Interview: PNR author Nancy Northcott (The Light Mage Series) + giveaway

Today we have PNR author Nancy Northcott visiting the flock. What is cool about Nancy, other than her ability to bend steel with her mind (okay, that’s a lie, but how cool would that be?), is she lives in NC like me! How are you holding up with this crazy winter weather we are having?
Nancy: I’m staying inside a lot! And I find that the snow distracts me from almost everything. I watch a lot of weather forecasts.

coming out soon!

Sharon: You have a PNR series that was recently renamed The Light Mage series. Can you tell our readers who aren’t familiar, a little about it?
Nancy: Thanks for asking! This series is contemporary, dark fantasy romance. The Light Mages are the good guys, as you might guess, dedicated to the service of what’s right. Their foes, the ghouls, use dark magic. They can draw the life energy or magic out of mages or Mundanes (normal humans). Ghouls can’t breed among themselves, so they need mages and Mundanes for that or, since ghouls can eat only fresh kill, for the occasional meal.

The mages and the ghouls have been in conflict for millennia. The ghouls have recently formed an alliance with an even worse species, so the mages have their work cut out for them. The tag line for the series is “Holding back an ancient evil, one Light Mage protector at a time.”

There are two books, Renegade and Guardian, and a novella, Protector, out currently. Those were published under the series label The Protectors, but they are part of the overall Light Mage Wars story arc. There will be a novella, Sentinel, out next month. It’s set before the events in Renegade, the first book.

Sharon: You love the English culture and history. Which historical figure would you like to meet, you know, once you finish building that time machine?
Nancy: Elizabeth I, without a doubt. About the only thing in her favor when she took the throne was that she was Protestant, yet she managed to hold onto the crown, reigning for almost half a century. I’d love to know what she saw as her particular challenges, what she found especially satisfying, and what regrets she had, if any.
Sharon: I couldn’t imagine living the life of the court having to wear those horrid outfits!
Nancy: LOL! Good point. I could ask her whether those starchy ruffs scratched.

Sharon: You are a self-confessed nerd, which makes you fit in around here. So what is the nerdiest thing you own?
Nancy: That’s a hard choice. There are so many possibilities:) I’ll go with my Queen Amidala laser pistol. I like to point it at things and hear it makes its little electronic zapping noises.
Sharon: *pulls out her little laser gun* pew-pew pew-pew
Nancy: Exactly! *grins*

Sharon: What was that first comic your grandfather bought you?
Nancy: It was Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, issue #62. It was a Phantom Zone story and featured Mon-El.

Sharon: A lot of our readers love those sexy paranormal men. What makes being with a Light Mage worth all the trouble they can bring to your door? And did you bring one with you, you know as a visual aid… *looking behind Nancy*
Nancy: I did bring one with me. This is Griffin Dare, the hero of Renegade. *stops to stare at him*

*Sharon waves, wiggles eyebrows*

Nancy: Oh. Right. You asked me a question. I love those sexy paranormal men, too, so I tried to give the heroes of this series the traits I enjoy reading about. First is power. Their magic is based on natural energy and the elements of earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. They’re sort of the fantasy equivalent of super-heroes, and they have the super-hero code. They protect anyone weaker than they are, especially Mundanes, watch out for each other, and have high standards of integrity.

Sharon: I am suddenly feeling very weak…help…me…Griffin…I need…*looks around and realizes everyone is staring. Gets off floor.* Stop judging me!
Nancy: No judging from me! But I think Griff may be off fighting ghouls right now.

Sharon: Do you have a guilty pleasure like watching reality shows?
Nancy: I do watch some reality shows. My husband and I enjoy Top Chef and Project Runway. My bigger guilty pleasure is action movies. I watched Battleship a lot when it was on HBO. When I need a fantasy fix, I often pull out The Thirteenth Warrior.
Sharon: Action movies shouldn’t be a guilty pleasure, they should be celebrated with pomp and circumstance! I loved Battleship too, and The Thirteenth Warrior is about…something…something…Antonio Banderas! Great movie.
Nancy: And not Banderas’s usual sort of role. And, hey, Vikings!

Sharon: Did you know they are no longer going to teach cursive writing in school? What do you think about that?
Nancy: Really? Wow. I think that’s a shame. Cursive writing is so…elegant. And there seems to be less elegance in the world every year. For me, at least, cursive writing is faster than printing.

