Welcome to Cindy Lynn Speer, who will tell us about the world of her novel, Unbalanced. Fans of vampires, werewolves and creatures of the night take a look!
Did you hear that?
One of the things I enjoy the most about the world in which my new novel, Unbalanced is set is that it is a world where things do go bump in the night…and it’s partly your fault.
Have you ever gone downstairs in the dark, and wondered what was waiting down there for you? If something might reach out and grab your ankles? Or have you convinced yourself that there’s someone hiding behind the shower curtain? And there’s that moment when your rational mind and your imagination war, and despite the fact that you are a smart, sensible person…you believe. You are absolutely convinced that something is waiting for you, in the dark, something that hates you.
In this world, that’s all it is. You nerve yourself up and pull back the shower curtain, and see, in the moonlight from the bathroom window…nothing. And you laugh at yourself, roll your eyes, and go back to bed.
In the world of the book, if you don’t act and turn on the light quickly enough, you end up dead. The coroner will just call it a heart attack, but any Balance agent would know better.
This was inspired by a rather silly event that happened when I was in…I’m hoping middle school, but with my imagination it might have been high school. I was the first stop for the bus in the morning, and so I often waited, next to my front door, for the lights of the bus. I’d see them reflect off the power lines first, and I’d take off and run down the driveway. My bus driver at the time was a very sweet man with steel grey, wiry, wild hair and a beard to match. He was one of the nicest men I’d ever met.
And this particular morning, it was a full moon. And I thought…”What if my bus driver is a werewolf?”
So I ran down to the bus, and the doors opened, and my bus driver looked at me…and grinned, all teeth. He hadn’t shaved and his hair was even wilder than normal. The amber lights on the dash reflected yellow in his eyes.
I am not going to lie. I had second thoughts about getting on that bus.
But I said good morning, and climbed on, and took my usual seat way at the back, and I am neither dead nor do I, myself, run around in a new fur coat every full moon…so I think we can say I survived that. But that has always made me wonder…how many heart attacks, how many accidents, happen because we freak ourselves out?
About Unbalanced:
Andromeda Pendragon has been trained her whole life to be an agent of Balance, an organization that acts as a supernatural UN to keep the peace among werewolves, vampires and magic users. It’s a busy start for a new agent--all she has to do is prevent a war, solve several murders, stay out of prison, keep the world from learning about things that have been secret for hundreds of years and preserve the stability to the agency she was raised to be a part of. And then there’s Alaister, the man she loved and let go because no normal man wants a girlfriend who hangs out with creatures from his nightmares. The man who re-enters her life at a party the night a young woman is savagely murdered. The man who has a few secrets of his own. But nothing--and no one--will unbalance Andromeda Pendragon...
Cindy Lynn Speer on the World of Unbalanced
Did you hear that?
One of the things I enjoy the most about the world in which my new novel, Unbalanced is set is that it is a world where things do go bump in the night…and it’s partly your fault.
Have you ever gone downstairs in the dark, and wondered what was waiting down there for you? If something might reach out and grab your ankles? Or have you convinced yourself that there’s someone hiding behind the shower curtain? And there’s that moment when your rational mind and your imagination war, and despite the fact that you are a smart, sensible person…you believe. You are absolutely convinced that something is waiting for you, in the dark, something that hates you.
In this world, that’s all it is. You nerve yourself up and pull back the shower curtain, and see, in the moonlight from the bathroom window…nothing. And you laugh at yourself, roll your eyes, and go back to bed.
In the world of the book, if you don’t act and turn on the light quickly enough, you end up dead. The coroner will just call it a heart attack, but any Balance agent would know better.
This was inspired by a rather silly event that happened when I was in…I’m hoping middle school, but with my imagination it might have been high school. I was the first stop for the bus in the morning, and so I often waited, next to my front door, for the lights of the bus. I’d see them reflect off the power lines first, and I’d take off and run down the driveway. My bus driver at the time was a very sweet man with steel grey, wiry, wild hair and a beard to match. He was one of the nicest men I’d ever met.
And this particular morning, it was a full moon. And I thought…”What if my bus driver is a werewolf?”
So I ran down to the bus, and the doors opened, and my bus driver looked at me…and grinned, all teeth. He hadn’t shaved and his hair was even wilder than normal. The amber lights on the dash reflected yellow in his eyes.
I am not going to lie. I had second thoughts about getting on that bus.
But I said good morning, and climbed on, and took my usual seat way at the back, and I am neither dead nor do I, myself, run around in a new fur coat every full moon…so I think we can say I survived that. But that has always made me wonder…how many heart attacks, how many accidents, happen because we freak ourselves out?
About Unbalanced:
Andromeda Pendragon has been trained her whole life to be an agent of Balance, an organization that acts as a supernatural UN to keep the peace among werewolves, vampires and magic users. It’s a busy start for a new agent--all she has to do is prevent a war, solve several murders, stay out of prison, keep the world from learning about things that have been secret for hundreds of years and preserve the stability to the agency she was raised to be a part of. And then there’s Alaister, the man she loved and let go because no normal man wants a girlfriend who hangs out with creatures from his nightmares. The man who re-enters her life at a party the night a young woman is savagely murdered. The man who has a few secrets of his own. But nothing--and no one--will unbalance Andromeda Pendragon...
Cindy Lynn Speer has been a cemetery caretaker and a librarian, as well as a book reviewer, interviewer and freelance editor. She is a historical reenactment fencer, costumer and gardener. She likes to go around telling people that she’s a swashbuckler, but no one seems to take her seriously.
To learn more about Cindy and her books visit:
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