I recently got an opportunity to ask some questions of Candace Havens, author of The Charmed series (Bronwyn the Witch), and The Demon King and I. I have been following her on her blog and on Facebook for awhile now and have found her to be funny, and very down to earth, as well as an amazing writer.  Be sure to check out her latest book coming out July 7th, Dragons Prefer Blondes. 

You can find more information about Candace and her books on Candacehavens.com.   

RM: When and why did you begin writing?

CH: I’ve been writing Non-fiction for about 21 years, and started in college. As for fiction it’s been about seven years now. A friend said she thought I should try writing a romance, and I did. The rest is history.

RM: What authors has influenced you most?

CH: As far as style I’d say Janet Evanovich, Laurell K. Hamilton and Nora Roberts.

RM: What books have most influenced your life?

CH: To Kill A Mockingbird, when I was a kid made me love reading. I also loved the Nancy Drew mysteries and we spent a lot of  time at the library and bookstores.  

RM: Will there be more books in the Charmed series?

CH: I’d love to do more at some point. I have tons more in my head. It’s up to the publisher. 

RM: Which character was most enjoyable to write?

CH: That’s like picking a favorite child, but I still love my first heroine Bronwyn the best. She will always be closest to my heart. 

RM: Do you base any characters on people you know? Or are any of them based on yourself?

CH: I base characters on my friends, family and even celebs that I meet. Bronwyn is probably the character closest to me. If only I could do magic. 

RM: What were your favorite books as a child?

CH: Definitely Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. 

RM: How long did it take you to write your latest book? (Dragons Prefer Blondes)

CH: Wow! You know what, I can’t remember. I usually do a rough draft in a few weeks, then it takes me a while, sometimes a couple of months to clean it up. I write fast and intense.

RM: When you write, do you edit as you work, or do you wait until the end and then polish?

CH: I’m a big believer in keeping the editor out of the creative process. Editing is something you do in revisions.

RM: How many drafts does an average novel of yours go through?

CH: On average about three, sometimes four.

RM: What do you find most challenging in writing your books?

CH: Hmmm. I think making sure that whatever is in my head is really on the page. Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to show me the way.

RM: I know the next book in your latest series is about Alex.  Are there any plans to write more about Gilly and Arath?  Will we get to see them in Dragons Prefer Blondes?

CH: You do see Gilly and Arath, who were the stars of The Demon King and I,  in Dragons. They are pivotal to the story at one point, and you learn a little more about their relationship.

RM: A lot of authors are now keeping and listing a playlist of songs they listen to while they write.  Do you keep a playlist that you always go back to? 

CH: I have a different soundtrack for each book, but if I’m stuck or in trouble, or just feel uneasy, I put Joss Stone’s Body and Soul on the iPod and I’m golden.

RM: What kind of music do you listen to when you write? 

CH: All different genres and styles.

RM: Do you have any advice for would-be writers?

After a teenagerhood of reading Stephen King religiously (and I still didn't get around to them all!) I stopped following his new releases at all a few years ago, without even noticing.  This depsite the fact that I much preferred his newer, mellower stuff to his drug-addled darkness and the shudders I got reading of some of his earlier, more gruesome, stuff.

 But a friend lent me <i>Duma Key</i>, his most recent book, which I hadn't even heard of, and since I had a couple of plane rides in my near future I thought such a doorstop-sized volume (you can always rely on Stephen King for that, perhaps what drew me to him in the first place because I was always reading myself out of reading material as a kid) would be just the thing.  And it was.

This book features some familiar Stephen-King elements: riffing on what art does to its artist by taking it to supernatural extremes -- when some of your paintings show you things from the future or the past or happening thousands of miles away, should you really be surprised when they prove to have more malevolent powers as well? -- and meditating on the effects of near-fatal injuries and accidents, all of which have crucial roles to play in the lives of the novel's three main characters, the residents of Duma Key, a little island off the Florida coast. 

