My Immortal Assassin Blog Tour: Interview and Giveaway with Carolyn Jewel

Grayson Spencer is hellbent on killing the dark mage who destroyed her life. But when her attempt fails, she is forced to turn to Durian, a feared demon and expert assassin. Newly armed with powerful magic she's barely able to control, she'll do whatever it takes to complete her mission--even surrender to a dangerous fiend whose eyes promise unimaginable pleasure.

Sworn to protect all mages, Durian can't let Gray threaten the uneasy peace among demons, humans, and mages. So he proposes a deal: He'll train Gray to master her gift if she'll bind herself magically to him, submitting to his control. As Gray's powers intensify, so too does Durian's hunger for this fierce, irresistible woman. When the dark mage makes a final play for Gray, will the passion she and Durian share be the key to their survival or the seed of their destruction?

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Welcome to this stop on Carolyn Jewel's

My Immortal Assassin Blog Tour!

Thank you for being with us today, Carolyn!

1. Please share some juicy details about Durian, the hero of your latest book My Immortal Assassin.

Durian is an assassin for the demon warlord Nikodemus. It’s his job to enforce the rules against harming humans. He’s a scary guy that way. You don’t want him on your bad side.

2. My Immortal Assassin is the third book in your My Immortal Series. For those new to the series, please tell us the common thread that binds the books together?

By way of background, the series is set in a present day world with regular humans going about their lives. But it happens that there really are such beings as demons. People who can do magic came about as a matter of self-defense during the Dark Ages and into Medieval times when demons were wreaking havoc on human lives.

Since those times, demons have self-policed themselves, but the magic-using humans (the magekind) haven’t quite caught on to that. They’re still killing and enslaving demons in the name of protecting regular humans. That’s not something demons care for, as you can imagine. There’s a faction of the demonkind who feel they’d be justified in going back to the old ways. A demon warlord named Nikodemus is working to prevent that. But it’s not easy trying to forge a peace.

3. You have an interesting post on your website called "Why Romance Novels Get No Respect." One of your concluding thoughts is that there is no excuse for heroines who are TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). What is your overall opinion of paranormal romance heroines? Are they more, less, or just as likely to fall into the TSTL category when compared to heroines of other subgenres?

I’ll answer your question a little bit backward and say that the TSTL heroine isn’t a genre problem, it’s an author problem. I’ve read literary novels with TSTL heroines. After all, it’s the author who takes mental shortcuts that put a TSTL heroine on the page. This is by no means limited to or more prevalent in Romance.

My point, in that article, was that Romance gets judged by the weakest stories, and all the many examples to the contrary are ignored. Critics behave as if there are no beautifully-written Romance novels and imply that the genre itself requires these ridiculous cliches. They conveniently forget that the flaws they point out exist in every other category of writing. In that article I was saying, as a concluding matter, that since Romance is being held to what amounts to a higher standard, authors need to be even more careful not to get lazy. It’s not fair, but that’s the reality.

My overall opinion of Romance heroines is that there are relatively few TSTL heroines, with the incidences decreasing all the time. That’s true of paranormal heroines as well. The level of writing required to get published is high. Social stereotypes that weren’t even questioned 20 years ago have been pretty well discredited in society. I think Romance readers (and you might as well substitute “readers”) are pretty sophisticated that way. They recognize lazy writing when they read it and they call writers on it when it happens.

4. I read in your author bio that you are a database administrator. Do you find your thoughts drifting to seductive romance heroes and their adventures during the day? How do you balance your two careers as a DBA and a writer?

From everything I’ve heard, most writers are in my situation, that is, holding down a full-time job and writing. Many of us are also raising families. Something has to give, and for me, it’s television. The only TV show I watch is True Blood. Other than that, I haven’t watched TV in over twenty years. I make sure I’m prepared and able to write just about anywhere. I always have a notebook and pen with me, and I have a laptop. I often work on my lunch hour or when waiting at sports practices and the like.

5. What do you do to unwind and relax?

Read or sleep. That’s pretty much it.

Giveaway Details

Thanks to Hachette Books, I have 3 copies of My Immortal Assassin to give away! To enter, please leave a comment with a way to contact you.

Contest open to residents of the US and Canada. No P.O. Boxes, please. Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if they win the same title in two or more contests, they will receive only one copy of the title (or one set in the case of grouped giveaways) in the mail.

Contest is open until Saturday, 1/29/2011, at 11:59 pm Central Time. Winners will receive their books directly from Hachette. Good luck!