Sister Hoods
Portals
Book
Four
P.L.
Blair
Genre: Urban
fantasy/detective/light romance
Publisher: Studio See LLC
Date of Publication: October 2013
ASIN: B00GC5BRI6
Number of pages: 292
Cover Artist: Pam See
Mike Roberts photographer
Book Description:
A bank robbery in Rockport,
Texas, sends Corpus Christi police detective Kat Morales and her elf partner,
Tevis, in pursuit of a band of nymphs and satyrs. The answer to their initial
question - why nymphs and satyrs would rob a bank - only leads them into a
deeper mystery in an enchanted woodland on the South Texas coast.
And while he and Kat try to save
the woods from an evil wizard and a deadly wyvern, Tevis finds himself engaged
in a personal struggle with potentially disastrous consequences: He is deeply,
irrevocably in love with his partner ...
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/gCn0H3IlNGs
About
the Author:
A native of Texas, now living in
Sheridan, Wyo., P.L. Blair divides her time between two careers. As P.L., she
writes a series (Portals) of urban fantasy/detective books that, recently,
including elements of light romance. Published books include Shadow Path,
Stormcaller, Deathtalker and Sister Hoods. Her fifth book is now with her
publisher, and she is working on Book 6. As Pat Blair, she's a reporter for
Sheridan Media, an organization that includes nine radio stations and an online
news publication at sheridanmedia.com.
She's also “mom” to three dogs
and a cat, all rescues, and is an avid reader, an occasional painter, and loves
doing research. A lover of horses, she researches American Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred
pedigrees as a hobby. Another hobby is history, and she's been the lead writer
last year and again this year for Sheridan Media's “Sheridan Chronicles”
history publication.
Interview
Where are you from?
I was born
in Tyler, Texas. Now living in Sheridan, Wyoming – which is a great place to
be, by the way! Sheridan's “officially” in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains,
but it's more of a valley, on the east side of the mountains among gently
rolling hills.
Tell us your latest news?
Well … I'm
working on Book 7 – still not titled – in my Portals series. Book 5 is with my
publisher, and Book 6 is waiting for my publisher to finish Book 5.
When and why did you begin writing?
I feel like
I've been writing all my life. My very first “piece” was a short story – three
hand-printed pages, something about a witch – that I wrote when I was 8 years
old. My teacher encouraged me to read the story aloud to the rest of the class,
and – They liked it! That was when I decided I'd found my calling. As to the
why … I love words, and the sounds of words, and the way they can be fit
together to express ideas.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Probably,
really, in high school when I took my first journalism classes.
What inspired you to write your first book?
My very
first book – still unpublished – I just started getting these ideas that
demanded – absolutely demanded – to be written. The first book in my
Portals series – Shadow Path – started back in 2006 with a more
conscious realization that I'd gone in journalism in the first place to develop
skills that I needed to be a novelist. And … aside from that manuscript sitting
in a drawer … I hadn't written a novel. So at that point, just shy of my 60th
birthday, I decided if I was going to be a novelist, I'd better get started ...
Do you have a specific writing style?
Good
question! I mean … I'm still trying to figure that one out. Basically I just
sit down and start writing, no outline, usually not much more than vague idea
about plot and a couple of opening paragraphs. I listen to my characters – at
this point I know Kat and Tevis (my main characters) so well that they're like
old friends. I guess if I have a style, it could be called “organic” – I keep
an after-the-fact outline as I go, jotting down events that will have
consequences later, and let the characters and previous events dictate what's
going to happen next.
How did you come up with the title?
To date,
all of my book titles have been plays on words. In the case of Sister Hoods,
all the action starts with a band of Nymphs (the mythological kind) who are
sisters, and they rob a bank, so they're “hoods.”
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to
grasp?
Nah. I
write for entertainment – which is the same reason that I read fiction. I write
for the readers like me – people whose jobs or circumstances immerse them in
the real world pretty much 24/7, so when they read, like me they read for
escape. That's what my Portals books are for, escape, fun, a chance to get away
from the real world and go live someplace else for a while. If my readers find
a message in the books, I'm delighted, but I don't put it there deliberately.
How much of the book is realistic?
