Monday, October 15, 2012

Guest Author - Terry Spear - Paranormal Romance

Terry Spear
Paranormal Romance

     Welcome to our chat with Paranormal Author, Terry Spear! I'm not so sure we want to roam these woods with shape shifters hanging around but we'll see what happens.
      I'm honored to have Terry with us all week to help her celebrate the release of Savage Hunger - the first book in her new series. Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written a couple of dozen paranormal romance novels and two medieval Highland historical romances.
   Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance and continuing her new series about shape shifting jaguars.
     Please help me welcome her and have your questions ready so you can leave a comment for Terry. She's also having a giveaway on Saturday and will pick one winner from our RaffleCopter Center below - be sure to get your entries in and come back to earn more entries!

Deanna: Terry, welcome to my space. My readers are anxious to get to know you. Tell us a bit about yourself.


Terry:  Hmm, I don’t think I have any secrets any longer! Everyone knows my favorite candy is Haviland thin mints. That I love chocolate mint ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate on top. That I drink green tea. That I have no rituals when writing…just write. That I love storms and hate scorpions. I think everyone knows everything about me!

Deanna:  What happened in your life that made you want to become a writer?

Terry:  Ever since I began reading when I was little, I loved stories. My dad was a great oral storyteller and I loved to make them up as well. Even my mother had stories written down that she finally shared with me. So it seemed it was in the blood.
 
Deanna: Is there a certain type of character that is easier to write than another?

Terry:  PARA normal. I love writing everything, but I’m especially drawn to characters that are different, enhanced abilities, PARA normal.

Deanna: Do you read in the same genre that you write in?

Terry:  Not normally. I read a lot of historical, but not in the period I write. I write Medieval Highland romance. The books I usually can get my hands on are Regency or other periods of time. I do love time travels and have written a couple, but there aren’t as many available. I write fantasy, but I rarely read it, drawing on my love of fairy tales, folklore and fairy tales I read when I was growing up. I’ve read a couple of YA werewolf books, but don’t read adult ones, not wanting to pick up ideas from other authors’ works. And I haven’t read jaguar romances, though Feehan has some jaguar warriors in her stories. And I think Moning did too. But I pretty much stay away from reading books that I’m afraid might influence my own style.


Deanna:  Savage Hunger is the beginning of a new shifter series for you. What made it fun to write?

Terry: Researching a new kind of predator, their environment, their quirks and incorporating that into a human-jaguar shifter being. I didn’t want to go far out in left field, so I stuck to the same world as far as humans don’t know they exist in my werewolf tales and I tied in some of the South American culture with jaguar gods and goddesses into the mysticism of the story. You never know when the jaguars and werewolves might chance to run into each other, even though both know the other is just a fairy tale.

Deanna:  What did you not like about writing the story?

Terry: Well, you see, I asked for volunteers at the library where I worked to go with me to the Amazon. I couldn’t get ONE taker. Cowards. Now when I asked about going to Scotland, every hand went up, including some patrons’ hands. So I had to rely on a lot of second-hand eyewitness accounts of what people saw and felt and smelled in the jungle. I’ve been in the jungle-like swamp across from my home in Florida when I was a kid and teen, but no monkeys swinging from the trees. I did listen to tapes on jungle sounds, what noise the frogs make and monkeys, different kinds of birds, and bugs.
     But I can tell you if you sit out on the Texas patio in summer, the cicadas can be deafening! Much the same was it was in Florida. And when we lived there and here also, mosquitoes would eat you alive. We had a lot of problems with no-seeums also, and they have that in the jungle. They have scorpions and ticks and chiggers. We had a lot of trouble with all three of those critters when I lived in Eastern Oklahoma in the hills and trees. No boas or monkeys…but we had enough of the other stuff to make up for it!

Deanna:  I've always had an interest in the jungle, the wild animals, the rainforest, but not sure I could pull off a paranormal story let alone a series. Congratulations! As the series continues, what differences will readers see?

