E.J. Stevens's Blog, page 25

Today we are celebrating the release of BIRTHRIGHT, the fourth full-length novel in the award-winning Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens.  We have a special book excerpt, commenter prizes, and a HUGE swag giveaway.  So grab a cupcake and some punch.  It's time to party!


Birthright (Ivy Granger #4) by E.J. Stevens

Being a faerie princess isn't all it's cracked up to be...

Ivy must go to Faerie, but the gateway to the Wisp Court is through Tech Duinn, the house of Donn—Celtic god of the dead. Just her luck.

Unable to share her secret with Jinx, and with Jenna called away on Hunters' Guild business, Ivy must rely on Ceff and Torn to lead her to Death's door, literally, and back again. As if that wasn't dangerous enough, there's no saying what horrors lay in store within the Faerie realm. Too bad the Wisp Court is the one lead Ivy has in the search for her father—and possible salvation.

Maybe hiding away and dodging sidhe assassins isn't so bad after all...

Release Date:  July 14, 2015
Genre:  Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Now available (ebook and trade paperback) atAmazon, Amazon.uk, Kobo, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and other fine retailers.
Add Birthright to your TBR list:Goodreads | Booklikes | Shelfari | LibraryThing
Birthright Book Excerpt
     Wisps buzzed through the air, their musical humming rising in pitch as they darted in for a closer look.  I sat on the mossy embankment and smiled, watching the playful wisps.
     With my father’s key helping to guide us, we’d left the deadly bog and its poisonous gas behind.  I breathed deeply, and let out a happy sigh.
     “I don’t know what you’re so happy about,” Torn said, shaking water from his hair.  “We’re covered in mud and smell like troll farts.”
     It was true.  The sulfurous swamp gasses did smell an awful lot like something that would come out of Marvin after he ate an entire cauldron of Kaye’s chili, but I didn’t care.  We were alive.  And so far, my wisp brethren weren’t trying to kill me.
     I’m not sure what it said about my life that the lack of fratricide upon my homecoming made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Probably best not to think too much about it, and just enjoy the moment.
     I shrugged, and kept on smiling.
     “Well don’t get too comfortable, Fish Breath is on his way over with his pensive face,” Torn said.
     He stalked off to sit on a rock a few paces away, but I shrugged again and closed my eyes, turning my face to the moon and stars above us.  I wasn’t going to let Torn ruin this moment.
     “Are you feeling well?” Ceff asked, settling on the mossy ground beside me.
     I cracked an eye open, grinning from ear to ear.
     “I feel great, never better,” I said.  In fact, I felt a bit dizzy and my lips tingled, like I’d had too much to drink.  Only I would get buzzed off the buzzing of wisps.  “Just buzzed off the buzzing.”
     I hiccupped, and giggled, the laugh coming out in an undignified snort that startled the nearest wisps.
     “Are you sure that you are not angry, or afraid?” he asked.
     I forced myself to look up into Ceff’s face.  His head was titled to the side, as if listening for something, but his attention was focused solely on me.
     “I’m fiiine, really,” I said, waving a hand.  My eyes widened, and I let out another giggle.  “I’m glowing.”
     “Which is probably what has his highness’ panties in a bunch,” Torn said, coming over to tower above me, arms crossed.  “There is something weird about seeing you smile like that, especially when you’re glowing.”
     “What?” I asked.  “I smile.”
     “Almost never, and when you do, it’s usually because you’re killing something,” he said.  “Not that I’m judging.  I’m just saying Fish Breath has a point.  You’re different.”
     “She is high on power,” Ceff said, eyes going tight.  “I should have recognized the signs sooner, but I was focused on our flight through the bog, and then with releasing the water magic that held our masks together.”
     “You think it’s the wisps?” Torn asked.
     “That would be my guess,” Ceff said, rubbing his jaw.
     “This didn’t happen after our run in with those wisps in Ocean Overlook cemetery, did it?” Torn asked.
     “No,” Ceff said.  “Not that we noticed.  But Ivy was badly wounded that night, and took days to recover consciousness.  And…I…I was not at my most attentive.”
     That was the night that I’d killed his ex-wife.  Melusine may have been the raging psychotic bitch who’d murdered his children, and tried to kill us as well, but that didn’t mean her death had been easy on Ceff.
     The memory of Ceff’s grief flooded me, pushing the giddiness away.
     “I think…I think I’m back to normal now,” I said.  I yawned, covering my mouth with the back of my gloved hand.  Ignoring the encroaching bone deep fatigue, I tried to pull myself to my feet, but sank back down when a wave of dizziness nearly toppled me over.  “I just need a minute.”
     “You are exhausted,” Ceff said, brow wrinkling.  “Rest here.  I will keep first watch.”
     “But my father’s court…” I said, but my words were cut short by another yawn.
     “Will still be there tomorrow,” Torn said.
     “Plus, I can scout ahead while you sleep,” Ceff said.  “We will make better progress if we are rested and certain of the path ahead.”
     “Fine,” I said, eyes fluttering closed.  “But just a quick nap.”
     The last thing I saw, before losing myself to the darkness of sleep, was a cloud of wisps hovering over me, lending me their warmth…and their power.

