Tatyana’s birth as human being
Took place in 1982
In June, when weather was appealing
And sparkling with the morning dew.
As she grew up, too shy by nature,
Her friends were Pushkin, Dante, Wilde
Who wrote of love and of adventure
She dreamt of the vampire kind
As time went by, she took to versing

READ MORE ABOUT TATYANA HERE.

1. What made you decide to write the book in verse?

I never write in prose unless specifically required to.

2. Ordeal seems to be reminiscent of Shakespeare and Poe, did they have any influence on your writing? Did you do that intentionally?

The comparison is surprising. The plot of Ordeal has nothing in common with the themes featured by either of those classical authors. As for the versing style, it’s hardly the same with that of either William Shakespeare or Edgar Alan Poe. I really have no clue why people keep comparing Ordeal with their works. Besides I’ve never felt like considering them to have any influence on my worldview. If you still have to compare, the closest similarity of my verse style would be to Eugene Onegin (in the original) by A.S. Pushkin.

3. There are those who will compare your book to Twilight, the fact that Derek falls for a human girl or the fact that he’s been watching her from a distance. How do you feel about the comparison? How do you feel your book stands out with the currently popularity of Twilight, Vampire Diaries etc…?

Ordeal is nothing like Twilight or The Vampire Diaries or the like unless claiming any book mentioning vampires to be similar to the aforementioned titles, of course. Why not just as well claim Bram Stocker to have written his Dracula similar to Twilight or vice versa? Dracula (vampire) fell for a human girl who reciprocated his feelings and he did watch over her, didn’t he? First impressions are deceiving and so is judging a book by singling out some minor scenes. The story reveals a few secrets and is built the way to cast the light on what is really going on only upon covering the whole length of it. Moreover, my story was conceived before the world even heard of Twilight.

As for standing out from any popular series, Ordeal is more like classics – it’s beyond fashion and its mission is to break the widespread stereotype that poetry is something everyone is terrified of and understands little in, the tendency I’ve been bitterly observing in the recent years. You may call it a challenge, perhaps a challenge it is. Ordeal is here to revive the original euphony of poetic narration – that meeting the primary criteria of poetry: a steady rhythm, a regular meter and a perfect rhyme combined together to create an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities without any misleading allusions, without forcing the reader to figure out what hidden meaning, if any, lies behind every word.

4. Do you relate more to Derek or Allison?

They are all mine.

5. What made you want to write about vampires?

They just happened to be vampires. Moreover, Ordeal should be regarded as a prelude to my symphony, a piece of mosaic of my more large-scaled design, which, if you stay tuned, is sure to reveal some more paranormalities with vampires being but an integral component thereof.

6. Has the world of all things supernatural and paranormal always appealed to you? Do you want to write in other genres of fiction?

As I’ve said before, it was meant to be that way. I write for the pleasure of the process, which is self-driven, guided and inspired by the world of ideas or whatever you wish to name it. It is the verse that leads me, not the other way around.

7. Will there be a sequel to Ordeal?

There is another novel I’m working on at the moment, but it isn’t quite a sequel. The books are related to each other like, say, the New Testament and the Old Testament or the Eddas. Check out the News section on my site (on the Author’s Page) to have a glimpse on the plot.

8. Were you always determined to be a writer? Was it difficult to get your book published?

I’ve been versing and rhyming ever since I can recall. It’s an integral part of me. Those, however, were stand-alone personal poems that I have no intention to have published. But Ordeal is a story I watched in my visions-dreams that impressed me enough to write down and tell to the world. And no, it wasn’t difficult to have it published. Yet, I must say that I write by inspiration and not by contract.

9. What is the process you go through when creating a story? For example, do you outline first or do you start from the ending and work your way to the beginning?

Ordeal is a vision-based puzzle I have been piecing together since 1999 when I started having those visions-dreams of some separate scenes from the story with little in common but the main characters. As years went by, the visions-dreams continued and started to shape into a holistic picture and so did the novel itself.

10. If you could have dinner with any author, dead or alive, who would you choose?

None. I tend to appreciate the works and ideas and am rarely interested in people behind them. Like any other person, authors are but human, but unlike their creators, their works are immortal as are the ideas behind them.

