Twisted Kingdom

Ladies and Gents, it is my pleasure to present a very new interview with Rene Lyons. She is the author of the Templar Vampire Series, and she is here today to answer both our question and any that you may have to ask her. She will also be back in the next couple days to do a guest blog post and there is a rumour of a give-away, so stay tuned! The books in her series so far are as follows: Midnight Sun, The Daystar and Tempting Darkness. You can read her blog by clicking here.

Twisted Kingdom: What is your favourite colour?
Rene Lyons: People always think it's black. Actually, it's white.

TK: What is your favourite food?
RL: Lasagna.

TK: Do you have any pets?
RL: Little Man and Bugsy are my two cats and I have one fish named Al Capone.

TK: Is it hard being a mom and an author at the same time, or do you have a nice balance?
RL: Most of the time I've found that perfect balance. But there are days when it's pure chaos around here and I can't even think.

TK:What is your favourite author/book?
RL:This Is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland, who also happens to be my favorite author. That woman could write a grocery list and I'd buy it. I also adore Anya Bast. I don't read much erotica, but I truly get lost in her books.

TK: Besides yourself, what is your favourite author/book from Samheim Publishing? Why do you recommend it?
RL: Nuermar's Last Witch by AE Rought is the sort of book that grabs you and doesn't let go until the last page. I loved the depth of the characters and the urgency of AE's writing style.

TK: What is it like to make the move from e-books to seeing your books in print? Did you feel the same for both experiences, or was one more exciting than the other?
RL: Although it was incredible to know my book was available as an eBook, the truth is, there's nothing like seeing your book in print. When I first held Midnight Sun - turned the pages, saw my words on paper - I felt as if I were in a wonderful dream I never wanted to wake from.

TK: Do you have rules for how your female characters are going to act in your books as a female author, or do they just take on roles of their own? (I'm sorry, I had to ask...)
RL: The only rule I make sure I stick to is that, none of my heroines can be Too Stupid To Live. I have no problem scrapping an entire book and re-writing it if she falls into that awful catagory.

TK: Which cover is your favourite? Was it weird to ask your friend to appear on the front of one your books?
RL: The Awakening is my favorite cover. I designed and created it myself, so I'm really proud of it. Andy Douglas and I had only just met when he was on the cover of Tempting Darkness (he's also on the cover of The Awakening). And no, it's not weird at all to have him on my books. In fact, it makes those two books very special to me. I'm blessed to have him as a friend. He's an amazing person.

TK: If you were given the chance of going back and re-write a scene or a character, what would it be?
RL: I'd re-write Midnight Sun. Yes, the entire book. I'd put back in a lot of Sebastian and the Templar's backstory that was taken out during edits. I'd also extend certain scenes between Sebastian and Allie that I now see played out in more detail in my mind.

TK: If you got offered the chance to make a movie or television series of your books, would you do it? Why or why not? And if you would, who would you like to see playing the lead roles?
RL: Of course I'd love to see my Templars in a movie or a television series! Wentworth Miller would have to play Sebastian. I'd have to have Andy Douglas play Lucian, because now, that's who I envision when I think of that character. As to Constantine, Raphael, and Tristan, maybe your readers can help me with who could play them.

TK: What's happening in the future? Any release dates for new books or new series that you will be working on?
RL: I'm writing Eternal Sin, the fourth installment of the Templar Vampire Series. Come July 31st, The Seraphim: Setheus will be released as an eBook. In October, Tempting Darkness will become available in print. The Awakening will also be released in October through Tease Publishing. Stella Price and I, along with a handful of other authors, are working on a project we plan on completing for Fall of this year. I can't say much about it yet, but I can tell you this: The New Generation of Romance is coming soon!

Upon completion of this interview, I have another question, so if Rene happens to read this, maybe you could say in the comments what readers can expect from The Seraphim: Setheus.

Hey everyone!

Yesterday was the last day to enter the contest for Kelley Armstrong 2007 Pack Prize! This prize includes a signed copy of No Humans Involved (her newest book), a knacksap of Exit Strategy as well as other goodies!

And the lucky winner is...

Hey everybody!

So today, is THE day! My first interview with an author :D and not any author, but one of my favorite, Kelley Armstrong! If you've come to this blog in the past few weeks and read my entries, then you must know about the interview - yeah, I can be really annoying LOL :) But it was such an interesting experience, plus Ms. Kelley Armstrong is a great person and I really enjoyed her answers!

In case you need some introduction, Ms. Kelley Armstrong is a Canadian author who has written the Women of the Otherworld series. One of the best thing of this series is the new world Kelley has created and the originality she was able to incorporate. She used some clichés, shot down others and add a lot of herself and ideas. You can read a bit more in my Author of the Month post as well as her guest post on last Friday.

