The Qwillery

Alexa Egan is the author of The Imnada Brotherhood novels - Demon's Curse, Shadow's Curse and the upcoming Warrior's Curse. In addition to the 3 novels, there are 3 eNovellas - Awaken the Curse, Unleash the Curse and Vanquish the Curse. These 3 eNovellas have been collected in one eBook, Cursed, which is available for $0.99 until April 14, 2014.

Please welcome Alexa Egan to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Alexa's debut novel, Demon's Curse  (The Imnada Brotherhood 1) will be published on December 26, 2012. Awaken the Curse, an e-novella prequel, was published on November 20, 2012. You may read Alexa's Guest Blog - Writing Bass-Akwards - here.




TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery!

Alexa:  Thank you so much for inviting me as part of your debut author challenge. I’m incredibly excited to take part.


TQ:  What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Alexa:  Oh wow, I really wish I could say something great like I do all my writing in the bath amid the light of a thousand candles. Or I only write during the full moon or in months with an “R” in their name. Those would be quirks worth sharing. Unfortunately, the most quirky thing about me is the HUGE cup of coffee (or two) I need before I can sit down at my desk and the pens and notepads I have stashed all over my house and in my car for the moment inspiration strikes. Although, this time of year, I do bring my laptop down out of my office to write curled on the couch in front of the woodstove. It’s not candlelight, but it’s cozy.


TQ:  Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

Alexa:  I could wax poetic for hours about my favorite writers from Jane Austen to Lois McMaster Bujold. I grew up a huge SF/F fan devouring McCaffrey, Lackey, Norton, Kay, and Vinge to name a few. But interspersed in there were tons of historicals from writers like Dunnett, Gabaldon, Cornwell, and Penman. And of course romance of any subgenre. I love Julia Quinn and Kristin Higgins, Karen Marie Moning and Hester Browne. I always come away thinking, “boy I want to write like that when I grow up.” Right now, I’m reading CS Harris’s Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series…actually it would be more accurate to say gobbling. They’re fabulous!

I think every author I read influences my writing to some degree, and since I read across such a wide spectrum of genres, all of those influences jumbled together turned into my mash-up of paranormal-historical romance that became the Imnada Brotherhood and DEMON’S CURSE.


TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Alexa:  A definite pantser. When I begin a book, I have a bare bones premise and two characters I vaguely understand. The act of writing is what stirs my imagination, so outlining for me is completely useless. I don’t know my characters until they come alive on the page and the story I end up with is the story they tell. I just follow along behind with my laptop madly typing.


TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Alexa:  Definitely that following along madly typing thing we just talked about. It’s a challenge every time, especially when midway through the book my characters decide to take a detour and I have to grit my teeth and rewrite the first two hundred pages. I also need to relearn with every book that the story will only come when I surrender to that inevitable route change. When I struggle to keep to the path I set at the beginning, the words grind to a halt and the whiny panic and self-doubt begins.


TQ:  Describe Demon's Curse in 140 characters or less.

Alexa:  A star on the Covent Garden stage and one of the mysterious race of shapeshifting Imnada join forces to find a killer and break a curse.


TQ:  What inspired you to write Demon's Curse?

Alexa:  Don’t laugh, but my very first thought when coming up with the series was ‘why not have aliens in the regency?’. Needless to say, my agent was skeptical about little green men hanging with the beau monde. So I tweaked the idea a bit, added an Arthurian twist, two warring magical races, threw in a battle-toughened group of shapeshifting ex-soldiers, and…oh yeah…a really nasty curse.


TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Demon's Curse?

Alexa:  I spend most of my time making sure the Regency details are accurate. My office is floor to ceiling bookshelves and probably one-third of that space is devoted to information on the time period when my books are set; everything from military maps and travel guides to sources on food, architecture, fashion, and social mores of the era. For Mac and Bianca’s story, I spent a lot of time researching the theatre in general and Covent Garden in particular, including floor plans and biographies of actresses of the day.


TQ:  Tell us something about Demon's Curse that is not in the book description.

Alexa:  When writing the book, my inspiration for Mac Flannery came from a photo I found of Chris Evans (Captain America). Whether it was the pose or the expression on his face or just his extreme yumminess…I don’t know…but he became Mac, the shapechanger soldier who finds himself caught between duty to his race and the human woman he comes to love.


TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? Hardest and why?

Alexa:  I always enjoy my secondary characters best. They seem to jump off the page with little effort on my part. Actually, I tend to have to put them on leashes to keep them from taking the story over. And in DEMON’S CURSE, there were lots of those types of characters to choose from. Lady Deane tried to hijack the book, especially in the early drafts when she was channeling Tallulah Bankhead. Mac’s smart-ass best friend David St. Leger tried horning in from time to time. And then there’s the mysterious Badb. My cp’s are dying to hear her story.

