The Moon Archives - Tena Stetler

Apr 18th Interview L. A. McGinnis Author of The Moon

Give a warm welcome to L.A. McGinnis author of the Moon, book two of The Banished Gods Series! Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Laura and The Moon!

What defines you as an author? My creativity and ability to craft a story. As a person? Are they one in the same? Yes, but as a person, it extends into art as well.

What inspired this particular story? Well, I’d always wanted to set a book in Chicago because it’s one of my favorite cities to visit. It started out as a story about fallen angels banished to earth, but once I switched the main characters over to the Norse gods, I liked the way everything was working out much better. And I had a vision for an apocalyptic series where the characters could move between worlds, like the Nine Realms. Once I began writing book four or five (I can’t exactly remember) and began playing around with moving back and forth between the realms, and the series seemed to lean towards the urban fantasy genre, all the elements just seemed to slip into place perfectly.

What makes you laugh out loud? My cousin Vinny- still!

What makes you angry? People who bully other people, just because they can.

Why did you choose the cover concept you did? My cover artist and I went back and forth between a couple different concepts, but we settled on this because of the strength of the images- each one is tied to the main theme of the book, and leaves an indelible image in the readers head (hopefully).

Why should we read this book/series and what sets you apart from the rest and makes your book/series unique? I don’t think outside of the Avengers movie series much attention has been given to the Norse gods, one of my dearest loves since I was about six of seven years old. I’ve always been fascinated with them, and I wanted to give them a modern twist and introduce them to a new audience. Especially some of the lesser known gods, like Fenrir, Mir and Tyr. Pus, each book has a wonderful love story at its core, with a damaged hero and sometimes an equally damaged heroine trying to piece their lives back together.

Who would you recommend this book to and what should readers be aware of before reading it?

Anyone who loves Karen M Moning Fever series, or Laura Thalassa’s The Bargainer series would find these books interesting. I’d categorize them urban fantasy romance, but as the series goes on, there is a definite post apocolytic/dystopian theme woven through as the characters fight to stop the world from coming to an end.

Tell us something about yourself and allow us to get to know you. I started writing seriously in 2007, and then took a lampworking (glass making) class that summer on a lark. By the end of that year I had a side business in glass going, and by 2009, I was running a full-fledged online art business. Now it’s my only fulltime job, but it derailed my writing career for about 6-7 years until I found a balance between my full time job, my art business and writing.

What secret do you use to blast through writer’s block? I usually switch gears to something less glamourous- like research on another book, or outlining my next project, or editing. I usually have 3-6 projects going at a time, so there is always something to do. I think the trick is not to get bogged down, then you get frustrated. By the time I get to start writing again, I’m happy to be able to sit down and get new words on paper.

Who is your favorite character of all of the books you’ve written and Why? In this current series, it’s Ava Burke, because you’re going to see a huge character arc for her from book one to book seven, and she is going to blow your mind.

What inspired you to write? I’ve been reading voraciously since I was about five, but it wasn’t until my kids were in middle school that it occurred to me it was something I might want to do. I actually got in an argument with my youngest son over an assignment, which turned into a competition between the two of us (I won), and I found I really liked writing.

How long have you been writing? Since 2007, but 2010 was when I began to take it seriously and started going to conferences, joining local writing groups and figuring out the craft.

Did you tell friends and family that you were writing a book? Or did it take a while to come out and tell friends and family you were a writer? Oh, it took me a really long time. I think my husband thought I was up to something because I was sitting up late at night on the computer for months and months. But when I finally told him he was super supportive.

Do you see yourself in your characters? Of course, there’s a little of me in every one of them!

What do you want your readers to take away from your books? That you can survive anything. That you can heal and move past even the worst of situation, and there is always something better waiting for you, if you’re willing to work for it.

Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down? I’ve had those, and they are usually so terrible that I’ve stopped getting up in the middle of the night to write them down! I have found writing a series is easier than a stand-alone, at least for me. I like how the main plot holds everything together, but you can build up each book onto that, and the idea do come more easily when you have much of it already set out in your head.

Do you find it easier to write from a male or female point of view? Why? I like to write both, and I don’t find either easier or harder. For me it comes down to character. I find it’s harder for me to write conflict and love scenes than anything else!