So onto the interview now!

TK: What is your favourite colour?

KA: Green.

TK: What is your favourite food?

KA: Cheesecake.

TK: Do you have any pets?

KA: Too many. Two dogs--a Siberian husky and a beagle. Three cats. We had two cats, and were perfectly happy not to have any more, but another one moved in this winter and we still aren't quite sure how it happened. He's a young cat who appears to have been a barn cat (we live in the country) and one cold night he found our house and wouldn't leave--meowing at whichever window I was near until I let him in. Barn cats don't usually like to come into a house, but he came right in, made himself at home and hasn't left.

TK: What is your favourite author/book?

KA: I don't really have a favourite book, but I guess one of my favourites would be Richard Adams's Watership Down

TK: What other fantasy/romance authors do you read?

KA: I hate naming names in my own genre(s), because I'll leave someone out! Let me go with my most favourite in those two genres. For fantasy, Guy Gavriel Kay. For romance...does Jane Austen count? Sure, let's go with Jane Austen.

TK: Any of them close friends?

KA: Never met GGK, though I've sat in on readings of his. And, sadly, never met Jane Austen.

TK: Do you find it hard to break into the international market as a Canadian author? Do you have to modify the language in the books to exclude colloquialisms from your native tongue?

KA: I didn't, but I chalk that up to having an amazing agent who sold me separately in the US, UK and Canada. That's more complicated than selling world rights to one publisher, but it really works well for me. My Canadian publisher is wonderful and promotes me here as a Canadian author, which helps. Having separate US/UK publishers means they can each tailor marketing strategies to suit their market.

I do have to be careful of colloquialisms. And it isn't easy, because I'm not always even sure which words are uniquely Canadian or regional--I just use them naturally. My US editor or copyeditor usually catches them, but not always. In Industrial Magic, an American character says "hydro" instead of "electricity" and it didn't take long for an American reader to email me and say "huh?"

TK: Do you feel like there is pressure to speak to the Canadian culture, or do you simply write what you feel?

KA: No, I don't feel any pressure at all--either to speak to the Canadian culture or to avoid speaking to it (so as to not alienate non-Canadian readers) That's one of the beauties of writing genre fiction. It doesn't have the same expectations that CanLit would.

Meardaba: Part of your series is set in Toronto, and is one of the few mainstream novels that actually develop in a Canadian city. Why then, did you move your characters to the woods of the US and not go to northern Ontario or the wilds of BC? Did you think it would give you a bigger reader audience if you based your books in the US?

KA: With the Otherworld series, my decision to base it in the US was entirely a matter of logistics. I wanted to make my supernatural world as realistic as possible. Given the difference in population densities between the US and Canada, it was more believable to me that this large community could exist, undetected, in the US.

Marg/TK: Are there any personality traits that you share with the main characters? Are your characters modeled after anyone?

KA: All my characters have a trait or two in common with me. That just makes them easier to write. With Elena, she's my age, from my geographic area, with my education level, etc, which made it easy for me to get into her head as my first narrator. Paige and I share a common interest in computers (I was a programmer) so I could easily write that part of her life and personality. Eve and I both have daughters around the same age, so that part of her character came naturally. But no character (primary or secondary) is actually modelled after myself or anyone I know. They're all a collection of traits from many sources.

Marg/TK: Which "paranormal" species is her favourite? Which of the paranormal creature is easiest to write? Why?

KA: I've always been partial to werewolves, and I've done them the most, so they're the easiest to write and my favourite.

TK: What is your favourite book in the series?

KA: The next one I can't help it--I'm currently editing book 8 and I really enjoyed writing it, so naturally that's foremost in my mind. But looking back at the series, it's kind of like picking my favourite child--I like them all for different reasons. If I had to choose, I'd say Stolen and Industrial Magic.

TK: Which cover is your favourite?

KA: Hmm. I like my UK covers. I really do. The UK for Haunted was great and I have that in my office, along with the Swedish cover for Bitten, which is probably my overall favourite. Of the North American covers, I liked Dime Store Magic and the one for No Humans Involved.

TK: You are currently contracted to write 10 books in the series. Any chance that it will be extended? Would you wish to write more? Do you have an ending in your mind yet?

KA: I don't have an ending in mind. As for whether the series will go beyond 10, that depends on readers and my publishers. I'm hoping it does!

TK: We know that the next narrators are scheduled to be Hope, Cassandra and Savannah. Who are you looking forward the most to write their story?

KA: Well, I wouldn't count on Savannah, I'm afraid. I had a better idea for book 9, which will bump Cassandra back to 10. That's what happens. I can plan on so-and-so narrating, but if a better idea comes up, I take it. Hope's story is done (that's book 8, which I'm doing final edits on now) I'm looking forward to starting the next one, but it's an entirely new character, so a name wouldn't help!