11. What future projects are you working on? Can you tell us anything about them?

My future projects are featured on my site under the News section. And I’ve already given you a glimpse on the most recent one in my previous answers. It is a story a minor part of which Ordeal appears to be. And you’ll be pleasurably surprised how unlike anything you’ve come across before it is.

Thank you for the questions. See you at http://www.elfineness.com.

Make sure to check out Annabell’s review of Ordeal, here.

OBS had the rewarding pleasure of snagging an exclusive interview with New York Times & USA Today best-selling author; Melissa De La Cruz! 

A little about the author: via Melissa’s website

Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.

Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).

She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter.

OBS: I was drawn to the series for it’s historical aspects: How did you come up with the historical themes for the series?

They just came naturally really, with the Mayflower I wanted my vampires to have a history as the elite of America, and then when I was writing the first book I discovered the story of Roanoke, one of the great American mysteries, which was perfect! I’d always loved the story of the fall of Rome, I was fourteen and my World History teacher just brought it to life, she said it was the best soap opera ever. There’s so much about Caligula and the decline of the Roman Empire and it seemed that it fit so well with my fallen angels and what the Blue Bloods wanted to accomplish on Earth.

OBS: If your Blue Bloods series was made into a film, which actors would you want to play the main characters?
Schuyler, Jack, Mimi, Oliver, etc..

I very much enjoy my books as books I don’t have a great burning ambition to see them on screen or on television. The books have been optioned several times for TV and film, so maybe at some point they will be made. But it’s not something I think about too much and I don’t picture actors in the roles of my characters, only my characters. I also don’t know the young actors and actresses so much. When I was writing the first book Mary Kate Olsen and Paris Hilton were in my mind as inspirations for Schuyler and Mimi, and for Bliss I thought of a young Julia Roberts. For Oliver that guy who played Seth on the O.C. and then for Jack I never had any actor in mind, he was always just Jack in my head. Although the fans tell me they see Alex Pettyfer in the role and I saw a photo and he does look pretty close.

OBS: I just finished Keys to the Repository. How do you manage to keep each character unique but also filled with such a detailed history of past lives? How do you keep it all straight in your head?

They are fully formed people to me, so it’s not hard to keep them straight. I know them as well as I know my family, my friends. Better even. So it’s not hard.

OBS: Who are your literary influences?

For Blue Bloods Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Frank Herbert’s Dune, Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City (for the glamour quotient), Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. My favorite book ever is Tolstoy’s War and Peace and that’s a huge influence as well.

OBS: With the current popularity of Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood (Sookie Stackhouse Series), how does your series stand out?

The mythology in Blue Bloods is pretty lush and deep and intriguing I think, it’s my favorite part of the series and I think having the vampires as fallen angels is also very fun.

OBS: How did you make the leap from a fashion/beauty editor to writing novels? Was it difficult to get your books published?

I’d always been a freelance writer first, the fashion and beauty editor stuff actually came pretty late in my career when I was working for a magazine full-time. But I’d been freelance writing for five years before I sold my first novel, and after I sold my novel is when I got a job as a fashion editor. When I was trying to get published it seemed very difficult, but in retrospect it only took five years. I was 22 when I wrote my first novel and 27 when I sold one (it was by then my third written novel) and I was 29 when it was published.

OBS: If you could spend time with any author (alive or dead) who would it be and why? What would you expect to gain from that experience?

I’d love to hang out with JK Rowling she just seems like so much fun and it would be great to ask her about the books and maybe encourage her to write an adult series with Ron and Harry as Aurors. That would be so cool. I would totally fan-girl it.

OBS:  What future projects are you working on? Can you tell us anything about them?

The Witches of East End, which is my new adult series. Several Blue Bloods characters make cameos in it, which is fun to see what they’re up to. I won’t say anything more, I used to talk about my books while I was still writing them but I’ve decided I’m not anymore. When I’m writing the book is still evolving and a lot of things change. So I’ll wait until the book is done.

OBS:  What is one thing you’d like your fans to know about you and your books?

That I appreciate their support SO MUCH. I write the books for me, as long as I’m entertained I’m happy with the books. So it’s just the cherry on top that so many readers like to read them too.

