How to
Date Dead Guys by Ann Noser
Series: Under The
Blood Moon
Genre:
new-adult, urban-fantasy
Publisher: Curiosity
Quills Press
Date of
Publication: July 15th, 2014
Cover
Reveal: June 2nd, 2014
Blog Tour:
July
14 - 25th, excluding weekends
Description:
College sophomore Emma Roberts remembers her
mother’s sage advice: “don’t sleep
around, don’t burp in public, and don’t tell anyone you see ghosts”. But when charming Mike Carlson drowns in the
campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters.
Blamed for Mike’s death and haunted by
nightmares, Emma turns to witchcraft and a mysterious Book of Shadows to bring him back.
Under a Blood Moon, she lights candles, draws a pentacle on the campus
bridge, and casts a spell. The invoked
river rages up against her, but she escapes its fury. As she stumbles back to the dorm, a stranger
drags himself from the water and follows her home. And he isn't the only
one.
Instead of raising
Mike, Emma assists the others she stole back from the dead—a pre-med student
who jumped off the bridge, a desperate victim determined to solve his own
murder, and a frat boy Emma can’t stand…at first. More comfortable with the dead than the
living, Emma delves deeper into the seductive Book of Shadows. Her powers
grow, but witchcraft may not be enough to protect her against the vengeful
river and the killers that feed it their victims.
Inspired by the controversial Smiley Face
Murders, HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS will ignite the secret powers hidden deep within
each of us.
How To
Date Dead Guys Purchase Links:
Kobo: Forthcoming
If you would like to follow Ann's book tour, go here: http://curiosityquills.com/date-dead-guys-blog-tour/
This is such a fun interview, and I thank Ann for being so amusing. Seriously, everyone should get their hands on this book!
What inspired you to write How to Date Dead Guys? (So you
know, it's sitting on my kindle to be read very soon! I've been dying to read
it since Pitcharama last year)
The sudden bolt of inspiration came from an NPR program on the Smiley
Face Killers. Two retired NYPD detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, proposed
a controversial theory that many of the "accidental drownings" of
college-aged men in the Midwest were murders.
But that wasn't the only inspiration stirring the pot. I'd just finished
grad school, my life was a mess, and I'd just lost a good friend. Part of me
missed undergrad. Thinking back, college life looks so easy from a distance, so
carefree. There are no real responsibilities. Sure, you may have a job (likely
in the food industry) and you need to go to class (and try not to fall asleep),
but you have so much free time. I used to spend entire days tubing down the
Chippewa River (this waterway is a prominent force in my book). As an adult,
when do you ever take a whole day to just relax?
MY BELOVED CHIPPEWA RIVER
But, if you think closer, college is a stressful time. There are so many
decisions to be made, and if you don't make a conscious choice it will be made for you, with perhaps not the results
you want. Even if the worries and concerns of college seem petty to an older,
adult world, they were real at the time. I strove to capture that.
When did you write your first book/story?
High school. I think only one other person in the world read it, and
that's how I'd like it to stay. J
What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Running, reading, walking the dogs, hiking, sleeping, working with
animals, playing with the kids, eating raspberries, watching Masterpiece
Theater, listening to music, playing piano, staring at a blue sky filled with
white clouds, throwing the ball for the dogs, and vacuuming (just kidding about
that last one).
HOW I THINK I LOOK WHEN EATING RASPBERRIES…
HOW I REALLY LOOK WHEN EATING RASPBERRIES…
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in
creating your books?
That a person shouldn't double space between sentences. It sounds minor,
but it blew my mind. In high school, that was hammered into our heads. It was very
hard to me to change this, but now I'm used to it.
Who is your favorite author to read? What books strongly
influenced your own writing?
Whichever author I'm reading at the moment is my current favorite. I
feel like, with every page I turn, I'm meeting a new friend. J
My bookshelves are overfilled with the following authors: Alcott, Austen, Collins, Dickens, Evanovich,
Fielding, Flynn, Friend, Goldman, Green, Gruen, Harrison, Herbert, Herriot,
Hoffman, Ishiguro, King, Kingsolver, Letts, Lewis, Lovelace, McCourt,
McCullough, Meyer (yes, call it my guilty pleasure if you must), Mitchell,
Montgomery, Nguyen, Rowling, Stoker, Wallace, Wilder, and Yoshimoto.
What are you reading now?
Destruction by Sharon
Bayliss. I'm really enjoying how she infuses the paranormal into adult life. I
expected a YA book at first, just because I knew witchcraft was involved. How
delightful to have been proven wrong!
Do you have any advice for aspiring
authors?
Why ask me when Stephen King says it so much better? J
I'd read even more books if I wasn't writing my own.
But I devour what I can with the time limits of each day.
As I've said before, I truly believe it is an act of bravery to put
one's own words, feelings, and beliefs out there on the page. But, then again,
I never planned to be a coward.
(To be honest, I've been accused of quoting "The King" a
little too often on the topic of writing. Please excuse my obsession.)
Other nuggets of advice (these ones I thought up on my own):
-
Build an excellent critique group.
-
Write more than one book. (It's amazing what you
learn.)
-
To gain perspective, set a manuscript aside for a
few months at least. Yes, it's hard to wait that long. J
-
Bribe good-quality alpha and beta readers with food
or offer to edit and beta read in return. Just keep these folks happy, because
they are invaluable to your career.
THIS BETA READER PREFERS BAKED GOODS
(And watch Dukes of Hazzard reruns whenever you
can.)
Thanks for the
interview and make every day an adventure - Ann
About the
Author:
My to-do list dictates that I try to cram 48 hours of living
into a day instead of the usual 24. I’ve
chosen a life filled with animals. I
train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal
veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to
convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed. But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to
write; I have to steal moments throughout the day. Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live
within my imagination.
Like all busy American mothers, I multi-task. I work out plot holes during runs. Instead of meditating, I type madly during
yoga stretches. I find inspiration in
everyday things: a beautiful smile, a
heartbreaking song, or a newspaper article on a political theory. For example, a long drive in the dark
listening to an NPR program on the SMILEY FACE MURDERS theory made me ask so
many questions that I wrote HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS to answer them to my
satisfaction.
I’d love to have more time to write (and run, read, and
sleep), but until I find Hermione Granger’s time turner, I will juggle real
life with the half-written stories in my head.
Main characters and plot lines intertwine in my cranium, and I need to
let my writing weave the tales on paper so I can find out what happens next.
(website: http://annandersonnoser.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnMNoser
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnMNoser
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8124757.Ann_M_Noser)
Oh, and here is some giveaway goodness!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