Birthright Release Day Giveaway
We are giving away a BIRTHRIGHT t-shirt, button, signed postcard, and mini poster to one lucky winner!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL. Giveaway ends August 4, 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you all for partying with us!
In addition to the huge swag pack giveaway, we are also giving away Ivy Granger series stickers, buttons, and signed postcards.  Each tweet, FB post, and blog comment using the hashtag #BirthrightParty will count as an entry.  Winners will be randomly selected throughout the day.  So party with us and spread the word all day July 14th for a second chance to win!

Also, don't miss the Birthright Release Party Chat and Giveaway happening today at Bitten by Books .  We are giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card.  I hope to see you there!

Join me tomorrow Tuesday, July 14th at Bitten by Books for the BIRTHRIGHT Book Release Party.

RSVP Here!
Don't miss this fun release party, chat, and giveaway.  I'm giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card.  RSVP now for 25 extra entries.



Hope to see you there!

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Los Angeles, California and our special guide is Kate Danley, author of the MAGGIE MACKAY urban fantasy series.

L.A.'s Top 5 Spooky Places
Most people would say the scariest thing about Hollywood is the botched plastic surgery, and they may be right, but there are a couple of spooky haunts of the more paranormal variety.  My character, Maggie MacKay, roams Los Angeles taking down vampires and monsters and ghosts.  Here are a couple of spots featured in my Maggie MacKay series and a few bonus locations to send a chill up your spine.

1.  Hollywood Tower
Thought that the Tower of Terror was something just in Disneyland?  Oh no, my friends.  The Hollywood Tower is an actual place.  Though it has recently been renovated and now mostly features terrifyingly expensive apartments, this used to be a hotel where young starlets with stars in their eyes would stay… and many reportedly committed suicide.  The Tower is haunted by a multitude of ghosts, including a dapper gent on the 7th floor who stares out at the Hollywood Hills and then disappears.

2.  The Queen Mary
If you've read Maggie on the Bounty, it takes place on a fictionalized ocean liner called the Empress Adelaide.  The REAL haunted ocean liner is docked in Long Beach.  The Queen Mary started off as a posh cruise ship bringing Hollywood's elite across the ocean, but when WWII hit, she got a name change and became The Grey Ghost, shuttled soldiers across the Atlantic.  Now she's retired in Long Beach and sits as a permanent hotel.  One of the rooms is so haunted, they stopped renting it out.  There are crying ghost babies in a storage closet that was once the 2nd class nursery.  People report seeing water and bathers in the empty swimming pool.  Ghost hunters have been on board and found several vortexes.  If you're in a ghost hunting mood, they offer one thrills-and-chills "haunted boat" tour that will make you laugh and scream.  But if you want the facts about the hauntings, they have one of a more serious nature which will tell you the who/what/where of the boat's spookiest unregistered guests.

