Interview with Sage Collins

Today we're chatting with author Sage Collins about her recent debut, LOVE SUCKS.

Hi Sage! Welcome to We Do Write. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Oh, man, you want to know about me?  Well, I'm a mad scientist by day, a writer by night, and a singer any time I think I can get away with it.  I am obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Just this March I found out that I could actually run, so now I'm working my way up to doing a half-marathon at Disney World next February.

How long have you been writing?

Technically, I've been writing since I was a little girl, making up stories about little cats and poems about Alaska.  Then I went through a phase where I decided I couldn't write at all.  In 2001, I started writing fanfiction for myself and my friends based on a RPG we were playing.  I've been writing original fiction since 2004.

LOVE SUCKS has a gorgeous cover! What’s the story about?

Thank you!  Love Sucks is about a girl who drains love with her touch, but wishes desperately to be loved herself. Or...How much love would a love sucker suck if a love sucker fell in love?  (Try saying that three times fast.)

The description from my publisher is:

Mailee’s greatest wish is to be an ordinary teenage girl, but thanks to one stupid demon gene, she consumes love from any human she touches.  The only person she can touch is her best friend Eric, a hot lust-drainer. Except for slight hand-brushes to keep from starving, she avoids humans.

Until she meets Logan, a diabetic and the first human who could understand Mailee’s diet angst.  She grows closer to him, but each touch risks his love for her.  If she wants a normal relationship, she’ll have to become human. But the only way requires her to free and be infected by demons representing the Seven Deadly Sins. Sloth? Pride? No problem.  But when wrath-infected Mailee punches the cheerleader who’s making eyes at Eric, she realizes getting through the sins might cost too much.

Like Eric. Because if she turns human, he’ll be the only one she can’t touch.

Sounds awesome! How did the idea of the story come to you?

You're going to think all my stories come from games!  There was a game on a writing site where we practiced our characters' voices.  My character from a previous novel was talking to a character who drained some kind of negative emotion.  And mine exclaimed that that was just horrible.  The other character said it wasn't bad at all, that it was the love-drainers you had to watch out for.  Instantly, I envisioned this poor girl who drained loved with her touch, but didn't want to.  She wasn't malevolent, she just needed to eat.  And she wanted nothing more than to be loved, but a single touch would take that away.  Enter Mailee.

Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?

I self-edit first and get the novel pretty clean before I send to betas.  My betas come from various sources, including my real-life writing group (my NaNo peeps), a group of online writing friends, and whoever volunteers on Absolute Write.

Are you a planner or a pantser?

I'm a planster.  I do not outline because a rigid outline makes me be less creative, but when I have no idea where I'm going at all, I find myself floundering.  I usually have several scenes planned out in my head, and I aim for those.  I also loosely outline by making a soundtrack that grows and evolves while I write.  The advantage of the soundtrack is that I find it really easy to remove songs, add songs, or change their positions when I realize something needs changing. Sometimes the story I've already written dictates the soundtrack, but sometimes the soundtrack gives me guidance for the plot and character arcs.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

These days I have no confidence in my romance scenes.  I don't know why.  It happened some time after I wrote Love Sucks, but so far my betas assure me that the romance scenes in the novel I'm revising are perfectly fine.  In one novel I wrote, I was so thrown by a romance scene that I couldn't write for several weeks (and I needed to know the outcome of that scene to move forward). 

In general, sometimes I get bogged down in the Great Swampy Middle and have trouble finding the motivation to write.  I usually feel okay about beginnings (even those I know I need to rewrite are a good starting point), and I love writing my climaxes and ends, but the middle is usually where I lose motivation.

