Interview & Giveaway with Sara King

Hi Sara, Welcome to Anna's Book Blog! I'm glad to have you here. To start off can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

Hi Anna!  Yes, I’m a vampire. Still there?  Okay.  Let me explain.  I’m a 29-year-old Alaskan hillbilly who spends about 90% of her wintertime indoors, lit up by the eerie glow of her computer screen as she types furiously away, creating wonderful new worlds in her head because, jeez, people, it’s freakin’ COLD out there at 40 degrees below zero! 

Alaskan Fury is your latest release, can you tells us a little about it and the series?

Well, technically, my newest release was Wings of Retribution, a really hard to categorize adventure-science-fiction-paranormal-love-story with immortal space pirates and their tragically tormented, near-extinct alien lovers (Yeah…good luck marketing THAT one…).

Then there’s To the Princess Bound, a far-future paranormal romance in the Terms of Mercy series that goes live tomorrow, the 11th of May.  The story idea is that the hero, a powerful empath, is abducted from his home and chained to a traumatized princess by edict of her heartless dictator of a father, to prove to her that she has nothing to fear from men.  (Real stroke of genius on his part, heh.)

As to the Guardians of the First Realm paranormal series, Alaskan Fire and Alaskan Fury were my first two sacrifices offered up to the altar of Amazon, and I was very pleased with the results.  (Lots and lots of fresh meat…)  The basic idea is take ancient mythological creatures, drop them in modern-day Alaska, then mix in badass heroines, really creepy evil baddies, and a heavy dose of adventure.  Oh, and a sexy wereverine with no verbal filter and a poetry-prone djinni who made a really bad wish.

What is your writing day like?

Depends.  In the summer, unless I get a wild hare up my ass to write a novel (as happened with the After Earth series, where I put out 4 books in 6 months and missed an entire year of sunlight), I usually spend my time enjoying the glorious (but short) Alaskan summer.  (Turns out, with a proper wide-brimmed hat, even VAMPIRES can survive a few hours of solar radiation to go fishing.)  In the winter, you’ll most likely find me skulking in my writing cave producing stories for about 14 hours a day.  (Because seriously, what ELSE is there to do in the depths of an Alaskan winter, when the snow is 6 feet deep and it’s 40 degrees below zero?  No…wait…erm…nevermind.  I do that, too.)

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

I was very young.  3 or 4.  I remember thinking that I needed to be an entertainer of some sort and weighing all the possibilities (writer, actor, musician, artist, etc), then picking writing because it allowed me to be a vampire and not get any funny looks.

What are 3 things that are "must haves" for you when you sit down to write a book?

1)  Silence.  My concentration is irrevocably shattered if people do not respect the vamp’s lair and, say, decide to hold loud, in-depth conversations about their dog’s sex life outside my door.  I hate that.
2) Silence.  Random passerby who suddenly find the burning urge to chat with me about the suspension systems on Alaskan Bush planes will be shot.  Their corpses are buried out back.  You are warned.  (I have since been informed that I am not allowed to say that there are corpses buried in my backyard.  For those of you who are going to run to the police and scream that I’ve got corpses buried out back, yes, that was a joke.)
3) Silence.  Yes, I’m an entertainer.  No, I don’t want to entertain you while I’m writing.  Go the hell away.
4)  Did I mention silence?

When you’re not writing what kind of books do you like to read?

Character-based fantasy or sci-fi.  George R. R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffery, Patricia Briggs…  Basically, the stuff where you fall in love with the characters.  Can’t stand the other stuff.  I promise I will never write about the theoretical physics and mechanical parameters of possible working schematics of future technology based on our current (limited) understanding of the universe and its ‘known rules.’  Dear lord, you catch me doing that, just shoot me.  I love cool characters, so I write about them.  Period.

How did you come up with your idea for the Guardians of the First Realm series? Anything particular inspire you while writing?

The Guardians of the First Realm books are set in Alaska, and I was born and raised here, so I’ve had plenty of experience with stuff that goes bump in the night.  (Grizzly bears raiding the trash pit, anyone??)  With my rather unique upbringing—as I sit here writing this, I am in an off-the-grid fishing lodge, about 30 miles from the nearest road—Alaska seemed a natural choice for a world with vampires, werewolves, dragons, djinn, and other fun mythological critters. 

