Interview & Giveaway with Keri Lake

1. When did you first start writing, and was there something in particular that inspired you?

I started writing as a kid, initially in elementary school, but my writing really didn’t serve a purpose for me until about high school when it became a means of relaxing. I started out writing poetry because of a few poetry books my mother always had around the house. I used to memorize the poems and attempt to duplicate the patterns and rhythms in my own writing. Poetry eventually gave way to writing short stories, up until just a few years ago when I wrote my very first novel.

2. What first attracted you to your genre when you began writing?

I grew up watching Saturday Horror movies on our local TV station and my favorite movies were those with werewolves and vampires—I’m talking Nosferatu or Bram Stoker style vampires. Gothic writers like Poe, Shelley and Anne Rice have always been my go-to reads, but I think what ultimately drew me to writingdarker stories was having watched The Crow back in high school. For me, it was like taking all the gothic that I loved and giving it a modern, urban, spin. Add a cool soundtrack and the fact that it was set in Detroit and I was hooked.

3. In regards to your own characters, who is your favorite to write and why?

Oh boy, that’s like asking a mother to pick her favorite child. I love writing each of the characters for different reasons—each has a distinct trait that makes them fun to write. Soul Resurrected is Logan’s story and I really enjoyed tapping into his dark side. Zeke pushes my buttons and, with his womanizing ways, makes me wish I could slap him sometimes, but I have to admit, he’s a really fun character. And Gavin is a smooth and sexy brother, very ‘Gandy’ in my mind—seductive and charming, totally loyal and alpha on top of it. I find these very attractive trails that I love bringing to the fore. If I HAD to pick though, it’s probably Ayden. She’s such a strong female character—completely unapologetic.

4. What other genres (besides your own) do you enjoy reading?

I will grab the occasional contemporary romance or horror, from time to time.

5. As a reader I know how difficult it can be to name a ‘favorite’ book, would you mind listing your top three? (Past or present authors)

Yes, for me this changes constantly as I stumble upon new authors! My top three at the moment would be:

1. Kiss of a Demon King – Kresley Cole

2. The Complete Works –Edgar Allen Poe

3. Angelfall—Susan Ee (just recently read this one and I really liked the concept behind it.)

6. What are some ‘must haves’ when you sit down to write?

MUSIC. I must get in the zone first and music helps me do just that. I also need coffee and no distraction, so I’m not really one to sit in Starbucks and tap away on my laptop. I’d probably be more inclined to sit in my car in the parking lot.

7. If you became trapped as a character in a book or series, which would you choose and why? (Any book, any series, new or old)

Hmmmm. I think I’d want to get lost in the Holloway pack series by J.A. Belfield. Werewolves. British accents. Ethan is reason enough.

Soul Resurrected Excerpt: 

CHAPTER 1

Some lives just weren’t worth the trouble of saving …

The dark room swallowed Logan, as he lay sprawled on his bed—just as he’d been left after ditching his date with death. A stomach-turning sensation of thickened skin and tingles swathed his body, closing in on him, phantom sensations crawling over his flesh that kept him awake. Every five minutes or so, he willed an arm or a leg to move. No go.

Shadows danced across the wall on the occasions that one of the Catatones guarding the mansion passed through the floodlight below his window. He focused on them only because his neck had been propped in that direction and he had no choice. Good thing, though. She had been assigned to watch over him and slept somewhere beyond his periphery, the reminder heating his blood every time her sleepy moan drifted across the room.

The fury could’ve split him right down the middle.

Her blood ran through him—pumping in his veins, feeding his heart, keeping him alive.

Calla’s.

The woman who’d gotten him stabbed with Demortis, the only element capable of taking down a demon, now swam through his body as the only element capable of saving him. Her blood. Pure. Probably the closest he’d ever come to being righteous.

The irony was enough to leave him scratching his own eyeballs out of his head—that is, if he could reach the damn things. Like a bitch slap from the gods, who probably sat around drinking beers over the shit, poking fun at him.

The side effect of returning from the dead?

Feeling like the fucking dead.

Logan tightened his lip, wishing he could kick his own ass for being so stupid. Not like he’d had to save her or anything. Hell, being a demon meant being the exception to human rules.

And being a son of Wrath meant never having to play by any species’ rules.

Yet for some reason, one lodged so deep inside his brain he couldn’t even begin to explain, he’d felt the need to intervene. Not so much for her sake, but because the little prick trying to rape her had taken a jab at the psychopath buried in Logan’s bones. Taunted him.

Then finally tripped his kill-switch.

Yeah, that’s what Logan told himself, anyway, because no other excuse could possibly justify why he couldn’t stir a single muscle in his body for anything having to do with her—Calla. The girl they’d picked up at some underground party, so high on Shine she’d have probably let every one of the brothers have a go at her if they’d been the ravaging bastardly types.

Lucky for her they weren’t.

“Should’ve walked away,” he muttered, his voice the only part of his body he could control. 

A zing of pain shot through Logan’s feet, flexing them into an unnatural, paralyzed position. “Ah, shit!” Hadn’t his feet been numb just seconds ago?

Not even forcing his muscles to relax shook the sting away, one like a strike to the level of his bones, as if they shattered with impact.

He held his breath and clenched his teeth while the pain crept up his leg. “Motherfucker!” He spoke past gritted teeth, keeping his voice low to keep from rousing his babysitter, but damn, his back arched like one of those tetanus-infected bastards, his eyes squinting so hard they could’ve popped backward into his brain.

Black smoke curled behind his lids, and a deep laughter mocked him as the agony reached his spine. Trembling in the bed, Logan clamped his mouth shut and allowed the convulsions to run through him.

In silence.

He’d known pain—gut-turning, put-me-out-of-my-fucking-misery pain. Nothing compared to what wracked him at that moment, as if nightmares could invade the body and inflict injury. The burn, like molten lava oozing in his veins, seeped into his every cell, searing him from the inside. Sweat trickled down his temple at the same time as a chill burst deep inside his bones and swept through his limbs, leaving behind a wake of nausea.

That black smoke carried the familiar sensation he’d felt once or twice in his life—from the quick witted son of a bitch that brought the toughest demon males to their knees: absolute death. Stygius. The place in the underworld from where no soul ever returned.

With shallow panting breaths, he allowed the blackness worming its way into his mind to take over as something dark and wicked laid claim.

All Logan could do was let it take him.

Scavenger Hunt

Throughout the tour, participating blogs will be posting a question for readers to hunt down on Keri Lake’s website. Questions can be found throughout the site: book pages, snippets, blog posts and glossary. Most questions will be related to the Sons of Wrath series. A few bloggers will have added bonus questions taken directly from Soul Avenged.

You can visit Keri Lake’s Scavenger Hunt page by clicking on the button. Record your answers on the Answer Sheet. At the end of the tour, you’ll be able to submit your responses via Google Doc right on the Scavenger Hunt page. The individual with the MOST correct responses will win a MYSTERY PRIZE, valued at $125.

Here is the question assigned to this blog:

The name of the casino/bar owned by the brothers _______________

About the Author:

Keri Lake is a married mother of two living in Michigan. She writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy and loves a good, tragic love story. Though novels tend to be her focus, she also writes short stories and flash fiction whenever distraction manages to suck her in to the Land of Shiny Things.

When she isn’t toiling away on plots and protagonists, she enjoys reading, music and travel. If she could create mystical powers for herself, she’d have the ability to flash to anywhere in the world. And if she could flash to anywhere in the world at this very moment, she’d be staring at the ocean from her adirondack chair on the shores of North Carolina.

Find Keri:
Website | Twitter | Facebook


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