Posts Tagged ‘Jane True’

Urban Fantasy Interview Swap: Amanda Carlson Interviews Nicole Peeler

Today Amanda Carlson, the author of HOT BLOODED (US | UK | AUS), interviews Nicole Peeler about TEMPEST REBORN (US | UK | AUS) and the last Jane True novel.

amanda-nicole-interview

Amanda Carlson: I love Jane True and your writing voice. She’s witty, quirky and lovable. How did you come up with the idea to write a half selkie heroine?

Nicole Peeler: Thanks, Amanda! I’d fallen in love with the mythology as a teenager, and I’d always wondered about what happened to the half-human, half-selkie children that often feature in these myths. So when I realized I wanted to write a character that wasn’t naturally “kick-ass,” the answer was pretty obvious. Seal shapeshifters are definitely not naturally kick-ass!

AC: In the TEMPEST REBORN, without giving too much away, does Jane get snuggle time with Anyan?

NP: Absolutely. I knew I’d be beaten to death by Jane’s fans if that didn’t happen.

AC: You have a PhD in English Literature and teach Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University, which sounds like an amazing job! What’s the most fun assignment you’ve given your students?

NP: The most fun was working with undergraduates, creating World Building Books for an Urban Fantasy course I taught. They had such amazing ideas! And it was fun to watch them realize they could do just that—create a whole world.

AC:  You just bought a house! That’s a big, exciting step.  Tell us about it.

NP: It’s soooooo nice! I keep having to rein myself in from having my every Facebook post be “OMG I LOVE MY HOUSE.” I’m also really loving Pittsburgh. It’s super up-and-coming, so you can really get involved with things. I’m going to help plant a tree irrigation system for Tree Pittsburgh this weekend and I’m stupidly excited about it.

AC: The TEMPEST REBORN is Jane’s last adventure. What’s up next for you? (We hope more fantasy!)

NP: I’m not sure yet, honestly, but yes. All my ideas are inevitably fantasy. It’s funny that I read so much literature but I think in dragons. I’m not sure why! But I do love the genre.

AC:  Here are some fun quick bullet questions to end.

Ice cream or sorbet: Both!

Breakfast or dinner: Both!

London or Paris: OMG both.

Beer or margarita: YEAH, both. I don’t really limit myself too much, in case you couldn’t tell.

Cats or dogs: Neither. I travel too much.

Spring or fall: Either, as long as it’s not winter or summer.

The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones: MAD MEN. (I’m not very good at this game, am I? But I loved playing!)

Urban Fantasy Interview Swap: Nicole Peeler Interviews Amanda Carlson

Both Jessica McClain and Jane True are back this season with new books from Amanda Carlson and Nicole Peeler. In the first of a two part series, Nicole is here to interview Amanda about what’s in store for Jessica in HOT BLOODED (US | UK | AUS).  Join us later in the week to get the full scoop from Nicole on the final Jane True novel, TEMPEST REBORN  (US | UK | AUS). 

amanda-nicole-interview

Nicole Peeler: Hi Amanda! Love the series, and super psyched you’re doing so well. But how on earth did a nice girl from Minnesota come to write about werewolves?? ;)

Amanda Carlson: We love wolves here, but alas, they are of the timber wolf variety. There are so many forests up in northern Minnesota I always pictured it as a perfect setting for werewolves to lurk undercover. But this MN girl ultimately chose werewolves purely because of their hot blooded feistiness. Nothing like a hot blooded man to warm your bed. Something about them has always been primal to me.

NP:  Obviously, werewolves are a much loved and much used mythology. So what did you think you could bring to werewolves that other people couldn’t? Or was that even an issue for you?

AC: I really feel like I’ve brought something new to the genre with Jessica, but when I started writing the first book years ago the market wasn’t saturated. I had no issues. I wrote the kind of story I wanted to read and nothing more. My biggest mistake was letting it sit for over a year. I suffered from the most common writer anxiety—is it good enough? Will people like it? So when I finally polished it and decided to query, there was a fear I may have missed the “werewolf” window, LOL!  Being new to the game, I had no idea it took a year and a half to two years to get a book on the shelf.  But my agent assured me there was always a market for a good story and I believe in that wholeheartedly. I’ve found that readers don’t really care who the protagonist is, or what their power is, most of them are just looking for a great read.

(more…)

Selkies, and the Authors Who Love Them

Tempest's Fury, the fifth book in Nicole Peeler's sexy, sassy and sizzlingly funny urban fantasy series, the Jane True novels
UK & ANZ cover

Nicole Peeler‘s Tempest Fury (UK | US | ANZ) is out now. It’s book five in her Jane True series (which starts with Tempest Rising – UK | US | ANZ) and to celebrate, here’s a guest post from Nicole on the inspiration for the series . . .

