Welcome to the author interview series with a bite! With 7 Deadly Questions you’ll get up close and personal with rising stars in the horror, thriller, urban fantasy, science-fiction and mystery genres. New interviews are posted each Wednesday. Plus, thanks to a new partnership with DarkMediaCity, the 7 Deadly Questions interviews are also posted out on their social website.

Know of an author who would be a perfect fit for 7 Deadly Questions? Reach out to me via twitter @raevanswrites or with a comment here.  Take a look at some of the impressive authors who have stood up to the 7 Deadly Questions.

Steve Emmett

Paradise is just one step from Hell.

The chance to build a dream home on a private island in Italy’s most beautiful lake offers architect Tom Lupton the fresh start he’s been yearning for. But when he arrives with his family on Diavolino, he finds the terrified locals dead set against his arrival. The island, whose very existence has been shrouded in secrecy for half a millennium, has a dark history that no one cares to remember, and as their opposition to Tom grows, so grows a brooding evil that will lead them to the very doors of hell…

Jon F. Merz

As a writer, Jon has published over a dozen novels including four Lawson Vampire adventures (2002-2003) with Kensington’s Pinnacle Books, the Jake Thunder mystery/thriller DANGER-CLOSE (2004) with Five Star Mystery/Thorndike Press, and eleven installments in the internationally bestselling adventure series Rogue Angel (2006-present) with Harlequin’s Gold Eagle line. His latest thriller PARALLAX debuted in March 2009 as an exclusive ebook. Praised by bestselling authors like Robert B. Parker, Douglas Clegg, and Thomas Monteleone, Jon’s novels will continue to thrill readers for many years to come. His short fiction story “Prisoner 392″ (appeared alongside Stephen King in FROM THE BORDERLANDS, 2004, Warner Books) earned him an Honorable Mention in 2004’s Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror edited by Ellen Datlow.

Jennifer Hillier

Jennifer was born in Toronto, which is where she spent the first three decades of her life. When her husband was offered a transfer to Seattle, she didn’t know which would be worse: leaving Canada or moving to the West coast. She spent her first few months on American soil bemoaning her existence and writing her first novel, CREEP. Now nicely settled in the Pacific Northwest, the only thing she misses — other than family and friends — is snow.

A member of International Thriller Writers, she’s always been drawn to dark fiction, even though she sleeps with the lights on when her husband isn’t home.

 

Hilary LiDestri

Hilary Reddy LiDestri and Alisa Rodgers Griffin are childhood friends reared and schooled in a small town in Michigan called Linden.  Restless and terminally impetuous, both girls approached college as both an escape and a vast workshop in which to sharpen their minds, ideas and goals, a vehicle that eventually would propel them into careers as writers. Hilary has a degree in creative writing from Michigan State University. Alisa has a degree in journalism from Eastern Michigan University.

 

 

Luke Romyn

Luke Romyn spent many years, fifteen in fact, working in the security industry. From doorwork in some of Australia’s roughest pubs and clubs to protecting Mickey Mouse and the Disney crew from the overzealous jaws of tenacious toddlers, Luke has worked throughout Australia and internationally in a vast array of roles. He’s done close protection for UK celebrities in Fiji and chased feral pigs and snakes out of the jungle film sets on Steven Spielberg’s and Tom Hank’s epic: The Pacific. There are few things Luke hasn’t seen.

With all this experience behind him, it would be tempting to write a set of memoirs. Instead, Luke utilized it to fuel his own expansive imagination and began writing fiction. Initially starting with short stories, Luke rapidly progressed onto novels. His first book, THE DARK PATH, is now out and swiftly became a #1 best selling Horror and was also voted in the Top Ten Horror novels of 2009. His second novel, BLACKLISTED, is almost set to go and will blow the roof off action thriller novels.

 

Julia Madeleine

Julia Madeleine is the youngest daughter of Irish immigrant parents from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Born in Canada and raised in a small town in southern-western Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron, Julia honed her duel passions for art and fiction writng from the time she was old enough to hold a crayon. As a teenager she moved to Toronto and graduated in Media Writing from Sheridan College. She wrote for a number of entertainment magazines, while spending all her free time writing fiction, and then in 2000, her passion for art led her, quite by accident, into a career in the tattoo industry.

“I wasn’t looking to become a tattoo artist, it actually found me. Since I was a teenager my focus has been on writing fiction, art was something that always came naturally to me, I never had to work for it. And it never occred to me that I could make a career out of it until one day I found myself without a job and the opportunity to learn to tattoo came to me via my husband, a professional tattooist.”

Home for Julia is Mississauga, where she lives with her husband and teenaged (future tattoo artist) daughter. For a year she lived in the country on a 30-acre property in the middle of nowhere, which became the inspiration for her latest novel, No One To Hear You Scream. When not writing or sticking needles into people, Julia enjoys cooking, sewing, yoga, meditation, health and fitness, gardening, and anything that doesn’t involve snow or sports or rollercoasters. Julia loves shoes and harbours a secret fantasy-career as a shoe designer. She’s also obsessed with true crime shows and researching ways to kill people which makes her husband nervous.

