LITERAL ADDICTION's Author's Corner

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DANCE WITH AN ALPHA IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT...

LITERAL ADDICTION/Book Monster Reviews:  Hi Dana, Happy Release Day!  We’re very happy to have you with us and are excited to help you promote and celebrate “Howl for Me”.

DANA: I’m very happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

LITERAL ADDICTION/Book Monster Reviews:  We like to start by finding out a bit more about our guest author, and then we’ll dig into the books… 

Q1): Can you tell us 3 things about yourself that we couldn’t find out easily on the Internet?

DANA: Huh. My life’s a pretty open book (no pun intended). Hmm… One of my favorite restaurants is Don Pablo’s; I am TERRIFIED every time I have to speak in public, but I do it anyway; and I have some sort of freaky skin allergy that gives me itchy bumps on my arms whenever I use standard soaps or suntan lotions.

Q2):  What are 2 things that always make you smile, and 2 things that never fail to piss you off?

DANA: A child’s laughter and the holidays at my mother’s. The things that piss me off? Prejudice of any kind, and people trying to preach to me. I respect the beliefs of others even when I don’t agree with them, and I request the same courtesy of others. Unfortunately, that courtesy is a rare commodity these days.

Q3):  What’s your favorite inspirational quote?

DANA: It changes, depending on my mood. When I’m feeling low, or things aren’t going quite my way with my stories, it’s a quote from Winnie-the-Pooh: “Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” I mutter it to myself at the end of a long, frustrating day.

I think my current favorite is from Albert Einstein: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Of course, my absolute favorite quote right now isn’t inspirational at all: “I think that statue over there is a statement on modern life. The statement is ‘Well, shit’.” – Varric Tethras, Dragon Age II

Q4):  What are some of your hobbies or things that you enjoy doing when you’re not working, writing or taking care of other business?

DANA: It’s no secret that I play video games. I especially love RPG’s, role-playing style games like Dragon Age (see the above Varric quote), Mass Effect and NeverWinter Nights: Mask of the Betrayer. If I’m not saving the pixilated world, I probably have my Nook in my hands, reading my favorite romances. 

Q5):  What’s your guilty pleasure?

DANA: RuPaul’s Drag Race. My boys will leave the room when it’s on, but I’m addicted to those queens. R, my thirteen year old, walked in the room the first time I watched it, saw the men in drag, and left, muttering, “That is SO wrong.”

Q6):  We know this is a tough one, but who are some of your favorite authors, and what are a couple titles in your TBR pile right now?

DANA: Recently, it’s Mary Calmes, LB Gregg, Amy Lane and JL Langley. I’ve been reading a lot of M/M, much to Dusty’s surprise. He keeps peeking over my shoulder to check out what I’m reading, then getting squicked out when man-bits are touching man-bits.

You’d think he’d learn. “What are you readi… oh. Um. Can’t you read David Weber like a normal geek?”

I’m waiting for Mary Calmes’ Mine to come out, and the next JL Langley shifter book. I tend not to keep a TBR pile, since I read the book I want as soon as it comes out.

Q7):  If you could spend the day with any of your characters who would you want to spend it with and what would you want to do?

DANA: I think it would be a toss-up between Emma of The Wallflower, Belle of Steel Beauty, and Jaden of Noble Blood. All three in the same room would be apocalyptically awesome.

Seriously. The world would probably end if the three of them were in the same room together.

Q8):  What are the best and worst parts of writing for you?

DANA: The best part is when the story is flowing, you’re cackling so hard the cats are looking at you funny, and you know it’s going just right. The worst part? It’s between writing a synopsis and figuring out when to stop self-editing and just send the damn thing in. Authors always second-guess themselves, so forcing myself to stop fixing what isn’t broken can be difficult.

Q9):  What’s a typical work day like for you?  Do you have a routine; is there something that you absolutely have to have with you to get through your day & get the creative juices flowing, do you have any interesting writing quirks, etc?

DANA: My day starts by getting my kids off to school, chatting a bit with my husband and taking a nap. I don’t always sleep well at night, so I’ve found taking a nap during the day helps. I get up, chat with Dusty some more, then turn on my music and make with the writing.

Each book has a unique playlist, and if the song pulls me out of the story it’s immediately deleted and replaced with something else. I put on sound-dampening headphones and rock out to whatever music the characters want. It gets so bad Dusty has to use Google Talk just to get my attention.

Q10):  What type of scenes do you enjoy writing the most (action, love, dialogue, etc)?

DANA: Dialogue! I love it when my characters start chatting with one another. There’s a flow to it that just feels natural. After that would probably be love scenes. I find them much easier to write than action, which is the hardest for me to write. However, I have found a fix for that. There’s nothing quite like looking up martial arts fights on YouTube to get you in the mood for a face pounding.

Q11):  What are some of your favorite TV Shows and movies?

DANA: Castle, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Project Runway, Dr. Who (the 11^th), Firefly and Property Brothers. Some of my favorite movies are Bell Book and Candle, The Desk Set, True Lies, Beauty and the Beast, The Haunting (1999 version) and Arsenic and Old Lace.

LITERAL ADDICTION/Book Monster Reviews:  O.K, now we’ll ask some questions directly related to “Howl for Me”, the TRUE DESTINY series, and your other work.

Q12):  Was there any specific inspiration that lead to the concept and creation of the TRUE DESTINY series?

DANA: Loki was my primary inspiration. I loved reading Greek and Norse mythology when I was a teen, and I kept coming back to Loki, the poster boy for the red-headed step-child. It occurred to me, as I was rereading the myths as an adult, that the whole “Loki killed Baldur” thing was a set-up. Loki can’t fly without a magical feather cloak, so how did he turn into a bird and fly away from his pursuers? Deeper research reminded me that Odin’s pet birds are ravens, the exact bird Loki was said to have turned into. Add in that Odin was also known as a god of lies and trickery and was also a shapeshifter, and you have one hell of a conspiracy theory. Or, if you’re the Aesir, a hell of a coincidence.

I went with door number one, declared Loki the fall guy, and True Destiny was born.

Q13):  How many books do you have planned for the series? 

DANA: Right now, as of last count, there are eight total until Odin, aka Oliver Grimm, gets his Ragnarrok. Still to come are Morgan, Magnus, Val, Ryker Saeter (Jormungandr, the last of Logan’s children) and Nik. I’m tempted to do Sleipnir; in fact, I have an idea for Odin’s eight-legged horse, but I’ll have to see if that pans out. And Hel, Logan’s daughter, will be a free Christmas read, as she’s gotten her HEA and doesn’t know it yet. You’ll meet her for the first time in Morgan’s Fate, the fourth True Destiny book.

Q14):  What can we expect as the series progresses? 

DANA:  Magic and mayhem, of course. Grimm’s power base will be slowly chipped away, and the end he thought he would meet won’t be quite what he expects. As we see a lot in mythology, prophecy is self-fulfilling…

Q15):  What were some of the challenges (research, literary, psychological, logistical, etc) in bringing the TRUE DESTINY series to life?

DANA: Th