Erin Quinn interview + giveaway

When we were at RomCon this year we meet another new to us author Erin Quinn. We had a blast getting to know her over the course of the week-end. We even discovered that we had brought a copy of her book with us to give away. Melanie decided to pick it up and read it and then proceeded to make everyone we met read a paragraph on page 4.

Erin has lots of goodness coming out this month and next month and we wanted her to come on so that you guys can get to know her and her very amazing books. The first book in her Mists of Ireland Haunting Beauty was re-released this month, and the fourth book Haunting Embrace comes out on Oct 4^th. She also re-released her book Echoes this month.

EQ:  Heather and Melanie, I met so many fabulous people over that weekend, but you two were the absolute frosting on the cake of the conference.  I love (love, love, LOVE) meeting readers (and not just of my books, lol) and talking about what’s good and what’s not and you both are “in the know.”

Anyway, thank you for inviting me to come be a guest on your blog!

But of course we would invite you on, we love you 🙂 

TBRG: Who has been the biggest influence on your writing?

EQ:  You’ll laugh, but here it is:  EB White and Stephen King.  I learned from both of them that a story can be about anything.  (A pig and a spider…  A rabid dog…).  EB taught me that emotion is the heart of any good tale.  Stephen King—well, I personally think he’s one of the most brilliant writers to ever breathe.  If you look at the diverse tales he’s penned (The Shawshank Redemption, The Stand, The Green Mile, Salem’s Lot and on and on and on).  His characterizations are legend, IMHO.

TBRG: What is the one thing your readers would be the most surprised to know about you?

EQ:  I’ve sat in the gas chamber at Florence Penitentiary and lived to tell about.  J

TBRG: What was the first romance book that you read?

EQ:   Oh hell, I can’t remember!  I can tell you that I became addicted to Harlequin Presents at a young age, devoured every one of them in the library and then ordered them by subscription when they didn’t come fast enough.  Anne Mather was my favorite because once—(and remember this was a LONG time ago—so long, that I’m not going to tell you how long, ha ha)—her hero used tongue when he kissed the heroine and it was the first time I’d ever read such a thing.  Since I hadn’t, myself, been kissed with or without tongue, I was quite titillated by it.

TBRG: Who are some of your go to authors, and what are you reading right now?

EQ:  Right now, I’m reading my friend Sylvia Day’s Seven Years to Sin.  Love Sylvia and her books.  I can’t tell you who my go-to authors are because the list is so long that it boggles the mind.  I was recently scanning my Kindle account and I read an average of 8 books a month—that’s on top of a full time job, a writing career, husband, kids and school (yes, I’m in school, still slogging through for that piece of paper that says I’m as smart as I think I am.)

TBRG: If you weren’t writing and keeping us in books (thanks for that by the way), what would you be doing?

EQ:  I honestly can’t answer that question.  I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a kid.

TBRG: What is your guilty pleasure?

EQ:  Reading in the bathtub.  My kids call it marinating because I’m in there so long.

TBRG: Who is on your playlist when you are writing?

EQ:  I don’t listen to music while I write—it distracts me.  I tell myself my story as I write it, so I’m talking out loud during the process.  However, my latest’s favs:  Save Me San Francisco (Train), Mockingbird (Rob Thomas), Edge of Glory (Lady Gaga) and Remind Me (Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood)

TBRG: Where do your ideas/characters come from?

EQ: Outerspace.  There’s no other possible explanation

TBRG: Are you a planner or a fly by the seat author?

EQ:  Total pantser.  I wish I was a plotter.

TBRG: How did you come up with Mists of Ireland Series?

EQ:  I really don’t even know where to begin on that one.  When I’m writing, I sometimes feel like there’s a direct link from my creativity to my fingertips and I’m channeling something outside myself.  It’s when my brain gets involved that the writing is difficult, ha ha.

TBRG: Tell us about the series?