Maria Savva & Jason McIntyre

Maria Savva was born in London on 19th March 1970. She studied for a Law Degree at Middlesex University and went on to gain a professional solicitor qualification at The College of Law in London. She qualified as a solicitor in 1996. Maria continues to practice as a solicitor in London whilst writing her novels and stories in her spare time.

Born on the prairies, Jason McIntyre eventually lived and worked on Vancouver Island where the vibrant characters and vivid surroundings stayed with him and coalesced into what would become his novel, On The Gathering Storm. Before his time as an editor, writer and communications professional, he spent several years as a graphic designer and commercial artist.

 

Steve Umstead

Steve Umstead has been the owner of a Caribbean & Mexico travel company for the past ten years, but never forgot his lifelong dream of becoming an author. After a successful stab at National Novel Writing Month, he decided to pursue his dream more vigorously…but hasn’t given up the traveling.

Steve lives in scenic (tongue-in-cheek) New Jersey with his wife, two kids, and several bookshelves full of other authors’ science fiction novels. Gabriel’s Redemption is his debut novel.

Sean Keefer

To attorney Noah Parks, the probate of a will should be a simple task. But the Last Will and Testament of Leonardo Xavier Cross is anything but simple. Though Parks has never heard of Cross, he learns that the Will directs that he provide the legal representation for the estate and as part of his fee he receive the contents of a safety deposit box – a safety deposit box no one knew existed. Intrigued, Parks undertakes the task but after the body count begins to rise the otherwise basic task of probating the will becomes more complicated as each day passes. Despite all of Parks’ skills, the answers he seeks remain elusive and force him to delve deeper into the shocking and deceptive Cross’ family history which sets the stage for an explosive finale that Parks can only hope to survive. Set in Charleston, South Carolina, The Trust is the debut novel from Sean Keefer. Blending elements of traditional southern literary fiction, suspense and mystery; you won’t be satisfied until the final page is turned.

Morgan Gallagher

London, April 1987

Dreyfuss holds all the cards: money, power and no conscience. He steals Joanne from the busy streets in a moment; she wakes in a room with no windows. He spends months schooling her to obey, tearing her down with pain and terror. When she begins to break, as hope of escape fades… he reveals his final madness: he is vampire. She too, will be vampire: his Changeling. A greater battle begins. All she has is her will and the need to be free. Can she keep fighting, or will he win?

How long can she stay human?

Changeling is the first novel in the Dreyfuss Trilogy: a vampire mythology for adults.

 

 

 

Joann Penn

A power kept secret for 2000 years. A brotherhood broken by murder. A woman who stands to lose everything.

When Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, the Apostles took stones from his tomb as a symbol of their brotherhood. At Pentecost, the fire of the Holy Spirit empowered the stones and the Apostles performed miracles in God’s name throughout the Empire. Forged in the fire and blood of the Christian martyrs, the Pentecost stones were handed down through generations of Keepers who kept their power and locations secret.

Until now.

The Keepers are being murdered, the stones stolen by those who would use them for evil in a world transformed by religious fundamentalism. Oxford University psychologist Morgan Sierra is forced into the search when her sister and niece are held hostage. She is helped by Jake Timber from the mysterious ARKANE, a British government agency specializing in paranormal and religious experience.

From ancient Christian sites in Spain, Italy and Israel to the far reaches of Iran and Tunisia, Morgan and Jake must track down the stones through the myths of the early church in a race against time before a new Pentecost is summoned, this time powered by the fire of evil.

Al Boudreau

Murhkin Mocado, a twenty-nine year old, California native had it all … good job, good looks, and a solid handle on life. While leaving work one afternoon, a seemingly freak occurrence changes his life forever. His decision to take action, a stunning attempt to save lives, carries unexpected repercussions. By the time day turns to night, he is charged with murder, set up for a crime he didn’t commit.

Joelle Barstow, a star within the industrial espionage community for well over a decade, was hand-picked fresh out of college by a private intelligence agency. The confident agent is cast deep inside an operation involving big business and government. She finds her skills pushed to the limit while attempting to navigate this dangerous world of greed and power.

As their paths cross, Barstow attempts to warn Mocado of just how dangerous his plight really is. Mocado, manipulated by those who framed him, initiates a chain of events leading to one of the worst man-made, ecological disasters in history.

Will Barstow unearth truths required to bring those responsible to justice? Will Mocado escape their clutches? This mystery/thriller takes the reader on a rapid-fire adventure beginning in the United States, careening through the breathtaking splendor of Ireland, and culminating in Kenya, one of the most exotic countries within the boundary of Africa’s “Dark Continent.”