Casey Wyatt Debut by Gerri Brousseau

Nights of Passion is so excited to have Casey Wyatt with us today.  Casey we're so happy about your debut novel, Mystic Ink, released on January 25, 2012.

NOP:  Please tell us a little bit about yourself and about your book.

Casey Wyatt:  By day, I have an ordinary job and lead a pretty ordinary life. By night, I'm a paranormal romance and urban fantasy writer.

Mystic Ink is a paranormal romance that takes place in Mystic, CT. The main character is Nix, a talented tattoo artist who keeps finding dead mortals in the alley next to her tattoo shop.  Her love interest, Calder Quinne, is a supernatural police officer sent to investigate. The premise behind this story is what if the Gods and Goddesses of old still lived among us? This is the first book in the series.

NOP:  Please share an excerpt or your book with us.

Nix, thoughts still swirling in her mind, headed toward the side door. After she unlocked the deadbolt, her eyes automatically went to the dumpster. Nothing. Thank the Gods. Her sigh of relief was quickly sucked back in. A dark shape further down the alley caught her eye. Maybe it was a heap of clothes or a bag of garbage. Whatever it was, it was lying near the entrance of the Underworld Gate. The Gate was invisible to all eyes, except Guardians—like her, Hades, and Charon. Whoever or whatever was back there couldn't have known how close they were to the Underworld.

"Hell. Now what?" Please, be trash that some rude asshole left in my alley.

Rather than kick it with her foot, she decided to be more prudent and find something long to use as a poker. While grabbing a shop broom inside, she registered how quiet the place was. Of course, Basil wasn't there. He was still with Jason.

Back in the alley, Nix slowly approached, straining for a better look. The pile was inside the building's shadow. The closer she got, the more the lump resembled a body. She cursed. "Oh, come on! Why does this keep happening?"

Broom at the ready, she gave it jab. The mass was solid and there was no crinkle of plastic. So much for the garbage bag theory. Man, she did not want to have to call the police. At the rate she was going, they would probably arrest her just on principle.

Stupid mound.

She lifted the broom, ready to strike. An arm sprouted from the pile and shot up, stopping the handle from falling.

Nix barked, "What the hell?"

The broom clattered to the ground.

A dark figure rose up. The set of the shoulders, the short black hair . . . it was awfully familiar. "Cal?"

"Nix," he said, his voice strained and tired. His arm extended, propping his body against the brick wall.

"If this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny." When he didn't respond, Nix came up behind him and placed her hand on his back. "Are you—"

The words choked off. There was something wrong. Really wrong. His energy, the essence of his life, was out of whack. Like he was missing . . .

She put her hand up to her mouth, swallowing dread as he turned to face her. "Cal, where's your soul?"

NOP:  What inspired you to write Mystic Ink?

Casey Wyatt:  I don't know that I was inspired as much as driven to write the book. Ideas come to me and torment me until I get them down on paper. The first scene I envisioned in the story is a variation of the excerpt above – a woman arguing with a man in an alley. And it snowballed from there. Except, it turned out that the characters were supernatural. Nix is a Neried or Sea Nymph. Cal is a demigod, son of Ares. Water and Fire – two elements, that when combined, make steam!

NOP:  Who is your favorite character in Mystic Ink?  Does he/she have any similarity to anyone in your personal life?

Casey Wyatt:  I hate choosing favorites. They all have something about them that I love. I love that Nix is an artist (and she is trying to live her dream – something I think we can all relate to). And Cal is driven to win back lost love. Who wouldn't like to have a do-over? If I had to choose one character, I'd say Zephyr. He's the God of the West Wind: carefree, fun loving, and mysterious. And his devil-may-care attitude resembles my two sons and their sense of humor (don't tell them I said that!).

NOP:  If Mystic Ink were to be made into a movie, who would you cast as your two main characters?

Casey Wyatt:  That is a tough question. When I create my characters, they are never based on real people. They would have to hot, young, and good looking!

NOP:  I know you are also releasing another novel soon.  Please tell us a little bit about it and its expected release date.

Casey Wyatt:  My next novel, The Undead Space Initiative, is coming soon from Pink Petal Books. I don't have a release date yet, but as soon as I do, I will share it. I call this my vampire-stripper-on-Mars book. Here's the blurb:

Cherry Cordial, vampire stripper extraordinaire, spectacularly messes up her life with a single act of kindness. How could she have known when she rescued gorgeous rogue, Ian McDevitt, that she would be implicated in the vampire queen's murder?  Soon, she faces the wrath of the entire vampire community. To escape retribution, she joins a settlement program to colonize Mars. Her choices are grim: possibly die on the red planet or stay on Earth and face certain annihilation.

Visit Casey on the web: www.caseywyatt.com  or at http://secretsof7scribes.wordpress.com/. You can also find Casey on Facebook and Twitter (@CaseyWyatt1). Mystic Ink can be found at www.soulmatepublishing.com and at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Here's the links …

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Mystic-Ink-ebook/dp/B0071R3JI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327585790&sr=8-1
B&N:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/casey-wyatt?keyword=casey+wyatt&store=ebook

Thanks for sharing with us today, Casey.  I know our readers will be excited to find out you are offering a free e-book to one lucky winner.  In order to qualify to win dear readers, you MUST put the words "I want to be inked" in your comment.  This contest will end at midnight tonight.  Please enter, and good luck.

Filed under: romance