- Hey everyone, it is Jessica from PeaceLoveBooks
and today I'm here with a really exciting video
and it is an interview with the one and only Gena Showalter.
She sat down with me to answer a couple of questions
and to share some things about her writing and her reading
and any recommendations she has for us.
And so I hope you guys enjoy this video,
it was super fun to sit down and chat with Gena, so enjoy.
(upbeat music)
Alright, so, thank you for being here today.
- Thank you for having me.
- I'm very excited to talk about your new book,
Shadow and Ice, right, is the name.
- Yes, yes.
- Yes, so, do you wanna go ahead and tell us
a little bit what that's about?
- Absolutely, it's a brand new paranormal romance series,
sizzling hot, in it, all of the world is a battlefield.
And it's like a pairing of Gladiators and Highlander
'cause there can be only one.
All of these different realms have sent
their best representative or combatant to fight
to win the right to rule Earth and so they make it,
they're at viking times, they end up getting frozen.
And then fast forward to modern day
when our heroine stumbles upon the cave
with all of these frozen warriors
and the ice starts cracking and the war resumes, so.
- Okay, I've gotten that far, so far and it' so.
It felt like a movie as I was reading it.
So I really loved it, how engaging it was.
- Thank you.
- And so, it's publishing on the 23rd.
- Yes.
- And so, I was wondering,
you have a lot of books that you've written already.
- Yes, yes.
- So, this is probably like, you're used to it
but is there anything that's still like nerveracking
about publishing a new book?
- Absolutely, any time a new book releases
there's this waiting and wondering
what are readers gonna think.
Are they gonna love it, are they gonna hate it,
is this gonna be a success?
Is it going to be better than the last one?
Things like that, so waiting for the reader response
is always a bit of a nail biter.
- Do you actually read your reviews of your books?
I know it's different for every other but, okay.
- No, no, I used to.
- Yeah.
- In the beginning I did but some of that
can stay with you when you're writing.
- I bet, a good idea.
- So, I've stopped reading all reviews
and I just, and sometimes I'm tagged in them.
- Yeah.
- So I'll see things like that or my friends or editors,
somebody will pass something along
and say check this out, so.
- Okay, okay, I know, I feel like it would be so hard
just to read every single review of what you write
and be like, oh, yeah.
- Oh, yes, no, I can no longer do that.
- Yeah, yeah.
- For my sanity.
- So, Shadow and Ice is the first in a new series.
- Yes.
- And so, what's your favorite part about writing a series?
So, I know your other series has 14 books in it, right?
- Yes, yeah.
- Yes, which is a ton.
- Yeah.
- So, you obviously enjoy writing series', so.
- I do, I love creating friendships
and then exploring the dynamics of that
and revisiting couples and the friendships again.
And just pairing people who might not be bonded by blood
but they love each other and the loyalty is there.
And it's just revisiting the people.
It's always about the people for me.
- So, you've write in a lot of genres.
So, you have YA, you have contemporary,
you have paranormal, you do everything.
- Yes.
- What's your favorite to write?
- Well, I love all of them but for different reasons.
The paranormal, you know, it's limitless.
Whatever I can think up I can write about and the men.
They're just so powerful and hot, hot, hot
and then the contemporaries,
it's like an escape from reality.
It's like you can take this bad world
and find something beautiful in it.
And then with the YA it's,
you have these characters who are coming of age.
They're learning what they want, they're,
for having first experiences.
And so, there's something wonderful about every genre.
- So, I teach high school english.
You probably didn't know that
and one of my students was reading one of your books
and I was really excited when I saw him pull it out.
- Yeah, me too.
- It was so exciting, yeah, 'cause I read her.
I don't read the YA books but she's awesome,
so that was funny, so how long have you been writing for?
- My first book published when I was 27
and I'm now in my, closing in on mid 40s.
So, and I wrote for about five years before I got published.
- Oh, wow, okay.
- Yes.
- So, you've been writing almost 20 years.
- Yes.
- What have you learned about yourself
as a writer in all of that time?
- I've learned that I'm OCD about finishing a project.
I have learned that I cannot make everyone happy
and I just have to be okay with that,
I just have to make myself happy.
I've learned that I have a very warped sense of humor.
I have learned that I enjoy torturing my characters.
- I mean, those are sometimes the best books though, so.
- Yeah, yeah.
- That's good that you've learned that.
- Yeah.
- Which of your characters do you feel
is most like you, that you've written?
- I'm probably a mix between
Val and Nola from Shadow and Ice.
You never have to wonder where you stand with me.
I'll just tell you, so I truly believe that
if somebody hurts my feelings or something it's,
they didn't mean to, it's coming from a good place.
I just, I'm happy, affectionate, I hope and very loyal.
I love my people, I love them hard, so
and I saw a lot of that in
Val and Nola and their relationship.
