Today we bring you another very special author spotlight on The Book Smugglers – this time with the delightful paranormal/sexy/urban fantasy author Stacia Kane!

Stacia is the author of the Megan Chase books, which follows radio call show host and psychologist Megan Crew as she promises to slay callers’ personal demons. This series encompasses three titles, Personal Demons, Demon Inside, and the newest novel, Demon Possessed. Check out her books:

Megan promises listeners to her new radio call-in show that she’ll “slay their personal demons,” and they believe her. So do the personal demons… although she doesn’t know it, Megan is the only human without a demon on her shoulder! Megan and her allies – a demon lover who both protects and seduces her with devilish intensity, a witch with poor social skills, and three cockney guard demons – have to deal not only with the personal demons, but a soul-sucker, ghosts of Megan’s past, and a reporter who threatens to destroy Megan’s career!

Hanging out with demons can be hell….

It’s been three months since psychologist Megan Chase made the stunning discovery that the world is filled with demons, and once more the situation is too hot to handle. Ironically, Megan — the only person in the world without a little personal demon sitting on her shoulder — has become the leader of a demon “family,” but now some unknown arcane power is offing her demons in a particularly unpleasant fashion. And while her demon lover Greyson Dante is still driving her wild with desire, he’s also acting strangely evasive. Then there’s the truth about Megan’s past — the truth she’s never known. Caught between personal problems and personal demons, Megan is having one hell of a hard time. Will the help of her Cockney guard demons and her witch friend Tera be enough so that Megan can finally resolve the past, survive the present, and face the future?

Excerpt online HERE.

Psychologist and psychic Megan Chase has grown remarkably comfortable hanging out with demons. The demon “family” she leads is happy, her solo practice is stabilizing, and she and her steamy demon lover, Greyson Dante, are closer than ever. But when the couple books a week at a luxury hotel to attend a meeting of demon leaders, some unanticipated problems appear. An FBI agent with an unhealthy interest in less-than-legitimate demon business practices shows up; the demon community is urging Megan to undergo the rite that will make her a real demon; and a slightly shady minister is holding one of his wildly popular “weekend exorcisms” just down the road. And oh, yes, someone with scary magical abilities is attempting to kill her. Then, just when it seems as if things couldn’t possibly get any worse, a secret comes to light that could jeopardize Megan and Greyson’s future — if Megan manages to live that long. With things heating up, it’s becoming difficult for her to keep a cool head…

Excerpt online HERE.

To celebrate the release of Demon Possessed, we are having the lovely Stacia Kane over for an interactive Q&A and a chance to win her books! We have TWO sets of Megan Chase books (Personal Demons, Demon Inside, and Demon Possessed) up for grabs. Entry is easy and simple, per usual – just leave a comment here asking Stacia a question (about her series, her writing process, her favorite demons, etc). The contest is open to all, and will run until Saturday, March 6th at 11:59PM (PST). Good luck, and let the questions begin.

Please and give it up for Stacia Kane!

Thanks so much for having me as a guest here at The Book Smugglers! Hanging out with readers is one of the best things about writing. I write the Megan Chase “Demons” series for Juno/Pocket books, and the upcoming Downside series as well. I’m happy to talk about both of them, or about anything else you can possibly imagine, so please ask as many questions as you like! (Just give me a little extra time if you want to talk about math, because that’s not my best subject.) Fire away!

Stacia Kane has been a phone psychic, a customer service representative, a bartender, and a movie theatre usher. Writing is more fun than all of them combined. She wears a lot of black, still makes great cocktails, likes to play music loud in the car, and thinks Die Hard is one of the greatest movies ever made. She believes in dragons and the divine right of kings, and is a fervent Ricardian. She lives outside Atlanta with her husband and their two little girls.

You can read more about Stacia online at her website HERE, her blog HERE, and on occasion over at The League of Reluctant Adults.

Howdy folks, and Happy Monday! Today we bring you a very special author spotlight on The Book Smugglers – none other than the uber-talented Jeri Smith-Ready.

Jeri is the author of traditional fantasy (the Aspect of the Crow trilogy), young adult (upcoming title Shade), and urban fantasy – and her WVMP Radio series, Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone, are some of the most awesome, memorable vampire Urban Fantasy books out there. Check them out:

Late-night radio you can sink your teeth into

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Ciara’s first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WMMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station—and the link it provides to their original Life Times—the vampires would “fade,” becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover becomes a matter of life and un-death.

To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara re-brands the station as “WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll.” In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs’ vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. WVMP becomes the hottest thing around—next to Ciara’s complicated affair with grunge vamp Shane McAllister. But the “gimmick” enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren’t so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher—and the perils graver—than any con game Ciara’s ever played…

Excerpt online HERE.

TURN ON. TUNE IN. DROP DEAD.

Welcome to WVMP, “The Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll,” where conartist-turned-station-owner Ciara Griffin manages an on-air staffof off-the-wall DJs—including new boyfriend Shane McAllister—who really sink their teeth into the music of their “Life Time” (theera in which they became vampires). Ciara keeps the undeadrocking, the ratings rolling, and the fan base alive—withoutmissing a beat.

For Halloween, WVMP is throwing a bash. With cool tunes, hotcostumes, killer cocktails—what could go wrong? To start, areligious firebrand ranting against the evils of the occultpreempts the station’s midnight broadcast. Then, when Ciaratracks down the transmission, the broadcast tower is guarded bywhat appears to be . . . a canine vampire? Behind it all is a groupof self-righteous radicals who think vampires suck (and arewilling to stake their lives on it). Ciara must protect the stationwhile struggling with her own complicated relationship, her bestfriend’s romance with a fledgling vampire, and the nature of hermysterious anti-holy powers. To make it to New Year’s in one piece,she’ll need to learn a few new tricks. . . .

Excerpt online HERE.

Totally awesome music of WVMP Radio online HERE.

In celebration of the mass market paperback release of Bad to the Bone, we’re having an awesome interactive Q&A opportunity with the esteemed Jeri Smith-Ready! Here’s how it works: Jeri will be popping in all day long to answer YOUR burning questions about her WVMP Radio books. But wait, it gets even cooler – courtesy of publisher Simon & Schuster, we’ve got TWO sets of WVMP Radio books up for grabs (Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone). Entry is easy and simple – just leave a comment here asking Jeri a question (about her UF series, her writing process, her favorite authors, music, tv shows, etc). The contest is open to all, and will run until Saturday, February 27th at 11:59PM (PST). Good luck, and let the questions begin.

We give the floor up to Jeri Smith-Ready!

Hey, thanks so much for having me as a guest on The Book Smugglers! I write the WVMP RADIO vampire series and the upcoming SHADE ghost series for teens. I love answering readers’ questions, so ask me anything. (Yes, anything. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll make something up–it’s what I do. For example, where I got the idea for vampire DJs, what it’s like to write for both adults and teens, and what I do in my nearly nonexistent spare time (right now I’m mesmerized by Olympic curling). You can even ask my characters questions, though Shane and Regina tend to keep nighttime hours. As Pat Benatar once said, hit me with your best shot!

Award-winning author Jeri Smith-Ready lives in Maryland with her husband, two cats, and the world’s goofiest greyhound.

You can read more about Jeri online at her website, and at her blog.

Today, we have the proud honor of being the official Book Blog Partner on Harper Teen’s 28 Days of Winter Escapes Tour! First, we give you our joint review of our participating title, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair by Delia Ephron. Then, we bring you an exclusive Q&A with the author and a chance to win a copy of the book (and an iTouch).

In the second part of our official spotlight on The Girl with the Mermaid Hair, we have an exclusive Q&A with talented author (and screenwriter and producer extraordinaire), Delia Ephron!

Please folks, give it up for Ms. Ephron and her truly exceptional young adult novel, The Girl with the Mermaid Hair.

