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Today it’s my pleasure to welcome over Gail Roughton, author of Witch Resurrected, War-N-Wit, Inc., Book 1 and Mean Streets, War-N-Wit, Inc., Book 2.
Genre:
Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Publisher:
Books We Love, Ltd.
Date of Publication:
September 21, 2014
ISBN:
978-1-77145-314-1
ASIN: B00NSY9NZ8
Number of pages:192
Word Count: 63,858
Cover Artist:
Michelle Lee
Giveaway! Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter after
this post for a chance to win one of five print copies of Witch Resurrected.
Witch Resurrected, War-N-Wit, Inc., Book 1
Book Description
Ariel Anson thinks she has her life in order. She’s
young, smart, and beautiful, even if she doesn’t believe the beautiful part.
She’s a paralegal with a great career and a fiancé who’s a CPA. You just can’t
get any steadier than that. Then she meets private investigator, bounty hunter,
process server Chad Garrett.
What does War-N-Wit, Inc. stand for anyway?
Warlock and Witch? For real? Oh, yes! For real.
Her life as she knows it is over! Instead of
organizing corporate documents and pleadings, she’s chasing bail jumpers and
taking down serial killers. And investigating secret societies. Like
Resurrection.
Not everyone can join, just the elite few who
remember their past lives. Only the Seer knows if those memories are truth or
fabrication. There’s just one problem. The new Seer is missing in action.
War-N-Wit’s new assignment is a blast from the past! But whose past?
Available at
Excerpt
“I still
don’t know who you are!” I exclaimed. “You’re—you’re—talking like a crazy
person and I’m sitting here listening,
which I still don’t believe—”
“You’re listening because you know I’m right. So let’s
cut to the bare essentials. We’ve been here before, you and I, many times, we
are one, baby girl, we are each other’s
eternal soul mates, each other’s other half, and I know it and you know it. And if nothing else, I
intended to establish enough contact so I can find you easier next time. And if
you refuse to believe it and believe in us
and I have to wait till next time, then I will. But I will find you again. Because you can run but you can’t hide.
I just want as much of you as I can get this time so it won’t take so long next
time.” He shrugged again. “Last time I didn’t find you till we were both so
much older it almost wasn’t worth it. That one was a bitch. And I don’t intend
for it to happen again.”
The world stood still, closed in, retreated,
kaleidoscoped back out into swirls of scenes of places and times I’d never
been, never seen. Hot, bright sun beat down on an arena covered in sand and
blood, my heart ripping apart as I looked at the bodies lying so still amidst
the roars of the approving, raucous crowd. I felt the biting cold, so cold it
burned, coming from the snow stretching out across what I knew, knew with absolute certainty, to be the
Russian steppes. I cringed from the visions of the shadowed chambers filled
with monstrous man-made instruments of pain and the screams rolling out of
them. I stood on the mountains in the mists and heard the faint echo of
bagpipes. I saw blue water and shining white sand and smelled the salt air.
I swayed and felt the blood drain out of my face. He
stretched his arm out and encircled me quickly, pulling me close. I didn’t pull
away.
“Oh, God! Too much too quick, huh? I’m sorry, I didn’t
think you’d go into total flashback.”
I was beginning to get my bearings back a bit. “I’m
fine. And it wasn’t a flashback, it was—it was—it was a whole lot of whatever
it was. Which was nothing. I’m crazy, you’re crazy. This is a—shared delusion.”
I sat up straight. Time to put the conversation back on a normal frame of
reference. “Are you through? I have a lot of shopping to do, are you coming or
are you a typical man who doesn’t like to shop?”
He raised his eyebrow. “I’m not a typical anything,
baby girl.”
Mean Streets, War-N-Wit, Inc., Book 2
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Books
We Love, Ltd.
Date of Publication: October 17, 2014
ASIN: B00NT22DXI
Number of pages:194
Word Count: 58,274
Cover Artist: Michelle Lee
Book Description
Daytona Bike Week. Biker’s paradise. The perfect
place for Chad and Ariel Garrett to take a few days off and relax with Chad’s
buddy Spike and Ariel’s little sister Stacy.
But nothing ever goes as planned with that magical
duo. Trouble just stalks them like a black cat. A missing agent riding with an
outlaw biker gang, a call from Chad’s past, and War-N-Wit, Inc.’s riding again,
with romance blooming in the midst of danger. From Daytona, the crew heads back
to Vegas and another family wedding. Spike and Stacy are ready to say “I do!”
In the Tunnel of Love Drive-Thru at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Vegas,
of course. It’s become a family tradition.
But what’s supposed to happen in Vegas just refuses
to stay in Vegas. And you’re not going to believe this side-trip!
Available at
Excerpt
“One more time, from the top,” Chad said.
“Magic Man! It’s not rocket science! He’s just a
sleazy con man parading around as a priest. Which is really low, even for a bail-jumping con man.”