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

My iPhone.  For one thing, when I'm deeply writing, I need to have my headphones on and music playing (the Doctor Who soundtrack is my preferred writing music, particularly seasons 3 and 4).  If I'm querying, the iPhone gives me the assurance that I'll hear it when an e-mail comes through so that I don't have to keep flipping to the internet to check. And I've found recently that when I get stuck on how to word the next piece of description or action or what the next bit of dialogue will sound like, I can take a Bejeweled Blitz break.  I always think while I play (hold arguments with people I'm mad at, remember scenes from television shows or movies, or, more helpfully, imagine a scene in a novel I'm working on), and since it's a one-minute game, I'm held to going back to work a minute later.

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

When I was younger, I would picture myself sprouting wings from my shoulder blades and taking off.  I realize now that that would probably be kind of painful.  But being able to fly would be pretty awesome.  I have a few novels with winged girls (and boys too).

What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

I Googled this for the book I'm revising and failed to find the answer, unfortunately.  In my college zoology class, I dissected a gravid alligator.  She was supposed to have eggs in these cavities in her body, but instead of eggs, my partner and I found baby alligators.  My prof gave a reason for why these eggs hatched inside her, but it was 14 years ago, and I don't remember.  So I tried to Google the reason.  Well, it turns out that while I can find all sorts of information about alligator egg-laying and egg care or all sorts of information about trying to end alligator dissection altogether, I cannot find the answer to my question.  (I suspect the eggs hatched after mama died.)

Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: outrageous, minuscule, and ski lift. 

(What is this "quick writing" you speak of?) LOL!

Jasper looked beyond his outrageous, neon-orange shoes at the people far below his seat on the ski lift and marveled at how miniscule they looked from up here.

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

*takes some bows*  Thank you, thank you.  This couldn't be down without the outrageous support of the Musers, who keep me as sane as a writer could be.  My NaNo peeps' help is far from miniscule, particularly during the plotting and writing stage.   And I would like to thank my parents, who are currently on vacation and could totally be reading this on their phones from a ski lift, for always being supportive no matter what creative endeavor I take on.

And finally, where can people find you and your book online?

My poor blog has been neglected lately, but I always go back.  You can find it here:

http://sagelikethespice.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Sagecollins

Facebook (Be nice! I'm new to it.): http://www.facebook.com/sage.collins.16

Love Sucks is an e-book, and it can be found at:

Musa Publishing (all formats): http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=251

Amazon (for Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/Love-Sucks-ebook/dp/B007Y2PLWO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339983503&sr=8-1&keywords=sage+collins+love+sucks

Barnes and Noble (for Nook): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-sucks-sage-collins/1111330896

Thank you so much for chatting with us, Sage! I will definitely be reading this book. 

Thank you so much for having me over, Dorothy!

Interview with Ariel Ceylan

Today we're talking with author Ariel Ceylan about her series, THE TALES OF WHITHITH.

Welcome to We Do Write, Ariel. Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been writing?

I've been telling stories since I was playing with barbies, but I started actively writing when I was thirteen. That was seven years ago.

Tell us about THE TALES OF WHITHITH series. What is the story about?

The Tales of Whithith series is about an unwilling heroine who is trying to save the worlds from ultimate destruction because her conscience would not allow her to sit idly by while everything goes up in flames. That's Zili's story. Zephyr's story is the story of a good boy who learns that everything that he has ever known is not exactly true about the world. 

How did the idea of the story come to you?The idea came to me in class in sixth grade. I had a writing prompt about this "gang" from Whithith. I put the idea aside and when I was cleaning out my room over the summer, I came across the piece again. Then I came to wondering, who's in the gang? Where do they come from? Why are they chasing an amulet? 


Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?My beta readers are my brother and my mother. If my brother is not entertained, then I have a ton of plot editing to do. If my mother gets mad, then I have a ton of grammatical editing to do. 


Are you a planner or a pantser?I'm a little bit of a planner and a little bit of a pantster. I plan out my characters' identities. I know who they are and their flaws intimately. There are some crucial events that must occur for the story to progress, but ultimately, how the characters get there is up to them. I give birth to people, but they choose the lives they live. 

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?The hardest part of writing is editing. Everything makes sense to me! I just can't understand why no one else gets it. 

