The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Greetings and Happy New Year from Cedric and me!  

I took a rather long hiatus from blogging to enjoy the Holidays with the family.  We laughed a lot and ate too much, but it was a blast!  Yes, I'm writing this from my Christmas present from my husband and son, a brand-spanking-new notebook computer.  (Cedric says he's supplying the spanking part.)  No more banging on my ancient desktop.  (Cedric will miss the banging.)  The danger for me now is fooling around too much on social media instead of writing.  (Cedric favors more writing about fooling around.)

Cedric MacKinnon

The focus of this blog will change somewhat in the coming year.  I won't be hosting blog tours anymore, although I'll occasionally have another author as a guest blogger.  Cedric will still be conducting sexy interviews, but will soon be getting his own blog.  My posts will concentrate on mythology and folklore topics or personal observations and humor.

That being said, when my good friend, A. J. Scudiere, asked me to take part in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, I thought it would be a good time to present the new format and introduce myself (and my naughty Scottish vampire lad Cedric) to some new readers.  

THE NEXT BIG THING BLOG HOP

There are the books everyone has heard about: Twilight, Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Gray. But what about all those books written by people you've never heard of? Some of them are treasures, just waiting to be found, and that’s what this blog hop is all about: the books you might not have heard about, but that you might end up loving.

This blog hop is like a game of tag. One author posts and tags other authors who link back to their website the next week and tags new authors. If you follow the blog hop long enough, you’re bound to find some books you’ll love! Maybe you’ll even discover a book that ends up being the next big thing.

The immensely talented A.J. Scudiere tagged me.  Her recent novel Phoenix  (AND novel #3 God’s Eye) Just got top honors at the USA Book Review Awards for 2012. (2 out of 6 awards given in Suspense.) You can find out more about A.J. and the Intelligent Suspense novels she writes at www.AJScudiere.com and follow the snarky Smart Chickens blog at www.SmartChickens.com or search ‘Smart Chickens’ on iTunes for the podcast.

A big thanks to A.J. for inviting me to the hop!
  
For those of you visiting for the first time, welcome!  I'm the author of the Immortyl Revolution, a series of four Urban Fantasy novels and one collection of three short tales.  The novels are published by L&L Dreamspell.  My latest release is Servant of the Goddess.

This blog hop includes ten questions to help you learn more about an author’s current work in progress, so here’s a little info about my current project:

1: What is the working title of your book?  

Denise: Prophetess.

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?

Denise: I originally had an idea for a mystery story set in a rural town where I once lived, but decided to fictionalize the town and add fantasy elements.

3: What genre does your book fall under? 

Denise: Urban Fantasy/Thriller.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?  

Denise:  Oh maybe Charlize Theron as the prophetess heroine, Marena, and Paul Bettany as Lothian, the half-elf demon hunter. For Gabe, Marena’s much-younger boyfriend, who is possessed by an angelic being, someone pretty and intense, maybe Ezra Miller.  

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 

Denise:  A young woman, haunted by visions of an impending apocalypse, finds the corpse of a teen-aged boy and sets out on a quest to find and slay the demon responsible for his murder.

6: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Denise: I’ll be seeking representation once it’s completed.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? 

Denise:  This was a Nanorimo project from 2010, so one month.  I put it aside to finish my commitment to my Immortyl Revolution series.  

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  

Denise: I’d say it’s similar to books by Kim Harrison in that there's a central mystery, magic and a variety of supernatural creatures.

9: Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Denise:  I looked at images of male angels, sculptures, painting etc..  

It struck me that they are kind of bad ass and cool.  Think of Michael, he's a warrior who battles his fallen brethren   I wondered a lot about how a war between angels and demons would be fought.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? 

Denise:  The demon antagonist is inspired by a creature out of Japanese legend.  I wanted a truly horrific monster in this story.  One day, a house centipede dropped from the ceiling and landed on my husband.  Now, I’m a tomboy at heart, the kind of gal who caught toads and snakes as a child, but centipedes just give me the willies.  It’s all those legs.  Well, I did some research to find out if there was a folkloric centipede demon and learned of the Japanese Omukade.  I also researched real centipedes to give my monster some authenticity, but I do give mine qualities that are definitely supernatural.  My Omukade is able to incubate within a human host and act through her until she gathers enough power to manifest, adding to the creep factor

Here are two more authors who will be joining the hop. I hope you’ll visit their blogs next week and learn more about their books. Maybe one of them will become your new favorite author!

1. Cherie Noel writes fun, steamy love stories, adventure and sci fi with a m/m focus.  If men loving men is your cup of tea, check out her sci fi adventure Tian's Hero the First Book of the Akanti series and her other work at http://talesfromthewritingcave.blogspot.com

Read Cedric's interview of the main players Tian's Hero.

2. Anne Marie Lutz's first fantasy novel, Color Mage, just came out this past summer from Loconeal Press.  She's currently at work on the sequel, Sword of Jashan,  http://annemariesblog.wordpress.com