Tami Lund Interviews a Character by Stacy Hoff

This week, Nights of Passion readers, I’ve got something different and fun for you! Author Tami Lund is here to let us get to know her, plus one very interesting character from her latest book.

Here’s Tami’s character interview with Tanner Lyons, the shifter without a pack who is featured in Into the Light, the first book in the Lightbearer Series, released by Liquid Silver Books on July 14, 2014

It’s a beautiful fall day, and I’ve managed to catch Tanner Lyons during a rare moment of downtime. And alone, as well, which is unusual for the shifter to whom other beings tend to migrate. We are sitting outside a local brewery (his choice, not mine; I would have chosen a winery), in a roped off area that allows us to watch the foot traffic in this small town, and still be able to enjoy the craft beers he seems to favour. Tanner has, not surprisingly, situated himself so that his back is to a solid brick wall, and he can still keep an eye on his surroundings. My first question is a blurted, “Are you looking for someone?”

He arches one black brow and gives me a cool look. “Have you met my father?”

This interview is not starting on the right foot. I need to try to make up for my blunder. “Tell me about yourself,” I encourage.

“What do you want to know?”

Tanner, I know from the book, Into the Light, is not a man of many words. I suspect this will make the interview a bit of a challenge.

“What do you do for fun?” I ask.

“Fun?” he repeats with another eyebrow arch.

“Yeah, you know: movies, reading, going to the beach. Fun.”

“I have inherited a small pack of lightbearers with no fighting skills whatsoever, my practically invalid mother, and a female shifter with a young child and who is about to whelp her second any day now. My father, who happens to be pack master over one of the largest and strongest shifter packs in the country, is hunting us. Fun doesn’t exactly fit into the equation at the moment.”

I am at a loss for words now. If he isn’t willing to open up to me, I’ll have no material for my blog post. I don’t know what to do.

Abruptly, he softens. “I know you are only trying to do your job,” he admits as he leans back in his chair and takes a long drink from the dark beer he’s selected off the extensive menu. “I’ll tell you what. Let’s talk about Olivia.”

“Olivia? The lightbearer princess?”

“That’s the one,” he agrees, and I cannot help but notice his eyes are glowing faintly. I look around, wondering if any other humans in the vicinity have noticed.

“Humans only see what they want to see,” he says, accurately guessing my thoughts.

“Oh. Right. So … tell me about Olivia.”

“She’s beautiful. Strangely delicate and yet impossibly strong all at the same time. She has been forced into a situation she doesn’t want, just because of who she was born to.”

“To whom she was born,” I automatically correct him. Stupid grammar Nazi author.

“Whatever.”

I clear my throat. “So what does that have to do with you? I mean, what’s your relationship?”

“She was captured by my father. He meant to kill her. My father has always believed that if he could capture and kill a lightbearer, he would inherit her magic.”

“Is that true?” I ask, awed by the very idea.

Those glowing eyes turn stormy and dark. “No,” he snaps, and I am half-afraid he will end the interview then and there.

“But Olivia’s still alive,” I blurt hurriedly, hoping I can get a little more from him on the subject.

“She is. I rescued her and now have to return her to her coterie.”

“You rescued her? From your own father?” Shifters, I know, are an exceedingly loyal group of beings. Even if the pack master is demented, they often still follow blindly. They know no other way.

“Yes,” he says shortly. I can see the emotions in his eyes. This was not an easy decision.

“What’s a coterie?”

“It’s this place where all the lightbearers live. It’s protected by a bunch of magical wards. Few lightbearers ever leave those protective wards, and as a result, most shifters assume they’ve gone extinct.”

“Except your father.”

“Yes.”

He clearly does not enjoy discussing the topic of his father, but I press anyway. “Why did he believe they were still alive, when everyone else didn’t?”

Tanner leans forward, those still faintly glowing eyes watching me with an intensity that is utterly unnerving. I want to look away. Actually, I want to run away, but it’s like he’s holding me prisoner, without even touching me.

“Shifters are a highly obsessive group of beings,” he explains in his low, gravely voice. “When we latch onto something – such as an idea or a person – we do not easily let go, if ever.”

“Such as Olivia?” I dare to ask.

“Are you implying something?” he growls.

I shrink away from him. “It’s just that every time you talk about her, your voice softens and your eyes glow and …”

He takes another drink of his beer, shifts his gaze away from me. “She is … special,” he states, almost grudgingly.

“Are you two…?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Relationships usually are.”

“We do not have a relationship. At least …”

“What?” I prod, anticipation thrumming through my system. Is he about to divulge something no one else knows?

He lifts the pint glass, drains the contents and places it back on the table. And then he stands, his gaze sweeping over the groups of humans wandering about the quaint little downtown area. “We’re done here,” he says, and then he is gone. I don’t even know in which direction he went.

And I have no idea how this interview veered so far off course.

***

About Tami Lund

Tami Lund has a bit of an obession with writing and publishing books. To date, she’s published ten e-books, two of which are available in paperback as well. Six were published this year alone. And she isn’t slowing down. Tanner’s book, Into the Light, was published in July, and the follow up, Dawning of Light, is scheduled for release on December 15. She has a couple more releases coming soon:

The Perfect Christmas, part of the Unwrapping Love holiday anthology, to be released in conjuction with Page Curl Publishing on December 1.
Cursed and Chosen, the first book in a new shifter series, is scheduled for a spring, 2015 release, through Soul Mates Publishing.

Tami loves to live, love, and laugh, and does her best to ensure the characters in her books do the same. After they’ve overcome a few seemingly insurmountable obsctacles first, of course.

She also loves to be stalked on social media. Her website is: http://tamilund.com and she’s on nearly every social media outlet, including Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to look her up so you know when the next book will be released!

***

About Stacy Hoff

You can find Stacy on Social Media: www.facebook.com/authorStacyHoff Twitter: twitter.com/authorStacyHoff   Web: http://www.stacyhoff.com

Her contemporary romance, Desire in the Everglades is available on Amazon now. http://www.amazon.com/Desire-Everglades-Stacy-Hoff-ebook/dp/B00NFSMCYG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410289138&sr=8-1&keywords=desire+in+the+everglades.

Filed under: Author Interviews, romance, shapeshifters, Stacy Hoff