by Catherine Russell
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GENRE: Dark Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
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BLURB:
Megan O'Day seems to be navigating the unpredictable relationship with Geoffrey Drake, her centuries-old vampire guardian angel, rather well. But then his past suddenly rips him from her, forcing her to face the unknown future alone in the gripping sequel to The Stage.
Still bound to Geoffrey through the power of the Link despite his unexplained absence, Megan's mind is flooded with his haunted memories. While she relives the darkest moments of his previous life, she discovers his attachment to a woman who bears a striking resemblance to her.
As she questions Geoffrey's love for her, she strikes up a dangerous alliance with Geoffrey's brother, Alexander, who is also a vampire. She hopes that he will help her find a way to rescue Geoffrey: instead, he seems to be awakening new emotions and desires within her.
As the past and present collide, Megan struggles to fend off Alexander's dark seduction. Is Geoffrey truly beyond the reach of her love forever? If not, what must be sacrificed to bring them back together again?
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Read on for my interview with Catherine Russell and then on to a excerpt of Exit Stage Left.
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Answer: Oh my…this one always gets the oddest, strangest, and curious reactions. Sure Rocky Road is gooey delicious with marshmallows, rich fudge ribbons running through chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts. Even Orange Sherbet is great on a hot summer day. However, as a small child visiting a mom-n-pop ice cream parlor in Ocean Shores, Washington I discovered my true passion, my favorite of all time: Black Licorice ice cream. Now true Black Licorice ice cream is quite challenging to come by these days due to the dye that is used to give its most ungodly coloring, as it’s not really black but a near-black green hue, which not only stains the eater’s tongue, mouth, lips…but also EVERYTHING it comes in contact with as it goes through a person’s GI tract. Everything is tinted the blackish green color for quite some time after enjoying it’s awesome flavor in one’s mouth on a blistering hot day. And since my main character and I are very similar, Black Licorice ice cream is also her favorite too.
Which mythological creature are you most like?
Answer: As much as I would love to say Vampires, as I do love the darkness of night, the lack of light and the black sky as it wraps around my home…alas I was born a day shifter or I guess you could say a Day Walker, I’d say the creature I’m most like is actually mermaids as I love the water, the sensation of weightlessness and the very calming effect that any body of water has on me. I swam on my high school swim team, with back stroke and butterfly being my chosen styles in competition.
First book you remember making an indelible impression on you.
Answer: Once again I must say I have 2 that have stuck with me all these years. The first one however I don’t know who wrote it but the title is “The Good Luck Child”, as the story is about a child that is born with 2 different eye colors…which I incorporated into my own story line with both Megan O’Day and Geoffrey Drake, when he was human, both having bilateral eye colors. Plus while in elementary and junior high myself, one of my class mates had the same mutation, which truth be told I was envious of. The 2nd book was a guide of sorts as I hit my angst filled teen years. A little ditty titled “Are you there God, it’s me Margaret” by Judy Blume. I recognized myself in the main character at a time I needed it the most.
How do you develop your plot and characters?
Answer: My plot creates the need for characters and the characters create the need for an ever expanding plot…hope that makes sense. With The Stage Chronicles, I already had most of the characters in my head long before I put pencil to paper. Gradually I added more as I needed to flush out the plot twists and turns, hence more characters. I enjoy flushing the characters out, giving them life, their own backgrounds, nicknames (which can take time to come up with as its not instantaneous) and quirks, etc. With plot, sometimes it depends on where physically my story takes me. As in Exit Stage Left Book 2, I had just returned from Las Vegas when inspiration hit me and I quickly wrote it down and then did more research on the surrounding communities and geography, adding it to my story easily.
Describe your writing space.
Answer: It can be my lunch room at work, with my ear buds plugged in on high, listening to Muse, and frantically letting the words flow out as fast as I can hand write them. Or sometimes it’s actually on my Sunday or Saturday morning runs, when I’m pounding the pavement in to submission and again with the music in my ears when I come up with astounding ideas and scenes. The last location is my home office, with a huge hutch type desk, with upper cubbies, nooks and crannies and a few filing drawers. My only dim lighting is supplied by a Mickey Mouse lamp and next to that I’ve crammed onto the top a docking station for a very old iPod containing the Chronicles original sound track that can be frequently heard playing. On the ceiling of the room are bats…yes bats…well Halloween decal bats to be precise. A scattering of photographs of my family, primarily of my son plus dozens upon dozens of CD’s along with mixture of paranormal & vampire research books, which includes a Vampire Encyclopedia that’s cover is Keiffer Sutherland in “Lost Boys”. My one favorite, guiding picture is that of my infant son, perhaps a month old…as it reminds me that time flies away from us too fast, to enjoy the here and now as tomorrow becomes today so fast that you don’t realize it was here until its yesterday.
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EXCERPT
An image of Dawn’s mangled, bloody body filled my thoughts, and I stopped sorting through my art supplies. It had happened just before Christmas. There was poor Dawn, distraught over her break-up with Ian, wearing my jack, and waiting in Geoffrey’s car in the alley behind The Stage.
They thought Dawn was me.
They- The Inner Circle, Geoffrey’s first coven-wanted him back.
Marco, his sire, was the head honcho there, and I its prime the coven had been quite large with a very strong presence in the community. As the years passed, it prominence had faded, but Marco still clung to his power. Geoffrey said that the older Marco got the more manipulative, abusive, and obsessive he became. It didn’t make sense. Marco had exiled him, and now he wanted his prized son back, even though Geoffrey’s twin, Alexander, was part of the Inner Circle. To top it off, they wanted me dead. Why? Because I came between Marco and Geoffrey? Was it because of the Link?
Shh, my love,said Geoffrey’s sweet, cool voice though the Link.
But I couldn’t keep my thoughts from whirling. Nerdy Chase Montgomery, my neighbor, was Geoffrey’s Guardian- a scholar of immortals, more or less. He was assigned to watch over Geoffrey, but he had trouble staying close to him. So he had followed me instead, filling my apartment with micro-cameras and audio pickups. When Geoffrey finally confronted Chase, I got a look inside his apartment-and at his computer screens. Nearly every inch of my apartment was under surveillance.
How fast everything had happened! Only four months ago, I started working at Ashleigh’s bar, The Stage, which was now the hottest club in Seattle. Geoffrey and his family which made up his band, The Darkness, were the house band there, and he and his family lived what they jokingly called an “alternative lifestyle”- even for vampires. Believing our human lives were too short as it is, they found other sources for their drug of choice, blood.
By the way, did I say reality bites? Yeah it does. I guess that comes with the territory when the one you love is a vampire.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Catherine Russell was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in a small town just south, South Hill, Puyallup. At the time South Hill was a heavily wooded area and far off the beaten path. Growing up she had the forests as her fantasy world along with the wild animals. She lived with her parents and an older sister. There are a few similarities from her own childhood that have carried over in to her first novel, “The Stage”. As a child, she did have a small dog named Toto, whom she would quite frequently roam the woods with. Her childhood home still stands, and is still nestled in the woods even though South Hill has undergone an extreme makeover since she lived there. She enjoyed hours of day dreaming and playing in the woods, which in turn fed her fantasy world of make believe.
The book is on sale for $0.99 during the tour only.
The Stage Chronicles site http://www.thestagechronicles.com/
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Be sure to visit the other blogs on the tour:
Agatha Raisin and the Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton
Death on the Edge: A V.I. Warshawski Short Story by Sara Paretsky