3.  The Hollywood Sign
In 1932, a young actress named Peg Entwistle felt her acting career was going nowhere and that she was better off if she ended her life.  She climbed up to the top of the Hollywood sign and threw herself off the "H."  Little did she know that the day after she committed suicide, one of the studios desperately kept trying to reach her to offer her a role.

4.  Hollywood Cemetery
Welcome to the final resting place of Rudoph Valentino, Mickey Rooney, and Douglas Fairbanks.  While no more haunted than any other cemetery, during the summer, you can bring a picnic and watch movies among the tombstones, some of the flicks featuring the actors and actresses buried there.

5.  Old Griffith Park Zoo
Sitting in Griffith Park is a zoo built in 1912, except no one lives there anymore.  It is nothing but empty cages, empty enclosures, all left abandoned since the 1960s.  The bars have been removed and now you can climb around inside and get your taste of what it might feel like if the whole world was watching you.  Visitors have described it as just… creepy

Thank you Kate for giving us such a haunting tour of L.A.!  
To learn more about Kate Danley and her books, please visit her website.  You can add the Maggie MacKay, Magical Tracker series here on Goodreads.



Have you ever visited Los Angeles?  Ever had a paranormal experience in Los Angeles?

What did you think of Kate's picks for spooky places?
Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Maradaine with Marshall Ryan Maresca.  Next week we'll be traveling to Tangle Lake, MN with Michele Hauf.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Please welcome today's guest author Susan Griscom!  Susan is the author of the Whisper Cape series and The Sectorium paranormal romance series, including her new release A GYPSY'S KISS.

Q+A with Susan Griscom
EJ:  When did you begin writing?
​
Susan:  I started writing in 2007 when I retired after we sold all of our cell phone stores. ​I'd read Nora Roberts' Circle Trilogy, (can't get enough of those books) and I told a friend of mine that I wanted to write a book. Well, I'm the type of person who feels the need to follow through on things like this, so I started writing Whisper Cape in the basement of our seventy-five-year old home. This house was haunted with a very gentle spirit and I truly believe her presence helped inspire my creativity. I finished writing that book in three months, then took another two years perfecting it and contacting agents. It was eventually picked up by a small press who didn't live up to my expectations and I asked to be released from my contract before the book as even published. I then self-published it.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?​

Susan:  As I stated above, Nora Roberts' Circle Trilogy. I didn't want to write about vampires, but I was a huge fan of just about anything supernatural. I worried about being too much like someone else and so I decided to write about beings with supernatural abilities.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?​

Susan:  I would love to have the ability to teleport. Being able to be anywhere I wanted to be in the blink of an eye would be awesome, particularly since I don't care much for airplanes. I wouldn't mind a little telekinetic power too.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.​

Susan:  My newest release, A Gypsy's Kiss, is not only a supernatural romance, heavy on the romance, but I've also thrown in the sport of hockey. ​I watched my son play hockey his entire life and I became a fan of the sport and was thrilled when I came up with the idea of mixing it in with this story of two tortured souls seeking something neither one of them ever thought was possible.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?
​
Susan:  This is a difficult question, because they are so unique in their appearance, but I guess if I have to pick, Hawk, who has one green eye and one grey eye, could be played by Ian Somerhalder with contacts, because he can play someone who can be very angry, yet can have a very soft side as well. Abigail Breslin would make a fantastic Breena. I think she would be great in portraying Breena's angst about how she actually feels about her "cursed" ability. The idea of never being able to touch someone would be awful and I think Abigail could carry off that anxiety, yet keep Breena's high spirited spark at the same time.

Thank you Susan for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

A Gypsy's Kiss (The Sectorium #1) by Susan Griscom.