If you could give your lead characters one piece of advice, what would it be?
To Jack:  Yes, sometimes keeping your mouth shut IS better than blurting out the first thing that comes to mind.
To ‘Aqrab:  Self-wishes are not your friend.
To Stuart:  Yes, she really is a ditz.
To Blaze:  Jack’s not stupid.  Just…verbally constipated.
To Kaashifah:  ‘Aqrab’s had a really long time to think about it.  Give him a break.
To Dallas:  Plug the hole next time.  Brain.  Infections.  Are.  Bad.  (Well…usually.)

Since publishing your book, what has been your favorite part of the process?

The money.  There, I freakin’ said it.  I mean, jeez.  I’ve been writing novels full-time since I was 12, skipped 1/3 of my senior year of High School to write, gave up two full-ride college scholarships to write, have logged probably about 2500 hours a year in front of a word doc for the last decade and a half, and put out over three million words of fiction, all without seeing a penny of income.  Which means I’ve been trying for 17 years to make a living at this.  So yeah.  The money is awesome.  I mean, ‘starving artist’ has a certain respectability nowadays, but screw that.  Been there, done that, thank you, please do not come again… But, if you want a more politically correct answer, it’s my fans!! (No, really, I wouldn’t have gotten this far without them.  You guys are awesome, and kept me going through some really rough times.  Thank you for your constant threats of plastic spoons…it helped me muscle through when things were looking really grim a few years back.)

If you can, tell us what is next for you?

I’m finally getting off my ass and finishing the Outer Bounds sci-fi adventure series that built my fan base for me.  Outer Bounds started as a mailing-list novel that I would send out segment-by-segment to the hundreds and hundreds of people who wrote me and requested it, but now it’s developed into something much bigger.  (And, as the writer, much more dangerous, should I fail to finish it…)  I feel the pressure has finally built up to a tipping-point and I need to hurry up and give my readers more crack (in the form of at least two Outer Bounds books), lest a thousand screaming fans completely lose it and assault their favorite sun-starved author with plastic spoons for making them wait.

Author Bio:
While Alaskan author Sara King is not six-foot-four with carrot-soup hair and eyes that’ll make a wereverine stare, she does live the same crazy, socially questionable, off-the-grid lifestyle that she writes about in Alaskan Fire and Alaskan Fury.  She is fully acquainted with the quirks of outdoor plumbing, grizzly bears, questionable hygiene, private arsenals, and hypothermia, and has a vast and inspiration-rich wilderness right off her front doorstep.  She receives further inspiration (of the more…interesting…kind) from her soul-mate and biggest fan, David.  Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kingfiction or email her at kingnovel@gmail.com.

Alaskan Fury

Book #2 - Guardians of the First Realm
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Long ago, Kaashifah the Fury, Chosen warrior of the Lord of War, fought a djinni to a stalemate in an ancient duel of souls. Three thousand years later, she and ‘Aqrab, the passionate djinni prince of the Fourth Lands, are still bound together, each waiting for the other to make that final, killing blow. To complicate matters, they are being hunted across the vast Alaskan wilderness by a team of holy soldiers who are specially trained—and highly successful—at capturing the numerous magical beings of the Five Realms. In order to save their friends from the Inquisition, some compromises must be made…and some boons given. But in unraveling the magics that bind them, will these two ancient immortals learn to trust each other, or will their own thawing hearts be their undoing?

Book #1: Alaskan Fire can be purchased here. 

Wings of Retribution

Millenium Potion

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 In a future where humanity has discovered the elixir of everlasting life, the immortal human race has conquered every planet and every species within the four Quads. …Or has it? When the pirate ship Beetle docks at a distant, rough-and-tumble planet, its crew is unexpectedly approached by a wary, shape-shifting alien believed to be 400 years extinct. The alien’s request is simple: In order to save its species and to end the dictatorial reign of the pharmaceutical company that grips the human race in a stranglehold, it needs to find the cure for immortality. With the survival of the final few members of its ancient empire at stake, the pirates embark on the adventure of a lifetime—a thrill-ride fraught with interstellar dogfights, alien intrigue, forgotten civilizations, sociopathic demigods, heart-tugging tragedy, and loveable, quirky characters that you’ll remember for decades to come. A heart-pounding adventure with a tantalizing dose of romance, MILLENNIUM POTION: WINGS OF RETRIBUTION will have you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

GIVEAWAY:

Thanks to Sara I have 2 digital copies of Alaskan Fury to giveaway. To enter leave a comment along with your email address. This giveaway is open to everyone. The winner will be announced on May 16th. Good Luck!