Cheyenne is starting out with a few questions for Jaci. Now behave, Jaci. (If that’s possible ;-)

Chey: What do you do to celebrate when you finish writing a book?

Jaci: I nap. Then I shop. Then I nap some more. Then after a few hours have passed, I start the next book. ;-)

Chey: Do you do anything special the day your book is available in stores?

Jaci: Um, I hyperventilate a whole lot. Then I go stalk the bookstores and take pictures of my book on the shelves (Yes, I am that geeky *g*)

Chey: Do you just write in your home, or do you go to coffee shops or other places to get some writing done?

Jaci: I always write at home. It’s quiet here. I’d people-watch at coffee shops, then I’d never get any writing done

Chey: What are your biggest distractions?

Jaci: Naps and General Hospital

Chey: What is your biggest addiction?

Jaci: Naps and General Hospital

Chey: What’s your favorite kind of food?

Jaci: I love Pizza. And a really good steak. Oh and Lobster. Hmm, I guess I don’t have just one favorite.

Chey: Tell us about HUNTING THE DEMON.

Jaci: Nic Diavolo has been kidnapped by the Realm of Light, a team of demon hunters sworn to defeat the Sons of Darkness, demon lords in service to the Great Evil One. Nic and his brother Derek are sons of one of the demon lords, and it’s up to Shay Pearson, another demon hunter, to determine how much demon blood Nic possesses, and whether he can be trusted to join the Realm, or whether he’ll choose the Sons of Darkness. It’s a fun and sexy story with lots of secrets.

Chey: Where did you get the idea for the series?

Jaci: I wanted to write a paranormal series, but not the same old, same old. When I started worldbuilding and creating characters, demons and demon hunters came to mind and the first book, SURVIVING DEMON ISLAND, was born. It’s a twist on reality television with demons in the mix, and characters who all bring something very special to their roles as demon hunters.

Chey: How many books will there be in the series?

Jaci: As many as Bantam Dell will let me write. I don’t have a set number of books—at least not yet. Right now I’m contracted for four books. I hope there’ll be a lot more.

Chey: Let us know the URLs for your website, blog, and any other link you’d like to provide.

Website: http://www.jaciburton.com

Blog: http://www.jaciburton.com/blog

Okay, Turnabout is fair play, right? So Jaci gets even with Cheyenne:

Jaci: What do you do to celebrate when you finish writing a book?

Chey: A couple of chocolate martinis will always do the trick for a good celebration. Oh, and jewelry. Jewelry is good.

Jaci: Do you do anything special the day your book is available in stores?

Chey: Freak out. Go see my book in the stores. Want to jump up and down, but manage to restrain myself. Um, most of the time. :-)

Jaci: Do you just write in your home, or do you go to coffee shops or other places to get some writing done?

Chey: I tend to go to coffee shops and the bookstore cafe. I put on my headset with some great writing music and go to town. I find I work best when I get out of the house because I’m away from home distractions. And the internet. That’s a big distraction. But I have a BlackBerry, so now I can still be distracted by email…

Jaci: What are your biggest distractions?

Chey: The internet, my kids, my dogs. Lately eBay. Not good.

Jaci: What is your biggest addiction?

Chey: Er, eBay the last couple of weeks. :-) I love (toooo much) cake batter flavored ice cream. Cold Stone Creamery has the best, mixed with their homemade brownies… What, a pound gained every time I have some, no doubt.

Jaci: What’s your favorite kind of food?

Chey: Thai. Loooove Thai food. Also seafood is big on the list. And fillet mignon. Mmmmmmm.

Jaci: Tell us about WICKED MAGIC.

Chey: Rhiannon Castle is a D’Anu witch whose Coven sisters know nothing of the Shadows that lurk within her. Rhiannon is afraid to reveal the truth to anyone. Keir’s Tuatha D’Danann brethren are the only real family he has ever known. He trusts no one—until he is sent to San Francisco and meets Rhiannon, the one woman with fire enough to tame him. They face a new threat that rises from the depths of Underworld. When a demon goddess unleashes her evil upon our world, Rhiannon’s secret could be the ultimate weapon in this epic battle—or forge a pathway to destruction for the only man she’s ever loved.
Jaci: Where did you get the idea for the series?

