SPECIAL OCTOBER ABA AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH NANCY HOLZNER PLUS GIVEAWAY

Kiki: What is your favorite genre to read in, and what is it about that genre that attracts you to it? If you like a specific mix of genres, please state that particular combination.

Nancy: I'm a former English professor, so I've read very widely. I was a medievalist, and I still love to read works from that period. I'm also a big fan of Romantic, Victorian, and modernist literature. For popular fiction, I read mostly urban fantasy, but I also enjoy a good mystery. (Not surprisingly, I write in both of these genres.)

Kiki: What is your favorite author to read in that genre, and why? Also, please tell me a little about the best book by that author you have read.

Nancy: Ilona Andrews has got to be my favorite urban fantasy author. The books have humor, great dialogue, and tons of action. The writing is terrific, and the suspense builds and builds. I also like the way the story arc of the Kate Daniels series is developing, as Kate gets closer to a confrontation with her past.

Kiki: Do you have a Favorite Book of All Time? Of course, please tell us what about that book makes it your favorite.

Nancy: I really don't have a single favorite. But there are books I always return to. One that springs to mind is Wuthering Heights, which I've read more times than I could count. I'm fascinated by the way Emily Bronte explores the effects of passion: its ability to uplift, to hurt, to twist, to destroy, but also to redeem.

Kiki: What is the best book you read last month, and would you recommend it to a friend?

Nancy: I'd say State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Her writing is luminous, and all her books show real generosity of spirit. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys beautifully written literary fiction.

Kiki: What are your reading habits like? For example, how many books do you read on average in a week, what format do you prefer to read in, what time of day do you read, and what setting is ideal for you to get lost in that book?

Nancy: I read a couple of books each week. I usually read at bedtime, although on the rare lazy weekend, I love to spend a few hours reading in the living room (or on the front porch if the weather is nice) on a Sunday afternoon. I prefer physical books, and I like mass-market paperbacks because they're easy to hold. But I also read books on my phone. 

Kiki: If pressed, could you chose a favorite from the books you have written? Why is it your favorite?

Nancy: My favorite is always next book I'm going to write. Because it still has the potential to be just as amazing as it is in my head. :)

Kiki: How do you become inspired to write?

Nancy: I've been a reader my whole life. I was one of those kids who always had her nose stuck in a book. I majored in English, earned a PhD in that subject, and went on to teach it. I did a lot of writing as a child and a teenager, but when I started raising a family and went to grad school, my priorities changed. My daughter was in high school before I took up creative writing again. For me, though, being a voracious reader is what inspired me to tell my own stories.

Kiki: What part of the story do you think is your strength to write?

Nancy: I like writing dialogue. If characters will be talking to each other in a scene, I begin with their conversation, and then go back in fill in the details. When I can hear what the characters are saying, the scene itself comes into view. I also enjoy writing action scenes, although I find them much harder. To get an action scene right takes many, many drafts.

Kiki: Please share with ABA readers something I did not think to ask you about.

Nancy: Lots of writers have a daydream of what their ideal writing retreat would be. For me, it would be a stone cottage on a cliff in Wales, overlooking the sea. I'd have my desk set up by the window and spend long hours just gazing at the water (that sort of thing is part of the writing process, too). There'd be a path down to the beach and a great pub in the nearby village.

Kiki: Okay, a few special October Questions….

Kiki: Favorite Costume?

Nancy: My favorite costumes aren't any I wore, but several I made for my daughter when she was in middle school. A couple of months before Halloween, she'd tell me what she wanted to be, and I'd figure out how to make it. (I don't really sew, so I needed those couple of months.) The best ones I made for her were a unicorn with a sparkly pink horn and the Empire State Building, complete with King Kong climbing up the side.

Kiki: Favorite Costume on the Opposite Sex?

Nancy: An elegant vampire in a nice tuxedo.

Kiki: What do you think is the scariest costume?

Nancy: Anything that's gory.

Kiki: What do you think is the sexist costume?

Nancy: Maybe Adam-and-Eve style fig leaves.

Kiki: Favorite Halloween movie?

Nancy: This one's an oldie, but I love An American Werewolf in London. It's funny, scary, and moving.

Kiki: Favorite Treat?

Nancy:I like very dark chocolate. Lindt 85% cocoa and Theo 91% cocoa are my favorites. Even better with a glass of red wine!

BLOODSTONE

By Nancy Holzner

Book 3 Deadtown Series

Paperback: 336 pages

Publisher: Ace

Release date: September 27, 2011

ISBN-10: 044102100X

ISBN-13: 978-0441021000

Boston’s diverse South End is known for its architecture and great restaurants, not its body count. So when mutilated human corpses begin turning up in the area, the entire city takes notice. The killer—dubbed the South End Reaper—uses a curved blade for his grisly work. And even though there’s no real evidence pointing to a paranormal culprit, the deaths are straining the already-tense relations between Boston’s human and inhuman residents.
As the bodies pile up, Vicky, her formidable aunt Mab, and her werewolf boyfriend Kane investigate, only to find that the creature behind the carnage is after something much more than blood…

HELLFORGED

By Nancy Holzner

Book 2 Deadtown Series

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: Ace

Release Date: December 28, 2010

ISBN-10: 0441019803

ISBN-13: 978-0441019809

After Vicky banished her demon nemesis to the fiery depths of Hell, she thought life would return to normal. But considering she has a werewolf lawyer boyfriend, a zombie apprentice who’s angling to become a pop star, and an eccentric vampire roommate, what is normal, anyway?
Then the supposedly banished Hellion starts to trespass in Vicky’s dreams—just as several of Deadtown’s zombies are viciously attacked and become really dead. When Vicky realizes she’s the only connection between the victims, she suspects that the demon is somehow working through her dreams to become Deadtown’s living nightmare.