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?When I write, I absolutely must have a pen and a composition notebook. I don't like spiral-ring notebooks or memo pads. It must be a composition book. (Weird, I know.) 

If you could have any super power, what would it be?If I could have any superpower, it would be invisibility. That way I could get research done undetected. (heh heh heh) 

What's the weirdest thing you've googled?The weirdest thing I've ever googled is Lady Gaga's meat dress. 

Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: suspenders, ulterior motive, and 
bubbles.

I stared into his brown orbs, I knew that he had an ulterior motive as he pulled up his suspenders and murmured, "bubbles".


LOL, oh dear, the weird images that just went through my head!Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

Thanks to my brother and mother for being there for the infancy of my writing! Thanks to my bff for being excited for me as I worked on my childhood dreams!


And finally, where can people find you and your books online?


People can find my books online on Amazon (both physical and digital copies).

Thanks for stopping by the blog, Ariel. And good luck with your books!

Author Update: Chris Stevenson

Don't you love return guests? So do I! That's why I'm glad to announce that author Chris Stevenson is back to chat with us. He's got a new book coming out, so let's learn more about it.

Welcome back, Chris! Tell us about THE WOLFEN STRAIN. What’s the story about?

Tagline/Hook:

Seth Anson, a lovelorn forest ranger, never thought that he would shoot the first eligible woman he met after his divorce. Nor did he think that he would fall in love with her after nursing her back to health. But he certainly isn’t prepared to find out that she is the result of a DNA cloning experiment gone horribly wrong and, is in fact, a hybrid wolf/human. To complicate matters, she also has no idea of her true identity.

Seth finds out early on that Melina Salinger is a handful. He mistakenly believes that she suffers from hypertrichosis (werewolf syndrome), and that she has escaped from a care facility. She confesses later that she has been confined in an underground missile silo by her geneticist father, Davis Salinger, and the only thing she knows about everyday life has been gleaned from video movies and television. Now she wants to be a normal girl.

It isn’t easy trying to indoctrinate a woman into society who pants, growls and thinks that Emerald City is a real place somewhere over the rainbow. The ritual shavings and skin maintenance are enough to drive him crazy. Moreover, when she goes into a feverish estrus cycle, sex and passion seem like blunt-force trauma.

Just when Seth thinks he has things under control, Melina becomes deathly ill. Her mysterious father shows up to offer aid, and then shockingly confesses that she carries ancient wolf DNA. After recovering, Melina, shamed and traumatized by this knowledge, becomes suicidal and runs away. Only her father left out the part about her other litter mate – a grotesque monster, Romulus, has just broken out of the silo compound. Romulus is bent on finding her for the purpose of mating and will kill anyone who gets in his way.

Seth has to use his skills as a ranger to find Melina in the Wyoming wilderness. He has Romulus out in front of him, the National Guard, the sheriff’s office, a maniac cryptozoologist, and every monster-hunting vigilante in the state hot on his heels. He has to decide if it is guilt that drives him on his quest to find Melina, or that somehow, this wild and beautiful female was destined to be the love of his life.

The Wolfen Strain examines the lurid morality issues that are dealt with in The Island of Doctor Moreau. Yet the predominant theme is that of forbidden love, found in Beauty and the Beast, only with the gender rolls reversed.

How did the idea of the story come to you?

When my second agent went to the BEA a few years back, he did so with the express purpose of asking each editor he met what (exactly) they were looking for as pertains to the next big thing. He made a lot of face to face contact and scribbled voluminous notes. One publisher, the small black and white bird from the Antarctic, replied that they would love to see a new spin on a werewolf tale. My agent queried me and asked if I was up to the task. I said I was, and that I had conditions. The conditions were, that I would not follow the general trope—howlings, full moon, Lycanthropy and silver bullets. If they wanted a unique concept, I would really give it to them. I thought about what Michael Crichton had done with Jurassic Park, and thought about the current Thylacine Project, and how ancient DNA was being processed to resurrect extinct, hybrid animals. So I devised a way to find and reproduce the genome in an ice dire wolf. But this dire wolf was a man-eater. When the scientist performs the experiment, his protocol serum somehow replicates the human gene, which gives birth to a human/wolf hybrid. In addition, two other litter mates are spawned: a true ice age dire wolf and a grotesque monster. Of course, with this three-pack combination, all hell breaks lose.

