Multi-genre author, Dana Wright proves that horror wears many hats. With her brand new story Asylum - the first in her Ghost Echoes series - she has written a novella, full of suspense, the supernatural and some serious sexual tension between her two main characters. I'm delighted she is joining me today - and she's talking about writing, research, and how to juggle life, the day job and dealing with deadlines:
1
Tell us about your newest
release.
My newest release is
called Asylum and it is about a young
woman named Rachel who can see behind the veil and connect with spirits. When
she is faced with taking another ghost hunting job after a horrible accident,
she is tormented but needs the money to get her grandmother out of a terrible
nursing home. She goes to Bremore Asylum with her nemesis, the psychic debunker
Matt Rutledge. He thinks she’s a load of hot air and is about to learn the hard
way she isn’t. (That’s one of my favorite parts of the story.)
What was one thing you wanted
to research when writing the story?
The research into old
asylums and the abuse that went on in some of them. Women were placed in
asylums by their families for failing to comply with the social attitudes of
the time and there was a lot of pain that stuck around. I wanted to explore
that.
The other thing I wanted
to explore is the genuine phenomenon of connecting with the spirit world
(Rachel’s point of view) and fighting the type of shyster that takes advantage
of people in times of great hardship or grief. (Matt Rutledge’s character).
They both have very valid points of view and it was wonderful to see them mesh.
Do you have anything you do
before you start a project?
When I start a new story I
immediately go to Pinterest and start looking at images associated with the
current project and if they connect, then I make a board. I also pick out music
that fits the theme if it is very pronounced. For example, one story I have
under my pen name deals with a dark circus/urban fantasy type of environment. I
found the most amazing album that had creepy circus music and the story came
alive in my mind. The catch is to find something that doesn’t distract with
lyrics or I’ll be singing (badly) instead of writing.
Which authors have influenced your work?
Anne Rice |
Stephen King was a biggie
in my formative years. I also read a ton of Anne Rice and a wonderful anthology
given to me by my sister for Christmas one year when I was a child called Tales of Horror and the Supernatural. I think the tendrils worked their way
into my brain. Lol. I also read a lot of Virginia Henley, Nancy Collins, Kim
Harrison and Melissa Marr. Urban fantasy, horror, romance, mystery and young
adult all find their way into my stories at one point or another.
How does your family like you
being an author?
They are excited for me. I
write under two names and they love that I am doing light romance now and
demand I write a werewolf or shifter novel. My thinking cap is on.
My husband is my biggest
cheerleader. We have worked out a system where he will go to the grocery store
and throw me chicken strips or a pizza when deadlines loom and I’m freaking out
trying to balance a full time job and writing under two names. It is a
balancing act, but with his help I am able to get quality writing time almost
every day.
I love to crochet, knit,
play with my furry canine children, bake and read. But as you can imagine,
writing comes first and I don’t get to do as much of my hobbies as I would
like. Monster movies are also a favorite and you can often find me watching
Netflix on my iPad doing my hair or glued to the set while I sit with my
husband while we eat, then I dive right back into my writer cave.
What’s next?
I am working on the next
Ghost Echoes story, two YA books, a horror novella and about a dozen other
different projects. I’m also working on a middle grade series and it is in the
planning stages.
Seven things to know about me:
1.
I am a dog mom.
2.
In my day to day life I am a
bookstore manager.
3.
I can’t drive a stick shift to
save my life.
4.
Spiders are awesome but roaches
make me scream like a girl. (Spiders knit-they are useful but roaches are just
nasty little things.)
5.
I hate tomatoes but love
spaghetti.
6.
I write under two names. Dana
Wright for YA, horror and light romance. Erzabet Bishop for erotic horror and
all sorts of erotic romance.
7.
Pizza and macaroni and cheese
are my favorite comfort foods outside of chocolate.
The ''awesome" spider |
Thanks for having me on the
blog today Catherine! It was a lot of fun and I hope you will all love Asylum.
Thank you for being my guest, Dana. And, for the record, I LOVED Asylum!
