Series Blast, Giveaway & Interview: War-N-Wit, Inc. by @GailRoughton

 

 

Witch Resurrected

War-N-Wit, Inc.

Book 1

Gail Roughton

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Books We Love, Ltd.

Date of Publication: September 21, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-77145-314-1

ASIN: B00NSY9NZ8

Number of pages:192

Word Count: 63,858

Cover Artist: Michelle Lee

Book Description:

Ariel Anson thinks she has her life in order. She’s young, smart, and beautiful, even if she doesn’t believe the beautiful part. She’s a paralegal with a great career and a fiancé who’s a CPA. You just can’t get any steadier than that. Then she meets private investigator, bounty hunter, process server Chad Garrett.

What does War-N-Wit, Inc. stand for anyway?

Warlock and Witch? For real? Oh, yes! For real.

Her life as she knows it is over! Instead of organizing corporate documents and pleadings, she’s chasing bail jumpers and taking down serial killers. And investigating secret societies. Like Resurrection.

Not everyone can join, just the elite few who remember their past lives. Only the Seer knows if those memories are truth or fabrication. There’s just one problem. The new Seer is missing in action. War-N-Wit’s new assignment is a blast from the past! But whose past?

Available at Amazon

 

 

 

Mean Streets

War-N-Wit, Inc.

Book 2

Gail Roughton

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Books We Love, Ltd.

Date of Publication: October 17, 2014

ASIN: B00NT22DXI

Number of pages:194

Word Count: 58,274

Cover Artist: Michelle Lee

Book Description:

Daytona Bike Week. Biker’s paradise. The perfect place for Chad and Ariel Garrett to take a few days off and relax with Chad’s buddy Spike and Ariel’s little sister Stacy.

But nothing ever goes as planned with that magical duo. Trouble just stalks them like a black cat. A missing agent riding with an outlaw biker gang, a call from Chad’s past, and War-N-Wit, Inc.’s riding again, with romance blooming in the midst of danger. From Daytona, the crew heads back to Vegas and another family wedding. Spike and Stacy are ready to say “I do!” In the Tunnel of Love Drive-Thru at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Vegas, of course. It’s become a family tradition.

But what’s supposed to happen in Vegas just refuses to stay in Vegas. And you’re not going to believe this side-trip!

Available at Amazon

Did you always wanted to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?

Quite honestly, I think writers are born writers and it’s not something you can “want” or “decide” to be.  The innate drive and talent to be one is something you’ve either got or not.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think anybody can become a proficient writer insofar as everyday life and the competence in writing it takes to navigate it.  But writing fiction? It irritates me a lot to hear people say “I could write a book if I wanted to. One day I will.” Well, I could stare at a da Vinci painting for a year, but that doesn’t mean I’d ever be able to paint anything close to a da Vinci, because I wasn’t born with that talent.  I could stare at a calculus problem for a century and I’d never figure it out because my brain just does not do higher math.  As to writing, if someone wants to write a book, they’ll write it, they won’t be saying, “I could if I wanted to”. Will the first one be a good one?  That’d be a miracle.  It’s a learning process.  But you have to have the talent and more importantly, the drive, to write that first one.  I know many writers, published and unpublished, who don’t make a living from writing, they have other careers as well.  And in fact, I always planned to be a lawyer.  Until my first job in a law office.  Then I got scared I’d turn into an attorney.  But I’m in a law office anyway.  What’s brought home the paycheck most of my life is my job as a paralegal.  It’s the perfect niche for me.

When did you first consider yourself a “writer”?

See above.  I was born one.

How long did it take to get your first book published?

The first book I actually wrote will never be published.  The first several books I actually wrote will never be published.  I wrote them for entertainment and threw them in the closet and believe me, that’s where they belong.  I’d been writing about twenty years when I first subbed and pubbed. 

Do you do another job except for writing and can you tell us more about it?

Yes, I’ve been a paralegal for forty years, it was my perfect nitch.  I love the legal world – well, I loved the legal world, I’m honestly about ready for retirement now – and it’s taught me a lot.  I’ve written every day, all day, in a very specialized profession and while writing fiction is nothing like drafting a brief, the precision and discipline involved in both is the same.  And it’s been a fabulous source of ideas and characters.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what would you say?

The one I’m working on right now?  Black Turkey Walk.  It’s a paranormal thriller, and a rather dark one. In twenty words exactly, “Lucy Elliott’s moving her family back home, site of the traumatic events of her childhood. The ones she doesn’t remember.”

Who is your publisher? Or do you self-publish?

My publisher’s Books We Love, Ltd.  I’m not brave enough to self-publish.

How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?

I’ve done complete books in two months, four months, six months.  Others have taken years.  Literally.

What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?

I’m all over the board as to genre.  My books run the gamut from humor to romance to thriller to horror, sometimes in the same book.  The one thread that usually remains constant is a paranormal thread.  All my books have one, some a lot more so than others.

What genre would you place your books into?

See above.  I don’t write genre, I write stories. And those stories fit whatever genre they turn out to be.

What made you decide to write that genre of book?

It wasn’t a decision.  It’s just – what the characters of that particular book decided the story was.

Do you have a favorite character from your books? And why are they your favorite?

Maggie Kincaid Brayton from Country Justice.  All my heroines have a lot of me in them, one aspect of my character or the other.  Maggie’s probably the closest to the real “me”, though.

How long have you been writing?, and who or what inspired you to write?

Well, I’ve been writing pretty much all my life, in one form or another, and I think I’ve pretty much covered my thoughts on why.

Do you have a certain routine you have for writing? ie You listen to music, sit in a certain chair?

