Featured Interview With Shelby Hailstone Law

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Georgia my whole life (besides a brief stint in the Rockies while my dad finished school during my toddler years), and I love being here so much that I dragged my husband to come live here too after we got married! We’re back in my hometown of Acworth, where we’re raising our two kids with a love of reading and learning.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved books. My mom would put books on cassette tape on in my room to keep me busy, and by the time I was two, I could recite “The Cat in the Hat” from memory! By the time I was in elementary school, I wanted to write my own princess stories, and by the time I hit middle school, I tried my hand at writing larger stories. My first published book, “Lady Thief,” was actually written when I was fourteen. I never stopped writing, though I did take a brief break from publishing during college and early married life. My husband knew how much writing meant to me, though, and encouraged me to get back into it.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I can’t say enough wonderful things about Agatha Christie. I could spend hours reading her Hercule Poirot stories. But I’m also a sucker for a good “coming of age” fantasy, especially the Books of Pellinor, an underrated high fantasy series that makes me cry every time I read it.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My most recent book is “Death Flirts Back,” a story about a girl who falls in love with a Grim Reaper. I’ve had this idea bouncing around in my head for years, and in 2023, I finally sat down to write it. One year later, I published it in October 2024, and I’m ridiculously proud of my first-ever foray into paranormal romance!

Everything I write is clean, because I’m a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I don’t think that detracts from the romance at all. In fact, this story is largely built around how dangerous it is for Abigail, the main character, to fall in love with an agent of Death itself!

Check out this synopsis:

Abigail’s family is cursed.

Generations ago, a man made a deal with a Grim Reaper, hoping to gain eternal life. In the process, he had promised to give that Reaper a mass murder, a gift of many souls to shepherd to the other side. Abigail’s ancestor escaped, and Reapers have followed her whole family ever since. The deal remains unfinished so long as she and her family walk the earth.

In an attempt to cope with an emissary of Death following her around all the time, Abigail has taken to talking to her otherworldly shadow. In all her years, not one Reaper has ever talked back to her.

Until one day, a young Reaper lowers his hood.

Now, Abigail struggles to find the balance between keeping herself safe from her family curse and getting closer to this Reaper. He’s curious, cute, and interested in ending the curse so he can get back to his normal job. But when a single mistake could be fatal for Abigail, how can she trust him?

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Featured Interview With Candace Lynn Talmadge

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Los Angeles but spent four of my teen years in an all girls high school in Winchester, England. Central California is my home now after a 34-year stay in Texas.

Not only am I an author, I am also a storyhealer and paranormalist. I talk with my spirit guides, and believe the generally accepted definition of normal is way too limited. I perceive and live in wider realities that include the heart and soul.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As a preteen, I was captivated by the Lord of the Rings, and a bit later by Dune. When I was 13, the mother of my closest friend put a Taylor Caldwell novel in my hand and told me I could write something like this.

I spend the next several decades thinking about my characters. In my imagination I saw them and heard them speak. I got to know them.

I also tried several times to start writing the story but got nowhere fast. In 1986 I met the woman who became my business and life partner and later my wife (officially).

She was a Sunan storyhealer and help me heal at an emotional and spiritual level. I became a Sunan storyhealer myself. And out of my profound healing arose, finally, the beginnings of my tale. I started writing it in 1998 and keep going to this day.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Apart from J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert, I read a lot of authors and many different genres. I enjoy Jana DeLeon, M.C.A. Hogarth, Steve Higgs, J.N. Chaney, and many others. The rise of indie publishing ushered in a golden age of storytelling. That is what inspires me to continue–that and an obsession to tell my story.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
His power seeks to destroy it all. Can she rise up to stop him?

The Stoneslayer paranormal fiction series charts a lost world of political scandals, explosive family secrets, and the reincarnation of a line of extraordinary women who challenge the cataclysmic rampage of an ancient, demonic foe.

My just published work is Book One Scandal.

Lt. Helen Andros is a mixed-race outcast in Azgard. Saved from death when her true parentage comes to light, she now faces the outrage of the overclass, the lethal hostility of the mighty Temple of Kronos — and a powerful, high-ranked father she neither knows nor trusts.

Steering a volatile personal journey with her stranger parent, Helen is stalked. Will a hidden menace — the deadly Stoneslayer — plunder the mysterious green gem she inherited from her mother? Will political necessity bind her in marriage to a man she does not love and who cannot love her back?

The series is a paranormal fusion with elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and lots of romance. It’s the work I began in 1998, seriously revised and expanded to include a demon of destruction.

To my complete shock, once I began writing it, and my wife read and critiqued my first drafts, we both realized I was writing about one of my past lives. And my wife was one of the characters in the book, as I was and as were friends and family.

The more I write in this series (halfway through Book Eight now), I realize it is drawn from four of my past lives. Characters in the series reincarnate on their spiritual journeys, trying to make things right, and usually just getting into more trouble.

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Candace Lynn Talmadge’s Website

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Featured Interview With Katy Motiey

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Iran, moved to the US when I was one month old, and then moved back to Iran when I was three. My father passed away then, we stayed in Iran until the Iranian Revolution and then moved to the US. There has been a lot of movement including going to high school in Newton, MA; college and law school at Georgetown in Washington, DC; working in Los Angeles and then Palo Alto, California. I now live in Encinitas, with my significant other Robert and our dog Molly.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started writing at age ten more as therapy to write my thoughts down during chaotic times. I have never been a book worm or anything close to that. I have been reading more and more as an adult and much of the time with purpose to help me become a better writer.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like reading authors who are from the Middle East or India, they give me inspiration in terms of details, culture, scene setting, transparency, etc.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Imperfect is the story of one woman’s loss, courage, love, and perseverance before and during the Iranian Revolution. Based on the experiences of the author’s mother, Vida Shamsa’s life takes an unexpected and dramatic turn with the sudden death of her young husband in 1971. Struggling against the patriarchal customs of Iran, she is faced with fighting her husband’s family for control of her children and her life. Never giving up fighting for her son and daughter, she challenges Iran’s legal and personal injustices against the backdrop of political unrest during the Shah’s regime, the rise of Khomeini, and the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Imperfect engages the reader in a quest for equality for a single mother who rages against outdated traditions and her need to control her life in order to protect her children, whom she loves above all else.

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Katy Motiey’s Website

Katy Motiey Facebook Page