Lori Devoti, paranormal romance and urban fantasy author

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KS Augustin of Radio Free Bliss interviewed me for her August edition. I talk about my books and writing. Check it out!

Author of: Magic in His Kiss
Favorite Candy: any milk chocolate will do, but my particular preference is for M&M peanuts
Favorite Cartoon Character: Jane (Jane and the Dragon)
Super Power Most Covets: Remember in Bewitched, when Samantha wiggled her nose and wonderful things happened? I’d settle for just being able to clean my house with a nose twitch!

Q.) First tell us about the Magic trilogy and your latest release Magic in His Kiss.

S.A.) The Magic trilogy came about when I had an idea that involved the legend of King Arthur. That book turned into Midnight Magic. I gave the heroine two sisters, and thus a trilogy was born! Each of the sisters has a unique power or psychic gift. In Midnight Magic, Gwendolyn is the guardian of an ancient spell. In Twilight Magic, Emma is able to see visions in a pool of water.

Magic in His Kiss is the story of Nicole, the youngest sister. She’s spent several years in a convent awaiting an arranged marriage. Her Welsh uncle wants to prevent any marriage that bring England’s King Stephen any advantages, so he send Rhodri ap Daffyd, a bard and warrior, to fetch Nicole. Nicole isn’t the most cooperative lass. She can also hear the voices of spirits who haven’t yet passed on to the afterlife, which complicates her journey to Wales and her relationship with Rhodri.

Q.) Do you have any favorite type of hero or heroine to write?

S.A.) I like strong heroes who aren’t afraid to show their softer sides to the heroines. I like heroines who aren’t afraid to take charge when they believe they’re in the right. I like both to be decisive, self-confident and smart, with the exception of how utterly defenseless they are to each other.

Q.) Are you a plotter or a pantser? Character-driven or plot driven? Ever try to be the opposite? Do you have a set method you use when starting a book?

S.A.) I started out as a character-driven pantser. Over time, I’ve learned that a bit of pre-plotting isn’t a bad thing! I start out with characters and a situation and generally allow the characters to lead me where they want to go. The only difference is that I now write things down in a semi-organized fashion ahead of time, and pay a bit more attention to the plot. So I guess that makes me a bit of both.

Q.) What attracted you to the medieval period? Is there any other period or type of book you’d like to try?

S.A.) Would you believe my first book was set in 1864 America? Not much of a market for Civil War era books, so I turned to medieval because I really love soldiers in uniform and knights in shining armor. Those are also the historical eras I found most intriguing.

Q.) What is the smartest thing you’ve done so far as advancing either your writing or your writing career? What is something you wish you had done differently?

S.A.) I think the smartest thing I did was to find an agent who not only knew the romance market but with whom I personally clicked. She keeps me going during those periods when I’m ready to ditch writing and get a real job. The agent I have now is my second, and if I wish I’d done something differently, it would have been to fire my first agent long before I did. There’s truth to the saying that having a bad (read indifferent) agent is worse than having no agent at all.

Q.) Can you think of one day or event in your writing career that was really special? What made it special?

S.A.) The day I learned I made my first sale is at the top of my list. When I got off the phone I squealed so loud that I woke up my son (who was working third shift and trying to sleep), who then had to come downstairs to find out why his mother was screaming. I called everyone I knew (well, almost ;)), until my husband finally figured out that if he wanted supper he’d have to take me out. So he did. We had a lovely celebration!

Q.) What can readers expect to find in all your books—how do they know they are reading a book by Shari Anton (aside from the name on the cover, of course )?

S.A.) You’ll find a lush historical setting because I can’t keep myself from including any details I believe will take the reader back in time. I also truly believe romance readers are addicted to the feeling of falling in love, so I try hard to feed that addiction. Sometimes with humor. Sometimes with drama. No matter what their conflicts and obstacles are, by the end of the story the hero and heroine would walk through fire for the other.

Q.) What’s next?

S.A.) I currently have a Victorian era proposal sitting on a few editors’ desks. Everyone cross your fingers!

I posted it over at Shapeshifter Romance. It’s a fun one!

I’ve been a bad blogger, both here and on LiveJournal. I have no real excuse–except summer. Kids home and still writing to do.