For me, it was a no brainer to make my protagonist, Jane, a selkie. Although it’s a relatively obscure mythology to some, and I only learned of it as a teenager, it’s the perfect inspiration for fiction.

For those of you who don’t know the selkie mythos, I blogged about it ages ago, with the help of a story from the Heritage of Orkney site. Basically, all the stories of selkie maidens are similar: man finds (or steals) a random seal skin left on the beach, woman shows up that night and they marry, many babies are born. Years pass, until the day one of the children finds the skin, and gives it to mom. Despite her love for her human family, the lure of the sea and her sea husband are stronger, and off she goes.

The US cover for Tempest's Fury, the fifth book in Nicole Peeler's sexy, sassy and sizzlingly funny urban fantasy series, the Jane True novels
US cover

Sometimes she takes her children with her, and sometimes she doesn’t.

As a teenager, so many aspects of this myth affected me: the idea of a woman who could be trapped so easily; the idea of a person torn between two worlds; the idea of having something so important that other loves are swept aside for that one thing. But it was the children that really struck my fancy. What about the ones taken to sea? Did they miss their human life? Even more intriguing, however, were the ones left behind. What happened to them, cut off as they were from the magic that was half their heritage?

The resonance of the selkie mythology stuck with me. So when it came to write my own story, and my first thought was to write an anti-heroine, my next thought was almost instantaneous – “and she can be half-selkie.” It was like my intellectual curiosity had come full circle – I’d always wondered what happened to those children, and now I got to explore the possibilities in my own writing. And that opportunity for exploration is what I try to bring to my fiction – I’m curious about the world I’ve created, and I try to convey that curiosity to my readers.

So if you’re an aspiring writer, try to do something similar. Write what you love, what you’re interested in, what’s always made you think. You’ll find so much passion for your subject, at the same time you get to scratch an intellectual itch. And everyone enjoys a good scratch.

Tempests have never been hotter!

TEMPEST’S FURY (US | UK | AUS) is the perfect name for this awesome new novel by Nicole Peeler. Jane True comes into her own as the champion and it has the trademark quirkiness, humor and the zaniness that only Nicole can bring to urban fantasy. People have been comparing her for years to Charlaine Harris and with her newest covers, I think she’s too fabulous to miss.

Jane’s not happy. She’s been packed off to England to fight in a war when she’d much rather be snogging Anyan. Unfortunately, Jane’s enemies have been busy stirring up some major trouble — the kind that attracts a lot of attention. In other words, they’re not making it easy for Jane to get any alone time with the barghest, or to indulge in her penchant for stinky cheese.

Praying she can pull off a Joan of Arc without the whole martyrdom thing, Jane must lead Alfar and halflings alike in a desperate battle to combat an ancient evil. Catapulted into the role of Most Unlikely Hero Ever, Jane also has to fight her own insecurities as well as the doubts of those who don’t think she can live up to her new role as Champion.

Along the way, Jane learns that some heroes are born. Some are made. And some are bribed with promises of food and sex.

Cover Launch: EYE OF THE TEMPEST (Jane True #4) by Nicole Peeler

One thing I love about our Orbit roster is our kickass heroines (often written by real-life kickass ladies)…but they’re not JUST kickass. (Ok, not allowed to say “kickass” for the rest of the post, promise.) Our heroines have unique voices and over the course of a series begin to feel utterly real. Sometimes when I am working on covers I literally hear a voice of a character in my head saying yea or nay. Now, I don’t create the art for Nicole Peeler’s Jane True books in the US, but I know illustrator Sharon Tancredi has got a little Jane inside her egging her on. I was so excited to see Blondie make the cover of Eye of the Tempest, Jane’s fourth adventure, and she looks like a fabulous teammate for Jane. Of course, it is known I have a soft spot for cool tattoos…and to really help our dynamic duo pop, we upped the boldness with a bright shock of red for the title bar. I’m also going to show the back cover, which I rarely do, but you must see the fantastic octopus Sharon created to go with the cover!

After the jump, get to see the US back cover and the requisite teaser text…..and if you haven’t met Jane True yet, you really must pick up the rest of the series…here’s a fabulous review from B&N to whet your appetite…True Love: Nicole Peeler’s Selkie-Halfling Heroine Jane True is Paranormal Fantasy’s “It Girl”

(more…)

Cover Launch: TEMPEST’S LEGACY

Are you reading the Jane True series yet? Because you really should be. Nicole Peeler is one of my favorite Orbit authors and Tempest Rising was such a great debut novel from a great new voice in urban fantasy. And I know I’ve said it before, but I think the covers Sharon Tancredi has been illustrating are just perfect for this series. Quirky, unique, cool in a slightly odd way…just like Jane True.

(more…)