My workspace is a laptop at the kitchen table. I’ve been on a computer in a law office for so long, I’m geared to think while typing in the midst of noise, bustle and chaos.  My husband actually set up a little typing desk for me in our bedroom, bless his heart, “so nobody’ll bother you”.  I sat down at it for about five minutes and moved my laptop back to the kitchen table.  I can’t think if I’m not where I can monitor everybody’s comings and goings, follow the action on the tv show in the great room, hear the timers dinging for the oven or microwave, and see the pots if they start to boil over.

Do you read all the reviews of your book/books?

Yes, I do.  I’m curious as to how well I’m doing at telling the story I wanted to tell.  I don’t get the big-head from good reviews or depressed by bad ones, nobody likes everything anybody writes. But I do want to know if, on the average, I’m giving readers what I strive to give them.   Which is a good, entertaining read.

Do you choose a title first, or write the book then choose the title?

That varies, and I’ve done both.  Sometimes a title’s actually inspired a book and it’s certainly shaped the plot of some of my books. But I also have books that’ve waited a looooong time for the right title.

How do you come up with characters names and place names in your books?

Sometimes characters and places just name themselves.  Sometimes they don’t.  And in order to avoid using the same names over and over again, I think most writers have “go-to” places where they can pick and choose.  I personally like jury lists and such.  Take this first name, that last name, mix and mingle.  One of my friends uses the phone book.  Another uses a baby book.  I will say usually the best characters are the ones who just stand up and flat-out announce their names.  And yeah, I’ve had a few do that. Maps can be used the same way for place names.  Sometimes you want the town or city to be an actual real place and sometimes you don’t.  And the same for location and business names in that city.  You just have to play it by ear.

Are character names and place names decided after their creation? Or do you pick a character/place name and then invent them?

That depends entirely on the particular book, the characters, the setting.  I’m sure every writer’s done it differently, even amongst their own books.  I certainly have. In general, I’d have to say the whole process is so entwined it’s rather like “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” and just as impossible to say with any certainty which did, in fact, occur first.

Do you decide on character traits (ie shy, quiet, tomboy girl) before writing the whole book or as you go along?

I have no idea where my characters come from.  I don’t decide anything about them. They just – appear.  Sometimes fully grown and raring to go, sometimes in a ghostly shadow that gradually acquires solid form and substance.  I start writing when they stand up independently and start walking and talking and telling me their story.  They tell the story, not me.  I just transcribe their words and actions onto a computer screen.  I can’t tell you how to develop a character because I don’t know how.  And once the story’s told and the book’s written, I look at both the characters and the book itself the same way I look at my children – with an intense feeling of disbelief that I created them, that I had anything to do with them.  They’ve become independent entities I really had very little to do with.

 

Are there any hidden messages or morals contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The moral of this story is..")

No, I’m not presumptuous enough to think anything I write has a “message” of great import.  I write stories. I want them to entertain readers, not to preach, teach, or depress.  As a reader, I read fiction for entertainment. I think its whole purpose is to provide entertainment and I think a fiction writer’s purpose is to write books that do that.

Which format of book do you prefer, eBook, hardback, or paperback?

Ten years ago, I’d NEVER have believed I’d say this, but eBook.  Nothing else but an eReader lets you take a library of 500 plus books on a plane.

What is your favorite book and Why?  Have you read it more than once?

I’ve got many books I’ve read more than once, but I’d be hard-pressed to say a specific book was my “favorite”.  Because that’s sort of like comparing apples to oranges.  My favorite romance? My favorite thriller?  My favorite chiller?  I mean, you can’t pick just one. 

Do you think books transfer to movies well? Which is you favorite/worst book to movie transfer?

I think they definitely CAN transfer to movies (and television) well.  I think they definitely don’t always do so. And on that, I can tell you my favorite transformation.  Dr. Zhivago.  And yes, I’ve read the book, too.  I think I was in the 9^th grade at the time.  I’m sure I’d never have stuck with it if I’d been an adult when I started reading it.  It’s not a book that I think most Americans would read for pleasure, but the movie was a masterpiece.

Your favorite food is?

Mexican.

Your favorite singer/group is?

That depends on my mood, but I gravitate toward country music.

Your favorite color is?

Warm tone colors.  The red/yellow/gold/brown tones.  I don’t really have an overall favorite favorite. 

Your favorite Author is?

I don’t really have a favorite favorite.  I have many favorites and it all depends on which category of books you’re asking about.

 

 

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Gail Roughton is a native of small town Georgia whose Deep South heritage features prominently in much of her work. She’s worked in a law office for close to forty years, during which time she’s raised three children and quite a few attorneys. She’s kept herself more or less sane by writing novels and tossing the completed manuscripts into her closet.

A cross-genre writer, she’s produced books ranging from humor to romance to thriller to horror and is never quite sure herself what to expect when she sits down at the keyboard. Now multi-published by Books We Love, Ltd., her credits include the War-N-Wit, Inc. series, The Color of Seven, Vanished, and Country Justice. Currently, she’s working on Black Turkey Walk, the second in the Country Justice series, as well as the Sisters of Prophecy series, co-written with Jude Pittman.

Another War-N-Wit plot always seems to be brewing on the back burner, too, whether she’s actually trying to brew one or not, and usually boils quicker when she’s trying not to brew one at all.

Amazon Page: http://amzn.com/e/B007JVZCKQ

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/GailRoughton

Web-Blog: www.gailroughton.blogspot.com

Books We Love, Ltd. http://bookswelove.net/roughton.php

Twitter: @GailRoughton