Anyway, here are some random mind-boggling questions…

Why do children insist on asking you questions while you are in the shower–with the exhaust fan running? Why when you say “I can’t hear you.” do they simply yell louder? And why is whatever burning issue they need addressed always something like–”My computer game shut off.” Like you are going to leap from the shower, naked and dripping, to reboot or perhaps totally reprogram the annoying system?

How do you gain FOUR pounds when really you have not been that bad in your eating and you are hauling your ass out of bed at 5:20 a.m. four days a week to exercise? Not to mention the other one to two days you hook up the husky for a jog?

Why when you are “almost” done with a book, does your production slow instead of speed up? Shouldn’t you go faster when you can see the finish line?

Why did your dog decide to explode (blow coat) an extra time this year? Don’t dogs need SOME hair?

Why does DH hear perfectly when you say “Let’s buy…(insert electronic device).” but goes deaf in one ear (the one turned to you) when you explain the plan for him to take kids to camp so you can go on writing retreat? (Note: he is, however, able to still nod and even verbally agree with everything you say.)

Why am I not writing right now….?

Part One from YouTube

Part Two:

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Fav candy
Gummi bears–and not those squishy, pretending to have something to do with real fruit flavor junk you see at the grocery store, but the original ones. There’s a candy store in Hampton called Sanborn’s where I get mine.

Fav cartoon character
I don’t really have one. Maybe Ariel from the Little Mermaid–although I totally dig Ursula, too.

Super power most covets
You have to ask? Breathing underwater, of course.

Q.) First, tell us about Seaborn
C.H.) Seaborn is about the loss of control, the loss of freedom in two different forms and how it affects each character, how each of their stories flow together. Corina Lairsey has lost all physical control to someone else, and she goes from misery, fear, hopelessness to having to deal with her captor–deal with evil–in order to get her freedom back. Kassandra has extraordinary power, commands tides, does all this wonderful and scary stuff with the oceans, and at the same time, cannot ever be certain that any motive, direction, decision is really hers. She shares her soul with other powers, she’s been set up by others to be something she doesn’t want to be, she’s lost the ability to control her future. More concretely, Seaborn’s about people who have–long ago–been cursed to live off the ocean’s power. They don’t have to worry about pressure, drowning, temperature extremes. They’ve built cities, fought wars, lived down there for thousands of years. They look, for the most part, just like us on the surface. Kassandra’s grown up as far from the ocean as her grandfather, the king, could arrange–Nebraska. Now she’s ready to return, declaring war on her grandfather, ready to take back what is hers. Corina Lairsey isn’t from the sea–she’s from California, lives south of San Jose, but she’s taken by someone–something–that needs a body in a hurry, and Corina’s handy.

Q.) Do you consider Seaborn fantasy, urban fantasy or something else?
C.H.) Seaborn is definitely fantasy, probably urban fantasy, depending on your definition. If urban fantasy requires a contemporary setting, then certainly Seaborn applies. This is modern day New England, California, deep Atlantic. If urban fantasy requires a mythic foundation, then yes, because I have poured a lot into Seaborn from the myths of the Telkhines (Telchines) the original sorcerer inhabitants of Rhodes, protectors of gods, makers of fabulous gifts, ultimately betrayed, cursed, sent to the bottom of the sea. (more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telchines)

Q.) Why under the sea?
C.H.) I have been fascinated with the oceans, life the in oceans, the abyss, weather, waves, tides, everything saltwater since I was nine–that’s when I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist when I grew up. (It didn’t work out. I’m a software engineer, but I’ve never lost my interest with the sea).

Q.) What kind of research did you have to do to make characters who can live underwater feel real?
C.H.) A lot, mostly spread out over years. I don’t really go into the source or explanation of the powers in the story, except where it’s relevant, but I did spend considerable time researching what’s remotely possible underwater and how it could be accomplished. I began writing about Kassandra in 2003, trying to fit the constraints (people who live in the ocean but don’t look much different from us) with reality–and I think fantasy writers have to in order to make the setting, motives believable. I also think that worldbuilding isn’t for the reader, it’s not for the author to dump onto the page. The real purpose of worldbuilding–all those exercises an author does to construct a believable world, the culture, politics, the way magic works–is to allow the author to write comfortably in that world. I’ve blogged about some of my research at SaltwaterWitch.com, including an essay on hearing underwater.

