Interview with Author Laura Yirak

Laura Yirak is here to discuss her latest book Delivered to Eternity, An Alesta the Vampire book
Welcome Laura! I was reading your bio over at Amazon and found it fascinating.

 A haunted boarding school, would be a great setting for a book! Did you see any ghosts while you lived there?

St. Michaels was a fantastically old Catholic school.  It sat over on a cliff with a view of the River Clyde.  I never saw a ghost, but certainly imagined that they were going to get me all the time.  There was the Headless Nun that wandered the halls of the dungeons--the dungeons being the lower levels of the school.  And then there was the Hairy Hand that might get you while you were going to the loo.  There were many other stories as well!  Maybe I should do up some short stories about it J

Do you believe in ghost, vampires or creatures of the night?

Of course I do!  I believe in ghosts as I have had my own encounter, but that was in the U.S a few years ago.  I stayed in a cabin out in the lower foothills of the Cascade mountains and found out after a week there that it was haunted.  The cabin was new, so I was not expecting it.  I guess ghosts have no preference.

 What inspired you to write a vampire book?

I love vampires.  They totally freak me out, that and I like their immortality.  I played with the idea of the ‘soul’ in this book.

 Who is your target audience?

I have a wide range of ages in my book, from mid twenties to sixties, males and females.  I would like to capture a wide range.

 Do your vampires sparkle?

Vamps in Kilts---WOO.  My vampires do not sparkle, they hide in dark places and follow you into the shadows, take a nip while you are sleeping and vanish when you wake.  They are of the more traditional variety and they are steamin HOT, especially in kilts!

 Tell me about Alesta.

Laura Yirak

 Alesta means, ‘Savior of Mankind.’  The decision to be a vampire was made for her and she struggles with this through the book.  She works as a nurse by night and runs a Manor House.  This is where she has her supper. J

What is your next project?

I am working on three projects:  another children’s book, a psycho-thriller, and a book of poems for fun.

 Where can we get your book?

I am on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other online sites. 

How can your fans contact you?

http://dreamsofdiamondsauthor.blogspot.com/

All of my book links are here!

I’m also on Twitter:  @laurayirak

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I hope you enjoy, Delivered to Eternity! 

 Be sure to check out Laura's book!

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Interview with Steampunk Author Tim C.Taylor

Tim Taylor is in the house! (No, not the wacky sitcom fixer upper.) Tim C. Taylor is a fantasy Author. 

He creates new worlds and is inviting us in! 

So grab a ticket and enjoy the ride!

Hi Tim, I was looking at your newest project Last Man Through the Gate. I love the name Codrin. How do you choose a name for your characters?

 Hi Lynn, thanks for having me. Where do the names come from, eh? Well, an old technique for creating fantasy worlds is to take one or more real historical societies, and then steal the bits you want for your story, such as names. The idea is that because they are based on real life, these stolen names and concepts will have a consistency that the reader picks up on, and so transfers a sense of believability to your fictional world. After all, one of the thrills for readers of fantasy and science fiction is to be immersed in another world. They must be able to convince themselves that world is real, or the book collapses.

I’m sure it’s the same for your readers, Lynn, who enjoy being transported to the Mississippi of the 1880s. Even the wackiest conspiracy nuts will believe that Mississippi in the 1880s really did exist (I think). I have to work harder to give the reader reasons to believe my world could exist. On the other hand, I get the advantage that I don’t have to check for historical accuracy, and I can change the world to suit my story.

JK Rowling used this technique of plundering the real historical world with her Harry Potter books. Many of her spell incantations borrow loosely from Latin: expecto patronus, and that sort of thing. I’m certain that a better Latin scholar than me would explain how Rowling’s Latin is grammatically wrong, but that’s not the point. Readers pick up on the consistency — and a sense that this is archaic language — and that adds another nugget of believability to the world of Harry Potter.

And so back to Codrin. His world is a rough analog of the Balkans in 1914. His people —the Shrebs — are a composite of Serbs, Jews, and the wider Slav peoples. For the Shreb characters, such as Codrin, I’ve picked real Balkan names, mostly Bulgarian and (as with Codrin) Romanian. I hope that gives a sense of consistency.

I might be out of the loop but what exactly is steampunk?

 It’s one of those dreaded things: a sub-genre. Normally that term means books that no one actually wants to read other than a clique of rather strange people, the kind you wouldn’t want your son or daughter to bring home as their new best friend.

