Authors Are Rockstars Tour: C.C. Hunter Interviews Della + Giveaway

C.C. Hunter is the author of the young adult fantasy series Shadow Falls, including the books Born at Midnight and Awake at Dawn. She grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of Alabama bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she's still fascinated with lightning bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals. She now lives in Texas with her four rescued cats, one dog, and a prince of a husband, who for the record, is so not a frog. When she's not writing, she's reading, spending time with her family, or shooting things--with a camera, not a gun.

 C.C. Hunter is a pseudonym. Her real name is Christie Craig and she also writes humorous romantic suspense romance novels.   

Official Sites

 

• Author Website
• Author Blog
• Author Facebook
• Author Twitter

  What does "C.C." stand for?

  C.C. is for Christie Craig. That's my real name, and I also write humorous romantic suspense and non-fiction under that name. The "Hunter" is based on my maiden name, Hunt.

  Why didn't you answer my email? I sent it two days ago.

   I'm sorry. I'm working on the next Shadow Falls book, and that is really putting a crimp in my email response time. I promise I'll answer all emails, though. It just make take me a few days.

  How long did it take you to get published?

   Can I just say. . . a very, very long time. I sold my first book in 1994 and didn't sell another until 2007.

  Would you come to my school and give a talk about writing?

   I love to speak about writing, especially at schools and libraries! Please have your school principal or librarian contact me to discuss my appearance.

C.C. Hunter Interviews Della

“Come on in, Della,” I say when she appears in the doorway.

She just stands there, pokes her head in a few inches and frowns.  “Where in Hades am I?”

“Relax, it’s just my mind.  Some bloggers have decided that I should interview you.  Besides, Kylie’s been here before.”

“Look, C.C., or do I have to call you Mrs. Hunter?”

“C.C. is fine,” I tell her.

“Great.  The thing is, I know with you being the author and all, you’re like the Queen B with an itch around here, but your mind is downright freaky.  I mean, Kylie told me about this place, but I didn’t believe half the crap she said.  Now I’m gonna have to apologize to her.”  She took a tiny step inside.  “Oh, hell!  Is that a bloody sword?  Why do you have something like that hanging around your mind?”

“That would be nice,” I say to change the subject.

“What would be nice?” Della asks, but she doesn’t come in any further.

“Apologizing.  I hear you don’t do that very often.”

“Oh, please, did Miranda tell you that?  She’s always exaggerating everything.”

I shoot the little vampire a come clean look and she frowns.

“Okay, so I don’t like to apologize.  I don’t know why you’re shocked.  It's your fault—you made me this way.”

“I created you, yes, but you’re like the rest of the characters.  Pretty soon you had a mind of your own.  And you've argued with me more than anyone else.”

“So are you gonna explain the bloody sword or not?” Della asks, ignoring my comment.

“Let’ s just say it shows up toward the end of Whispers at Moonrise and continues to be used in Chosen at Nightfall.”

“Am I gonna get to use it to kill someone?”  Her expression lights up.

I roll my eyes.  “You always act so tough, but I don’t think you’d really want to kill someone.  Your bark is always worse than your bite.”

“You just haven’t been bitten by me.”  She exposes her extended canines.

I lean back in my office chair and shrug.  I can see why Miranda and Della fight so much.  “Would you just come inside and sit down so we can talk?”

“About what?”

“About the books.  About you and Kylie and Miranda.  And maybe even about  . . . Steve.  The hot shape-shifter, the one you think has a cute butt.”

“Please, I’m not talking about Steve.  Or his butt.”  But for some reason she finally enters the room.   And I think I see interest in her eyes.

“Why not?” I ask.

“The guy’s a jerk.”

“When?”

“Don’t you remember?  In that scene in Whispers at Moonrise.”

I lean forward.  “The only time he’s been a jerk is when you were acting like a jerkette.”

“Jerkette?  Is that even a word?”

“I’m a writer,” I remind her.  “I can make up words.”

Della flops down on the brown leather sofa in the corner of my mind, and continues to look around.  Her gaze lands on the bloody sword again. 

I follow her gaze and I admit it is kind of freaky and it’s probably making the vamp hungry. 

“You’re wrong,” Della says.  “I could kill someone.  If they were hurting someone I cared about.  I could make a shish kabob out of them.”

“And who do you care about?”  I know Della cares about a lot of people; she just goes around pretending she doesn’t.

“Remember who you’re talking to,” she says.  “You don’t really expect me to get all mushy and sentimental, do you?”

“I’m not asking for mushy.  Just the facts.  Do you care about Kylie?”

