FEATURE AUTHOR EVENT 12/8/13 Series Spotlight, Interview, Giveaway and Coastal Magic Convention Promo with... Nancy Haddock Hey everyone! LITERAL ADDICTION is very happy to welcome the wonderful Nancy Haddock to our site today. Nancy Haddock is the award-winning and national bestselling author of the OLDEST CITY VAMPIRE series. She also contributed a short story, āMedium Rareā to the paranormal romance anthology Entangled ā an e-publication with 100% of the proceeds going to breast cancer research (released in Sept. 2011). In writing her paranormal romantic mysteries, Nancy draws on her long experience with things-that-go-bump, and on the historic wealth of St. Augustine, Florida. A former speech pathologist and high school teacher in Oklahoma and Texas, Nancy now writes full-time. She describes herself as a dedicated resident-tourist who never tires of researching the past and exploring the sites in her ānewā hometown. Nancy has a super fun personal bio on her website too though, so I figured Iād borrow it for todayās event so we can learn even moreā¦ Nancy Haddock writes Beach Books with Bite! Why? I'm a formerly landlocked writer, now letting life flow with the tides in the Nation's Oldest City, St. Augustine, Florida ... and on the beaches of Anastasia Island. Since living near the ocean feeds my soul, I enjoy a richer fantasy life than ever. And, hey, being surrounded by nearly 450 years of history, a thriving artistic community, and more ghosts than you can shake an EMF meter at, it's no wonder I feel new heights of creativity. I'm even learning to paint... and I don't mean with a nine-inch roller! Was I always a writer? Yes and no. I wrote and enacted stories from the time I can remember, but I was also a teacher and still adore the excitement of teaching. I grew up in Sapulpa and Tulsa, Okalahoma, attended high school in Tulsa (Go Comets!), and received both my Bachelor and Master's degrees in Education/ Speech and Language Pathology from the University of Tulsa. I also lived in the Dallas area for many years, and taught a variety of subjects at a private high school there. What inspires me? Besides the joy of living in my corner of paradise, I find story ideas in odd moments - snippets of conversation, people watching, absorbing the energy of locations. Inspiration can smack me upside the head, or merely sneak up and snag my imagination. I have a special fascination for Greece, Spain, the British Isles, and all things Polynesian, and am saving airline miles to travel more often. What grabs my attention? Dark chocolate, garage sales, and "Surf's up!" What are my loves? Besides my phenomenal family and friends, that would be books, movies, writing books and movies, music, dancing and sailing ...and more books! And I'm learning to surf again! Cowabunga! You can keep up with Nancy online at her Website, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on GoodReads. For those of you new to Nancyās work, hereās everything you need to know to get all caught up:
Always the Vampire OLDEST CITY VAMPIRE Book #3 Add to your GoodReads Shelf Buy from Amazon / B&N / BAM / Kobo It's not easy being a dutiful maid of honor when you're a vampire in the Sunshine State... Cesca Marinelli has been slacking on her duties as a vampire princess, but she will be the best maid of honor ever for Maggie's Victorian wedding. However, when her mostly-human honey, Saber, falls ill due to a magical construct called the Void, she knows she'll have to go beyond the call of bridesmaid duty... The Void is affecting every supernatural being in Cesca's afterlife, including her shapeshifter ex, Triton. To counter the Void's reign of terror, Cesca must fully summon her vampire powers-which may lead to her own doom. Intrigued!? You should be. :) And how gorgeous are those covers!!!? Well, now that I got you all caught up, what do you say we see what Nancy had to say when I sat down to her for our interview? INTERVIEW WITH NANCY HADDOCK: Chelle - LITERAL ADDICTION: Hi Nancy! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to drop by and spend some time with me, especially around the holidays like this. Iām so happy to have you here! It was so much fun with you at the reading in the CON last year and I canāt wait to see you againā¦ NANCY: Itās such a treat to be with you on Literal Addiction, Chelle! Thank you for inviting me to play! Oh, and lest I forget later, I hope you and all the readers had a good Thanksgiving, and that your next holidays will bring lots of fun. Be safe over New Yearās time! LITERAL ADDICTION: I always start by getting to know our guest V.I.P author a little bit betterā¦ 1): Can you tell us 3 things about yourself ā no matter how random - that we couldnāt find out easily on the internet? NANCY: Considering the staggering amount of dish available on the Internet, this is a bit daunting ā¦ but here goes. According to family legend, Iām of Lakota Sioux heritage in the distant past. I once studied the Lakota language. I have a hankering to create art. Paint, weave baskets, whatever. Iād love to take classes. 2) What are 2 things that always make you smile, and 2 things that never fail to piss you off? NANCY: Babies ā human or animal ā will always bring a smile, as will enjoying nature. Bullying and general injustice get me riled. 3) When did you start writing? Can you share with us a bit about your first experience trying to get a manuscript out there? NANCY: According to my mother, I dictated stories to her from the time I was about age 4. I wrote on and off throughout school years, then teamed up with a fellow teacher to write childrenās picture books. We both had small children at the time, and we worked with children, so it was a natural. Those books were my first submissions. No sales. I got interested in screenwriting and took a class when I still lived in Tulsa, and after we were transferred to the Dallas area, I dove into romance writing. Working to get those early manuscripts in perfect condition ā without using a computer ā was nerve-wracking! 4) Was there anyone (or anything) that was directly involved with your drive to become an author? NANCY: I always wanted to write, and I believe that was a direct result of my love of reading. Authors were my heros, and books were constant companions for escape, entertainment, and enlightenment. I joke that the only reason I got into college was due to my high verbal scores ā and those scores I attribute to reading! 