Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Welcome Dana Davis

Welcome to Urban Stars, Dana. Please start by telling us about yourself and how you became a writer.

First of all, thanks so much for having me at Urban Stars. I think I was always a writer at heart. As a small child, I would make up stories and act them out. As I got a little older, I began working in the entertainment industry, and eventually wrote and adapted several plays for children. Writing wasn’t my focus until I left Hollywood and decided to take it on full time. This meant switching from script formats to regular stories.

I wanted to immerse myself in prose, so I went back to school and had the great fortune to take classes with Nebula-award winning author Sheila Finch and award-winning author Suzanne Greenberg. I learned a lot from these two. After graduation, I began writing full-time and got a few short stories and articles published. It took about eight years before my first book was published.

 

Wow, that’s awesome that you got to hang out with Sheila Finch and Suzanne Greenberg. Tell us, what genres do you normally write?

Fantasy, urban/paranormal fantasy, science fiction, and horror. I’m a geek and a nerd, weaned on Star Trek, Bewitched, and Twilight Zone reruns. My first books included Grimm’s fairytales. Not the watered down type you sometimes find today but the original, scary, and sometimes gory, ones. In fact, to show you just how much of a geek I am, my first date with hubby was a Star Trek movie. When writing, I sometimes enjoy melding different genres together. Some of my works, like the Desert Magick urban fantasy series, have a bit of mystery and suspense mixed in.

 

What genres do enjoy reading?

I enjoy reading the in same genres that I write. I read paperbacks and eBooks and have a lot of electronic books on my Nook, my phone, and my computer. Which is a good thing, because we’ve run out of bookshelf space for paperbacks.

 

 

I’ve run out of book space too and have turned to the help of my Kindle. Tell us about your featured book, Day of the Dead, and what inspired you to write it.

Day of the Dead is the 3^rd book in the Desert Magick series and my 9^th book in publication at this time. I’m currently under contract with SynergEbooks Publishing for 5 books in this series. I’ve heard paranormal stories about my family for as long as I can remember and have had my own personal experiences, so I’m interested in just about anything paranormal and fantastical, from ghosts to magic to fairies.

Though I love reading books about vampires and werewolves, I wanted to focus more on the ethereal. In Desert Magick, readers will find witches, psychics, mediums and ghosts weaved in with Celtic, Greek, and Native mythologies and creatures. All of this takes place in the Phoenix, Arizona area, where I currently live. There are so many Native myths and sacred places here, that I never run out of places to take my characters.

 

Blurb for Day of the Dead:

After struggling with ghostly visits and several paranormal nasties the past few months, Daisy Hammel-Kavanaugh wants nothing more than a normal life with her husband, Noah. But the Day of the Dead is more than just a holiday for this Arizona witch. Disturbing things are going on in the afterlife and Daisy is the focus.

As she helps her cousin hunt for a mysterious person who can control the dead, Bridgette grapples with guilt over a secret that’s haunted her for twenty-two years. A secret that could be related to Daisy’s current problem. But Daisy has a secret of her own. One that just might send her to an early grave.

 

 

 

What do you love most about reading/writing Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance?

When I write, I get to pull from my interests in the paranormal and fairytales. I love the idea of having a magical world alongside the mundane, human one we live in day to day. I think this harkens back to our ancestors’ beliefs. Once upon a time, magical beings were very much believed in and people practiced magic in their everyday lives. Who knows – my Celtic, Nordic, and Native American DNA might have something to do with my fascination. I spent hours as a young kid hunting for a leprechaun in the bushes outside my great-grandmother’s home, because she told me he lived there. I never found him, of course, but I had a great time looking.

And as a writer, I like to challenge myself. After reading several urban fantasy novels, I thought it would be great fun to try my hand at it. It seemed a natural transition after writing straight fantasy for several years. I’m also a member of a paranormal investigative team, and my great-great aunt was a medium back in the early 1900s, when the occult was big. So, I’ve got a lot of stories.

 

Tell us about what you’re working on now or what is in store for the future.

Well, I’m having a blast incorporating some of my real-world experiences into my books. So much so, that I’ve got another urban fantasy series planned once I finish with Desert Magick. I’m also editing a science fiction novel and a fantasy novel for future publication. My computer is filled with notes on future books I plan to write. And I’ve got characters popping into my head at all hours, telling me to get on with it. Yes, I’m a bit nuts, but my head would explode if I didn’t write.

 

Thank you so much for being a part of Urban Stars, Dana.

Thank you for having me. I’ve had a great time!

 

Learn more about Dana Davis and her Desert Magic Series at Dana’s Website.

 

***GIVEAWAY!! ***GIVEAWAY!! ***GIVEAWAY!! ***

Dana is giving away one free PDF copy of Desert Magic!!!  To enter, please leave a comment for Dana with your name and email address! The winner will be announced Friday 26th.