“Of course I care about Kylie.  She’s like the coolest friend I have.”

“How about Miranda?”

Della makes a funny face.  “The little witch drives me batty sometimes. But yeah, I care about her, too.  The three of us . . . we’re there for each other.  You know, like really best friends.”

“I know.  And I can’t tell you how many emails I get talking about your friendship.  People really admire that about you guys.  The friendship is a big part of the Shadow Falls series.”

Her eyes cut back to the sword.  “Yeah, but I’d bet they’d like to see me slice and dice someone with that sword, too.  Hey . . . action sells things.  Action and sex.”

“Forget the sword,” I say.  “What about Steve?  Do you care about him?”

“I see what you’re doing here.”  Della points her finger at me.  I’m just lucky it’s not the middle one.  Face it, Della does misbehave sometimes.  “You’re trying to make me agree to get all lovey dovey with someone so you can have more romance in the book.”

“And you don’t want any part of that?” I ask.  “You don’t want a guy who thinks you’re special?  You don’t want to feel his lips touching yours?  Or to feel that fluttery feeling in your stomach because a guy looks at you as if he can’t see anyone else in the world?”

Della stares at the wall for a second then turns back to me.  “Oh, hell, no.  I don’t want that.  It messes with your mind.  Seriously, look how Miranda acted the entire book of Whispers at Moonrise.  I swear, if I had to hear her go on one more time about how wonderful and super sexy Perry was, I was going to puke.  Lose all my O negative blood in one big hurl.  And look at Kylie.  You wrote what happened to her.  Who wants to get hurt like that?  I sure as heck don’t.”

“Love can be hard, but it’s always worthwhile. You know that.  You had that with Lee, your old boyfriend, before you were turned into a vampire.”

Della frowns.  “Yeah, and I don’t want to talk about Lee.  And I’m leaving if you try to make me.”

I see a dark cloud of pain fill her eyes when she says his name.  She really cared about him.  I hope she’s ready to move on.  She deserves to be happy.

She looks around a second and then says, “He’s getting married, you know.  Lee, I mean.”

“I know and that has to be hard.”

“No, it’s not,” she insists.  “I don’t even care.”

I know if I was a vampire, I could hear her heart beating to a lie just now.  The silence is long.  “You know I’m working on Chosen at Nightfall right now, don’t you?”

“I figured you were.”

“Well, what if you let me at least try to get you and Steve together?”

Della frowns again.  “I tell you what.  You let me kill someone with the sword and I’ll kiss the guy once or twice for you.”

I shake my head.  “You are so full of bluff.”

“No, you are full of--”

“Let’s watch our language.  I don’t know if bloggers will allow those kinds of words.”

              Della frowns.  “So you’re actually writing Chosen at Nightfall right now?”

              I nod. 

“Why am I not there?” she asks.

“Don’t you remember what I set up at the end of Whispers at Moonrise?” 

“You didn’t!” she snaps.

“Chill, it’s going to be okay.”

She scowls a minute and then asks, “So . . . who is going to win Kylie’s heart at the end?”

              I shake my head at her question.  “I don’t know, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

              “Why?  You know that’s what all these readers want to know.  Who will Kylie choose? Lucas, the hot werewolf, or Derek, the handsome fairy.”

              “You know what?  I think you are underestimating the readers.  I think they are reading for a lot of other things, too.  I’ll bet they’d like to hear about you and Steve.”

              “Not happening,” Della stood up.  “Can I go now?”

              I nod.  “Thanks for talking to me.”

              She almost gets out the door when she turns around.  “Have you talked to Steve about this romance crap?”’             

              I can’t help it.  I grin.  “So you’re interested, huh?”

              “Of course not.  I’m just curious how he took the news.  I bet he freaked out.”

              “I think you might be surprised.”  I chuckle as Della walks away.  Then I sigh and pull over my mental keyboard and go back to plotting my next scene in Chosen at Nightfall.  I’m not sure Della will go for it, but maybe, just maybe . . .

Amazon.com  Barnes & Noble  Katy Budget Books  iBooks

  C.C. is offering a fantastic Shadow Falls T-Shirt. 
  I am offering several swag packs with note pads, pens and bookmarks in them.

1. One entry per HOUSEHOLD.

2. There will be ONE winner for the T-Shirt and several for the swag packs.

3. You must be 13 or older.

4. Giveaway is US only.

5. Contest ends at 9:01 p.m. Eastern on Friday, August 31st, 2012.

6. To enter please leave your name and your favorite SHADOW FALLS novel in the comment section. The winners will be chosen by Random.Org.

7. Winners will have 48 hours after notification to respond with their details.