Q+A with Dorothy Dreyer (My Sister's Reaper)

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Dorothy Dreyer.  Dorothy is the author of My Sister's Reaper.

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Dorothy:  I've written for as long as I can remember, but I really got serious about it about 4 or 5 years ago.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Dorothy:  I love magic. I blame Harry Potter. ;)

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Dorothy:  Definitely mind control. I have two teens in the house, so you can probably guess why.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Dorothy:  My book is filled with magic and mystery and horror and suspense and teenage angst and romance. Oh, and magic.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Dorothy:  I think Kelli Berglund would make a great Zadie. She's the right age, and she's got a dance background, which means she would probably be great in the action scenes.

For Gavin, I would have to say Douglas Booth. Just look him up, you won't question my choice, I promise.

My Sister's Reaper by Dorothy Dreyer.

Sixteen-year-old Zadie’s first mistake was telling the boy she liked she could bring her dead sister back to life. Her second mistake was actually doing it.
When Zadie accidentally messes with the Reaper’s Rite that should have claimed her sister Mara, things go horribly wrong. Mara isn’t the same anymore—Zadie isn’t even sure she’s completely human, and to top it off, a Reaper is determined to collect Mara’s soul no matter what. Now Zadie must figure out how to defeat her sister’s Reaper, or let Mara die … this time for good.

May 2013

Thank you Dorothy for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Dorothy Dreyer and her books, please visit her website.

Q+A with Michele Vail (Undeadly)

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Michele Vail.  Michele is the author of Undeadly.

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Michele:   I knew I wanted to be a writer from a young age. I started penning stories and poems around the age of 12. I loved reading and my English and literature classes were my favorite subjects. I was the typical diary-writing teenager, too, and soon my angst and worries found their ways into fictional tales and poetry.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Michele:  I love stories with supernatural elements. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches ... I loved it all, even before paranormal became so popular within fiction markets. My most recent fascination has been with zombies and reapers, and that's how Molly and her world came about. I wanted to answer the question, "How do you become a reaper?" I really enjoy ancient Egyptian mythology, and I thought: Making mummies is really close to making zombies, right? So that's where my zombie-making mythology begins.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Michele:  Wow. This is a difficult question to answer. I would like to be able to clean the house with a twitch of my nose--much like Samantha from "Bewitched." Immortality would be great, too, simply because I would like to see how the world progresses with technology. I think there may come a day when we can fix the troubles that plague our world ... creating a place where no one goes hungry, war is irrelevant, and chocolate becomes an official food group.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Michele:   It's fun! Imagine a world just like ours only zombies and ghosts are commonplace. You can get a zombie made the same way you might order a custom suit or a flower arrangement. You can purchase machines that harness ghost energy, so you can have after-life servants. Or in the cases of movie stars and rock musicians, dying doesn't mean your career is over. Thrown into the mix is Molly, who has the ability to make zombies, but finds out she has a larger destiny and a secret past.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Michele:   I think Taylor Lautner should turn in his werewolf fur and go reaper. He'd make a great Rath, the boy who is preparing Molly for her eventual transition into reaperhood (and you know, saving the human world in the mean time). As for Molly, Jennette McCurdy has the right kind of attitude and look (I love her as Sam on "iCarly").

Undeadly (The Reaper Diaries #1) by Michele Vail.

The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...

Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper-and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she’s shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath. Who seems to hate her guts.

Rath will be watching closely to be sure she completes her first assignment-reaping Rick, the boy who should have died. The boy she still wants to be with. To make matters worse, students at the academy start turning up catatonic, and accusations fly-against Molly. The only way out of this mess? To go through hell. Literally.

Thank you Michele for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Michele Vail and her books, please visit her website.

Paranormal Guest Author: Keri Arthur (Riley Jenson, Dark Angels)

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Keri Arthur!  Keri is the author of the Nikki and Michael series, Myth and Magic series, Ripple Creep Werewolf series, Damask Circle series, Riley Jenson Guardian series (Full Moon Rising, Kissing Sin, Tempting Evil, Dangerous Games, Embraced by Darkness, The Darkest Kiss, Deadly Desire, Bound to Shadows, Moon Sworn), and Dark Angels series (Darkness Unbound, Darkness Rising).

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Keri:  I actually started writing when I was about 12, after I'd read a book where the author killed off a character I loved. I was so incensed I rewrote the book and made the character live! I've been writing 'seriously'--that is, with the aim of getting published--for about 20 years, and was first published with ImaJinn (a US small press) in 2001.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Keri:  I've always loved reading fantasy novels, and the first three books I wrote were all fantasy romances. Then I read Children of the Night, by Mecedes Lackey, fell in love with Andre, and knew that's exactly what I wanted to write.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Keri:  I'm not actually sure I'd want to be a paranormal--this world isn't ready for them! lol As for a supernatural talent, again, I'm not sure I'd want one. Such gifts always have their downsides, and to be honest, I'm happy just being me, as I am!

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Keri:  My upcoming Dark Angels series is set in the same world as the Riley Jenson series, so old friends are occasionally revisited. Plus, Risa can kick arse almost as well as her aunt Riley, and she has the help of a seriously sexy Aedh, as well as a reaper.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Keri:  I'd love my books to be made into movies, and honestly, as long as the actors were appropriate (for example, Riley has red hair and can kick male arse, so the actress has to at least look like she could do that--no wimps allowed!) then I wouldn't care.

Darkness Unbound (Dark Angels #1) by Keri Arthur

Risa Jones is as extraordinary as her heritage. Born from a lab-enhanced clone mother and an Aedh father, she can not only talk to the souls of the dying and the dead, but she can see the reapers and walk the gray fields that divide this world from the next.

They are skill she rarely uses, however, preferring to concentrate on the business she shares with her two best friends. But when her mother asks her to help the parents of a little girl locked in a coma, she reluctantly agrees. What she discovers scares the hell out of her. Because the little girl’s soul no longer resides in her body, and it wasn’t death and the reapers that took her.

Someone had ripped her soul from her flesh.

As it turns out, a creature consuming the souls of the innocent–and not so innocent–is the least of her problems. Because someone wants to rip open the gates that divided hell from earth, and Risa is a key component in their plans. And the only person standing between her and disaster is a reaper who isn’t exactly on her side.


Thank you Keri for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Keri Arthur and her books, please visit her website.