Without giving too much away, what's your favorite part of the book?

Melina Salinger is just the strangest female creature that Seth Anson has ever seen. He has a lot of trouble teaching her about ladylike behavior and what is expected of a woman in today's society. The funniest part is when she enters an estrus cycle and chases Seth around the tower room, demanding a mating ritual. He more or less gets raped when she overpowers him. It's an awkward, but memorable scene.

Best time of day to write?

I try to get in a major chunk of writing during the morning hours. That's when I have most of my energy. Then I have to do my farm chores, which might take about three to four hours. I'll come back to the house, shower, and attempt to pull another stint at the keyboard. I steal as much time as I can during the day, and have been known to writer into the late, wee hours of the night and early morning.

Who are your top three favorite characters from books by other authors?

Ethan Fortune, in Alan Dean Foster's book, Icerigger, is a favorite character of mine. He's stranded on an ice world with a race of furry giants, and just can't seem to get with the program, without embarrassing himself or breaking some kind of cultural law. Skua September (from the same book), is the opposite of Ethan—he's brash, reckless and a fighter, who doesn't really care who's cultural laws he steps on. Philo Skinner, from the book, Black Marble, is an unforgettable rogue who schemes his way through every hour of the day, taking advantage of anyone who crosses his path. He's disgusting, smokes three packs of cigarettes a day, and gags so frequently that he cannot speak at times. He cries often, and wonders why life has dealt him such a terrible lot.

Where can we find your new book online?

As of this writing, The Wolfen Strain is not up on Amazon yet. But it will be this month, after June 26^th. You have only to Google it in the Kindle section. A trade paperback will be released two months after the ebook release. You can find it also from the publisher's website here:

http://lachesispublishing.com/

Thanks for updating us, Chris. Good luck with your new book!

Guest Post by Brenda Stanley

The Color of Snow

Can a troubled young girl reenter society after living in isolation?

When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora--a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed.

Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.

Guest Post by Brenda Stanley

The Color of Snow has been described as dark or mysterious.  I feel most of my writing fits this description because I enjoy looking at the strange and unusual things in life.  My novel will definitely make some people uncomfortable.  I like to look at situations and issues and try to figure out how people will react.  For years I was a crime reporter, so I enjoy investigating stories and learning about the parts of life most people try to hide.  When I wrote The Color of Snow, I was working on a story about a young girl who went missing years ago and has never been found.  I started thinking about what would happen if she were to suddenly show up now.  I loved putting myself in Sophie’s shoes and seeing things for the first time.

Sophie’s relationship with Damien is both intense and tempered.  Her father has raised her to believe that she will destroy anyone who truly loves her, so she is torn between her love for Damien and her fear of causing him harm.

The story changes between what is going on with Sophie and what happened in her parent’s past that brought her to where she is.  I wanted readers to experience the often isolated feeling of living in a vast rural area, but also the mental confinement of a small town.

Mental illness, teen pregnancy, religious intolerance, and racism are all big parts of The Color of Snow.  I like my characters to face challenges and see them grow from them.  It is not only the conflicts with the other characters that keeps the story going, but also those within the person’s own mind.

I wanted Sophie to be unusually beautiful so that people treated her strangely and therefore made her feel even more alien when she is first discovered.  She has transformed from a tragic kidnapping victim to a mythical ghost from the past and this makes her transition into her new life even more difficult.

My ties to the Mormon Church go back to my great-great grandparents.  I was raised in the teachings of the Mormon religion and even though I am no longer a member, I have many friends and family who are still very active in the church.  My descriptions of the Mormon culture are how I view it and how I feel someone who has never been exposed to it might see it.  I think there are a lot of people who are curious about the Mormon religion and have misconceptions.  I feel I’ve been both candid and fair in my portrayal.

