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Monday, March 24, 2008

Welcome Guest Blogger Seressia Glass



A note from Divas of the Dark:
Winner of Amazon gift certificate is Tuesday and winner of a copy of Kitty and the Silver Buller is Savanna Kougar. Congrats winners! Email me and I'll get your prizes right out to you. Didn't win? Don't despair. Comment today until midnight and be entered for a chance to win a copy of Dream of Shadows or Vegas Bites Back


An author friend of mine recently asked me for an interview: Of the interracial, contemporary, and paranormal romances that you've written, which genre is your favorite? I told her that I love all the stories and genres that I write in equally because at the end of the day, my stories will still be 90% about the romance, if not more.

Sorry Dyanne, I lied.

I love paranormal romance. This love is deeply rooted in some of my favorite childhood experiences. I grew up reading comics, fantasy and science fiction. (Did you know that A Wrinkle in Time was rejected 26 times as being too different? I love that story!) I also watched every incarnation of Superfriends that I could, including the Wonder Twins and that stupid space monkey. Anyone remember Land of the Lost? Anyway, stories of the fantastical have been part of my life since I discovered the joy of reading all those years ago.

My first prose attempts were fantasies (aside from one autobiography of a piece of bubble gum.) Then sometime in my teens I discovered romance. I don't remember what the first one was, other than it was probably a historical, a subgenre which in itself is a bit of fantasy to me. I continued to read historicals while working my way to being published in contemporary romance.

Then I discovered paranormals. More specifically, Forever and the Night by Linda Lael Miller. I quickly began reading every paranormal I could get my hands on, even after I sold my contemporary single titles. In fact, my first paranormal didn't come until seven years after my first contemporary, a little novella about a black female werewolf and a djinn in an anthology called Vegas Bites.

Why paranormals? Because they combine the best of both worlds. The provide the true other-worldliness and in the best cases, terrific world-building that fantasy and science fiction deliver. And of course, they also deliver the promise that romance novels offer.

On a personal note, writing paranormals allow me to provide extra seasonings to established genres. In Vegas Bites, the core family are werewolves given their Were gifts after they escaped from a plantation in Louisiana . So much history to mine there, history that defines their characters and conflicts. In my first single title, Dream of Shadows, the women of the family have psychic gifts that have been handed down since the first of their line was given her gifts by an African goddess. In writing paranormals, I get to indulge my fascination with Egyptian and Nubian history, African folktales, and more. With paranormal romances, you may know how the love story ends, but everything in between is wide open. You get to ask yourself, What if? and the answers are endless.

Seressia Glass
www.seressia.com
www.seressia.com/blog
www.myspace.com/seressia
Dreams of Shadows Available Now:
Click here to order from Amazon.
Click here to order from Parker Publishing.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Emma Petersen said...

Hey Seressia! Welcome to Divas of the Dark and thanks so much for guest blogging!

I looooooved Forever and the Night! It's still one of my favorites.

I love adding history to my stories. To be honest, I sometime worried that a lot of people wouldn't be receptive to the some of them because I didn't sugarcoat anything.

March 23, 2008 at 9:58 PM  
Blogger Savanna Kougar said...

Hi, Seressia. Beautiful name. I may have to steal it for one of my heroines. Being an ancient baby boomer my fantasy/paranormal influences and stories were different, but my experience similar to yours. My first romance paranormal was the futuristic, Star something, by a very famous author, who's name my brain refuses to remember now. Truthfully, I can't write a romance without something paranormal/fantasy about it.

March 24, 2008 at 1:18 PM  
Blogger Cathy M said...

Totally love reading paranormal romances too, and really enjoyed the excerpt for Dream of Shadows.

March 24, 2008 at 2:52 PM  
Blogger Seressia said...

Thanks Emma for having me over! I think sugarcoating actually does a disservice. I think that's why I stopped reading historicals, particularly American historicals. More than a few of those historical heroines would have been locked away or killed for some of their modern views.

Savanna, thanks--my goal is to walk into a tourist trap and find a keychain with my name on it. To do that, I need as many girls named Seressia running around as possible.

Cathy--glad you enjoyed the excerpt!

March 24, 2008 at 3:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey there Seressia!

Thanks for sharing about your books. I love paranormals (and heroes that go bump in the night)

Samara King

March 24, 2008 at 6:58 PM  
Blogger Jennifer C. said...

Hey Seressia, I just found my love for paranormal towards the middle of last year. I loved it so much I started to pen my first paranormal short story. I had the pleasure of reading Vegas Bites Back and loved it. I wish I would have known there was a book before it, but either way I enjoyed it thoroughly.

March 24, 2008 at 8:07 PM  
Blogger tetewa said...

Enjoyed the post today and I love paranormals is my favorite genre to read. You are a new author for me and I'm always looking for them.

March 24, 2008 at 8:30 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I enjoy paranormals I have just started reading them. I do like a little history added to them. You would be a new author to me, so I would love to read one of your books.

March 26, 2008 at 5:19 PM  
Blogger Seressia said...

Okay, so I got hit with the stupid stick and thought Emma would choose the winners and not me. I could blame it on the book due Monday but I won't. Mea honking culpa.

So I pulled two names out of my steel-toed boot. The winner of the Vegas Bites Back anthology is Savanna Kougar. And the winner of Dream of Shadows is tetewa. Please email your snail mail addy to letters at seressia dot com and I'll put your books in the mail on Monday!

March 29, 2008 at 8:12 PM  

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