I’ve been avoiding doing a Next Big Thing blog-hop for my current Work in Progress since late last summer, but when I got a tag inquiry from editor/writer Kay Holt, I said yes. She edited my upcoming novella “Copper” for Crossed Genres Winter Well, and I feel confident saying we both enjoyed the editing process on it and I eagerly hope to work with her again in the future. I suggest checking out her Next Big Thing entry. I know it has me interested in reading what she’s cooking up.

I’ve been in need of a good kick in the pants to finish up my Work In Progress. I’ve set it aside several times to work on other projects (most of which ended up published), but I fear my Alpha Readers (who get chapters as I finish them) are plotting to gang up on me and tie me to a chair if I don’t finish this one soon.

1. What is the working title of your next book?

Runed Creek: Sacrifice

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I had a dream where a woman went back to her childhood home and has to break up a human sacrifice her mother and aunt have set up as one of her grandfather’s last wishes. After she’s freed the old man and young child, she takes her family to task for their actions… and suddenly everything changes. Magic flows into her from the house, and she hears her grandfather’s voice– but coming out of her ex-husband’s body.

I immediately knew it was a story, one I had to write, and began feeling around the edges to find out who these characters were and how they’d gotten to that point, and why they lived in an old mansion with that kind of power flowing through it.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

I like to call it “Rural Fantasy” it has a sort of Urban Fantasy vibe and is set present day, but it takes place in a rural setting.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Since I spend most of my spare time writing I’m not as up on current actors as I could be so I had to crowd-source this casting among my Alpha-readers.

Mishal – Rooney Mara with her natural hair color. She’s got the ability to do serious and sardonic and be powerfully angry as this character requires.

Grandfather – Jeff Bridges is pretty close to the voice I imagine for this character and in a movie version he’d be nothing but a voice 99% of the time.

Llewe – Is a casting nightmare, and neither myself nor any of my Alpha-readers could think of anyone known with the physicality to convey both his own character and do the quick posture and facial changes to denote Grandfather speaking through him.

Radley – Joseph Gordon Levitt, he’d be adorable with a blue mowhawk and a good fit as Mishal’s mellow DJ cousin.

Iccy – *retracted due to spoilers*

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Middle-Aged Chaos Mage goes back to the small magical town she grew up in, where magic, family, and the Norse Pantheon conspire to put her in charge of keeping the world from ending.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m planning to shop it around. Who knows?

7. How long did/will it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I write pretty slow. When I’m really pushing on a project I try to average 500 words/day. Some days I write 2000, others none, but as long as I average 500 I don’t stress it too much. I also tend to put long-fiction projects aside for shorter fiction calls. I started this story two years ago, and hope to finish a draft by the end of summer.

 8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I‘ve been told this has the same sort of vibe as the Kate Daniels books by Ilona Andrews but I’m not personally familiar with them.

I like to say I write tragically funny fiction. Everything I write has aspects of both tragedy and comedy with mythical influences of one kind or another. This particular world has more comedy than tragedy but there’s enough to keep it from being silly.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The dream I had led me to start looking at pictures and researching places this town could possibly exist. While pouring over maps of a likely area I found a small lake with a name that fit just a little TOO well to not use and then other things started to fall into place.

10.What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s got cats, gnomes, demons, dwarves ordering shoes off the internet, druid dads, shamans, Dead Heads, ghosts, a marmot pooka, and a reliable 1953 claret red Jaguar MK VII as made possible by dark magics.

For other stops on the Blog Hop Check Out:

M. Fenn, author of “To The Edges” in Winter Well and “So The Taino Call It” in Substitution Cipher, posted on Thursday, May 16th.

Marissa James, author of “The Second Wife” in Winter Well and “Ancestors Enthroned” in Daughters of Icarus posted on Monday, May 20th.

Anna Caro, author of “This Other World” in Winter Well and “Millie” in Outlaw Bodies, posted on Thursday, May 23rd.