Author Interview: Kari Thomas

Today I'm sitting down with fellow Arizonan, Kari Thomas. Kari describes herself as a paranormal romance author but also adds the caveat that she writes in various fiction and non fiction genres dealing with the preternatural-supernatural world, romance, publishing, research, children's literature, and book reviews. Whew! There's a lot going on here. Let's see if we can break it down a little.

Just this month, Kari released her latest book titled Her Demon, His Angel. Tell us a bit about the book.

K: Sara Winters is a rare-antique book collector. For years she has been obsessed with finding a mythical book called "Knights of the Night". She doesn't understand her obsession but won't give up, even if there is the possibility the book doesn't really exist. While searching in France, her father is murdered and she rushes back to the States. There is an immediate mystery to his death and Sara starts looking for the clues. This puts her in danger and one night she is almost attacked by an unseen threat of evil. She is rescued by Drake --who is a rare Being that shouldn't exist. He informs Sara that she's the "Huntress" and the world's safety depends on her finding that fabled book. Now it's a rush against time as Drake and Sara fight an encroaching evil that is determined to destroy our world as we know it. 

Well, obviously there's a lot going on there, too! What’s your writing process? Do you plan extensively, or just go for it?

K: It takes me awhile to come up with plots that I can thoroughly "see" that it will carry through an entire book. I get ALL kinds of great ideas, but won't proceed until I can mentally flesh it out. I don't do physical outlines, just mental. THEN, once I'm comfortable with the stability of the story I let the characters take over.

That sounds very familiar. I think many more of us are "pantsters" than detailed "planners." How long did it take you to write the book?

K: Her Demon, His Angel took me about four months. Another month for editing and fleshing it out.

That's a pretty quick turnaround. You must have been inspired! Now, I noticed you have several paranormal romances out. Do they all contain the same paranormal aspects, or are they different? What sorts of paranormal situations do you write about?

K: I love researching the paranormal so I'm always getting great ideas. Most of my books, at present, have shapeshifters, and witches. Wicca fascinates me and I love incorporating it into several of my books. My last book, before Her Demon, His Angel, was titled Surrender Her Touch and it was about a Dragon Clan in contemporary Colorado. So, actually, it's lots of shapeshifters, Wiccans, Dragons, and now Demons and Angels.

So in other words, a lot going on. Hmm, I'm seeing a theme here. 
Do any of your characters appear in more than one book?

K: No and yes. I did do two sequels to my first book Temptation Unleashed about the sister and brother of the hero. Both shorts are available for FREE if readers send me a request. And my Spell Kissed has a short about the hero's brother: Sloan's Witch is available on Amazon.com, Smashwords, Kindle, etc. for only 99 cents. I've had a lot of readers requesting stories about the secondary characters from Surrender Her Touch but I haven't written anything....yet. :-)

Where did your interest in the paranormal come from? What’s your inspiration for the out-of-the-ordinary stories?

K: I come from a long line of psychics on both sides of my family. Growing up with paranormal experiences was common. By the time I was old enough to understand, nothing scared me much. Telling a family member, "My house is haunted by this little old woman," never seemed out of the ordinary. In fact, right now, I'm living in a haunted house!  :-)

Must have been an interesting childhood, not to mention your current situation! Do you also read a lot of paranormal? What books are your favorites?

K: I devour them! I have so many fave authors in this genre, so I wouldn't know where to begin to list them! Christine Feehan is a top favorite of mine. An author friend, Mary Corrales, wrote one of my favorites: Dhampir Passions. It was a unique twist on the vampire legend. 

I'm sure our readers here will be checking those out. 
I noticed that the covers of your books are all very different styles. Who does your covers? 

K: I have been so lucky with all my great covers! I have several publishers, so there are different cover artists. Dawn Dominique did Her Demon, His Angel. 

I've seen some authors who, once they get a good number of books out there, re-design all their covers in a similar theme in order to create a recognizable brand for themselves. Have you ever thought about doing that?

K: As long as they are with publishers and under contract I can't change any of them. But, kewl idea!

Earlier we mentioned that you also write non-fiction. Have you published any?

K: A lot of non-fiction articles over the years. I'm working on a book now that is partially non-fiction, mixed with a little fiction, about my great-great grandfather who was a pirate. His history is online (Google search Juan Gomez associated with the Gaspirrila. He died at age 119!). 

Now that sounds like it would be hugely interesting and a lot of fun. I think it might be hard to write only one book about him; might need two, one non-fiction of the real story and one fiction when you could let your imagination take over. That could definitely keep you busy for a while.

What's next in your writing career? 

K: Right now I'm working on that pirate story and also another paranormal romance.

What would you like readers to know about you?

K: I'm shy! It's really hard for me to promote my books as I always feel like I'm pushing and it sounds like begging: "Please buy my book!" Because of being so reluctant to do that, a lot of readers probably have never heard of me.

I think that's a very common issue. So many of us writers are basically introverts, it's hard to get out there and toot our own horns. Luckily *wink wink* there are plenty of places where we can help each other out in that regard. 

Anything else you want to add?

K: I have several FREE reads listed on my site (www.authorkari.com). Readers can send me a request for copies. They are: 

The Christmas Chapter (related to Temptation Unleashed)

Soul's Choice (related to Temptation Unleashed)
Hold Onto the Night (an anthology through All Romance eBooks)

And finally, how can readers connect with you?

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/kari.thomas.50
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1425816.Kari_Thomas
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Kari-Thomas/e/B001JOVOLA/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0Web Page:  www.authorkari.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kari-thomas/32/36a/81b
Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/AuthorKari
Blog: http://www.authorkari.com/bloglatest-release-excepts.html

Thanks, Kari, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me. Good luck with the new book; I'm sure it'll be your latest and greatest success.