SERIES: The Paranormal DownUnder - Emily Gee

In Australia, 2012 is the National Year of Reading. What better way to celebrate this than by finding a new-to-you author or revisiting a favorite one?

This series of blog posts, entitled The Paranormal DownUnder, aims to do just that!

Any of my regular readers know I'm passionate about introducing 'local' talent (aka authors from Australia & New Zealand). This time around I'm keen to feature those who write in this genre.

So, be prepared for a swag of authors & some blatant promotion of their books as they share their thoughts on the paranormal genre and why they find it so compelling.

Please welcome my next guest...Emily Gee.

Emily grew up in a house full of words and books: her mother worked as a librarian and a proof-reader, and her father was a writer.

 

She had no intention of becoming a writer. Ever. But since getting a science degree, she's spent several years travelling and working overseas, and one day was sitting on a bus in Syria, with the desert stretching in all directions, and she thought, What if...and since then has written manuscript after manuscript.

Emily's been a rehabilitation instructor, a library assistant, a postie, a waitress on the Isle of Skye, and even (briefly) a field assistant in Antarctica. She love to travel and has lived in Sweden, backpacked in Europe, and journeyed overland in the Middle East, China, and North Africa. Most recently she's lived in Marlborough, New Zealand and works in the wine industry.

 

You can visit her website to find out more about her and her alter-ego, Emily May, who writes historical regency romance.

What compels you to write in the fantasy and regency romance genres?
I've loved fantasy novels since being introduced to them as a child (my father wrote children's fantasy novels and read them to us chapter by chapter as they came from his pen) and I've adored regencies since the very first Georgette Heyer I read as a teen. I guess you could say that I write the genres I enjoy reading.

Is there something you'd like to write but have yet to attempt?
Funny you should ask that, Kylie. I've been wanting to write a regency with magic in it for some time now (what sub-genre is that ... regency paranormal?) and I'm making a stab at it this year. So far, it's loads of fun!

Who are auto-buys for you? What makes their books so appealing to you?
Lois McMaster Bujold, because she builds such great worlds and writes so well. I'm a huge fan of her Vorkosigan novels, which are intelligent, complex, and funny.

Diana Wynne Jones, for her imagination and use of language. I love, love, love her Chrestomanci novels for children/young adults. Alas, she died last year, so there'll be no new ones.

My third auto-buy is Jennifer Crusie, because she's so funny and smart and uses English so well. I love the way her mind works!

THE SENTINEL MAGE

Her magic may be the only thing that can save a prince-and the Seven Kingdoms. 

 

In a distant corner of the Seven Kingdoms, an ancient curse festers and grows, consuming everything in its path. Only one man can break it: Harkeld of Osgaard, a prince with mage's blood in his veins. But Prince Harkeld has a bounty on his head-and assassins at his heels.

 

Innis is a gifted shapeshifter. Now she must do the forbidden: become a man. She must stand at Prince Harkeld's side as his armsman, protecting and deceiving him.

 

But the deserts of Masse are more dangerous than the assassins hunting the prince. The curse has woken deadly creatures, and the magic Prince Harkeld loathes may be the only thing standing between him and death.