Thank you so much for being here, Silver. Tell us how your writing career began.
English class in the eighth grade. In a spiral bound notebook with a black and white plaid cover. I would scribble madly and then slip it to my best friend, Angela, so she could read it. Titled “The Talisman”, the book was a time travel wherein two teenage girls were transported to King Arthur’s court. And fell in love with two lovely knights. With much hi-jinks and hilarity along the way. Needless to say, it was abysmal. Luckily, I grew up and learned more about the craft. ;-)
Oh my gosh, that's an awesome story. So you started out in the time-travel romance genre. Are you still there?
I often describe myself as a cross-genre writer. My reading tastes are eclectic so I had no choice but to chase after my Muse in my writing. Paranormal and Urban Fantasy, Romantic Suspense with paranormal elements, SciFi and Fantasy, straight mystery, and even a couple of straight contemporaries have all shown up in my WIP pile.
Wow! So what heat level do you prefer to write? What about the heat level you prefer to read? Are we keeping that bedroom door open or closed here?
As a reader, I tend to skip over the lusty parts. There are only so many ways to insert Tab A in Slot B. That said, if a writer gets into the emotions of the participants, that’s a different story. As for my own writing, a lot depends on the story and the characters. I have some that go behind closed doors. I have others that will ignite a room and never do more than simply look at each other.
Sounds awesome! Of the characters you created, which one is your favorite and why?
That’s like picking a favorite child. I guess it’s a good thing I only have one of those. LOL Taking the easy way out, I’m going to say whichever character’s head I happen to be in at any given moment. Right now, that’s Rory MacDermot, the hero in my current WIP. He’s surprised me on more than one occasion.
I love it with my characters surprise me. That's gotta be the best part about writing. Have you ever considered self-publication?
I have, yes. I have two series, an Urban Fantasy and a Romantic Suspense, my agent is shopping around. If no one bites, I’ll be very tempted to go the self-pub route. I believe very strongly in these series and would like to see them out there in the “wild.”
It is VERY intriguing, I agree. What are you working on now?
I’m working on the final book in my Faerie Trilogy with Wild Rose Press. FAERIE FOOL revisits many of the characters from the first book, FAERIE FATE, though in this lifetime, rather than the past. I still have elements of reincarnation, time travel, and those wonder feuding fae, Abhean and Manannán mac Lir, mucking about in mortal lives.
After finishing a manuscript, do you take some time off or dive right in to the next story?
That depends on the To-Do list from my agent. When I finish a manuscript, I send it off to my critique partner, so I don’t work on it again until she sends it back. I might take a day or two to read a book, because it seems like I never have enough time to read for pleasure. However, there are times that Iffy, my Muse, is running around waving her scissors and threatening dire results if I don’t leap into the next project.
LOL! That's too funny! Gotta love Iffy! What’s on your nightstand (or downloaded onto your Kindle) right now?
What’s not? *looks guilty* My TBR pile is HUGE—I mean like over a hundred books. I’m currently working my way through Regan Hasting’s VISIONS OF SKYFIRE and Kat Henry Duran’s EMBRACEABLE YOU from the Class of ’85 Reunion series from The Wild Rose Press.
Too many books, not enough time, my friend. Which Superhero would you most love to date?
Uhm…none of them. Men in tights aren’t my thing. Sergeant Rock? Now HIM I’d go out with! (Does anyone besides me even remember Sergeant Rock?)
Uhhh...not me. Anyone else? What about your husband Has he read your work?
He does if I ask, though he used to read my WIPs quite often. He is wonderful to brainstorm with, and I find that much more valuable than his thoughts on my writing.
Favorite cocktail?
Margarita on the rocks with lots of salt. MmmMmmm, good!
What about hobbies?
Hobbies? Who has time? *gigglesnort* Okay. Seriously. I read every spare moment I have. I used to needlepoint and I did some handpainted clothing once upon a time. But then I started writing in earnest and that’s my…passion. It is both job and hobby and all-consuming attention whore.
I hear ya there. Any pets?
I am owned by a full-blood Newfoundland dog (all 150 pounds of him!) named Cooper, a half-Newf/half-Golden Retriever named Boone who is the doobie of all dogs. Boone’s mantra is, “Can’t we all just get along? So pet me!” And of course, there is Adidas, the cat who rules us all.
