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Hi Nancy, I’m delighted to have this opportunity to get to know you and share more about your fascinating paranormal romance series. Let’s start with some basics about your life:
1. What country or state do you live in? Southwest Michigan;
2. What’s your day job (other than writing)? Fulltime legal assistant for the past 12 years;
3. What’s your secret passion? Arranging Skittles and M&Ms by number and color.
Wow, we have the legal field in common. I started my career as a Paralegal many moons ago. I love arranging things into categories too. Hmmm…have we met before?! J Let’s find out as we move onward to the tough questions. Was there one book that inspired you to write? What book was it and who is the author? What made it stick with you?
I’ve been writing since I could put pencil to paper to form sentences, but the book that inspired me to become an author was The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. When I discovered that historical romance juggernaut, I found everything I loved about reading: history, action, larger than life characters, sex, and a happily-ever-after ending. That’s become more and more true as the romance genre as expanded over the years to include areas that particularly excite me creatively, like the paranormal and suspense. Thanks, Kathleen! You started it all for a lot of us.
Oh…I LOVE The Flame and the Flower. It started me on my path of reading historical romances. Ms. Woodiwiss has inspired many readers and authors. Great influential choice. So what inspired you to write BETRAYED BY SHADOWS?
After the first four books of my “By Moonlight” series followed the same hero and heroine, Shape-shifter Max Savoie and NOPD detective Charlotte Caissie, my publisher wanted to branch out within the same world with different couples. Luckily, it was populated with secondary characters that I really enjoyed. Deciding which characters were next in line was dependent on where I was in the underlying story thread and on who could keep it moving forward, so Giles St. Clair was up. He had no backstory history. Coming up with his past was lot of fun. I knew I wanted to get out on the bayou again and that I needed a strong reason for a basic good guy to have taken such a dark path. What kind of heroine to throw in his way? One who wouldn’t easily trust even the best of men. Silas MacCreedy’s seemingly self-centered sister Brigit from HUNTER OF SHADOWS fit that bill perfectly. Step back and wait for the sparks to fly!
Sparks indeed flew! Can’t wait to see where the series takes us. Now to shake things up. If you didn’t live where you live now, where would you live?
I’ve always lived in southwest Michigan and love the change of seasons. It’s the best of all worlds but has too much of two things I don’t like: humidity and ice. If I could live where I am now and have condos in the French Quarter and in the foothills of Arizona I’d be a happy camper. Love the bayou and adore the mountains. They make my soul sigh.
Brrr….Michigan is too cold for my California blood! If only we could live in our ideal locales year-round when it suits us or to snap our fingers and live in our characters worlds. Speaking of which, where would you like to travel to research your next book?
Depends on what my next book is going to be. I LOVE to travel. I’ve been to conferences all over the country and always make time to escape from the hotel and the city to explore the surroundings. That’s where you find the true heart of any location. It’s so much easier to get a grasp on scenes and characters if you’re familiar with the setting, if you’ve experienced the scents and sights and sounds first hand. If I continue with the “By Moonlight” series, a trip to Memphis may be in order . . . so my new publisher at BelleBooks who just bought some of my contemporary backlist should expect me on her doorstep.
Traveling and researching setting ideas sounds like the fun part of being an author (and a nice tax write-off J). What’s the best and worst part of being an author?
It’s the same thing: Being paid to do what I love. I write because I can’t NOT write. I was writing stories long before I ever thought of submitting for publication, just for the joy of it. The paycheck was always the icing on the cake. I always snickered all the way to the bank because they didn’t know I’d do it for free. (Don’t tell!) But when writing under contract an author has to surrender full ownership of that writing. There are adjustments and changes to storyline, to character motivations, edits, revisions, that sometimes leave you with something that’s not your own creation. There was so much more I would have loved to do with BETRAYED BY SHADOWS and the next book PRINCE OF SHADOWS, but the word count held me hostage.
I love to write too and can’t imagine not doing it. It’s hard to give up control of your “baby” and watch it morph into something different. But your readers seem to love the outcome. I won’t tell anyone your secret! (LOL). So give us another secret. What’s the one thing about you that would surprise people?
