Today, I am pleased to share my blog with Shawna Reppert, the other Shawna at Carina Press. ; ) Shawna graciously agreed to an interview. Without further ado, here she is.
You’ve been quite successful with your short stories. What
made you decide to pursue publication with Carina? ~ I had been shopping
The Stolen Luck to fantasy publishers for a while, and getting the same sort of
response. ‘We love your characters, we
love your writing, great plot, but we have no idea how to market it. A writer friend of mine told me about Carina
and how they publish (among other things) male/male fantasy romance (at the
time I didn’t even know that was a genre!) I sent it off to them, they loved
it, and they knew how to market it.
Working with them has been a fabulous experience.
You have an interesting background taking care of less than
average animals. Tell us about an interesting experience. ~ One of
the great privileges of owning a high-percentage wolf hybrid was watching the
whole wolf-pack dynamic work. They are
such great negotiators and problem-solvers!
I was visiting a friend who also had a hybrid, and since it was summer,
we left the door open so the wolves could wander in and out. Seamus (my wolf) and Loiosh (hers) were out
playing in the fenced yard while we were in the living room talking. Loiosh came in first, and since I was sitting
on his spot on the couch, he came and sat on me. Which was fine, not the first time I had a
lap full of wolf.
Seamus came in later,
and looked at me and at Loiosh. Now,
Loiosh was dominant to Seamus, so Seamus wouldn’t challenge him directly, even
though Loiosh had *his* mommy. I could
practically see the gears turning in his head.
Seamus went over and put his head in my friend’s lap. Well, Loiosh couldn’t have that, so he went
over to displace Seamus. Who gracefully
yielded, and came over to sit across my lap.
Which is what he wanted all along.
It’s also fascinating
to observe wolves. . .any canine, really.
Their sense of smell and their hearing is so much keener than our own
that they are almost experiencing a completely different world, something I try
to showcase when I have a werewolf character in wolf form.
It would be wonderful to experience that kind of intelligence in action. I was in love with Lipizzan stallions when I was younger.
Tell us about yours. ~ Oh, my. Do you have a few years? (OK, I’ll try to keep it brief.) I’ve had Pluto III Canada (barn name
Celeborn, AKA His Lordship, AKA The Bright Center of the Universe) since he was
a baby. I bought him as a young foal. He’s
great to have around. . .such a huge personality, and so full of himself. And
he is a great ambassador for the breed.
He is so gentle that, when I took him to horse expos, I was able to let
little kids into his stall to pet him.
We used to show, but
neither of us found it as much fun as I had anticipated, and when the economy
tanked and the bottom dropped out of the rare breeds market, it was no longer
economically practical to promote him as a breeding stallion. (Though he is still available for breeding.) Meanwhile,
we sometimes play at warhorses with the Society for Creative Anachonism, which
he thinks is great fun. And when I was
injured in a car accident last year, and was so stiff and sore that I could
barely climb on, he was so incredibly careful and considerate of me, and way
more generous and forgiving than he usually is under saddle, because he knew I
was hurt and he had to take care of me.
If any horse geeks
among the readership want to drool over his stats, pics, video, etc., his website is www.EvenstarLipizzans.com
I love the names of your animals! Is your background Celtic? ~ By blood, not a drop. But the
Irish are great at adopting people. Hang
around the ceilis (dance socials, parties) often enough, and you’re one of
them. One of the musicians said that,
since Celts originated in Germany, and I’m almost half German by ancestry (via
Pennsylvania Dutch), that makes me kind of a Celt. Personally, I think that might have been
stretching it.
Seriously, I have
always been drawn to Celtic history, music and culture. At the risk of sounding a little flaky, I
think it’s a past-life thing.
And it is an odd
coincidence that my parents gave me an Irish first name when there’s no Irish
in the family. Actually, my eldest two
siblings named me. I think my eldest
brother had dated a girl with the name; anyway, he liked it. And my eldest sister jumped on the bandwagon
and decided that would be my
name. I was the youngest of seven, so my
parents were out of names and just sort of went with it.
The youngest of seven? I'll have to pick your brain later. I have seven children too. At times, it's tough balancing them all. Do you have a favorite character? ~ Isn’t
that kind of like asking a mother who
her favorite child is?
I honestly thought that when I wrote it. So yes, I'd say that's an unfair questions. ; ) ~ I’d say my
favorite character is usually the one I’m writing at the time, though members
of my writing group have accused me of being in love with Raven from
Ravensblood. I do have a thing for tall, dark and handsome,
keen intelligence and dry humor. (Is
it wrong to be in love with your own protagonist?)
No, it's not. In fact I'd say it's a requirement if you want the readers to fall in love with him. What’s your guilty pleasure? ~ I don’t believe in feeling guilty
about pleasure. But one of the
less-productive things I do when I’ve had a bad day is re-watch Doctor Who
episodes, either new or classic. If I
really want to spoil myself, I will have a pop-tart while watching Doctor Who,
as this was my Saturday treat when Doctor Who was on PBS when I was a kid.
Sound doctrine! : ) What’s your ideal day like? ~ Sleep in, write some, ride some,
dance or listen to music (or both) in the evening with some good whiskey and
good friends.
I know you’re a fan of Irish music. Does music influence
your writing? ~ Oh, yes. Sometimes directly— I
put out a collection of three flash
(short-short) stories thematically connected by the power of music. The collection is called The Three Tunes, a well-known ceili (Irish social) dance, so named because it is
danced to a set of three traditional tunes.
