UFI welcomes Kerry Schafer Author of The Between Series. Thanks for Joining us!!
What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview?
Let's see – I'm fond of yoga and long walks out doors, both things that I'm trying to schedule into a crazy busy life right now. When I was in high school I played the tuba and I own an antique baby grand piano. My favorite color is definitely blue and I love to swim and hate to water ski.
What do you enjoy doing on your down time?
Reading. I'm terribly short on down time these days, but when I have some I've usually got my nose buried in a book.
What is your Favorite part of writing?
My very favorite part of writing is when surprises happen: characters who do unexpected things, new characters who show up unplanned, objects that appear in pockets or on shelves that turn out to be important to the story. That and the aha! moment when I figure out the answer to a complicated plot problem. This usually happens in the shower, and then I have to run out dripping to write things down before I forget.
Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write?
Must? No. But I infinitely prefer to have my cup of coffee at hand.
What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?
My current favorite authors in the genre are Anne Bishop and Alex Bledsoe. Anne's new series starting with Written in Red is brilliant, and I've recently gotten started on Alex's Eddie LaCrosse novels which are great fun. I'm also in love with his new Tufa novels, which begin with the Hum and the Shiver
How would you pitch The Between Series to someone who has not heard of it before?
There is a place between dreaming and waking called the Between, where dreams and reality intertwine. Vivian Maylor is a dreamshifter, her job to guard the doorways of reality to keep the dream elements in their place. She's also a dragon shifter and struggles to keep her internal dragon under control. Her warrior protector and lover, Zee, was born to be a dragon slayer, which complicates their relationship. Together (and sometimes apart) they battle creatures of the Between and the Dreamworlds to protect the waking world while they seek to find a way to be together.
Can you tell us a little bit about the world that The Between Series is set in?
There are three worlds in this series. Wakeworld is the place we think of as reality. Dreamworld is the space regular humans enter when they dream, but to Vivian, just as solid as Wakeworld. And the Between, where all of the worlds mix and mingle. Here we find dragons and giants and other creatures, capable of sneaking through doors into Wakeworld when things go wrong. As they do, of course, because that's the fun part.
Do you have a favorite scene in Wakeworld?
I think my favorite scene is the one at the very end, so I can't tell you about it! It was a very elusive ending that came to me at the last minute. I was on deadline, and had locked myself away in a motel for the weekend to try to get the words written. I fell asleep at night still not quite sure how to end the book, but when I woke up in the morning there it was, waiting for me.
Which character was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about?
It's always fun writing Zee. He's a warrior with the soul of a poet. He loves deeply, and on one level is always a little appalled by his capacity for violence. This makes him complex and interesting. The most difficult for me in this book was Aidan, the Black Dragon Queen.
What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?
I'm working on Book Three of the Between now, so if you're enjoying this series there will be another book for you. The Dream Wars novellas, available now in ebook format, involve a different world in which anybody can request designer dreams from a being called the Dream Merchant – at a price. And I'm in the revision stages of a book called Dead Before Dying, in which an aging paranormal investigator gets caught up in a string of killings in a senior citizen's home.
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*And yes, she does sometimes say ‘eh?’ but never, ever ‘aboot.’
Find Kerry and her books
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WakeworldThe Between #2
Vivian Maylor is trying to hold it together. But her attempts to build a life with the man she loves seem doomed by the dragon inside her yearning to break free. Vivian is a dreamshifter, the last line of defense between reality and the dreamworld, and the only one of her kind.
Weston Jennings also believes he is the only one of his kind. He fears his powers as a dreamshifter, and resists learning to control them. After suffering a tragic loss, Weston heads deep into the woods of the Pacific Northwest to embrace a safe life of solitude. But when a terrible mistake leads to an innocent’s death, his guilt drives him to his former home, where he encounters what he never thought he would find: another shifter.
Now Vivian and Weston must work together to defeat a new threat to the dreamworld.
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