Urban Fantasy Investigations: Jan 6, 2015

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

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Interview: Dark Prophecy by Ann Gimpel

UFI welcomes author Ann Gimpel. Thanks for Joining us!!

Thank you so very much for inviting me back to your blog. It’s a pleasure to be here.

What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview?

I’m a closet environmentalist. As I type this, another 60+ degree day is dying. It shouldn’t be even close to that here in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains this time of year. I worry about the impact mankind have had on our home, and do what I can to mitigate my own effect. My efforts range from avoiding plastic packaging to walking rather than driving. Much as I’d love those Chilean grapes in January, I don’t buy them. Hubby says I’m silly, that they won’t stop importing grapes (via jet aircraft, which has a big carbon footprint) because I don’t buy them. But my feeble hope is if lots of us boycott out of season imports, it just might make a difference.

What do you enjoy doing on your down time?

That’s funny. I haven’t had much downtime since I became an author. I try to get outside every day to do something physical. I enjoy backpacking, skiing, mountaineering, and generally being one with Mother Nature. Hubs and I go to the occasional movie, but he’s hard of hearing, so we tend to stream them instead so he can have closed caption. I’m a sucker for all things paranormal. Love Supernatural and Fringe on television. And I also adore animals. I’ve always had dogs, occasionally cats too. When the kids were small, we had birds. You name it, we had them. Chickens, ducks, peacocks, guinea fowl, geese.

What is your Favorite part of writing?

The creative flow when the story picks me up and runs with me. I live it along with the characters and often have days when I turn out six or seven thousand words. As I’ve gotten deeper into this craft, the usability of those words has improved. What I mean by that, it I still have to edit, but I keep far more than I toss.

Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write?

No special routines. Sometimes I write in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes at night. Hell, I’ve even gotten up in the middle of the night because I remembered something that needed fixing in something I’m working on.

What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?

Favorite authors include Sherrilyn Kenyon, Nalini Singh, Illona Andrews, Nora Roberts/JD Robb, Anne Bishop, and Laurell K. Hamilton.

How would you pitch the Soul Storm Series to someone who has not heard of it before?

The tagline for Dark Prophecy is: When the dream world spills its murky contents, everyone’s worst nightmares run free.

The tagline for Dark Pursuit is: Old blood and ancient power pit themselves against evil so dark, deep, and menacing it changes everyone who comes into contact with it. And not for the better.
Soul Storm is about a world similar to ours, but one where we stripped it of resources. The fallout from not having enough food, fuel, and other energy sources is just beginning to hit. Lara, a psychologist who’d rather connect with the dreams she analyzes than reality, was born with psychic ability. Trevor, her longtime partner, has a strongly practical side, and deep secrets. Against the backdrop of a world teetering on the verge of anarchy, Lara and Trevor figure out who they are and how they can remain together in the face of everything they face.

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that the Soul Storm Series is set in?

Oops, think I just did when I answered the last question. This is urban fantasy, so a world not too different from our own, but one where magic runs free.

Do you have a favorite scene in Dark Prophecy?

I have several. The one that comes to mind is when Lara urges Trevor to fess up about his past—and he finally does.

Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about?

Probably my favorite was Lachlan, the dragon shifter in To Love a Highland Dragon. The hardest was Ned, my protagonist in Fortune’s Scion. I just loved Ned so much, and I was rooting for him, but he had such a hard time coming to term with his magic and learning to believe in himself.

What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?

The next two books of Soul Storm will be out soon. Dark Pursuit releases 12/30, and Dark Promise will be out around the end of January. Icy Passage, a science fiction romance set in Antarctica, releases 2/7 from Hartwood Publishing Group. Earth’s Hope, last book in my Earth Reclaimed Series releases from Musa on 3/6. Once all that’s out of the way, I want to get back to Winning Glory, book one of the GenTech Rebellion, a series of scifi romances set in the near future. I need to write the second and third books in that series and decide if I want to sub them to a publisher or release them myself.

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Ann Gimpel is a national bestselling author. She’s also a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent. Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. She’s published over 20 books to date, with several more contracted for 2014 and beyond.

A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.

Find Ann and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Dark Prophecy
Soul Storm #1

Dr. Lara McInnis reads auras and flirts with an elusive ability to foretell the future. Ambivalent about the magic within her, she’s done a fine job ignoring other aspects of her power—until now. After several patients—and a student or two—describe the same cataclysmic dream, she uncovers ancient evil intent on draining her power. Lara knows next to nothing about her psychic side, but it will destroy her if she can’t come to terms with it.

