Meet ANNA WINDSOR!
We are very fortunate to have Anna Windsor as one of our Fangs, Fur, and Fantasy authors. Anna's first novel in the Dark Crescent Sisterhood kicked off on Tuesday. What a knock-out series this is going to be.
Welcome, Anna!
Who is Anna Windsor and what makes her tick?
I’m a writer . . . and a psychologist . . . and a farmer . . . and a mom . . . and a partner . . . and . . . and maybe I need more personalities to be able to handle my life? I’m thinking more personalities would be a definite plus. Especially if a few of them don’t sleep. What makes me tick-my family, my friends, my animals, and words and books and creative rushes, more than anything.
When did the dream of being a writer begin?
I started writing as soon as I could put words on paper. Then I typed them (wasn’t THAT a mess, those old typewriters with all the white-out?). Then computers came along, and I became a total slave to the keyboard.
What are your favorite and least favorite things about the writing process? What do you find the most difficult?
I love world-building, setting up new scenarios and characters, and hammering over that all-important first chapter. I hate rewrites, and I often struggle with the “earning it” part of the story-the middle of the middle section.
What details can you give us about your release, BOUND BY SHADOW? What is the “Dark Crescent Sisterhood Series” about and how many books are there in the series?
In the FAQ on my website, I give two answers about the nature of the Dark Crescent Sisterhood-my opinion, and the Sibyl opinion.
Anna Windsor: Sibyls are warriors of the Dark Crescent Sisterhood, selected for their
ability to control the elements (earth, fire, air, and water). Sibyls have
been trained extensively in many forms of hand-to-hand combat, and
their mission is to protect the weak from the supernaturally strong.
The Sibyls: Chicks in leather. We pack serious steel. We kick ass.
That sums it up! I’ll add that the Sibyls have been at war with the Legion, a dangerous cult who believe they have a right to dominate both the paranormal world and our own, for over a century-and the war is about to explode on the streets of New York City.
I was fortunate to get to read BOUND BY SHADOW and it just blew me away. As soon as I read it, I knew it was going to be big. Tell everyone more, please!
Thank you!
BOUND BY SHADOW tells the story of Riana Dumain, an earth Sibyl, and her fighting triad as they battle to protect the city and each other from the Legion assault. Riana is a first-class fighter, organized, focused, ready for anything . . . except Creed Lowell, a sexy NYPD officer who wrecks her expectations and turns her carefully controlled existence inside-out. Creed Lowell has spent his life avoiding psychics and sensitives and anything else that might be able to sense what he is, or discover the menace he’s carrying inside his own skin. In all his time with the Occult Crimes Unit, he’s never once encountered a truly paranormal being who could expose his secret, until now. When he looks into the depths of Riana’s green eyes, he understands the shocking truth-she knows. If Riana and Creed can’t make peace with each other and calm the storm of passion brewing between them, New York City and ultimately, the world, might be destroyed.
There are two more books completed in this series, BOUND BY FLAME and BOUND BY LIGHT, due to be released in July and August.
What are your characters, Riana Dumain and Creed Lowell like? Which character was the most difficult during the writing of BOUND BY SHADOW?
Riana Dumain is an earth Sibyl, so by nature very calm, very cool and grounded, or at least she’d really, really like to be those things. Her triad-sisters and Creed really get under her skin and shake the foundations of her world. She has a long fuse, temper-wise, but when she loses it, look out, because she’ll shake your world, too. Creed Lowell is a tortured man with a dark past and a problem that functions much like a wicked curse on his existence. He’s kept his secrets so long he doesn’t know how to begin to share them, but leave it to Riana and her triad to force that issue in a big hurry. Riana jerks Creed way, way out of his comfort zone, and he returns the favor-and then some.
As for the most difficult character-that one’s easy. It was Cynda. Definitely Cynda, the fire Sibyl. She wanted to take over the story. She wanted to take over everything. Fire Sibyls are like that.
What kind of reading experience are you hoping to create for your readers? What do you want them to come away from your books saying, thinking and feeling?
I want readers to fall into this gritty, dangerous urban world. I want them to hold their breath, waiting for the next disaster-then sigh with delight as Creed and Riana begin to find each other despite the cloud of doom hanging over their lives. I hope readers will love the Sibyls as much as I do. *I* want to be a Sibyl. Hope they’ll want to be Sibyls, too. I’d love for readers to come away saying the stories are full of action and passion, that they’re fascinating and satisfying on every level. I want them to think about the Sibyl universe long after they put the book down, and feel enchanted and enriched by both the tales and the love stories.
It takes a lot of mental and emotional fortitude to write, what do you do to get through the tough spots?
Scream a lot. Whine to my family. Whine to my critique partners. Start 100 other stories to get my mind off the story that’s frustrating me. Sometimes write an entirely other book when I’m supposed to be writing a different one-stuff like that. Mostly, though, I try to just keep writing.
What do you think readers would be shocked to know about you?
Probably the absurd amount of time I spend world-building and drawing maps before I ever start writing stories with fantasy elements. I’m such a pathetic geek. I love different worlds.
1. How can readers best contact you?
Readers can write me at anna@annawindsor.net ! I’d love to hear from them.
My website is http://annawindsor.net/
2. Book Info: title, release date, publisher, and etc., please!
BOUND BY SHADOW releases June 24, 2008, from Ballantine Books.
The ISBN-10 is 0345498534, and the ISBN-13 is 978-0345498533.
What future project are you working on-what do readers have to look forward to?
More Sibyl books are definitely in the works-so many stories to be told from that world. New villains have already hit the streets of NYC. Vicious, vicious killers who will be very difficult to stop, even for the warriors of the Dark Crescent Sisterhood.
Thank you, Anna! Can’t wait for more Sibyls, the warriors of the Dark Crescent Sisterhood!