Nancy Lee Badger Interviews Nancy Gideon

Author Nancy GideonNancy Gideon stopped by, and my interview of the author of PRINCE OF SHADOWS is enlightening! Her release is a paranormal romance and was released on May 27, 2013.

Please tell my readers a little bit about your book.  PRINCE OF SHADOWS is the 8th book in my “By Moonlight” shape-shifter series for Pocket Books. Earlier books take place in New Orleans involving a band of Shifter outcasts under the reluctant leadership of Max Savoie who is trying to prevent a clan war while struggling to discover the mysteries of his heritage. While continuing with the basic themes within the “BY Moonlight” world, PRINCE OF SHADOWS moves the setting to Lake Tahoe, home of the savage Terriot clan, so it’s a good place for a new reader to jump in.  My hero and heroine are star-crossed lovers separated by a dark history and now caught in a dangerous arrangement to unite their clan while healing their hearts.  Describe the genre of this particular title, and is it the only genre you write in?  PRINCE OF SHADOWS is a dark paranormal.  While I enjoy paranormal romances, having done an eight book “Midnight” vampire series and now my “By Moonlight” shape-shifters, I’ve also written historicals as Dana Ransom and Rosalyn West, and series contemporary suspenses under my own name.  I love variety.When did you start writing toward publication?  Waaaaay back when romances were just taking off in the mid-80s when I left the work force to concentrate on starting a family.  I’d always written stories but that’s when I had the time to go from page one to page end.Did you have several manuscripts finished before you sold? If so, did you send them out yourself?After my first massive historical tome met with rejection (mainly because I sent them to the wrong places!), I wrote three more complete books before garnering the courage to submit again.  I picked the one I thought was the strongest and sent it out to several publishers I found in an old copy of Fiction Writers Market.  I had no idea what I was doing. Looking back, I’m amazed I got that call for the complete manuscript two weeks later.  I didn’t even have it typed – it was still in long hand in my notebook.  A month later, I sent it off to New York and 54 books later . . . Many of them I’ve sold myself (I’m older and wiser now!) and some through various agents.  I’m currently agented.Why have you become a published author?    Writing as a career has always been my dream.  I started out wanting to be a journalist but my true passion wasn’t non-fiction, it was in those 500 page flights of imagination. I write because I can’t NOT write.  Getting paid for it is the added bonus.Make me feel better...do you have any rejection stories to share?Don’t we all!  When I started out, romance was wide open and publishers snapped up everything I submitted. But then the midlist list crash in the ‘90s left me and a lot of my peers struggling to find a new focus.  I left New York and went with a small press, ImaJinn, to continue a vampire series fans were devoted to and rediscover my love of writing.    After working with Pocket back in NYC for the last few years, now the tide is turning toward digital and self-publishing. Everything is a cycle. You just have to be prepared to ride the wave and keep on keeping on. I am sitting on a surfboard! What is your writing routine like? I’m an obsessive Type A writer with a strict schedule to work around a full time job.  When under contract, I’m at the keyboard by 5:00 a.m. working until I have to leave for my day job at 8:00.  I may work on scenes during my lunch hour, and if the deadline’s tight or the muse is pushy, I might fire up the laptop again when I get home.  I’ll usually put in 8 hours on the weekend when I have the most uninterrupted time. The OCD keeps me to my intended daily word count.That is dedication! What sort of promo do you do? Do you have help?Going from print books to e-exclusives meant a whole new learning curve for promotion. No more sales force and brick-and-mortar stores to get my books out there, and many review sources I’d traditionally dealt with wouldn’t look at e-books. Fortunately, I already had a fairly solid social media platform in place but still, it’s a scramble just to let readers know your book is available. Because 40 hours of my week are already spoken for, getting that big PR blitz going was more time consuming than I could handle by myself.  I have a fabulous virtual assistant in My Girl Friday who does my blog postings and media updating, and I’ve gotten great results by using Buy the Book Tours and Bewitching Book Tours to get blog stops set up for me.  I’ve done various blog hops with giveaways, and special events like my annual Haunted Open House to build my visibility, but in the end, who knows what actually brings in a sale. Usually it’s word of mouth.Having achieved your goal to be a published author, what is the most rewarding thing?  The most rewarding part of being an author for me has always been the process of writing. Just writing the book.  I love the plotting, the research, the characters, weaving everything together from page one to page Ahhhh!  Getting paid for doing it or being recognized with a royalty check, awards and reviews is icing on the cake.Are you a member of any writing organizations and, if so, have they helped?I’ve never been a joiner, and writing is the most isolating job you can imagine. Before I got invited to speak at my area Mid-Michigan chapter of Romance Writers of America, I’d never even met a real live author! In them I found a wonderful sisterhood of supportive and creative friends and most importantly my critique group. Now, I can’t fathom getting by without all the contacts I’ve made through RWA and Novelists Ink, especially with all the new tricks I’m having to learn lately in this e-volution. I agree. I love my RWA chapters. Will you share some encouraging words for authors still struggling for that first contract?  Take heart!  Authors now have more choices and opportunities then every before.  With small press and self-published writers hitting the big bestsellers lists, New York in no longer the only game in town, which is great news for those who write just outside the box.  Educate yourselves.  This is a business and as such, is full of pitfalls that you need to be prepared to recognize.  Arm yourself with knowledge and write that best book you can.What’s next for you? I recently got the publishing rights back to about 20 of my titles from Zebra Books.  BelleBooks will be reissuing four of the contemporary romances in 2014 and I’m actively looking for homes for the historicals.I’m hoping for more books in the “By Moonlight” series, especially the one for Max and Charlotte that readers have been demanding.  Until then, I’ll be busy promoting PRINCE OF SHADOWS. BOOK BLURB

Others Controlled Her Fate
A gentle female held hostage in a deadly play for power, Kendra Terriot’s only means of survival for herself and her family is to play to a careful courtship game. The one she chooses from her clan’s dangerous heirs will inherit the coveted crown, keeping her their prisoner forever . . . unless she can retain her virtue until rescue arrives.
The Past Destroyed His Dreams
Favored son of their brutal Shifter leader, the only calm in Cale Terriot’s violent world is a childhood love for his delicate distant cousin whom he’s pledged to make his queen. With Kendra at his side, he knows he can become the kind of ruler his clan needs, but first he must learn how to become the kind of mate she desires.
A Choice Would Determine Their Future
In a treacherous race for control, where weakness means death, Cale must prove he’s not the beast his beauty fears and still protect her, especially once her unrequited love returns to free her. The only way to win her respect could mean surrendering his throne. The only way to win her heart could mean letting her go . . . even if she no longer wants to be saved.
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORCelebrating her 25th year in publishing, Nancy Gideon is the author of over 54 novels ranging from historical and contemporary suspense to paranormal with a couple of horror screenplays thrown in.  When not at the keyboard or working full time as a legal assistant, she can be found feeding her addictions for Netflix and all things fur, feather and fin. 
How can my readers buy your book?  Amazon    Barnes and Noble  Readers can go to the publisher’s HOME PAGE You can find more information about me and my book, PRINCE OF SHADOWS by visiting me at: WEBSITE    BLOG    TWITTER     FACEBOOK   GOODREADS