TK: Is there something you're not looking forward to write about, but will eventually have to write? (eg. Someone's death, character aging…)

KA: Hard to answer without giving away spoilers. I know of one death I have to do, and another one I'll probably do, and that will be tough because I really hate killing off characters. I even have a hard time killing villains if I enjoy writing them! But neither of these would come as a big shock, so I'm not worried about reader reactions. I just won't like doing it.

TK: If you were given the chance of going back and re-write a scene or a character, what would it be?

KA: I couldn't even begin to count the number of scenes I'd re-write! With characters, not so much. There are plenty of times when I think I missed an opportunity--had character x been different, I could have done y with them--but for me, characters are personalities, and I couldn't got back and change them to better suit a plot point. I'd have to write an entirely new character in their place.

TK: If you got offered the chance to make a movie or television series of your books, would you do it? Why or why not? And if you would, who would you like to see playing the lead roles?

KA: Before I was published, I told myself I'd never sell movie rights to a book. I'm a huge movie buff--enough to know that the book-to-movie transition rarely goes smoothly and that the author has little to no input into the final product. But then Bitten sold and I was almost immediately offered a movie contract for it, and I realized what a huge boost of publicity that would be, even to just be able to say "Hollywood wants to make my book into a movie," I needed all the help I could get with that first book, because I wanted to write more and that wouldn't happen if the first didn't sell well enough! So, very quickly, "never" became "where do I sign?" LOL. The movie never happened, but you wouldn't believe how much mileage and attention Bitten got from being "a book that might be turned into a movie starring Angelina Jolie."
So movies, I'd definitely consider. TV series? That's tougher because it would almost certainly mean having strangers write entirely new stories for my characters, taking them in directions I never intended, and I'm too protective of my work to be comfortable with that.

TK: Finally, you have a new series "Nadia Stafford" coming out this summer, which is more mainstream genre. How hard was the transition of style? Did you have any difficulty or all went smoothly?

KA: No real problems because there's a crime/mystery/thriller backbone to all my novels. For Exit Strategy, I just had to bump up that aspect and remove all the supernatural elements. The big question will be how it's received by others!

So I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did! If you want to know more about Ms. Kelley Armstrong, you can always go to her website (very good website, by the way). Kailana has already completed her challenge and posted review for Bitten and Stolen. She liked the series so much that she's reading the rest :D Ames is currently reading Dime Store Magic and I've finished No Humans Involved (released today!). All these reviews will be posted before May 15th :D

Now onto the interesting stuff: THE CONTEST! Yes, Kelley has generously offered a "2007 Prize Pack" to be drawn! This prize pack contains a signed copy of No Humans Involved, a Exit Strategy knapsack and the usual goodies such as bookmarks, etc. So what do you have to do to win this wonderful prize? You simply have to comment on this interview! You have till this Friday (May 4th) midnight! The winner name will be posted on Saturday! So good luck everyone and I hope you enjoyed this interview!

Just a reminder to everyone! Tomorrow, May 1st, we'll have an interview with Kelley Armstrong, Author of the Month here at Twisted Kingdom! Look forward to this very interesting interview as well as the prize packet that will be drawn!

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Hey everyone!

So I'm really, really excited, because Ms. Kelley Armstrong has agreed to be a guest-blog at Twisted Kingdom!!! Isn't that great news? She will have a guest-blog post (TBA date) and an interview on May 1st!

So if you have any questions you'd like to ask to Kelley Armstrong, author of the Women of the Otherworld series, please email them at thetwistedk@gmail.com by the end of the week-end (Sunday April 22, midnight). I can't guarantee 100% that we'll ask them, but it's worth a try! :D

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As you all know, all who commented on Colleen Gleason's interview had the chance to win an ARC copy of Rises the Night, book 2 of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, generously offered by its author. So, Kailana drew the name earlier this evening and the lucky, very lucky winner is...

... Sorry, not you Ames...

She's back! As promised, Colleen Gleason is back to answer some of our questions, as well as your questions (that's what the comment section is for). She also will give away a copy of Rises the Night to a lucky person, but like I was really strict about last time (not that I am in any means strict), you have to contribute more than "pick me, pick me!" Not a lot to ask. The winner of The Rest Falls Away will be announced later on this afternoon.

Twisted Kingdom: What is your favourite colour?
Colleen Gleason: With a name like Colleen Gleason, it has to be kelly green! Although it’s really not. I’m fond of jewel colors—sapphire, garnet, emerald. Any of those colors are favorites.

TK: What is your favourite food?
CG: Pizza, nachos, chocolate, guacamole…hm…lobster. The list goes on and on. I haven’t met too many foods I don’t like!