“Sure is. So from the top. You’re going to—”
“I’m going to rush up, grab him and babble about a
poor boy doubled over in the alley who’s probably overdosed and come with me
now, I need help. That about it?”
“That’s about it.”
“Okay. I’m on it!”
I peered around the corner again. Good a time as
any. I hitched my habit up a bit and headed toward him in a sprinting semi-jog.
“Father! Father, I need help—”
Before I could grab his arm, I heard an echo. Not in
my voice though.
“Father! Father, I need help!” And a hand, not mine,
grabbed Dapper Dandy Dan’s arm from behind.
“Oh! Thank you, sweet Jesus!” The hand dropped Dandy
Dan’s arm and grabbed mine. “You’re even better! The Lord provides!”
An older nun hauled me through the door of the
Rescue Center, her habit flying out around her legs.
“One of the girls—she’s in labor and I’m all by
myself right now, even all our kids are gone this morning! We didn’t know she
was pregnant. She’s been hiding it under big sweatshirts. I’ve called for an
ambulance but I don’t know if they’ll make it, she’s been in labor for a while,
I think, she’s in denial! She refuses to believe she’s having a baby!”
She pulled me through a curtain separating the front
room from a back room used as a dormitory. The girl lay on a cot under a sheet
she clutched close, refusing to let go. And she was all of fourteen. Maybe.
“Sister Marie! Sister Marie! It’s just a stomachache! You’ve got to let me up,
I’m not—” She broke off and writhed in pain. Sister Marie dropped to her knees
besides the cot.
“Sandra, you’ve got to listen to me! I’ve called for
help but it might not get here in time. You’ve got to let us help you, child.
You are having a baby and if you
don’t listen to me and open your legs, you can hurt it. Badly. You don’t want
that, do you?”
Interview time!
What inspired you to write this book?
Back in the days before I ever published, or ever
thought I would, my friends used to pass my books, both those already written
and those in progress, back and forth.
One of my friends asked me if I’d mind if her mother read them. I wasn’t too sure about that, actually, I
still had trouble believing even my friends weren’t just being polite, but I
said okay. Fortunately, my friend knew
her mother better than I did, and Miss Louise loved them. She sent me a message: “Tell Gail to write something funny on
purpose, ‘cause she’s so funny sometimes without even meaning to be.” So I did.
And that was the origin of the War-N-Wit, Inc. series.
How did you come up with the title?
The series title was easy. These were stories about a private
investigator, bounty-hunter, process-server who just happened to be a
warlock. So there’s the “War”. He was also on the hunt for his Witch, the
soul-mate he’d reincarnated with many times in the past. So there’s the “Wit”. He always knew he’d find her, so he named his
business for the two of them.
“War-N-Wit, Inc.” And never mind
if she didn’t have any idea she was a witch. He figured she could get her
magical training on-the-job while she trained as a private investigating,
bounty-hunting, process serving apprentice. For each individual book, the title
just flowed out of the plot.
What made you choose the main setting for your book?
Well, War-N-Wit, Inc. is a service provider for many
different areas of the legal profession and law enforcement. Some of those “enforcement” agencies they
work for might be a little off the charts, by the way. You know, agencies that are more concerned
with “magical and/or celestial” offenders than say, the local Sheriff. I’ve been in a law office for 40 years now,
so I’m what you might call very
familiar with those settings. The real ones, I mean, and I figured the more
magical, celestial agencies would have to
be set up more or less the same way. And
while their adventures take them to different locales (for which the internet
provides a wealth of information, including videos), they’re based in
Georgia. I’m a native-born Georgia girl,
and I really believe in writing what you know.
I think it gives a reality and depth to the characters that can’t be
faked.
Tell us a little bit about the conflict in your
story.
Before I start explaining, let me emphasize—the Wars
are funny. Basically, providing
entertainment, both to readers and for myself as the writer, is always my ultimate goal. But when I stop
and think about it, the War “plots” can be described in three words. Or rather, several sets of three words. Good versus evil. Light versus dark. Balance versus chaos. I didn’t consciously set out to do that. I’m a writer.
I tell stories, I don’t try to change the course of humanity. But Chad and Ariel, the Warlock and Witch of
War-N-Wit, Inc. are what Chad terms “persons of power”. And persons of power have a greater
responsibility than ordinary mortals to protect the good, the light, the
balance. And that’s what they do at all
times, in all assignments, whether ordinary assignments of a purely legal
nature, or assignments from the more esoteric agencies. They guard the light. And when you think about it, isn’t that what
life’s all about? Or should be about?
Holding true, keeping the balance, guarding the good?
Tell us about your book cover and how it relates to
your story.
First off, let me state unequivocally – I love my War-N-Wit covers. They’ve evolved somewhat, because as
previously explained, they started life as four separate novellas. But Chad and Ariel remain constant, and those
models are, to me, the perfect Chad and Ariel.
