Interviews

WITHIN THE FLAMES is your eleventh installment of the Dirk & Steele series. How many more can fans expect?

It’s difficult to say. I’m launching a brand new paranormal romance series next year – set in a dystopian world filled with werewolf gypsy gladiators, vampire historians, zombie armies, and desert road gangs. It’s been a lot of fun to write.

You have also co-written the Dark Wolverine series for Marvel, are the ongoing writer of the X-23 series, authored Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, NYX: No Way Home, and X-Men: Dark Mirror. How did you get involved with comic books? Were you interested in them as a child?

I didn’t start reading comic books until college. I just didn’t have access to them, and without access it’s difficult to generate interest. I did, however, watch the X-Men cartoon that aired on Fox – and that provided the motivation to check out some actual comics when I realized there was a little comic book store just down the street from my dorm. I fell in love within the first few pages. Beautiful art, combined with great storytelling? What’s not to love?

As for how I got involved, that happened after writing X-Men: Dark Mirror, a prose marvel that was released in 2005 from Pocket Books. Folks at Marvel had to approve the story, and I was told they enjoyed it very much. That gave me the courage to introduce myself at New York Comic Con, and after three years of back-and-forth, they assigned me my first project: NYX: No Way Home. I worked with a wonderful editor, John Barber, who gave me another opportunity to stretch my writing skills with Dark Wolverine (co-written with Daniel Way). Since then, I’ve been offered some fantastic projects, including Black Widow and X-23.

In WITHIN THE FLAMES your pyrokinetic protagonist, Eddie, is sent to protect Lyssa, a shape-shifting dragon with fire as her weapon; a far cry from a typical damsel in distress. Who is the real hero in this book?

I think both characters are heroic. Lyssa and Eddie suffered severe childhood traumas, which have affected them well into adulthood. Yet, they manage to overcome their vulnerabilities and fears in order to trust one another – and trust does not come easy for either of them.

Your first Dirk & Steele novel, TIGER EYE, was made into an interactive game by PassionFruit Games in 2010. Can you tell us about the process and what it was like to see your book take a new form?

The process seemed to run along two tracks: developing the script for “cut scenes” and then designing the actual game play. I wrote the script with some very useful direction from one of the studio leaders, and from there we went on to choose voice actors to read the various roles: Hari, Dela, and Long Nu, specifically. As for seeing my book turned into a game, though…it was fun, but surreal!

If you could have one super-natural power what would it be, and why?

I would love a healing factor. Or the ability to heal others.

What other projects are you working on now?

Again, that new paranormal romance series being released from Avon next year – along with more comic book work. Big announcements from Marvel about my new project with them should be coming soon.

What’s your supernatural alter ego? Are you a Gargoyle, Cruor Venator Witch, Pyrokinetic, or a Shape-Shifter? You can take the quiz here.

Courtesy of Avon Books, I have a review copy of Within the Flames by Marjorie M. Liu for one (1) lucky winner!

Contest is open to US and Canada only. To enter, just fill out the form below. Contest ends January 6. I’ll draw a name on January 7, and notify winner via email.

Good luck!

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SciFiChick.com recently had the opportunity to interview Michael Dempsey, author of debut novel Necropolis, from Night Shade Books.

Can you tell us a bit about Necropolis in your own words?

NECROPOLIS is a sci fi noir crime novel set in a dystopian future. The protagonist, Paul Donner, is a Brooklyn police detective. In the opening pages of the novel, Donner and his wife are shot to death in a bodega, apparently as they stumble upon a robbery in progress. But Donner’s death is only the beginning of the story. Fifty later, Donner is brought back to life by an event called the Shift—a process that reanimates dead DNA. The process is believed to be caused by a retrovirus. The world has managed to contain the infectious “reborns”—and also the normal people who may be carriers—to the plague’s ground zero in New York City, and is in the final stages of completing the quarantine by way of a series of magnetic geodesic domes called the Blister.