But it's not just recycled story elements; King's writig style is as strong and as enjoyable as ever... admittedly many people will say as much as ever is nothing at all, but to his fans I'd hope that <i>Duma Key</i> is, as it was for me, not an earth-shattering book but a very pleasant way to spend the time.  Stephen King himself said once that if reading a novel's like having an affair then short stories are like brief kisses in the dark, and that some novels are so huge (either by weight or by their vast story arcs) that you end up feeilng like you're married to them.  I wasn't married to this one but it was a pretty long affair, a pretty good one. 

To be honest, this book's nothing earth-shattering -- if you like other Stephen King novels you'll probably like this one, and if you don't you probably won't try to start now.  But that's not this book's fault anyway, and I think iif you did want to start, you could do a lot worse than <i>Duma Key</i>, a book that is not offputtingly weird or gory and is perhaps as much about families recovering from loss and tragedy (as all families have to) than it is about the supernatural elements that contribute to it.

I found the characterizations and places vivid enough (of course it probably helped that some of it's set in Minnesota, where I'm from, and there was some delight in seeing mention of Lake Phalen or Torii Hunter and that kind of thing.  The parts about Floria are as alien to me as Minnesota is familiar but there too the descriptions of place seemed so vivid I wanted to go and stay in the main character's house... at least until it got malicious and spooky of course, as you know it will in a book with this particular author's name emblazoned on the cover. The time I spent reading it -- in seven time zones; it's a great airplane book, as long as it fits in your carryon luggage (my mom was unnerved by the sheer size of it and kept commenting on how it'd take her a year to read a book that big) -- left me feeling almost like I had been flying to Florida and spending my vacation in the world of this book, which is not as easy as it looks and more fun than it sounds like.

Book Blurb

My Take

Red Headed Step Child is one of those first time novels that I just love everything about.  I am impressed with how an author can create something so engaging, intriguing and un-put-downable (to make up a word) as this book.

Sabina Kane is half vampire, half mage,  and also an assassin for her Vampire family.  She was raised by her grandmother on the Vampire side of her heritage and taught that everything on her Father’s side, the Mage side, was bad, and wrong and to not give in or believe any of it… That anything to do with Magic was wrong and evil.

Her grandmother was not very loving or affectionate while Sabina was growing up, but she trusted her, and continued to look up to her even though she wasn’t always sure her grandmother was telling the truth.

 And Sabina did ok staying away from magic and that side of her family,  until she has an unexpected visit from a man who claims to be working for the mage side of her family and has been tasked with finding her because her whereabouts had been kept hidden by her grandmother. Sabina finds that hard to believe because all her life she’d been told that this side of the family wanted nothing to do with her.

This book was fast paced with a lot of twists and turns, and edge of your seat tension that I wanted to hurry and get to the end, yet at the same time didn’t want it to end.  The character building made you feel like you really knew these people and you will root for Sabina all the way even though she makes some bad choices in the beginning and the reader was well aware of that even if Sabina isn’t.

I would recommend this book to any urban fantasy lover.  It has all the elements that make Urban Fantasy what it is.

Book Blurb

Anna has struggled to adapt to her supernatural status while clinging to the vestiges of her humanity. Now she must deal with her legacy. The sinister vampire who transformed her is dead, and Anna is entitled to his vast fortune. But a predatory werewolf comes forward, claiming the inheritance as her own—and she’ll kill to get what she wants most: blood and money.

My Take

Book Blurb

Regulars at Nadia’s nature lodge don’t ask what she does in the off-season. And that’s a good thing. If she told them, she’d have to kill them. She’s a hit woman for a Mafia family. Tough and self-sufficient, Nadia doesn’t owe anyone any explanations. But that doesn’t mean she always works alone. One of her contacts has recruited her in the hunt for a ruthlessly efficient serial killer cutting a swath of terror across the country. The assassin is far too skilled to be an amateur—and the precision of the killings is bringing the Feds much too close to the hit man community for comfort.To put an end to the murders, Nadia will have to turn herself from predator to prey as she employs every trick she knows to find the killer. Before the killer finds her…

