Interview with paranormal author Wendy Hales

Today we have debut novelist Wendy S. Hales. She's enjoying her view of the Rocky Mountains while talking about her novel Immortal Becoming. Let's listen in.

Welcome to Reviews and Interviews, Wendy. Please tell us a bit about yourself:

During my hectic life of working and raising children the call of a story in my mind was not always welcome. The niggling character or plot that refused to leave my thoughts until I would sit down a write something … a synopsis, character profile, anything to relieve the creative pressure. With my children grown, and my husband's loving support I dove head first into the depths of my passion and lifelong dream … writing. It was like a floodgate opened in my soul.

I look out at the Rocky Mountains from my window in Utah. I have been blessed with an amazing family and wonderful friends. My husband and I own a small local coffee shop. I enjoy boating golfing, reading, and spending time with my family. 

Please tell us about your debut release.

Immortal Becoming creates a world where there are three other species living in their own communities amongst humanity. One of the species is called Volaticus. The story focuses on the first bloodmating between a full Volaticus Elven named Shane and an Elven/human (Hulven) named Jess. The two sync right from the start … with one huge caveat. Jess has no clue what she is.

What inspired you to write this book?

I’ve written short stories about each of the species over the years. Bringing them together into a novel structure felt like destiny. I had to write this story … and share it. I could no more shut the characters up as stop breathing. They were insistent! I figured writing would be way cheaper than anti-psychotic medications.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Shadow Revealed, The Enlightened Species Book Two is to be release the first week in April. I originally had planned to put it out in May, but the readers of Immortal Becoming want it now.

Shadow Revealed delves deeper into the dark entities of the Elven. The worst of their kind are Morsdente (Killers of other enlightened species). The heroine Umbrae is rescued from a Morsdente after being a blood-slave for over seven decades. She trains as an assassin for five years before she gets to seek her revenge … except she finds Enlil, her bloodmate and a male who has his own reasons for vengeance.

Shadow Revealed has all the fun characters from Immortal Becoming and introduces many more.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I love to write! I guess I've always been a writer no matter what else I did. The craft of writing is relatively new to me. Until a few years ago I just poured whatever I had in my head out onto paper. By never concerning myself with style, voice, structure, I believe it made writing easier for me. Kind of like being eighteen—you know everything—at forty you don’t know shit. I'm a storyteller on a lifelong journey to become a writer.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like?  If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

When I started Immortal Becoming I worked about seventy hours a week. Trust me you can do both if your heart is in it. Now I write full time … I’m poor but happy.

My day consists of loading my system with coffee. I like to be up by 6AM since I get my best writing on new stories done before noon. Then I usually work on details, edits, & the nightmare revisions of the books I’ve finished and am preparing for publication. I social network a little and I try to read something for at least an hour a day. (Usually craft books, manuscripts for my critique partners, blogs, anything fiction, etc.)

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

When I’m deep in a scene, I take on the mood of the character. I call it situational Multiple Personality Disorder.  I also like to write with my eyes closed, which makes my spellchecker go nuts. When I finally open my eyes the words have more red lines than my grandmother has varicose veins.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

My mom tells me I wanted grow up to be a Fire Truck when I was three. Really, I wanted to be a mom. I had my kids young and I always worked, but my life revolved around them. Now they are grown and off on their own lives I can give everything to writing.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

We all wear a million hats, Mom hat, wife hat, work hat, girl’s night out hat, friend hat, and so on. Find your creative hat. Or better yet make it the perfect purse that goes with any hat! Also, don’t take yourself so seriously; going even a single day without having a dumb-ass moment that makes you laugh at yourself is boring. Put yourself out there.

Also, Immortal Becoming is out on paperback and available through my website.

Excerpt from Immortal Becoming:

She reached up and lightly touched his dentes. There was no way she could have known they were an erogenous zone to the Elven. He gave an involuntary, swift intake of breath as her gentle touch generated a tremor that raced through his body.

“Do they hurt?” She withdrew her hand, concern in her voice. Unable to speak, Shane could only give her a slight shake of his head in response. Again she bit her bottom lip, a habit of hers he found endearing. He would give anything to bite her lip for her, if she’d let him. She reached out her hand to his dentes a second time, and he could feel them stretch for her in return. Shane pulled his mouth back from her, running his tongue over the surface of them.

“Careful.” He cautioned her telepathically. She swallowed hard but nodded. He leaned his head down slightly and opened his jaw wide to give her access.

She lightly touched the points. “They feel the same as regular teeth to my fingers.” Her expression was full of wonder. Whatever fear he’d seen from her earlier was gone. “They move! I saw a program one time that showed how a snake could pull its prey into it’s body by the fangs. They kind of move like that.”

“The dentes muscles are very developed. They control the ability to erupt and retract. We can also lock our jaws.” Like the rest of his body, he could feel the sanguindente muscles trembling with the strain of control he was exercising. When her eyes met his, she must have realized that her effect on him was both agony and ecstasy. She must have felt empowered to know that he was not unaffected by her after all.

Jess leaned until her lips were centimeters from Shane’s. “Can I touch them with my tongue?” The warmth of her breath mingled with his.

He hesitated, his heart already pounding adrenaline into him, stuttered, his mouth watering. His Adam’s apple bounced up and down the way the rest of him wanted to at her proposal. She didn’t wait for his answer. The tip of her tiny pink tongue slipped out to gingerly touch the surface of his dente. Shane groaned loudly, his eyes falling closed, enduring a few of her tentative licks before she withdrew her tongue from him and smiled.

“They aren’t hard like teeth … or soft, either. More like cartilage. Really sharp cartilage.” Shane was still swimming in a sea of oral sensation. “What are they called?”

“Sanguindentes. It means ‘blood teeth.’ Or simply dentes.” He could hear the strain in his voice, even telepathically. The female was pushing his limits of control. “We require very little human blood to survive. When we are active, a pint will last us several days. We may require more if we are injured or use excessive amounts of energy. Even then, we never require enough to drain a human. Most now days obtain our sustenance from bagged blood, donated by humans. We use what is considered tainted, or drink what remains after the platelets humans need are removed.”

Thanks for dropping by today, Wendy.