Breena Cassidy
Cursed with what could be one of the worst supernatural abilities imaginable, Breena has never had the luxury of falling in love. Hell, she’s never even held a guy’s hand. At only twenty-two years old, she’s just about given up on the whole love thing. After all, when you can see twelve hours of someone’s future by a simple touch, and they, in turn, can see what you see, well… relationships are sort of out of the question. Her gigs performing psychic readings at parties, and the occasional one-on-one private appointment are just about Breena’s only connection with people. No matter how much she might wish otherwise.

Hawk Covington
Hawk’s hard body and skill have earned him a starting position on the Pioneer’s college hockey team. But it’s not his talent with a hockey stick that’s the most remarkable. His gorgeous two-colored eyes not only draw the attention of every female on campus, they also allow him to track people and objects. But when he suddenly finds himself stalked by a stranger, he seeks out the help of the rumored, “campus gypsy” for help.

Despite his vow to stay single and play as many college women as he can while the fun lasts, Hawk can’t ignore his attraction to the lovely and spirited Breena. And she can’t get the hunky star hockey player out of her mind once a single touch of his hand reveals something utterly strange. Surrounded by mystery, they realize that fate has brought them together for a reason, but can they stay alive long enough to recognize the depth of their feelings for one another?

Release Date: May 10, 2015
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Add to Goodreads.

To learn more about Susan Griscom and her books, please visit her website.  Have a question for Susan?  Let us know in the comments below.  We love comments!

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Maradaine and our special guide is Marshall Ryan Maresca the author of the Maradaine urban fantasy series, including his new release A MURDER OF MAGES.

Marshall's Top 5 Spooky Places in Maradaine
Maradaine is a grand and lush city, filled with commerce, magic, intrigue, politics and mystery.  And like any city with that much scope, there are places that are steeped with fear and dark history that some people would just as soon forget.

1.  Oscana Park - Once a vibrant center of natural beauty in the middle of the Dentonhill neighborhood, Oscana Park has been all but abandoned to the effitte dealers, ruffians, derelicts and vagrants.  Now overgrown with half-dead trees, not even the constabulary go in there if they can help it.  Anyone who does venture in is likely to get a knife in their belly.

2.  Quarrygate Prison/Quarry Landfill - At the southwest edge of the city, the source of the white stone bricks that many Maradaine buildings were built with is now the home to everything undesirable.  The prison looms over the deep pits of decades worth of refuse.  Some say the prison is far more humane than public executions, but the scent alone in the part of the city could be considered torture.

3.  Downing & Jewel - Three years ago, several Mage Circles fought each other in the streets of Inemar, and the worst of these Mage Rows was at the corner of Downing and Jewel, in front of the Chapterhouse for the Circle of Light and Stone.  Several innocent people were injured, even killed, in the crossfire.  Despite that, almost no mages were arrested.  And they wonder why normal folk don’t trust them….

4.  The City Tunnels - The city of Maradaine is ancient, standing for centuries before the first Druth king was crowned.  Sewers, catacombs, secret passages and hidden caverns where dug out, abandoned, rediscovered and forgotten more times than anyone could keep track of.  How many tunnels are beneath the city?  No one really knows.  Is anyone—or anything—down in there?  If so, what are they doing down there?

5.  Talon Circle - Talon Circle, on the north side of the city in the Welling neighborhood, is home to the Talon Club, a favored establishment for Maradaine’s wealthy elite and politically powerful.  But it is also the home to a stern reminder of darker times: the empty plinth in the center of the fountain in the middle of the plaza.  In the eleventh century, when King Maradaine X was overthrown by the figure simply called “The Black Mage”, the statue in the plaza was destroyed and the king’s body was placed on the plinth for all to see.  When the Black Mage was routed and the Maradaine line restored to the throne, the plinth was kept empty to honor the murdered king.