The publisher, Tor, has a three word definition: Victorian science fiction, though they take pains to point out that Victorian is to be taken very loosely. In other words, it’s a fictional setting that uses often wildly imagined inventions and anachronistic technology, and then revels in punkishly mixing them together. Steampunk is beginning to influence wider culture. At the moment, the bus I get into Bedford has an advert for a new film: The Three Musketeers. In the background of the advert are airships. That’s steampunk.

Codrin’s world in Last Man Through the Gate is set approximately in 1914, on the eve of the First World War. Politically it is similar but technologically very different. For example, there is no coal in Codrin’s world. The industrial revolution is taking a very different path, using as its power source a strange substance called ‘flek’. Flek is powerful enough to punch a hole between dimensions and we get to see an abandoned American space craft at one point. On the other hand, the soldiers carry muskets and underwater diving involves upturned, weighted barrels and holding your breath. Very dangerous!

  

With your novels not only do you create fantastic characters, but complete worlds! Tell us about Codrin’s home.

 Codrin is a professor of linguistics at Sruno University, the principle place of learning in the Dual Kingdom. The book describes it as follows:

Sruno University was situated in the Vengrian half of the Dual Kingdom. That crazy, ramshackle kingdom was still staggering into modernity out of a much earlier age. The complexity of a country with fourteen official nationalities was addressed by a simple relationship: the Celips dominated the Vengrians who, in turn, bullied the Shrebs. The other nationalities defined themselves in relation to the three main peoples of the Dual Kingdom.

Codrin is a Shreb, and his position as a university professor means that his family is about as far up the social hierarchy as they can go.

Except he loses his post. Nothing that he has done, just political bickering and he is caught in the crossfire. Suddenly things don’t look so rosy for him. It’s a long way down to the bottom of the social order for his two young daughters who have never known hardship. So he uses the last of his money to pay for passage through the dimensional gateway to the colony on the other side. He goes first to establish a job and lodgings; his wife and daughters will follow.

How does it differ from Earth?

I’ll pick one aspect, though it has many consequences. The polar regions of Codrin’s planet are covered in poison clouds that grow in winter and recede each summer. Codrin’s people call these clouds the Stain. Every year, the extent of the Stain grows a little. In hundreds, maybe thousands of years, a day will come when the entire planet will be engulfed in poison. Already, some regions have been abandoned, and great seasonal migrations of people have begun.

The Stain is not all bad, though. It precipitates flek, a powder that combusts in clean air. This flek (which is Yiddish for stain) is fuelling an industrial revolution and boosts psychic powers in people.

As you know, I write Romance, does Codrin have a love interest?

His love is for his wife, Anita, and his two young daughters. Codrin is separated early on from his family. He is driven to extraordinary actions by a compulsion to find them, and is haunted by the question of whether he did the right thing by them to gamble everything on starting a new life in the colony across the Gate.

What is the most asked question you get from fans?

 That’s easy! How do I come up with ideas?

The answer is that I like to write the kind of stories that I enjoy reading. I like fantasy and science fiction where there are some big ideas behind the story, and I get the sense that the world where the characters act out their story joins-up behind the scenes.The Lord of the Rings is a good example of this, though perhaps an extreme one.

So I enjoy coming up with world-building ideas, and that’s why I have far more ideas than I have years in which to write them.

Thanks Tim it was great talking to you again! I love Harry Potter and LOTR! 'Til next time!

Contact Tim at:

 www.timctaylor.com | Twitter: @TimCTaylor

Get one today at: 

http://greyhartpress.com/our-science-fiction-stories/last-man-through-the-gate/

Interview with Author Julia Crane:

Visit: www.lynnhubbard.com www.lemonpresspublishing.com

Interview with Author Julia Crane:

I am thrilled to have fantasy 

Author Julia Crane with us today!

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Honestly, it still surprises me. It’s something I always dreamed of as a child. 

What inspired you to write your first book?

My family has strong Irish roots, and my grandmother often told tales that involved elves. I also took a lot of inspiration from my teen daughter and her friends.

Tell me about your book series.

Coexist is a tale of elves and destiny, the struggle between light and dark, and the consequences of war. The sequel, Conflicted, is Keegan's battle to recover her lost identity after the events of the first book, while Rourk struggles to survive without her.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on Consumed the third book in Keegan’s Chronicles. I’m also working on a short story for a Christmas anthology. I have many projects in mind it’s just finding the time to get to them. 

Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?

I’m lucky living in Dubai it’s pretty cheap to travel. We have visited many countries and I love to incorporate the locations into my books. 

Who designed the covers?

I got extremely lucky with the covers. I found Kadri Umbleja on deviantart.com. I can't speak highly enough about her skills. I told her about the book and in minutes she came up with the idea for the design. I had as much say as I wanted, but I didn't need it because what she came up with was perfect. Christine DeMaio-Rice found the perfect font to pull it all together. 

