Interview w/ Jeannie Holmes

Jeannie Holmes

UF and Paranormal Suspense Author
Upcoming release: Blood Secrets,
Book 2 of the Alexandra Sabian series.
Blog Tour Appearance, June 18, 2011

About Jeannie (Credit: Author site)
Jeannie Holmes is the author of the Alexandra Sabian series, and fears spiders, large bodies of water, and bad weather. She moved from the backwoods of southwestern Mississippi to the Alabama Gulf Coast where she now lives with her husband and four neurotic cats. She enjoys art, exploring old cemeteries, traveling, and when she isn’t writing or has her nose stuck in a book, she spends her time searching for a really good cup of coffee.

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Welcome to YzhaBella’s BookShelf Jeannie! Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview!

Can you give us a quick description of Blood Secrets?

Blood Secrets is the second installment of the Alexandra Sabian series. Alex is an Enforcer with the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation in Jefferson, Mississippi and is working with her former mentor, Varik Baudelaire, to solve the disappearance of a local college student. However, neither Alex nor Varik are aware that a killer known as the Dollmaker has set his sights on Alex and is determined to possess her—forever.

How about sharing a few tidbits of your main character, Alexandra Sabian?

The most obvious tidbits are that Alex is a vampire and a federal agent. She’s one of only a handful of vampires who are able to access the Shadowlands, a metaphysical “no man’s land” between the physical and spiritual planes, as well as the psychic ability of psychometry, meaning she can “see” past events and gather information on a person through touch. These abilities, however, aren’t exact and she has had the training to properly control them. Alex has a complicated personal life with an overprotective older brother, a somewhat meddling mother, and an ex-fiancé who refuses to go away. There’s also a lot more going on with Alex and Varik, as readers will discover in Blood Secrets. I don’t want to spoil the fun.

Did anyone in your own life inspire Alex’s personality?

No, there isn’t any one person who inspired Alex or any of the other characters. They all tend to be amalgamations of various traits and personalities I’ve encountered over time. I try very hard not to base any characters on real individuals.

How did you get the idea for the Alexandra Sabian series?

Alex, as a character, grew out of another novel I wrote before Blood Law. I now refer to that novel as my “trunk novel” because it’ll never see the light of day. It’s truly horrible. That book had humans, vampires, werewolves, fairies—everything except the kitchen sink, if I’m honest—but at the core was a murder mystery that Alex was trying to solve. After I tossed that first book and started over, I kept Alex and some of the other characters, most notably Varik Baudelaire, Stephen Sabian, Tasha Lockwood, and Damian Alberez, and the murder mystery. I decided to pull from my love of science fiction and pose the question “What if vampires were real?” That’s when the idea for making Alex and the other vampires a separate evolutionary path from humans was born.

Can you share with us your favorite part of the series, so far?

Unfortunately, no, I can’t. If I shared, it would definitely spoil the fun.

What has your publishing success been like? Has it had any unusual affects on your every day life?

I’m still a small fish in a big pond, but I’m growing. More readers are finding the series, and now with Blood Secrets only weeks away from release, it’s picking up more even readers. It’s steady, and I think that’s the key to long term success—sort of like Jason in the Friday the 13th movies. He may seem slow, but no matter how fast you run Jason always catches you in the end. As for unusual effects on my life, it hasn’t really changed with the exception that I’ve been recognized in the grocery store a few times, which was surreal. I never thought I’d have someone tell me they liked my book while I was holding a bag of frozen peas. Otherwise, my email volume has increased but I haven’t had any serious changes.

How do you keep track of your world building?

While I’m working on a book, I make liberal use of sticky notes to the point my laptop monitor looks like a frilled lizard. For the long term, I have notebooks for the series and a reader who acts as a continuity editor for me.

What are the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of writing?

