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| Author Nancy Gideon |
Please
tell my readers a little bit about your book.
PRINCE
OF SHADOWS is the 8th book in my “By Moonlight” shape-shifter series
for Pocket Books. Earlier books take place in New Orleans involving a band of
Shifter outcasts under the reluctant leadership of Max Savoie who is trying to
prevent a clan war while struggling to discover the mysteries of his heritage.
While continuing with the basic themes within the “BY Moonlight” world, PRINCE
OF SHADOWS moves the setting to Lake Tahoe, home of the savage Terriot clan, so
it’s a good place for a new reader to jump in.
My hero and heroine are star-crossed lovers separated by a dark history
and now caught in a dangerous arrangement to unite their clan while healing
their hearts.
Describe
the genre of this particular title, and is it the only genre you write in?
PRINCE
OF SHADOWS is a dark paranormal. While I
enjoy paranormal romances, having done an eight book “Midnight” vampire series
and now my “By Moonlight” shape-shifters, I’ve also written historicals as Dana
Ransom and Rosalyn West, and series contemporary suspenses under my own
name. I love variety.
When
did you start writing toward publication?
Waaaaay
back when romances were just taking off in the mid-80s when I left the work
force to concentrate on starting a family.
I’d always written stories but that’s when I had the time to go from
page one to page end.
Did
you have several manuscripts finished before you sold? If so, did you send them
out yourself?
After
my first massive historical tome met with rejection (mainly because I sent them
to the wrong places!), I wrote three more complete books before garnering the
courage to submit again. I picked the
one I thought was the strongest and sent it out to several publishers I found
in an old copy of Fiction Writers Market. I had no idea what I was doing. Looking back,
I’m amazed I got that call for the complete manuscript two weeks later. I didn’t even have it typed – it was still in
long hand in my notebook. A month later,
I sent it off to New York and 54 books later . . . Many of them I’ve sold
myself (I’m older and wiser now!) and some through various agents. I’m currently agented.
Why
have you become a published author?
Writing
as a career has always been my dream. I
started out wanting to be a journalist but my true passion wasn’t non-fiction,
it was in those 500 page flights of imagination. I write because I can’t NOT
write. Getting paid for it is the added
bonus.
Make me feel better...do
you have any rejection stories to share?
Don’t
we all! When I started out, romance was
wide open and publishers snapped up everything I submitted. But then the
midlist list crash in the ‘90s left me and a lot of my peers struggling to find
a new focus. I left New York and went
with a small press, ImaJinn, to continue a vampire series fans were devoted to
and rediscover my love of writing.
After working with Pocket back in NYC for the last few years, now the
tide is turning toward digital and self-publishing. Everything is a cycle. You
just have to be prepared to ride the wave and keep on keeping on.
I am sitting on a surfboard! What
is your writing routine like?
I’m
an obsessive Type A writer with a strict schedule to work around a full time
job. When under contract, I’m at the
keyboard by 5:00 a.m. working until I have to leave for my day job at
8:00. I may work on scenes during my
lunch hour, and if the deadline’s tight or the muse is pushy, I might fire up
the laptop again when I get home. I’ll
usually put in 8 hours on the weekend when I have the most uninterrupted time.
The OCD keeps me to my intended daily word count.
That is dedication! What
sort of promo do you do? Do you have help?
Going
from print books to e-exclusives meant a whole new learning curve for
promotion. No more sales force and brick-and-mortar stores to get my books out
there, and many review sources I’d traditionally dealt with wouldn’t look at
e-books. Fortunately, I already had a fairly solid social media platform in
place but still, it’s a scramble just to let readers know your book is
available. Because 40 hours of my week are already spoken for, getting that big
PR blitz going was more time consuming than I could handle by myself. I have a fabulous virtual assistant in My
Girl Friday who does my blog postings and media updating, and I’ve gotten great
results by using Buy the Book Tours and Bewitching Book Tours to get blog stops
set up for me. I’ve done various blog
hops with giveaways, and special events like my annual Haunted Open House to
build my visibility, but in the end, who knows what actually brings in a sale.
Usually it’s word of mouth.
Having
achieved your goal to be a published author, what is the most rewarding
thing?
The
most rewarding part of being an author for me has always been the process of
writing. Just writing the book. I love
the plotting, the research, the characters, weaving everything together from
page one to page Ahhhh! Getting paid for
doing it or being recognized with a royalty check, awards and reviews is icing
on the cake.
Are
you a member of any writing organizations and, if so, have they helped?
I’ve
never been a joiner, and writing is the most isolating job you can imagine.
Before I got invited to speak at my area Mid-Michigan chapter of Romance
Writers of America, I’d never even met a real live author! In them I found a
wonderful sisterhood of supportive and creative friends and most importantly my
critique group. Now, I can’t fathom getting by without all the contacts I’ve
made through RWA and Novelists Ink, especially with all the new tricks I’m
having to learn lately in this e-volution.
I agree. I love my RWA chapters. Will
you share some encouraging words for authors still struggling for that first
contract?
Take
heart! Authors now have more choices and
opportunities then every before. With
small press and self-published writers hitting the big bestsellers lists, New
York in no longer the only game in town, which is great news for those who
write just outside the box. Educate
yourselves. This is a business and as
such, is full of pitfalls that you need to be prepared to recognize. Arm yourself with knowledge and write that
best book you can.
What’s
next for you?
I
recently got the publishing rights back to about 20 of my titles from Zebra
Books. BelleBooks will be reissuing four
of the contemporary romances in 2014 and I’m actively looking for homes for the
historicals.
I’m
hoping for more books in the “By Moonlight” series, especially the one for Max
and Charlotte that readers have been demanding.
Until then, I’ll be busy promoting PRINCE OF SHADOWS.
BOOK
BLURB
Others Controlled Her Fate
A
gentle female held hostage in a deadly play for power, Kendra Terriot’s only
means of survival for herself and her family is to play to a careful courtship
game. The one she chooses from her clan’s dangerous heirs will inherit the
coveted crown, keeping her their prisoner forever . . . unless she can retain
her virtue until rescue arrives.
The Past Destroyed His Dreams
Favored
son of their brutal Shifter leader, the only calm in Cale Terriot’s violent
world is a childhood love for his delicate distant cousin whom he’s pledged to
make his queen. With Kendra at his side, he knows he can become the kind of
ruler his clan needs, but first he must learn how to become the kind of mate
she desires.
A Choice Would Determine Their
Future
In
a treacherous race for control, where weakness means death, Cale must prove
he’s not the beast his beauty fears and still protect her, especially once her unrequited
love returns to free her. The only way to win her respect could mean
surrendering his throne. The only way to win her heart could mean letting her
go . . . even if she no longer wants to be saved.
MORE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Celebrating her 25th year in publishing, Nancy
Gideon is the author of over 54 novels ranging from historical and contemporary
suspense to paranormal with a couple of horror screenplays thrown in. When not at the keyboard or working full time
as a legal assistant, she can be found feeding her addictions for Netflix and
all things fur, feather and fin.
How can my readers buy your book?
Readers can go to the publisher’s HOME PAGE
You can find more information about me and my book, PRINCE
OF SHADOWS by visiting me at:
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