Randomize ME

Maggie for Hire = Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Janet Evanovich.

I ADORE Fantasy and I absolutely ADORE Urban Fantasy. Rachel Caine, Vicki Pettersson, Jim Butcher… their books are like candy to my inner four year old. I INHALE their stories and stalk their websites to find out when their next installment is going to come out.

But I found myself a little frustrated that every other book I was picking up was turning into a vampire/werewolf make-out fest. I was also really surprised that there didn’t seem to be many urban fantasy books with a humorous bent.

National Novel Writing Month was staring me dead in the eye and I had to come up with an idea quick if I was going to type 50,000 words in 30 days.

I firmly believe that you can’t get frustrated at other authors for not writing the book that you have in your head (you’d be surprised how many readers don’t feel this way) so I decided to put my money where my mouth was and write a funny urban fantasy book with some mean, ol’ vampires that nobody would want to kiss.

I really love this tiny little secondary character name Pipistrelle. He’s this brownie that runs around making life better for people. The character popped up out of nowhere as I was writing and he was filled with so much earnestness and pep, I couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

I do have a day job… I oversee the office of a large cultural organization. People ask me all the time how I fit in time to write.

When you don’t define your success by your day job, but by your creative expression, those stolen moments to write become the reason to get up every morning. Some people go to the gym, some people veg out in front of the TV, some people play video games. But for me, heading home and sitting down to craft a story is the way I blow off steam.

I have two projects that will be released this summer. Crossing fingers, I’ll be dropping Book Two in the Maggie MacKay Magical Tracker series on the world this Memorial weekend. It’s titled “Maggie Get Your Gun“.

In the next couple weeks, though, I will be releasing a short story about escaping the office at the end of the day called “5:00 Breakout“. It features zero monsters and no one dies, which has actually been a challenge to write. I have no idea what that says about me as a person.

Bukowski, Evanovich, Joss Whedon and Sam Rami… Those are the souls that tickle my fancy. “Maggie” is dark, but funny. If you’re looking for steam and smooching, Maggie is not your girl. I warn everyone that this series features a lot of cussing and brawling, so folks should proceed with caution.