Chey: Monique Patterson of St. Martin’s Press, the best editor in the world, asked me to submit a proposal for contemporary suspense, and one for paranormal. When she asked for an urban paranormal series, I wanted to do something I hadn’t seen done before. Witches came to mind because I just happened to have been studying Paganism for a young adult novel that I was writing under a different name. There’s a ceremony called “Drawing Down the Moon.” When I was trying to think up ideas for the “Magic” series, that was the first scene that came to my mind, fully developed–when in FORBIDDEN MAGIC Silver performs the ceremony “skyclad” (which = naked) on a private stretch of beach in San Francisco, and summons Hawk of the Tuatha D’Danann from Otherworld to help save the city from Demons. I really got into bringing in Celtic mythology and twisted it to use in my own wicked way. *g* I hadn’t heard of or read any witch books when I came up with the idea for my series.
Jaci: How many books will there be in the series?

Chey: Five. SHADOW MAGIC comes out next May, and then DARK MAGIC in Oct or Nov. I’m writing DARK MAGIC now. It’s going to be tough leaving my D’Anu witches, but the series has an arc and comes full circle in the fifth book. Every book is absolutely a stand alone–you don’t have to have read any of the previous books. But of course you get to learn more about the other characters when you do. :-)

Oh! And then there’s what I call book 3 1/2. It’s a “Magic” novella, BREATH OF MAGIC, with D’Anu witch Sydney and a hunky D’Danann warrior named Conlan. They get in on in the anthology, No Rest for the Witches with MaryJanice Davidson, Lori Handeland, Christine Warren, and yours truly. The anthology is due out October 2nd!
After this 5th and final “Magic” book that I’m writing, I start a new contemporary suspense continuity series with a kickass heroine named Lexi. Then next I’ll start a new urban fantasy continuity series with a half-Drow heroine (Dark Elves). Nyx is all attitude and then some. She’s beyond kickass. I think she’s going to need *her* ass kicked a few times.

Jaci: So give us your URLs:

Website: http://cheyennemccray.com/

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/cheyennemccray

Hope you’ve enjoyed our badgering each other! Remember, everyone who posts goes into the book drawings for autographed copies of Cheyenne’s FORBIDDEN MAGIC and for Jaci’s SURVIVING DEMON ISLAND!
Have a great week!

Jaci & Chey

Can you please tell us a little about your fabulous new book WORKING FOR THE DEVIL?

Well, it’s set six hundred years in the future or thereabouts (I like to keep the timeline fluid) and a woman who raises the dead to answer questions of probate and inheritance gets a knock on her door. It’s a demon sent to collect her, because the Prince of Hell wants her to kill someone for him. And everything just gets worse from there.

WFTD is the first in a five book series you’ve already almost finished writing. When will the other books be available? Can you give us a peek at what lies ahead for Danny Valentine?

Well, DEAD MAN RISING is due out in September, and it’s in many ways the darkest Valentine book. It has Danny facing down ghosts from her childhood and also coming to terms with her new status as not-strictly-human. I really wanted to explore how Danny’s childhood shaped her, how she is the way she is because she had to make a choice—get strong or die. Anyone faced with that choice walks away with some damage, and I wanted to explore how Dante’s damage made her stronger, why she chose getting strong instead of giving in. I also wanted Dante to realize something very important about compassion and forgiveness.

The last three books in the series go in a different direction, with the Prince of Hell messing around in Danny’s life again. I’m in the middle of writing the fifth book now, and it’s hard going. I hate doing mean things to characters once I’ve gotten to know them so well. It just feels wrong. And having to say goodbye to Dante is going to be wrenching, she’s been in my head so much the past two years.

The world of WFTD is set in an urban setting, but has many differences to our world. How do you go about worldbuilding such a complex society while keeping it believable?

Actually (and I am hanging my head in shame here) the characters take care of all that for me. I see the events going on very clearly in my head and just write down what’s playing on the mental screen. I do have little tricks—like interviewing the characters on paper, and writing fake history papers—that help me get “in the mood.” But largely, it’s the characters that do all the heavy lifting. I’m just along for the ride.

If WFTD became a movie or TV show, do you have any actors in mind for the main characters?

Oh, I have a whole list. Here’s my fantasy cast:

Dante: Fairuza Balk (first choice), Rachel Weisz—if we can teach her how to cuss and kick ass, not be so much of a lady.
Japhrimel: Karl Urban, Alan Rickman ten years ago. Michael Biehn, who was actually the actor who gave me the idea for Japh. I had a particularly detailed fantasy about Viggo Mortenson, but decided, alas, it wouldn’t work. Sigh. He’s just not a demon.
Jace: Matt Damon, Sean Bean, Jason Statham. I liked Damon in The Bourne Identity, where he kind of gets dirty and lethal. If he could do that again it’d be cool.
Gabe: Kate Beckinsale
Eddie: Giovanni Ribisi—only actor who’s twitchy enough
Lucifer: Tilda Swinton—the ONLY choice!
Santino: Brad Dourif. OH, man! The creepiness!
Abracadabra: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Where do you find your inspiration for your novels?

