1. How did you get started writing?
Writing and reading have always been an escape for me. For as long as I can remember, I put pencil to paper and made up stories. As a young girl, I had scads of journals with badly written poetry filling the pages. School notebooks, scraps of paper, napkins, all of them were used for writing down bits of stories. It wasn’t until high school that I seriously began looking at writing as a career—but as a journalist. I saw images of field-vest wearing men racing through dangerous terrain and romanticized the life of a journalist. The only problem? I didn’t actually enjoy asking the hard hitting questions and getting into dangerous situations where my life might end at any moment.
Thrills and adventure? Yes please! Bombs going off around me? Nope.
So I had to rethink my career options. Perhaps teaching literature and writing in a nice, safe classroom would be best.
2. Out of all your books, which one is your favourite and why?
I can’t choose! I love them all for different reasons. The Song of the Swords was my first series and The Stones of Resurrection will always hold a special place in my heart. Taryn’s journey from obscurity to goddess is filled with many trials and heartbreaks, but there’s always hope to keep her going. I still have two more books to write in that series and I’m going to be in deep mourning when it’s finished. The characters become real the more time you spend with them. They’re no longer imaginary constructs, but friends you’ve spent hours and hours with.
3. If your friends were asked to describe you in one word, what would it be?
Sparkly!
4. What is your favorite thing to do outside of writing?
Travel. I love to explore and adventure – to learn new things in places that challenge me mentally and emotionally.
5. What do you love most about the genre you write?
Fantasy allows me to create worlds beyond what physics and earthly laws say we can create. If I want a waterfall from the sky, I can make one. Gods, demons, dragons, and elves? Yes, please! I get to play in worlds I want to live in. I can be a dragon shifter or a talking cat. I get to ride unicorns and use magic. The only limitations are the ones I put upon myself.
6. What do you want readers to take from your books?
Hope. No matter how hard it is, there is always hope. Love. Everyone is worthy of love and love is worth fighting for
7. Describe yourself in 3 words.
Kind, quirky, badass.
8. What made you decide to write in your current genre?
I’ve always loved fantasy. It wasn’t the first genre I read, but it was the one that grabbed me by the heartstrings and didn’t let go. I tried writing a book without magic once. Worst experience of my life! I adore faeries, dragons, elves, and all things magical and mystical. Even if it’s contemporary set in London, I’m going to have wicked villains and kickass heroines, but also the supernatural. It’s too much fun!
9. Tell us about your current release/or new release?
My most recent release is book three of my Fatal Fae series. Faerie assassins are sent to save Earth from a madman. It gets dark, and I had to go places personally that were difficult, but I love this series, and especially this book. One of my heroines–Nikala–is unapologetically a murderous spy. She’s been broken so many times, but keeps getting up to fight another day.
10. What does your writing space look like?
Like a toy store exploded. I have dragons and Thor and crystals all around me. It’s a fun space where my imagination can soar. I try to keep any ‘business’ items to my peripheral so that the only things I can see while writing are items that inspire the child in me and urge her to create magic.
There’s a window to my left and if I look out of it, I can see a castle. That’s pretty darn cool.
11. What’s the one piece of technology you can’t live without?
My phone.
12. Do you find it hard to kill off your characters?
No!! But also, yes. I have a character I know I need to kill, and the time is coming, but I don’t want to. But I have to. It’s going to be a dark day when I write that scene.
13. What are you working on now? Can you share a teaser of it with our readers?
I’m working on a witchy Red Riding Hood retelling called Curses and Claws where Ve teams up with a wolf to solve a mystery. That mystery unlocks a past she’d rather forget.
Here’s a snippet from the first chapter:
Everyone called her Red. Despite the fact she hadn’t worn a red riding hood since she was ten. Nor did she have red hair. She never wore red lipstick or clothes. In fact, she didn’t like the color very much. Still, they called her Red. It was a nickname she’d been trying to lose her whole life.
Gran’s advice was to just accept it and go with the flow, but why? Why should someone else get to determine who she was? She wasn’t that little girl anymore. The one everyone liked to pretend not to gossip about. The little red riding hood witch who defeated a wolf before she came into her full power. To hear Gran tell it, and she did to anyone who would listen, Red saved her life and she should embrace her talents and just accept that Red is a superhero. Yeah, right.
Her name wasn’t Red, it was Ve, Violet specifically, but no one in the supernatural world cared about remembering her real name.
All they cared about was what Ve wanted to forget most. Although, to be honest, her memories of that day were scattered. In her nightmares, she always saw a wolf, and Gran looking scared, followed by an overwhelming need to protect her grandmother, but anything after that…zip, nada, zilch. She had no idea what came next. Gran thought it was the shock of using that much magic. Ve didn’t question it too much because at the time, there was a serial killer slaughtering supernaturals—mostly wolves and shifters. If they’d meant to make a snack of Gran, then they deserved whatever magic she threw at them. For whatever reason, she’d blocked the memory. Which was just fine and dandy. Who wanted to remember a wolf attack? Not her.
14. Is there one genre that you have not written in yet, but would love to try writing?
Space opera! Can you imagine it… dragons in space? I’m actually a little giddy thinking about it right now.
15. What do you do when a flash of inspiration hits you at an inopportune moment?
I ‘dream’ it. Meaning, I repeat the scene in my mind like a movie until I know I’ll remember it when I have the opportunity to write it down. If I’m able to, I’ll record a snippet into my phone. Usually when I do this, I have no idea what I was talking about. The dreaming works best for me.
16. What keeps you going while writing?
Tea and chocolate.
17. What’s next for you?
I’m kind of a cover junkie. I’ve bought way too many premade covers and they are all begging to be written. After I write Curses, I need to finish up the Fatal Fae series and my epic fantasy series. Then I can look at all my pretties and decide which covers will get a story. Or, I’ll get a new cover made and write the pirate fantasy epic adventure that’s begging to be told!
18. Where can we find you on the internet?
Sparkly is the absolute best word to describe you , missus! But also kind. And dragon-obsessed… 🙂 Smaug sends best regards to Lady Dazzleton! J.