What is your favorite scene in the book?

I really enjoyed the scenes in Conflicted between Thaddeus and Anna. It was fun to see their personalities come out more. 

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Thank You!! I know there are countless books out there. I am honored that you would take your time to read mine. 

www.juliacraneauthor.com

http://www.amazon.com/Coexist-Keegans-Chronicles-1-ebook/dp/B0055HFZ3A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1319055530&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.com/Conflicted-Keegans-Chronicles-2-ebook/dp/B005N8WN5Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319055530&sr=8-1

Guest Blogger: Mike Cooley - The Crystal Warrior

I would  like to welcome, Mike Cooley and his new book

 "The Crystal Warrior" to my Blog. Have a seat anywhere.

Halloween is here which means CANDY, CANDY, CANDY and tales of evil. 
Well, I am keeping my candy but I'll share with you a wonderful story in which the characters are quilted together to form an Odyssey. 

The Triad Of Evil

In my dark fantasy novel, The Crystal Warrior, the primary villains are known as the Triad. They are all very different from each other, and start out widely scattered on the world of Agorai.

Adan is a boy, white-haired and blue-eyed. He's looks like he's twelve, but controls great magic which he forces from the myrric worm, Ishak, that he has imprisoned. 

The shirtless boy walked along the sand, occasionally stopping to draw glyphs and intricate diagrams below the high water line on the beach. The ocean of Yrt rolled in from the north, emerald waves breaking on the white sand. He was short and tan, with piercing blue eyes and white hair. From time to time he would stop, face the ocean spray, and observe the breakers with great interest.

Roate is a beggar, deceptive in his guise as a drunkard.

The drunk leaned against the wall in the far corner of the Scabbard Bar, then slid to the floor. His dirty lips moved silently beneath his mop of greasy, black hair. In his left hand was a bottle of cheap ale. The back of his hand was tattooed with intertwined snakes in the shape of a triangle. Roate drooled, his dark eyes sparkling.

And Ulon is a farmer, until Larissya gets the first crystal from her dying Grandmother.

The tall, gaunt farmer finished feeding the Siltogs and closed the barn door. He slid a rough-hewn branch through the door handles to keep the animals from jostling free. He walked along a dirt path, around the corral, past the water trough, and toward his house. It was a quiet night on the outskirts of Tyali, near the Sathos River. The moons were both visible, although Selav was brighter than Athas—as usual.

He opened the wooden door, and walked into the large, dim room. Taking his flint from his belt, he lit the single candle in the middle of the table and sat heavily in the only chair. As the candle flickered to life, his dull eyes focused and steadied; as he watched, things began to clear, and shadows danced deep in the flames, telling him things he needed to hear.

All three of them have been around for a very long time. They have been waiting for something.Waiting and watching for the signs that the Warrior has been awakened.  

Adan, the boy, gazed deep into the surf at dusk that night, and spoke. “The danger—”

Ulon, the farmer, continued: “—as foretold four hundred years ago—”

Roate, the beggar, finished, “—has arisen.”

All three of them have a past shrouded in mystery. All three of them are deadly.

Ulon woke up on the morning after Adan had forced Ishak to augment his powers, and went into the kitchen to get a knife. He sat at the heavy wooden table in the middle of the room, and placed his right hand, palm down and fingers spread, on the table. With his left hand, he sparked a flint and lit the tawny candle in the center of the table. He watched the flame burst to life with great interest, and sat staring into it for several minutes, motionless. 

Abruptly, he picked up the blade with his left hand and--

Adan stood at the edge of the precipice, gazing down serenely at the creature. An intricate web of wire kept the beast from escaping its prison. “You will tell me more,” the boy said quietly. “I want the possession power when they meet. I must be there to retrieve the power.” 

Ishak made a keening sound with most of its mouths, and tested the guard wires with five gnarled legs; the wires held, and he let go quickly, as they burned him. The fluid of its body raced around and around inside the translucent shell, like fireflies in amber. 

Roate had been walking south toward the Sathos River for several hours when the old man made his last mistake. He appeared over the horizon from the south, riding a dirty polgna along the dirt road, with saddlebags tied behind him. The old merchant urged the shaggy beast to the side of the road to skirt the dirty beggar, and averted his eyes.

“Three are one,” said Roate cryptically, as he shook his left sleeve, releasing a triangular coin into his palm. He waited until the old man had passed by, and then turned to face him. He grinned, revealing rotten teeth, and said, “If only I were sorry about this.” As the merchant turned his head to look back, Roate flicked his wrist, and the triangular shard shot down the road, stopping with a sickening thunk in the old man’s head.