My Take

Book Blurb

A cold case turns red hot, threatening to consume detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus in the spellbinding new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman. Billionaire genius Genoa Greeves never got over the shocking death of her favorite teacher, Bennett "Dr. Ben" Alston Little, murdered execution-style and stuffed into the trunk of his Mercedes Benz. No arrests were ever made. Fifteen years later, the high-tech CEO reads about another execution-style murder. The case is eerily similar and Genoa offers the L.A.P.D. a substantial financial "incentive" if justice is finally served. Lieutenant Peter Decker resents having to commit valuable manpower to a fifteen-year-old open case. Still, the recent murder does bear a disturbing resemblance to Dr. Ben's case and Decker can't help but wonder about a connection. Decker's team of investigators includes his newly minted Hollywood detective daughter, Cindy Kutiel, while wife Rina Lazarus continues to be his backbone of support. Rina's worries and fears begin to build as past and present collide with a vengeance, catapulting an unsuspecting Decker closer and closer to the edge of an infinite dark abyss. A relentlessly gripping tale spun by a master, Faye Kellerman's The Mercedes Coffin races through a dangerous urban world, where truth and justice are fine lines between life and death.

My Take

Book Blurb

They’re smart, sexy, and supernatural. They’re the men and women of the Otherworld—a realm of witches, ghosts, and werewolves who live unseen among us. Only now a reckless killer has torn down the wall, trapping one very human woman in the supernatural cross fire.
Robyn Peltier moved to Los Angeles after her young husband’s sudden death, trying to put some distance between herself and her memories. Though she’s still grieving, the challenges of her new life as the PR consultant to Portia Kane—the world’s most famous celebutante wannabe—can sometimes be amusing, even distracting. But when her client is gunned down in the back room of a nightclub, Robyn is suddenly on the run as the prime suspect in the murder. And as more bodies pile up around her, it seems like only Hope Adams, Robyn’s best friend, and Hope’s somewhat spooky boyfriend Karl are on Robyn’s side. Hope Adams follows the kinds of stories whose headlines scream from supermarket checkout lines. But the difference is that Hope’s stories are even weirder—and they’re all true. Though determined to help Robyn, Hope knows it’s only a matter of time before her friend is caught. But it’s not the police Hope is worried about. For Robyn has gotten herself in the middle of a turf war between two powerful Otherworld cabals who’ll spill any amount of blood—human and inhuman—to protect what they consider theirs for all eternity. And the only way Hope can keep her friend alive is by letting her enter a world she’s safer knowing nothing about.

My Take

Book Blurb

My Take

Book Blurb

Already the alpha pair of Denver's werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben now plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping to Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping frou-frou drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters. Elsewhere on the Strip an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her very life.

My Take

Kitty is a werewolf, and in the 5th book of the Kitty series, Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand by Carrie Vaughn, Kitty is off to Vegas to get married to Ben…where she plans to sit by the pool and drink frou-frou drinks.  Of course Kitty’s plans never turn out the way she expects them to and since she plans to do a little work for her radio show in Vegas at the same time, this trip isn’t all fun and games.  Not to mention there is a weird set of shifters that have taken too much of an unhealthy interest in Kitty and Ben.
I really like the Kitty series, but this one felt kind of tame compared to the last books even though the back cover states that Vegas has never been so wild, nor has Kitty had to fight harder for her life. I felt like this was filler in the series where she didn’t really know where to go with it just yet but had to write something. At one point Ben is missing, and Kitty shows very little emotion when she realizes he’s gone, especially for someone who is about to have a wedding in a few hours…. And when he does show up there is no real issue or fanfare, his captors let him go, and he just shows up. Of course she’s relieved, but despite being a shifter and probably being able to take care of himself, Kitty should have been frantic about his disappearance.
I felt that Ms. Vaughn’s heart wasn’t in this one and she had already worked out an idea for the next book, especially since it came out so soon after this one, and rushed through this one to get to that one. I do feel it’s worth reading if nothing else to follow the progression in the story.