OBS would like to give a special thanks to Melissa for taking time out of her busy schedule to give us a great interview! Melissa has been working hard on her latest novel; Keys to the Repository - please read the OBS review HERE

**Also WIN a copy of Keys to the Repository by entering in OBS Contest – Find out the details HERE**

Open Book Society recently did a book review on M.R. Sellars book ‘Harm None’ and now we bring you an exclusive interview with the paranormal horror/dark fantasy author as he tells us about his interesting religious background and details about his book.

Some background on M. R. Sellars…

M. R. Sellars is an active member of the HWA (Horror Writers Association) and author of the best selling paranormal thrillers subtitled The Rowan Gant Investigations. The series currently stands at 1 novelette and 9 novels, with the 10th to be released July 2010. He can be found at www.mrsellars.com as well as popular social networking venues on the world wide web.

What made you decide on using Wicca for this series? What attracted you to Wicca, enough to use it as part of Rowan’s character?

I think it was really a matter of being in the right place at the right time, or maybe vice-versa. While I self-identify as a Secular Humanist, I have strong Pagan roots. As a matter-of-fact, I have not only studied various Pagan paths and Witchcraft since I was around 13 years old, I spent many years in a Wiccan coven. And, I am actually an Elder of the Grove of the Old Ways, and an Honorary Elder of Mystic Moon, two covens located in the KC area.

Given my background in earth-centric religions, it just seemed like a perfect fit for the character. That, plus at the time there was very little fiction on the market that portrayed Paganism and Wicca in an accurate and positive light. While the RGI books do have a slight “over the top” element where magic is concerned, there is a solid foundation of reality and actual Pagan/Wiccan dynamics upon which it is built.

Other than being a practicing witch, what makes Rowan stand out as a character among other books of this genre?

Other than practicing an alternative religion, Rowan is just your average guy. Nothing special. He’s not an ex-special ops spook, he never worked for MI6, he doesn’t have “mad ninja skillz,” nor does he have a sacred amulet/dagger/sword/piece of chewing gum that grants him any special powers or knowledge. He doesn’t pack around Uzi’s, Ingram MAC-10′s, grenades, or even a slingshot. To borrow a phrase from Joe Walsh, he’s “just an ordinary, average guy.”

The only “mad skillz” possessed by Rowan are his curiosity/determination – which leads him to research the hell out of things and remember what he’s learned; the fact that because of his involvement in Witchcraft the spirits of murder victims have for some reason tapped him as their conduit to the world of the living – something he is not overly excited about, mind you; and, that he is head over heels in love with his wife and will do anything for her.

Other than that, he’s just a guy who steps up to the plate, whether he really wants to or not. Sort of on the order of what John McClane said in Die Hard 4 – “That’s what makes him ‘that guy.’”

Rowan and Felicity are a very normal couple in this book; going forward what can we expect for them in their relationship? Will Felicity continue to play a big part in his investigations?

Rowan and Felicity go through hell and back then take another trip or two through it just to take some more pictures. But seriously, their relationship sees its moments – good and bad. They learn things about one another, and their interpersonal connection grows even stronger. Felicity ALWAYS plays a role in the investigations, as she is not only Rowan’s confidant, love, and friend, she is his anchor in this world. And, without giving too much away, I will say that our fiery little Irish-American photographer ends up playing a central role in some of the investigations herself.

Ben has, in Harm None, been shown so much more about Rowan and Felicity than he knew when he began – how does that change him and his relationship with Rowan?

Ben Storm, Rowan’s best friend who is a homicide detective, continues to learn more about Rowan and Felicity just as they learn more about one another. And, the converse is true. Our intrepid couple finds out things about Ben that they never knew or even suspected. The dynamic is ever changing, but what remains constant is the loyalty and bond between true friends.

What has the reaction been from people who practice Wicca? The good, bad and surprising?

The good, probably that there are many Wiccan practitioners out there who thoroughly enjoy my books and keep buying them, which in turn means I get to write more adventures.

As to the “bad” I would have to say that it’s the fact that there is a segment of the Wiccan/Pagan community that doesn’t grasp th concept of the word FICTION. I have had people take me to task because something I have done in one of the books is not “exactly like XYZ Pagan tradition would do it,” or the fact that magic works easily. The amusing thing is, I’ve literally received this sort of dressing down from a Pagan who was wearing a Harry Potter T-shirt. Sort of makes you wonder if you know what I mean.