Thanks for being my guest, Silver! Glad to have you at AJ’s Tattered Pages!
Thank you for inviting me, AJ. I’ve enjoyed my time here at Tattered Pages. And to celebrate my work on the final book of the Faerie Trilogy, I’m giving away the first book, FAERIE FATE to one lucky commenter, picked at random.
Whoo Hoo! Hear that, folks? Keep reading to learn about Silver's Give-Away, FAERIE FATE!!
BIO: With a rampant imagination aided and abetted by a Muse who runs with scissors, Silver James loves to share the stories created in that vast comic void pretending to be her mind. Over the course of her lifetime, she's been a military officer's wife, mother, state appellate court marshal, airport rescue firefighter and forensic fire photographer, crime analyst, technical crime scene investigator, and writer. Retired from the “real world” now, she lives in Oklahoma and spends her days at the computer with her two Newfoundland dogs, the cat who rules them all, and myriad characters all clamoring for attention. To find out more about Silver, visit her at www.silverjames.com BLURB:
If you could go back, do it over again, would you take a chance to find true love?
What if you had no choice?
On her fiftieth birthday, the faerie catapult Rebecca Miller a thousand years into the past to find her happily ever after with Ciaran MacDermot, Chief of Clann MacDermot, the last Fenian warrior in his line. In the twenty-first century, Becca is old enough to be Ciaran’s mother. In the tenth, she’s young enough to be his bride.
The fae forgot to mention one slight stipulation. The lovers must be bound before the Festival of Light, or Becca will forever disappear into Tir Nan Óg, the faerie Land of the Ever Young.
Will they discover the binding words before time runs out and they’re torn apart forever? Or will their eternal love defeat their Faerie Fate?
Without the words, history is doomed to repeat itself.
EXCERPT:
The little clock she’d received as a present on her twenty-fifth birthday whirred and chimed the time. One small, tinkling chime. Two. Finally, twelve in all. Midnight between March twentieth and March twenty-first. The vernal equinox. The day when light and dark, good and evil, love and hate all balanced on the finely tuned axis of mother earth.
Voices, strange with lilting accents, whispered somewhere in the darkness of her dream.
****
“She sleeps,” said a soft voice, feminine, one Becca didn’t recognize.
“Aye,” said the second voice. This one was deep, male, arrogant.
“Will she remember?”
“Nay, she’ll not.”
“How then will she know what to do?”
“She’ll know.” He sounded confident.
“What of him?”
“Aye, he’ll definitely know now. He should have known the last time, but she was too afraid, and he was too full of himself.”
“What is so different this time?” She was skeptical.
“She was young then, not matched well to him. Now, she’s no young soul. She’s had all those lives without him, the lonely nights, and the ache in her heart for all time. This time, she has courage born in the fires of suffering. She’ll know not to run from him, but to him.”
“You’re sure with the knowing of it this time?”
“Aye.”
“And, if it doesn’t work?”
“Ciaran dies. Again.”
A sharp intake of breath came from the woman. “That cannot happen. Too much went wrong the first time.”
LINKS:
Twitter: @SilverJames_
Hi, AJ. Thank you so much for inviting me to visit you here at Tattered Pages.
As romance readers, we’ve gotten used to reading about heroes who light up the room when they enter. They’re gorgeous and little birdies go tweet tweet tweet around their heads whenever they smile. Without spending any time at the gym, and while eating anything they want, they still manage to be cut and wash-boarded. Did I mention they are moguls, top-notch surgeons, millionaires and/or undercover cops, and even though every woman on earth drools over them, they only have eyes for the heroine?
I’ve got one more alternative hero I’d like to tell you about. His name is Tyler White, and he is an over forty, has-been singer on his comeback tour in One for the Road, my current release with The Wild Rose Press. He’s big, six-feet-four, a bit out of shape, he smokes, and has blood pressure issues. Is that your idea of a hero? Probably not. The last thing he’s interested in doing is falling in love with a forty-six year old widow while renting her forty-foot RV for his cross country tour. Without spoiling the story, I’ll just mention that while challenged by D’Anne and the trials and tribulations of being on the road twenty-four-seven with his band and a picky widow, not to mention a mystery he needs to help solve, he becomes the man he was meant to be…a true hero.