Sharon: If you were an amusement park ride which would you be?
Nancy: I’d be the merry-go-round. It’s so cheerful, with the colorful horses (or other animals) and the bright music.
Sharon: Which animal do you like to ride most? I’ve always gone for the horses.
Nancy: I always go for the horses, too, but a gryphon or a phoenix would be hard to walk past. A lot of the animals other than the horses don’t go up and down, though. For me, the motion is part of the fun of a merry-go-round.

Sharon: What if all the creepy garden gnomes came to life one day. What do you think would happen?
Nancy: Well, they’d be hard to stop, being concrete, though maybe that would slow them down. I think the sales of sledgehammers would go up.

Rapid Fire:

Sharon: Super Bowl or Puppy Bowl?
Nancy: Puppy Bowl.
Sharon: water bowl cam!
Nancy: Absolutely!

Sharon: King Kong or Godzilla?
Nancy: King Kong. I’ve never been a fan of lizards.

Sharon: salt water or fresh water?
Nancy: Salt water to swim or wade in, fresh to drink.

Sharon: pe-can or pe-con?
Nancy: Pe-con
Sharon: Nope! :P
Nancy: Aw, rats! *g*

Sharon: Pepsi or Coke?
Nancy: Coke, definitely.
Sharon: again, Nope!
Nancy: No Coke? Uh-oh. I guess that means no Cherry Coke either? Will, the hero of this summer’s release, Warrior, is also a Pepsi fan, so he’d be totally in your corner, but Tasha, the heroine of the winter book, Nemesis, is a Coke-only woman.

Sharon: You can come back when  you have Will with you! <G>

Sharon: Pirate or cowboy?
Nancy: Cowboy. Maurading is a high-risk job, imho.
Sharon: not to mention sea sickness. Puking is NOT sexy.
Nancy: Oh, really not! Bleech. Hadn’t thought about that.

Sharon: captain the Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon?
Nancy: Enterprise. My parents were in the US Navy, and the starfaring equivalent appeals to me more than smuggling.

Sharon: Thanks for visiting. Before your dragon ride, is there anything you would like our readers to know?

Nancy: Dragon ride? Cool! Maybe the dragon would like to know I love the Pern books. As for the readers, I’d like them to know I enjoy action, adventure, and romance, and I try to deliver the kind of reading experience I enjoy. Thanks so much for having me today!

The Light Mage Series

What is a Light Mage

review: Guardian (The Light Mage #2)

About the Author:
website-Twitter-FB-blog
I still love comic books, fantasy and science fiction, though I don’t read comics as much as I once did. I try to get to Dragon*Con every year. I’m also a lifelong history geek and Anglophile, passions born when I was in second grade and watched a television drama about the Tudors. By the time I reached college and learned just how inaccurate that story was, it was too late. I was hooked! I majored in history and spent a fabulous summer studying Tudor and Stuart Britain at Oxford University (as well as learning to drive on the left side and observe local customs in pubs). These experiences left me with serious geek tendencies, which I indulge by reading a lot of history. My college classes mostly covered who fought whom, when, why, and how, and I’ve been delighted to discover how much material is available about the ways people of different eras lived.

I've traveled extensively in Britain with my husband and our son, collecting numerous tomes, weighty and not, on my passion. My husband, a children’s literature professor who understands the “book thing,” graciously carried home the ones I didn't have time to entrust to the Royal Mail. His help put a whole new spin on the “carry my books” bit and helped make possible the Writer Resources section of this site, where I share some of my best finds.

Alpha Male Diner cook Nancy Northcott + giveaway

We have some Mage on the menu today and everyone loves the taste of magic! Nancy's Protector series looks pretty yummy to me. Book #1 Renegade came out in Nov. 2012. Tomorrow her novella #1.5 Protector releases and as if that wasn't enough... you can pre order Book #2 Guardian coming out July 2, 2013. Sit back and let Nancy serve you some magic!

Josh Campbell (mage and helicopter pilot) 

Recipe by Nancy Northcott 

Protector (a novella) 

Ingredients: 
*A six-foot, athletic frame kept toned for battle 
*Sandy brown hair kept short to fit under a combat helmet 
*Hazel eyes that flash green 
*A keen, tactical mind 
*A kind heart 
*An unshakable sense of purpose *Sensitive hands that can guide a helicopter safely through lethal blasts of magic 

Season with: 
*Two tours of combat in Afghanistan 
*Grief over the death of his mother when he was ten 
*Eight years of being both mother and father to his younger sisters 
*Determination that no child of his will ever go through what he and his sisters did 

Mix, adding a dash of humor and one of sweetness. Stir in three years making water drops on wildfires. Fold in longing for a woman and fellow mage he has firmly marked as Out of Bounds.