1. Sukie is always conscious of her appearance—how does this awareness affect her experiences?

Delia: Since she’s excruciatingly self-conscious, always snapping “selfies,” photos of herself with her cell phone, she is thinking about herself most of the time and worrying about how she doesn’t measure up. Which makes her a very lonely girl. When she looks in the full-length mirror that her mother gave her as a present, if she isn’t trying to decide, say, if one thigh is larger than the other, she fantasizes into the mirror. She has wild and passionate experiences with Bobo, the boy she’s hot for. She visits with her friend Issy in the mirror. Sukie’s life in the mirror grows more interesting than her real life until the mirror starts to crack. And then everything in her life, at school and at home, begins to crack as well.

2. Sukie’s ideas about romance don’t quite match her experiences. What would you tell a friend who is disappointed in love?

Delia: I would just listen and sympathize. I remember the first time my heart was broken, my dad was so sweet. I was eleven years old and he told me he had worn only black for days when his heart was first broken. He didn’t say, “Get over it” or “There’s more than one fish in the sea,” or all those things that don’t help at all when you’re sad. Frannie, my heroine from Frannie in Pieces, is also in this book, and one reason she becomes such a good friend to Sukie is that she listens with her heart. Of course then there is the situation when your friend is involved with a guy who’s self-centered or isn’t nice to her. Then you might point out that he isn’t “boyfriend worthy.”

3. Where did you go on your very first date ever?

Delia: Good grief, I have no idea. But what I do remember most is that the first time a boy kissed me, I stepped on his foot and was too embarrassed to take my foot off his. So I just left it there. Aha, now I’m remembering a very fabulous beach date with a guy who was my boyfriend for my seventeenth summer. Not a first date, but a great date.

4. Can you share some funny details about the worst date you ever went on?

Delia: Only one detail. A guy I was fixated on took me sailing on his very small sailboat, and I got seasick, and he never spoke to me again. And by the way, you can’t pay me to go on a boat even now, I was so traumatized.

5. Sukie finds her escape in the mirror . . . where do you go to escape?

Delia: Movies and books. There’s nothing more absorbing than a good book. I don’t even hear when people talk to me when I’m reading. I think I write books for teenagers because I remember loving to read so much when I was a teenager. I also love the movies. I write movies as well as books — I was lucky enough to write the movie adaptation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Movies are like dreams. I sit in a dark theater and let it take me over. When I was fifteen I remember going to see a movie called The Long Hot Summer. It was so romantic I sat through it twice, nearly hypnotized.

About Delia Ephron:

I live in Greenwich Village, the prettiest part of New York City, with my husband Jerome Kass, who is also a writer, and my dog Honey. My favorite things are writing, walking, and cooking, although I also do yoga and the use the treadmill. I absolutely hate the treadmill, but use it because it is good for me. While I am on it, I watch the Food Network or reality shows. I love reality shows. My favorite is Project Runway.

My favorite city in the world is New York City, but my second favorite is Paris. It is so beautiful there, and I feel sad that my stepson hates Paris and only wants to go to Ireland, but I have learned over the years that you can’t force your kids to like what you like. My stepson Adam Kass, a storyboard artist and illustrator, lives in Los Angeles. My stepdaughter, Julie Kass, lives outside of Seattle, Washington.

Thank you to Delia Ephron and to Harper Teen for the wonderful opportunity! You can read more about Delia and her work (both books and movies – which include the critically acclaimed novel Frannie In Pieces and genre classic films like Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) online HERE.

Make sure to stop by the official 28 Days of Winter Escapes site for a chance to win The Girl with the Mermaid Hair today by answering the official poll.

And make sure to keep checking the 28 Days of Winter Escapes website throughout the moth for a chance at other daily giveaways, and a grand prize of an iTouch. You can also follow the Book-A-Day-Giveaway event on Twitter (using the #28daygiveaway hashtag) and on Facebook.

Today we bring you Jen Nadol – debut author of young adult speculative fiction title, The Mark. We were very impressed with her first book, so we were thrilled when Jen agreed to have a chat with us.

Ladies and gents, please give it up for the talented Jen Nadol!

The Book Smugglers: First and foremost, thanks for taking the time to “chat” with us! The Mark is your debut novel, about a sixteen-year-old girl that can see a person’s imminent death. Can you tell us a bit about your book, and what the impetus was for you to write about a girl being able to “see” the time of a person’s death?

Jen: The idea of knowing it was someone’s last day just kind of came to me when I was trying to think of a story idea. There’s so much conflict and possibility inherent in a “gift” like that and so many directions it can take you …it really got my brain churning. Enough that I knew I could write a book – or more! – about it.

The Book Smugglers: If you had Cassie’s power and saw a stranger with the mark, would you tell them that they are going to die within the day?

Jen: I really don’t know. I think I’d struggle with it, much as Cassie does. There are so many ways it can go wrong and so many it can go right. It’s almost an impossible question.

The Book Smugglers: You graduated from university and started an everyday job, and years later decided to write a young adult novel. Why or what made you decide to write a book? Have you always been a writer?

Jen: I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but for most of my life wrote only when the mood struck which meant I could – and did – go long periods without writing at all. I think that’s how, in the years working my everyday job, I actually forgot I’d meant to write. It just kind of slipped away. Then, I stopped working to stay home with kids and, in the shock of not having a “job”, remembered I had this buried thing that I’d never really given a fair try. I couldn’t believe I’d honestly forgotten it. But I had. I’m stubborn enough that, once I’d decided to try writing a book, I wasn’t going to quit until I’d done it. That’s how I learned that, to be a writer, you can’t wait until the mood strikes. You just sit down and write.

The Book Smugglers: The YA genre is one that seems impervious to economic/publisher hardships, and has been experiencing a pretty crazy boom in popularity and crossover appeal over the past few years. Why did you choose to write a young adult novel? Do you have any favorite YA authors or books you admire?

Jen: I didn’t even realize I was writing YA. When I was growing up, the genre didn’t really exist so I’d never read it. It was only after the book was done and on submission to agents that one of them told me that she didn’t think it was an adult novel at all – which is how I was submitting it – but YA. Wow, I realized. It is! And so is everything else I want to write. Duh!

YA is pretty much all I read now. Some of the books I’ve loved: The Hunger Games, After by Amy Efaw, Dirty Little Secrets by CJ Omololu, Life As We Knew It, anything by Scott Westerfeld, Wake by Lisa McMann…should I stop now?

The Book Smugglers: The idea of “the mark” is an intriguing one, and you draw on numerous philosophies in your book (Aristotle, Socrates and Kierkegaard, to name a few). Did you do a lot of research to flesh out the mythology of this power? Perhaps attend any philosophy classes, as Cassie does in your book?

Jen: I took Philosophy in college and remember the class pretty well because it was hard. I didn’t need to re-immerse myself in the setting, but definitely in the material. I read a LOT of philosophy – waaaayyy more than made it into The Mark. And, I did a bunch of research on the mythology as well.

The Book Smugglers: What writing projects do you have on the horizon? Will there be a sequel to The Mark (pretty pretty PLEASE!)?

Jen: Yes, there is a sequel that I’m just starting edits on with Bloomsbury. It will be out sometime in 2011. And I have three other YA novels in early stages, patiently waiting their turn.

The Book Smugglers: The world is about to end, and you can save ONE book, ONE movie, and ONE TV show. QUICK! What are they?

Jen: Where am I going with these things if the world is ending? Won’t I die too? Or am I getting on a spaceship like in that Bruce Willis movie where the oil riggers blow up the asteroid? And no, that would not be the movie I save.

Irl, I’d save things that would help me survive, but since I don’t know where I’m going, I’ll save the most comprehensive Thesaurus I can find, Fletch and Lost.

The Book Smugglers: We Book Smugglers are faced with constant threats and criticisms from our significant others concerning the sheer volume of books we purchase and read – hence, we have resorted to ’smuggling books’ home to escape scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books?

Jen: Okay, this is terrible, but I was staying at a friend’s house over some break or other in college and started reading a book that was on their parents’ bookshelf, but I didn’t get through it and smuggled it out in my bag so I could finish. Isn’t that awful? Why didn’t I just ask if I could borrow it? And it was some trashy paperback mystery to boot.