Why do you write what you write? Contemporary, paranormal, suspense, etc. I’m not sure. I started out writing literary fiction, then moved to YA fantasy, then paranormal, now I’m in urban fantasy, I think it’s just a natural progression of growth and

If writing is your first passion, what is your second? Art- I love to paint!

What do you like to do when you are not writing? I usually am reading!

You’ve got a time machine, a cloak of invisibility, and one hour. Where would you go, and what eavesdropping would you do? I would love to visit Nuremberg, Germany in the late 1400’s and see Albrecht Durer, one of my all-time favorite artists!

Okay, you’re casting the movie version of your novel – who would you choose for the main characters? We’re talking dream cast. Oh wow. So I have them in my head, but no one who is famous…But a young David Gandy for Fenrir, Lee Pace (with white hair) for Odin,

What’s your favorite part of being an author? Just those occasions when I get to sit down and write, which are becoming rarer and rarer, sadly. But I do love when I start a new project, and there’s nothing in front of me but white paper!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? I would love to be able to time travel, I think that would be valuable.

What’s your approach to writing? Are you a plotter or follow your characters flow (Pantser)? I am a total pantser, I can’t stick to an outline past chapter one, even when I try.

Tell us three things we’d find if we looked under your heroine’s bed? How about the hero’s bed? Haha, well, the heroine does have something hidden under her bed. But she’d have a secret box, a baseball bat and a pile of journals, and the hero would have a silver neckchain, a book and a dagger.

SPEED ROUND FOR A LITTLE ADDED FUN:

Speed Round (one word only answer): Yep, I know torture for a writer!<evil laugh>

Favorite movie: Blade Runner
Favorite book: Dandelion Wine
Last book read: The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
Favorite color: green
Stilettos or flipflops: both!
Coffee or tea: Coffee of course!
Ebook or audiobook or paperback: e-book
Pencil or pen: pencil

Favorite song: The Emotion by Bjorns

Streak or not: nope

Favorite dessert: Tiramisu

Favorite junk food: donuts

Favorite thing to do to relax: go to the beach

Champagne or gin: rum

Paranormal or Historical: paranormal

Wonder Woman or Top Model:

Favorite TV show: The Umbrella Academy (for now)

Hot or cold: hot

POV: first

I’d die if I don’t have: music

Review or Not: yes!

Tells us about The Moon.

It’s always darkest before the dawn.
But they’ve never seen the place I came from.
For four years, life has been good for Celine Barrows.
But when the God of Chaos comes calling, Celine must answer. Her one chance at salvation is a stranger who makes no promises, and leads her on a journey into the very darkness she thought she had escaped. As the world shatters around her, and war looms on the horizon, Celine discovers that sometimes it takes a monster to defeat a monster.

A peek between the pages of The Moon.

There were many things that Celine had overcome. Poverty, for one. Hunger for another. She’d learned how to go for days and days without eating. How to fill her stomach with water so it didn’t ache so sharply. How to steal, first, out of desperation, then out of simple need, but never without regret. She’d learned to lie, and to manipulate. She’d learned to fight, to use weapons to defend herself against men bigger and stronger than herself. To survive in a world where it seemed everyone wanted to hurt her.

And finally, how to construct a carefully organized world to keep all of these dangerous memories at bay.

But there were some things that she had never fully left behind. Things that were meant to stay locked away in the darkness. And the biggest, baddest of those was currently sitting in this room, face to face with her.

“You’ve grown to be quite beautiful.” Her father stood, glancing at the man behind her. “I see Buchanan wasn’t exaggerating, when he told me what you looked like.” The quaking probably started somewhere around her knees, she decided, before moving up through her body, and by the time David Barrows towered over her, circled slowly around her, fear consumed her completely.

About the Author:

From the very first time she picked up a book, Laura was hooked. When she wasn’t running through the woods or rescuing animals, she could be found curled up in the backyard reading, escaping to even greater adventures.

But then came high school, boys and fast cars, and somewhere in between, her dream of writing the really, really big story got lost. Until finally she walked into a classroom at KSU , discovered Old English and Norse Mythology and her love of writing began anew.

An In’D’Tale fantasy finalist, Laura lives in northeastern Ohio, at the edge of a national park with her husband and one very spoiled German shepherd, writing paranormal, fantasy and dystopian romances.

It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with The Moon!