I think they capture the essence of the characters perfectly. I love the Witch on a Broomstick logo, I love
the sparkle of the stars. I think they
just scream magic. But Michelle Lee, the brilliant cover artist
of Books We Love, Ltd., threw one detail into that very first cover that added
a whole ‘nother dimension to the War-N-Wit novels. She put a black cat on the very first cover,
walking across the letters of my last name. Since these novellas were planned
as a series, she also went ahead and worked on the covers of the next two Wars,
and she put that same black cat, in a different pose, in different spots on
each of those covers. Hmmmmmm. A black cat that moves around a
lot. That black cat became Micah. And I wrote him into all succeeding
War-N-Wits. He became a pivotal character in the books, a
character the readers just love. As
do I. I can’t imagine a War-N-Wit
without Micah.
Are you currently working on another story? If so,
we’d love some details.
I’m always working on another story, even if I’m not
actually to the writing stage of it.
I’ve always got a couple of plots simmering over in the corner of my
brain, waiting for one of them to come to boil.
Right now, I’m working on a paranormal thriller, a rather dark one,
titled Black Turkey Walk. I don’t really set out to write in any
particular genre, I just tell stories.
I’ve written everything from humor to action to thriller to horror, and
usually have elements of several genres mixed into the story line. I’ve got
another War-N-Wit plot brewing but I don’t know when I’ll start it. Definitely not until I finish Black Turkey Walk, that’s gotten
interrupted a couple of times already for other projects. I’ve got what I term a “real-life country
comedy/drama” on simmer, too, one I hope will make readers laugh in one chapter
and cry in the next, the way real life does.
I’ve learned not to give myself deadlines, though. They hinder rather than help and I’m pretty
sure they make the characters mad and send them into hiding, which really puts
a crimp on the creative process.
Tell us about your favorite writing environment. Is
it indoors, outdoors, a special room, etc.
I keep my laptop on the kitchen table and write
there. I’ve been on a computer in a law office for so long (I’ve been a
paralegal for forty years), I’m geared to think while typing in the midst of
noise, bustle and chaos. My husband
actually set up a little typing desk for me in our bedroom, bless his heart,
“so nobody’ll bother you”. I sat down at
it for about five minutes and moved my laptop back to the kitchen table. I can’t think if I’m not where I can monitor
everybody’s comings and goings, follow the action on the tv show in the great
room, hear the timers dinging for the oven or microwave, and see the pots if
they start to boil over.
What sources do you use for research?
I really don’t research a great deal because (a) I
write what I know; and (b) I’ve been an eclectic and omnivorous reader my
entire life with a great love for both history and the paranormal (yes, I’m
nuts, most writers are) and I’ve got this really weird memory that retains the
most useless pieces of information imaginable.
Sometimes I amaze myself at how frequently I can just reach in my brain
and pull out what I need for a particular plot.
But nobody knows everything, of course, nobody’s been everywhere. And when I need something I don’t have any
knowledge of whatsoever, I fall back on two things. First, forty years in a law office has given
me a wealth of contacts with fascinating people who’ve done fascinating things,
and they’re invaluable for brain-picking. Not to mention my son-in-law is a K-9
officer on our county’s drug interdiction specialty force. I’m sure he hates to
see my name and number pop up on his phone.
Then there’s this invention called the internet – a wondrous, wondrous
thing. You can take a virtual tour of
pretty much anywhere and look up pretty much anything. If I’m ever suspected of a crime and my
laptop confiscated, I’m dead meat. Because the search engines would show me
looking up voo-doo, hoo-doo, the street value of cocaine and how to cut it,
prostitution laws in Nevada, how to make a gas bomb, the most popular bars
during Daytona Bike Week, outlaw biker gangs….oh, yeah. I’d be dead meat.
About the Author
Gail Roughton is a native of small town Georgia
whose Deep South heritage features prominently in much of her work. She’s
worked in a law office for close to forty years, during which time she’s raised
three children and quite a few attorneys. She’s kept herself more or less sane
by writing novels and tossing the completed manuscripts into her closet.
A cross-genre writer, she’s produced books ranging
from humor to romance to thriller to horror and is never quite sure herself
what to expect when she sits down at the keyboard. Now multi-published by Books
We Love, Ltd., her credits include the War-N-Wit, Inc. series, The Color of
Seven, Vanished, and Country Justice. Currently, she’s working on Black Turkey
Walk, the second in the Country Justice series, as well as the Sisters of
Prophecy series, co-written with Jude Pittman.
Another War-N-Wit plot always seems to be brewing on
the back burner, too, whether she’s actually trying to brew one or not, and
usually boils quicker when she’s trying not to brew one at all.
Visit Gail Roughton
Twitter: @GailRoughton
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2 comments:
Thanks so much for having me over!
My pleasure, Gail. :-)
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