SOMETHING WICKED RISES - INTERVIEW WITH HILLARY MONAHAN AND GIVEAWAY

I am so excited that I get to be part of this, this year.  Welcome to my stop for Something Wicked Rises.  Today we have the awesome, and talented Author Hillary Monahan.  She is the author of the Bloody Mary series, that I have loved so much.  I am so excited that she was willing to take the time out of her busy schedule to do an interview with me, to share today.  I am not a Halloween Fan, but I love scary movies, and I love scary books, and they just so happen to coincide with Halloween.  It's exciting when all the "scary" books start to come out.  So without further ado, here is author, Hillary Monahan.

ME:   What made you decide to write about Bloody Mary?

MONAHAN:  When I was a kid, our town had a local spin on Bloody Mary called Mary Jane. It was said she was a student at our middle school who died during the school fire in the fifties. If you said Mary Jane three times in the mirror in the school bathrooms, she'd appear and scratch at your face. I remember various girls turning off the lights, in the school bathrooms and then freaking themselves out, screaming that Mary Jane had appeared to them and scratched them.  I never had the courage to do it myself. I'm pretty sure that means I win at Darwinism. 

ME:  Which character was your favorite to write about in both Mary books?

MONAHAN:  Mary herself.  I like villains who have a reason for being a villain and can be, when painted in a certain light, sympathetic.  Mary Worth let me flex those muscles. 

ME:   What are you working on right now?

MONAHAN:  My next Eva Darrows book called Dead Little Mean Girl.  It challenges the Mean Girl trope and how, dismissing a girl as a mean girl, makes her Not People.  It's a snarky black comedy. 

ME:  What is the hardest thing to write about for you?

MONAHAN:  Relationships and especially sex.  It's so different from person to person, the emotions that go along with it, and there's always that worry that you're either going to go too clinical and sound like an anatomy textbook or The Other Way (AKA Full Porno.)  It's finding the happy middle and staying there. 

ME:  What author (or if you are like me what authors) inspired you to become a writer?

MONAHAN:  E.B. White for a writer people would know.  I read Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little so many times as a kid, I can't even count.  Also: my grandmother.  She was a professional writer.  In her later years it was mostly greeting cards for Hallmark, but she was always in her writing room, tapping away at a typewriter that weighed as much as I did. 

ME:  Tell us how you came up with the covers (Which are FABULOUS by the way)?

MONAHAN:  I didn't!  Authors have very little to do with their covers.  (See: nothing which can be problematic when the author hates the cover and is told OH WELL.)  In traditional publishing, marketing and design come up with the covers and say TA DA.  I just won the cover lottery for horror books.  Hyperion did a great job. 

ME:   What are your top 5 favorite books that you like to read?

MONAHAN:  THE MISTS OF AVALON, LONESOME DOVE, THE SHINING, THE WITCHING HOUR, and The Black Jewels Trilogy though I know how uhhh.  I have issues with the books but every once in a while I go through a trilogy reread. It's like a junk food addiction. 

ME:  What do you love most about being an author?

MONAHAN:  Working from home surrounded by smelly basset hounds. 

ME:  How can our readers find out more about you?

MONAHAN:  Ask me!  I'm on Twitter under @HillaryMonahan and I pretty much answer everything lobbed at me. 

ME:  Do you write full time or part time?

MONAHAN:  Full for now.  We'll see if that sticks in the future. Girl's gotta eat.

FUN FACTS:

1.  Coffee, tea, or soda?  COFFEE.

2.  Ice Cream or Yogurt? Ice Cream!

3.  Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, or White chocolate? Yes?  Can I just say yes?

4.  Favorite Food?  My mother's homemade apple pie.

5.  Introvert or Extrovert?  I'm the most outgoing introvert you'll ever meet.  But I am an introvert. 

Thank you Hillary.  It was so much fun to get to know you better.

If you haven't read her Bloody Mary series, you should!  You can fine my reviews for the books by clicking on the covers shown below.

  

Description for MARY;  THE SUMMONING (Book 1)

There is a right way and a wrong way to summon her. 

Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them--Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna--must link hands, follow the rules . . . and never let go. 

A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY." A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a specter trapped behind the mirror. 

Once is not enough, though--at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary's wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.

A haunting trail of clues leads Shauna on a desperate search to uncover the legacy of Mary Worth. What she finds will change everything, but will it be enough to stop Mary--and Jess--before it's too late? 

Description for MARY:  UNLEASHED  (Book 2):

Mary in the mirror.
Mary in the glass.
Mary in the water.

Mary lurks in the emptiness, in the darkness . . . in the reflection. That is, until Jess unleashes her into the world. Now Mary Worth is out and her haunting is deadlier than ever.

No one is safe.

Shauna, Kitty, and Jess must band together to unearth the truth about Mary's death to put her soul to rest for good. Their search leads them back to where it all began-to Solomon's Folly, a place as dangerous as the ghost who died there a century and a half ago. Quick sand, hidden traps and a phantom fog are the least of their worries. To stop Mary, they need to follow a dark string of clues and piece together a gruesome mystery that spans generations.

But time is running out.

As chilling facts come to light, Mary inches ever closer to her prey. Can Jess, Shauna, and Kitty break Mary's curse before it's too late? Or will history repeat itself until there is no one left to call her name . . . 

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I am also giving away a copy of MARY:  THE SUMMONING.  You have to have a valid mailing address for the book to be sent to you from Amazon.  You must live in the USA (sorry, I will do one for Kindle also that is only for INT).  You must respond to the email letting you know of your prize withing 48 hours.  If you don't respond a new winner will be chosen.  I will announce the winner on the blog and contact the winner as well within 48 hours of the giveaway ending.

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I did.  It was just what I was looking for in a scary book.  Monahan is such a wonderful author, and I have really enjoyed the chance to get to know her a little better.  I hope everyone else did as well.

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INTERNATIONAL ONLY:  I am giving away one kindle version of MARY:  THE SUMMONING.  You must have a valid email address, that can accept email from Amazon.com.  You must respond to the email informing you of your winnings within 48 hours.  If you do not a new winner will be chosen.  I will inform the winners withing 48 hours of the giveaway ending.

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