Terry:  Thank you, I love the genre. In the first story, Savage Hunger, I wanted to show their world when they were connecting with their primal self, FIRST. I wanted to give the feel of the jungle, that they were happy to be what they were, that they’re loners for the most part (as jaguars are) except that Connor and Maya are twin sister and brother and have always been close. In the next story, Jaguar Fever, coming August 2013, she discovers they have cousins, and that there are more of their kind, elusive like jaguars are. They don’t run in packs like wolves do. But they do exist. So I had fun expanding more of their world in the second book. The third book? Have no idea yet!
     So if you had a chance to meet up with a sexy jaguar shifter, would you go with me to the Amazon to find him???    
     Thanks for dropping by and commenting, and thank you, Deanna, for having me here this week!


SAVAGE HUNGER 
BY TERRY SPEAR

IN STORES OCTOBER 2012

     USA Today bestselling author Terry Spear has captured hearts worldwide by wrapping the realities of nature into the glorious romance of the wild. Now, she turns her award-winning imagination from the sexy werewolf hunt to the intense sizzle of jaguar shape-shifters.

As a jaguar he is graceful and gorgeous..
Speedy and stealthy...
Fierce, independent, and wild...
As a man he is passionate and powerful...
Willful and wonderful...
And he'll stop at nothing to protect what's his...

Terry's Websites

Twitter, @TerrySpear
 
 To purchase Savage Hunger
 please visit 

and all other major booksellers.


Coming August 2013!


Contest:  For a chance to win a free copy of Savage Hunger - pls enter the RaffleCopter Contest below! US/Canada addresses only.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

17 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for having me here today, Deanna!! Good luck to everyone who enters the contest!

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  2. Terry,
    I'll go with you to the Amazon. But, You need to take care of the snakes. While I take care of the Jags. Is that a deal? LOL

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  3. LOL, Donna, that doesn't seem like a good deal to me. :)

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  4. Terry you have the best book covers. They are always so pretty. I hate bugs, snakes, anything that can crawl on me or grab me. LOL. So I wouldn't fair well in the jungle. I do love all kind of animals though. Jaguars are so strong and beautiful. Your new book sounds really good.
    Sue B

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  5. Would I go searching in the Amazon with you? Only if I didn't have to get the shots needed to go in that part of the world..don't like needles!! So unfortunately guess you'd be on your own Terry!!

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  6. LOL, Sue, the jaguar is so hunky and loving, you won't know anything else exists!!! :) I love having a man and woman on my cover for the first time ever, and the jungle setting and colors are beautiful! Thanks!

    Cat, no, don't tell me it you wouldn't go. I mean, if you don't, the jaguars are all mine, and I truly want to share!!!:)

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  7. I'd go into the jungle with him.

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  8. I'll go so long as someone takes care of all the spiders! I have issues with those creepy crawlers

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  9. Too funny, Rodriguez! I agree! :)

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  10. Hi Terry, your book sounds yummy to me. I love paranormal...and would love to travel the Amazon to find your elusive Jaguar. I'm in total agreement about your book covers, they ROCK! Thanks for sharing...wanted to enter the rafflecopter, but for some reason it isn't working at this time...I'll stop back later:)

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  11. As soon as I clicked my comment to post the rafflecopter also popped in:) I'm entered...thank you so much for the opportunity:)

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  12. Thanks Kay!!! You are just what a jaguar shifter needs to make it happy! Good luck with the raffle!

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  13. I'm super excited for this book. :) I really hope to visit the jungle one day. :)

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  14. Thanks so much, Sheri! I hope you love it! I would love to see the colorful birds and flowers!

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  15. If I had a chance to meet up with a sexy jaguar shifter, would I go with U to the Amazon to find him??? SURE IF IT'S ANIMAL KINGDOM AT DISNEY WORLD..((giggle))):D! Or better yet if it was BRAZIL....((sigh))..! I so want 2 go 2 BRAZIL..:) thanQQQQ!
    redz041@yahoo.com
    twitter name: Jan Mouzone

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  16. Well, I'm sure he'd love to meet up with you, Jan! :)

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