Trevor Denoble has secrets, but he shields them well with a stunning body and a boatload of British charm. The airline he works for folds because there’s no fuel for the planes, and Lara’s changing into someone he barely recognizes. Though he doesn’t know it yet, the rest of his carefully crafted life is about to come crashing down too.

Living in a world teetering on the edge of anarchy, Trevor and Lara are faced with a series of painful decisions. Is the love between them enough for Trevor to swallow his distrust of Lara’s burgeoning paranormal ability? Will their personal demons tear them apart in a world gone mad, as shortages of everything from electricity to food escalate?

Book Trailer http://youtu.be/H2mtTvxkrT4
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Excerpt:

…Hours later, Lara let herself out of her office, reached back in to activate the alarm, and then locked the door behind her. Arabel had gone home at six. Normally her receptionist left a note if there was something she needed to communicate. Tonight there hadn’t been any notes because there weren’t any patients she needed to call. But there had been a few zucchinis from Arabel’s lovingly-tended garden. Lara was grateful, both for the organic produce and for the lack of patient-related affairs to attend to. She was tired and hoped nobody had a crisis that evening.

She double-checked the pager that lived clipped to her belt. As she moved away from the front door of her building, she stumbled. The outside light was out—when had that happened?—and it was very dark in the shadows of the cavernous front porch. She made a grab for the railing to steady herself and took a tentative step toward the street.

“Stop right there,” a familiar harsh voice boomed from behind her.

“Mr. Beauchamp. That is you, isn’t it?” Alarm ricocheted through her, but she knew intuitively it was important to hide her fear. “What do you want?” Though she aimed for nonchalance, her voice sounded thin and shaky. Is it Ken? Aw, Jesus, who else could it be? She closed her eyes, gathering data from an unseen realm she knew well. Once her energies were focused, she discerned his twisted energy field throbbing against the darkness. Better the devil you know flashed through her mind. Not necessarily came close on its heels, as she realized, with a sinking feeling, that Ken Beauchamp really was dangerous. She’d known it the first time he walked into her office, but drawn in by his wife’s soft helplessness, she’d ignored her concerns, compassion overriding common sense.

“I want to talk. No, don’t turn around.” The man’s voice held menace as it sliced into her tumbling thoughts.

“What do you want to talk about, Mr. Beauchamp?” With effort, she kept her voice steady. “Surely whatever it is can wait until tomorrow. You really do need to call my office and make an appointment.” There, that seems like about the right amount of bravado.

“What did you tell my wife today? When you were in the bathroom. You’d better tell me the truth.”

“Are you threatening me? Because if you are, I’ll call the cops and have you thrown off my property.” Anger was rapidly displacing her fear—or at least coexisting with it. She reached a hand into her bag in search of her phone.

“That wouldn’t be smart, Doc, not very smart at all. Take your hand out of that purse.”

Ken Beauchamp’s voice was mild, but an ominous undertone chilled her. Sweat gathered in her armpits and dripped down her sides. Think! she commanded herself. There’s got to be a way out of this.

“Well, Doctor?” Ken’s voice oozed sarcasm, with undercurrents of something darker and far more primal. “I asked you a simple question. Answer it and we can both go home.”

What was he doing? Lara dug deeper with her hyper-honed senses. His breathing seemed…uneven. Was he getting off by intimidating her?

Something clicked ominously. The snick of a gun’s safety mechanism? What else could that cold metallic snapping sound possibly be? Fighting fear that threatened to paralyze her, Lara asked, “How’s Bethany, Mr. Beauchamp? She’s all right isn’t she?” Despite her concerns for herself, Lara was suddenly frantic about Bethany.

“That’s none of your business anymore. We won’t be back. I just want to know what you told her today.”

“Why is that important to you?”

“I ask the questions around here.” Yes, Lara thought as she listened intently, he was practically panting. Oh shit, this guy’s a pervert on top of all his other less-than-stellar attributes. She flirted with flying down the porch steps and trying to outrun him, except she had dress shoes on and her heavy shoulder bag. What if he really did have a gun? She hadn’t heard the metal click again.

A car pulled to the curb in front of her building and she started, heart beating like a mad thing. Christ, is it one of his henchmen come to help out? Practically moaning aloud, she wondered what Ken Beauchamp had in mind for her…

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