The reality is this – Pagans/Wiccans are just people. If I wrote about the everyday life of a Pagan the readers – Pagan or not – would be bored out of their skulls. And, like I said, these are works of Fiction.

On the note of surprising – probably the poor, lost soul who met me at a Pagan Festival, then read one of my books, and then posted a review on Amazon that went on and on about what a great and interesting guy I am but that she couldn’t reccomend my books because they “aren’t what Wicca is all about.” It’s a tossup between that one, and the woman who was using my books (Fiction mind you) as instructional textbooks for her coven.

What are your literary influences?

Hmm… That’s hard to say. If we are talking about other authors, probably Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allen Poe.

Do you plan to write more focusing on a different religion?

Well, in the RGI books Rowan ends up investigating Vodoun and Hoodoo, as well as dealing with a Christian fanatic (not that I believe all Christians are fanatics, believe me. There are fanatics in ALL religions, and that goes for Wicca too.) However, I doubt that I would ever write another entire series that is focused solely on a particular path or religion.

What is the most important lesson that your studies in religious diversity have taught you? Will Rowan, by any chance, be dealing with something like this in this series?

First, that there are fanatics and crazies everywhere you look. Second, and most important, that we are all heading toward the same place, just getting there by different roads. There are common threads through ALL religions, and if folks had a more well-rounded education in that respect, I have a feeling there would be much less fighting in the name of any particular religious path. And, I think I might have pre-answered you on the latter with #7… Rowan definitely learns these things as the character develops. In fact, he even has a crises of faith or two…

Being a self-admitted homebody, how do you interact with your fans? Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc..?

Being a homebody and being allowed to be a homebody are actually two different things. In reality, I tour quite a bit – or, did up until the economy put the hurt on travel. However, even though my touring has scaled back, I still hit the road and do book signings, festivals, conventions, and seminars. I used to spend upwards of 6 months on the road – not all at once, of course, although there were a few 21 day stints. These days, with the depressed economy and cost of travel, it is more like 2 months, or maybe a little more.

To make up for that I definitely do the “virtual appearance” thing. I not only blog twice each week, but also guest blog on other sites, toss things out on Twitter, and have a very active Facebook Profile AND Fan Page. I’m also on Myspace and a few other social networks.

I also have a “street team” called the RGI Ghoul Squad. These are some of my really dedicated fans who go around to bookstores, conventions, etc, handing out posters, bookmarks, chapter sampler booklets, and the like. There’s even a website for them at www.rowangant.com

If you could tell potential readers one thing about your series, what would it be?

Leave your lights on.

But seriously, I’d probably say, “Rowan Gant is a guy with a curse – the spirits of the dead want his help and they just won’t leave him alone.”

I hope that qualifies as “one thing.”

If your book was made into a film, which actors would you want to play the main characters?

Hmm… That changes from day to day, honestly. There are actors whom I would have loved to have play the characters back when I first started writing the series, but now they would be too old, unless they started with the later books. In reality, I think it would be great if such were to happen and they went with a cast of extremely talented unknowns. That way they could mold the characters and not have any expectations placed upon them from previous roles.

If you could spend time with any author (alive or dead) who would it be and why? What would you expect to gain from that experience?

Do I really have to pick only one? In all honesty, I spend time with other authors quite a bit, and we all learn from one another – or just commiserate. That’s necessary sometimes too. LOL.

But, if I had to pick just one I’d probably say Molly Ivins. I’m not sure exactly what I’d learn, but I can guarantee I’d spend a lot of time laughing with her, and that’s worth quite a bit in my book.

We thank M. R. Sellars for a great interview!

Here is the link to M.R. Sellars on Good Reads and you can follow him on Twitter.

R.J. Anderson is the author of the Faery Rebels series. The second book in the series, Wayfarer, will be released June 2010.

A Little About R.J.: R.J. Anderson (known to her friends as Rebecca) was born in Uganda, raised in Ontario, went to school in New Jersey, and has spent much of her life dreaming of other worlds entirely.

As a child she immersed herself in fairy tales, mythology, and the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and E. Nesbit; later she discovered more contemporary authors like Ursula LeGuin, Patricia A. McKillip and Robin McKinley, and learned to take as much pleasure from their language as the stories they told.

