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
The devil has basically moved in next door to Nicki Styx and she knows that no good can come of it. He would love her to leave her boyfriend, Doctor Joe Bascombe, but she isn't going to give him up and dance with the devil. So he sets out to make Nicki's life hell and he has an interesting way of going about it.
is - 
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' is out in April 2009 and it is already going on my wishlist so I don't miss out! 
by Kelley Armstrong
