"When I'm not writing" with Erin Kellison

We're kicking off 2012 with a guest post by the lovely Erin Kellison, author of the Shadow series. The first book in the series, Shadow Bound, came out in 2010 and was soon followed by Shadow Fall and Shadowman, as well as the e-novella, Shadow Touch.  I can't think of a better way to start the year!

 

Okay, I write a lot. Or I do various activities that have to do with my writing. Revisions, plotting, copy edits, and online stuff. But in my serious off time, I hang with my family. My husband, Matt, is my best friend. We met in tenth grade biology when we were assigned to sit next to each other. He was acnified and I had monstrous braces with rubber bands. And the first thing I said was, “Can I see your schedge?” (That’s short for class schedule.) You know, because I had decided that age 15 was the year I was going to be cool, and here was this boy I was going to try it out on. He looked harmless. That “schedge” line must have worked REALLY well, because we married at twenty and now have two kids and a mortgage. The cool thing—yeah, not so much. Although HE did turn out to be cool—Mr. I Play Electric Guitar. I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation at home with my family. Raise your hand if you’re a nerd, too. Just me? Okay, then.

The bulk of my daily free time is doing kid homework. Holy hell, they are in grade school and they have more homework than I used to have in a week! We have craft madness in our house—a million projects started by my wee ones, but not yet completed. My favorite of their projects is when they start to write a book. And then I get all glowy feeling inside. The big one is into manga. The little one just got a pet hamster who bites and is named Henry. We are working on the biting thing.

My house is routinely a disaster that my husband and I maintain at a “messy” level. Occasionally it gets to “critical,” but even then, we only get rid of the stinky stuff. I wince when clean house people stop by unexpectedly. We have guests now and the master bedroom is truly obnoxious—it’s where we dumped all the stuff while cleaning.

I love TV, movies, and books. I bought a whole bunch last night when I was supposed to be working. I read just about everything fiction. I’m not as keen on the literary stuff, though that’s what I got my degree in: English Language and Literature. Gimme genre fiction any day. I long, pine, and dream about seeing more movies in the theatre than I do. I have a babysitting switcheroo arrangement with another family, so my sweetie and I go out every other week. Once all the holiday craziness began, the dates stopped, so I am in major, terrible withdrawal now. Next week, we start up again.

TV is awesome, too, but I watch sporadically. I love Castle, Once Upon A Time, Top Chef, Shameless, Revenge, and many more. I started American Horror Story, but got too scared. I write very dark with a high body count, but my horror threshold for film and TV is low. The images and ideas grab hold of my brain and won’t let go. My husband even changes the channel when a horror movie commercial comes on so as not to get me started. At about 2a.m. the ideas start to seem possible, then I am hopeless. And I hate tension music. I must mute tension music.

I have my girls’ night out gals, with whom I love to spend time. I love to shop for shoes. I love yummy food. And they make me feel normal for a night. (I fool them!) And I meet with my crit pardner once a week—though that has more to do with my writing life.

No matter what I am doing, though, I have a story in my head. It’s not the one I am writing, which I tuck carefully in a mental box when I am through for the day. The story in my head is epic, too big to write, and if I get a distracted look in my eyes, I’m probably working on a bit of it.

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Thanks very much for visiting us, Erin! I love the story about how you met (and kept!) your husband.

To get to know Erin better, you can visit her website, blog, or Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter.

Death

Some people will do anything to avoid it. Even trade their immortal souls for endless existence.

Wraiths 

Secretly, inexorably, they are infiltrating our world, sucking the essence out of unsuspecting victims with their hideous parody of a kiss.

Segue

Adam Thorne founded the Segue Institute to study and destroy his monster of a brother, but the key to its success is held in the pale, slender hand of a woman on the run. There is something hauntingly different about Talia O’Brien, her unknowing sensuality, her uncanny way of slipping into Shadow.

Twilight

This is the place between life and what comes after—a dark forest of fantasy, filled with beauty, peril, mystery. And Talia is about to open the door.

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Read an excerpt (scroll down)

Sacrifice

Custo Santovari accepted pain, blood, even death, to save his best friend. But a man with all his sins just isn’t cut out to be an angel.

Mystery

One moment he’s fleeing Heaven; the next, he’s waking up stark naked in Manhattan. In the middle of a war. Called there by a woman who’s desperately afraid of the dark.

Shadow

It gathers around Annabella as she performs, filled with fantastic images of another world, bringing both a golden hero and a nightmare lover.

Wolf

He pursues her relentlessly, twisting her desires even as she gives herself to the man she loves. Because each of us has a wild side, and Annabella is about to unleash the beast.

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Read an excerpt (scroll down)

Ghosts

They haunt the halls of the Segue Institute, terrifying the living, refusing to cross over. But one soul is driven by a very different force. It survives even death. And Kathleen O’Brien swore she would return to those she was forced to leave too soon.

Shadowman

He broke every rule to have her in life; now he will defy the angels to find her in death.

The Gate

Forging it is his single hope of being reunited with his beloved, but through it an abomination enters the world. Leaving a trail of blood and violence, the devil hunts her too. Pursued through realms of bright fantasy and dark reality, Kathleen is about to be taken. . .

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Read an excerpt (scroll down)

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Authors, would you like to participate? We’d love to have you. Please email me at jennblogs (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll set it up!