Thank you Marshall for giving us such a haunting tour of Maradaine!  
To learn more about Marshall Ryan Maresca and his books, please visit his website.  You can add the Maradaine series here on Goodreads.


What did you think of Marshall's picks for spooky places?
Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited London with Brooklyn Ann.  Next week we'll be traveling to Los Angeles, CA with Kate Danley.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Please welcome today's guest author, Jennifer Allis Provost.  Jennifer is the author of the Copper Legacy series and the Chronicles of Parthalan series, including HEIR TO THE SUN.

Q+A with Jennifer Allis Provost
EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Jennifer:  I suppose I could give the standard “I’ve been writing all my life” response, but I began writing for publication in 2008. How that came about is a story in itself; I’d been rooting though some boxes that came from my mother’s house and I found some notebooks that I’d used in middle school. One of them had some scribblings that stuck in my mind, and it became the Chronicles of Parthalan.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Jennifer:  When I was a kid, the local library (which was the size of my foot) only had a few shelves worth of children’s titles. Once I’d read all of those, the librarian directed me to the mythology section. It’s a pretty short leap from reading about gods and fantastical creatures to writing about faeries and elves.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Jennifer:  Hmm, that’s a good one. Lots of talents are cool—invisibility, flying—but in the end I think I’d pick a sort of precognition. If nothing else I could make money in the stock market.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Jennifer:  My latest release, Heir to the Sun, is actually a re-release by Bellatrix Press. It will be available everywhere June 1, with a newly polished story and shiny new cover.

It features two strong female leads, Asherah and Alluria. Asherah is a prisoner at the start of the story, until she escapes and leads a revolt against the faerie king. Along the way, she exposes the king’s misdeed, burns prisons to the ground, and assembled an army of thousands dedicated to her. Alluria feels trapped in her role as priestess, until she takes matters into her own hands and makes her own path. Not only does she relinquish her role as priestess, she learns that she might be the most powerful person in the land. You could say that they’re self-rescuing princesses.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Jennifer:  Alexis Bledel perfectly captures Alluria’s austere beauty. Her mate, Caol’nir, would have to be played by someone blond and physically imposing, like Chris Hemsworth. I’ve always envisioned Lormac, the elf king, as Hugo Weaving in his role as Elrond (maybe I read a little too much Tolkien as a kid). As for Asherah, I honestly don’t know. She had long blond hair, so pale it’s almost white, with black eyes crimson lips. I took a look around the interweb, and the closest I could find was Shay Mitchell or Gwen Stefani.

Thank you Jennifer for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

Heir to the Sun (Chronicles of Parthalan #1) by Jennifer Allis Provost.

A mad king. An escaped slave. One warrior to save the realm...

When Asherah, stripped of both her memory and her dignity, learns that King Sahlgren is responsible for her torment it nearly breaks her. Instead, she leads her fellow slaves to freedom. More prisons are scattered across Parthalan, and Asherah vows to burn them all.

Caol'nir, a warrior descended from the gods, is sworn to serve and defend the king. Then a priestess is murdered, and Caol'nir learns that Sahlgren is to blame. Determined to stop the king, sacred oath or no, Caol'nir joins Asherah's rebellion.

What Caol'nir doesn't know is that Sahlgren has promised the demon lord a woman of rare and singular beauty, a woman whose abilities are rumored to rival the sun god’s themselves…a woman Caol’nir knows all too well.

Release Date:  June 1, 2015
Genre:  Paranormal, Fantasy
Add to Goodreads.

To learn more about Jennifer Allis Provost and her books, please visit her website.

Have a question for Jennifer?  Ask away in the comment section below.  We love comments!

Congratulations Aimee Y. the winner of the Blood and Mistletoe Audiobook Giveaway !  Aimee will receive a BLOOD AND MISTLETOE audiobook download, signed postcard, and button.


