Interview with Jess Haines (Free E-book Download!)

I'm pleased to announce that I have a blog interview today with Jess Haines, author of the H&W Investigations series! Her latest release Taken by the Others releases January 4, 2011 and it is a GREAT read. See my review here.

Now onto the interview!

JESSICA: Is it hard to write a character who started with some prejudices about vampires?

JESS: In some ways, yes. Being a person who adores vampires, I knew that it wouldn’t be terribly interesting to write about someone interacting with a vampire who already has the hots for all things supernatural. Where’s the tension in that?

Instead, I figured it would make more sense to take someone who was downright phobic of them and have her draw their interest. Think about it—a hot, sexy vampire getting in your personal space when you’re terrified of being bitten or magically enthralled? And, being human, having no real defenses to speak of? Makes for some very interesting times…

JESSICA: Shiarra is an interesting name for your main character, where did you come up with that?

JESS: I’ve always been a gamer geek, so coming up with odd or unusual names is something of a specialty of mine. You might notice the occasional subtle (or not so subtle) hints to my geekier nature sprinkled here and there throughout the books. I’ve given a wink-and-nod to just about everything in my novels—from EverQuest to World of Warcraft to AD&D to Vampire: the Masquerade—nothing is sacred!

JESSICA: How many books do you have planned for the series?

JESS: I’m contracted for six right now. Will there be more? We’ll see…

JESSICA: What can we expect to see from Shiarra in Taken by the Others?

JESS: All kinds of nifty and terrible things!

Shiarra gets to deal with her phobia of vampires in a major way. She gets beaten, kidnapped, bitten, and otherwise knocked around, but—taking a cue from good ol’ Harry Dresden—she keeps on ticking. Let’s not forget the White Hats (crazy and/or extremist supernatural hunters) are still trying to recruit her to their cause, and someone is trying to kill her werewolf boyfriend, Chaz. Lucky for her, the one thing she doesn’t have to deal with (much) this time is her parental units giving her grief about her job, her love life, or spending time around Others.

For the Chaz and Royce fans in the audience, don’t worry—there’s plenty of face time for both of them this time around!

JESSICA: Are you a full-time or part-time writer? Benefits and negatives to your choice?

JESS: Full-time non-fiction (technical) writer, and part-time fiction writer. My day job consists of writing manuals and policy, which is just as boring as it sounds, but pays the bills.

Writing fiction is my reason for living. I have loved creative writing from the time I was a teenager. I have literally hundreds of thousands of words written simply for the fun of it. It's hard for me to see a down side, since I never expected something done mostly for kicks to take off like it has. The first novel in the H&W Investigations series, HUNTED BY THE OTHERS, was the first book I ever sought publication for, and it’s now selling internationally, going to be translated into two languages (German and French), with five more books in the series on the way. That’s a heck of a leap for something I was fiddling with in my spare time. The way things are going, and if I’m lucky, maybe some day this will be what I do full time for a living!

JESSICA: What do you like to do when you're not writing?

JESS: Aside from surfing the internet and lurking on random blogs, I’ve recently discovered the joys of Twitter. I enjoy reading, of course—mostly horror, fantasy and science fiction, though I will occasionally delve into romance, history, philosophy, etc. I’m not great at it, but I like to sketch. Watching (and MSTing) movies with my friends is one of my favorite pastimes. Don’t ask about the time we almost got thrown out of the theater while watching New Moon. When I have time for it, I like to go hiking or walking on the beach, too.

JESSICA: What book are you currently reading or read last?

JESS: I’m currently reading Mark Henry’s BATTLE OF THE NETWORK ZOMBIES (Amanda Feral #3). It’s delightfully inappropriate!

JESSICA: Thanks for taking the time to come over and answer these questions!

JESS: Thanks for having me over! 

You can now read the first H&W Investigations novel, Hunted by the Others, for FREE by Amazon kindle and you don't have to have a kindle for it, just download the app for your computer or cell phone device.

Hurry with this offer, it goes from December 31, 2010-January 2, 2011!!

Here is the link for Amazon US

Here is the link for Amazon UK