Attack of the November!

Whoa boy, this month is gonna be interesting. I'm gonna need more coffee. And maybe a bigger boat...

First of all, congratulations to Bryony Curtis for winning my quote scramble game on the Read 'Em & Reap Blog Hop! The game prize was a cameo in my 5th Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. novel, DEATH WISH. 

The following blog tours are happening right now, and both have a $25 Amazon gift card up for grabs, plus other goodies. There are some fun interviews, guest posts, and reviews that make my heart squee! Check them out, and don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win!

Well, I better get back to work. It also happens to be NaNoWriMo time! 

xoxo

Interview with Lisa Medley: Reapers of Missouri Unite!

The RT Booklovers Convention is over for this year, but I’m still basking in the afterglow of its awesomeness! And I’m doing my best to stay in touch with the incredible writers I met while in New Orleans. One of these writers is Lisa Medley, who not only lives just a few hours away from me in Missouri, but she also writes reaper fiction! How have we not met before? How do we not have an exclusive Missouri reapers club with a secret handshake? We’ll get to that eventually, I’m sure. For now, I’m just excited to be interviewing Lisa on my blog. Enjoy!

Hi Lisa! Thanks for visiting my blog! Reapers are the best! Can you tell us your take on them in your series?

Thanks for having me here, Angela! The reapers in my series are responsible for collecting human souls on Earth. They don’t hasten any departures but collect those who pass in their respective territories. The hero of Reap & Repent is 200+ years old and burned out. He’s going through the motions and running his death circuits when he runs into a human woman with no aura. Reapers don’t have auras either. In fact, that’s how they know when someone is about to pass by.  The aura is gone or turns white.  Intrigued, Deacon tracks her down and nothing will ever be the same for him again.

I know you’ve got a soft spot for beasts. Are any featured in your series?

The only beasts in book one are imps, which are demon spies and look like black cats to humans. In book two, we get a hellhound named Bocephus. Bo eats demons for breakfast, lunch and dinner and drools like a river.

How many books do you have planned for your series? And when is the next one coming out?

I have three finished in the series. Book two, Reap & Redeem, comes out in October and three, Reap & Reveal, publishes in January.  I have at least six more characters who need stories and to find their love. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen to them!

Now for a few random wildcard questions…


What’s your favorite word?

Ever since the old television show The Greatest American Hero, my favorite word has been ‘scenario’. Robert Culp’s character used it all the dang time and it stuck with me!

If you were in a fictional fantasy world, what would be your profession? Demon hunter? Psychic gumshoe? Dragon tamer? 

I think it would be extremely satisfying to kill me some demons. In my head, I’ve got all the moves. In a fictional world I could totally rock Demon Hunter.

Zombie apocalypse. What are your top 3 essentials?

Listen, I think about this an unhealthy amount of time.  I’m just waiting to pull my ninja skills out for the zombie apocalypse. I travel a lot for my day job, and I figure I’ll get caught far away from home.  I WILL get home. I have a complete zombie bug-out bag in my trunk with a roll of Duct tape, food, and a machete. Just. In. Case.

What’s a random question you’ve always wanted to be asked, but no one ever asks?

How about…What is your secret superhero power?
Thanks for asking. Apparently, my secret superhero power is the ability to see cat yak because no one else in my family seems to see it to clean it up. Figures. Flying would be so much cooler.

Okay. Back to business…Who or what do you read for inspiration?

I started this paranormal romance rollercoaster with J.R. Ward, and I buy her new release on PRE-ORDER, then count down the days until release. Seriously.  I’m a little obsessed with her. I love me some Black Dagger Brothers. I also love Charlaine Harris and Patricia Briggs and, and, and… My TBR bookshelf is embarrassing. We aren’t going to talk about my decreasing Kindle storage.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I started writing sad and angsty, pre-teen poetry and look where I am now.  In HS and through the years, I wrote some newspaper columns and in the back of my mind, writer was somewhere around plan M. I always thought writing a novel was something I probably COULD do, but hadn’t really tried. Finally after reading more than a hundred paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels, I decided it was time to put up or shut up. The first three novels of The Reaper Series will publish this year. 

Any advice for the aspiring writers out there?

Keep swimming. It’s going to seem impossible but if you just keep swimming, you’ll reach the shore before you know it. I had no idea if my book would sell or ever be published. By the time it did contract, I already had book two completed so they bought it as well as book three which I hadn’t even started yet! I’ll have a backlist by the end of the year. The more you write the more you’ll publish. Keep swimming and keep writing!

I’m really looking forward to checking out your reapers! Thanks for stopping by, Lisa. : )

Lisa has always enjoyed reading about monsters in love and now she writes about them. Reapers. The grim kind. 

She adores beasties of all sorts, fictional as well as real, and has a farm full of them in her Southwest Missouri home, including: one child, one husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of Italian bees, and a guinea pig. 

She may or may not keep a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her trunk at all times, including a machete. Just. In. Case. 

Website | Facebook  | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Google+ | Amazon Author Page

They see death. Can they share a life? Ruth Scott can read the energy of every person she meets. Then she meets Deacon Walker. She can see his ice-blue eyes, his black hair, and his gorgeous face. But this beautiful stranger has no aura. 

Deacon is just as unsettled by Ruth—and, having spent more than two hundred years ushering souls to Purgatory, Deacon is seldom shocked by anything. As he helps Ruth to understand her true nature, she awakens desires that he decided long ago a Reaper can’t afford. 

A demon invasion forces Deacon to confront the darkness in his own past even as he fights to save the human souls he’s charged to protect. When he’s taken captive, his first concern is for Ruth. But Ruth just might be able to save herself—and the Reaper she can’t live without—if she can learn to wield her newfound power. 

