Aloha to Carolyn Jewel and MY IMMORTAL ASSASSIN

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Today my family tickets to the Pro Bowl - look for us in the cheap seats.   Just imagine if Romance Land had a Pro Bowl - a gathering of the best - Carolyn Jewel would be there.   Like a running back, she is versatile.  Carolyn can run a Historical plot, screen a Paranormal world, and block, er, blog about almost any topic on Risky Regencies.   Carolyn has scored several TDs with her accolades in 2010:

Indiscreet
2010 Bookseller's Best Winner, Best Short Historical

Scandal
2010 RITA Finalist

My Forbidden Desire, Book 2 in the My Immortal series
2010 RITA Finalist and Reader's Crown Finalist

Carolyn joins us to celebrate the release of My Immortal Assassin - Book 3 in the My Immortal series.  From her website bio,

Carolyn writes because she's a bit off that way. She loves history, action movies, scary stories and fine chocolate. She is also a Microsoft SQL Server Database Administrator. This is a geek job that's not nearly as exciting as writing. She lives in Northern California with her son and several critters. A recent switch from PC to Mac allowed her to glue paper fangs on her MacBook Pro and name it MacFang. She loves to hear from readers, so don't hesitate to email her.

Kim:  What is your favorite action movie? Scary movie? Fine chocolate?

Carolyn:  Favorite action movie. Just one? It would have to be Jet Li's Bodyguard from Beijing. Favorite scary movie, hmm. So few are actually really scary. The most recent one I saw was Paranormal Activity which definitely creeped me out.

Favorite chocolate. I don't even have to think about that. Leonidas. It's worth the money.

Kim:  When we lived in Netherlands, my husband's NATO co-workers recommended Leonidas (off searching for chocolate now).  I am going to assume Regency is your favorite historical period since you have several Regency books and you contribute to the blog, Risky Regencies. What attracted you to Regency era? How did you become a Risky? What is your niche in the historical market and even on Risky Regencies?

Carolyn:  Actually, I don't necessarily have a favorite historical period. I love a good medieval, for example. I'm a fan of any well-written historical, regardless of period. My first historical was set in the late Georgian period and my second was set in the early Victorian period (1844) because I liked the clothes. That book (Stolen Love) got a Regency cover because that's what sold in those days. And these days, it's still what sells most, though other periods pop up, and thank goodness! My subsequent historicals have been Regency set primarily because that is a much, much easier sell than Victorian or Edwardian. Which is not to say that I don't care for the Regency period. I do. There's so much going on in that time period that really lends itself to good drama.

I became a Risky because I was invited. I think they were crazy to ask me to join them, but they did and now they probably rue the day. My niche on The Riskies is Wednesdays. I am the Wednesday specialist and on that day of the week I blog about whatever desperate topic comes to mind. I've blogged about exploding pencils and things that happened on Wednesdays during the Regency. I also led a Risky-Read along, where the Riskies and a number of our readers all read Georgette Heyer's Venetia and then blogged and commented our thoughts and reactions. I think we'll be having another Read-Along pretty soon.

As to my niche in the historical market, well, I'm not exactly sure. I've been writing stories that are a bit angsty and definitely emotional, but my next two will take a lighter tone.

Kim:  Your "angsty" Regencies have taken the romance blogs by storm.  And so have your paranormal books.  Does switching from writing Regencies to paranormals equate to switching from a PC to a Mac? I.e., does it require you to "compute" differently?

Carolyn:  The switch from PC to a Mac isn't as disruptive as you might think. My experience went like this: 1) Turn on new Mac. 2) Look at screen and say, "oohhhh, so pretty. I am in love." I've not looked back since. I spend a lot less time fighting my computer now.

Writing in two genres isn't really disruptive either, mainly because I only work on one project at a time. If I were constantly switching between the two genres, I can envision that getting very sloppy. I'd have to train myself to compartmentalize more than I'd like to. I'm not even sure that would work for me.

Kim:  Have your Regency fans followed you to Paranormal? Have your new Paranormal fans considered your Regency books? Are there distinct lines between the types of fans or they one and the same?

Carolyn:  I know some readers have. But not all of them. Some people just don't like historicals or don't like paranormals, or prefer historicals over any other genre, etcetera. There are also a lot of readers who read just about everything.

Kim:  You have receive stellar reviews for My Immortal Assassin - what inspired it and the Immortal series?

Carolyn:  With the series itself, I wanted to write about a paranormal world where the traditional bad guy (demons) weren't necessarily all bad and where the traditional good guys weren't maybe all that good. So, my demons have definitely done some bad things now and in the past, but the magic-using humans who see themselves as the protectors of humanity are doing some terrible things themselves. Durian, the hero of My Immortal Assassin, appeared as a minor secondary character in book 1 (My Wicked Enemy) and in book 2 (My Forbidden Desire) and some really awful things happen to him. By the end of the second book, he's back working as an assassin. And, despite everything I said in your previous question about writing in two genres, I always thought of Durian as my demon Regency Rake. He's a bit old fashioned, he loves all things classical and he's a major clothes horse. I don't think he owns a pair of jeans. It was fun pairing him up with a punk ballerina.

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Kim:  What's next for Carolyn Jewel?

Carolyn:  Book 4 in the series, My Dangerous Pleasure, will be out early this June. It's about Iskander. I wasn't going to say anything about the heroine, but I guess anyone could go off and read the back blurb and then you'd know that the heroine of the book is his tenant. He has a granny unit over his garage and he's been renting it out to a woman who owns a bakery.

I don't know yet about more books in the series, but I sure hope so!

In 2012, I'll have two historicals out. They don't even have titles yet, but they will be set in the Regency. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my books, I have two free reads on my website (also downloadable as pdfs) for anyone and everyone to check out.

Moonlight is a Regency-set historical that's a friends-to-lovers story with a hero who's younger than the heroine.

Future Tense is a story set in the My Immortals word about a woman struggling to control magical powers she doesn't fully understand and the computer-hacking demon whose help she enlists.

Mahalo, Carolyn, for visiting us at SOS Aloha!  In honor of your visit, I am giving away an ARC for My Immortal Assassin.  Not just any ARC, but the ARC from Mary Gramlich, the Reading Reviewer.  Check out Mary's review:

Worlds collide, hearts are won over and love dances onto the pages

To enter the giveaway,

1. Leave a comment about your favorite time period, action movie, and fine chocolate (or candy).

2. The giveaway is open only to all readers!  I welcome comments from all readers - whether or not you are entering the contest.

3. Comments are open through Saturday, February 5, 10 pm in Hawaii to enter the giveaway.

Join us tomorrow as we welcome Carolyn Brown and the Honky Tonk Series.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

One of the most popular "paranormal" legends on Oahu is the White Dog that haunts the Pali Highway. The Pali is the first path (now Highway) over the Koolau Mountains from Honolulu to Kaneohe. Pele, the volcano goddess, visited Oahu to meet her half-man, half-pig lover. One day he angered her, so Pele banished him the Leeward (Honolulu) side.

It is kapu (forbidden) to bring any pork products across the Pali Highway as you will bring Pele's former lover to her terrain. If you do have any pork products, an ilio kea (white dog) will appear to eat the pork. My children consider this a funny rather than scary story.

I hope someone mentioned this to the NFL as they have been all over the island this week ....


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