Mac was the hardest to write because he derived completely from my imagination. I had no built-in reader knowledge to fall back on. I had to explain everything about his character and his world and do it without sounding like an encyclopedia entry.


TQ:  Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in Demon's Curse?

Alexa:  I love the prologue when we witness the devastating attack that triggered the curse. Mac and the other shifters have been taught to hide what they are at all costs, but in following the laws of their clan, they’re struck down by a curse and end up outcasts from the very society they killed to protect. The whole scene rolled off my pen effortlessly from start to finish and really summed up the personalities and motivations of the four main characters.


TQ:  What's next?

Alexa:  The second book, SHADOW’S CURSE is complete and due out in the fall of 2013. Captain David St. Leger is trapped into helping a beautiful necromancer flee north to her family, but his good deed sets an Imnada assassin, a Fey-blood gang lord, and a carnival knife thrower on his tail. If he survives, he might discover a way to break the curse. If he dies, he might find true love.

I’m also working on a novella which will come out about a month prior to Shadows where we find out how Sebastian Commin, the Earl of Deane wooed and won the heart of London actress Sarah Hayes.

And AWAKEN THE CURSE, the novella that began the series is still available for a mere 99 cents anywhere e-books are sold.


TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Alexa:  Thank you for having me. I want to wish everyone a magical and memorable holiday. I hope to hear from lots of you in the coming year, letting me know what you thought of my Regency shifters.




About The Imnada Brotherhood

Demon's Curse
The Imnada Brotherhood 1
Pocket Books, December 26, 2012
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

She holds the key . . .

One of the mythical race of shape-shifting Imnada and a member of an elite military unit, Captain Mac Flannery suffers under a ruthless curse. As the result of a savage massacre on the eve of Waterloo, he and the men he served with are forced to live the hours of darkness trapped as their animal aspects. Now one of them has been murdered, and Mac suspects the existence of the Imnada may finally have been discovered. His only link to unearthing the truth—Bianca Parrino, the beautiful actress whom every man desires.

. . . to his forbidden desires

Forging a new life for herself after escaping the clutches of her abusive husband, Bianca is again drawn into violence when a dear friend is brutally murdered and she becomes a suspect. Forced to place her trust and her life in Mac’s hands as they flee a determined killer, Bianca cannot deny she is falling for the mysterious soldier. But will his dark secrets tear them asunder? Or will love be the key to breaking even the cruelest of spells?

Awaken the Curse
The Imnada Brotherhood
Pocket Star, November 20, 2012
eBook, 100 pages

One very passionate and very scandalous kiss separated university student James Farraday and professor’s daughter Katherine Lacey. Now five years later, James, the new Lord Duncallan, receives an unexpected summons from Kate’s father begging him to come to Wales. When James arrives, he finds Professor Lacey has vanished while studying a mysterious ancient obelisk and everyone blames the nightwalkers; sinister creatures said to haunt the surrounding remote Welsh mountains. Do these legends point to the existence of the Imnada; a race of shape-shifters said to have died off a thousand years ago? Or is the professor’s disappearance the result of a very human villain? James and Kate are determined to find out the truth, knowing it may be the only way to find her father.

Even as they work to unravel the mystery, they find that they’re not the only ones interested in the obelisk and the lost race of Imnada. Treasure hunter Gilles d’Espe believes the ancient dolmen is the focal point of the shape-shifters’ power and would do anything to lay his hands on the last of four silver disks he needs to unlock the dolmen. A disk that hangs around the neck of James Farraday. While Cade, a local villager, is determined to refute both the claims of nightwalker sightings and the power of the dolmen as superstitious nonsense.

James and Kate soon find themselves fighting for their lives. Yet every hour they spend together makes it harder to lay aside the bitterness of the past and a very new and very real temptation…

About Alexa

Alexa Egan lives in Maryland with a husband who’s waiting impatiently for her fame and fortune to support them in a new and lavish lifestyle, three children for whom she serves as chauffeur, cook, nurse, social secretary, banker, and maid (not necessarily in that order), one cat … and twenty-seven fish. You can find her at www.AlexaEgan.com, friend her at www.Facebook.com/AlexaEganBooks or follow her at www.Twitter.com/AlexaEganBooks.




THE GIVEAWAY

THE RULES

What:  One commenter will win a Mass Market Paperback copy of Demon's Curse (The Imnada Brotherhood 1) from The Qwillery.

How:   Answer The Qwillery's Question: 


Please remember - if you don't answer the questions your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1)   Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2)   Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

There are a total of 3 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry) and Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry).  This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook or Twitter mentions. You MUST leave a way to contact you.

Who and When:  The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 2, 2013. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

Please welcome Alexa Egan to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Guest Blogs. Alexa's debut novel, Demon's Curse  (Imnada Brotherhood 1) will be published in December. Awaken the Curse, an e-novella prequel, will be published tomorrow.






