My second Halloween guest is RITA Award winning author Terri Garey! Her Nicki Styx series is spooky, fun, romantic and addictive! I loved both books so far and can't wait for the next book to come out in Spring! If you haven't had a chance to read this series yet or you are missing on of the books, keep reading because Terri has a couple of prizes to give away!
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Amber - Terri Garey '2008 RITA Award winner for DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY' welcome to Amberkatze's Book Blog! Please start things off by telling us about your great series starring Nicki Styx.
Terri - Nicki Styx is a young woman whose life is changed forever after a near-death experience leaves her with the ability to see and hear spirits. A former goth girl who owns a vintage clothing store in the quirky Atlanta community of Little Five Points, Nicki now finds herself an unwilling “ghoulfriend” to the dead. Needless to say, nothing will ever be the same for Nicki! Forced to make choices she might not ordinarily make in order to help the restless dead, Nicki uses her sense of humor to cope, her friends and family for support, and falls in love along the way. It's dark humor with a Southern slant—the angst of a young woman on the edge, a healthy dash of sex and romance, a sprinkling of spookiness. The series is meant to make you laugh, make you think, and hopefully send a few chills down your spine.
Amber - 'Dead Girls Are Easy' was the first book in the series and the latest release was 'A Match Made in Hell'. What is next for Nicki Styx and how many books can we expect in the series?Terri - The next book in this series will be released in March 2009, and is titled You’re the One That I Haunt (I just got the cover, it’s a totally new, completely FABULOUS look for the series, but I’m not allowed to show it yet!) Following that will be another Nicki Styx book (as yet untitled) in November of 2009. After that, who knows?
Amber - Nicki loves vintage clothes, has a doctor boyfriend and can see the dead. Are you and Nicki alike in anyway?
Terri - Nicki is who I’d like to be (minus the seeing dead people part!) I got married very young, had children, worked full-time in the computer industry, and never really got the chance to be young and carefree, much less goth—I was always too busy being responsible! Her wicked sense of humor is mine, but Nicki’s much more comfortable saying things out loud than I am. I felt like adding a gothic aspect to her personality would make her life more interesting—it’s one thing to be “into the dark side”, but it’s a whole other ballgame when the dark side becomes interested in you, don’t you think?
Amber - How did the idea for the series come about? What came first? Did you always want to write something paranormal?
Terri - I’ve always been fascinated with the paranormal – ghosts and vampires, in particular. When I was growing up, there was a very campy Saturday afternoon horror movie host named Dr. Paul Bearer, who showed old movies like “Dracula”, “The Wolfman”, “The Blob”, “Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy”, etc. on a show called Creature Feature. I absolutely adored how he took “scary” and made it funny. I also loved shows like The Addams Family, The Munsters, and Tales from the Crypt. There’s a lot of paranormal romance out there, but not much of it combines the “light” with the “dark”, and I wanted to do that.
Amber - How did you get into writing? Was it something you always wanted to do?Terri - I’ve always loved to read. I’ve always admired anyone who could take a person out of their everyday world and put them somewhere else for a time. My desire to write is an natural extension of my love of reading.
Amber - You just won the RITA award for Best First Book. That must have been the best moment of your writing career? Do you have any others?
Terri - Oh, I’d have to say that the day I signed with my agent and the day I sold my first book were both pretty amazing!
Amber - You contributed a story to 'The Weddings are Hell' anthology. Are you working on any other projects at the moment? Do you have any other ideas you would like to write and see published?
Terri - Right now I’m working on the fourth book in the Nicki Styx series, which will be released in November 2009. Yes, I have other ideas for some “darker” paranormals and some women’s fiction, but right now, Nicki is keeping me pretty busy.
Amber - If your books were going to be adapted for TV or Film who would you like to see playing the lead roles?
Terri - Oh, I’d LOVE for Zooey Deschanel to play Nicki. She’d be absolutely perfect! Joe is a little harder to cast, but David Boreanz comes to mind.
Amber - What books/authors do you like to read when you have time? Any favourites?
Terri - I read widely – all types of romance, straight historicals, fantasy, some horror. I seem to gravitate toward historicals, though. One of my recent faves was Silent In The Grave by fellow RITA nominee Deanna Raybourn.
Amber - You are stuck on a desert island. What 5 things would you most like to have with you?
1) My husband.
2) A tarp (hey, I saw enough of Survivor to know I need a tarp!)
3) A fishing pole
4) A crate of books
5) A knife
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Contest Time!
Terri has very kindly said she will give a signed copy of DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY and a signed copy of A MATCH MADE IN HELL! That means two people are going to win one of Terri's great books!
You can enter by posting here on this thread by telling us what you are doing or did this Halloween! No sharing no entry!!
You can get another entry by posting about Amberkatze's Halloween event somewhere on the net! Make sure you post a link so I can confirm your entry!
For another entry you can send a friend and have them mention your name in their entry! Then you both get an extra entry!
The contest will be open till the 4th of Nov 2pm CET and entrants are asked to check in to see if they have won. I don't hunt down winners and will pick a new winner if the prize hasn't been claimed within 7 days.
Enjoy!!
