We love having author Thea Harrison on the blog, so we’re super excited to get the chance to interview her about her upcoming series, Games of Shadows, and to see if we could bribe her for any spoilers for her much loved Elder Races series.
I love visiting with you, too! Thank you for having me on your blog again today. 🙂
BookPushers: Thea, thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions. Can you tell us what your new series, Game of Shadows, is about?
My Game of Shadows series is actually a duology, RISING DARKNESS and FALLING LIGHT. The stories are a strong combination of paranormal romance with an urban fantasy feeling to them. Or, you could say, they are urban fantasy with a strong paranormal romance feeling to them.
The series has quite a different premise than the Elder Races series. The stories are darker, and there are four points of view in the narrative. Essentially there are four creatures who are ancient and not quite human, and they are fighting a very old battle, while they die and are reborn in a cycle of reincarnation. There is a hero and a heroine, Michael and Mary, and the story is told mostly from their viewpoint, but the antagonist is quite a wicked old fellow, and it was fun in a creepy sort of way to tell things from his point of view as well.
BookPushers: Were you planning on starting a new series whilst still writing the Elders or did it come about unexpectedly?
I had actually written a version of the Game of Shadows series before I had ever started the Elder Races series. The story was one that I kept going back to and working on. I was thrilled to reach a successful draft that will bring it to publication.
BookPushers: Can you give us a snippet of what we can expect between Michael and Mary in Rising Darkness? (hint: hot smexy times?)
Here is a small snippet!
I am the only one, he thought. The only one who has driven you to this extremity. The only one who has given you this kind of pleasure, this completion.
And by God, I am going to be the last lover you will ever take.
The very last, and only one.
BookPushers: We adore your world building in the Elder Races series. Did you go about the same world building process for Game of Shadows?
Thank you so much! And I can’t say that I did go through the same process. Each world is very developed in its own way, but they occurred at different times in my life and they involved very different processes. For example, I started the Game of Shadows world building in 2005, and I wrote DRAGON BOUND (the first in the Elder Races) in 2009. A lot can happen in four years’ time! I’ve said before that developing the Elder Races series is like one very, very long improvisational jazz session. I did a lot more preplanning in the Game of Shadows series.
BookPushers: You warn people on your website that Game of Shadows, book one–RISING DARKNESS, ends unresolved. I know I certainly appreciate the warning. Why did you decide to break the books up at that point?
There were several reasons for this. The first is that the initial draft was quite long. After studying the flow of the story and editorial input – and yes, contractual considerations – we realized there was a really excellent crisis point where the story peaks. We follow the natural flow of the story… which meant a cliffhanger, of sorts.
BookPushers: When will RISING DARKNESS be resolved? How long do us readers have to wait in agony? *wink*
Michael and Mary’s story is concluded in FALLING LIGHT, which has a release date of February 2014.
BookPushers: Will the entire Game of Shadows series have books that end on cliffhangers, or does that apply to just the first book?
This is only a duology, so the cliffhanger in this series just applies to the one book. I DO have an idea for a spinoff tale, and while I’m quite excited about it, it’s only in the idea stage. The spinoff is not under contract, and if I do write it, it will not be in the same story arc as the first two books.
Because this is just an idea, I am only chatting about it, and I’m not providing concrete details, but right now that spinoff feels like it would be just one more story in itself. We’ll have to see what the future brings!
BookPushers: Your Elder Races world includes the interference of higher or outside powers. It appears as if the Game of Shadows books also include some otherworldly interference. Why do you think this is an attraction to you as a writer and to us as readers?
I think it’s attractive because it brings power and mystery into our world. It touches on myths we’ve been telling for millennia, and gives us a sense of magic, and explanation.
BookPushers: What do you have planned for the next Elder Races novel?
Book six in the Elder Races series is entitled KINKED, and it releases in November! It is about Aryal and Quentin, and boy do the sparks fly in that story! I have been telling people that it is a “hate sex buddy movie love story type of thing.”
Thanks so much again for having me. As always, I’ve really enjoyed the visit!
For readers: do you enjoy mythology? What is your favorite myth? (I quite enjoy Celtic lore.)
Hi guys!
Always a pleasure to visit with you… thanks again for having me on your blog today!
xoxox
Thea
Just bought and read RISING DARKNESS yesterday. Loved it! I do agree that it leans more toward Urban Fantasy than PNR, though the genres are so close already, it’s hard to judge. Looking forward to the sequel and, of course, the next Elder Races book.
Hi Thea – KINKED is going to be explosive isn’t it ;)?
Thanks for the nice interview ladies, I really enjoyed reading it. I am looking forward to reading the new book, and of course, Kinked! I love Aryal.
And yes, I do love mythology, which is why I started reading Sherrilyn Kenyon for instance.
Hi Thea! I enjoy your Elder Races… and I’m sure I’m going to love your Game of Shadows series also.
I enjoy reading books that interweave mythology into the story. I, too, like Celtic lore… but I also enjoy Greek mythology. When I was growing up, the librarian at our local library in Memphis, TN where I grew up told me that I’d read every book they had on Greek mythology… :-)))
Thea,
Thanks for the answers and hints. I am looking forward the the conclusion of this duology!
Like Greek myths