My Next Big Thing

If you’ve been following the “Next Big Thing” blog hop going
around author websites, you may have seen my post on the Being Emily site announcing
that the sequel is in progress. There’s more exciting news. I recently signed
the contract for another book to come out next year – a romantic paranormal
novel.

The details about the book are below but I also want to add
that this book and any others in its series will be out under my pen name
“Rachel Calish.” As you can see, I’m not using the pen name to cover my
identity, rather it’s to distinguish the two kinds of books that I write. Young
adult is a very different genre than romantic paranormal, so I wanted to let
readers decide for themselves if they want to read in both genres rather than
assuming that someone who loved Being Emily will automatically want to read my
paranormal novels.

What is
the working title of your next book?

The Demon
Abraxas

What genre
does your book fall under?

Romantic paranormal/urban
fantasy

What is
the synopsis or blurb of your book?

Having escaped the poverty and violence of her childhood, Ana thought
she didn’t have room for any more inner demons until she met one who knew more
about being human than she did.

Ana Koury knows there’s more
to life and she’s determined to find it when a chance meeting with the icy and
brilliant Sabel sends her running into danger. Seized by a group of men
determined to summon a powerful demon, Ana can only escape by allowing the
demon Abraxas to inhabit her body.  She chooses to work with him to go
after the men who thought they could use her.

Sabel Young is an
accomplished professor and the student of a powerful group of witches who
demand her complete submission in order to teach her how to control the magic
coursing through her body. They have assigned her to watch Ana, but without
emotional involvement. That seems like easy work until she meets Ana face to
face and is stunned by her attraction to this woman who is strong enough to
host a demon.

With her world turned upside
down, Ana finds herself drawing closer to Sabel – unaware that her involvement
puts Sabel in danger from every side.

Where did
the idea come from for the book?

The world I created for this
book is a combination of two ideas:

1. Some demons are good.
There’s nothing in the world that’s 100% evil. When we think it’s okay to
“demonize” a whole group of people, for example, we get into trouble. So what
if you couldn’t even demonize demons? Historically in the pre-Christian era there were demons who worked to protect and help humanity. What if those demons
are still around taking care of us and protecting us from the adversarial
demons? And what would you do if you had to allow one of those protector demons
to live in your body in order to survive?

2. Real magic is unseen. I
wanted to create a world that felt believably like the world we experience –
where we don’t see magic happening but it can feel like there are powerful
forces at work around us.

Which
actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I haven’t settled on an Ana
yet, but I’d love to see Sabel portrayed by Serinda Swan or Anna Skellern.

Will your
book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Bella Books is the
publisher.

How long
did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Hard to say since I wrote
the first draft in 2003 as my thesis for my master’s degree and have since
re-written it many times. Originally Ana was in a heterosexual romance, but I’m
not as good at writing that as I am lesbian romance and I think she was
relieved to get to come out. She’s certainly been excited about the addition of
Sabel to the story, though she really wishes that 2000 years of animosity
between the demons and the witches wasn’t smacked down in the middle of her new
relationship.

Who or
what inspired you to write this book?

Readers who know me have
probably heard by now that I often write because I’m angry about something. In
2003 I was angry about some shallow paranormal novels on the market. I wanted
to see novels with the same level of action and sexiness but with more depth to
the characters and ideas.

Since then I’ve read a lot
of work from Jacqueline Carey and Patricia Briggs that I’ve really enjoyed. I
hope readers of my book will see influences from their work in mine.

I’ll have the Rachel Calish website up in the spring or
summer of 2013. In the mean time ifyou want to stay in the loop, you’re welcome
to friend my alter ego on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rachel.calish.