Author Interview: Dani Harper + Giveaway

 

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Dani Harper, author of Changeling Moon, writes paranormal romance, blogs about the paranormal, watches paranormal TV and movies, and reads paranormal books of almost any kind. So it's only natural that werewolves, faeries, ghosts and other supernatural creatures populate her stories. She lives on an island in Southeast Alaska with her fisherman husband. Her stories get written on land or at sea with the help of her executive secretary, Fiona the Pug.

Can you tell me about your book, CHANGELING MOON, in 20 words or less?


Zoey Tyler fends off a wolf attack, but is the man who helps her much more dangerous?


The pack environment is so integral to this story. It adds such depth to the characters as a group this close does in life. How has your pack (family, friends) helped formed this book?


Relationships are EVERYTHING. I saw an incredible painting once of a group of wolves – and I immediately thought of my family. I couldn’t afford to take the artwork home but I’ve never forgotten it. My four girls and I look out for each other, even though we live miles apart now. Their friends have hung in there with us too – several of them call me “Mom” as well! We’re a very tight-knit group.


My relationship with my husband figures strongly in my stories too. Recently he gave me a card that read “If there were nothing else but our love for each other, we would still have all we need.” I can write about love and romance, compassion and loyalty, sacrifice and devotion between Pack members, because I know those things exist between ordinary people.


Zoey's strength of character is amazing and I don't think I've read a book with such an alpha female in ages. Was there a strong female presence in your life?


Buffy the Vampire Slayer and my grammas. My great gramma, Cynthia, came over to Canada from Wales ALONE around 1913. She was just 17 years old, yet she carved out a life for herself on the prairies. Her daughter, Olive, owned and ran a business when it wasn’t usual for women to do so and was very successful at it. Both were very strong-minded and determined to do whatever they wanted to do, and popular opinion could go hang itself. That’s a heckuva legacy.


Today, the strongest female presence in my life comes from my four daughters. They have grown into amazing women (all with a love of the paranormal I might add) and I’m awed by them.


And then there’s Buffy of course. Joss Whedon created a kick-ass heroine that practically became part of our family for the seven years of the show. I couldn’t be more pleased that my girls – and me too – had such a strong and empowering role model in that character.


Small town dynamics are another huge aspect of this story. What about small towns do you love?


Everybody knows everybody. You’re not invisible, the way you are in a city. The clerks call you by name when you go into a store or the bank. It takes an hour to do your grocery shopping because you have to stop and visit with all the people you bump into there. Folks wave at you when you’re driving by. Your neighbors lean over the fence and remark on your flower garden – or your dandelions! You never have to wonder what people think, because you’ll hear about it pretty quick. It’s endearing and annoying at the same time. I love it.

What is your current WIP (Work in Progress)? Can you tell me a little about it?


I’m currently writing Book 4 in the Changeling series, and it features Culley Macleod, Connor’s younger brother. Culley is a dyed-in-the-wool prankster and smart-ass, but he’s met his match in Chance Benalli, the woman who’s about to turn his world inside-out. They’ll have to get over their differences and pull together, however, to survive this story!


Do you have a favorite place to sit and write? Where is your favorite place to read?


I can honestly say that I can write or read anywhere. It doesn’t matter what’s going on around me (as long as it doesn’t concern me – a construction job outside my window is less of a distraction than my pugs wanting my attention, LOL). Some of my favorite places to write are in coffee shops and airports. I like the sense of people coming and going around me. Maybe it’s the energy I pick up on.


If your house was on fire (everyone was safe), what one book would you rescue? 


One? Only one? I LOVE books, and I have a lot of keepers that are almost like family – I’d never be able to choose! In an emergency, I’d have to let all my paperbacks go (snif!) and grab my Kindle instead! And then I’d have many of my favorite paranormal books already on it and I could get the rest later. I’d miss the smell and feel of the paper copies though.


As a reader do you read in the same genre as you write? What is your current paranormal obsession?


Absolutely – I love to read paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Anything by Karen Chance and Patricia Briggs is an MBRA (must buy right away). For humor, I like Molly Harper and Katie MacAlister. And I’m completely, totally, addicted to the Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward.


I tend to have several books on the go at any one time (somehow I keep all the story lines straight – I think it’s a leftover from being a newspaper editor) so I’m working on Lover Mine and How to Seduce a Naked Werewolf, PLUS I just got a copy of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter!

Amazon | Goodreads

He roams the moonlit wilderness, his every sense and instinct on high alert. Changeling wolf Connor Macleod and his Pack have never feared anything -- until the night human Zoey Tyler barely escapes a rogue werewolf's vicious attack.
As the full moon approaches, Zoey has no idea of the changes that are coming, and only Connor can show her what she is, and help her master the wildness inside. With her initiation into the Pack just days away and a terrifying predator on the loose, the tentative bonds of trust and tenderness are their only weapons against a force red in tooth, claw . . . and ultimate evil.

Giveaway:
US/Canada open until July 9th

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