Happy Audiobook Month!
**Giveaway winner randomly selected using Rafflecopter**

Congratulations Barbara Kuhl winner of our Vampires in America Giveaway here at From the Shadows!  Barbara will receive her choice of ebook from the Vampires in America series by D.B. Reynolds.



Thank you all for entering!

**Giveaway winner randomly selected using Random.org**

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is London and our special guide is Brooklyn Ann the author of SCANDALS WITH BITE vampire paranormal romance series.

Brooklyn Ann's Top 5 Spooky Places in London
Hello everyone, I’m Brooklyn Ann, and I’m going to share some creepy places in London, the setting of my historical paranormal romance, BITE AT FIRST SIGHT.




Saint Pancras Old Churchyard
I've included this one because it features heavily in my series. Believed to be the oldest center of Christian worship, the church was actually moved in the 14th century. It was the burial place of many historical figures, including writers William Godwin, Feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and Dr. John Polidori. Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley allegedly had meetings at her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft's grave to plan their elopement. As for Polidori's burial, there's a fun scene about in my first book, BITE ME, YOUR GRACE.

Charles Dickens also mentions the graveyard in A TALE OF TWO CITIES as a frequent site for grave robbers who took cadavers for physicians to study.

Which is interesting because BITE AT FIRST SIGHT opens with my heroine, aspiring physician, Cassandra Burton doing just that. Unfortunately, Rafael Villar, interim Lord Vampire of London catches her and mistakes her for a vampire hunter. And that's when the fun begins.


Bleeding Heart Yard
Originally part of Hatton Garden, the courtyard got its name from the murder of the second wife of Sir William Hatton. According to legend, Lady Hatton was dancing with a stranger and stepped outside with him to view the gardens. She never came back in and later she was discovered "torn limb from limb, but with her heart still pumping blood."


Hunterian Medical Museum
This one isn't haunted. Just creepy.  A museum was founded by the Royal College of Surgeons which displays the artifacts of Surgeon, John Hunter.
Lots of creepy stuff, which my heroine, Cassandra would doubtless find fascinating.
I'll let the images speak for themselves.


The Spaniard's Inn
Since the hero in BITE AT FIRST SIGHT is known as “The Spaniard,” I had to include this one.

Built in 1585, the inn was a notorious hangout for highwaymen. In fact, it is said that the father of infamous highwayman, Dick Turpin, had been a landlord for a time. Down the road from the inn there used to be a tree where many highwaymen were hung.

The Inn got its name either from a visit from the Spanish Ambassador, or from two Spanish landlords who fell in love with the same woman and dueled over her. The loser of the duel is said to haunt the inn. Other ghosts mentioned are a woman in white and the spirit of Dick Turpin.

Romantic poets, Lord Byron and John Keats (both mentioned in my series) used to hang out there and allegedly, Keats penned my favorite poem , Ode to a Nightingale, in the gardens.

Charles Dickens and Bram Stoker also mentioned the Spaniard's Inn in their books.


Tower of London
Built by William the Conqueror in 1078, The Tower of London is considered to be one of the most haunted places in England. One of the first ghosts to be spotted there was Thomas Beckett, a priest who was murdered right at the Traitor's gate.

Other ghosts include Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, Arbella Stuart, Princes Edward V and Richard (who'd mysteriously vanished in the tower until their skeletons were discovered beneath a staircase) and even whole squadrons of spectral soldiers.

Apparently the BBC filmed a paranormal investigation of the hauntings in the Tower back in 2001. I don't know about you, but I'm going to see if I can find it online or to rent somewhere!

Thank you Brooklyn Ann for giving us such a haunting tour of London!  
To learn more about Brooklyn Ann and her books, please visit her website.  You can add the Scandals with Bite series here on Goodreads.