5) If you could spend the day with anyone ā alive, dead, fictional, etc ā whom would you want to spend it with, and what would you want to do? NANCY: On any given day, Iād likely come up with a new person. But, with the holiday season, Iām missing my mom who died this summer. Iād spend a day with Mom antique shopping, and then getting a pedicure together. :) 6) Do you have any interesting writing quirks or a specific routine you must follow to begin your writing process? NANCY: I have no MUST dos before I write, but my general āgear upā routine is to imagine knocking on my charactersā doors and asking them to come out and play. The play part reminds me to let the writing flow. The knocking on the door gives me a moment to simply say āhello, letās go!ā 7) If we were to hop in your car or pick up your MP3 player and turn it on, what do you think weād be most likely to hear? NANCY: In the car, youāll hear rock ān roll, baby! My MP3 player, though, is filled with mediation music and ocean wave sounds. I work and sleep to all that. If it has a beat or I know the words, Iām singing and dancing, so I donāt write to anything but environmental sounds or New Age music. 8) Was there any specific inspiration behind the creation of the OLDEST CITY VAMPIRE series? NANCY: The original inspiration was me mishearing a line of dialogue in a peanut butter commercial. I heard, āā¦or we can watch this Princess Vampire video.ā I laughed then, and laughed again every time I caught the commercial, but the idea of a āPrincessā vampire who doesnāt think sheās any such thing took root. The idea wouldnāt leave me alone. Once I saw Cesca clearly, she led the way. And, yes, I cracked up when she wanted to surf, but Iām so grateful I misheard that tiny line of dialogue! 9) I know that you have another series in the works right now. Can you tell us a little bit about it? NANCY: The new series is for Berkley Prime Crime, which might seem like a huge departure from my paranormals, but isnāt. Cesca solved mysteries, after all. :) The Senior Six Mysteries will feature Sherry Mae Cutler and her five friends who live together in Sherryās rambling SW Arkansas farmhouse. The Senior Six share companionship, folk art interests ā¦ and then they share trouble when a woman is found murdered in the old family cemetery. Sherry Maeās visiting niece Nixy must insure that the seniors are healthy, competent, and stay out of jail. There will be tidbits on folk art, Southern recipes, and perhaps other goodies, but this series wonāt have paranormal elements. Not unless I can work the ghost of an ancestor into the story. J Whatever happens, Iām sure having fun with these characters and I hope readers will enjoy the new books! 10) What types of scenes do you enjoy writing the most (love, action, dialogue, etc) and why? NANCY: I canāt hardly write a to-do list without humor, and the number one place I put humor is in dialogue - spoken and internal dialogue. I enjoy twisting a clichĆ© to make it fresh, unexpected. I like also writing action scenes, though on the first pass those are fairly bare bones. I layer a LOT in revisions! 11) What was the most challenging thing about creating the THE OLDEST CITY VAMPIRE series? NANCY: Because Cesca veered so far from the ānormā of vampire characters Iād read and loved, I wasnāt sure she had a chance in the market. So the most challenging aspect of the series was trusting my intuition that I needed to write the story, and trusting Cesca to be who she was. 12) Has there been a specific moment in your career thus far that you are particularly proud of? NANCY: Having my editor tell me Iād hit a bestseller list was a huge high, and the awards have brought warm-fuzzies. The first time a reader told me my books had helped her through medical treatments, though, THAT made me feel both humbled and proud. Iād been in the same boat, had felt that kind of gratitude for a book. And, yes, I got teary when I read that letter. I still get teary when I get that kind of letter! 13) Anything else in the works for Nancy Haddock outside of keeping sales going on THE OLDEST CITY VAMPIRE series and getting the new series into our hot little hands ā anthologies, compilations, etc? NANCY: No current anthologies or compilations are in the works. Iāll get back to working on the first novel based on my short story, āMedium Rare.ā That story appeared in ENTANGLED, a paranormal anthology created specifically to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. ENTANGLED is off the market now, but I hope some of your readers had the chance to buy and read it. It was an honor to work with a fabulous group of authors! I have other indie projects on the back burner, and Iām still working on a few screenplays with my daughter. 14) Are you slotted to attend any other signings, CONs, etc coming up that you want to be sure your readers and fans know about? NANCY: Iām not currently signed up for anything specific other than I plan to attend the RWA conference in San Antonio next summer. My deadlines are tight, so Iāll be nose to the keyboard ā¦ so to speak. 15) Is there anything special youād like to say to your readers while we have you here today? NANCY: Thank you. Sincere, deep, abiding thank you to those who have read or plan to read my work. I appreciate you letting me know you enjoyed my books, and I appreciate that you support me and a bevy of other authors! Readers rock!! LITERAL ADDICTION: Nancy, thank you SO much again for being with us today. We really hope that weāve turned some new readers on to your work, and we hope that people will go out, pick up, and love the OLDEST CITY VAMPIRE novels and keep an eye out for your new work. I canāt wait to see you again in February! NANCY: Oh, Chelle, youāre the best! Iām eager to see you at Coastal Magic, too! Daytona Beach will be a blast! A big āole thank you hug for inviting me to visit today, and many thanks to the readers whoāve popped in! Happy Reading to all, and to all ā¦ where is your next book? I hope itās handy! CONTEST: In celebration of this event, Nancy is giving away a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card (to be sent via snail mail) to a lucky winner. To enter, find the Rafflecopter widget for todayās Event below (on our Coastal Magic Featured Authors page) 12/8 - 12/13, follow the directions, take action, and mark as āDoneā. Good luck, and as alwaysā¦ HAPPY READING!!