My books seem to go missing all the time, though, so I think karma’s come back around…

About Jen Nadol: I grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, hometown of Taylor Swift, John Updike and A.S. King.

This is me in high school. I liked to dye my hair, shop at thrift stores and listen to a lot of Depeche Mode, The Cure, and Erasure. My favorite book was The Stand.

THE MARK is my first novel.

We’d like to send out a huge Book Smuggler THANK YOU to Jen for the interview! You can read more about Jen and The Mark online at her official website, or on her blog, From the Desk of Jen Nadol.

Welcome to another “Chat With An Author”. On this edition, we are delighted to bring you talented British author Alex Bell, author of Fantasy books. Her first published novel was The Ninth Circle, which was followed by Jasmyn, a book we both read and adored. Upon meeting the author last year, at the Gollancz Autumn Party, Ana sort of…threatened her to one day issue an invitation for an interview, which is how we are here today.

Here to talk about her new YA novel, Lex Trent Versus The Gods (reviewed here), here’s Alex Bell!

The Book Smugglers: Alex, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! Your new book, Lex Trent Versus the Gods is your third novel, but your first YA novel. How was this departure from writing for adults and what inspired the crossover?

Alex: Always happy to chat to the lovely – and legendary – Book Smugglers!

To be honest, the only thing that makes Lex Trent YA in my mind is the fact that it has a teenage protagonist. I didn’t change anything about the story to ‘make’ it YA, but just wrote the kind of book I would want to read. Obviously it’s completely different from my previous books, and I thoroughly enjoyed writing something that was fun rather than extremely serious.

The Book Smugglers: In the novel, Lex Trent, the protagonist, is a morally ambiguous thief, a conniving, super lucky crook who thinks he is the best at everything he does and has very little in the way of a conscience. Did you have any problems trying to sell the idea of a protagonist such as this for a YA audience? How do you think he will be received by your readers?

Alex: There were a couple of rejections in the early stages that were mainly to do with the fact that Lex is – let’s face it – such a selfish, badly behaved little sod. Personally I think young adults can cope with this, and I didn’t want to tone Lex’s character down or make him less bad because, for me, that is what makes the book fun! I’m a big fan of anti-heroes, and I particularly love the Flashman books, but anti-heroes aren’t for everyone, and readers who likes their protagonists whiter than white are not going to like Lex! I hope that most people will be able to enjoy his escapades for the good-natured naughtiness that they are and, so far, the reviews have been very positive in that respect.

The Book Smugglers: One of the things we loved about the book was the imaginative world that you created which is a mixture of completely new, exclusive Alex Bell creations like how the Globe has been split between Lands Above and Lands Beneath with ladders linking them; but we can also a see a strong influence from Greek Mythology like the presence of medusas, minotaur and griffins. Would you say you were inspired by this one particular mythology and departed from there or did it start somewhere else?

Alex: It definitely started with Greek Mythology, and I’m glad that that comes through. One of the first inspirations for Lex was my memory of watching Jason and the Argonauts when I was little, and being extremely impressed with the giant Neptune figure that rose out of the sea to help the floundering ship. I also saw a film around the same time (although I’ve no idea what it was called) that showed Perseus fighting the Medusa. And my Dad had me read the Illiad and the Odyssey when I was a kid, which probably impacted on me as well.

The other elements in Lex’s world – the ones I made up myself – just sneaked in on their own, mostly because they made me laugh. I wanted to have a mixture because although the world was influenced by Greek Mythology, I wanted it to have its own distinctive feel as well, and not just be a rip-off of Ancient Greece. .

The Book Smugglers: We have a soft spot for fairy tales here at the Smugglers’ HQ, especially retellings. We loved how In Lex Trent Versus The Gods, you have fairy godmothers retiring to the woods where they know no one will bother them with wishes; Your second book Jasmyn is a modern fairytale. Do you have a favourite old fairytale or a new retelling?

Alex: I loved the Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister film as a modern retelling of an old fairytale, but I haven’t read the book. I also loved The Tenth Kingdom mini-series, which was such an awesome retelling of old fairytales – mixing the dark stuff in with the twinkly stuff.

The Book Smugglers: Let’s talk about Unreliable Narrators, shall we: this is one of our favourite narrative styles at the Book Smugglers and one that you seem to favour as well. Be it a narrator who doesn’t know he is not telling the truth because he doesn’t know the truth or because he is actually lying to himself as well. Why do you use this type of narrative in your writing?

Alex: Except for The Ninth Circle, it hasn’t been a conscious decision of mine to use unreliable narrators in my books, but I think this type of narration works well because it keeps people guessing about what is going to happen, and it means you can’t take everything you’re told at face value. An element of this would probably creep into any book I wrote in the first person because I think we’re all unreliable narrators when it comes to our own lives!

The Book Smugglers: Who are your writing influences or would you say your writing Gods are?

Alex: Obviously, the great Terry Pratchett is one of my main influences. I’ve been reading his books for a long time – I think they probably helped me survive the extremely horrible five years I had at secondary school – because of the fact that they’re pure escapism, very funny and could always cheer me up. They also served as a bit of light relief when I was studying Law.

Madeleine Brent (pen name of Peter O’Donnell) is also one of my writing Gods because of the incredibly deft touch he has with characterisation. And the immensely satisfying twists and turns throughout the books – you usually know they’re coming, but that only makes finally getting there even more rewarding.

Apart from those two I have many other writing influences, including authors I have read and not enjoyed because that makes me clearer about what kind of thing I want to avoid in my own books.

The Book Smugglers: Are you a reader of Young Adult fiction? What are some of your favorite YA titles?

Alex: I loved the Harry Potter books if they can be counted as YA. I’m not really a big fan of the YA paranormal romances (although I’ve only read three), and I find it annoying when teenage characters are too goody-two-shoes (which might just possibly show through in Lex!) I’m trying to read more YA now so that I have a better idea of what’s out there.

The Book Smugglers: You are like, super, ultra young. How did you accomplish becoming a lawyer, dropping off, writing three books and getting them all published before even being 25? Are you a genius?

Alex: Ah, well, I didn’t actually become a lawyer – although you can spread that rumour around the internet if you like as that would make me look very impressive! I started the LPC (solicitor school) in London, and really loved it (mainly because I met some great people and enjoyed having a giggle with them), but the more I learned about Law as a profession, the more I realised how hopeless it would be to try to fit writing in as well, since law is an extremely work-intensive career path. And would probably suck all creativity out of you like a leech.

I’ve been lucky enough to get published young partly because I started writing young! I finished my first novel when I was seventeen, and sent short stories and novels out for two years before I got my agent. So it wasn’t quite the walk in the park that maybe it seems. I certainly had my fair share of rejection letters!

Basically, I decided I would rather be a poor writer than a rich lawyer, but perhaps we can just go with my being a genius and doing it all, as that is vastly more impressive. Have I mentioned that I am also a qualified rocket scientist and a brain surgeon?

The Book Smugglers: What are you working on next? Please tell us you have another Lex Trent adventure in the works?

Alex: I certainly do! In fact, I have already finished Lex Trent 2. And I love this one even more than the first one, mostly due to the fact that Lex’s new companion is an outlaw cowboy called Jesse, who is almost as much of a scoundrel as Lex is himself. These two characters practically write themselves and so it’s really more a question of my just being their personal typist. Their secretary, if you will.

The Book Smugglers: The zombies are coming! The zombies are coming! You only have time to save ONE book, ONE movie, and ONE TV show. QUICK! What are they?

Alex: Yikes, what an appalling dilemma! The book would be whatever was nearest out of Going Postal, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or Tregaron’s Daughter. The movie would be Weekend at Bernie’s – no contest. And the TV show would be Boston Legal (again, no contest!)

The Book Smugglers: We Book Smugglers are faced with constant threats and criticisms from our significant others concerning the sheer volume of books we purchase and read – hence, we have resorted to ’smuggling books’ home to escape scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books?

Alex: Never! My family are extremely book-orientated. Books of all kinds are warmly welcomed in our house. Indeed, we once had cleaners who complained bitterly about the number of bookshelves they had to dust (needless to say, they are no longer with us). I am far more likely to get into trouble for smuggling another animal into the house than a book.

