An Interview with Author Marcia Colette

From author Marcia Colette, her exciting new release "Stripped".

Someone wants their perfect weapon back, only she’s not coming quietly.

Alexa Wells wants her life back. She’s just not sure what that life was. The memories inside her head—a stripper’s—aren’t hers, and before she humiliates herself onstage one more time, she sets out to collect the scattered pieces of her mind. The trail leads to Boston, charges of identity theft and murder, and the real bombshell: a forgotten werewolf lover who insists she’s a werewolf hybrid.

Matt York doesn’t care that she looks at him like he’s been smoking crack between court cases. Now that he has her back he’s not about to let her go it alone, even if she can easily kick ass and take names all by herself. Amnesia only scratches the surface of her problems, and like it or not, she’s stuck with him.

She’s also stuck with Robert Gamboldt, a venture capitalist who’s not above murdering his way to the top. He’s not about to lose his prize possession without playing dirty. It’s a simple enough offer. Be his personal assassin, or go to jail.

With options like that, it’s enough to make a hybrid go full-blood.

Marcia Colette has stopped by to tell us about herself and about her new release, "Stripped, an urban fantasy unlike any you may have read before. So, of course, first off I had a few questions for Marcia:

1. Do you find it difficult to combine a love of horror with the happy ending required of romance?

Not really. As long as the hero and the heroine end up together, I think anything is possible regardless of how brutal or gory. I guess that's why I take no prisoners when it comes to my paranormal romances.

2. You refer to your work as the creepier side of writing – why?

No matter how hard I've tried, my writing has always been on the dark side of things. I wanted make sure there was no mistake about where I was coming from and where my writing was going. If readers can hang for the ride, then they're more than welcomed to join me. But if they don't like me torturing my characters, then my stories won't work for them. It's better people know that off the bat, rather than to be shocked about me tearing off a limb.

3. What inspired Stripped?

I had fallen in love my characters from Half Breed. I wanted to know how Alexa and Matt met. What would put them through the ultimate test? Well, I couldn't kill either one off because that would mean no Half Breed. But I could snatch one from the other and make them work double time to get back together. Next thing I knew, Stripped was born.

4. When can we expect your next book and will it be tied to Stripped or Half Breed?

My next book will be tied to Stripped. In fact, it'll take place a few months after Matt and Alexa have been married and I'll still be turning my happy couple's lives upside down. My goal is to have it finished before the end of the year, but depending upon how the whole pregnancy thing goes, it might throw my plans into a curve. Fingers crossed, it won't. If all goes well, there will be a fourth book, which will take place after Half Breed.

5. Do you write full time?

No such luck. The day job supports my my reading habit, so I can't give it up just yet. But if I were ever in the position to change that, I'd happy jump at the chance.

6. If you had six months left to live – would you finish the book?

Heck yeah! Which one, I have no idea. Probably the sequel to Stripped, along with the paranormal YA that I'm currently working on.

And Marcia Colette - Just the Facts:

Paranormal author Marcia Colette was born and raised in a single-parent household in upstate New York. She graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a bachelors degree in biomedical engineering and a masters degree in information technology from American Intercontinental University. After a couple of moves from north to south to north, she is now living in the south again in the lovely state of North Carolina.

Unlike many authors, Marcia hadn’t discovered her love for reading until her late twenties. As it turned out, her tastes were very selective and different than most of the stuff her English teachers tried to shove down her throat. She has been a lover of the paranormal from her first horror movie and has never looked back.

Marcia is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Paranormal Mystery Writers, and Romance Writers of America.

The best place to find her is on her blog where she loves connecting with readers and other writers. Conferences/conventions where sci-fi, fantasy, and horror reign supreme are a good bet, too, along with the occasional romance conference.

For more information check out Marcia's website at www.marciacolette.com or her blog at http://marciacolette.wordpress.com.

If you have a comment or question for Marcia drop them in the comments. She's always glad to meet her readers.

I don't know about you but Marcia's story has me intrigued. Thanks for being here Marcia.

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

Bangkok - Fined

Just prior to a visit to the Royal Palace in Bangkok a local warned us about littering. I suppose he'd seen foreigners littering and knew of the repercussions. However, having grown up in Canada and lived through anti-littering campaigns it was the last thing on my mind. However, cigarette butts weren't. Not that I'm a smoker but at the time one person in our group was and what better place to dispose of a butt but a sidewalk grate?

Not!

