Saturday, July 3, 2010

Interview with ANNIE NICHOLAS

Your website tells us you write Paranormal with a twist. Tell us about your “twists.” 

I write Paranormal with a Twist, which means if you like your stories off the beaten path, your characters cut from a broken cookie cutter, and to get your beliefs challenged then welcome to my worlds. My mind is a dark and strange place where odd people live.

You wouldn’t know it by meeting me. I’m a baseball/swim team mom, standing on the sidelines cheering my boys, baker of cookies, healer of scrapes, and keeper of the household peace. Yet, monsters live in my head.

Share with us your personal road to publishing. 

A couple years ago I was housebound for six months due to illness. In an attempt to save my sanity and not die of boredom, I began to write. From there, I met an online critique group and we all grew together as writers. With their encouragement I submitted my first story, THE OMEGAS, and it got offered a contract!

Tell us about your latest book.  My newest release is THE ALPHA, Book 2 of The Vanguards series.

Someone is about to get some Spice in his life.

Spice has nothing but the clothes on her back when she returns to Chicago. She's looking for a better life, and that means reuniting with her estranged twin sister, Sugar. She isn't thrilled to find out Sugar's boyfriend is a vampire. But then she meets Eric, once the bottle-cap-glasses-wearing nerd next door --now grown up into the kind of man she'd love to snuggle with on this cold winter night...and he’s offered her his room in Sugar’s house.

Eric can’t believe Spice has returned. He’d given up hope of ever seeing her again, let alone having her stare at him as if he’s sex on a stick. But now that all of his fantasies for them are coming true, reality rears her ugly head and Eric must tell Spice his intimate secret; he’s actually an Alpha werewolf looking for his mate and he thinks he’s found her.

Link: www.lyricalpress.com/the_alpha

You live in the Green Mountains of Vermont, which are gorgeous—year round. How does your personal geographic setting influence the settings in your books? 

I live vicariously through my characters. They get to go places I’ve dreamed of going like Budapest, Rio, and Chicago. I do have a story I’m drafting that will take place in Vermont and have been collecting data for it. I’m really excited about writing this story!

Do you prefer Alpha or Beta heroes in your romances, and why? 

I prefer Alpha heroes both in writing and reading, the edger the better. They make the story more interesting and you can’t always guess what they will do next. In my book, THE ALPHA, my hero is learning what it is to be alpha so he has some beta in him at first.

What were your early influences in writing? 

I actually wrote an article posted on my website thanking all those specific authors who influenced and how. But the ones that come to mind right away are Larry Niven, CJ Cherryh, and Anne McCaffery.

What are the addresses of your websites and blogs?
Website: http://www.annienicholas.com/
Blogs: http://www.annienicholas.blogspot.com/
http://www.paranormalromantics.blogspot.com/

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