Rose Montague is an author I met last fall at an online group party when all the Pandamoon Publishing authors were announced. Although she is under contract with another publisher many of my fellow Pandas adopted her as a kindred spirit. Her urban fantasy novel, Jade, debuted late last fall and I posted a review for a few weeks later.

Rose says her goal in writing Jade was to have fun writing a book that is fun to read. It is all of that, exciting, action-packed with a lot of humor and mystery. There are many surprises and just a little bit of romance. In Jade, the title character is a mutt in the supernatural world, a mixture of various supernatural creatures with various abilities. How she became that way is part of the mystery and a lot of the fun.

Jade is part of a series that will continue with two of the other main characters from the book, Jane and Jill. The target date for publication of Jane is late summer 2014.

“I have been very pleased with the reviews of Jade and the book has been enjoyed by both fans of the urban fantasy genre as well as readers of fiction that enjoy a fast paced, fun read. Jade is suitable for older teens and adults and I would rate it PG-13.”

I asked Rose for an interview and she graciously consented.

EW: Imagine for a moment that you’re a famous, bestselling author. They’re making a movie out of your last book. What do you do next to top that you’re already achieved?

RM: I imagine this all the time. Honestly, Jade and my WIP, Jane would both make terrific movies. It has everything that makes a movie successful. Tons of action, humor, mystery, and just a touch of romance all combine to make this a blockbuster. Let's not stop with just one movie. I want three and while we are making it, let's do this thing where we make the last one in two parts making people squirm in anticipation for that last movie. And 3-D, got to have it. Maybe one of these days.

EW: How much research do you do before starting a novel? Does the research help develop the plot or do you use it to all background details?

RM: Most research I do involves the settings in my story. I like to be as accurate as possible about this type of thing as it involves readers that are familiar with the areas involved. I have had a lot of help from some of my friends, specifically in Guildford, UK and Germany on two of the settings I have used so far in my first two books.

EW: Let’s talk about when you were a kid. In school were you a troublemaker, an instigator or the teacher’s pet? Explain.

RM: And all three. I enjoyed learning about things that I was interested in from teachers that were interested in the students and that enjoyed teaching. For teachers that were going through the motions, that is what I did as well. For teachers that made the subject exciting and were excited about it as well, those I learned from and participated in. For these I was probably the teacher's pet. For those that obviously hated teaching kids, I was rebellious, inattentive, and did not complete my work assignments on a regular basis. For this reason my grades tended to be great in some classes and not so much in others.

EW: Every writer has that one story that clicked, inspiring him or her to pursue writing as a career. What was the story and what was there about it that made it influential?

RM: For me this was the case with the Ilona Andrews writing team. They had a free installment series going on at the time on their website called Clean Sweep. (They are now on the second book in this free series if you want to check it out). They were doing this in installments, writing about 1,000 words at a time and I was going crazy waiting on the next installment. It was just a fun story and that is what I wanted with mine. I used this as a model for my writing and got some of my Facebook friends to read my installments as I completed them. Their fun and encouragement was contagious and I was convinced I could do it. It was really nice when they started begging for the next installment. Got to love that.

EW: Where do you see yourself at this moment in your life had you never decided to write a book?

RM: Writing a book and having it published was a lifelong dream come true for me. It was a void in my life that never went away and it would go several decades before that dream was realized. I can tell you how happy I was when a publisher accepted my book and what it felt like to actually hold that book in my hands. That is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I can't imagine my life now without this part of it.

I'd like to thank Rose for spending some time with us today and let you know that you can visit Rose Montague online and become a friend, follower and fan as I have at:

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000712227923

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/RoseMontague

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7393094.Rose_Montague

And this is where you can find Rose's debut novel Jade:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Jade-Rose-Montague-ebook/dp/B00GKRO8SM

Eternal Press:

http://eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781629290911

Booksamillion:

http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Jade/Rose-Montague/Q593188343?id=5956566966194

B&N:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jade-rose-montague/1117563646?ean=9781629290928

Autism Advocate Chrissy Lessey On Her Upcoming Paranormal Books - by Elgon Williams

