PSC: Interview & Giveaway with Jamie Quaid

Jamie Quaid, a.k.a. Patricia Rice has hit the bestselling charts with her contemporary and historical romance novels and she’s now debuting her urban fantasy career under her new pen name. I’m really excited for Boyfriend From Hell (pre-ordered my copy months ago!) so I was super excited when she accepted to join us!

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1. Justine Clancy, your main character, is one of Saturn's daughters. What does it mean and where did the inspiration come from?

While brainstorming my idea for this story, one of my buddies told me that the planet Saturn takes roughly 28-29 earth years to circle the sun. She pointed out the astrological implications, which suited my character perfectly. I’ll leave it to your readers to Google “Saturn transit” to grasp the effects on Justine as she inches toward her 27th year. Saturn is also one of the great Roman gods connected with strength, time, and justice. Justine hasn’t quite learned what it means to be a daughter of Saturn, but she’s catching onto the justice schtick pretty quickly. But inheriting this faulty DNA or whatever it’s called affects different characters in different ways, as she’ll soon discover.

2. Boyfriend From Hell is set in "Baltimore’s radioactive Zone" what happened to make it radioactive and would you consider your novel a mix of Urban Fantasy and Dystopian?

The Zone was established when a chemical plant that made nerve gas and shampoo goo flooded the streets and harbors in an industrial accident. Most of the events grow out of that—quite literally.
I try not to think too hard about stuffing my insanity into categories, but let’s see what fits. Wikipedia says dystopian fiction explores social and political structures and often gives humanity the choice of two different futures. That’s a pretty broad palette and could even apply to love stories if stretched far enough, so my environmentally hazardous zone could qualify as dystopian with the possibility of an apocalyptic outcome. Urban Fantasy often includes werewolves, vampires, and the fey. I have a chimp shapeshifter and a snake charmer, so I’m coming up a little short there. <G> The demons tend to be human in form and action, but yeah, they’re evil. And hell exists in some dimension. Probably purgatory, too. If I must be categorized, Dystopian Urban Fantasy could work. Can I create a new genre called Non-Vampiric Dystopian Urban Fantasy?

3. Justine seems to have quite an eclectic group of friends, which one is your favorite and why?

Unfair! They all have their good and bad sides, as well as their human and non-human sides in some cases. Murderous Sarah is kind of fun, but I wouldn’t want her for a friend. Cora and Jane are both the kind of friends I’d like to have, although Cora’s snakes might be a little offputting, and Jane’s reporter life is a little dull. Scwhartz is steadfast and sexy, and Bill is a big, but dangerous, teddy bear. Will I be smacked if I go for Andre, who has so many levels that it’s impossible to plumb his depths?

4. The cover of your novel is simply stunning, did you have any say in it?

I was asked for a description of the character and any important scenes, weapons, etc. I think I laughed. I told them my heroine was a crippled Middle-eastern shrimp with buck teeth and stringy hair. But I grudgingly admitted she improved with time, except the only weapons she ever wielded were law books and a tire iron. I don’t make it easy on cover artists, so they retaliated by making her sexy as…well, hell with a tire iron. And they added a touch of the Zone’s blue neon and naturally, her Harley. So they took what I gave them and ran with it. It really is a spectacular cover.

Now onto some Summer Camp questions

5. Did you ever go to summer camp when you were younger? If so, what's your fondest memory?

This is one of the reasons I couldn’t play your camp game. The closest I ever came to a summer camp was one summer when I attended Girl Scout camp. It got rained out the first night, so I didn’t even have a chance to cook s’mores. Now if camping with my family counts, ask me about the trip in the Great Kahuna!

6. What your favorite camping meal?

Hamburgers with bacon and cheese smoked to perfection over a wood fire. Gotta have that protein when hiking and swimming! (The vegetarians in the family will kill me, so don’t tell them I said so. Mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes are pretty good as grilled cheese sandwiches but there are limits!)

Thank you so much Jamie for joining us :)

And thank you for asking me to stop by. Go with Saturn!

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More about Boyfriend From Hell:

They say justice is blind. But Justine isn’t.

Justine (Tina) Clancy is just an ordinary law student with a faulty arrest record, a part-time job in Baltimore’s radioactive Zone, and a family secret so bizarre even she doesn’t believe it. That is, until in a fit of fury she damns her boyfriend to hell—and it’s exactly where he ends up.

Much to her own surprise, Tina is apparently one of Saturn’s daughters, with the power to wield vigilante justice. But poor Max didn’t deserve to go up in flames, even if he did almost run her over with her own car. Tina’s convinced someone cut the brakes—and now a relentless nemesis is stalking her through the Zone’s back alleys, where buildings glow, statues move, and chemical waste exposure comes with interesting consequences. Tina’s usually a loner, but now she needs a posse like no other: a shape-shifting kitten, an invisible thief, a biker gang, a snake-charming private detective, a well-meaning cop, and her sleazy, sexy boss. But in between freeing Max from hell, saving her own neck, and solving a mystery that threatens the Zone and her newfound friends, how is she ever going to study for finals?

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository

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Jamie is offering two (2) copies of Boyfriend from Hell to two lucky winners!

To enter the giveaway, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

Open Internationally (where BD ships)

Ends Wednesday, August 5th, 2012
(like all of our Paranormal Summer Camp giveaways)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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“Jamie Quaid is a pseudonym for best-selling romance author Patricia Rice. This is her first novel under the name Jamie Quaid.

With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one of romance's hottest authors. Her emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won numerous awards, including the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards.

A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina, she currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, and now does accounting only for herself. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc.” (source)

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Posted by Tynga at 06:52

 Interview, Jamie Quaid, Paranormal Summer Camp, Simon Schuster  41 People left their mark

Tynga is a 32 years old mom of two, from Montreal, working as a lab technician in an hospital specialized in heart disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading all things Paranormal and photography.

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