Gena Showalter guest blogs

Welcome Ms Gena Showalter! The talented, hilarious, prolific author (and hot alien chick) who wrote Awaken Me Darkly, Enslave Me Sweetly, Savor Me Slowly and a thousand more! Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win a chance to win a copy of Gena's Savor Me Slowly! And don't forget to check out Gena and her much younger partner in crime, Jill Monroe's, Author Talk interviews!






What are these Lords of the Underworld books about?

I’ve taken the myth of Pandora and completely turned it upside down. I claim the gods entrusted Pandora, the greatest warrior of her time, to guard the box. But a group of immortal warriors, her peers, fought and won it, opened it, and unleashed the horde of demons locked inside. Because of this, the gods punish each warrior to house a demon inside his own body. So the warriors become the box, so to speak. It’s not an easy pairing, either.

And did you always envision it as a trilogy, or did it evolve from a single-title idea? I’d always envisioned it as more than one book. I had planned to tell Death’s story first, but that was not the book that came out of me when I sat down to write. It was Maddox’s (Violence). Maybe because he was the one who actually opened the box and therefore was the most tortured of the group or maybe because the more I pieced together each warrior’s back-story, his intrigued me most.

After his story, I finally got to tell Lucien’s (Death), then Reyes’s (Pain), the two men bound to Maddox (Pain kills him every night -- as part of his curse -- and Death escorts his soul to hell every night - again, as part of his curse). But there are soooo many more to tell! Doubt, Lies, Misery, Wrath, Disease, Promiscuity. . . I adore these powerful, tormented men who skirt the edge of good and evil, as well as everything about the dark and seductive world I’ve created. Actually, ten might not be enough.

Have you written a series of this kind of scope before? If not, do you regard this as a kind of evolution in your career as an author?

This is, by far, the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken. Each story stretched my writing and imagination in ways they had never been stretched. There are more emotions, more world-building, more. . . everything. And every time I finished a Lords of the Underworld book, I’d have to vege out for a few weeks because I was completely wiped. But I loved it, I did. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished with these novels.

What can readers look forward to in terms of the books' male heroes? And what about the female characters?

Maddox, the hero of The Darkest Night, is keeper of Violence. I tried to stay true to his character and show his fierce struggle with the demon. Sometimes, he does not win that struggle and the demon overtakes him. His heroine, Ashlyn, is able to stand in one location and hear every conversation that’s ever taken place there. Lucien, the hero of The Darkest Kiss, is keeper of Death. He’s been ordered to escort the goddess of Anarchy’s soul to the hereafter. The tempestuous and fun-loving Anya views his attempts as a game. Reyes, the hero of The Darkest Pleasure, is keeper of Pain. He’s forced to self-torture to survive. Danika, his heroine, is being chased by his best friend, the demon of Wrath, for reasons the warriors do not yet know. Writing Reyes’s book was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had to tap into an emotional well I hadn’t known I possessed.

What inspired you to write the Lords of the Underworld books?

I’d just finished writing three lighter books – Playing With Fire, The Nymph King and Catch A Mate. I needed to write either the sequel to Playing With Fire or the next Atlantis books, the vampire king’s story. But neither of those stories would come to me. I had an entire list of ideas I’d been playing with -- one involved Pandora’s box, one involved cursed immortals who lived together in an exotic location, and one involved the grim reaper. On their own, none of the ideas seemed quite big enough. It was as I began to combine them that the magic happened for me. Here’s how it went down in my head:

What if it was the immortal warriors who opened Pandora’s box, releasing the demons trapped inside? What if the gods punish them and that’s why they’re cursed? What if they now house those demons inside themselves? It won’t be an easy partnership, of course, so they’ll have to move to. . . Greece ? Rome ? Budapest ?. . .to protect humans from themselves. (Note to self: research, research, research) And oh my God, one of the immortals could be possessed by the demon of Death – hello grim reaper story!

If you could be a character in any one of your books, who would you be and why?

Anya, the goddess of Anarchy from The Darkest Kiss. There’s something so magical about her. She steals unabashedly, spent some time in an immortal prison, has the quirkiest sense of humor I’ve ever encountered, but loves fiercely and will do anything for her man. Plus, she’s hot J If I had to pick a character from someone else’s novel, I’d go with Holly from Dark Desire’s After Dusk by Kresley Cole. Holly is sleeping with my new boyfriend, Cade. Plus, I just want to live in the world Cole has created.

Where can readers find out more about you? Website, blog, myspace, etc.?

I have spread my love far and wide, so I’m everywhere J For general information about me and my books, visit: www.genashowalter.com. For daily updates about what’s going on in my world, books and beefcake, visit: www.genashowalter.blogspot.com. For more information about the Lords of the Underworld series, visit: www.lordsoftheunderworld.net. For fun, visit: www.myspace.com/genashowalter.