Blurb:
The voices of the past are alive behind the
iron gates of Bremore Asylum. Can Rachel and Matt deduce its secrets before
it's too late?
When Rachel agrees to take the job
investigating the disappearance of a fellow ghost hunter at Bremore Asylum, she
is totally unprepared for the sexy and stubborn psychic debunker Matt Rutledge
to be a part of the package. Can these two opposing forces find the answers
behind the asylum's crumbling walls before they become the newest victims to
the asylum's grim history?
Excerpt:
Rachel narrowed her eyes. What little hold
she held on her frayed temper snapped. Self-doubt flared, but she stamped it
out as quickly as it came.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She stepped forward, hands clenched into fists, her foot brushing against the
luggage. Her hoodie slid off the suitcase and flopped unceremoniously into the
dirt.
"We haven't even started on the
project and you're trying to displace me already?"
Rutledge stepped back, surprise clear on
his lightly parted lips. Lips she apparently still wanted to kiss, damn his
eyes. God, what was wrong with her?
"My friend almost died because of a
mistake I made. But you're already aware of that, aren't you, Mr. High and
Mighty? Listen to me and listen good. I'm here because my grandmother needs me.
I'm a damn fine ghost hunter, which you would already know if you bothered to
see beyond what happened to Jeannie." She poked her finger into his chest
and had the satisfaction of seeing him wince.
Matt stepped back and held up his hands, a
ruddy flush creeping up his cheeks. "Okay. I was out of line. Truce?"
He bent down and carefully picked up her hoodie, handing it to her gingerly.
"Thank you, Mr. Rutledge." Rachel
snatched the hoodie from his hands and tied it around her waist with a firm
yank. She didn't want to chance it falling in the dirt again and it was going
to be a long weekend. At the rate they were going, it was going to be a full-on
ice storm between them.
A flash of humor crossed his face. "Do
you think maybe you could call me Matt?"
"That depends."
"On what?" Matt cocked his
eyebrow with surprise.
"On whether you can stop dissecting me
like one of your frauds."
You can buy Asylum here:
About
the author:
Dana Wright has always had a fascination
with things that go bump in the night. She is often found playing at local
bookstores, trying not to maim herself with crochet hooks or knitting needles,
watching monster movies with her husband and furry kids or blogging about
books. More commonly, she is chained to her computers, writing like a woman
possessed. She is currently working on several children's stories, young adult
fiction, romantic suspense, short stories and is trying her hand at poetry.
She
is a contributing author to Ghost Sniffer’s CYOA, Siren’s Call E-zine in their
“Women in Horror” issue in February 2013 and "Revenge" in October
2013, a contributing author to Potatoes!, Fossil Lake, Of Dragons and Magic:
Tales of the Lost Worlds, Undead in Pictures, Potnia, Shadows and Light, Dark
Corners, Wonderstruck, Shifters: A Charity Anthology, Dead Harvest, Monster
Diaries (upcoming), Holiday Horrors and the Roms, Bombs and Zoms Anthology from
Evil Girlfriend Media. She is the author of Asylum due out in October
2014. Dana has also reviewed music for
Muzikreviews.com specializing in New Age and alternative music and has been a
contributing writer to Eternal Haunted Summer, Nightmare Illustrated, Massacre
Magazine, Metaphor Magazine, The Were Traveler October 2013 edition: The Little
Magazine of Magnificent Monsters, the December 2013 issue The Day the Zombies
Ruled the Earth. She currently reviews music at New Age Music Reviews and Write
a Music Review.
Follow Dana’s reviews:
Twitter: @danawrite
Thanks for having me on the blog today Catherine! So glad you loved Asylum.
ReplyDeleteI can thoroughly recommend it, Dana. Thanks again for joining me today!
DeleteI always think an asylum is a great place to set a spooky tale. There's something very creepy about these old places. Sounds a fabulous read.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fab read, Shey. And I agree. There's something about deserted asylums...
DeleteDah de dahhhh dhhhh dahhhhhhhhhhhh dah
ReplyDeleteWell, 'tis the season...
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