Welcome to the fourth day of the Paranormal Romance Blog Tour. Today, our featured author is D.M. Guay. But before we get to the author interview, I wanted to remind everyone there is still time to enter the $25 Amazon Gift Card giveaway. Just click on the link below. You can also win one of the $5 Amazon Gift Cards also as a prize.

Link to Parnormal Romance Blog Tour Giveaway:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/20834f9e17

And now, our featured author for today, D.M. Guay.

D. M. Guay is an award winning journalist living in Ohio. She’s had experiences doing many things like being a painter, a roller derby player, and now a hobby urban farmer. She writes novels that include three things: being sexy, a kick ass, and magic. She loves pushing the boundary of real life meeting the supernatural. I had a chance to talk with her about her favorite Halloween memory, writing paranormal romances, and what she is working on right now for all of us.

1)   What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Uh, what isn’t? Seriously I love Halloween. As in LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It’s my absolute favorite holiday, in part because October is an absolutely epic and wonderful month in Ohio. The weather is cool and perfect, the trees turn pretty yellow, reds, and oranges, the town of Circleville hosts their annual pumpkin show, where locals compete to grow the biggest, heaviest, and ugliest pumpkins. Then, I get to dress up as the Bride of Frankenstein and hand out full-size candy bars to the kids who venture off the beaten path down our forgotten side street on trick or treat night. What’s not to love? I don’t think I’ve had one single bad Halloween in my entire life. There are no bad memories!

Although, looking back, I do often wonder about my childhood costumes. I think my mom was making some sort of political statement about my dad’s fashion choices. You see, every year I wanted more than anything to dress up in one of store-bought off-the-rack $3.99 plastic Wonder Woman costumes. They actually were kind of crappy, just a plastic sack with an outfit printed on the front paired a flimsy plastic mask with a teeny mouth slit that would cut your tongue if you dared to speak. But boy oh boy, I wanted one. So. Bad. And, I never got one. My family didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so I wore the same costume every year. Like clockwork on trick or treat night, my mom would dress me in my dad’s brown work clothes, stuff a pillow into my belt to make me look like I had a beer belly, and tell me that I was masquerading as a hobo for Halloween. A hobo. Again. In my dad’s clothes. Poor dad. Guess mom was trying to tell him something.

2)   Who was your favorite romance or paranormal author and how did they influence you?

Charlaine Harris, hands down. There is something special about the way she makes pretend places like Bon Temps and Midnight, Texas, and the paranormal creatures and elements in them feel so real. Her work was a model for how I approached the fictional town of Salt Creek, Ohio, in my current series.

Harris pulls off a level of detail and description in her characters and places that not a lot of authors can. For instance, she’s written scenes where Sookie Stackhouse takes a shower and gets ready for work, and yet somehow those mundane activities aren’t boring and don’t slow the story down. I mean, how is that even possible?? I sure can’t pull that off!

When I’m stuck in one of my own stories, I read one of her novels, and instantly can get unstuck, back to the keyboard and writing again.

Of course, there are a lot of other great writers out there. I particularly like Jennifer Estep’s Bigtime romance series. Her writing is impeccable. I also really enjoyed Vicki Lewis Thompson’s Nerd in Shining Armor. I don’t know why. Maybe because I like nerds. And Hawaii. Who can say? I also just took my very first kindle out of the package and can’t wait to read all the wonderful books by put out by indie authors like myself!

3)   Do you have a writing routine? Share what works for you.

Ha. Well, yes, of course I do, and I wish it were more glamorous. It’s almost too embarrassing to share because the movies make writing books and being a novelist look so romantic and artsy. Champagne, book signings, romance and adventure, anyone? Then there’s reality. If you want to be a novelist, it’s butt in seat, hands on keyboard. There is no waiting for inspiration. I have a journalism background, and have worked at big daily newspapers and for newswire services. It’s served me well, because I know I have to produce something every single day. There is no waiting for inspiration.

What does that translate into in real life? I write five or six days a week. I have two little kids. During the school year, I get them up and off, and then I sit down and write. My daily goal is 2,000 words a day. When I’m writing a first draft. I take frequent breaks for exercise and meal prep. When they are on summer vacation, I aim to write 200 words a day, but usually manage to get more. Writing every day is key, because it lets you mentally stay in the world of the story. I’m always thinking about the story, the characters, and the plot when I’m not writing, like when I’m getting groceries or taking a walk or working in the garden. Always.

That’s it. No glamorous formula. Just sitting down and putting the words together, every single day.

4)   What paranormal creatures or subjects would you like to write about?

At the moment, I’m knee deep in the Guardians of Salt Creek series, which is the story of a girl’s transformation into a theikos. A theikos is an ancient race of humans who have superhuman abilities such as telekinesis, fast healing, and super speed. Really, they’re superheros without the capes, or at least they have the potential to be. I describe the series as Beautiful Creatures meets X-men. Their skills seem magical, but the source is not spells or magic, it’s DNA.

Of course, I love all sorts of supernatural and paranormal creatures. I always have, and over time, my work will definitely reflect that. Right now, I’m outlining a standalone paranormal romance starring a very hunky genie, and planning a series about a 45-year-old exotic dancer who ‘moonlights’ as the angel of death. So yeah. Stay tuned!

5)   What is writing to you in one sentence?

Everything.

6)   What projects are you working on right now?

Besides the genie romance and the angel of death stories mentioned above, I’m finishing the Guardians of Salt Creek Series. Jess, Resurrected, which is book two, is at the printer right now and comes out Nov. 13. Jess, Redeemed, which is book three, comes out in February 2018. Phew!

Those two books are already finished, so at this moment, I’m writing the last book in that universe: Charity, Unchained. It’s a dark historical paranormal love story about a woman who actually lived in Ohio (then the Northwest Territory) during the Revolutionary War. The legends say she haunted a colonial general and his soldiers after they killed 92 innocent Christian missionaries in the town of Gnadenhutten. I’m super excited about this for many reasons. First, just reading the old legends in books and newspapers from the 1800s is fascinating. Second, her story is so tragic and beautiful and magical that I want to bring it to life!

D.M. Guay’s featured book is Jess, Rising. It is the winner of the 2016 Romance Writers of America Joyce Henderson Contest for Young Adult Romance.

Magic. Loves. Lies. Betrayal. High school is murder.

Seventeen-year-old Jess Flowers has changed into something dark, something powerful, something more than human since moving to rural nowhere Salt Creek. She isn’t alone. It’s a town with a dangerous secret. In Salt Creek, people aren’t what they seem.

Gorgeous outcast Billy Combs is the only one willing to help her, but his troubled past may be darker than he’s let on.

A super-charged killer stalks the town, zeroing in on Jess. Can she tame the mysterious powers surging within her and identify the killer before it’s her turn to die?

Murder, lies, betrayal and supernatural powers collide in this dark love story for fans of Beautiful Creatures, X-Men, Twilight, and Vampire Diaries.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jess-Rising-Guardians-Salt-Creek-ebook/dp/B06ZZD2P2S

**Kindle Unlimited title!

For a guest post from D.M. Guay, head over to Sherry Soule’s blog. 

UPDATE: I have some very sad news about my dear author friend, D.M. Guay. She has recently discovered that she has stage 4 kidney cancer. Her thoughts and feelings of what she is going through is on her blog post here: “The End”. I’m talking to D.M. Guay about what she may need to help her through this. It looks pretty terminal and hard to treat. So, she is wanting to create as much of a legacy as she can in the diagnosed two years she has left. If you’d be interested in a reader support reach-out, please let me know in the comments below.