The Book Smugglers: Thank you for your time! It’s been a pleasure.

Alex: Likewise!

On this edition of “Chat With An Author” we bring you the ineffable Peter Straub – horror author, poet, and occasional guest star on soap opera One Life to Live. It’s no secret we’re fans of Mr. Straub’s work (so far, Thea has talked two unsuspecting readers into writing reviews of his work), so when we were presented with the once in a lifetime opportunity to interview this prolific author, we jumped at the opportunity!

Here to talk about his new novel, A Dark Matter, ladies and gents please give it up for Peter Straub!

The Book Smugglers: First and foremost, thanks for taking the time to “chat” with us! A Dark Matter is your newest horror novel, about a group of teen friends in the 1960s who follow a charismatic college campus guru and unleash a cataclysmic evil that forever changes them. What was the creative impetus behind writing A Dark Matter? What inspired this book?

Peter: The book began when I started to remember some strange, fraudulent but charismatic men who wandered through Madison, WI, in the mid-sixties. They had mysterious, prophetic things to say; they had studied mystic texts and traveled through exotic lands; it was their self-imposed task to impart their wisdom to younger minds. It was their unacknowledged task to live for free at their acolytes’ expense, to stay in their apartments, drink their liquor, appropriate their clothes and their girlfriends, and to take drugs.

The Book Smugglers: A Dark Matter seems to flow organically from your past work, incorporating elements from your earlier novels and building upon them. In particular, A Dark Matter uses the same varied character perspectives and metafiction-style devices that you’ve used in your Blue Rose Trilogy (Koko, Mystery, The Throat). You’re a writer that doesn’t seem to be afraid to experiment and push the narrative/structural envelope. Do you ever fear that readers (or those gorgon-esque reviewers) may not “get” your writing?

Peter: Some don’t, of course. For two decades anyhow, a certain class of reader has been complaining that my books are too slow, that the payoff isn’t instant, and that too much is going on. Who needs all this stuff, they say, and what good is it in the first place? I can’t worry about these people; they already have plenty of writers who give them exactly what they want. What I want to do is to reach the readers who have not as yet given me a try, and to give the readers I already have, whom I love beyond measure, work that is as good as they deserve it to be.

The Book Smugglers: On that note, the actual structure of A Dark Matter is pretty unconventional – the book unfolds through stories and collected memories. Many early reviews liken A Dark Matter to Akira Kurosawa’s classic mystery film Rashomon, and for good reason. Why did you experiment with this new eccentric structure in this book? Did any other films or books like Rashomon influence A Dark Matter?

Peter: To tell you the truth, I never thought of the Kurosawa film. Nor was it influenced by any other film, actually. It just came to me, after years of wondering where this ship was headed, that it was going to move from one version of the event in October, 1966, to another, maybe three in all, and that these different versions would reflect the characters and ambitions of the people who delivered them. So, it seemed to me though I had never planned to do this, that the book would have three endings, one after the other, with the last being the best, truest, and most comprehensive. It is a very odd structure, I know – in fact the structure is like this: a summarized introduction; an interpolated short story; some left-field speculations about evil; and three endings. This is perfectly nuts, it shouldn’t work; but it seemed to work anyhow. I liked it, I thought it read in a very satisfactory and involving manner.

The Book Smugglers: Your books, A Dark Matter included, explore horror of a psychological and supernatural nature, and also manage to traverse the Never Never Land between “genre” and “literary” fiction – a gap that has claimed many an author in its unfathomable depths. How do your books appeal to both genre fiction fans and the literary types?

Peter: We shall see. It seldom seems to me that I actually have made the wonderful genre crossover that I felt was the actual heart of the particular novel I was writing—or, more accurately, that hardly anyone noticed what I was at least trying to bring off. Reviewers all described my books as works of horror, and that was that.

The Book Smugglers: Many of your novels (particularly those books in your Blue Rose Trilogy) use unreliable narrators – a favorite technique that we love reading here at The Book Smugglers. Why do you use this type of narrator in your writing? Do you have any particular favorite unreliable narrators in fiction?

Peter: Well, in actual life, every single narrator you meet, including you and me, is as unreliable as can be. Everybody shapes and shaves experience while describing it, everybody frames himself or herself in a better, stronger role and in a more flattering light than may truly have been the case. We can’t help doing this, it’s how we are built. So the unreliable narrator is no more than an aspect of psychological realism. It is extremely interesting, however, to come across narrators who do not understand that they are telling very partial or inaccurate “truths,” also narrators who tell deliberate untruths because lying to the reader and the other characters in the best way to get what they want.

My favorites would be the narrator of The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford, and The Sacred Fount, Henry James.

The Book Smugglers: You’re most well known for your work in the horror genre (with five Bram Stoker awards under your belt), but you’re also a poet with several published collections. You’ve also written and edited collections of short stories, won the prestigious World and British Fantasy Awards, and have had a recurring guest role on a soap opera. Basically, you do it all. Do you have a favorite genre or medium to write or create in?

Peter: I’m in love with the novel, and have been since my teens. And because I love genre work but think it need have none of the limitations generally associated with it, it is very gratifying to me that so many younger writers have moved right into the gap you mention above, and without worrying at all about it, mix horror/fantasy and general literature into one wonderful thing: Kelly Link, Michael Chabon, Graham Joyce, Kevin Brockmeier, Dan Chaon, Brian Evenson. They’re great.

The Book Smugglers: Who are some of your favorite and/or most influential authors?

Peter: Apart from those I just named, I could list James, Hawthorn, Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Donald Harington, Raymond Chandler, Dennis Lehane, Philip Roth, David Plante, Bradford Morrow, John Ashbery, Fernando Pessoa, Stephen King, Roberto Bolano, Rodrigo Fresan, John Langan, Sarah Langan, John Crowley, and a lot of others.

The Book Smugglers: You’ve collaborated with Stephen King in the truly excellent books The Talisman and Black House. [An aside: When you and Stephen King start tossing ideas around, we imagine its something like the proton-pack streams being crossed in Ghostbusters (i.e. unfathomably beautiful and universe-ending dangerous).] How does the two-author collaborative book writing process compare to writing a book on your own?

Peter: With Steve King, the difference is liked being carried along in a big, perfectly-tuned Italian sports car capable of hitting 150 without getting the shakes and humping along on a touchy old motorcycle that slams into every bump and hole and conks out every ten miles or so. That’s the difference, pretty much. I’m the old motorcycle.

The Book Smugglers: The Talisman has recently been released in comic book format – do you read comics? Did you have a say in the art direction or publication process of the comic book adaptation?

Peter: I read graphic novels, a lot of them, and got into them through Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books. With my dear “One Life to Live“ friend, Michael Easton, I wrote a long, hairy graphic novel called The Green Woman, which was illustrated by John Bolton and will come out from DC/Vertigo later this year. Michael and I are very proud of this book.

With The Talisman comic, Steve and I were consulted at every step in the pricess, and continue to be so.

The Book Smugglers: We hear rumors that a third book in The Talisman arc is in the works – is this true? What other writing projects do you have simmering?

Peter: At some point in the next year or so, Steve King and I will begin pondering the third and last Jack Sawyer story. Nothing else is simmering, except for the vague outlines of a story set in Victorian England and the present day.

The Book Smugglers: The zombies are coming! The zombies are coming! You only have time to save ONE book, ONE movie, and ONE TV show. QUICK! What are they?

Peter: Oh, grump, I hate zombie, but here goes, anyhow: The Ambassadors, Franny and Alexander, and The Wire.

The Book Smugglers: We Book Smugglers are faced with constant threats and criticisms from our significant others concerning the sheer volume of books we purchase and read – hence, we have resorted to ’smuggling books’ home to escape scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books?

Peter: No, I long ago gave up having to smuggle books into my house, and now they pour in through the doors every day. I just completely gave up guilt for buying books and music.

