Nocturnal Book Reviews 3rd Blogoversary Celebration Day Two with Elizabeth Hunter!

photo credit: PetitPlat - Stephanie Kilgast via photopin cc

Hello, peeps!

We are THREE on the 9th of May, so we will be celebrating all week with exclusive content from our favorite authors, giveaways and personal tidbits.

Hope you join us in all the fun.

Cheers,

Karina & Vika

Did you know?

The original look for this blog was very different from what it is now... 

 I think that was before I realised I didn't want to limit myself to urban fantasy and paranormal romance in my reads.

Our second guest of honor is Elizabeth Hunter, another one of my absolute favorite authors and a kick-ass woman of pure awesomeness! *grinning* She is here today with her Guest Post of Doom!
P.S. All pics are from me, so blame me if something is wrong with them :)

GUEST POST OF DOOOOOOM

So, when Karina asked me to do a giveaway and guest post for the third anniversary of Nocturnal Book Reviews (Whoohoo! Congratulations!), I said “Sure!”

Then I promptly forgot about it, because my brain is like a sieve. Luckily, she emailed me to remind me! Unluckily, it was in the middle of the blog tour for THE SINGER: Irin Chronicles Book Two, which is out on May 6th.

I was feeling tapped out. What do I write about? I’d answered so many questions at that point. I’d done Top 5s. Top 10s! I’d examined my motivations and inspirations. What was left???



Then, Gen called me for some reason, and I had an idea. Gen is my pre-reader. She knows all about my books. She’s also my little sister. She was born to pester me. This could be good.

This is the rough (very rough) transcript of our phone conversation:

* * *

Me: I have to do a guest post for Karina’s blog.

Gen: Okay…?

Me: I want to do something different. Like an interview, but not a normal one with a polite blogger.

Gen: And…

Me: And you’re my sister and also a pre-reader, so you could ask me annoying non-polite questions.

Gen: Wait, you want me to ask you the questions?

Me: Not polite ones, though. Annoying ones. That bloggers would be too nice to ask.

Gen: Okay… Um, fine. How many hours a day do you actually spend writing?

Me: Oh, that’s a good one. (She asks me this because she knows how much I like naps.)

The way things have been lately, I have writing days and non-writing days when I do stuff like blog posts, promotion stuff, paperwork, formatting and editing stuff, things like that. I try to have at least three writing days a week though (when I’m not editing), and on those days, I write probably four hours at a stretch, then I take a break. And if I have enough time after an hour or so, I’ll write some more or outline scenes for the next chapter.

Gen: Okay, next question: How much coffee do you actually drink?

Me: A lot.

Gen: …

Me: I do have some days where I don’t drink much, but normally, it’s in the 4-6 cup range. Unless it’s cold outside, and then I’ll drink coffee into the afternoon, too. I get jittery when it's raining.

Gen: Next question…

Me: These aren’t all that annoying.

Gen: Are you ever going to write a wedding scene?

Me: Okay, that’s annoying. And I’ve written—

Gen: A real wedding scene? With the white dress and the flowers and everything?

Me: …

Gen: Not like Carwyn and Brigid.

Me: Probably not. It’s kind of a thing at this point! All weddings happen off page unless there’s a moment of peril. I’ll leave that one open. If there’s blood or violence involved in the wedding, I might write that. But a shiny happy one? Probably not.

Gen: How many more questions? (I’m interrupting her at Starbucks.)

Me: Two more.

Gen: I should ask one about the Irin books, huh?

Me: Readers might like that.

Gen: Okay… how many spin-offs are you going to do?

Me: For Irin?

Gen: For Irin characters other than Ava and Malachi.

Me: I don’t know—

Gen: The happy couple!

Me: What?

Gen: The happy couple at Sarihöfn. (This is in THE SINGER.)

Me: Bruno and Karen?

Gen: Yes. Bruno and Karen.

Me: You just want some happy, don’t you? After all the emotional turmoil. (Gen reads as I write. Which means after THAT CHAPTER in The Scribe, she didn’t get to keep reading right away and get to that OTHER chapter, because I hadn’t written it yet. And you thought I tortured you.)

Gen: Yeeeeees. They’re so cute! I want happy.

source

Me: I don’t know if I’m going to write a Bruno and Karen story, because they are happy. And I’d have to do something horrible to them to create conflict, so I don't really want to do that. But they’ll be in Ava and Malachi’s third book, THE SECRET. And I do have stories planned for other characters. I think Rhys will probably get one. I’m already planning a novella for Damien and Sari, to give more of their history. Leo, probably. Astrid. Mala. (You’ll meet Astrid and Mala in THE SINGER.) I don’t have a limit to the number of Irin stories, put it that way. I can see writing in this world for a long time, like I have with the Elemental World.

The Irin world, at the end of THE SECRET, is going to burst wide open. Most questions about Ava and Malachi will be answered, and they will have resolution, but there will be whole new conflicts to explore in the overall universe. It’s not a closed series.

Gen: One more question?

Me: Yep.

Gen: Tell the truth, are Turkish men really as good-looking as you say they are?

source
  (Karina: I just spent an hour of my life on this Facebook page! Thank you, Elizabeth! *grin*)

Me: I’m not going to lie and say the entire country is full of super-models. I’m just saying that, there are a greater than average number of handsome men in that country. I don’t know how it happened. Good genes, I guess. But Kelli and I played “Spot the ridiculously handsome waiter” at every single restaurant we went to. Of course, it’s also possible that they corral all the handsome men in the country into the tourist areas to entice gullible American women. That would be a good call on the part of the tourist board, and possibly one of the reasons that Istanbul is one of the top travel destinations in the world.

Gen: Is that five?

Me: Yep. Thank you so much! You’re the best.

Gen: Glad I could be annoying.

* * *

Thank you, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is graciously giving away an ecopy of The Scribe or The Singer (which comes out today, so congrats, Elizabeth!) - winner's choice!
Just comment to enter the contest, and I'll choose the winner on May 11th with the help of Random.org.
Good luck!

We reviewed both books on this blog already, and they are excellent! Press on the book covers to see our reviews.