Have you ever experienced anything spooky in London?  I know that I had a few scares and thrills when visiting the Tower of London. *shivers*

What did you think of Brooklyn Ann's picks for spooky places?
Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited London with Pippa DaCosta.  Next week we'll be traveling to Maradaine with Marshall Ryan Maresca.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Please welcome today's guest author, Dan Wells!  Dan is the author of the John Cleaver dark urban fantasy series, including the new release THE DEVIL'S ONLY FRIEND.

Q+A with Dan Wells
EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Dan:  I started writing in elementary school--the stories I remember explicitly were in second grade, but I suppose I may have started as soon as I learned to write. I continued like that all the way up through high school, writing short stories and poems and comicbooks and even some attempts at long novels, but I didn't really take it seriously as a career until college, when a creative writing teacher told me that it was possible to make a living as an artist. No one had ever told me that before, and it changed my life.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Dan:  I started writing fantasy because I'd always been a reader of fantasy, so I never seriously considered writing something that didn't have a strong speculative or supernatural aspect to it. After five failed epic fantasy novels--my writing group always liked the writing, but never really dug the stories themselves--I decided to try my hand at a modern mystery about serial killers, because I've always been kind of an armchair expert in the subject, and love studying about them in my spare time. I put a supernatural monster in it because, well, that's what I love. Why wouldn't I put it in there? I don't know exactly what genre the John Cleaver books are--some call them horror, some call them urban fantasy, some call them thrillers, some call them paranormal--but I just write what I love and let other people put a label on it.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Dan:  I want to fly. I can think of a dozen or so powers of paranormal categories that would be more useful--how great would it be to read minds, or stop time, or shapeshift?--but flight is just way too cool to not choose. Just launching myself into the sky, free to go anywhere and swoop around and feel the wind rushing past me, that would be the best thing ever.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Dan:  My new book is called The Devil's Only Friend, and it's the first in a new trilogy about John Cleaver, a teenage sociopath who hunts demons. There's a previous trilogy about him, starting with a book called I Am Not a Serial Killer, but this one's written so you can jump right in without feeling lost. I like to describe the series as "teenage Dexter in an X-Files episode," and it's a perfect fit for fans of things like Criminal Minds and Supernatural. The basic premise is this: John Cleaver is obsessed with serial killers, and has an innate skill in stalking people and planning how to kill them, and he uses that to help an FBI team hunt demons. The more they learn, though, they realize that some of the demons have noticed they're being hunted, and are starting to fight back....

EJ:  If your book were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Dan:  Funny you should ask, because the first book in the series, I Am Not a Serial Killer, was just filmed as a movie this Spring! They're working on editing and final effects right now, and the plan is to have a final edit done this fall, in time to submit to some of the major film festivals like Sundance and SXSW. The lead actors for that story are John, his mom, and his neighbor, who turns out to be the first demon John hunts; the actors are, respectively, Max Records, Laura Fraser, and Christopher Lloyd. If all goes well, we'll impress the festival crowds and get picked up for wide distribution, and be in theaters as early as fall of 2016. Fingers crossed.

Thank you Dan for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

The Devil's Only Friend (John Cleaver #4) by Dan Wells

John Wayne Cleaver hunts demons: they've killed his neighbors, his family, and the girl he loves, but in the end he's always won. Now he works for a secret government kill team, using his gift to hunt and kill as many monsters as he can...

...but the monsters have noticed, and the quiet game of cat and mouse is about to erupt into a full scale supernatural war.

John doesn't want the life he's stuck with. He doesn't want the FBI bossing him around, he doesn't want his only friend imprisoned in a mental ward, and he doesn't want to face the terrifying cannibal who calls himself The Hunter. John doesn't want to kill people. But as the song says, you can't always get what you want. John has learned that the hard way; his clothes have the stains to prove it.

When John again faces evil, he'll know what he has to do.
The Devil's Only Friend is the first book in a brand-new John Wayne Cleaver trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Dan Wells.

Release Date: June 16, 2015
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Urban Fantasy
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To learn more about Dan Wells and his books, please visit his website.