Welcome to I Smell Sheep! Have a seat in the guest chair…ignore the wires they mean nothing…moving on!
Sharon: I haven’t read your Wings in the Night series. Would you tell us a bit about it?
Maggie: Wings in the Night began in 1992 before “paranormal romance” was even a genre. Twilight Phantasies had been bubbling around in my sub-conscious for years. Probably ever since my childhood vampire flick addiction and my troubling feeling that the wrong guy always got the girl while the vampire always ended up dead. I was always on the vamp’s side. In adulthood, I got to set things straight. That first book was published by Silhouette Shadows. Later ones, by MIRA. There were 20 titles in that series, but with Wings in the Night: Reborn we are telling new readers “You may begin here.”
Check out some of the original covers!
Donna: I read in one of your blog posts that you’ve started stepping back from traditional publishing to go indie. Was this a very hard choice? By the way, I loved your analogy of going from an ocean liner to a speedboat.
Maggie: I’ve left traditional publishing entirely. And it was a terrifying choice. I have two more books left in the pipeline coming out from Harlequin MIRA: INNOCENT PREY and DEADLY OBSESSION, in my thriller series, Brown and de Luca. They will be my 59th and 60th full length, traditionally published novels. After publishing several of my backlist titles when their rights reverted to me, I realized I could do this myself, and maybe do it better. But it was a terrifying choice. A true leap of faith.
Sharon: What were some of your favorite childhood games?
Maggie: Barbie and GI Joe having dangerous, exciting “Romancing the Stone” adventures in the jungles of my backyard. (She always preferred GI Joe to Ken.)
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Donna: You’re very open about your belief system and being a practicing Witch. What’s the craziest question you get asked about it?
Maggie: I’ve had everything from “Could you please curse my ex?” (We don’t do that) to “Why do you sacrifice small animals?” (We don’t do that either.) Wicca’s only commandment is that harm none. It’s a path of being attuned to nature and completely aware that we are creating our own reality. Even the people espousing the currently popular Law of Attraction don’t realize that it’s what Wicca has always been about.
Sharon: How has becoming a writer changed your life?
Maggie: It empowered me, gave me confidence, supported me and my family, and it has fulfilled me spiritually by allowing me to live my life’s purpose completely and joyfully.
Donna: You’ve built quite a career and written a lot of books. If you had to pick only one book to represent you, which would it be and why?
Maggie: Each story is a snapshot of who and what and where I was in my life at the time I wrote it. Each one represents a three or four or five month period of my life, in fact. Right now, TWILIGHT GUARDIANS would be the most accurate depiction. Although my heroine, Charlie, is only 20, this book is her stepping into her own power and claiming her own independence, and she does it in spades. In way, that’s exactly where I am and have been while writing it. Stepping out of the place where anyone gets any say in my stories and into the place where it’s all me.
Sharon: dang…great question Donna *high fives Donna*
Maggie: It really was a great question. I hadn’t seen that parallel myself until I answered it.
Sharon: If you had to pick a dinner to represent you what would be served?
Maggie: Pizza. Cause to me pizza is sheer fun, and that’s what I’m about. Having as much fun as possible in the time allowed.
Donna: You used to write for soap operas? Was it a lot of fun being able to watch your words come to life everyday?
Maggie: You know, the executives asked me that after I’d been writing story arcs for a whole year. And I was shocked, because I had been watching, and had not realized they’d used anything I had written. When they insisted they had, I didn’t believe them. Then I attended a story meeting in person and understood. The writer’s story goes from one executive to another. Each one removes something or changes something or adds something, until, in the end, the story ends up looking just like the stories you’ve been seeing on the soaps for decades, and the original stuff from the writer has been snuffed out. It was an enlightening and lucrative experience. It was not fun. I was offered the job of co-head writer of Guiding Light and 7 figures. I turned it down. (I cried about it, but I turned it down.)
Sharon: If you could own any piece of art in the world which would you pick?
Rapid Fire:
Sharon: giggle or snort? Maggie: Snort.
Donna: Witches or cowboys?
Maggie: Both. I wrote entire cowboy series, including one story with a Witch.
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Maggie: Mountains
Donna: Dawn or dusk?
