Please help me welcome author Shelly Holt to the blog today!
Shelly Holt - Thanks for having me on Where Love &
Destiny Collide today.
Q – Tell us a little about yourself.
Shelly Holt - I
was raised in Huntington Beach, California, but now I live in the middle of the
Mojave desert. I don't live too
far from the hottest place on earth (Death Valley National Park.) I moved to Nevada in 2005 to help out my
parents who relocated here to retire, but had serious medical issues. It really
is a very different lifestyle from busy Orange County.
Q – Did you always want to be an author? What made you choose to write romance?
Shelly Holt – No, but I was always a reader. When I did start to write, I actually
tried YA before I tried romance.
After 40 rejections, I realized my writing wasn't the issue, the genre
was. I did a lot of research and
quickly realized that I would have a much better chance of success writing
romance. The paranormal genre fit
my writing style fairly well.
Q – What is your favorite part of being a writer/author?
Shelly Holt - I
love mythology and folklore and part of my process is to find a myth or legend
and then create an entire world around it. That was what I did with the Pari (shape-shifting, snow
leopards) I didn't make up the
Pari, I read about the legends and then developed a colorful mythology and back
story around it.
Q – Tell us a little about your book. What inspired you to write it?
Shelly Holt – When I decided to change genres and try my
hand at paranormal romance, I knew I would be competing against hundreds if not
thousands of other similar books.
To succeed, I had to write a very different type of story. Since I
chose to focus on
the mythology of shape-shifters
in cultures around the
world, I first had
learn about them. I spent
a week researching
Himalayan cultures and
folklore until I
found something I could
use and build from. I read
about the myth of
the Pari which are
seductive female mountain
spirits that if
angered can shift
into the form of
a snow leopard and
attack.
I drew up
a plot that revolved
around the hypothesis
that if the Pari
were real, how did
they come to exist? I researched
methods of bacterial
transmission and eventually
came up with the
idea that if shape-shifters
throughout history were
caused by an infection,
it would have to
be difficult to catch,
otherwise everybody
and their grandmother
would be a shape-shifter. That was
how I decided to
make the infection
come from a thermophilic
(heat loving) bacteria that
only lives in hot
springs around the
world. You
can't catch it from
another shape-shifter,
but you can inherit
the condition
from your parents. This method
of transmission gives
rise to the many
different mythologies
of shape-shifters that
have evolved from every
culture on the
planet.
As Dr. Rae
Hales, my heroine surmises
“if the Pari are
real, doesn't that mean
they could all be
real?” I treat
shape-shifting in the books as a medical condition. It has significant physical, social and economic side
effects that arise from the condition and the thrust of the book deals with
that.
There is no magic in Tasting Fire by
design. This forced me as a writer
to not use a crutch to prop up weak writing. Instead, I was forced to develop a strong plot and create
fully developed characters.
There is humor, adventure, passion, and intelligence. Tasting Fire is not a light read. If you want a book where the hero and
heroine fall into bed within the first two minutes of meeting each other, than
this is not the book for you. If
you are looking for a rich, textured story full of world building and character
development, and if you want to lose yourself in an intelligent, romantic,
sexy, adventure, this is your book!
Excerpt
Rae took an admiring look at the vista
below as she dropped her heavy pack on the ground. The mountains in the distance looked purple and the desert
brush spread out below them like a master oil painting. It was awe inspiring to human
eyes. Rae wondered what would it
look like to a snow leopard. She
suddenly realized many a biologist would sell their very soul for the
opportunity she had at that moment.
Rae turned to Kai who had been sitting on the ground with his pack and
fishing around for lunch and asked him
“what is it like when you're in your Shan form out in country like
this?” Kai rewarded Rae with
the most brilliant smile she had yet seen to grace the handsome shape-shifter's
face.
He seemed truly delighted to discuss the
subject with her. Kai stood up to
answer Rae's question. He
addressed the human scientist.
“It's like nothing you can imagine Rae. Every sense is in tune with the planet. See that tree over there” he pointed a
few yards away at an ancient gnarled pinyon. “Yes” Rae
replied. Kai walked up behind Rae
and put his hands on her shoulders and directed her to look even closer at the
tree. He whispered intimately in
her ear as if they were in a church or another sacred space “when you look at
that tree with your limited human vision, the average person can certainly
appreciate its form and color.