Peter Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels. Two of his most recent, Lost Boy Lost Girl and In the Night Room, are winners of the Bram Stoker Award, as is his recent collection, 5 Stories. Straub was the editor of the two-volume Library of America anthology The American Fantastic Tale. He lives in New York City.

We’d like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Peter Straub for taking the time to “chat” with us! For more information about Peter Straub, make sure to visit his website, www.peterstraub.net. And make sure to stick around as later today we review his newest novel, A Dark Matter.

Today, we have a very special interview prepared with an awesome guest author. Jackie Kessler, author of dark fantasy and paranormal novels, has just joined one of the most prestigious clubs in all of geekdom: she has officially joined THE BUFFYVERSE. February 3, 2010 officially marks Jackie’s first foray in the comic book medium with the publication of short story “Carpe Noctem” in MySpace Dark Horse Presents #31. Her contribution to Dark Horse Comics’ “Tales of the Vampires” collection of short stories ties into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comics, which (if you have been living under a rock and don’t know) is the comic book continuation of the iconic television show. Last week, an exclusive 8-page preview of “Carpe Noctem” was released on MTV’s Splash Page, and to get into the spirit of the release, we knew we HAD to have Jackie over for one of our infamous interviews.

Fellow Buffy fans! Comrade geeks! Whedonites! We are proud to give you the talented Jackie Kessler.

The Book Smugglers: First of all, congratulations on being inducted into the Buffyverse! How in the world did you manage to land one of the coolests gigs EVER?

Jackie: Thank you so much! It happened through a combination of chutzpah and serendipity. See, I went to Dragon*Con in 2009, and I was on a couple of panels with Scott Allie, the Dark Horse Comics editor of Buffy Season 8. After our last panel together, I chatted with him and told him that I’d love to send him a book. (This is the chutzpah part — I have to point out that I am horribly nervous at conventions, doing live interviews, speaking on panels…basically, being in public.) Scott asked if I wrote anything dark, and I said yep, so I sent him Hell’s Belles.

A month later, I received a carton of author copies of The Road to Hell in mass market. Now, what am I supposed to do with a carton of books? That’s right: have a Twitter contest! The first 10 people who RT’d my tweet won my spur-of-the-moment contest. Scott was #2. (And there’s the serendipity.) So I emailed him to confirm the address was the same. And that’s when he asked me if I would be interested in doing a project for him.

I was like, Sure!

And that’s when he asked if I would like to write a “Tales of the Vampires” comic book, set in the Buffyverse, for MySpace Dark Horse Presents.

And I was like, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. (But I think I said, “Sure!”)

Scott gave me some terrific pointers on how to switch my mindset from “novel” or “short story” to “comic book script.” And my friend C.E. Murphy (author of the Take a Chance comic book series, as well as author of the Walker Papers, among others) gave me some amazing tips. I sent a synopsis to Scott, and he sent it on to Joss. And then, Scott asked me if I was ready to start writing. And I was!

The Book Smugglers: Were you always a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? How does it feel to be a canonic part of Buffy?

Jackie: [LAUGHS] Canonic? I wouldn’t say that. Because then I would totally panic, because that’s BIG. I wrote a story, set in the Buffyverse. I’m flattered, honored, and just plain giddy to have this opportunity. Even when I realized it was happening, I thought that it couldn’t possibly be happening.

I started watching Buffy in the middle of its third season, and then I had to try to catch the previous seasons. (Thank God for the cable channel that ran the episodes every afternoon!) I fell in love with it — especially with season two. Man, talk about pre-marital sex having consequences…

The Book Smugglers: Your story, “Carpe Noctem” is one of the “Tales of the Vampire” shorts, published by Dark Horse Comics on Myspace. How does your story fit with the Buffy continuity? Can you tell us a bit about it?

Jackie: So here’s the thing, and spoilers abound if you haven’t read Buffy Season 8, so fair warning.

In issue #21, Harmony changed everything. Everything. In one fell swoop, not only are vampires real to everyday people…they’re cool. They’re on television, and they’re the good guys. Harmony killed a Slayer on live television (granted, in self-defense), and the ratings skyrocketed. Now you’ve got Slayers on the run, and Harmony, the star of her own reality show, is a guest on The Colbert Report. Simply put, the world (at least, the world presented to people via television) loves the vampires.

“Carpe Noctem” takes place during the “Harmony Comes to the Nation” short by Jane Espenson and Karl Moline, from MySpace Dark Horse Presents #25. So that would be around the “Retreat” main storyline in Season 8.

Scott, the editor, wanted me to show the world through a vampire’s perspective. So “Carpe Noctem” focuses on two vampires, Cyn and Ash, and shows how they’re dealing in this new reality. Ash is doing great — she’s loving every moment of her unlife. But Cyn can’t stand it. She’s supposed to be a monster, not a celebrity. “Carpe Noctem” follows Cyn as she makes an important decision (in part one), and then the consequences of that decision (in part two).

The Book Smugglers: The first part of “Carpe Noctem” was published last Friday – what was it like to see it published?

Jackie: It feels completely surreal. In a good way, not in an up-my-meds way.

The Book Smugglers: Vampires have a new status quo in the Buffyverse after Harmony outed them on TV, but there is now a huge problem with their own identity. All of a sudden, they are no feared as monsters by the population at large. One of your vamp characters says it all: they have been defanged. What do you think can happen next?

Jackie: That’s the sheer joy of it: anything can happen next. Vampire rights? Civil war? Something completely different? We’ve had the pleasure of seeing how other authors have tackled the “vampires living openly among the humans” route — for example, Charlaine Harris in her Sookie Stackhouse series, or Laurell K. Hamilton in her Anita Blake stories. I can’t wait to see where Joss Whedon & Co. will go with this new world order.

The Book Smugglers: The second (and final) part of “Carpe Noctem” will be published in MySpace Dark Horse Presents #32 – what can we expect next?

Jackie: It’s a vampire tale, so you know there’s gonna be blood. [GRIN]

The Book Smugglers: Your most recently published title, the superhero/villain book Black and White seems to have been influenced by comics (we definitely see a few Watchmen shoutouts in there). Are you a comic book fan? What comics do you read regularly (monthlies and/or trades)?

Jackie: Oh holy cats, yes — I grew up reading comic books with my dad. Every week, we’d go to the comic book store, buy a boatload of titles (er, he would buy them; I’d pick them out), and spend the day swapping comics and talking about them. My bat mitzvah present was Uncanny X-Men #94 – 100 in mint condition. (Best present EVER.) As a kid, DC Comics was my thing. As I got older, I was more into Marvel, with some independents thrown in there. In college, it was all Hello, Vertigo! (The entire Sandman series remains my favorite read ever. Joss Whedon is my master, but Neil Gaiman is my god.)

I haven’t been a regular comic book reader for many years, alas. But I watch Teen Titans reruns with my kids, and they tell me when there’s a good episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold on. Every once in a while, I head down to the local comic book store with my kids, and they pick from Marvel Adventures or Sonic while I get the latest Buffy and stare at ALL the freaking titles out there and wonder how I could ever begin to play catch up. (Spider-Man revealed his identity? Batman is dead? AAAAH!)

The Book Smugglers: What was it like writing a comic versus writing a novel or short story? And how do you feel about the free internet publication of “Carpe Noctem”?

Jackie: Talk about medium shock! Going from prose to script was tough. Figuring out how to break down each page, panel by panel, was eye-opening. And you have to visualize everything — not just the characters, but how the action looks on the panel, descriptions of everything in the panel, facial expressions. You have to give the artist enough information to bring the story to life. And the artist lets the characters act. It’s so freaking COOL.

The biggest change I had to make was cutting things down. When you write a novel, you have 300+ pages to get into backstory to explain motivation and whatnot. But you don’t have that option in a 16-page comic book.

I’m very glad that people can read “Carpe Noctem” online. It’s short, it’s free, it’s in the Buffyverse. Hurrah all around!

The Book Smugglers: Were you given pointers or guidelines that you had to follow for your contribution to “Tales of the Vampires” or were you given free rein?