Brenda Stanley is the former news anchor at her NBC affiliate KPVI in Eastern Iadho. Her writing has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards, the Idaho Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists. She is a graduate of Dixie College in St. George, Utah, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Brenda lived for two years in Ballard, Utah, within the Fort Duchesne reservation where the novel is set. She and her husband live on a small ranch near the Snake River with their horses and dogs. 


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Interview with Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

Today we're chatting with author Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar about her latest book, FROM DUNES TO DIOR.

Hi, Mohana! Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm a mother, a professor, a writer, and a happy wife. Trying to live the modern woman's dream, knowing I can't have it all at the same time, but I can enjoy most of it.

How long have you been writing?

For about 10 years. My first short story I wrote in middle school for a favorite teacher. My father told me to use my time more usefully on my homework. Took me a long time (10 years) to go from my first story from an elective in graduate school to my first ebook.

Tell us about FROM DUNES TO DIOR. What's the story about?

Called everything from the world's richest to fattest nation, Qatar has been on the breakneck path towards change for several decades. The capital city Doha, is where our family of three has lived since 2005.

FROM DUNES TO DIOR (ebook available on Amazon.com) is not the stuff of newspaper headlines (they made their money from oil! Thirty years ago everyone was living in tents!) but real life stories about being a South Asian American who lives here (no, I don't have to cover my hair, and yes, I can drive).
How did the idea of the story come to you?

I'd been thinking about it for over five years and writing a few pieces here and there along the way.

Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?

Yes, I do all of the above, and founded the Doha Writers Workshop (a local group of writers) as a critique group/moral support. But for the final edits, I use a professional. It's too hard to edit your own work.

Are you a planner or a pantser?

Planner! Type A... guilty.

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

Pandora! (Or a music source...) and chocolate never hurts. Lately I've taken a healthy turn and eat fruit while drinking green tea. Not making that up!

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

To erase bad memories.

Nice choice! Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: hyperventilate, hypochondriac, and hippopotamus.

The hippopotamus was hyperventilating because he was a hypochondriac.

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

Thank you to RachelintheOc who is my marketing guru.

And finally, where can people find you and your books online?


http://www.mohanalakshmi.com/books/

Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Mohana. I wish you lots of success!

Winner of the Three Two One Pitch Contest!

Finally, the winner of our Three Two One Pitch contest has been decided. I know you've been waiting for this announcement, so I'll cut right to the chase.

Here's what Natalie Lakosil had to say:

This was a tough call! So many good entries! But, after careful review, my winner is:

Triona Murphy

triona.b.murphy(@)gmail.com

THE LONG-TIMERS

YA sci-fi thriller

77,000 words

I would, however, love to see 10 pages from these too:

Laurie Dennison, dennison2969 (at) hotmail (dot) com

Title: TRESPASSERS

YA fantasy

83,000 words

Amanda Hartley

amandawritesya(at)gmail(dot)com

DEAD SISTER DAYS

YA contemporary

57,500 words

Stephanie Haefner

haefner919 at yahoo dot com

Try Me On For Size

Contemporary Romance

80,000

Nazarea Andrews

nazareanandrews@gmail.com 

Across the Stars

YA sci-fi

88,000

Christina Ferko

christinaferko(at)gmail(dot)com

VERITAS

YA Sci-fi

81,000 words

Congratulations, Triona! And congratulations to the bonus winners! How exciting!

Send your emails to Natalie at queries@bradfordlit.com, and please include the words "Requested Material" in the subject line with your title. Also mention in the body of the email that you were chosen to submit from this contest (Agents get lots of submissions, so it helps if you remind her where she "found" you).

Good luck with your submissions, winners!

I'd also like to thank everyone for participating in the contest. It was a lot of fun, and I'm in the process of organizing another contest. I'll keep you posted!