Labels: Author Interviews, Contests, Halloween, Terri Garey
At 31 October 2008 at 13:26, 
Nancy
Woohoo! I'm sooo excited about your next book, Terry!
I'm giving out treats and watching the live marathon broadcast of Ghost Hunters tonight! The kiddos who come for candy are young, so the giving out candy part should be done before GH airs. Hubby even consented to pizza tonight for Our Halloween treat. (Translation, I don't have to clean up the kitchen!)
Light,
Nancy Haddock
At 31 October 2008 at 14:03, Joanne (NeedSun)
Great interview and an amazing fluck!
I just spent the day sick in bed dozing and reading Dead Girls are Easy. As soon as I finished it, I gave it 5 stars and started A Match Made in Hell. This series certainly made a day that could have been really unpleasant turn right around. I stayed in great spirits (lol).
Zooey Deschanel is perfect as Nicki! Great choice.
At 31 October 2008 at 17:02, Shooting Stars Mag
Oh, i haven't read any of these, so i'd love to win!
Well, it's halloween now...and my plans fell through. I might chill with a friend later. but tomorrow, a couple people and i should be going to see the rocky horror picture show. i've never been...but i love the movie.
i posted here as well:
http://shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com/2008/10/win-it-wednesday_30.html
-Lauren
lauren51990 at aol dot com
At 31 October 2008 at 17:46, Lemonitsa
Hi Terri!
I adored Dead girls Are Easy! It was such a fantastic read. :)
We are not doing too much, we already gave out treats to the few kids that are on our street, and now we are preparing for some pie, apples, roasted pumpkin seeds and the latest episode of Supernatural. It's a quiet night from the moment on, but I will enjoy it.
Great interview, thanks for coming to Amberkatze's Blog.
Lots of hugs to you!
-Lemonitsa
lemmygirl@gmail.com
At 31 October 2008 at 18:37, darbyscloset
Today I went to work as "The Cat's Pajama's" or you could of also called me "The Cat's Meow". I was a cat in a pair of pj's.....I had a blast and was o comfortable!!!
Tonight I have been handing out candy to our trick or treaters, usually it's rainy and very cold here on Halloween (Kansas), today thou it was 75 and tonight it is around 70, so very nice! I think it is funny that you and I were both cats today!!!
Happy Halloween,
Darby
darbyscloset at yahoo dot com
At 1 November 2008 at 02:51, Cherie
Well, living as close to Salem (Massachusetts) as I do, I generally spend Halloween there, and this year was no exception. I met up with friends and wandered around in my witchy costume to check out all the Haunted Happenings. It was beautiful weather this year too!
By next year this time, I'll be living in the Silicon Valley so I'll have to trade San Francisco for Salem starting then. ;) (or fly back to Boston for Halloween and my birthday).
Oh and like I said on the other thread, I kindly request that you award me one book or the other since you'll be drawing names on my birthday (the 4th). LOL ;) (That birthday which I have to share with the US presidential nominees vying for attention this year. Phooey!) ;)
We're not really celebrating Halloween yet here in Finland (the shops to their best to get it coming here too, but it takes time) and our boy would have loved to go around to collect candies, but the neighbours don't know about it at all, so it didn't work this year yet. We did make a typical halloween pumpkin though and put a candle in it, had an extra candle that looked like a pumpkin in front of another window and baked scary ghostlike cookies with the children. Otherwise they watched Winnie the Pooh's Halloween on DVD, just to get the idea of it!
At 1 November 2008 at 08:21, Terri Garey
Hi, everybody! It sounds like most of you had a fantastic Halloween (I wondered if any European countries celebrated the holiday, so it was interesting to read your responses!)
I had a very busy day and evening, setting up a graveyard (complete with three fog machines) during the day, and handing out candy with my husband during the evening. My neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, and it gets bigger every year! We probably had well over 200 kids, and some of them were so cute!
I'm going to the zoo today myself - they just got a giraffe that will eat from your hand! LOL Can't wait to see who wins the books, and thanks for stopping by to say hello! Special thanks to Amber for always being in the Halloween "spirit"!
We sat in the dark to keep the kids away (actually we were downstairs but the upstairs was dark). Not sure why the other half is so concerned about that with so few kids in the neighborhood, but it's what we do every Hallowe'en. Boringly weird, I know.
I've put a link to this giveaway on my front page.
At 3 November 2008 at 17:08, Asylumgirl
I dressed as a pirate for my day job at the public library, then went to my kid's parties at school. We carried the kids trick-or-treating at local businesses before hitting a fall festival. My tootsies were so tired and ready to settle down to Ghosthunters Live at 7:00.
Deidre
deidre_durance at hotmail dot com
At 4 November 2008 at 08:44, Shelbycat
I spent my halloween baking cupcakes for my nephews birthday (he was a halloween baby), and eating the milkyways i bought for trick-or-treaters who didn't turn up. This is the first halloween for about 4 years that i haven't actually been trick-or-treating with my neighbours kids (they're too old for that kind of thing now apparently).
by Kelley Armstrong
Tonight I'm taking my son trick-or-treating, going to a Halloween party, and starting NaNoWriMo! Then tomorrow I can truly be part of the walking dead at two more Halloween parties. Gah!
I posted about this in the blog area of my MySpace.