Jackie: Scott gave me the basics on comic book script format as well as a number of key points to help me make the transition from novel to comic book, and C.E. gave me wonderful tips — and I’m very grateful for all of the help! Scott, as the editor, oversaw everything from synopsis to final product, and we had a few rounds before the synopsis and then the script moved to the next steps. He was wonderful to work with, as was Paul Lee, the very talented artist. All of the panel descriptions I had were guidelines; Paul truly breathed life into the story. And whoa, Dave Stewart, the colorist…wow, he did amazing things. (There’s a nightclub scene that’s simply spectacular to look at.) And the Comicraft letterist was terrific. (When vampires vamp out, their lettering changes. Dude, how COOL is that?)

Getting to see the pages, from the initial sketches to the final product, is just outstanding. I can’t put it into words. **jumps up and down in a happy dance**

The Book Smugglers: And now, for the full-force geek-out:

Jackie: OK, the coolest part of all this? When I was talking to Scott to go over the basic premise, at one point he said, “Jackie, that’s Joss on line 1. I’ll have to call you back.” And I said, “Okay, sure.” But what I was thinking was, AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! THAT’S JOSS WHEDON ON LINE 1!!!

The Book Smugglers: Buffy is one of our favourite TV Shows ever. Do you have a favourite season, episode, or storyarc?

Jackie: Season two was my hands-down favorite. As for individual episodes…toss-up between “Once More, With Feeling,” “Earshot,” “Hush” and “The Body.” Storyarc: Angel as Angelus, and Buffy forced to send him to Hell. God, I still see the look on her face as she leaves Sunnydale. **shivers** And let’s face it: Season two Spike is just the best Bad Guy ever. (Except for Hunter Rose. But that’s another story completely.)

The Book Smugglers: Who is your favourite character from the entirety of the Buffyverse? (And no, you cannot say Buffy!)

Jackie: [LAUGHS] I wouldn’t have said Buffy anyway. Toss-up between soulless Spike and Dark Willow. (“Bored now,” before she does the deed to Warren? FABULOUS.) Drusilla is a close second (rah, rah, insanity!), as is Angelus (remember Willow’s goldfish from season two?) I adore Xander…but the good guys just don’t hold a candle to the bad guys and gals.

The Book Smugglers: Do you read the Buffy comics? If so, do you have a favourite issue or storyarc? What do you think of the switch from TV to Comics?

Jackie: Yep, I surely do! My favorite storyarc in Season 8 so far is “Time of Your Life,” for various reasons. (Fray!!!) I think Joss et al. did a phenomenal job making the transition from television to comic book.

The Book Smugglers: As the comic book medium isn’t as constricted by pesky budgets or contractual issues as TV shows are, anything can, theoretically, be done. Powers can evolve, people can fly (Willow) and characters like Oz can make a comeback. But perhaps this freedom can also lead to “Jumping the Shark” moments and possible continuity problems. What are your thoughts on the freedoms (and possible problems) that comics allow for, especially in terms of Buffy?

Jackie: There’s always room for continuity errors, whether it’s television, comic books, or other media. There are a lot of people in place to help guard against such errors — the writers, the editors, the actors, the artists. But even so, mistakes are going to happen. Writers learn more about the characters after working with them for a while. Ditto the actual world created and the history. And when there’s more than one writer, well, the chance for error increases. The trick is to try to identify any inconsistencies before you go to press. [GRIN]

Novelists aren’t immune, by the way. I made a huge mistake in Hell’s Belles that I didn’t realize until after I was revising The Road to Hell. So I took that error and made it a subplot in Hotter Than Hell. (Points if you know what I’m referring to.)

Like I said, mistakes will happen. Hopefully, the creative team behind the story can pinpoint errors and either correct them or account for them. And sometimes, you just have to shrug and say “Whoops.”

The Book Smugglers: If you could extrapolate or change ANY Buffy storyline (from either the TV series or the comics) to suit your own twisted, dark purposes, what episode or storyline would you pick?

Jackie: Change? Nah. No change. Would have loved more singing episodes. (Avid GLEEk, that’s me!)

The Book Smugglers: A little bit of controversy to shaken things up. In the comics, Buffy has an experimental experience with a Japanese slayer called Satsu, What do you think of that?

Jackie: You know what? Buffy deserves whatever pleasure she can get for herself, in whatever quiet moments she has. Man, woman, vampire…let her take what she can get.

The Book Smugglers: And finally, a time-honored, Very Important Question: Spike or Angel?

Jackie: Soulless Spike. At the very least, for the fabulous coat.

Jackie Kessler likes to write about demons, angels, furies, superheroes, supervillians, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse…and vampires. Her upcoming 2010 works include “Hell’s Angel” (proceeds of which will go to the American Heart Association); Shades of Gray (in the UK, Shades of Night), coauthored with Caitlin Kittredge; Hotter Than Hell (mass market reissue); “Hell Bound” (in the anthology Those Who Fight Monsters); Hunger, under the byline Jackie Morse Kessler; and “Carpe Noctem,” her first foray into comic books and the Buffyverse.

For more about Jackie, visit her websites: www.jackiekessler.com; www.jackiemorsekessler.com; www.deadlinedames.com.

A huge thank you again to Jackie Kessler! And make sure to stop by MySpace Dark Horse Presents to catch the debut of “Carpe Noctem” on February 3!

Today, we welcome author Elizabeth Eulberg who debuted this month with The Lonely Hearts Club (to be reviewed tomorrow by Ana), a book about how disastrous dating leads a girl to vow not to date again until High School is over and to start a club which becomes an overnight success and girl-power Central.

Elizabeth is stopping by today to talk about her own dating disasters:

My first thought when I was asked to write a blog about a dating disaster: which one?

After all, I wrote a book about a girl who decided to swear off guys, so needless to say, I have a few stories about boys and disasters. On second thought, “few” is an understatement. This is unfortunate to me, but not to my readers (or my friends who enjoy hearing about my dating woes).

So do I go with the guy in college who I had scheduled a date with…then waited until ten at night to call me to meet up (um yeah, no thanks)? Or the loser who cheated on me (and was the semi-inspiration for Nate in The Lonely Hearts Club)? Or the guy who could only text (seriously guys, learn to use the talk function on your phones!)? Or the many horrendous blind dates thanks to an unnamed matchmaking site (you sit on a throne of lies!)?

Honestly, it wasn’t that difficult for me to choose because there is one particularly bad date that that tops them all. It is the reason I had to get caller ID on my phone. And for my sanity, I hope it will never be usurped.

I was out a few years ago with some friends and met a guy. Let’s call him Bill. I thought he was a nice enough guy, didn’t notice anything that should have given me red flags, so I was excited when he called me up a few days later to go out on a date. Although Bill really wanted to come over to my apartment and have me cook him dinner, I made us meet at a restaurant for two reasons: 1) I live alone so I don’t like guys knowing where I live when I first meet them. 2) Seriously? You think having me cook you dinner is a good first date for me? Maybe on a third or fourth date, but let’s put a little effort into the first date shall we?

He was late meeting me up (a BIG no-no) and then informed me he had to go across the street because he didn’t have any cash on him. Um, okay, last time I checked restaurants took credit cards, but whatever.

Then when we sat down for dinner I realized something, and I don’t know if I didn’t notice it before (although I don’t know how that was possible) or he was just extra nervous. But after he would say something he had a nervous twitch and would kind of make this noise (mmmmmmhhhhmmmmm….). “Yeah, my dinner is good. Mmmmmmhhhhmmmmmmm.” “I work in finance. Mmmmmmhhhhmmmmmm.” It was starting to freak me out. I felt like I was on Candid Camera. It got so bad that I just kept talking and talking so he wouldn’t have a chance to speak. I think he took my overaggressive talking as some sign that I was super interested in him. Which I was NOT.

Then the bill came. I ordered a sandwich and a drink. He ordered two appetizers, an entrée and a drink. I didn’t eat any of the appetizers. For some reason when the bill came he was surprised at how much it was. So I offered to chip in something. He asked for $20. Now, I don’t mind paying, but my portion of the bill was maybe $12. Maybe. But at that point I was willing to pay anything to just get out of there.