- Is it easy or hard to write someone like yourself?
- You know, the easiest characters to write
are the ones that talk the loudest.
Whether they're like me or not like me.
They tend to just take over a scene and just,
it's almost like vomiting words.
Because they're loud, they're there,
you know they're there, they want their page time
and you give it to them, so.
- Yeah.
- The loud characters are the easiest.
- Okay.
- And they're my favorites too, so.
- Yeah, what inspired you to first writing paranormal?
I don't know what you started writing
when you first published, but.
- You know, so the very first book that I wrote that
it was titled Heaven's Fury and will never be published.
- Okay.
- It's garbage.
- Okay.
- But it was a paranormal romance and I had read.
The first paranormal romance that I read was
Warrior's Woman by Johanna Lindsey.
- Okay.
- And I was reading it thinking writers can do this,
this is something that can be published?
And I was just so amazed and so,
it was like this is what I wanna do.
It was one of those moments where it was like yes,
I have found my calling, this is what I'm going to do
and so, yes, it was Warrior's Woman by Johanna Lindsey.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Cool, I'll have to check that out,
I didn't know she wrote paranormal.
Doesn't she write historical?
- She mostly wrote historical.
- Okay, yeah.
- She had a handful of these paranormals.
- Okay, okay.
- With aliens, so.
- Yeah, okay.
- Yeah.
- I'll have to check those out.
Do you ever find it hard to write new paranormal creatures?
Like, I know you, I've started reading your Fallen Angels
series, not Fallen Angels but just
the Angel series that you have.
- Yes, dark, Angles of the Dark.
- Yes, yeah and then you have like all these
crazy paranormal ones and Shadow and Ice.
How do you even like come up with these creatures?
- Yep, that is a question that my editor asked me too.
- Yeah.
- She said, she wanted to take a little vacation in my brain
to find out where the.
- Yeah.
- And, it's just, ideas are never a problem
and it's just a matter of sitting down
and connecting the dots.
Like, I could have a grain of an idea for like this power
but yet it needs to be blended with this and,
I don't, it's just all in there.
- Yeah, it's 'cause there's so many in
the beginning of Shadow and Ice.
There all from different places.
- Yes.
- And I was like how do you come up with all of this?
It's just so much, okay, yeah.
- Yes, yeah, that was a little bit of a challenge.
- Yeah.
- To have a certain number of warriors,
all of them came from a different realm.
- Yeah.
- All of them have a different power,
all of them wield a different weapon.
All of them have, you know, different rules
and experiences and stuff and so, yes,
that was a little bit of a challenge.
But I had so much fun with that book.
- Are you inspired by any other writers
and if so, who are they?
- I am, you know, I,
September was two writing retreats for me.
- Oh, that's fun.
- Yes, the only trips I really did this year
were these two writing retreats
and one of 'em was with Jo Monroe, Mandy M. Roth,
Michelle M. Pillow, Kristen Painter, Roxanne St. Claire,
Theona Rorick and Lee Duncan.
And every day we got together and we brainstormed,
we wrote, we encouraged each other.
And it really did fill my creative well
and I left that retreat just ready
with a passion burning to write.
And then the other trip was with Jo Monroe, Kresley Cole,
P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast.
And again, it was being around these amazingly talented,
creative women, it just, and their encourage.
The way they encourage other writers
is just so beautiful and I did walk away
from those trips just ready to go.
- Do you go on those trips a lot, the writer's retreats?
- No, actually.
- Okay.
- Normally I'm like under deadline.
- Yeah.
- And I'm just not able to and so I was under this
deadline for both trips and I said, you know what,
I need to be around other women who are writers
and who have this burning passion as well.
Because I had been feeling burnt out
and then being around them just lit the fire.
So, I made, it took a lot of doing to go
but I'm so glad that I did.
- Yeah, I mean and it always looks like
when writers go on retreats it's just so much fun.
- It really is.
- You're just with your people, yeah.
- It was so much and you would think because.
We spent the majority of our time working and that,
you know, if anyone looking in might not think that that's,
you know, but we would take breaks and talk to each other.
And say, hey, I just hit this snag and you know,
do you have any ideas to help me get out of this.
- Yeah.
- Corner that I've written myself in, so,
it is a lot of fun, we would just giggle like schoolgirls.
- So, you went with, at least I know,
I recognize a lot of names
on that second trip, of paranormal authors.
- Yes.
- Do you have any paranormal recommendations
of romances that you like to read?
- Yes, yes, yes, Mortals After Dark by Kresley Cole.
If you have not read it, do it immediately,
just stop what you're doing and go, get order, one click.
Immortal Ops by Mandy M. Roth, the Warlock McGregors
by Michelle M. Pillow, Goddess Summoning series
by P.C. Cast, Nocturne Falls by Kristen Painter,
Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward,
Guild Hunters by Nalini Singh, Christine Feehan.