I’m a hermit. I was very shy growing up (walking to the front of the class to put a piece of paper on the teacher’s desk was a traumatic experience!) and expressed myself mainly via creative imagination. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the whole ‘Social’ media thing. Radio interviews! Video interviews! Speeches! Conference clothes! Though I really enjoy it once I’m forced into the limelight, I’d be perfectly happy as a crazy cat lady with a keyboard . . . and Netflix.
Are you inside my head or something? In 5th grade, I was voted most shy. I totally get the hermit and crazy cat lady thing. Speaking of cats, what are your pet peeves?
Slow drivers who pull out in front of you at the last minute (I may be old, but I’m fast!), people who move things on my desk (Arrrgh!), having to converse before I have coffee, claims of One Size Fits All (from a beach cover-up to toilet Universal wax rings, you know how that turns out!).
Don’t even get me started on California drivers. And nothing should ever have a claim of One Size Fits All. We know not to mess with your desk or talk to you before coffee! Good advice to the unsuspecting! What’s the best piece of advice given to you?
“Suck it up,” from author pal Thea Devine. We started out in the biz together 25 years ago and have ridden the publishing rollercoaster’s ups and downs as working writers. We’ve stood in the long lines, endured that suspenseful ride to the top where there was only time for a quick scream of elation before taking a gut-wrenching downward plunge, only to start up again. A writing career isn’t for sissies. The ride is exhilarating, but it’s also scary and unpredictable, so be prepared for those sweaty palms and have an iron grip so you don’t get tossed out. There’s no time for ego or hurt feelings or taking things personally if you’re a writer. You do your best. You pull up your big girl panties when the going gets tough. Or you go home.
Super advice to all writers. I agree, it’s a tough biz and if you can’t suck it up during the down times, then you’re in a world of pain. Been there and paid dues already. What other piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer?
It’s ‘borrowed’ from Nora Roberts: Butt in chair, hands on keys. You can’t be a writer if you’re not actively engaged IN writing. Talking about being a writer, taking classes on writing, belonging to writers groups don’t make a writer. It’s the translation of imagination into words that makes a writer.
So true. Readers care most about that next book. I won’t keep you from “butt in chair, hands on keys” much longer, because I want you to get back to pouring your imagination into your next book. ;) But first, I’d love to hear about your current writing project.
Book 8 in the “By Moonlight” series, PRINCE OF SHADOWS will be out 5-27-13 (my birthday!). I just finished copy edits and am waiting for the final galleys and the cover. It’s different from earlier books because it’s not set in New Orleans, but rather in one of my other favorite places, Lake Tahoe, NV, home of the Terriot Shape-shifter clan. I’m crazy about my rowdy, tattooed, rock-and-roll prince hero. Here’s a tease:
Held hostage until she chooses a mate, Kendra Terriot must play a careful courtship game when choosing from among the dangerous Shifter heirs. As a prince in the House of Terriot, Cale knows with Kendra at his side he can be the leader his clan needs, but first he must learn to become the kind of man she desires. In a treacherous race for the crown, where weakness means death, to prove he’s not the beast his gentle beauty fears, Cale discovers the only way to win her trust could mean surrendering his throne. And the only way to win her heart could mean letting her go.
Thanks for letting me visit, Erin!!
Sounds like you’ll have a great book release/birthday this year! Congrats! I love Lake Tahoe, and look forward to reading PRINCE OF SHADOWS. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and giving insight into your life and world. I really enjoyed your visit and I hope others do too.
A little more about Nancy:
An author of over fifty novels since 1987, Nancy Gideon thrives on variety. Under her own name and several pseudonyms, she’s written award-winning series suspense, historical and paranormal bestsellers, earned a “Career Achievement for Historical Adventure”, and has had two original horror screenplays optioned for film. A Michigan native, she works full time as a legal administrative assistant and feeds a NetFlix addiction.
Visit Nancy and learn more about her books at:
Read about BETRAYED BY SHADOWS, and don’t miss Nancy’s giveaway at the end of this post.
Title: Betrayed by Shadows
Series: By Moonlight
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Pocket Star
Release Date: December 17, 2012
Blurb:
Balancing a criminal empire and a preternatural clan war, reluctant front man Giles St. Clair doesn’t need a problem like Brigit MacCreedy . . . How much trouble can the head-strong and manipulative Shifter beauty get into in two weeks? Plenty when her schemes range from kidnapping to fleeing the retribution of her dead lover’s clan. With her family’s lives on the line, Brigit is willing to do whatever it takes to save them. The only thing standing in her way is an immovable stone wall of a man she can’t bully or beguile . . . a human, no less, who has promised to protect her from the secrets and dangers she conceals.