There is nothing worse than saying goodnight to a guy on a bad date. Especially when he has no clue that it was a bad date. So I quickly said goodnight, turned down his offer to walk me home, and gave him a hug. Then I bolted. Done.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t done. I kept getting numerous calls at home, but no messages. I wasn’t picking up because I usually screened my calls, plus the phone was ringing every 5-10 minutes and I was starting to get concerned. I should have picked up the phone and confront him, but at this point I was completely freaked out. Then a few days later, I went to the bank and noticed that I was being followed. Yep, I was being stalked. By him. Fortunately, a couple friends lived nearby so I went to their apartment and hung out until the coast was clear.

I ordered caller ID the next day and fortunately, the calls finally stopped and I wasn’t followed anymore. To this day I still don’t tell a guy my address on a first date (although I do have a funny story on why I don’t!). And I learned to trust my instincts more (if I’m dreading a date there is usually a reason why).

While I fully enjoy being single, it can be exhausting dealing with all the frogs on the way to finding your prince. It can also be entertaining (mostly at my expense). Good thing I know about a club I can join if I want to take a break from boys…

A big thank you to Elizabeth! Next stop on the tour is at Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelves on the 13th.

And don’t forget to check back tomorrow for our review of the lovely The Lonely Hearts Club!

Welcome to Smugglivus – Day 30!

Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2009, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2010.

Today’s Guest: Today we bring you our interview with Nancy Holzner, author of new Urban Fantasy novel Deadtown (reviewed yesterday by Thea HERE).

Please give a warm welcome to Nancy!

The Book Smugglers: First and foremost, thanks for taking the time to “chat” with us! Your new novel Deadtown is a gritty urban fantasy, set in an alternate version of Boston. Can you tell us a bit about your book, and why you chose Boston for your paranormal setting?

Nancy: Thanks so much for inviting me! I’m excited to be here, and I’d love to say a few things about my novel. Deadtown is Boston’s paranormal-only district, home to vampires, werewolves, two thousand zombies—and Vicky Vaughn, Boston’s only active shapeshifter. Vicky is one of the Cerddorion, a race of Welsh shapeshifters who trace their origins back to the goddess Ceridwen. Vicky exterminates people’s personal demons for a living; she spends her time dealing with demon-haunted clients, putting up with a pain-in-the-neck teenage zombie apprentice, fending off a research scientist who’s a little too interested in what makes her tick, and trying to squeeze in an occasional date with her kinda-sorta boyfriend, workaholic werewolf lawyer Alexander Kane. When one of her clients is murdered by a Hellion, Vicky must face the demons of her own past—before that Hellion destroys the city and everyone in it.

I chose Boston because I lived there for several years and know the city pretty well. I also liked playing with the idea of how a relatively compact city like Boston, one that has a reputation for being intellectual, liberal, and full of history, would deal with a plague that sweeps through the downtown and creates a couple thousand insta-zombies.

The Book Smugglers: Urban Fantasy is a genre that has been experiencing crazy growth over the past few years – every month it seems there’s another badass heroine with a flaming sword (or gun, or lasso, etc.) taking the paranormal world by storm. Why did you decide to write an Urban Fantasy novel (series)? Are there any UF authors in particular that you admire?

Nancy: I’d been reading urban fantasy for a few years, ever since a friend recommended Kim Harrison’s Hollows series and I quickly started hunting for similar books. I loved the genre’s inventiveness and sheer imagination; it’s so much fun to read. It wasn’t long before I was coming up with ideas for my own urban fantasy world. There are a lot of authors I admire: Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Devon Monk, Charlaine Harris, Rachel Caine, Jon Levitt. Those are the ones who come to mind immediately.

The Book Smugglers: Your heroine, Vicky, is a demi-human shapeshifter and demon slayer with n intriguing mythological background. You have a PhD in English and according to your biography you began your career as a medievalist. How much of a role did your educational background play in writing Deadtown? Did you do any additional mythological research for your universe?

Nancy: Well, you can take a scholar out of academia, but you can never entirely take academia out of the scholar; that’s why I call myself a “recovering academic.” I spent a lot of years studying and analyzing and teaching literature, and that remains a big part of who I am and the way I approach a project. I enjoy research, for example, and can get sucked into that phase of writing a novel for months if I let myself. For Deadtown, I reread the Mabinogi, the collection of medieval Welsh legends that inspired the background mythology for the novel, but I didn’t let myself go overboard. I didn’t, for example, spend time reading scholarly articles about that text, because I wasn’t trying to understand it in light of its historical context or contemporary literary theory—I just wanted to use it as a springboard for my novel. It’s possible to overdo it with research, with the result that you either straitjacket your own story or end up trying to cram in way too much of the cool stuff you discovered.

The Book Smugglers: Speaking of your heroine, her full name is Victory “Vicky” Vaughn – which has a lovely pulp-noir-ish ring to it. You also happen to be an author of traditional mystery…coincidence? Or fiendish plot? C’mon and spill – are you a Raymond Chandler fan?

Nancy: Most things I do are part of a fiendish plot, but I can’t really talk about that in public. I do like reading mysteries—I have ever since a grad-school friend got me hooked on Victorian detective fiction and Agatha Christie. Now, I’m a huge Donald E. Westlake fan, and the novels he wrote as Richard Stark have a strong noir feel to them. I’m also a fan of Victor Gischler, whose Gun Monkeys is brilliant neo-noir pulp, (and I’m excited because I just found out he wrote a vampire novel—I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my TBR pile.) If you’ve read either of those authors, you’ll know I like a little humor mixed in with my grit.

The Book Smugglers: The concept of “Deadtown” – a cordoned off area of Boston following a freak airborne viral mutation that instantly killed all humans in the area – is pretty cool and original (kind of like an inner city enforced ghetto for supernatural creatures). What inspired this idea? Do you think the supernatural community of shapeshifters, vamps, werewolves, zombies, assortment of demons, etc would have come out of the closet (coffin, whatever) had it not been for that plague?

Nancy: In the case of a plague like that—immediately deadly and unlike any known pathogen—the first thing the city would do would be to set up and enforce a quarantine zone. And then when events got even stranger, when the previously dead (or seemingly dead) victims started to rise, there’s no way that those victims would be allowed to leave that quarantine zone. No one knew whether they were still contagious. No one knew, exactly, what they’d become. Instead of working to integrate them back into society, the impulse would be to keep them contained.

Before the plague hit, Kane had been encouraging the supernatural community to come forward. He was recruiting paranormals to an activist group that was supposed to show the humans that the “monsters” were friendly to them and could be trusted, that they could live side by side. But on one hand, many paranormals weren’t interested, and on the other, a lot of humans thought that Kane and his group were crackpots. When the plague hit, paranormals (who were immune to the virus) helped to manage the quarantine zone. Not only were the humans forced to acknowledge that paranormals were real, they also reacted with the same fear they felt toward the zombies. All residents of Boston were genetically tested; anyone not human had to live in Deadtown. Some cooperated; others left the state or went into hiding. But human society had to recognize paranormals officially—whether either side wanted that or not.

The Book Smugglers: One of the main characters in your book, werewolf lawyer Alexander Kane, is a passionate fighter for civil rights. In your estimation as their creator, do the undead/non-human inhabitants of your world (or, as Kane would say, “Paranormal Americans”) deserve the same rights afforded to humans?

Nancy: That’s a tricky issue, because many of the PAs (those Paranormal Americans) represent a real danger to humans. They’ve been operating under the radar for centuries and many of them chafe at the restrictions humans place on them now. Humans are right to fear them; some of these creatures mean them harm. Kane’s strategy is to try to put PAs and humans on an equal footing legally, but he’s a true believer in concepts of justice and fair play that many PAs don’t share. Although the zombies want and deserve equal rights, some other types of paranormals would rather be invisible predators living outside of human rule. The humans would be smart to treat the paranormals as a powerful but not-entirely-friendly nation rather than trying to control them.