Q.) Seaborn tells the story of two females, Kassandra and Corina Lairsey. To you, whose story is it? Or is it both of theirs?
C.H.) It’s both, with Corina’s story starting and finishing with Seaborn, and Kassandra’s continuing into the sequel, Sea Throne (expect it sometime in 2009). I have also completed a “prequel” to Seaborn that goes back five years before the events of Seaborn. This one’s a YA, and is under consideration with another publisher.
The whole story is Kassandra’s, this book–Seaborn, then next–Sea Throne, and a prequel that is currently under consideration.

Q.) Your publisher Juno Books specializes in fantasy featuring strong female characters. Why did you choose to have female protagonists? What makes them strong?
C.H.) I started writing about Kassandra in 2003, and I got into a groove with female protagonists–and it’s still going. For me, strength is about self-reliance and will and refusing to act against principles. I don’t dwell a lot on physical strength in my stories. My characters are as strong as they need to be, and I can’t think of a case where any challenge was won by muscular strength. I love internal struggles. Many of Kassandra’s battles are with herself or the others inside her. Corina’s storyline is very similar.

Q.) How long have you been writing? Can you tell us anything about your road to publication. How long? Mistakes you realize now or tips for people starting out?
C.H.) I’ve been writing fiction, poetry, songs, since I was a teenager. My mother was an actress, artist, wrote fiction and non-fiction, and I always knew I wanted to write as well. It took a long time, but it’s been somewhere in my mind–back and front–all along. I’ve done the most and learned the most in the last five years, writing continuously, short fiction (first story to get past an editor was Diminisher of Peace in 2005, appeared in The Harrow, and I think I made enough to buy lunch). Seaborn is my first sale of novel length fiction, a little over a year ago. I’ve completed two more novels since then, including Sea Throne, the sequel to Seaborn. Mistakes? Make them all is my advice, try everything, fail, get back to putting stuff on the page. I know I haven’t made every mistake, but I’ve done things like misspell editor names, magazine title names, asking editors, agents too soon if they’ve had time to read my story, sent out crap manuscripts–but I think there’s a lot to be learned from making them and learning. It’s also very likely that I’m a slow learner. As far as tips, there are things I didn’t realize a few years ago, like the importance of conventions, the social side of writing. If you’re not going to your local SF/F convention–or better the major ones, you should.

Q.) Are you a plotter or pantser? Character driven or plot driven? Ever try to be the opposite? Do you have a set method you use when starting a book?
C.H.) More panster than plotter. I just need to know where to go. Plotting too much takes the edge, the uncertainty, the fun out of the writing–so I don’t try to be the opposite. I usually begin with an idea and the characters flow out of that, not the other way around, unless you consider a character with a particular problem as the idea (I do). I’ve just finished my fourth novel (fourth worth publishing) and in every case I have started with an idea (explore revenge, different ways the loss of freedom can be played out). I’ll write three or four chapters, then I’ll write the ending–or something close to it. That’s my destination. I have a beginning and I know where to go. I can write a 130,000 words in that gap.

Q.) Any new projects on the horizon? What would you like to try next?
C.H.) Two novel length projects. One is another Seaborn story, but set in the past. Another’s a YA fantasy with cooking and food magic.

Q.) Who do you enjoy reading? If someone were to compare your books to anyone else’s what author would you most likely be compare to? Why?
C.H.) I love Connie Willis, Neil Gaiman, Caitlin Kiernan, Lois Bujold, many more that, but I’d put these four up as major modern writer influences, and I’d love to be compared with any of them. Why? Widely different styles, settings, senses of humor, all coming from different directions, but they’re all storytellers.

Q.) Where can readers find Seaborn? How about you (on the Web?)
C.H.) Seaborn is available (end of July) anywhere you get books, at all the major chain stores (Barnes & Noble), smaller retailers like Pandemonium in Cambridge–or your local bookshop. You can get it online at all the usual places, Amazon.com, through Book Sense.

Find out more about Seaborn and sequels at www.SaltwaterWitch.com. I also blog on writing, art, everything else, at http://theophrast.us . I’m on Facebook, and I have pages, links, profiles all over.