What she doesn’t know is that her old enemy brings with it a force more terrifying—and deadly—than anything she’s battled before.

Reviews:
Gripping the reader from its highly entertaining opening scene, the terrific Hellforged, the second installment in the Deadtown series, maintains that hold until the very end.
 ~Bitten by Books
http://www.bittenbybooks.com/author-list/reviews-by-author/?book_author_id=NancyHolzner
“For demon-slayer Victory Vaughn, intensity and intrigue are revved way up as she is faced with a possible trap of destiny. The thrills are nonstop in Holzner’s latest Deadtown novel as the action races from continent to continent and into the reaches of hell itself. Even better than the first book, this series is becoming highly addictive!”

~RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars

DEADTOWN

Book 1 Deadtown Series

By Nancy Holzner

Paperback: 336 pages

Publisher: Ace

Release Date: December 29, 2009

ISBN-10: 0441018130

ISBN-13: 978-0441018130

They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders — but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human…

Vicky’s demanding job keeping the city safe from all manner of monsters is one reason her relationship with workaholic lawyer (and werewolf) Alexander Kane is in constant limbo. Throw in a foolhardy zombie apprentice, a mysterious demon-plagued client, and a suspicious research facility that’s taken an unwelcome interest in her family, and Vicky’s love life has as much of a pulse as Deadtown’s citizens.
But now Vicky’s got bigger things to worry about. The Hellion who murdered her father ten years ago has somehow broken through Boston’s magical protections. The Hellion is a ruthless force of destruction with a personal grudge against Vicky, and she’s the only one who can stop the demon before it destroys the city and everyone in it.

Reviews:

 “Ms. Holzner truly delivers with this incredibly solid debut UF novel. Deadtown is told with an authoritative voice starring a great new heroine, and puts an imaginative spin on the usual paranormal suspects; the plotting and worldbuilding are compelling and undeniably fresh.

“In short – I absolutely loved Deadtown.”

~Reviewed by Thea at The Book Smugglers

http://thebooksmugglers.com/2009/12/book-review-deadtown-by-nancy-holzner.html

Part demon-busting tale, part political thriller, Holzner's take on urban fantasy is exciting and fresh. Here's to the future adventures of Vicky Vaughn! 

~RT Book Reviews

http://www.rtbookreviews.com/book-review/deadtown

Deadtown is a welcome addition to the urban fantasy landscape. Nancy imbues an emotional aspect into her debut that resonates with our own past prejudices and fears and forces us to evaluate our beliefs about this unreal world in a very real way. There is a lot of great action, social commentary, and a dash of romance in Deadtown. The world building, borrowing heavily from Welsh mythology, is fresh and complex. Vicky is instantly likable and realistically tough yet vulnerable. And I can't wait to read more. 

~Abigail at All Things Urban Fantasy

http://allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/2009/12/early-review-deadtown-by-nancy-holzner.html

Deadtown was one of the most unique books I have read and I spent an hour gushing to my husband about the world. I am so glad that Nancy brought her monsters out of the closet in Deadtown!

~ Reviewed by Robin at Intense Whisper

http://intensewhisper.blogspot.com/2011/01/dual-review-deadtown-and-hellforged.html

About Nancy

Nancy Holzner grew up in western Massachusetts with her nose stuck in a book. This meant that she tended to walk into things, wore glasses before she was out of elementary school, and forced her parents to institute a “no reading at the dinner table” rule. It was probably inevitable that she majored in English in college and then, because there were still a lot of books she wanted to read, continued her studies long enough to earn a masters degree and a PhD.

She began her career as a medievalist, then jumped off the tenure track to try some other things. Besides teaching English and philosophy, she’s worked as a technical writer, freelance editor and instructional designer, college admissions counselor, and corporate trainer. Most of her nonfiction books are published under the name Nancy Conner.

Nancy lives in upstate New York with her husband Steve, where they both work from home without getting on each other’s nerves. She enjoys visiting local wineries and listening obsessively to opera. There are still a lot of books she wants to read.

http://nancyholzner.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nancy-Holzner/163746834500
http://twitter.com/#!/NancyHolzner

Giveaway

Nancy Holzner is offering a tour-wide giveaway that readers can enter at each stop: 5 book - 5 winners.

Each of five winners gets his/her choice of a signed copy of Deadtown, Hellforged, or Bloodstone.

This giveaway is open to US only

Please check out and follow Nancy and Bewitching Book Tours sites:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nancy-Holzner/163746834500

http://twitter.com/#!/NancyHolzner

http://www.facebook.com/BewitchingBooktours

Click Here For The Entry Form

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEQ4akN0dkpkNmJRUFFmeFlUbk9rQmc6MQ