EQ:  The Mists of Ireland series takes readers to Ireland to meet the families MacGrath and Ballagh.  For centuries these two families have been entwined in love, jealousy and the mysticism surrounding an ancient tome called the Book of Fennore.  Surrounded by lore and superstition, this ancient Book wreaks havoc on humanity—but when it falls into the hands of the MacGraths and Ballaghs, it ignites powers within them that make them its most formidable enemy.

TBRG: okay I have to put this in here, aren’t these cover absolutely gorgeous.

TBRG: Tell us about the Haunting Beauty and Haunting Embrace?

EQ: Haunting Beauty is the first book in the series and Haunting Embrace is the last.  In Haunting Beauty, readers’ meet Danni Jones, who doesn’t believe in destiny until the seductive Sean Ballagh shows up at her door and the two travel through time back to Ireland, to a moment in her own past when her life was destroyed, giving her the chance to change everything and rewrite history.

Each book was written to stand alone and if you haven’t read the others, you should be able to jump in anywhere.  (I think you started with the third book Melanie).  That said, in Haunting Embrace, readers’ discover the answers to questions posed throughout the series.  Meaghan Ballagh meets Áedán Brady in the world of Fennore and together they time travel to small town where Meaghan grew up, in the era of her grandparents.  What she doesn’t know is that within her surges the blood of a sorceress whose ancient love for a druid ended in treachery—a druid who just happens to be Áedán.  To survive, she must piece together the history of the woman who haunts her and the man who needs her—while not destroying her own future and his.

TBRG: What do you want us to know about Danni and Sean and Meaghan and Áedán?

EQ: When I finished Haunting Beauty, I thought I’d wrecked myself for any other man.  I loved Sean so much that I had a hard time moving on.  And then I started the second book, Haunting Warrior and OMG—Rory became the man of my dreams….until I started Haunting Desire and then it was Tiarnan who I’d tortured to no end in Haunting Warrior.  When I got to Áedán, I wasn’t sure how he could compete with the others but I sooo underestimated him.  I finished Haunting Embrace months ago, and I’m still thinking of Áedán, of the hard road he had to traverse, of the wonderful hero he became.  As for Danni and Meaghan (and Saraid and Shealy)—I had to write the perfect women for all of these men—women who had inner strength and fortitude, but who also had vulnerability and a capacity for love and forgiveness.

TBRG: What are you working on now?

EQ: I’m working on something totally new that I’m very excited about—but it’s too soon for me to talk about it.  I haven’t yet proposed it to my publisher and I’m still in that gooey stage where all the ideas are in my head and slowly coming together on paper.  BUT I also have a novella coming out with wonderful authors Calista Fox and Mary Leo next month.  It’s called Touch of Twilight and will be released in the next few weeks!  Hope you’ll look for it!

 ***Thanks again for having me as guest!  I’d love to give away a copy of Haunting Warrior to one lucky commenter, so talk to me! Contest rules apply, you need to leave a comment here, follow us and Erin on twitter and FB. If you don’t have a twitter or FB account that is okay you can still follow Erin on her blog. ***

 

Erin Quinn (also known as Erin Grady) is an award winning author. Writing as Quinn, her titles include the Berkley Mists of Irelandseries HAUNTING BEAUTY, HAUNTING WARRIOR, HAUNTING DESIRE and HAUNTING EMBRACE (Oct 2011.). Writing as Erin Grady, she has three stand alone titles, also by Berkley, the most recent of which are WHISPERS and ECHOES. Her books have been called “riveting,” “brilliantly plotted” and “beautifully written” and have won, placed or showed in the WILLA Award for Historical fiction, the Orange Rose, Golden Quill, Best Books, Book Buyers Best, Booksellers Best, Award of Excellence, and Readers Crown.

You can find Erin around the web at the following places

her blog Quinn Essentials

her website Erin Quinn

on twitter ErinQuinnAuthor 

and on facebook