The Book Smugglers: In Deadtown, bad dreams are often demon infestations, and we love the breakdown of different types of demons you cover in the book. Similarly, your take on zombies is refreshingly different too. What inspired your spin on these classic horror monster icons? Do you have any favorite zombie or demon movies and/or books?

Nancy: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the original zombie novel, and it’s still my favorite. Victor Frankenstein’s monster is an intelligent creature who’s trying to understand his place in the world and is angry with the creator who brought him into being and then rejected him. Although my zombies are plague victims, not the result of an overreaching scientist playing God, there are some parallels. They want to be accepted and allowed to get on with their existence, but their unnaturalness provokes fear and a desire to control. They raise questions about what’s “human.” For example, Tina (Vicky’s apprentice) is in many ways a typical teenager. But she’s also a zombie. Her character calls into question both what’s normal and what’s monstrous.

As for the demons, they represent those things that bedevil us. Where do they come from? In thinking about that question, I decided that there are two main kinds of demons: those that have no independent existence and come into being through strong human emotion—fear, guilt, anger, hatred—and those that do exist independently and operate on a larger scale. The first type of demon torments individuals, and these are the personal demons that Vicky fights for her clients. The second type is destructive on a much larger scale, hostile to humans in general, not just a particular individual. They represent Evil-with-a-capital-E.

The Book Smugglers: What writing projects do you have on the horizon? And when can we expect the sequel to Deadtown?

Nancy: Deadtown’s sequel is currently with my editor and will be out in about a year. I’m working on proposals for more books in the series. I also have an idea I’m playing with for a contemporary fantasy set in the Catskill Mountains. It’s a wonderful setting for a fantasy, an eerie land that’s home of Rip van Winkle, the Headless Horseman, Native American legends, stories about witches and gnomes . . . I’m having fun playing with the possibilities.

The Book Smugglers: In the spirit of Smugglivus, can you share with us your favorite books of 2009? Are there any books you are looking forward to reading in 2010?

Nancy: Some of my 2009 urban fantasy favorites:

Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

Magic in the Shadows by Devon Monk

Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding

In 2010, I’m looking forward to the next books in the Kate Daniels and Allie Beckstrom series. I’m also looking forward to Sean Cummings’ Shade Fright, which I was lucky enough to read early. It’s got a heroine who likes opera and still kicks ass—that’s my kind of book.

The Book Smugglers: ARGH! Human blood’s been spilled and the ravenous, unstoppable zombie horde is coming! You can save ONE book, ONE movie, and ONE TV show – QUICK! What are they?

Nancy: Oh, no! Years ago I gave up watching TV to find time to write, so can I sacrifice a TV show and save two books instead? Okay, I’ll play by the rules. My husband wisely advised me to save The Zombie Survival Guide, but before I could act on that the medievalist in me rushed forward to grab the book and the movie.

Book: The Riverside Chaucer, which is the complete works of Chaucer in one volume. Chaucer’s got everything—sex, humor, piety, science, allegory, romance, philosophy, war. His writings are endlessly fun, except maybe for the “Treatise on the Astrolabe,” but that might come in handy if I had to lead a band of survivors away from the zombie infestation (and assuming I, um, had an astrolabe). It’s also a massive book that could double as a weapon in a pinch.

Movie: Ingmar Bergman’s 1960 film The Virgin Spring, which is based on a 13th-century Swedish ballad. The first time I saw this film, I was blown away by its unsentimental depiction of the contradictions of life in the Middle Ages: beauty and harshness, love and despair, brutal violence and deep faith—faith that persists in the face of evidence that suggests an absent or hostile God.

TV show: Hmm . . . are you sure I can’t swap this one for another book? Well, I’m a crazed opera fanatic, so for myself I’d save the PBS series Great Performances at the Met. But my daughter has some favorite shows, so for her sake I might save 30 Rock or Mad Men.

The Book Smugglers: We Book Smugglers are faced with constant threats and criticisms from our significant others concerning the sheer volume of books we purchase and read – hence, we have resorted to ’smuggling books’ home to escape scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books?

Nancy: Not into my house. My husband buys at least as many books as I do. We’ve got overflowing bookcases in almost every room of our house, and even so we still have books stacked up in piles everywhere. We live in constant danger of getting buried under a “bookalanche.” We’re probably good candidates for ebook readers at some point in the future, but we both really like physical books. (Although now that I think of it, when the zombies attack I could grab my ebook reader and save my entire library! For some reason, that’s suddenly become a major temptation.)

The Book Smugglers: Thanks again for your time, Nancy, and we wish you all the best with your release of Deadtown!

Nancy: Thank you! I enjoy your site and look forward to reading your reviews, conversations, and posts in the coming year.

Nancy Holzner grew up in western Massachusetts with her nose stuck in a book. This meant that she tended to walk into things, wore glasses before she was out of elementary school, and forced her parents to institute a “no reading at the dinner table” rule. It was probably inevitable that she majored in English in college and then, because there were still a lot of books she wanted to read, continued her studies long enough to earn a masters degree and a PhD.

Nancy lives in upstate New York with her husband Steve, where they both work from home without getting on each other’s nerves. She enjoys visiting local wineries and listening obsessively to opera. There are still a lot of books she wants to read.

You can read more about Nancy online at her website HERE.

Giveaway Details:

We are giving away one copy of Deadtown, courtesy of the publisher! The contest is open to entrants in the US only, and will run until Saturday January 2, 2010 at 11:59 PM (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here letting us know what YOUR favorite first book in an Urban Fantasy series is. Good luck!

Welcome to Smugglivus – Day 23!

Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2009, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2010.

Today’s Guest: Today we give you Adrian Phoenix, author of dark Urban Fantasy series The Maker’s Song books (A Rush of Wings, In the Blood – both reviewed HERE – and the upcoming Beneath the Skin).

Today is a little different – Ms. Phoenix hasn’t prepared a Smugglivus Author Post like the other authors that have been on The Book Smugglers, but instead is offering an interactive Question and Answer session with readers in the comments of this post! And it gets even better – courtesy of Simon & Schuster and Adrian, we’ve got TWO autographed sets of The Maker’s Song books up for grabs. Entry is easy and simple – just leave a comment here asking Adrian a question (about her UF series, her writing process, her favorite authors or films, etc). The contest is open to all, and will run until December 31st at 11:59PM (PST). Good luck, and let the questions begin!

First, here’s a brief intro from Adrian Phoenix herself…

Adrian: Hi all, thanks so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here, ready and able to answer any questions you might have whether it’s knowing why I wrote The Maker’s Song series, getting to know more about the characters (some of which I’m sure could be persuaded to answer a few questions as well), Behind the scenes questions about Black Dust Mambo (out July 2010), what I do in my spare time, my plans for the holidays (I totally plan to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie – can’t wait!), my fav movies or books, or writing questions. Fire away!

And we leave you with one more goody – a sneak peek of Adrian’s upcoming novel:

Beneath the Skin by Adrian Phoenix

CHAOS CONTROLS HIS FUTURE. ONE MORTAL WOMAN COULD BE HIS SALVATION. THE COUNTDOWN TO ANNIHILATION WILL BEGIN WITH DANTE’S CHOICE….

THE FATE OF THREE WORLDS…

The dark pieces of vampire rock star Dante Baptiste’s past are violently emerging, and it is only a matter of time before the Fallen discover he is the creawdwr they have sought for thousands of years. The destruction he left behind in Oregon threatens to reveal his identity as Fallen Maker and True Blood, exposing the young nightkind to shadowy predators — mortal and supernatural — who will do whatever it takes to win his favor…or destroy him.

RESTS IN DANTE’S HANDS.

When beautiful FBI special agent Heather Wallace went AWOL on assignment, she chose irresistible Dante over the shady government forces that now stalk them both. Heather has her own secrets of the past to uncover, but she is also the only one who can hold her nightkind lover together when his dangerous quest for the truth threatens to send him over the edge. And as she and Dante fi ght for their survival, she realizes they must work together to protect their future — before his mysterious destiny tears them apart….

You can read an extended excerpt online HERE.

Good luck, and let the questions begin!