Author of: As Eve Kenin: HIDDEN (July 2008); As Eve Silver: HIS WICKED SINS(August 2008), NATURE OF THE BEAST (September 2008), DEMON’S HUNGER (December 2008)

Favorite Candy: swiss truffles and swedish berries (you know, those addictive little red blobs of gelatinous sugar that stick to your teeth…yeah…those…)

Favorite Cartoon Character: This is tough! I’d have to go with an anime character. Either Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) or Sousuke Sagura from Full Metal Panic. Or maybe Alucard from Hellsing…

Super Power Most Covets: Hulk smash. There are days when you just wanna smash…ya know?

Q.) First tell us about Hidden.

E.K.) HIDDEN is Tatiana’s story. She’s a genetically enhanced supersoldier who’s recently broken free of the horrific hold of a madman who tortured her for his own secret glee. She’s on a mission–part altruistic, part vendetta–to save the Northern Waste from the plague created by her captor. She trusts no one, but she is forced to team with Tristan, an enigmatic scientist who might be her ally, or her enemy. Only time will tell. Problem is, she’s out of time because the plague they’ve all been exposed to will destroy mankind.

Q.) You write in three different sub-genres of romance-paranormal romance, futuristic and gothic. Do you find switching back and forth easy or difficult?

E.K.) Switching back and forth is great. The variety keeps me fresh. It keeps the writing fun.

Q.) What is the highest compliment someone has paid you about any of your books and what made it the best?

E.K.) I treasure each email and review, each accolade and letter. If I have to pick only one to mention, I’d say it is a letter from a woman who read DRIVEN and wrote, “…I can’t remember when I’ve read a book that swept me away so completely! It made me feel twenty again, and I totally forgot my wheelchair!” I keep her letter pinned to a cork board above my desk for inspiration because it reminds me that I accomplished what I set out to do. I started writing romance because over the years, it was romance novels that helped me through so many rough patches, offering a sort of mini-vacation to a different world. This reader’s letter told me that I had succeeded. She forgot her wheelchair because I did it right, my story took her away.

Q.) Who are your favorite authors/books and why?

E.K.) You mean besides yours ?

Honestly, too many to name, but I’ll offer a partial list: Judith Ivory because she writes stories that are layered and textured and so beautiful they make you sigh. Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison, Karen Marie Moning, Naomi Novik because each of them has a vast and brilliant imagination and their world-building is phenomenal. Shana Abe, Lauara Kinsale, Glenna McReynolds because they can write such prose and such powerful characters that I am lost in the story.

Marjorie M. Liu because she can really tell a story and I love the dark undercurrent in her work, and Gena Showalter for the cool unique ideas she comes up with.

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, because hers were the first romance novels I ever read. Lisa Kleypas, Jayne Ann Krentz (in all her incarnations), SEP, La Nora, Lori Foster…there are so many amazing authors that I honestly can’t list them all.

Q.) How long have you been writing? Can you tell us anything about your road to publication? How long? Mistakes you realize now or tips for people starting out?

E.K.) My road was long. I wrote my first book when I was nine, a children’s story about an unwanted teddy bear that found a new and loving home. I actually submitted it to a publisher and received my first rejection letter. By the time I made my first sale decades later, I had amassed hundreds of rejection letters. ‘Nuff said.

Tips? Finish the book. You can only sell the book if you finish the book.

Q.) Are you a plotter or a pantser? Character-driven or plot driven? Ever try to be the opposite? Do you have a set method you use when starting a book?

E.K.) Pantser all the way. I sit down at the keyboard and start to type, and hope to h*ll that a story comes out. Some of my stories are plot driven. Others are character driven. I never know what it’ll be until the story’s done.

Q.) Hidden and the first in the series, Driven, are futuristics. What, when you were known as a gothic historical writer, made you decide to make such a drastic move in setting?

E.K.) It wasn’t a conscious decision. I just write the stories that tell me they want to be written.

Q.) What can readers expect to find in all your books no matter the setting?

E.K.) I always write layered characters. Tortured characters. And there’s a thread of darkness that weaves through everything I write, a hint of mystery or suspense.

Q.) Any new projects on the horizon? What would you like to try next?

E.K.) I have four releases in 2008: HIDDEN by Eve Kenin in July, then three Eve Silver releases, HIS WICKED SINS (August), NATURE OF THE BEAST (anthology, September) and DEMON’S HUNGER (December).