This new “reborn” underclass is not only alive again, they’re growing younger. Society has partially coped with this psychologically devastating event by retreating into a cultural fad of nostalgia. So in Necropolis, clocks run backwards, technology is hidden behind a noir facade, and you can see Elvis every night at Radio City Music Hall. Donner is not at all sure that he want to remain adrift and alone in this bizarre retro-futurist world of maglev Studebakers and plasma tommy guns. But consumed by guilt and rage, he begins a search for those responsible for the destruction of his life—his only goal to solve the mystery of his own murder. As he pursues this quest for retribution, it becomes apparent that the events of his own murder are intimately connected to the origins of the Shift, and ultimately they will bring him up against those who would use it to control a terrified nation.

Your reanimated characters are not really zombie-like, since they seem to keep their personalities and don’t crave brains. What was your thought process behind these characters and the science behind it?

I really never thought of reborns as zombies. Of course, as I was writing the book, zombies hadn’t become popular again (nor had the whole urban fantasy trend really taken off yet). It wasn’t until I sold the book that the comparison started to be made. I love zombies and other creatures of the night, but (don’t kill me) I was never much of zombie fan.

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Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to Angela for having me on the blog again today. Thanks so much, Angela!

So today Angela asked me to write about elementals and why I decided to feature them in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series. The series focuses on Gin Blanco, an assassin codenamed the Spider who can control the elements of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing people and righting wrongs, Gin runs a barbecue restaurant called the Pork Pit in the fictional Southern metropolis of Ashland. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vampires, and elementals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.

So elementals are a big part of the magic and world building in the books. In addition to the four main elements listed above, some folks are also gifted in offshoots of those elements, like water is an offshoot of Ice and electricity is one of Air.

So why did I decide to focus on elementals? I just thought they would be cool to write about and that I could use some interesting magic/powers for Gin, my villains, and the secondary characters. For example, Gin can make shapes with her Ice magic, like cubes, knives, and more, while her Stone power lets her make her own skin as hard as marble so that nothing can hurt her.

Jo-Jo Deveraux, another character in the series, has Air magic, which she uses to heal Gin and others. Sophia, Jo-Jo’s sister, has Air magic as well, but Sophia uses it to sandblast away blood and more. And of course, Gin’s nemesis, Mab Monroe, has deadly Fire magic that she uses to burn people to a crisp.

One of my favorite things as a writer is thinking about my villains, the powers they have, and how my heroine can use her own magic and wits to defeat them. I’ve had a lot of fun coming up with the various villains in the series and seeing how Gin manages to overcome them in the end.

But there are more than just elemental bad guys in the books. Gin has also tangled with giants and dwarves, both of whom are incredibly strong. As far as vampires go, they can have elemental magic as well, and they can also absorb powers/abilities from the blood that they drink. So a vampire who drinks a giant’s blood could be as strong as that giant is.

I thought that having four main elements as well as a mix of people with other powers/abilities would give me plenty of different bad guys and magic for Gin to battle.

So there you have it – a little bit about the elementals and the other creatures in my books.

What about you guys? What magic, powers, or creatures do you like reading about? What are some of your favorite fantasy books and characters?

USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Estep writes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series for Pocket Books. Books in the series are Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, and Tangled Threads. Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book in the series, was released on Sept. 27.

Jennifer also writes the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series for Kensington. Touch of Frost, the first book in the series, was released in August. First Frost, a prequel e-story to the series, is available as a 99-cent download. Kiss of Frost, the second book, will be released Nov. 29.

For more information, excerpts, and more, visit Jennifer’s website at www.jenniferestep.com.

Jennifer was also kind enough to offer a copy of her latest Spider’s Revenge for one (1) lucky winner!

Contest is open to US residents only. To enter, just fill out the form below. Contest ends October 21. I’ll draw a name on October 22, and notify winner via email.

Good luck!

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