Thursday's Interview - Patricia Eimer

PATRICIA EIMER INTERVIEW:



1.) I'm currently writing Paranormal Romantic Comedy



2.) Romantic Comedy chose me -- I incapable of writing "high art" style drama. It's just not in me. I chose paranormals because right now that's what I love reading the most.



3.) I'm actually taking a crack at writing YA now but I'd love to try Contemporary Romantic Comedy or even Historical Romantic Comedy. Personally I have no desire to try writing one of those great big bloody brick sized romance novels. They're great if you can do them but I just don't think I have the patience or the skill for a 1,000 page whopper.



4.) I'll honestly read anything but in the past month I've read Gail Carriger's Heartless, the entire Jane True series by Nicole Peeler, MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and Undermined, Stacey Kade's Queen of the Dead, and Nina Croft's Break Out. I was also lucky enough to get a peak at Boone Brux's Resurrection before its August 2nd release.



5.) About me? Wow, I'm not really all that interesting when I'm not writing. In the real world I'm a mathematical modeler for a large international firm here in Pittsburgh who wears glasses and always has my nose in a book. When I announced I had a book being published most of the people I knew thought I'd written a textbook because no one knew I was a writer.



Luck of the Devil is actually my first attempt at writing an original piece of fiction and I started it in August 2010 while I was on vacation. When I'm not typing away at something though I can be found either fencing or chasing around the various small creatures (kids and dogs) who have taken over my home.



6.) My favorite character is a tie between Malachi and Harold just because the two of them always made me laugh. Half of the jokes that played inside my head in their "voices" never made it into the book but I've got them all in a separate file folder in case either character ever gets their own spin off.



7.) There are two villains in my book but they have a bit of a late reveal so I don't want to give too much information on them. I will admit though that I based one of them on a mixture of one of my old bosses and my husband's PhD advisor. Neither guy was bad but they both had enough interesting quirks to fill their own books if they wanted to.



8.) Right now I'm finishing up the edits on the second book of the Speak of the Devil Series: Devil May Care and I'm starting the rough draft on a YA paranormal/urban fantasy called Fated. It's a bit of a dystopic fairytale where the dragon and the witch are the princesses best friend and the wizard is the guy you should be afraid of.



9/10.) My newest release is called Luck of the Devil and it's the first book in a series entitled Speak of the Devil. The basic idea came about during a family reunion and it sat percolating in the back of my head for a few months before I finally decided to take a shot at writing a novel. I mean who doesn't have a family reunion from Hell story? My thought was, what is a family reunion in Hell like?



Excerpt:

Chapter One



“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” Lisa and I stared in revulsion at the freshly dead body of my former boss lying on the carpet in his office, wearing nothing but plaid boxer shorts, a striped tie, and his white lab coat.

“Faith, I’m sorry. I was hungry.” She winced and shuffled her feet like a guilty child caught sneaking into the cookie jar. She waved her hand at me, like I should know how it is.

I did. That didn’t make the consequences any nicer if we were caught. In a hospital. With the dead body of the head of pediatric surgery.

“You were hungry?” I pushed a lock of curly blonde hair behind my left ear.

“I see a man, I eat his soul. That’s what I do. It’s not like I enjoyed it or anything. I mean, have you seen Harold?”

“That changes everything, obviously. People will understand. Not. What are we going to do with him?” Some days I wondered why I bothered keeping a human job. Oh, right. I was an adult who didn’t want any involvement in Dad’s evil schemes. I was capable of being a productive member of society, rather than leeching off the human race like some overgrown demonic tick. And I had bills to pay. Crap.

“Could we shove him in the closet?”

“No, the stench would give him away.” I’d done a twelve-hour shift as charge nurse on the pediatric ICU and I was too tired for this shit tonight. All I really wanted was a cold beer and some mindless television. But no, apparently I got to deal with a dead surgeon instead.

Hello, I’m Faith Bettincourt, and this is my life.

Lisa fidgeted with the hem of her skirt, her glossy, caramel waves held neatly in place with a black patent headband. Her wide eyes latched onto mine. Great. She was doing the big, baby animal eyes. Everyone knew I couldn’t resist baby animal eyes.

She was tall, she was tan, and she was completely stacked. I wasn’t into women, and even I found myself giving her what she wanted to keep her happy. It hadn’t been too bad before she’d been turned into a succubus, but now she had enough mojo to turn a convent into a cauldron of simmering sexual tension.

“Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks, though?”