Risking her own safety gets complicated when an honorable and annoyingly desirable man puts himself between her and her powerful enemies in a battle he can’t win in this Taming of the Shrew meets Shifter Goodfellas on the Bayou tale of consequences, redemption and finding love in all the wrong places.
Excerpt:
Music?
Brigit slit her eyes open to the brightness of midmorning. She was alone in the bunk. Harsh-smelling coffee warmed on the hot plate, and Giles was nowhere in sight. Then she heard the unmistakable crack of ax into wood.
Feeling tired and sticky and . . . fabulous, she stretched and reached for the crimson-colored sweatshirt Giles had left folded on the edge of the mattress. Harvard? She slipped it over her head to swim in generous folds that came almost to her knees. Rolling back the cuffs, she found the shoe she’d tucked Boyd’s cell phone into, discouraged to see no message from Silas. She tucked it under the sleeping bag on the top bunk, pushed bare feet into her shoes, and went to pour coffee. Her whole body ached gloriously, making her smile as she stepped out onto the tiny back porch.
Because she could still hear his voice, rough with passion.
Bree.
Giles had his back to her, splitting wood in the glare of morning light, a beautiful sight in his revealing muscle shirt. Strong, sexy. A light sweat had broken out on his shoulders, gleaming amid scores of scratches, some nearly healed from their passionate tussle in New Orleans and some raw stripes from hours ago. Chagrined, she put a nail trim and manicure on her agenda for the day.
He’d taken the batteries out of the flashlight to power an old cassette player and was timing his swings to the raucous beat of a late-eighties hip-hop tune that probably dated back to days spent here in male bonding. Something ridiculous about Humpty Dumpty dancing? Her gaze followed the suggestive rock and bump of his hips as the sassy backup singers crooned, “Do me, baby.”
Oh, yay. Good idea.
Time to whip up something for breakfast.
She’d taken a step forward, intending to initiate some moves of her own, when the music dialed down and muted as another sound reached her.
The cup fell from her hands, shattering on the wood planking, as all her senses trembled and went taut.
And a single cry ripped from her.
“Giles, behind you!”
Giles spun, continuing his momentum with the ax so it caught his assailant midleap in the upper chest, flinging him to the ground. Even as he wrestled the blade free, his attacker was gaining his feet, falling into a menacing crouch as his lips pulled back from a mouth full of dagger-like teeth.
Alarm became coldly dangerous intentions when he recognized the disfigured Shifter from Brigit’s description.
“Brigit, get inside!”
He didn’t look around to see if she obeyed. There was no time as the creature sprang.
Driven to the ground on his back, Giles couldn’t angle for another swing as he was forced to grip the ever thickening throat to keep those deadly teeth away from him. A battle he knew he wasn’t going to win as the beast completed its change of form into something monstrous and impossibly strong.
Run, Brigit! That was all he had time to think. Run!
All he had to do was stay alive long enough for her to get a head start.
There was a deafening report from the porch, and suddenly, the figure hunching over him was plucked off and sent rolling away.
Giles risked a glance toward the cabin to see Brigit with her feet planted wide, his pistol braced in both hands. The pistol he’d wisely loaded with silver rounds.
As he scrambled to his feet, his attacker was gaining his own, obviously struggling not to revert back into humanlike form from the effects of the silver. Brigit’s shot had taken him in the other side of the chest. Giles’s first blow from the ax had already healed. Making him no less lethal as he sprang a second time. No less quick.
And this time Giles didn’t respond fast enough.
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Don't Miss the Giveaway!!!
A $15 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of Betrayed by Shadows will be awarded to one lucky participant from the Rafflecopter form below at the end of the 8 week book tour. Follow and Friend Nancy and BTB for extra chances to win - Good Luck!
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Barnes & Noble
Follow the Tour!
Don't Miss the Giveaway!!!
A $15 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of Betrayed by Shadows will be awarded to one lucky participant from the Rafflecopter form below at the end of the 8 week book tour. Follow and Friend Nancy and BTB for extra chances to win - Good Luck!
Rafflecopter giveaway