Now married and a mother of three, Rebecca reads to her sons the classic works of fantasy and science fiction that enlivened her own childhood, and tries to bring a similar sense of humor, adventure, and timeless wonder to the novels she writes for children and young adults. She currently lives in the beautiful theatre town of Stratford, Ontario. SOURCE

OBS: Who are your literary influences?

R.J.: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and George MacDonald defined my childhood love of fantasy; in my early teens I was influenced by Patricia A. McKillip, Susan Cooper, Ursula K. LeGuin and Robin McKinley.

OBS: What are you currently reading?

R.J.: I’m just about to start into Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner. I’ve heard lots of good things about it. After that I’ve got Flora’s Dare by Y.S. Wilce — I loved her first book Flora Segunda, so I’m looking forward to it.

OBS: What is your favorite book? Favorite character(s)?

R.J.: I just did another interview that asked this question, where I mentioned The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis and Jared Sapiens from Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron. So I’ll pick another favourite book, Connie Willis’s hilarious, romantic, madcap Edwardian time-travelling novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, and admit my deep and abiding adoration for Faramir in The Lord of the Rings.

OBS: What brought about the idea for Wayfarer?

R.J.: Well, the first book in the series hadn’t really wrapped up all the loose ends, so I always knew that there would have to be a sequel. But for reasons that will be clear to anyone who’s read Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter a.k.a. Knife, I needed a different faery heroine to resolve those dangling issues. The only possible candidate was Linden, a character who is just a baby in the first book — so I had to jump forward fourteen years in order to tell her story. Basically the first book laid the whole foundation for the second, but I also knew I didn’t want to write the same book with the same characters twice, so Linden and Timothy are very different from Knife and Paul and the adventure that they share is a very different one as well.

All that being said, it’s quite possible to read Wayfarer without having read the first book, and I know quite a few people who have done it. I try to make each of my books self-contained and satisfying on its own.

OBS: How much and what kind of research did you do for Wayfarer?

R.J.: First I read a lot of faery folklore, looking for legends and ideas that I hadn’t seen used by other authors — and I came across a little-known Welsh story that turned out to be perfect for my purposes. Knowing where those particular faeries lived gave me a good idea of where my characters would need to go to find them, and once I had a rough idea of the journey they’d take, I flew over to the UK and took that same journey myself. It was a wonderful research trip, and a great tenth-anniversary vacation for myself and my husband.

OBS: How do you develop your characters in your books? Is there a character you enjoyed writing the most? The least?

R.J.: Usually my characters begin with a mental picture and/or a name. Finding the right name is incredibly important to my process; a character’s whole personality can hinge on it. But once I’ve got those basics, I find out most of what I need to know during the writing process. Sometimes my characters surprise me by developing in ways I never expected!

Thorn, who is a secondary character in the first book and a minor one in the third, is always a favourite of mine. She’s so unapologetically herself and says exactly what she thinks, so you can always count on her to get straight to the point when everybody else is dancing around it. But really I love writing all my characters, even the hateful ones, because they bring tension and conflict into the story, and isn’t that what stories are all about?

OBS: Was it difficult to get your books published?

R.J.: Let me put it this way: it was difficult for me to learn what I needed to know in order to get published. I kept getting discouraged and giving up for months or years at a time, and I didn’t realize how valuable some of the feedback I was getting from editors and agents really was. But once I stopped seeing my rejections as just rejections and started taking the advice they contained, things moved much more quickly for me. The crucial skill I needed to learn was to revise — not just tweak and polish and make my prose shiny, but really take my book’s structure apart and put it together in a new way. And I didn’t learn that skill until I’d finished two complete novel manuscripts, and spent nearly fifteen years trying to get published.

OBS: What draws you to writing Young Adult and children’s books? Do you plan on writing adult books?

R.J.: Spell Hunter was originally written for adults, actually; it took me ten years to realize that it would work just as well or better for a teen audience, and just how fruitful and diverse a genre YA had become in the meantime. I’d always loved children’s fantasy literature and still do, but once I got into my teens I jumped straight to adult fantasy, having dismissed YA as “Judy Blume and all those problem novels” because, well, that was what I’d grown up seeing as YA. But there’s been this wonderful renaissance in the past ten or so years, and now there are so many wonderful YA fantasy and science fiction books, and so few restrictions on what stories you can tell within the YA sphere, I hardly read — or can see myself writing — anything else.