My short story ‘We Don’t Serve
Your Kind’ has a taste of Irish pub culture, and a bit of music as well. Music makes at least a cameo appearance in
most of my work, as in the bar scene that opens Ravensblood, and my current work-in-progress has a harpist
protagonist and bardic magic is central to the plot. And the protagonist to my short story The Beast Within (also a main character
in the werewolf steampunk/Victorian detective novel I’m shopping) got his
surname from a dance we were learning in class the night before I sat down to
write it. (I have a hard time coming up with names sometimes)
I think the music
also influences my writing on a deeper, less
explicable level. Since I’ve been
spending more time going out to music, I’ve had more and more people describe
my writing as ‘lyrical’. And there’s
been many times that I’ve gone into dance class totally stumped as to the
direction I wanted a story to go in, and by the time I was driving home from
class it was all clear.
What if anything surprised you when you were writing The
Stolen Luck? ~ I actually had no intention of it being any kind of a romance. I was interested in the central question of
how far even a good person will compromise his morals and values to protect the
people and land he loves. The romantic attraction between the two characters
came about from the classic question writers must ask themselves: how can I make this situation even more
difficult for my protagonist, but the more I delved into the characters, the
more the attraction between them felt inevitable. Now, of course, I can’t imagine the book
without it.
And now for an unrelated question. In your opinion, in a battle between a lycan and a vampire, who wins and why? ~ It all depends on how the writer writes the lycan, and how they write the vampire. As long as it’s internally consistent to the story (and as long as the vampires don’t sparkle) it’s all good. I myself have written two different versions of werewolves for two different universes. I have one vampire story on a back-burner, actually a novelization of a rather cryptic nineteenth-century ballad. But if my vampire and my werewolves met (necessarily through the intervention of a TARDIS), they would be on the same side, so the point would be moot.
Cover blurb for The
Stolen Luck:
How far will a good man go to save his home and loved ones?
Lord James Dupree must recover his family’s stolen Luck, the elven talisman
that has protected the Dupree lands for generations. Without the talisman, the
Dupree vineyards are failing and creditors are closing in. The Luck is his only
hope of saving his home and his family from poverty and ruin.
Despite his abhorrence of slavery, James wins an elven slave in a game of
cards. The slave, Loren, provides the only chance to enter the Lands Between
and recover the stolen Luck. Despite James’s assurances and best inten- tions,
Loren does not trust his new master and James finds it all too easy to slip into
the role of slave master when Loren defies him.
As the two work together through hardship and danger, James finds himself
falling in love with Loren. And when a hidden enemy moves against them, he must
choose between his responsibility to his family and his own soul.
Cover blurb for
Ravensblood:
In a life of impossible choices when sometimes death magic is the lesser of
the evils, can a dark mage save the world and his own soul?
Corwyn Ravenscroft. Raven. The last heir of an ancient family of
dark mages, he holds the secret to recreating the Ravensblood, a legendary
magical artifact of immense power.
Cassandra Greensdowne is a Guardian. Magical law enforcement for the
elected council— and Raven’s former apprentice and lover. She is trying
to live down her past. And then her past comes to the door, asking for
her help.
As a youth, Raven wanted to be a Guardian but was rejected because of his
ancestry. In his pride and his anger, he had turned to William, the darkest and
most powerful mage of their time. William wants a return to the old ways, where
the most powerful mage was ruler absolute. But William would not be a True King
from the fairy tales. He would reign in blood and terror and darkest magic.
Raven discovers that he does have a conscience. It’s rather inconvenient.
He becomes a spy for the council that William wants to overthrow, with
Cassandra as his contact.
Cass and Raven have a plan to trap William outside his warded sanctuary. But
William is one step ahead of the game, with Raven’s life, his soul, and the
Ravensblood all in danger.
Author bio:
From earliest childhood, Shawna Reppert has had a passion for stories– for
reading them and for writing them. She obtained a BA in English with a Writing
Option from Penn State University and has participated in numerous writing
workshops and seminars given by the likes of Charles de Lint, David Farland and
Elizabeth Lyon. Two of her stories have won honorable mentions from Writers of
the Future. Previous short stories sold to 10 Flash Quarterly and to Everyday
Fiction. Several ‘indie’ short stories are available for sale at Amazon, and
her story ‘The Beast Within’ appears in the steampunk anthology Gears and
Levers 2 edited by Phyllis Irene Radford. Her first novel came out as a Carina
Press e-book in May 2013 and is also available in Audible format. It won a silver medal in the Global E Books
Awards and is currently a finalist for an Eppie.
In college, Shawna volunteered at a raptor rehabilitation center, which
became valuable background for her short story The Sword and the Kestrel.
Shawna has always had an affinity for wolves, and used to keep a wolf-dog
hybrid as a pet, giving her first-hand experience to put the wolf in her
werewolves. Her current four-footed children are a Lipizzan stallion and an
orange-and-black cat named Samhain. She enjoys Irish social dancing and is an
ardent supporter of live Irish music. Shawna also likes to play with the
Society for Creative Anachronism and can sometimes be found in medieval garb on
a caparisoned horse, throwing javelins into innocent hay bales that never did
anything to her.
A Pennsylvania native, she currently lives in the beautiful wine county of
Oregon.
Where can readers find out more about you?
Contact email:
mail@shawnareppert.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/shawna.reppert
Tumblr:
http://www.tumblr.com/blog/shawnareppert
Pinterst:
http://pinterest.com/shawnareppert/
Amazon author page
http://www.amazon.com/Shawna-Reppert/e/B00957U8KG/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/shawnareppert
Website:
Most of us have seen the coffee cup and magnets that warn
people to be careful or they might end up in a writer’s novel. I know I’ve been
asked several times if my characters are based on any “real” person. Until now
I’ve always said no. But in Journey of Wisdom, I decided to immortalize someone
very dear to me. 
Shadow touched my family with his loyalty and love. I
thought it a fitting tribute to let him stand by Mohan’s side and do the same.