The Triad work together to try to stop Larissya from gathering the crystals she needs to save her life, the lives of her friends, and the world itself. It's a complex world and a dangerous one. Read all about it, here:

Click here to Get 

The Crystal Warrior by Mike Cooley

 at Amazon! 

Interview with Horror Author Todd Russell

Todd Russell stopped in today. Todd is a horror author so this is perfect timing with Halloween around the corner!

He’s been very busy this week with the release of his New Novel “Fresh Flesh” on Sept. 29th, 2011.

Welcome Todd, the cover really captures my attention. What can you tell us about it?

The cover was drawn by International Horror Guild winning artist Aeron Alfrey. I came across his art while working on the 2011 draft and was blown away. He's done artwork for "The Mist" by Stephen King, an H.P. Lovecraft anthology, Thomas Ligotti horror novels and much more incredible work. Google him.

Alfrey and I hit it off over email. We both admire the original Twilight Zone by Rod Serling and agreed early on that the island would be drawn in black and white. I don't think the island would have looked as dark and disturbing in color.

Who is your favorite character in the book and why?

Oh man, pick one? Only one?  I love all these people. When I finished the first draft in 1989 I remember taking a long car drive and thinking about how much fun I'd had spending time with them.

When I reread the story in 2011—the first time in over 20 years—I remembered what I liked about each character and vividly recalled that cloudy January day in 1989. How these people seemed more real to me than any others I'd written about to date. Back then I was a very young writer with big dreams.

When the book landed me a literary agent before my twenty-first birthday, I knew there was something special about this story and these characters.

It was this year, over 22 years later, when I realized the story wasn't supposed to end—yet.

I'm not young any more but still have those big dreams.

How frequently I return to the Fresh universe will depend in part on reader interest. So, I encourage readers to please let it be known in their reviews how interested they are in reading more Fresh stories.

Can you share a sample?

How about three?

Richard Templin is about to be executed:

http://toddrwrite.com/blog/2011/fresh-flesh-excerpt.phtml

A beautiful woman awakes to a stranger

http://toddrwrite.com/blog/2011/fresh-flesh-excerpt—-heinous-skeletal-fingers.phtml

Alone

http://toddrwrite.com/blog/2011/fresh-flesh-excerpt-alone.phtml

And there are more samples on the Flesh Flesh webpage here:

http://toddrwrite.com/fresh/flesh/

What is your inspiration for horror?

Dozens of authors inspire me. Robert McCammon, Stephen King, Poe, Lovecraft and Rod Serling. And a bunch more including authors you wouldn't think of as horror authors like Roald Dahl.

On the nonfiction side I enjoy reading true crime, biographies and about strange events in history.

As you know, I’m a Romance Author I’m sure my readers want to know if there is any romance in the book?

Yes.

Do you have any other works available?

Yes, my first book is a collection of horror short stories called Mental Shrillness.

Where can I get a copy?

Fresh Flesh ebook at Amazon: Click Here

Mental Shrillness paperback at Amazon:Click Here

Mental Shrillness ebook at Amazon: Click Here

International readers can get all my book at Smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/toddrussell

How can we stalk you?

Join my newsletter to be priority notified when new books are available:

http://toddrwrite.com/fans/

Official Website:

http://toddrwrite.com/

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/Todd_Russell

Facebook:

http://facebook.com/booksbytoddrussell

Thank you so much for stopping in today and best of luck on your new book!

Thank you for letting me stop by and say hello to your readers. Best of luck with your work as well :)

Guest Blogger Jack Wallen: A peek into the brain of a horror writer

Visit: www.lynnhubbard.com www.lemonpresspublishing.com

Guest Blogger Jack Wallen
  A peek into the brain of a horror writer

     Thanks for visiting my Romance Blog! Today we are going to discuss Corsets: Love 'em or hate 'em?.......wait.....what is that noise?   Did you hear that?     Sounds like the neighbors cat.   I'll be right back.......(noise in the background)...earth shattering scream.....RUN!!!!!!

ZOMBIE RADIO-LISTEN NOW!!

There are dark inklings that spark across the synapses of my mind on an hourly basis. At any given moment something will leap out of the dark recesses of that mind to inspire some new horrific happening to be placed on paper. Characters lives are changed, made nightmarish, or snuffed out. How? Why? What’s wrong with you? Are questions I am frequently asked (most often in jest) …

 

Such is the life of the horror writer.

