Q&A with Nancy Gideon--and Win Seeker of Shadows

First, a reminder that the giveaway for the new Kindle continues at my sister site HERE. The ebook of Susannah Sandlin's Redemption is only $3.99 at Amazon right now, and a preorder will get you twelve extra entries in the Kindle giveaway. See details at Susannah's site.

I’m thrilled to welcome author Nancy Gideon to the blog today! She’s been gracious enough to subject herself to the Preternatura interview and talk about her new book, Seeker of Shadows, the sixth in her terrific Moonlight paranormal romance series from Pocket Books. (You know we love New Orleans paranormals!) You can also learn more about Nancy and her books by checking out her website.

ABOUT SEEKER OF SHADOWS: Susanna Duchamps risks discovery in New Orleans to settle a debt and to temporarily escape the controlled constraints of her place among the Chosen. What she, seeker of shadows, finds is an opportunity to make miraculous strides with her research into Shifter genetics . . . and an unexpected, though never forgotten, link to her complicated past.

            Shifter club owner, Jacques LaRoche is fiercely protective of his freedom. Stripped of his memories of a former life, he longs for the mate now lost to him . . . until the enticingly familiar presence of a mysterious stranger from the north ignites a primal, nearly uncontrollable need to release the untamed beast inside him.

            Susanna dares not tell Jacques that she was the one who sacrificed his past and her future years ago to protect him and the secret she carried. But her arrival in New Orleans comes with consequences. When a bloody confrontation erupts between their enemy clans, will she betray her lover once again or throw her own life on the line so they can finish what they started?

Read on to meet Nancy and comment for a chance to win a copy of either Seeker of Shadows or, if this is a new series for you, the first book, Masked by Moonlight.

Welcome, Nancy! Give us the “elevator pitch” for Seeker of Shadows:

SEEKER OF SHADOWS, the expanded Twitter version:  A shape-shifter with no past, a geneticist with a dangerous secret, a choice between forbidden passion and the fate of a species.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

I’m an action/adventure junkie and there are a couple of awesome page turners, one in the hero’s Shifter club and the other in Lafayette #1 cemetery. Have your inhaler ready!

Hardest scene you’ve ever written:

Across the board, the first scene in any of my books is the hardest to write because that’s the reader’s first introduction to the tone of the book and author’s voice and you really want to grab them right away. Sometimes it’ll take me days to get it just right . . . then I’m off and running.

What’s on your nightstand or top of your TBR pile? 

I just started reading Catching Fire, the second in the Hunger Games series on my iPad Kindle app…and loving it! Then I’ve got the first and third books in author buddy Eileen Dreyer’s “Drake’s Rakes” excellent regency series I’m dying to get to.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Black Stallion. I was a huge Walter Farley fan.

Your five favorite authors: 

Dean Koontz, J.D. Robb, Lisa Gardner, Kresley Cole, Sandra Brown are my must reads.

Book you've faked reading:

Most of the classics force-fed in high school and college lit classes. Shame on me! I did go back and read most of them later, probably out of guilt.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Polar Express. Children’s books have the most fantastic art! For my own reading, cover doesn’t matter (unless I have to put a dust jacket over it!).

Book that changed your life:

The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss.  All of us were sneaking peeks at it on the bookrack in the department where I was working during college and I thought, “Wow!  This is what I want to do!”

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Stephen King’s The Stand is one of my all-time favorite books. I got his unabridged version in hardcover but have never gotten around to hefting it. Maybe someday while I’m recovering from knee replacement.

Most horrifying moment while reading a book:

When my first Dana Ransom historical The Pirate’s Captive came out I was proudly reading through it . . . and discovered the typesetter had left the “r” out of “shirt.” As far as horrifying-scary, King’s Salem’s Lot. I slept with the light on for weeks!

Favorite book about books or writing:

Rotten Reviews II by Bill Henderson (only because I don’t have Rotten Reviews the original.  If these famous authors can endure those slings and arrows, so can I. It takes thick skin . . . and a sense of humor!

What’s next?

SEEKER OF SHADOWS, the sixth book in my dark paranormal shape-shifter series for Pocket just hit the stands. Book seven, BETRAYED BY SHADOWS comes out as a Pocket Star e-exclusive on 12-18-12. I’m currently pathologically working on Book eight, PRINCE OF SHADOWS but don’t have a release date yet.  I also just got the rights back to about 20 of my Dana Ransom historicals and contemporaries from Zebra/Kensington and am trying to decide how best to get them back out to readers. So I’ll be busy for a while . . . except when the Bourne Legacy comes out in theaters! I brake for Jeremy Renner!

Thanks, Nancy! Want to win a copy of Seeker of Shadows (or the first in the series)? Leave a comment—tell us if a book ever made you sleep with the lights on (Salem’s Lot did it for me, too!), and you know the rest of the drill. One entry for comment, another for blog follow, a third for a Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and a fourth for a Tweet or Retweet. Now...Go forth and comment!