OBS: What are some future projects you have in mind?

R.J.: My third faery book, Arrow, is coming out in January 2011, and the following January will see a fourth book in the series, called Swift. But in between those two publications I have a YA paranormal thriller called Touching Indigo, which I like to describe as Girl, Interrupted meets The X-Files. It’s the story of a 17-year-old girl who ends up in a psychiatric hospital for teens following the death of a schoolmate, struggling to prove her sanity and control her increasingly powerful and unsettling abilities. It’ll be out next summer in both the UK and the US.

OBS: Is it difficult to find time to write while raising your 3 boys?

R.J.: It’s become a lot easier as they’ve become older and started school, so now I can write during the day. But it’s always a discipline to set aside uninterrupted writing time. I get most of my writing done in the early afternoons when two of the three are in school, and after 8:30 at night when they’ve all gone to bed.

OBS: What is one thing you would like your fans to know about you and your books?

R.J.: That I really try to do things that haven’t been done before, where faeries are concerned. I know there are a lot of faery books out there, and it’s pretty hard to tell just from the cover whether a book is something fresh or just a re-tread of ideas we’ve seen before, but I think that if people pick up one of my books they will find something different there. Whether they’ll like it or not — well, that’s the part I can’t control! But at least they won’t be able to say, “Oh, that’s exactly like the faery book I read last week…”

Thank you R.J. for a great interview!!

For more information about R.J. and her books please visit her WEBSITE

A little about Anne: Anne Bishop lives in upstate New York where she enjoys gardening, music, and writing dark, romantic stories. She is the author of thirteen novels, including the award-winning Black Jewels Trilogy. Her most recent novel is Shalador’s Lady, a book set in the Black Jewels world. She is currently working on a collection of Black Jewels stories. Since you’re reading this, there’s no point in telling you to visit her website at www.annebishop.com.

OBS:  What motivates you to write about controversial issues and the darker side of humanity?

Anne: I don’t choose the stories; the stories choose me. It’s a bit like an oyster with a grain of sand. Something intrigues me–a thought, an image, an idea. Other thoughts, images, ideas begin accumulating around that initial one. The story continues growing that way until I have a place, the people, and the moment when their journey begins. At that point, I begin writing. I don’t ask myself if it’s dark or controversial. I just tell the story about those people in that time and place.

OBS: What inspires you in your characters formations?

Anne: I don’t think of creating characters in concrete terms, but my interest in each one begins with two questions: who are you, and what do you want?

OBS: Which character from all your books do you identify with most and why? Which are your favorites?

Anne: I identify with all the characters to some degree, good and bad. I have to see with their eyes and live in their skins in order to tell their parts of the story. Some days that is a very uncomfortable thing to do. Favorites? Daemon Sadi from the Black Jewels books. Sebastian from the Ephemera books. Morag from the Tir Alainn books.

OBS: What sort of books did you read growing up? What were your favorites then and now?

Anne: I read all kinds of books. Lots of animal stories–Lad, the Black Stallion, etc. Horror. Mysteries. Then I discovered Andre Norton, and that opened up the genres of fantasy and science fiction. Now it’s fantasy, romance and paranormal romance, and mysteries for the most part.

OBS: What future projects are you working on? Can you tell us anything about them?

Anne: The next book, which is coming out in March 2011, is a Black Jewels story collection called *Twilight’s Dawn.* I’ve just started writing a new book set in the landscapes of Ephemera, which is scheduled to come out in March 2012.

Thank you Anne for the great interview!!

A little about Annie: Imprint is my first book and there are others to follow, each tale I write is about life after death, because I work with those who have gone ahead. Like a lot of clairvoyants I never really had a choice about connecting with ghosts, and now I find using fiction as a platform I’m able to share what I do with others. Mind you I spent a lot of my life trying my best to disconnect myself from spirits, but eventually realised it was best to embrace the pathway or live in fear of it. I’ve never looked back after making my decision.

 I will not bore you too much about my lifestyle, I’m happily married with a teenage son and own two cats and a dog. We live in the north east of England in a small village.