There are so many amazing authors, Karen Marie Moning.
Man, I could, we could, I could spend an hour.
- Yeah.
- Just talking about these wonderful, amazing women.
- Do you find yourself having
a lot of time to read through your writing?
- No, you know, before I started writing
I was a reader first, I read so much, all the time.
In fact I read as a teenager and my dad said,
he thought that I hated the family
because my nose was always buried in a book.
I never wanted to go do whatever they were doing.
I wanted to finish my book
and so I have always been a reader.
And that is one of the things I regret,
that as I'm working on a book,
I don't want somebody else's voice to.
- That's true, that's true.
- Lead into mine and so I try not to read other
people's work while I'm working on a rough draft.
But when I finish I just go on a binge
and just read as much as I can.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I was wondering, 'cause like a lot of writers
start out as readers but then obviously you aren't
gonna have a lot of time while you're writing.
- And, you know what, I'm so glad that I did read
as much as I did because I think it helped build this
unconscious like, what would it, what is it called
where I just, I know like when to, plot points,
when it needs to turn.
- Yeah.
- Just instinctively know that this is the point
that this needs to happen and this is the point that
that needs to happen and I don't have to.
I don't plot it out all of the time, so.
- Oh, really, okay.
- Yeah, I just, will just, a lot times will just
sit down and keep, just go.
- Oh, that's awesome,
I know a lot of authors are super different.
- Yes.
- Either at like panster, plotter, that kind of thing, so.
- And I would say that I'm both.
- Yeah.
- Because I've done it both ways.
It always just depended on the book
and the idea and the characters.
But most of them I've probably just
sat down and started writing.
- Yeah and you had talked about being on deadline
and like needing more inspiration.
Do you ever find it hard to meet your deadlines
if you're not feeling that inspiration?
- I never did before, I guess, you know, people ask,
do you wait for the muse to write and I always say no.
I never wait for the muse because you can't.
- Yeah.
- Because, it's a job and you have deadlines
and if you wait for that then your deadline could pass
and you've written nothing.
So, I treat it as a job, I write every day.
If I'm sick I write, if I don't want to write, I write
and you just, I treat it as a job that I love
but I make myself do it when I don't want to.
- Yeah.
- But I used to, I was so far ahead of my deadlines
but lately I have been a wee bit behind
because I rewrote one book three times.
- Oh my gosh, wow.
- Yeah, so I should have two other books done
but I went ahead and rewrote that one.
- Yeah.
- But it coulda, I knew it could be better.
- Okay.
- And so I talked with my editor each time
and we talked about what to do and what to change.
And it's, the title is The Evil Queen and it's young adult,
the first in a new series, The Forest of Good and Evil.
And it is a retelling of Snow White from
the Evil Queen's point of view as a teenager.
- Okay, wow.
- Yes and I'm so in love with this idea and these characters
and this world, it had to be right, so I put the work in.
- Do you like doing like retellings?
- Yes.
- 'Cause isn't that what your other YA one is, yeah.
- Yes, yeah, yes and you know,
I'll do like loosely inspired retellings.
Beauty and the Beast comes up a lot
and that's what I'm working on now.
It's the second book in the Gods of War book.
It's Bane, the one who has the beast inside of him.
- Okay.
- And Nola, she's his heroine.
- Okay.
- Yeah, so I'm working on that one right now
and but yes, fairy tales do inspire a lot of my books.
- Do you have to make sure you like pay attention
to that character if you know their book's coming next?
Because I feel like you can't draw some random character.
- Yeah, you know because what's happened in the past
is I have had added a character that I thought was
a throw away character that would just
come into the book and that was it.
But they stuck around and they ended up being a hero
or a heroine of another book
and I'm stuck with their backstory that I hate or something.
- Oh no, yeah.
- Yes, so it's, yeah, so now I'm a little bit more
careful about every, anybody who comes into the book.
- Yeah, anything else you wanna add?
- No, it was just so wonderful to speak with you.
- Yeah.
- And to discuss Shadow and Ice,
I'm so excited about it's release.
- Alright, well thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- Alright, bye.
- Okay, bye.
- Thank you so much for watching my video with Gena.
I hope you enjoyed everything she had to say.
I know that I learned so much about her writing process
in her books and I'm blown away by her as an author.
Let me know down below what you love from Gena,
what favorite books of yours she has written
and what I should read, I would love to know.
I've only read three books by Gena
so I would love to know your favorites by her
and what I should start with next.
I know she has a massive Lord of the Underworld series
so if you love that let me know.
I would love to hear it and while you're at it
make sure click subscribe for any recommendations
for romance in the future from read list
because this is the perfect place for any romance author
and book recommendations and a chat all day romance
which you guys know, I love.
And that's all I have for you,
as always thank you so much for watching
and have a good day, bye.
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