     DEMON’S CURSE, the first book in my new Imnada Brotherhood trilogy releases at the end of December. But for those who like an appetizer before their main course, I have AWAKEN THE CURSE, the prequel novella coming out tomorrow. Thank you…thank you…hold the applause…there’s more, for while Awaken precedes Demon by almost two years in chronological time, the novella was in fact written almost a year after the book was turned in.

     Now I’m not a builder but I know you can’t shingle a roof before you erect the rafters and it’s never a good idea to lay carpet before you put up the drywall. Likewise, writing the prequel to a story AFTER you write the story is not the brightest of notions.

     But in the case of Awaken, it seemed like the perfect idea.

     In fact, the novella seemed to grow backwards out of the first book almost naturally, offering readers the ultimate flashback as characters and backstories barely hinted at in the first book are allowed more scope than a few measly paragraphs could ever offer.

     AWAKEN THE CURSE is the story of James Duncallan and Katherine Lacey, estranged lovers reunited over an ancient stone dolmen and tales of strange creatures known as nightwalkers. As James and Katherine dig to discover the secret behind both mysteries, they uncover powerful Fey magic, deadly enemies, and a race of shapechangers thought extinct since the days of King Arthur.

     While writing backwards let me explore seeds I planted in Demon’s Curse, it also presented a host of challenges. For starters, I knew what had to happen. I couldn’t change the future or the first book (it was already in production), so plotting became trickier as I worked to tell the story I wanted to tell without contradicting myself, writing myself into a corner, or otherwise f@!#ing up.

     Did I enjoy the process, messy as it was? You bet! So much so I’ve decided to do it again with a second novella to bridge the first and second books in the series. Once again, the second book is complete as I sit down to write the novella that will precede it. Once again, I will be leaping back through time with characters who just begged to have their stories told. And once again, I will be challenged to erect the rafters after I’ve already laid the shingles. Difficult, but it seems I’m a skilled builder after all.




About The Imnada Brotherhood

Awaken the Curse
Imnada Brotherhood
Pocket Star, November 20, 2012
eBook, 100 pages

One very passionate and very scandalous kiss separated university student James Farraday and professor’s daughter Katherine Lacey. Now five years later, James, the new Lord Duncallan, receives an unexpected summons from Kate’s father begging him to come to Wales. When James arrives, he finds Professor Lacey has vanished while studying a mysterious ancient obelisk and everyone blames the nightwalkers; sinister creatures said to haunt the surrounding remote Welsh mountains. Do these legends point to the existence of the Imnada; a race of shape-shifters said to have died off a thousand years ago? Or is the professor’s disappearance the result of a very human villain? James and Kate are determined to find out the truth, knowing it may be the only way to find her father.

Even as they work to unravel the mystery, they find that they’re not the only ones interested in the obelisk and the lost race of Imnada. Treasure hunter Gilles d’Espe believes the ancient dolmen is the focal point of the shape-shifters’ power and would do anything to lay his hands on the last of four silver disks he needs to unlock the dolmen. A disk that hangs around the neck of James Farraday. While Cade, a local villager, is determined to refute both the claims of nightwalker sightings and the power of the dolmen as superstitious nonsense.

James and Kate soon find themselves fighting for their lives. Yet every hour they spend together makes it harder to lay aside the bitterness of the past and a very new and very real temptation…

Excerpt:

Wales, January 1814
Katherine was exactly as James remembered. Same trim figure. Same thick foxy mane pulled into a sloppy chignon. Same scattering of freckles across a nose just a tad too snubbed and eyes the inviting shade of good cognac. And her lips . . . they were just as full, pink, and disastrously kissable as they had been five years earlier. Only her guarded gaze and defensive posture revealed the changes time had wrought. Once, there had been nothing hidden between them. They had been passionately in love—or so he’d believed.
     She leaned over him, her eyes flicking between his face and his bare shoulder, and for a moment they were back in her father’s garret in Oxford, enjoying a few stolen moments together.
     “Hold still,” she murmured, “this might hurt.”
     He frowned. He didn’t remember her ever issuing such a warning during those sweet interludes when—Bugger fucking all! A sharp pain lanced up his arm and straight to his brain. He jerked against the hands pinning him down as he stifled a scream behind clenched teeth. Closing his eyes, he counted backward from ten. Made it to seven before the world collapsed into darkness around him.
     Someone shook him awake. “Lord Duncallan? Can you hear me?” He blinked up into her face—again. “I’ve finished stitching,” she said. “You can sit up if you’re not too dizzy.”
     He reached across to feel at the swathe of bandages wound tight around his upper arm, and five years screamed past in a single bone-aching throb of his shoulder. He was in the godforsaken wild Welsh mountains. It was snowing like the bloody Arctic. He’d been ambushed on the road. And the topper to this perfectly horrible day bent over him, worry hovering in her eyes.



