Interview with urban fantasy/paranormal thriller author R.L. King

Today's guest, R.L. King, is here to chat about her Alastair Stone Chronicles Series (Book 1: Stone and a Hard Place, and Book 2: The Forgotten).

During her virtual book tour, R.L. will be awarding a $40 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:

R. L. King is an award-winning author and game freelancer for Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of the popular roleplaying game Shadowrun. She has contributed fiction and game material to numerous sourcebooks, as well as one full-length adventure, "On the Run," included as part of the 2012 Origins-Award-winning "Runners' Toolkit."

Her first novel in the Shadowrun universe, Borrowed Time, was published in May 2015.

When not doing her best to make life difficult for her characters, King is a software technical writer for a large Silicon Valley database company. In her spare time (hah!) she enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and her small herd of cats, watching way too much Doctor Who, and attending conventions when she can. She is an Active member of the Horror Writers' Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.

Welcome, R.L. Please tell us about your current release.
My current release is The Forgotten, Book 2 of my urban fantasy series. Dr. Alastair Stone, British mage who moonlights as an Occult Studies professor at Stanford, meets a young man who’s looking for his missing sister, and together the two of them discover a conspiracy involving a malevolent supernatural enemy that has managed to infiltrate the world for several years while almost no one has caught on to its existence. The Forgotten is the first book of a trilogy-within-a-series, though each book is a fully self-contained story.

What inspired you to write this book?

Oddly, despite the fact that this is Book 2 in my series, the original version of it was the first one I wrote, several years ago. It was inspired in part by a Chuck Palahniuk short story about rich people who played a game where they pretended to be homeless to get away from their boring rich-people lives. The concept of homeless people who were more than they seemed intrigued me. Since I was looking for ideas for a book featuring Dr. Stone, I thought this one would work out well, and it did.


Excerpt from Stone and a Hard Place:
“Dr. Stone?”

The voice was trembling, female, and sounded terrified. It took him a moment to identify it. He stared as Megan stirred again, draping her arm back over him. “Mrs.—Bonham?”

Whoever was on the other end sounded like they were on the verge of hysteria. “Dr. Stone, is that you?”

“It’s me, Mrs. Bonham. What’s wrong? Is something wrong?” He sat up a little, propping himself up on his pillows. Megan’s arm slid down over his stomach, but he didn’t even notice that she was there.

“Something’s here,” she quavered. “Something’s…happening.”

He was fully awake now. Carefully, he moved Megan’s arm and sat on the edge of the bed. “Calm down, Mrs. Bonham, please. I’ll help you if I can, but you have to tell me what’s happening.”

“I don’t know,” she sobbed. “It’s like the whole house hates me. Noises—cold winds—things slamming—”

“Is Iona there? Can you put her on for a moment?”

There was a shuffling sound and then a different voice spoke, sounding almost as frightened as Adelaide Bonham had. “Dr. Stone? This is Iona.”

He took a deep breath. “Iona. What’s going on? Is Mrs. Bonham—”

“She’s not imagining things, Dr. Stone,” the woman said. In addition to sounding frightened, she sounded like she couldn’t believe what was going on. “I can hear them too. The noises. The feelings. It’s horrible, Dr. Stone. Something’s going on.”

What exciting story are you working on next?
The next book in the series is called The Threshold, and it continues the story begun in The Forgotten. Actually, the next three books in the series (for a total of five) are already finished and in various stages of editing. The project I’m working on now is another Stone Chronicles novel called Flesh and Stone, which sort of serves as Dr. Stone’s “origin story” and explains the circumstances under which he decided to relocate from England to the Bay Area.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I think I’ve considered myself something of a writer since I was a kid. I’ve always been pretty good at writing, and it was always a compulsion—I had to tell stories, or they’d bounce around in my head and drive me crazy. I began to consider myself a “real” writer when I finished my first novel. Even though it was fan fiction and I posted it on my website for free, it was still a solid, 130,000-word effort and people told me they enjoyed it.

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?

I don’t write full time—though I wish I could! Maybe some day if my series takes off and generates a good income, I might consider it, but since my day job is a technical writer for a large database company and I live in the Silicon Valley where prices are fairly insane, it wouldn’t be practical to quit. I fit my fiction writing and freelance work around my day job and spending time with my spouse and my cats, which usually means I write during lunch hours, after work, evenings, and weekends. When I’m actively working on a novel I write whenever I can, but then I have to take time off afterward to “recharge” before I can do it again. Fortunately my job allows me to telecommute, which saves me a lot of time.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I have a really hard time writing on laptops, or in less than optimum conditions. I’ve never understood (though always envied!) how people could take their laptop down to the local Starbucks and spend the day typing away surrounded by people, or write while sitting in an airplane. I pretty much have to be alone when I’m writing, or I get distracted. The exceptions are that it’s okay for my spouse to be somewhere nearby as long as he’s busy with his own stuff, and I like it when one of my cats curls up on or near me. But no other people!

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

My mother used to tell me that when I was a very small child, I wanted to be an undertaker! I don’t remember that, but it sounds about right—I was a weird little kid. When I was somewhat older, I wanted to be a cartoonist, but that didn’t work out because I write a lot better than I draw.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I love hearing from readers! You can reach me on Twitter at @Dragonwriter11, or in email at rat@magespacepress.com. And a huge thank-you to every reader who bought one of my books, and to Lisa for letting me blather on her blog!

Links:

Website | Publisher Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Author Page

Buy link for Stone and a Hard Place (Book 1)

Buy link for The Forgotten (Book 2) 

Thanks, R.L.

a Rafflecopter giveaway