Maggie: Dawn
Sharon: lace or leather?
Maggie: Leather
Donna: Twenties or thirties?
Maggie: Age is just a number.
Sharon: action hero or romance hero?
Maggie: Romance heroes ARE action heroes.
Donna: Ereader or hard copy?
Maggie: Ereader for fiction. Hard for non-fiction.
Sharon: look at your watch or look at your phone?
Maggie: Phone
Donna: Chess or checkers?
Maggie: Checkers
Sharon: snow cones or cotton candy?
Maggie: Cotton Candy
WINGS IN THE NIGHT: REBORN, Book 1
Print Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Thunderfoot
Publishing
ASIN: B00LXJGKLU
COMING: SEPTEMBER 1, 2014
Add the book to your GoodReads
Shelf
Discounted price Pre-Order
($2.00 off regular price!):
"My inspiration has
always been Maggie Shayne's Wings in the Night." #1 New York Times
Bestselling Author, Christine Feehan
They told 20-year-old Charlie
O’Malley that they had a cure for the rare blood condition that would
eventually kill her–an untested, experimental cure. All they wanted in return
was for her to join their elite military team and train to kill the Undead.
She took the deal, not because
she cared so much about extending her life, but because it would make her
strong–stronger than ordinary humans. Strong enough to kill the vampire who’d
pretended to love her, taken her blood, used her body, and murdered her mother.
Killion was the last of his
kind, or so he thought. When he found Charlie, he felt the pull. She had the
rare Belladonna Antigen all vampires had as humans. Vampires were compelled to
protect those rare mortals they called The Chosen. But with Charlie, the bond
was different, more powerful than anything he’s felt before, and impossible to
resist, even though surrendering to it will probably get him killed.
Ancient vampire elders
Rhiannon and Roland come out of exile, risking their lives to help their mortal
friend Roxy reclaim her granddaughter. But before the tale ends, their lives
will be forever changed.
Join Maggie Shayne as she
returns to her most beloved series of all time with this new beginning….
Wings in the Night: Reborn
About The Author:
Website / Mailing List / Facebook
Twitter / Amazon Author Page
GoodReads
Maggie Shayne is best known as the New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 novels, nearly 30 novellas, a former soap writer, (The Guiding Light, As the World Turns,) a former advice columnist (Shayne on You,) and RITA Award winner. But what’s less known about her is that she’s been a practicing Witch for almost as long as she’s been a published author.Website / Mailing List / Facebook
Twitter / Amazon Author Page
GoodReads
Known within the Craft of the Wise as LadyHawk the Mythmaker, Maggie studied in the Black Forest Circle Seminary for three years, earning her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree elevations there. A licensed minister of Wicca, Maggie was later made a Craft Elder, and co-founded a new Wiccan tradition called RavenMyst Circle. Her coven, The Coven of the Redtail Hawk, turned out five new high priestesses, several of whom went on to form covens of their own, and making Maggie, according to the Old Ways, A Witch Queen.
Maggie has published westerns, category romances, romantic suspense, paranormal romances, urban fantasy, women's fiction, and just about everything in between. She's a winner of the RITA Award, the romance fiction industry's most prestigious prize, and has won countless others including several RT BOOK RREVIEWS "Reviewer's Choice" Awards, two RT Career Achievement Awards, the Daphne du Maurier Award, The Golden Leaf Award and numerous others.
Maggie's "Twilight" series of vampire novels, officially known as Wings in the Night, began in 1993 with TWILIGHT PHANTASIES from Silhouette Shadows. The series concluded with TWILIGHT FULFILLED in October 2011, but has come back to life now that she has gone indie.
Follow Wings in the Night online at:
GIVEAWAY:
Maggie is offering up a $100 Amazon Giftcard to a lucky grand-prize winner at the end of the tour, a Runner-Up prize of a new Kindle, PLUS an eCopy of Twilight Guardians for arandom commenter at each Tour Stop.
Find the Rafflecopter for the Event here, follow the directions, take action, and mark as ‘Done’.
To see the complete list of tour stops so you can read some great Q&A’s, Interviews, Guest Posts and more check out the full Wings in the Night Reborn Celebration Tour Schedule HERE.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