My next book is out very soon with Pegasus and is called The Quiet Road, don’t be fooled by the title…..there’s plenty shocks under the cover. I’ve more stories in the pipeline, all filled with spiritual possibilites and anyone who likes poetry can view some on booksbeyondtheveil.

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OBS:  In “The Quiet Road”, your main character is some one who is a skeptic of supernatural occurrences but, through his trips on the Quiet Road and the consequences on it, learns there is more to life and the afterlife than he realized. He also manages to open up other people’s eyes to this possibility. Is this an important message for you to get across to readers?

Annie: I think so. I do prefer to use fiction and then readers aren’t force to think in any mode. I’d like my stories to offer possibilities to inquisitive minds.

OBS: Is it hard for you to reconcile the ideas surrounding mental health/psychology and the experiences you have seen as a medium?

Annie: My work as a medium delivers so many things that others don’t/can’t relate to. So many things are explained in human domains, but there isn’t always the same attitude to spirit interaction. A lot of people want to dismiss it, remain neutral or avoid it completely.

OBS: How much of your overall life experiences shape what you write about?

Annie:  To me the world of spirit is a void. Within it are untold tales waiting to be recorded. Spirit people have just as loud voices as the living only with a different tone and my work with spirit continues to grace my writing. Most of what write is coloured by the world of spirit.

OBS: What would you consider your biggest drive that compels you to write?

Annie: My mediumship is my pen-friend! The written word offers me freedom in so many ways. No one can fully understand until they experience just one ghostly apparition for themselves.

OBS: Are the characters in your book ‘Imprint’ entities you have come across via your work as a medium?

Annie: Spirits often present themselves while I write or to spur me into writing. I’ve lost count of the spirits I’ve crossed paths with. The characters in Imprint came to tell the tale and only left words behind.

OBS: Where did you get the inspiration for ‘Imprint”?

Annie:  One day I was told to write Imprint, but I thought it was a poem. Turned out to be a story channeled for the reader to absorb.

OBS: Not to assume, but you believe in reincarnation, yes? If answer is yes…: How many past lives do you think you have had?

Annie: I believe in reincarnation and know that I have lived many times in many outfits.

OBS: The characters lives are connected through violent or selfish acts…do you believe all past lives are connected like they are in Imprint?

Annie: No I don’t. Imprint was an example of human behaviour, but just as violence can invade us, love and decency can present itself. Man never seems to learn in one life time so perhaps needs a few more to stretch different limbs!

OBS: Did you learn anything from writing ‘Imprint’? If so, what was it?

Annie: I learnt I had to write more…..

OBS: Who designed Imprint’s cover and why did you choose this image?

Annie: The cover of Imprint was designed by a graphic designer at Pegasus and when I first laid eyes on it I was shocked. The image captured everything and more about the witch. I believe the designer provided the perfect cover for Imprint and I phoned him to say thank you for his superb work.

OBS: What are you currently working on?

Annie: Pegasus are considering one of my children’s stories (not spooky) and I’ve quite few stories ready and waiting. At the moment I’m working on a tale called Xrossed and it is all about ghostly activity in every day life. I’ve another story raring to go, it is all done and dusted. It’s a story about a dead alcoholic- it will take the reader on a rollercoaster ride!

OBS: Are you reading any books? If so, what are they?

Annie: I’m too busy writing to find time to read.

OBS: Who is your favorite author and why?

Annie: I love Charles Dickens, because he opens the readers mind with such ease.

OBS: In regards to reincarnation… While living on life, would you want to be aware of other lives you have had, or do you think it best to remain unaware? Why?

Annie: I think it is best not to be fully aware of lives you have lived before. It can cause so many problems in so many ways. It would be great if every one had lived perfect lives. But everyone is different so what some can deal with others can’t. An old life isn’t a gentle breeze, it is a hurricane to contend with.

OBS: If you weren’t a medium, would you still write about the same subjects?

Annie: I wouldn’t write as strongly as I do, because I wouldn’t be so connected to the subject.

Thanks Annie for the great interview!

You can read more about her work HERE

Book trailer for Imprint is HERE

OBS Review for Imprint HERE

The Quiet Road book trailer HERE

OBS Review for The Quiet Road HERE