A biologist like yourself would ask what type of tree is it and how old
it is. A philosopher might
ask who may have sat underneath it in the past or who might sit underneath it
in the future. All of you might
even wonder when will it die.
That's the limit of your human perception. When you're in Shan form every single leaf will bid you a
glorious greeting as you walk up to the tree for the first time. Every drop of sap tells you the history
of the tree's life like an intimate biography written in the utterly sensual
language of scent. The tree itself
will tell you if it's healthy or sick.
You can smell if the water that nourishes it is bitter or sweet. If you deeply pay attention you can
smell every animal that has ever been there.”
Kai looked to Rae like he was
experiencing a spiritual moment and Rae suddenly realized he was. The enthralled shape-shifter continued
to explain to Rae the nuances of the animal world “when you are ready to move on to another place you reach up
with your powerful claws and dig deep into the bark to mark the tree with your
scent. It's added harmoniously to
the scent of hundreds of other animals.
You do this not just to mark your hunting territory, but to tell every
animal after you have left this world that you lived and breathed here at one
time in the great mystery that is life.
That is your only immortality in the animal world. There are no monuments to mark a man's
ego, or family albums for a mother to remember her children by, but neither is
there hate, nor fear of the future or regret of the past. You are fully alive in each and every
moment. It's a wonderfully free
existence. I wish I could truly
share it with you... words, words pale in comparison.” Kai looked so happy at that
moment. Rae was so moved by what
he had just shared with her that all she could do was reach out and touch his
wrist. “Thank you!” she whispered.
Kai nodded at her in acknowledgment, but he was too emotional to even
speak.
Q – Plotter or Pantser?
Shelly Holt - Plotter.
Q – Can you tell us about the process
of getting your first book published?
Shelly Holt – It was quite the
adventure. I knew the story was
marketable, but I chose to self-publish because I wanted more control over the
work than I would get through a traditional publishing house. I am not sorry at all that I did, just
look at the cover art I was able to license! Most covers I see feature beautiful bodies, but they don't
relate at all to the story itself, (other than the sex aspect). My cover however, truly reflects the
story.
The downside was that I got to wear all
the hats, in fact I still am even today.
I'm still working on publicity for Tasting Fire which is just as
important as the writing. I have
written a wonderful story, but if nobody knows about it, than what good is it?
Q – What advice would you give new
authors? What have you learned
about the business?
Shelly Holt – Trust in yourself. If you know you have a strong story,
don't listen to the naysayers and don't be afraid to make mistakes.
Q – Do you have another book in the
works?
Shelly Holt – Yes, I am working on the
second book in the series. This
will take place about thirty years after the events of Tasting Fire. It will explore another species of
shape-shifter, the Naga. The Naga are a race of shape-shifters that are half
human and half serpent. They have
actually been worshiped in India for thousands of years.
Q – What do you like to do in your free
time, besides reading and writing of course?
Shelly Holt – I like to sew and I have
a strange talent for making purses out of artificial fur. When I bring my handiwork into a store,
I usually get quite the reaction.
Sometimes people have to do a double take because they think I brought
my cat with me to the supermarket, and sometimes they want to know where they
can buy one.
Q – Where do you dream of going on
vacation?
Shelly Holt – New York City, so many
museums just calling my name.
Q- Boxers or Briefs?
Shelly Holt – My guy always wears boxers.
Q – Cookies or cake?
Shelly Holt – Cake, but don't ask me to
bake it. I'm quite possibly the
worst baker on the planet.
Q – Pizza or hamburger?
Shelly Holt – I make a great soy
pizza. I am a good cook.
Q – Beer, Wine or Mixed drink?
Shelly Holt – Margarita!
(Hero/Heroine Character Questions)
Q – What were your first impressions of
each other?
Kai – I could easily see how her mother
was a Las Vegas stripper, she inherited the physique.
Rae – The most gorgeous man I have ever
seen and I don't trust him one bit.
Q – What are you favorite
characteristics of each other?
Kai – Her intelligence and her
compassion.
Rae – His sense of responsibility to
his people.
Q – What are your plans for the near
future?
Kai – To help the Pari enter the 21st
century with courage and dignity.
Rae – To help the Pari women live out
their lives with their families and not be ripped away from their children by
their own biology.
Be sure to visit Shelly@
Facebook
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Amazon
Thanks so much for inviting me on today
and sharing the experience of writing Tasting Fire with you.
It was my pleasure!
Thanks for having me on today.
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