Ten minutes later what looked like a bus shelter that contained a desk on the edge of a busy pedestrian sidewalk took on a whole new meaning as we stood dutifully before the Thai policeman. When asked our country of origin I noted that his smile slipped when we said Canada and his finger trailed down the list. It appeared, and this is only a guess, that the fines were country of origin specific. We walked away $60 lighter and a new addition to our list of rules on what littering really means.

Oh, did I mention that on that day too, the King's limo stopped suddenly barely missing running over someone in our small group. It was a day made for entries in the book "What Not to do When Overseas."

Live and learn.

Ryshia (and the ticket - that has become a travel souvenir or should we say badge of honor?)
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Monday, September 7 - Marcia Colette will be featured on my blog in an interview about her life as an author and about her new release - an urban fantasy "Stripped." Come on by and leave a comment or question for Marcia.

Someone wants their perfect weapon back, only she’s not coming quietly.

No One Living or Dead

I don’t know how many people have alluded to the fact that it is brave to write fiction and without quite saying it, implied that I might be taking hunks of my personal life and selling them for the enjoyment of others.

I laugh – my life should be so interesting!

My characters are strangers to me in the beginning and at the end they are familiar friends who resemble no one I know living or dead. Their beliefs and experiences are their own and a result of a combination of my imagination a

nd what my experience and observation has taught me. After all – this is fiction. These characters never existed before and barring a sequel, will never exist again.

It is true that events in my life might be a catalyst for a scene or a story – that scene will be so far from the real life event as to be unrecognizable. And while a character might have Aunt Ivy’s bad hair or the sexy walk of a stranger I glimpsed just the other day, the rest is imagination.

But for me, one thing is very real – the setting. That is as real as it can be and drawn from experiences, memories or, in the case of history, research. It becomes a backdrop for the story. A movie set only built with words. Sometimes I think of the background as just another character.

And the characters, well if they're good, they live on. Rather like the undead.

So there you have it – with travel journal in hand, the journey continues.

Ryshia Kennie

http://ryshiakennie.com/

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Coming to bookstores soon - Ring of Desire, 2009
A medieval fantasy steeped in history. A heroine faced with the ultimate choice, immortality or mortal love.

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche

A Thousand Words or Just a Picture

Today I couldn't help myself - a bit of news surfaced that had me thinking again about travel and the dreaded passport photo.

Just the other day I read that a woman was released after three months in a foreign country having not even made it past the custom's checkpoint.

Why?

Her passport picture didn't look like her!

Not look like the passport picture? Does anyone? And from a vanity perspective - who would want to!? Of course soon electronics will take care of all that doubt as we're put on the electronic leash of the scanners. Stuff that I think looks better in the realm of fiction than in life.

It's enough to make one quit traveling - not!

And on a totally contradictory note, just the other day a friend told me her passport picture looked good and even the customs officer had commented on it. Go figure!




Ryshia







www.ryshiakennie.com
Ryshia's MySpace

Coming to bookstores soon - Ring of Desire, 2009
A medieval fantasy steeped in history. A heroine faced with the ultimate choice, immortality or mortal love.

Dog Days of Summer

The dog days of summer take a whole new meaning as the dog is sleeping peacefully on the bed. Where I would like to be if sleep would quit alluding me. Instead I am downstairs in my office writing. Waiting to greet another prairie dawn with coffee cup in hand as the sun rises warm and inviting to greet another brilliant beach filled, summer day. Not! According to the weather man we're in for another bout of abnormally cool days. So with the dog days - summer's hottest days on a hiatus - I think the dog has the right idea!

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com

Passport Pictures are Just Bad

If you've never been in trouble with the law and haven't had the opportunity to get a "mugshot", the next best thing is the passport photo.

"Don't smile," the photographer almost invariably reminds you as they valiantly try to get a shot that is suitably sized and dreary enough to meet passport regulations. I've always thought that direction should be followed by, "don't grit your teeth" for invariably I always do. Is it possible to identify the animated person standing in an immigration checkpoint from that stilted, tight lipped picture on the passport?

One thing I have learned over the years is that when getting that dreaded snap - not to even attempt that second or even third retake. Why disappoint myself? I prefer to look like an escapee from a high risk security penitentiary in the first go around.

So, in a military dictatorship, in a country where I was particularly leery of the immigration process, I handed over my passport, bad photo and all, and waited. The immigration officer flipped through the pages, looked at the picture, looked again. And then he looked up at me and smiled broadly, "Must have been a bad day." He chuckled and stamped the book and that was that.

Apparently vintage photography had some of the same
issues as the passport venue!

Ryshia
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