Interview with Mary Sembera

For those of you waiting to hear contest results, I just want to let you know I'll post the winner as soon as Natalie makes her decision. Should be sometime this week. Stay tuned!


Happy Monday, everyone. Today we're talking with author Mary Sembera about her Rennillia series.

Welcome, Mary! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Half Scotch Irish and Half Italian, I was born in Louisiana and now live in Texas. My husband loves me and my three kids keep me on my toes.

How long have you been writing?

Really all my life, as a kid I would write little stories and give them to my mom. However it wasn't until I was a senior in high school and had to write a short story that I fell in love with it.

Tell us about RENNILLIA, A TANGLED WEB, and A TURNING POINT.

Rennillia (book1) begins with Ren running away from an abusive relationship. As she struggles with the decisions she has made she finds her friends, Emerson, Jackson, and Hert are far more devoted to her than she realized. Unable to keep her reason for leaving a secret she formulates a plan for the future and ends up with more than she planned for.

In A Tangled Web (book2) unwelcome and devastating information about their past causes Ren to rethink her plans.

In A Turning Point (book3) Ren begrudgingly takes on the role of 'the right wife' trying to live up to everything she feels is expected of her. Slowly realizing things will never be the same, she faces a harsh heartbreaking reality.

Wow, intense! How did the idea of the stories come to you?

The first book started out as a continuation of my short story 'The Sun Still Shines' (about a couple breaking up), but honestly after 15 years my outlook on things had changed so much, I decided to develop the stories as I write them.

Do you have a critique group/partner or beta readers, or do you self-edit?

I have a little circle of people. My mom reads the chapters as I complete them, my sister in law checks my spelling and punctuation and my close friend reads the completed draft before I submit it for publishing.

Are you a planner or a pantser?

I would say I am a planner, but that would be such a lie!

LOL! If you could have any super power, what would it be?

Teleportation! I hate driving.

What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

Hmm, I don't think I have googled anything wierd, but I do have a habit of googling myself and my husband says that's wierd.

That's not weird at all. (I do it, too!) Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: paranoid, telepathy, and jumper cables.

Using jumper cables to induce telepathy will leave you paranoid.

LOL, simple. Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

I am incredibly thankful to my husband Phillip, for sharing me with my characters; my parents, for always supporting my creativity; my sister in law Charity, for keeping my writing in check; and my #1 fan Nicole who is insanely devoted to The Series. The very Talented Douglass Griffin writes and records the music for my book trailers. My Big Helpers Katelynn, Paul II, and Mayo are awesome!

And finally, where can people find you and your books online?

The Official Website for The Rennillia Series is www.Rennillia.com

My books are available at Barnes&Noble, Amazon and through most Bookstores.

Thank you so much for stopping by and chatting with us, Mary! Good luck with your books!

Interview with Kaitlyn Davis

Welcome to the next stop on the SIMMER blog tour. We're talking with the author of SIMMER, Kaitlyn Davis.

Welcome, Kaitlyn! Tell us a bit about yourself.

I grew up right outside of New York City and have always dreamed of being an author! I blame my obsession with the paranormal almost completely on Buffy the Vampire Slayer – my all time favorite TV show – and have always wanted to write really creative, fantasy-driven young adult novels. I hope my Midnight Fire Series is just the beginning!

How long have you been writing?

Forever! When I was younger, my mom helped me duct tape construction paper together so I could write novels – my first ever was about a girl who spent the summer working at Disney World only to discovered a fantasy world where all of the characters came to life.  In high school, I moved onto romantic novellas. And in college I startedIgnite, the first book in the Midnight Fire Series. Everyday I learn something new about my writing style, and I hope each book I write just keeps getting better and better!

Tell us about SIMMER. What's the story about?

Simmer is the sequel to Ignite and it continues the story of Kira, Tristan and Luke. I always give so much away when I try to describe the plot – so here’s the back of the book description!