In every genre of literature, each writer possesses a different skill set. The romance writer knows well the matters of the heart. The parody writer sees everything through the eyes of the funny bone. The historical fiction writer sees the past as a new portal into the future. The horror writer? Well, the horror writer is always and forever looking for new ways to kill, maim, frighten, horrify, and generally make the skin of the reader crawl away from their unsuspecting brain.

But even beyond the un-pedestrian kills and frights, the single most important aspect of being a writer of horror is having a fresh take on the genre. Why?

It’s all been done.

Every possible way to kill the human being has been explored. Every demon unearthed, every vampire sparkled and hunked up. Now, the challenge is to take all of those existing elements and make it new.

Free at Amazon

I knew, when I first started writing I Zombie I (now FREE on Amazon.com) I couldn’t simply rehash what had already been created in the world of zombies. Something new had to be given to the readers. Being a big fan of the genre, I knew one thing that had been avoided by so many writers was the why and the how.

ñ  Why did the virus hit?

ñ  How did it feel to transform into one of the undead?

Answering those questions helped my I Zombie trilogy have a fresh take on the genre. But just two rarely answered questions aren’t enough, in the realm of horror, to give a story enough life to make the readers want to partake. I still had to dig deep to make this story visceral … something to make the reader, at times, get a bit squeamish.

What I had to do was dig deep into the muck and mire of death and fear. To do that I needed to make a fairly implausible situation seem plausible. Instead of going all out post-apocalyptica, I opted to create a situation that could, with just a few stretches of a few imaginations, be possible. Make the reader wonder if what they were reading could possibly happen – make them worry, make them think, make them feel just a bit less safe in their too-comfortable lives.

What I find most interesting about being a horror writer is how we (the horror writers) take a slice out of every day life and find the horrific within. You see an autumn-colored tree and instead of seeing the beauty in the colors, we see the twisted roots ready to open up and swallow the souls of the children playing around its trunk. Instead of seeing the charm and sweetness of the aging senior citizen, we see the possessed crone with milkshake-white eyes ready to curse anyone who crosses their path. In short – we tear down the walls of normalcy, peel back the skin of sanity, and revel in the things most deem not safe for work or bedtime.

But look through the glass too darkly and you lose your audience. Oh there are writers for that genre – Splatter Punk (as some call it). One of my favorite being the masterful Edward Lee. But the general public doesn’t have the stomach for such shenanigans. So instead, the horror writer must wrap fear up in a blanket of safe harbor so the fear is brought to light to serve the story – not vice versa (with a nod to my mother, whose name is Versa.) So instead of the I Zombie trilogy being about the depths and depravity of human entrails, it’s about the muck and mire of human relationship and how surrounding chaos can serve to make that bond stronger. Well, that and how corrupt power can so easily lead to a pandemic of undead proportions.

Where are the fans?

One issue found with being a horror writer is finding fans. Horror fans are a rabid bunch. They adore their idols (Clive Barker, in my eyes, can do no wrong.) And when a horror fan finds an author they like, they’ll stick with them through thick and then. So as a horror writer, I must make sure I speak to those fans and treat them as they would treat me – as something unique, something special. Fellow travelers looking for a morsel to take them to new worlds of fright. Like-minded readers hoping to happen across that new bad guy to rival Pinhead, Captain Howdy, or Hannibal Lecter. And, of course, we writers of the horrific certainly hope to pen those evil-doers.

But how? How do we craft fear? For myself it’s all about opposites. What part of the human body do we cherish the most and what would be the least likely way to rid a man or woman of that bit? Who would be the archetype we’d most likely trust – who could do the most damage. William Peter Blaty did this to perfection by having a twelve year old be the target of possession. Children – they are the beings most often thought of as innocent, but also most often used to induce a sense of dread – the fear of losing them to evil (whether that be their seduction to evil or evil itself taking them from us.) Kill such innocence and you take your readers down very dark paths.

Opposites. Finding beauty in horror and horror in beauty. Removing the veneer to find maggots infesting the meat. Allowing a relationship develop between a beautiful woman and a man who is slowly turning into one of the undead (that’d be I Zombie I). I spend much of my time finding new ways to turn the mundane into something wrong enough to send chills through the skin and bones of the reader.

And just as much as anything else, I am a huge fan of the genre. I read and watch as much horror as I can. I long for the next fright, the next jump, the next shock and I hope that I can deliver those same goods to my readers. After all, without readers, writers are nothing more than ego-centric humans with strange messianic complexes in need of serious therapy.

 

Or are we? Bwahaha!

NEWS: Look out for My Zombie My to arrive at the end of September, 2011!


Thank you Jack for stopping in and sharing a bit of your mind, by the way the cat was delicious! I'm grabbing up a copy of Shero: Transgender Superhero
A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!  
~Lynn

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