Well…it happens everywhere. Plot bunnies will attack while I’m driving or walking on the treadmill, or out at the track. Lots of music, I listen to music constantly, all day. Movies are good, but I will only find inspiration in one scene or dialogue exchange, usually.

Inspiration, or ideas, come very oddly for me. I will see a flash, a very clear mental image, and it can be anywhere in the book. I start writing to try to figure out what the story is behind this picture in my head and how it ends. Or I’ll be crouched over my keyboard, finishing something up, and a character will start to whisper in my ear. That’s what Danny Valentine did. It was about three in the morning, and she suddenly breathed into my left ear, “My working relationship with Lucifer started on a rainy Monday.”

Well, I was hooked. A writer just can’t walk away from something like that.

Are you a pantser or a plotter? And, if you’re a plotter while working on a series, did you plan out the entire series before writing book one?

Oh, boy. I am a total pantser. I can’t outline. If I do, the characters seem to delight in taking the story Somewhere Else. The story just comes out in lumps, and later I have to go through and add structure, take little bits out, put little bits in.

Actually, it’s funny, but the editor for WFTD had trouble with the ending until I told her about Book 2. That clinched the deal, so to speak. I knew it was a series about midway through WFTD (I realized it during the hover flight to Rio, listening to Gabe and Danny talk) and I had the entire arc of the series in my head by the end of the book. After that, it was just a matter of waiting for the books to be ready.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Tanith Lee is my favorite author ever. Other than her: Jacqueline Carey, the best thing to happen to fantasy in a decade; Linda Howard, my guilty pleasure; Stephen King, the best at narrative drive; Gibbon for his footnotes; Noam Chomsky…I’m a bit of an eclectic. Right now I’m going through another Roman history phase.

What is one of your favorite books to read that other people might never have heard of?

Either Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire or SM Stirling and Shirley Meier’s The Sharpest Edge. Both wonderful and very useful.

I see that you have soundtracks for your novels. If you could only listen to three or four songs to write urban fantasy to, what would they be?

Oh, choices, choices. Anything by Rob Dougan, I just got his Furious Angels 2-CD set and am very happy with it. Also Loreena McKennit’s Tango to Evora, which fuels my Muse like nobody’s business. And Rob Zombie’s Living Dead Girl. That song just gives me shivers.

What is your best piece of writing advice to aspiring authors?

Do not give up. Do not give up. Tell the best story you can, and when you’re done, tell another one. And another one. Sooner or later, someone will want to read your work. It’s only a matter of numbers.

You are the president of the Romantic Bitches Association. How did this come about and what is the RBA’s purpose?

Well…there was this big flap in the RWA (Romance Writers of America) about cover art and about erotica. I won’t revisit it, but I will say several writers and readers were upset enough to ask, “What alternative do we have here?” And the RBA was born.

Basically, we were just tired of feeling guilty because we liked to read and write romance, and tired of all sorts of tomfoolery about what is “proper” romance and what isn’t. The RBA hasn’t taken off the way I dreamed, mostly because I don’t have time to nurse it between revisions etc. But I like the idea that it’s out there, and eventually will be an alternative to the straitjacket of conservative forces that sometimes happen in the romance field.

Finally, and most importantly, Spike or Angel? And why?

Spike. SpikeSpikeSpike! I’m just a fool for James Marsters. The voice. The eyebrows. The moral ambiguity. The first time I saw Spike-and-Drusilla I about fainted, the chemistry was so cool. And I love how Spike was always ambiguous; I was never sure what he was going to do next. Lynxlike inscrutability, he could grin easily or go to tear your throat out.

I must admit I didn’t watch much beyond the second season of Buffy, but if I was flipping channels and came across Spike, I stayed put. Yum.

Thanks Lili! I can’t wait till DEAD MAN RISING is out!

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Lilith Saintcrow was born in New Mexico, lived in Britain, Wyoming, and most currently Washington state, where she currently resides with two kids, three cats, one husband, and assorted other strays.

Check out Lilith’s website at www.lilithsaintcrow.com. Buy WORKING FOR THE DEVIL.