Recently, I had the chance to fire a few questions at Pandamoon Publishing author Chrissy Lessey. Her latest novel, Crystal Coast: The Coven, will be released April 30, 2014. In the course of our conversation we learn there is a prequel due out shortly before that, just to whet your appetite and get ready for what sounds like a great story about magic, witches and the history of a small costal town in North Carolina.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

Photographer Stevie Lewis knows nothing of the magic that is prevalent in her small town. As a newly single mom, she is focused on raising her five year-old autistic son, Charlie, and running a business she shares with her best friend, Lexi. Stevie has no knowledge of her family’s 300-year-old magical legacy or the long-held secrets that haunt her hometown until Vanessa, a dark witch, returns to retrieve a powerful amulet reputed to be in Blackbeard’s recently recovered treasure.

While in town, Vanessa also plans to exact revenge on the coven responsible for rendering her mother powerless and locking her away in a mental institution. Determined to shake the coven to its core, Vanessa targets young Charlie as her first victim. When Charlie’s life is threatened, it unlocks Stevie’s dormant power and she discovers that she is a genetic witch capable of reducing the laws of physics to mere suggestions.

With help from the clandestine coven led by her own mother and a few eccentric octogenarians, Stevie works to master her newly acquired magical talent. Complicating matters further, her high school crush returns to town and she finds herself torn between beginning a new relationship with him and reuniting with her ex-husband.

Time is running short for Stevie and Charlie. Will she have enough skill to take on Vanessa and save her son and her newly found coven? Or will the dark witch Vanessa finally crush the hated coven and rise to power?

The Interview:

Q: Let’s talk about when you were a kid. In school were you a troublemaker, an instigator or the teacher’s pet? Explain.

A: My mother would tell you that I had multiple personalities as a child. At school, my grades were excellent and my behavior (almost always) was beyond reproach. I was definitely the teacher’s pet more often than not. However, at home, I was a serious troublemaker. My poor mother would read those glowing reports from my teachers and say, “They must have you mixed up with someone else.”

Q: How much research do you do before starting a novel? Does the research help develop the plot or do you use it for all background details?

A: I did a lot of research for my last novel. It’s my favorite part of the writing process and it tends to shape my stories in unexpected ways. When I started working on The Coven, I knew that I wanted to include some information about Blackbeard. I didn’t originally intend for the pirate to have much of a role in the backstory. But by the time I completed my research, I realized that I had quite a story line centered around him. This resulted in The Secret Keepers, a short story prequel to The Coven, which will soon be released as an e-book by Pandamoon Publishing in April.

Q: Where do you see yourself at this moment in your life had you never decided to write a book?

A: I am happiest when I’m writing. So, I suspect most things would be pretty much the same, except I’d be a whole lot grumpier.

Q: When writing, I’m sure you hit snags where characters aren’t behaving or the plot just isn’t working. When that happens to me I play video solitaire. What do you do?

A: It depends on the seriousness of the snag. For relatively minor issues, I play a few rounds of Candy Crush. If I’ve got a whopper of a problem, I start organizing stuff. When I hit a major snag while plotting The Coven’s sequel, I organized every single closet in my house plus most of the cabinets. I’m glad I got the plot worked out when I did because I came dangerously close to cleaning out the garage.

Q: When friends, family and even people you barely know at work or wherever else find out you are publishing a book, they expect a gratis copy. It could be a touchy situation. How do handle it?

A: The fact is, my publisher pays for the production of my novel and they own the finished product. I don’t have a huge stockpile of books at my disposal. I would literally have to purchase them in order to give them away. That’s not a good business model at all. I do appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and I suspect that most people are not aware of the logistics within the publishing industry, so I keep my answer short: I don’t have copies to give away.

About Chrissy Lessey

Chrissy Lessey is an autism advocate, a coffee junkie, and an avid reader. Her writing career began nearly fifteen years ago when she penned a weekly humorous advice column for a local newspaper. Since then, she has discovered the joyous torture that is fiction writing. Her debut novel, The Coven, marks the beginning of the Crystal Coast Trilogy. She is currently working on the next installment in the series as well as other projects.

Media Links

www.ChrissyLessey.com

www.Facebook.com/chrissylessey

www.Twitter.com/spectrumhope

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7406955.Chrissy_Lessey