The most challenging part is creating a believable world with believable characters. I want readers to be able to see, feel, taste, smell, and hear everything in Alex’s world so I spend a lot of time working on the details without bogging down the actual plot. I want that world to seem as real as ours, and that requires a lot of finessing. I also want the characters to be three dimensional, like they could step off the page and interact with the reader. It’s daunting but when a book is finished and readers contact me to say they enjoyed it, that’s the most rewarding part. That’s when I finally feel like I can relax a little—at least until I start working on the next book.

Can you please share with us how old you were when you wrote your first story?

I wrote my first story when I was six or seven years old. It was a lovely story about an earthworm that was separated from his family during a storm. He eventually found his way back home. It was even illustrated. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the story anymore.

Besides being a writer, what other types of jobs have you held?

I’ve had a lot of different jobs. I worked for a temporary agency for a few years so I spent a lot of times filling in for people in various offices. I was the supervisor of medical records for an out-patient psychiatric treatment center for a while. Some of the most fun jobs I’ve had though were a data entry job in a funeral home, an auction “hauler” (I bought collectibles and antiques from garage and estate sales and sold them at auctions for a profit.), and I also ran home-based bath product and jewelry businesses.

What are some of your favorite stories?

I love fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Some of my all-time favorite books are Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Have you always been a fan of Urban Fantasy?

Once I discovered it, yes, I was hooked. I’ve always liked the idea of a supernatural layer lurking beneath the surface of our modern world. It makes things so much more interesting.

Please share with us what can we expect from you next? Will there be another installment to the Alexandra Sabian series?

I’m taking a little break from Alex and Varik at the moment. Blood Secrets was a difficult book to write on many levels, and the characters and I need a little space. I’m working on a couple of other projects right now. However, I do have the next two books in the Alexandra Sabian series plotted and will be returning to Jefferson, Mississippi soon.

Do you have any upcoming appearances? If so where can your readers find you?

I have several blog appearances coming over the next few weeks as well as a virtual launch party with Bitten By Books. I have a few signings planned starting July 2, but not many because I wanted to scale back my travel schedule and spend more time writing. Readers can go to my website, www.jeannieholmes.com, and check the “Events” page for a complete list of when and where I’ll be hanging out.

Thanks gain for participating! Your time and responses are very much appreciated and we hope to see more of your works in the near future!

My pleasure and thanks for letting me hang out for a day!

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Now that you've all had a chance to learn a bit about Jeannie Holmes and her Alexandra Sabian series, mark your calendars to pop back here on June 28th for a pre-release review of Blood Secrets AND your chance to enter in a drawing for a signed copy of both Blood Law and Blood Secrets!

Disclaimer:  Contest winnings provided by the author to be shipped directly to the drawn winner upon entry verification and receipt of mailing address. Eligible to US/Canada only. Winner to be announced, via blog post, upon event completion. Winner shall be notified, via email, and shall have 72 hours to respond with the requested information. Further entry requirements to be provided with event post.  Please await official winner post for results and please refrain from making public &/or private inquires for the sole request of event results. 

Find Jeannie on the Web

Website

Blog

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FaceBook

Twitter

GoodReads

Chat Forum

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Blood Secrets, An Alexandra Sabian Novel
by Jeannie Holmes
Bantam Dell (Random House Inc.)
July 5, 2011
ISBN-10: 0553592688
ISBN-13: 978-0553592689

From the Publisher
WHEN ALEXANDRA SABIAN SINKS HER TEETH INTO AN INVESTIGATION, SHE DOESN’T LET GO.

Alex allowed a case involving murdered vamps to get personal and is suspended from the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation. Now she’s facing an official inquiry but has a chance to redeem herself. The catch: She must once again work with Varik Baudelaire, her former mentor and ex-fiancé, as he spearheads a search for a missing college student. But Varik has been keeping secrets from Alex, and his mysterious past is on a collision course with his present.

When Alex and Varik discover a carefully handcrafted doll at a crime scene, neither of them can see how close the danger really is or that a killer known as the Dollmaker has made Alex the object of his horrific desire. Now the only way out of the Dollmaker’s lair is through the twilight realm of the Shadowlands, where all secrets—for better or worse—will be revealed.

Other books included in the Alexandra Sabin series:



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