Interview: N.R. Allen, Author of LOT'S MOUNTAIN

*What would you be doing right now if you were not an author?  Unfortunately, I have three chronic illnesses, so that keeps me home.  If I wasn’t writing, I think I’d work more on my art. 

*5 years ago: what were you doing?  Chasing invisible pirates with a two-year-old.

*Do you have a certain writing ritual?  Definitely.  First, I garden with my son.  After making sure that he and my other kids are taken care of, I have toast and peach tea … and then settle in with my keyboard.

*Ever fangirled over another author? Who was it?  Stephen King.  As a kid, I read EVERYTHING he ever wrote.  I even made my own characters to put into his stories.

*Is there an author you'd like to meet?  Edgar Allan Poe

*Biggest writing pet peeve?  Swooning.  I hate it when characters swoon instead of actually doing something.

* Do you read other's reviews of your books?  I do.  I try to use any criticisms to make my work stronger.  Writing is a learning process.  It’s about connecting to readers.  If I’m not connecting, I’m not doing my job.

Fav Color  Blue

Fictional Character you'd like to spend the day with?  “David” from the “The Lost Boys” (My favorite vampire movie)

Fav food  Chinese Food  (I’m allergic to milk, and a lot of Chinese food has no milk in it)

Fav song and/or singer  Within Temptation.  I usually listen to specific songs when I write certain scenes to create specific moods.

Guilty pleasure  B-Movies.  The worse the better.

N.R. Allen grew up in Dooms, VA, and currently lives in Blacksburg, VA, with her husband, family, and menagerie of animals. She has an interest in legends about monsters and ghosts, especially in and around her native Shenandoah Valley.

She has written and published several poems, short stories, flash fiction, and her novel "Blood of the Revenant."

FACEBOOK  Writing Blog  WEBSITE

GOODREADS

Magic isn't gone, only hidden. 

For countless centuries monsters, men, and things in between have fought hidden battles over the fate of magic … in a small rural town in Virginia. Now their skirmishes threaten to explode into open war, with the entire world held in the balance. 

Dylan Caid, a troubled misfit whose secret just might hold the key to victory, finds himself thrust into the center of this ancient conflict. With both sides urging him to join with them and threatening death or worse should he not, Dylan must seek out an ancient force that even monsters fear.

AMAZON  GOODREADS

"Dylan ..." she doesn't finish.

"There's a reason that we're afraid of the dark.  A lot of things in it are pretty damn nasty," I tell her.  "But there's a lot more in the dark than you know, and they're asking for help, Jamie.  Our help."

That seems to spark something in her.  She looks up and slowly nods.

"I wish you could see the good things."  And then I realize something.  She can.

As soon as I pull out the orb-thing Grim gave me, it starts to glow and pulse with orange light.  

I don't know if it's because I'm thinking of Grim or if it's just something that the orb thing can do, since it’s a wisp’s map, but all of a sudden, light splashes against one of the walls of the theater and we see something.  It's just a glimpse, but we see it—Belle Lake.  I can hear soft music that digs down to my soul.  Jamie hears it, too.  Shimmering trees rise from the floor as a breeze brushes warmly by us.  The water ... it isn't really there, but Jamie leans over and watches it glow next to her.  And I know that she feels how I felt the first time I saw the lake.  She feels like she finally belongs somewhere.

And Jamie smiles.  Well, that's not saying much, since most smiles always mean that I'm shit out of luck.  But this one ... well, this one is a whole lot different.  It isn't Diane's pity smile, or Shard's I'm-gonna-eat-your-heart-when-I-can smile, or the sheriff's creepy, possessed smile.  This one really makes me want to smile back, and I do.

"Jamie, this is what we have to save."

After the mirage of Belle Lake fades and the orb becomes just an orb again, Jamie and me just sit there on the theater floor.  Then, for a few minutes, we forget about the war looming over us.  We forget about Stone and Glass.

Looking at her face, I want to say a thousand different things, but I don't say anything at all.

And neither does she.

But that's okay.  That smile of hers is enough.