The Portals
books are a mix. They're based on a concept that our world has a kind of “twin”
in another dimension. The twin world, the Realms of Magic, is separated from
our world by gateways – the Portals – that in ancient times were open, so the
inhabitants of the Realms – elves, wizards, goblins, dragons, all the creatures
of our myths and legends – could, and did, cross freely from their world into
ours. That's why we have myths and legends about these beings. But then at some
time, maybe a thousand or so years ago, Wizards forced the Portals closed. With
no contact with the real creatures, humans had nothing but the ancient tales,
which became more distorted as the centuries passed.
Fast-forward
to the near future, and the Portals have opened again, and all the beings of
our legends and nightmares are returning to our human world, and bringing their
magic with them. Kat and Tevis, my main characters, are police officers whose
job is to deal with crimes that are committed when magic is misused.
So – back
to the question … I blend enough reality to make the books (hopefully) “feel
real” to my readers.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your
own life?
Not
personal events, but I've spent years as a reporter (my day job) covering
courts and crime, so I try to infuse some of that “police procedural” feel into
the mix.
What books have most influenced your life?
Too many to
list! My reading is eclectic, and I take away at least a little something from
nearly every book I read. Lord of the Rings – Tolkien is a master of
that rich depth of time and place in fantasy. W. B. Yeats' Irish Fairy and
Folk Tales, which I first read when I was 9, and which really seized my
imagination and got me hooked on folklore and myths. The Bible. I am a
Christian, and I aspire to by Christ-like, even on those occasions when I fall
far short of the mark.
Arthur
Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books. Holmes was, and remains, my favorite
fictional detective written by someone else. Holmes' character influenced how I
wrote Tevis, the elf detective in my books. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. I
love Archie Goodwin's bantering, somewhat tongue-in-cheek delivery.
Any of
Isaac Asimov's non-fiction science essays. They opened my mind to the worlds of
quantum physics. Not far behind that – Richard Rhoads' The Making of the
Atomic Bomb, which includes a history of quantum physics as well as why we
wound up in a Cold War after World War II. I'm kind of an amateur historian,
not so much the what-happened-when, more of the “why did this happen.” Nothing
happens in a vacuum, everything's connected.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a
mentor?
Wow!
Another tough question! Probably Stout, at least in a small measure. Kat, the
human detective in my series, has a little bit of that Archie Goodwin attitude.
What book are you reading now?
I just
finished The Beacon, which is the second book in Sam Kates' Earth Haven
series. I haven't decided on what book to read next, and I may put off reading
until I'm at least a little deeper into Book 7 of my own series. I tend to not
read fiction when I'm writing, because I don't want to unconsciously “borrow”
from somebody else's work. Non-fiction, I just finished re-reading The
Caliban Shore by Stephen Taylor, which is the account of an East
Indiaman, the Grosvenor, which
shipwrecked on the Wild Coast of southern Africa in the 18th
century. Fascinating!
Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
Since I
started participating in Amazon discussion groups, I've discovered quite a
number of self-published authors that are at least new to me. Sam Kates … Jean
Kilczer, who writes a great series about a MacGyver-like astrobiologist …
Linell Jeppsen, who wrote some good SF type books and now seems to have
discovered her true calling writing westerns/historicals … T. Jackson King,
who's doing some solid SF.
What are your current projects?
In my
Portals series … Getting into Book 7 and bugging my publisher to finish reading
Book 5 so I can send her Book 6.
Also I
write for Sheridan Media, a news organization here that owns nine radio
stations and an online publication (sheridanmedia.com, if anybody would like to
check it out). We also put out a couple of tabloid-size publications – Sheridan
Chronicles, history pieces on Sheridan and Sheridan County (I wrote 30
articles for that) and the Sheridan County Fair tab which will be coming out
sometime between now and the end of July.
What would you like my readers to know?
If anybody
ever watched the old Man From Uncle series on TV … Illya Kuryakin is my image
of Tevis, and he influenced some of the character's mannerisms as well. (Kat,
the human detective, has a little bit of my attitude, kind of my alter ego
except younger, prettier, thinner … well, you get the idea ...)
Beyond
that, as I mentioned earlier, I write for people who want to be entertained,
and who want escape in their reading.
Web site www.plblairauthor.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plblair
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/plblair/
Tour Giveaway
5 ebook copies- winner’s choice
Nook or Kindle Gift Copy
Thanks for hosting me, and for giving me a chance to share Sister Hoods!
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