Demon's Curse
Imnada Brotherhood 1
Pocket Books, December 26, 2012
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

She holds the key . . .

One of the mythical race of shape-shifting Imnada and a member of an elite military unit, Captain Mac Flannery suffers under a ruthless curse. As the result of a savage massacre on the eve of Waterloo, he and the men he served with are forced to live the hours of darkness trapped as their animal aspects. Now one of them has been murdered, and Mac suspects the existence of the Imnada may finally have been discovered. His only link to unearthing the truth—Bianca Parrino, the beautiful actress whom every man desires.

. . . to his forbidden desires

Forging a new life for herself after escaping the clutches of her abusive husband, Bianca is again drawn into violence when a dear friend is brutally murdered and she becomes a suspect. Forced to place her trust and her life in Mac’s hands as they flee a determined killer, Bianca cannot deny she is falling for the mysterious soldier. But will his dark secrets tear them asunder? Or will love be the key to breaking even the cruelest of spells?

About Alexa

Alexa Egan lives in Maryland with a husband who’s waiting impatiently for her fame and fortune to support them in a new and lavish lifestyle, three children for whom she serves as chauffeur, cook, nurse, social secretary, banker, and maid (not necessarily in that order), one cat … and twenty-seven fish. You can find her at www.AlexaEgan.com, friend her at www.Facebook.com/AlexaEganBooks or follow her at www.Twitter.com/AlexaEganBooks.




THE GIVEAWAY

What:  One commenter will win a digital copy of Awaken the Curse from Alexa.

How:   Answer The Qwillery's Question: 


Please remember - if you don't answer the questions your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1)   Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2)   Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

There are a total of 3 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry) and Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry).  This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook or Twitter mentions. You MUST leave a way to contact you.

Who and When:  The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Monday, November 26, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

The Qwillery is pleased to announce the newest author who will be featured in the Challenge - Alexa Egan.  You may keep up to date with all the 2012 Debut Author Challenge information here.



Alexa Egan

The Imnada Brotherhood 1
Pocket Books, December 26, 2012
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 384 pages

A fast-paced and captivating debut—the first in the dark and sexy Imnada Brotherhood series about shape shifters in Regency-era England.

A rising star on the Covent Garden stage, Bianca Parrino believes she has everything she wants. Independence. Wealth. And a life finally free of her violent, abusive husband. But when her close friend, Adam, is murdered and Bianca is suspected in his death, she is unwittingly drawn into the search for his killer and soon must question everything she believes—about her friend, about herself, and about a world she never knew existed.

A member of the mysterious race of shape-shifting Imnada and part of an elite military unit, Captain Mac Flannery gathered intelligence during the Napoleonic wars. As a result of a savage massacre, Mac and the men he served with are cursed. Now one of them has been found murdered, and Mac suspects the existence of the Imnada has been discovered at last. His only link to unearthing the truth is the beautiful actress who turns up unexpectedly at Adam’s funeral.

Before long, Mac has more to contend with than Bianca’s overt mistrust, his ill-fated attraction to the haughty and beautiful actress, and his ongoing search for an end to the curse. Because Adam’s killer is back, and Mac is next on his list.

Demon's Curse will be preceded by an e-novella:

The Imnada Brotherhood Prequel
Pocket Star, November 20, 2012
eBook, 100 pages

Now available only as an eBook, the dark and sexy prequel to the Imnada Brotherhood series about a clan of shape-shifters and telepaths living secretly as humans for centuries.

One very passionate and very scandalous kiss separated university student Justin McKeegan and professor’s daughter Kate Lacey. Now five years later, Justin, the new Lord Duncallan, receives an unexpected summons from Kate’s father begging him to come to Wales. When Justin arrives, he finds Professor Lacey has vanished while studying a mysterious ancient obelisk and everyone blames the nightwalkers; sinister creatures said to haunt the surrounding remote Welsh mountains. Do these legends point to the existence of the Imnada; a race of shape-shifters said to have died off a thousand years ago? Or is the professor’s disappearance the result of a very human villain? Justin and Kate are determined to find out the truth, knowing it may be the only way to find her father.

Even as they work to unravel the mystery, they find that they’re not the only ones interested in the obelisk and the lost race of Imnada. Treasure hunter Gilles d’Espe believes the ancient dolmen is the focal point of the shape-shifters’ power and would do anything to lay his hands on the last of four silver disks he needs to unlock the dolmen. A disk that hangs around the neck of Justin McKeegan. While Cade, a local villager, is determined to refute both the claims of nightwalker sightings and the power of the dolmen as superstitious nonsense.

Justin and Kate soon find themselves fighting for their lives.Yet every hour they spend together makes it harder to lay aside the bitterness of the past and a very new and very real temptation…