“Kira may have survived the eclipse, but her troubles are far from over. She's headed to Sonnyville with one goal in mind: to learn more about her parents. But with Luke and Tristan competing for her heart and Diana gunning for her head, time is running out on the search for her mother. And the closer Kira gets to answers, the more terrified she becomes. The conduits fear her, the vampires fear her, and Kira is starting to wonder if maybe they're right...”

Sounds great! Did you find writing a sequel challenging?

Not at all! I loved it! So far, the hardest part for me to write was the beginning of Ignite. I love that with a sequel you can sort of skip the introductions and jump right into the fast-paced action scenes. With Blaze, the third book in the series, it is getting even easier. The biggest challenge now is hoping I don’t disappoint readers – but I don’t think I will!

Are you a planner or a pantser?

Definitely a planner! I make so many outlines it is sort of ridiculous. But, once the story takes off, I often ditch aspects of the plan and go with my in-the-moment, gut instincts!

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

So far, the most difficult part for me was the beginning of Ignite. I knew there would be a few similarities to Twilight in the first 4-5 chapters, but once the story really took off and the action began, everything got easier. Once I knew the story was in its own unique realm, I stopped worrying about making sure it was different enough to engage readers and became more confident in my work.

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

Coffee! I’m a total junkie! I don’t know what I would do without my Keurig :)

Who are your top three book characters from other authors?

Oo, tough call! The first has got to be Hermione from Harry Potter – I love her! Sometimes being the hero doesn’t mean being the strongest or the biggest, sometimes intelligence is the greatest power of all. Second, I have to go with some man-candy and say Will from Clockwork Prince – I seriously wish he could leap from the pages and into my life! Third and final…gah, so tough…Alanna from The Song of the Lioness. In my opinion, she is the original kick-butt heroine and Tamora Pierce definitely taught me a thing or two about strong female characters. 

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

Flying! This is sort of strange, but I have a huge fear of flying on airplanes because if they fall, there is really nothing you can do. If I could just fly myself around, I’d have no problem!

What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

Hm…probably the best techniques for beheading people! If you read Simmer you might understand! I was writing a certain scene, and clearly have no experience beheading people, and wanted to look up some medieval methods.

Wow, that probably got you pinned on the FBI watch list, lol. Quick writing test! Use the following words in a sentence: survivor, sprinkler, and llama. 

Across the dangerous terrain two warriors stood in the ultimate test of strength – a sprinkler ready to spray and a llama ready to spit – but in the scorching afternoon heat there would only be one survivor.

(Haha, silly I know! If I ever published anything called The Zoo Chronicles, this will be the opening sentence.)

Hehehe, sounds intense. Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

Gosh, my family is definitely number one! My parents have always been so incredibly supportive and my sisters are seriously my number one fans. My best friend Maria, unofficial editor of my books since we were 12, and my roommate Leah, unofficial publicity director since she brags about my books when I won’t. Every single blogger who has let me take up precious space on their front page, and every person who has read my books and spread the word. And, of course, Tribute Books for putting this amazing tour together.

One thing that has amazed me since starting my journey in self-publishing is that there are so many people who are willing to help. So, for anyone else who I haven’t specifically mentioned, thank you – truly and sincerely, thank you.

And finally, where can people find you and your books online?

Here are a few links! I love interacting with readers and talking to people, so please connect with me!

Blog: http://kaitlyndavisbooks.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kaitlyn-Davis/354014464614748

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/DavisKaitlyn

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5276341.Kaitlyn_Davis

Ignite links –

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ignite-Midnight-Fire-Series-ebook/dp/B005U8GQT6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ignite-kaitlyn-davis/1106913247?ean=2940032804314&itm=1&usri=ignite+kaitlyn+davis

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95191

Simmer Links –

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Simmer-Midnight-Fire-Series-ebook/dp/B007R82KLK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Barnes & Noble: TK

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/148504

Thanks so much for chatting with us, Kaitlyn. I wish you the best of luck with the Midnight Fire series!