Thursday, May 30, 2013

How about Mystery & Suspense in Paranormals?


Welcome Eileen Watkins to the HOT and Sexy Paranormal Memorial Day Giveaway Event. The last day of our Paranormal Event and Giveaway.


Dark Music: A Quinn Matthews Haunting Mystery


Welcome to the Passion Sense Blog, E.F. (Eileen) Watkins. Visitors, if you like what you read, please check out her books at
 
AmberQuill
Amazon
 
Eileen will be giving a FREE copy of her book Dark Music. Leave a comment and email for a chance to WIN.
 
Kathy Kulig: Hello, Eileen. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re from and how you became a writer.


E.F. : I've lived since age 5 in northern New Jersey, and I've probably wanted to write books for almost that long. When I first learned to print, I would fold pieces of paper in half (ironically, just about the size of today's trade paperback), draw a picture on the front and start printing a story inside. Not having any idea what I was doing, back then, I ran out of steam pretty quickly! I wrote my first short story at the end of high school, and a revision of that won a major contest my freshman year in college. By senior year I'd done a "fan-fiction" novella based on the TV soap Dark Shadows, which I shared mainly with my friends. As soon as I graduated, I started writing full-length paranormal thrillers that I sent around repeatedly to agents and editors without success. It took me decades to find a simpatico publisher, but now the final versions of most of those plots--revised many times--are finally in print through Amber Quill Press, LLC.

Kathy Kulig: What paranormal elements and characters do you incorporate in your stories? Who are your favor paranormal creatures—Vampires, werewolves, demons, etc.?


E. F.: Cliche as it sounds, I'm a vampire fan, because I think the myth has so many facets that you can interpret it in various ways, emphasizing whatever parts you want. Otherwise, I've used some fairly offbeat paranormal villains and semi-villains: a genetic-mutant CEO, an ancient fertility god and a pagan priestess with shape-shifting powers (all operating in modern times), to name a few.

Kathy Kulig: What are you working on at the moment? New release coming up?


E. F.: My latest for 2013 is the paranormal mystery Dark Music, a contemporary haunted-house story with a subplot from the turn of the century (how the ghosts ended up as ghosts). My heroine Quinn Matthews is a single, 30-something woman who tries to restore a Victorian house and becomes a target for spirits trying to work out their unfinished business through her. To "cleanse" her house, Quinn must re-investigate the murder of its first owner, a dashing classical pianist whose love life was far from "Victorian." (His ghost even attempts to put some moves on her from beyond the grave!) In the process, Quinn develops psychic gifts she never realized she possessed. I hope to keep her going as a psychic amateur sleuth, and I'm now finishing up my second Quinn Matthews Haunting Mystery, called Hex, Death and Rock'n'Roll.
 
Kathy Kulig: Where can readers find out about you and your books?
E.F.: In addition to the sites given above, my personal website is http://www.efwatkins.com and my Facebook home page is E-F-Watkins. Visitors, posts and emails always welcome!

Kathy Kulig: Thank you for interviewing today on my Passion Sense Blog. Good luck with Dark Music and we look forward to having you back.
 
What an amazing Paranormal Giveaway Event! I'd like to thank all the authors who participated and the visitors who stopped by. I may have to do this again by the response I've been getting. Give us a few days and we'll select the winners from each of the authors participating. Each author will contact the winner. Happy Reading!!! I hope you have a few new authors to check out!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dark Music has piqued my interest. It seems like it would be a great mystery read.

Unknown said...

I absolutely love thrillers, suspense, and all paranormal books. Thank you so much for sharing.
denise.gardner69@gmail.com

Kathy Kulig said...

Thanks MZD, I thought it sounded like a great read too.

Hi Denise, I'm with you on all those stories. Thanks for stopping by at the Passion Sense blog.

Eileen, Thanks for being a guest and talking about Dark Music. :)

E. F. Watkins said...

Thanks for your interest, everyone! Dark Music is my first attempt to really fuse my love of paranormal with mystery. I found myself reading more and more mysteries, so this seemed a natural direction to go in. Also, when I market my books in person, people often tell me, "I love mysteries, but I don't like anything that's too scary," which I think means really nasty and gory. So I'm hoping in these books to scare folks a little without overdoing the horror. And the cozy-mystery genre also leaves room to inject some humor, even if it's usually the dark kind! My psychic heroine shares my macabre sense of humor (and she needs it, to deal with the situations she encounters).