Right now, I’m working on muy next historical gothic, a dark, twisted journey into the mind of a monster set against the beautiful, bucolic setting of Cairncroft Abbey.

Thanks for having me guest blog!

Learn more about Eve at her web site.

Basic Facts: Isabel Sharpe
Author of: AS GOOD AS IT GOT, Avon/HarperCollins, July 2008 (in stores tomorrow), and numerous Harlequin Blaze, most recently INDULGE ME, May 2008
Favorite Candy: Dark Chocolate
Favorite Cartoon Character: Bugs Bunny
Super Power Most Covets: Instant Housework

Q.) First tell us about your books in general. I know you write fun sexy romances for Harlequin Blaze and last year debuted in women’s fiction. Can you give us a bit about both?

I.S.) Sure. I started writing for Harlequin’s comedy line Duets. I loved the short length, the ability to let my comedic voice loose. It was a great place to start. When it folded, I fell into Blaze and relished the longer length and chance for more complex plots, and to let the book be serious when it needed to be.

Women’s fiction lets me tell stories that don’t center around a man and woman falling in love. As a single woman in her forties, I felt I had more to say about the experience of being a woman than I did ten years ago. Amusingly, someone pointed out to me that my Harlequins are all about finding men and my women’s fiction books thus far have been about getting away from them. Guess that makes me a bit bipolar.

Q.) What about your new release, AS GOOD AS IT GOT? What can you tell us about it?

I.S.) The book is about a retreat on the coast of Maine for “suddenly single” women. As in Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough, I have three heroines, Ann, Cindy and Martha. Ann’s husband ruined them and killed himself, Cindy’s often-cheating husband finally left her for another woman, and for twenty years Martha has been the mistress of a politician who has just had a stroke and isn’t expected to recover. It doesn’t sound very cheery, but I think it’s similar in tone to Women on the Edge, a dark-ish comedy.

Q.) AS GOOD AS IT GOT and WOMEN ON THE EDGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKTHROUGH are both women’s fiction. What made you decide to try this genre in addition to your Blazes?

I.S.) Very simple. I had other stories I wanted to tell. Obviously there is so much more to the experience of womanhood in this time and country than falling in love and living happily ever after. And as a writer, you know that when a story idea demands to be written, you go with it.

Q.) What is the most obvious difference between your women’s fiction and your Blazes?

I.S.) The obvious difference is that the story is not focused around the developing relationship of a man and a woman. I also feel freer to write characters that are more realistically flawed than my Harlequin heroes and heroines. I say this with no judgment. People want to be the heroine in a romance and fall in love with a hero. But selfish, difficult, weird people fascinate me and I love trying to capture them. I also haven’t done a male point-of-view in the women’s fiction books I’ve sold so far. Amusingly, people absolutely loved my hero Mike, in Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough, which cracked me up because he barely says anything and we never know what he thinks. I guess we like projecting whoever we want men to be.

Q.) Have you noticed any difference in how people perceive/treat you since your women’s fiction came out? Do you find a lot of readers cross-over from your Blazes?

I.S.) I don’t believe there has been a lot of crossover, no. People who know me well don’t treat me differently, but people who sneer at romance seem to think that suddenly I’m a legitimate author. Don’t get me started.

Q.) Are you a plotter or a panster? Character-driven or plot driven? Ever try to be the opposite? Do you have a set method you use when starting a book?

I.S.) I’m a plotter. I start with a what-if premise, then choose characters who will fit it. Once I figure out what they want and how they’ll go about getting it, the plot seems to fall into place. So I guess that makes me character driven. Then I fill out a little background sheet on each character, what they look like, basic facts about their past, and then I brainstorm scenes, any idea that comes, and then I arrange it all into a coherent plot with appropriate character development along the way. That comes out to a pretty detailed scene-by-scene outline. Then I write it, polishing as I go, page one through to the end. Pretty basic. It varies here and there, but I’ve never tried it any other way. I guess because this works.

Q.) What can readers expect to find in all your books no matter the genre?

I.S.) My sense of humor. Characters I’ve spent a lot of time fleshing out. A great romance, whether it’s the focus of the book or not. And I hope a really good story.

Lori again. :) To learn more about Isabel and her books, stop by her web site!