Heat to scorching with proximity to that woman and dark magic that threatens them both. 

Serve carefully in case the combination explodes. 

Taste Test

Chapter 1 

Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia
Present Day 

Of all the helicopter pilots who could’ve flown this medevac run, why did Josh Campbell have to be the one who showed up? Edie Lang snatched a sidelong look at him. His tall, broad-shouldered form seemed to take up more than his share of the cockpit space. Or maybe her unwelcome awareness of him caused that crowded sensation.

His headset and tan ball cap hid most of his sun-kissed, light brown hair but emphasized his profile. Josh’s straight nose and strong chin might’ve graced a classical statue. Intently tracking the burning landscape, his eyes were green today, like his flight suit, but an intriguing mix of green and brown when he wore street clothes.

He still looked as sexy and, unfortunately, as aloof as he did three years ago, when they’d last worked together. They’d been part of a helicopter firefighting crew in Wyoming until she’d left.

Not that their history mattered now.

At least he would get her to the injured firefighter in one piece. Josh had his faults, but no one flew wildfire rescue better than he did. Although fire-generated air currents buffeted the chopper, his piloting skills, combined with a bit of magic, kept it steady above the flaming, smoky swamp.

It was his skill at other things that made her edgy.

She suddenly felt self-conscious about her grimy face and the smoke and ash stains on her fire-resistant yellow shirt and green pants, not to mention her hair that probably looked more gray than blond by now. She’d fought the wildfire until she got the injury call and switched her brain to paramedic mode.

So what if she and Josh had almost done the deed once when they worked together? That’d been a freak incident, a mistake he’d realized before they made it worse by going all the way.

It was just her bad luck this fire was so big that her crew from Colorado and his from…wherever had been rotated into Georgia to fight it.

Unfortunately, their one intimate encounter had etched itself into her memory. She knew every warm, sleek contour of the sculpted form under that flight suit. Those hard, smooth shoulders of his flowed into a firm chest and muscular, well-toned arms. The man was good with his hands in ways that had nothing to do with aviation.

Edie shifted in her seat. Best to get her mind off what had so briefly been and never would happen again.

"Holding back an ancient evil, one Light Mage protector at a time..."

There's a longer excerpt on my website 

AVAILABLE: March 05, 2013
When firefighter and paramedic Edie Lang arrives to battle a wildfire in southeast Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, she's dismayed to encounter the man who ruined her life in just one night. Their reunion doesn't make helicopter pilot Josh Campbell any happier than Edie is. Despite their efforts to ignore each other, the sparks between them have not diminished, but neither intends to let them flare again.

When one of them is gravely injured, the two discover their passion runs deeper than either of them could have imagined and they have Dr. Stefan Harper to thank for that chance.

Dr. Harper is happy to have given the couple a second chance, but realizes through Josh and Edie as well as his good friends Val and Griff that what's missing from his life is love.


About the Author:
website-Twitter-FB-blog
I still love comic books, fantasy and science fiction, though I don’t read comics as much as I once did. I try to get to Dragon*Con every year. I’m also a lifelong history geek and Anglophile, passions born when I was in second grade and watched a television drama about the Tudors. By the time I reached college and learned just how inaccurate that story was, it was too late. I was hooked! I majored in history and spent a fabulous summer studying Tudor and Stuart Britain at Oxford University (as well as learning to drive on the left side and observe local customs in pubs). These experiences left me with serious geek tendencies, which I indulge by reading a lot of history. My college classes mostly covered who fought whom, when, why, and how, and I’ve been delighted to discover how much material is available about the ways people of different eras lived.

I’ve traveled extensively in Britain with my husband and our son, collecting numerous tomes, weighty and not, on my passion. My husband, a children’s literature professor who understands the “book thing,” graciously carried home the ones I didn’t have time to entrust to the Royal Mail. His help put a whole new spin on the “carry my books” bit and helped make possible the Writer Resources section of this site, where I share some of my best finds.

GIVEAWAY

I'd be glad to send a signed ARC of Protector to a commenter. Just answer my question: 

If you could learn to fly anything, what would it be? (fictional or real aircraft)

a Rafflecopter giveaway