine meant to be, or represent, "you"?
I get this question a lot, for two very obvious reasons: a) Psyche is an artist, and b) Alexius is based roughly on my husband, especially in the looks department. The answer is a resounding "NO". Psyche is an artist because, when I began working on the concept of the novel, I decided it would be best to "write what I know" (good advice to follow, since your writing and characters will seem more believeable to readers). My husband modeled for Alexius because he has the right "look" and has certain personality traits that fit the character. Everything else is "just ficton"!
What is the next book we can expect from you?
I am working on two projects: the next book in the Psyche's Gate Saga, NEPHIL'S CURSE, and my first BDSM arotica tale, DEMON'S SLAVE. Demon's Slave is set to be the first book published under my own imprint, Rebel Rose Publishing. I am also working on my short story and anthology collection, HUNT.
Will you ever write a vampire and/or werewolf story?
At this point...HELL NO!!! Truth be told, I am sick and tired of the trend in vampire and werewolf fiction--it is currently being overdone to the point of agony. Mind you, I know some wonderful authors who are very gung-ho about the whole vamp/werewolf genre and I say power to 'em (God knows it's a lucerative genre at the moment!) but I like to stand a bit more outta the box (call me a rebel yell-esque artist type...LOL!). I will be throwing some vampires and werewolves into the mix in the next installation of the P.G. series, but they are the bad guys or more minor characters. Oh, and in my books, you don't turn into a werewolf by being bitten by one--that's pure Hollywood, not actual were mythology from the days of old!
Word is that you are starting your own publishing imprint. Will you be publishing other author's work, or just your own? Can I submit my work?
Yes, I am starting my own publishing imprint, Rebel Rose Publishing, set to release its first book in late 2011. This islect manuscripts at first, starting with the Ebook and Kindle Editions of DEMON'S SLAVE, a BDSM erotica novella focusing on Skriker and Rose's sex life between hunts. I will probably publish a few more of my own Skriker and Rose spinoff books under RRP to see how well I can juggle the business on my own (at this point, I have been a spoiled author with two publishers doing all the work for me).
As far as taking on other authors, that is a possibility for the future, but as of right now, no submissions will be accepted. Rebel Rose Publishing will be starting out as a one-woman micro-press, and I do not feel able to shoulder the responsibility required of handlling a stable of authors, managing contracts and legal issues, and corraling a herd of editors and secondary cover artists at this point (I know, I make it sound like I'm opening a ranch--LMFAO!!!). However, this may very well change in the future if early returns from the venture work out well.
Stay tuned, and thanks for listening.
:-)