Books-n-Kisses is very excited to welcome the wonderfully talented Alexandra Ivy to the blog today. Along with getting to know Alex just a little better we are going to be talking about her new novella releases in Supernatural (Sept 2011) & The Real Werewifes of Vampire County (Nov 2011) and her upcoming release of Bound by Darkness (Dec 2011).
Kelly: Alex, I can call you Alex, right?
Alex: Absolutely J
Kelly: Alex, thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule to sit down and talk with me about you and your books.
Alex: Thank YOU, Kelly! I love the opportunity to talk to readers. I am, after all, an avid reader and any chance I can talk books and writing makes me a very happy girl!!
Kelly: Can I get you anything before we start? Coffee, Tea, Soda, Water, cookies?
Alex: I’m addicted to diet pepsi, but I’ve given up most of my bad habits so I refuse to compromise J
Kelly: Okay now that we are ready let’s get started.
Q1) Alex, can you please tell us a little about yourself.
Alex: I live in northeast Missouri (Mark Twain territory) not far from the Mississippi River with my husband and two sons. For the past six years I’ve been a fulltime writer, but before that I worked at a local college as an Activity Director, which I loved! I still miss my students, although I now get to spend my days surrounded by yummy vampires, Weres, and Sylvermyst…not bad J
Q2) Have you always wanted to be an author?
Alex: I’ve always been a writer, even when I was very young, but I actually wanted to be an actress, and I even majored in Theatre in college. Then took a playwriting class and I absolutely knew I loved inventing my own world with characters that I wanted to read about! After the birth of my oldest son I had the opportunity to stay home and I started writing what I love to read…romance.
Q3) What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
Alex: I write out the book in play format first. I do all the dialog with a few stage directions and then go back and fill in the rest! I think it helps me to keep the characters driving the story.
Q4) Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?
Alex: I started out with Jane Austen and Victoria Holt (not a bad place to start J) and then I found Harlequin romances that I consumed in mass quantities. I also loved the great, sweeping historical writers like Rosemary Rogers. They all influenced me in some way, but I think the greatest influence came from playwrights like Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde and Neil Simon. Their ability to use words with such razor-sharp wit is a constant inspiration.
Let’s talk books:
Q5) How did you come up with the idea for your Guardians of Eternity Series?
Alex: When Darkness Comes was written just for me as a private tribute to Buffy and Angel. But after I finished the book I realized that I had fallen in love with the idea of a Chicago vampire clan who had to protect the world and the Guardians were born.
Q6) Can you tell us a little about your new novella Darkness Eternal that can be found in the book Supernatural.
Alex: This story is about Kata (who is the mother of Laylah from Devoured by Darkness) and Uriel (introduced in Yours for Eternity) It’s Uriel’s duty to rescue Kata from her prison, but while he feels sorry for the female he has no desire to become involved with a gypsy who had the child of a Jinn. Not after he was cursed by the very same Jinn. Kata in return has no interest in becoming involved with a vampire, even if he does have the beauty of a fallen angel. After all, it was a vampire who held her captive for the past four hundred years. Unfortunately they must learn to trust one another if they’re to escape the hell they’ve been sucked into.
Q7) Can you tell us about your next novella Where Darkness Lives that can be found in The Real Werewifes of Vampire County (have to say I LOVE the name of this book)
Alex: Sophia is the mother of Darcy, Regan, Harley, and Cassie and real bitch, which made her a perfect choice for the Housewife antho! She’s in danger, but when her bodyguard shows up, she realizes there’s more than one kind of trouble. Luc is a six foot, smokin’ hot pureblooded Were from Miami. He has his own reasons for traveling to Chicago, but once he meets Sophia he knows nothing will satisfy him but complete, delicious surrender.
Q8) Your next full length novel is Bound by Darkness will be released in December 2011. Can you tell us more about Ariyal & Jaelyn’s story?
Alex: I love, love, love this story! Ariyal is the prince of Sylvermyst, the dark fey who have just come out of the closest J Well, actually they’ve just been released from Avalon where they were held as sex slaves by the batshit crazy Morgana le Fey. Now that he’s at last free, Ariyal’s desperate to halt the return of the Dark Lord, even if it means sacrificing an innocent. Jaelyn is a trained Hunter. One of the rare vampires who have been taken into a secret program to become an elite warrior. She’s been hired by the Oracles to keep track of Ariyal, but for once her sense of responsibility is threatened. Ariyal is her target, but his potent fey beauty and his tortured past stirs emotions that she thought destroyed decades ago. Will she follow the dictates of duty or give into the yearnings of her heart?
Q9) Bound by Darkness is book 8 in your Guardians of Eternity series. Do you know how many more books will be in the series?
Alex: I’ve been contracted for a total of 14 books and six novellas!
Q9) Do you know who’s book is up after Ariyal?
Alex: Yes, Caine and Cassie will be next in Fear the Darkness. Right now it’s scheduled for release Sept. 2012. If it gets moved up I’ll be sure and announce it on my website.
Q10) Do you have a favorite character in your series? If so, can you share who & why they are your favorite
Alex: Absolutely Levet! When he first appeared in Embrace the Darkness I fell in love with him…thankfully my readers seem to like him as well so he keeps popping up!
Q11) Does your family read your stories? What do they think of them?
Alex: My husband reads them after they come out in print, and the boys usually hear the sex parts read out loud when they go to parties…sigh. They seem to take it in good humor for the most part!
Q12) what would you say is the most challenging & rewarding part about being an author?
Alex: The most challenging is always time. There are so many hours in the day and it never seems to be enough. I’ve become a lot more organized, but I still wish I could have that watch Hermoine had in Harry Potter so I could go back an hour and get more done J The most rewarding is always the readers. When I hear from someone who tells me that they were sitting by a sick relative in the hospital and having my book to read helped them get through the day is just about the nicest compliment anyone could ever receive.
Q13) Best piece of advice you would give to anyone who is interested in becoming an author.
Alex: Don’t. Ever. Give. Up. I just can’t say it enough times. It took me ten years and more rejections than you can imagine for me to get published. A dream is something that should never be forgotten or put aside. Keep writing, keep trying, and keep your goals in mind.
Q14) Okay, I always like to know what authors have in their To Read Pile… Tell me the one book you are dying to read next.
Alex: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin. It took years before it finally came out and now I’m too busy to read it L
Q15) Alex, is there anything else you would like to add?
Alex: Just a huge thank you to my readers!! Not only for buying my books, but sharing your love for them with your friends. This wild adventure I’ve been on wouldn’t be possible without you. There’s not a day that passes that I’m not deeply grateful to every single one of you!
Books-n-Kisses, Alex again thank you so very much for taking the time to sit down and talk with me. I have enjoyed learning about you and your books.
Kelly: Alex, what do you say we do a giveaway of one of your books?
Alex: I’m delighted to give away one copy of The Real Werewives of Vampire County and one ARC for Bound by Darkness.
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