TK: What is your favourite author/book?
CG: That’s no fair! I can’t pick just one…but I’d have to say that some of my favorites are Elizabeth Peters’ Vicky Bliss books (particularly Trojan Gold and Night Train to Memphis) and JD Robb’s In Death series.

TK: What other fantasy/romance authors do you read?
CG: Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie, Liz Carlyle, JK Rowling to name a few…all the gals at the Wet Noodle Posse (Diane Gaston, Janet Mullany, Stephanie Rowe, Stephanie Feagan, Terry McLaughlin, I know I’m missing some…Lisa Scottoline (she’s not romance or fantasy, but I like her). I don’t read a lot of fantasy.

TK: Any of them close friends?
CG: I’m close friends with all of the Wet Noodle Posse gals, and I know several other authors that I read (Caroline Linden, Sally MacKenzie), but none of the others I’ve listed above. I wish!

TK: How do you feel about having a second book coming out?
CG: Alternately ecstatic and terrified. Part of me can’t wait for the people who have read The Rest Falls Away to read the next installment (after all, I’m two books ahead of everyone right now, having just finished the third book, The Bleeding Dusk, due to be released in February)….but there’s always the fear that it won’t be well-received and that there won’t be good reviews. But that’s part of the business, and it’s normal.

TK: Are their any personality traits that you share with the main character? What about the men? Are they based on anyone at all, or are they fantasies?
CG: In some ways, in a fantasy, Victoria is who I’d like to be. We’re both stubborn and reasonably intelligent women, but she’s a lot more physical and bold than I am! And she’s got three hot men after her.

And the men…well, there are certain aspects of each of the men that are drawn from my husband.

For example, Sebastian’s always making double entendres and turning any moment into an opportunity for seduction; my husband has that kind of sense of humor. And my husband also shares Max’s blunt, outspoken conversation style. So you can see that there’s a bit of him in each of them. But other than that, no. They’re my fantasy men.

TK: In previous interviews, you said that The Rest Falls Away is your ninth completed novel. Now that you're a successfully published author, has there been interest in your other 8 novels?
CG: My agent and I haven’t made the decision to send out any of the previous novels, mainly because they are so different than The Gardella Chronicles books.

If one or more of them sold, my publisher would want me to write more books along those lines (eg, contemporary romantic thriller, or medieval historical romance) and I honestly don’t have time to do that, with my schedule of two Gardella books a year as well as other projects.

Perhaps some day those manuscripts will have the chance to see the light of day. I certainly would like them to, for I still love them as much as I did when I first wrote them.

TK: In other series where vampires are villains, they've eventually become love interests. Can you see yourself writing a non-villainous vampire?
CG: I don’t know. Right now, no, I can’t see that. But never say never, right? If it were the right character in the right circumstances, it could happen. I’d probably be more likely to write a sympathetic vampire before I’d write a love-interest one…but again, I don’t have any plans to do so at this time.

TK: If you got offered the chance to make a movie or television series of your books, would you do it? Why or why not? And if you would, who would you like to see playing the lead roles?
CG: I probably would have a hard time saying no to a movie or TV option offer…but I’m such a control freak that in some ways, it would be hard to give that up. And based on the story and the way I’ve written the first three books, I’d anticipate Hollywood wanting to make a lot of changes to the story—to tie up loose ends sooner, or in different ways.

However, if it happened, I’ve already got the cast figured out. :-D

Victoria: Emmy Rossum (from The Phantom of the Opera) or Anne Hathaway
Max: Clive Owen or maybe Gerard Butler
Sebastian: A cleaned up Matthew McConaughey or Patrick Wilson
Aunt Eustacia: Judi Dench
Kritanu: Jackie Chan (even though the nationality is wrong)
Verbena: Joan Cusack
Lilith: I don’t know. Maybe Kate Beckinsale.

TK: How long would you like for the Gardella series to run?
CG: I would like to write five books about Victoria (at this time, I’m contracted for four), and then if they want more Gardella books, I’d probably move to a different main character or Venator—likely in a different time period. I think that would keep me from getting bored and from stringing along a series for too long.

At least, that's my plan

TK: And, just in case people did not see it in the comments, what is SWAT?
CG: SWAT is my street team. I’m looking for people who really enjoyed the Gardella books enough to be part of my street team—like musicians and bands have. They’d help spread the word, come hold my hand if I come to their town for booksignings, be eligible for extra prizes, exclusive excerpts and giveaways, etc.

Interested parties can sign up by sending an email to GardellaSWATteam-subscribe at yahoogroups dot com

Thanks for having me! I’ll take questions in the comments section. Please try to avoid spoilers, though. ;-)