Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Author Spotlight - Georgia Tribell

Today we're very honoured to have paranormal writer, Georgia Tribell join us to tell us all about herself and her books. Georgia writes for Harlequin/Mills & Boon Nocturne, and her latest Nocturne Bite,  Demon Love, is out now!
Now, on to the questions...

1. Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?
Five years ago I was ready to toss in the pen, or in this case the computer, but it’s just something I couldn’t do. The voices in my head wouldn’t stay quiet and demanded their freedom. So I gave in and kept writing. On the serious side, I work outside the home, I’m a mom, along with at least a thousand other titles but my writing is for me. I love it and hope I’m lucky enough to continue down this path for many years to come.

2. What do you prefer writing, novellas or full length?
Out of all the questions on this list this one turned out to be the hardest. Novellas are fun, fast paced and get to the climax so much faster they help keep my need for immediate satisfaction curbed. Full length novels give me the time and page count to develop the characters, relationships and a more complex plot. I love getting deep into these characters especially when they surprise me. When I started out writing it was all about the full length novels, now days I seem to have embraced the novella and I’m loving it. Of course, I haven’t stopped working on the longer novels simply because some characters demand more page count.

3. You write paranormal, what challenges does that present?
I love writing paranormal because the boundaries you work within are so blurred they often aren’t even present. Even as great as this sounds, it is also the biggest challenge. I get to create my own worlds, but in doing so I must still keep it believable and consistent from start of story to end. If I have a character that at the start of a story can walk through walls and come out on the other side fully clothed, I can’t suddenly make it so her clothes no longer go with her. It is this kind of detail that makes paranormals a true challenge, especially if one story grows into multiple stories. Every story must be consistent with all the previous stories, which adds to the complexity of world building in paranormal stories.

4. Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?
These days everyone seems to love a good vampire story and there are many out there that are just wonderful reads. When I started thinking about venturing into a nocturnal world I knew I wanted something different, but that still had the same feel, pull and sex appeal as a good vampire story. From there it wasn’t a far jump to the demons in my book, who are deadly sexy when in human form and just deadly when in their demon bodies.

3. Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?
My dream is to be able to say good-bye to my day job and focus more on my writing and promotion. Like many reading this, that isn’t possible at the moment, but I’m a true believer in dreams and goals. My mother was my best friend and was one of those women who was always working on her next goal in life, so I do think I’ve learned how to do that well.

4. Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?
Nina Bangs. I had the privilege of meeting her at a local book store when I had just started this process and she pointed me to the West Houston chapter of Romance Writers of America. I went to the very next meeting and joined. Through this wonderful group, I’ve been lucky enough to get to know many other talented authors and learn from their vast pool of knowledge. If Nina had not taken the time to speak to me that day, I doubt I would be here today. She will always hold a special place in my heart for that.

5. What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?
Many years ago, when my children were small and demanding, my husband plotted behind my back to take me away for a weekend. He drove me to work that morning claiming he needed to have his vehicle worked on. Then he picked me up with roses and packed bags. We didn’t go far from home and it was only two nights away, but the fact that he did this all on his own made it special and very romantic.

6. What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?
How hard, demanding, draining and time consuming it would truly be. I never thought it would be easy, but the level of difficulty blew my mind. Of course, this is something you never really understand or appreciate until you are knee deep in it and there is no turning back. I now have a new appreciation for all the effort that goes into getting a book from a blank file to a published product.

7. What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?
This is easy, turn off the internal editor on the first draft. The best stories I’ve done, IMO, are those where I’ve honestly done this and just wrote. I didn’t worry about if the story flowed or if it was believable or anything else. I just type and let the story roll out of me. For me, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. If I’m not careful I’ll start wondering if this scene flows with previous scene and did I get to the sex too fast – or not fast enough. These thoughts will sap my confidence and creativity faster than another hurricane trying to blow our roof off. So, if you are starting a new story or stuck in one, put your fingers to the keys and type what is bouncing around in your head. There will be time to edit, cut, move, delete and write again later during the rounds of edits. For that first draft, let your mind and fingers flow without hesitation. I think you will be pleased with the results.

8. I hear Mills & Boon have replaced Nocturne Bites with the longer Nocturne Cravings, does writing Nocturne Cravings appeal to you?
I’m looking forward to having a go at the Nocturne Cravings line. With these being longer stories I should be able to curb my craving for more in depth stories. (Yes, that was a bad play on words!)

9. Tell us about your latest release.
Demon Love is a fast paced, sexy story about two people who come from different worlds to fight for a united cause. Kendra Morton was born and raised on earth and remembers the days before demons roamed the streets of her hometown and destroyed her life. Thor Kensington is a highly trained Demon Hunter from the parallel world of Torlin and is half Demon. He has been sent to this world to help train the new recruits in the war against the demon invasion from his home world.

For Thor, this should be a simple assignment; after all it’s no different from the many he’s done before, except for Kendra. She shakes his well organized world and when her life is threatened, he realizes how much she means to him. Now, together they must find a trader if they want a chance at a life together.

10. What’s next for you?
Currently, I have two books I’m working on. Demon Magic is the second in this series and I’m in the tweaking process at the moment. If you read Demon Love, you’ll see the hero for this second story, Midnight. He’s my dark, sexy hero.

Then there is a long novel I’m working on that I call “DC” because I started plotting this story while on a trip to Washington DC. This story has two very opinionated archeologists who are very certain they hate each other. We all know this isn’t true, I just have to convince them otherwise.

You can learn more about Georgia at her blog: http://authors.coffeetimeromance.com/georgiatribell/
And pick up her latest release, Demon Love, from here.
Thanks so much for joining us today, Georgia!

8 comments:

Romy Sommer said...

Welcome into our Spotlight Georgia. I love a good paranormal, but I have to admit I've only read two Nocturne Bites in my life. I think I need to change that right away!

Romy Sommer said...

PS: That is a gorgeous cover!

Kat said...

Thanks for turning minxy today Georgia, great interview.
Love the sound of your books - I'm in awe of paranormal writers, it's completely beyond the realms of my imagination to create complete new worlds and beings. Lots of luck! x

Anonymous said...

Hello all-

I’m so very happy to be here – thanks Minxes!

For those who don’t know I’m here in the states, I live outside of Houston Texas, and it’s midmorning for me. So, I’m going to try and answer post now and will be here all day (my time) to answer post.

Georgia

Anonymous said...

Romy-
Thanks for the nice comments and yes I LOVE the cover. It so fits the book and is one hot cover.

Anonymous said...

Joanne-

I have to laugh because I got in so much trouble back in school for day dreaming. Every story is its own world, even a very modern comtemporary story. We paranormal writers just take it outside the box.

Ju Dimello said...

Hi Georgia! I lurrrv me some nocturne bites any time of the day ;) and on any day .. LOL!

Demon Love seems really interesting ! Congrats on the release :)

Sally Clements said...

Midnight is a sexy name for a paranormal hero! All the best with your books, Georgia, and thanks again for visiting. x