 AMAZON | B&N  | KOBO

He’s a reaper who has given up on saving souls. Will a dying woman be his salvation? 

After a century of enslavement to pure evil, Kylen Larson is finally free. But he’s long past caring. The only woman he ever loved is dead, and he’s tormented by memories of the horrors his demon parasite forced him to commit. Now, he lives for nothing more than hunting down the infernal creatures invading Meridian, Arkansas, and destroying them. 

Olivia Evans is in the final stages of cancer when Kylen accidentally saves her from demonic possession. When he rescues this innocent soul, Kylen rediscovers his mission—and his heart. All he wants is to help Alivia stay alive. He’ll just have to fight off an invasion from Hell first… 

AMAZON

Giveaway, Review, & Interview: All things Kory Shrum!

I've been DYING to do this giveaway! Kory Shrum is one of my favorite new authors. We began talking online a few months ago, and since then, we've started a critique group together (shout-out to the horsemen!) and we're making plans to take over upcoming book conventions. I LOVE Kory's first novel, and I'm pretty tickled that I've gotten to read quite a bit of book 2 in our crit group! Here's my official review of book 1, DYING FOR A LIVING.

"This book and author are now among my favorites! Wow! I might be a little partial to this story because I love morbid comedy, urban fantasy, and a good mystery. I'm also a big fan of original ideas, since they're so rare anymore. 

Jesse is a Necronite, though people still use the z word (zombie). She dies for a living... literally. She's a death replacement agent. Psychics (another dirty word) find people who are near death, via remote viewing, and Jesse gets paid to take their place. As a Necronite, she reanimates after a few hours, heals after a few days, collects a paycheck, and does it all over again. The world isn't quite ready for this heap of awesome, particularly the Church, who have started petitioning for Necronites to be decapitated after death so they can't come back. After a client tries to off her during a death replacement and her handler goes missing, Jesse soon finds herself in the middle of an investigation. With trust issues off the chart and danger around every bend, her only option is to do a little digging of her own. 

This is a spectacular introduction to a series I'm definitely going to be following all the way through. Jesse is a riot, and yet very complex and lovable. All of the characters are really great, and though it's on the back burner, the love triangle was a refreshing twist too, since Jesse is bisexual. Both of the love interests are exciting and sincere, and it makes it so much harder to decide who to cheer for. I'm so torn, but I can't wait to see how it all unfolds."

I had a lot of questions for Kory after I read her debut...

Q: Dying for a Living is a really original take on zombies. How did you come up with the idea? And what kind of research did you do to evolve the idea?

KS: I actually did not set out to write a zombie story—and many would argue that Jesse isn’t a zombie story at all. I wanted a heroine who discovered and came to term with her powers, but I wasn’t sure what that would look like exactly. I read a craft book about how choosing your protagonist’s occupation is really important and that is when I realized what I was missing. So I started to approach it from the position of what is the most interesting job ever and it sort of evolved from there. And the research evolved naturally. As I tried to solve the questions/complications of Jesse’s occupation and world, I sought to answer those questions. 

Q: Love triangles are pretty common in urban fantasy these days, but it's much rarer to find a bisexual love triangle. What inspired this part of the story?

KS: Apart from my own sexuality, bisexuality is a good fit for Jesse’s personality. Sexuality is a part of a person’s personality and I try to match sexuality and personality for my characters in a realistic way. 

Q: Jesse lives in Tennessee, but you're in Michigan. Have you ever lived in Tennessee? Did you have to do anything special to research setting?

KS: I was born in the Midwest—my father’s family is from Granite City, IL near St. Louis—but I was raised in the South, Tennessee in particular—where my mother’s family is from. I also went to college in Clarksville, and drove into Nashville often to visit family, friends, or visit the good bars. So most of what I describe in the book is from personal experience. 

Q: If you died and woke up to discover you were a Necronite, would you sign up as a death replacement agent? Or would you hide your ability to be safe?

KS: I would sign up for as a death replacement agent. I am not good at “playing it safe” and I would love the challenge that death replacing poses. But I am also a bit of a rule-breaker, so I would probably have a hard time following all the rules and would likely do a few things that would get me into trouble later. 

Q: How long did it take you to write Dying for a Living? And how long did it take to write the second installment, and when can we expect to see it?

KS: I banged out the first draft in about 5-6 months. And then I spent a year revising on and off before I got an agent. But several other revisions happened over the span of four years. It took me about 10 months to write the sequel, which should be out September 2014. 

Q: If Dying for a Living made it to the big screen, who would you love to see play your characters and why?

KS: I’ve answered this one in other interviews, and often my ideas change, but here is a good list: 

Jesse:     Emma Stone 
Ally:       Jennifer Lawrence 
Lane:      Liam Hemsworth 
Gabriel:   Ian Somerhalder 
Herwin:   Tom Hollander 
Rachel:    Jena Malone 
Brinkley:  Mark Ruffalo 
Garrison:  Woody Harrelson 
Caldwell:  Tom Cruise 
Kyra:       Emmy Rossum 
Kirk:        Morgan Freeman

If you haven't read DYING FOR A LIVING yet, you're missing out. But fret not! Here's your chance to win an autographed copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 Things About Kory:

1) She once spent the night in the trunk of a car
2) She has a BB pellet lodged in her arm
3) She has a black belt in Uechi-Ryu
4) She rescued an epileptic pug
5) She can read fortunes

Learn more about her and her work at: www.korymshrum.com

If you too would like to stalk Kory Shrum, you can find her all over the interwebs:

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon