Urban fantasy author Piper Maitland is back at the Nook today. Last year, she stopped by with a guest post about her writing rituals as part of her tour for her first book, "Acquainted with the Night". Now the sequel, "Hunting Daylight" is out and Piper took the time to answer a few questions for me.
Piper Maitland lives on a Tennessee farm with her family. She is the author of the paramormal romance, Acquainted With the Night (Berkley/November 2011). The sequel, Hunting Daylight, was published on 2/5/13 by Berkley/Penguin USA. Piper has also written novels under the name Michael Lee West.
Find Piper online:
Website
Twitter
Bea: If you could be a character in a book, which one would it be, and what part would you play? (Romantic lead, sidekick, etc)
Piper Maitland lives on a Tennessee farm with her family. She is the author of the paramormal romance, Acquainted With the Night (Berkley/November 2011). The sequel, Hunting Daylight, was published on 2/5/13 by Berkley/Penguin USA. Piper has also written novels under the name Michael Lee West.
Find Piper online:
Website
*Spoilers for the first book in the questions*
Bea, I’m excited to visit you today. Your questions are always
fun and make me think. Without further ado, I’ll start with the first one.
Thanks Piper. It's great to have you back again.
Bea: If you could be a character in a book, which one would it be, and what part would you play? (Romantic lead, sidekick, etc)
Piper: I’d want to be Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Why? Darcy. And I adore Lizzie’s wit and
spunk.
Bea: Do you have a guilty pleasure? If so, what is it?
Piper: I’m a dead-serious cook, but I also like to buy store-bought
desserts and gild them with flowers or drizzled chocolate.
Bea:
Do you think social media is important these days for an author?
Piper: It seems to be a part of everyday life. I love my blog, though I
write about food, not books. I treasure the friendships I’ve made, so it’s
truly a social thing for me. I enjoy Pinterest, too.
Bea:
Why jump so far forward in time instead of picking up the story closer to the
end of the first book?
Piper: A great editor once explained how to handle trilogies and series
fiction: to forget that I’d written the first book and pretend it was
backstory. She also told me to be fearless with the timeline. Jude and Caro’s
daughter, Vivi, is at the center of an 8th century prophecy, one
that signals a showdown between humans and immortals. The first novel had ended
with Caro’s pregnancy. If the action in Hunting
Daylight had begun with Vivi in utero, or even as a baby, she wouldn’t have
become a fully-realized character. Worse, she could end up as a plot device,
Vivi MacGuffin.
Bea: If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be and why?
Piper: James Bond. He’s handsome, sophisticated, and has a license to
kill. We’d begin our dinner at the Athenaeum Hotel in London. Between the
martinis and dessert (a delicious trifle), I’d listen to his juicy stories.
Thank you Piper for taking the time to answer my questions. Best of luck with your tour!
Piper will be
continuing her blog tour on Feb. 10th at www.ismellsheep.com!
******************************************************************
Book Blurb (from goodreads) ~ *Spoilers for the first book*