Guest Author: Erica Hayes

Before becoming one of RWAustralia’s newly published authors, Erica turned her hand at a number of careers - law student, air force officer, editorial assistant and musician. She writes erotic dark urban fantasy and is published with St.Martin’s Griffin. In her own words she has “the best job in the world – imagining.”

Her imagination creates worlds and stories inhabited by fairies, spriggans, banshees, demons, incubi, succubi, vampire gangsters, glamour and magic.

Today Erica’s visiting to share some not-so-serious details about her life and where she’s headed next in her career.

Hi, Erica, it's great to have you here! Let's start with some basic facts ;-) .

Author name: Erica Hayes.

Published genre/s: urban fantasy/romance/erotica. One day I wanna do some space opera. Or a post-apocalyptic punk noir with aliens. 

I'd love to read one of those genres, E. - can't wait for you to get them drafted! Please hurry :-) .

Favourite childhood toy: X-box 360 and Supernatural DVDs... Oh, you mean my small-person childhood? I had a little stuffed rabbit called Peter, from whom I was apparently inseparable. After a while, his eyes fell out — too much tough love — so Mum had to perform surgery on him. 

Also an orange hippo with a hat, named Groonk-Groonk. Yeah. He was stuffed with beans or dried peas or something, and ‘grooonk’ was the noise he made when you sat on him.

Greatest Vice: Chocolate. Closely followed by the DVD section at amazon.com. Guess which one’s more expensive?

Hmm, the C-word! The secret behind every good writer is a block and half of yummy choc-latey goodness while watching your favourite DVD!

Book you’re reading now: Ummm... just finished Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake. My TBR shelf is diminishing slowly, but only because there are no good bookshops in Newcastle. I was in Borders today with loads of cash and didn’t buy ANYTHING.

Most intriguing place you’ve visited: I holidayed in Egypt once, and visited the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel. After a week spent gazing at pyramids and tombs and Tutankhamen’s treasure, I thought I was immune to awestruck goggling. I was wrong.

So many places, so much goggling to do, so little time ... sigh...

A place you’ve yet to visit and want to: I wanna see the Grand Canyon. Y’know, that glass platform where you go out over the edge? Yeah. I’m going to RWA in Nashville this year, so this might be my chance...

Oh, the Grand Canyon! When I visited (last century) one piece of advise I was given was, if I ever fall over the edge, don't close my eyes - you have the best view of anyone on the way down, why spoil it by shutting them. Something to remember when you visit, Erica, *grin*!

Author/s in your genre who you enjoy reading: Lots of them. I like Keri Arthur, Ann Aguirre, Rob Thurman, Jim Butcher....

Who or what influenced you to write in the genre/s you’re now published in? I guess it just seemed like a good idea at the time... Everything I’d ever written had fantasy/sci-fi elements of some kind, and I’d tried high fantasy and a kind of quasi-contemporary magicians-and-aliens-in-the-outback mishmash (dustpunk?) but I hadn’t hit on anything particularly special. So I decided I’d try something dark and gritty and a bit sexy. Look what happened. Don’t try this at home, folks :)

When developing a story who tends to appear first in your mind, the hero or heroine, and why? Usually it’s the heroine. My stories are fantasy foremost — the hero’s more of an antagonist, really, and the plot is primarily based around the heroine. But the one I’m working on now arrived hero-first, and I had to make up a heroine to suit him, or in his case to drive him crazy.

Writing Milestone/s: You mean, like, goals? At the moment, it’s finish the damn book. Right now I’m in the middle of book 4 of my Shadowfae series and let me tell you, it’s like flossing your teeth with wet spaghetti: tricky, but fun once you get started. Once I’ve finished that one... well, we’ll see. Maybe more Shadowfae. Maybe onto something different for a while.

Latest release/project: I have SHADOWGLASS coming out on 2 March. It’s book 2 in the Shadowfae series, and it’s about fairies!

The heroine, Ice, is a waterfae thief hunting for that big score, and she gets more than she anticipated when she steals a demon’s magic mirror. 

The hero is Indigo, a haughty metalfairy with a dark secret. SHADOWGLASS has vengeful demons, confused angels, nasty shapeshifting gangsters and a lovesick serial killer. What’s not to like?

If you care to, you can read an excerpt and watch the book trailer at my site: http://www.shadowfae.net

Erica also has a free short story called Hellcursed on her site, based around the character of Jade, the heroine who appears in her first book, SHADOWFAE. It's a great read! Check it out.

In your recent release/latest work, what about your hero or heroine inspired you? Ice from SHADOWGLASS is one of the little people. There are so many urban fantasies out there where the heroine is kick-ass and powerful. I wanted to write about a normal girl who gets out of her depth in a mean world, and has to step up to survive. I mean, sure, Ice is cute and cheeky and knows a trick or two, and kicks some bad-guy ass in her own way. But she’s up against enemies who are way more powerful than she is, and so she has to live by her wits and wiles. I’d love to be like her!

As for the hero, well. He’s blue, and has wings. I’m inspired already :)

Well, I've already placed an order for this book and I can't wait to read it, E. There's something definitely intriguing and appealing about a heroine who faces overwhelming odds yet manages to triumph, not to mention a winged, blue hero!

Thanks for dropping in and sharing! :-) Thanks for having me!

Now for a little fun! I can't let readers go away empty-handed, so I've asked Erica to set you a little challenge. The dangly carrot? An autographed copy of her first book, SHADOWFAE! You just have to answer this question ... If you found a magic mirror that was bound to tell you the truth — what would you ask it?

You have until 12 noon on Monday, 1st March 2010 to leave your comment. The lucky visitor will be announced here on Tuesday, 2nd March. 

Have fun leaving a comment!