Read an Excerpt

A 4 1/2 star RT Bookclub Top Pick

Some thills, maybe a chill or two from a page turner that's different from the usual romance read. . . Because Bless has more to accomplish than simply getting her groove on and landing her man. Girlfriend has demon fighting and world saving to do!

When Bless Sanderson heads to Atlanta to help out her pregnant sister, she meets the man of her dreams—literally. Rick Jensen is in awe of Bless and something about her keeps her constantly in his thoughts. But Rick harbors secrets that could destroy their budding relationship. He can only hope that when all is revealed, her feelings for him won't change.

Tactfully combining sex and intrigue, Jackson has created an exciting story. Both Bless and Rick are strong, powerful,
admirable characters worth rooting for. Bless' relationship with her disgruntled, pregnant sister provides an interesting subplot, and a hint of mystery adds further entertainment.— TOP PICK, 4 1/2 stars, RT Bookclub, T.L. Burton

The mythology behind "The Chosen"

Michelle read IN MY DREAMS on her site and had some questions. I'm answering!

How did you come up with your paranormal concept for In My Dreams? Did you do a lot of research into the paranormal or did the story just come to you?

I've always loved paranormal. So nope, I didn't do lots of research. What I didn't know already, I made up!

Have you ever had a paranormal experience? If no, do you believe in them?

I'm healthily agnostic--don't particularly deny anything, but how the heck do I know what's what? But I'm open to have whatever proven to me.

I've had experiences, such as a rare dream that's come true, but that could be coincidence. I had a fright when I was younger (pre-teen) over a Ouija board. I'm pleased to say that even when I was that young, if I saw anything moving on its own without anybody touching it, it got immediately thrown into the dumpster. My tolerance for weird horror movie type shit is close to nil.

Maybe there's something out there. I'm not sure. But I'm fairly sure that if there is something out there, I probably don't want to know about it.

I enjoyed Bless' asskicking of demons and I would've loved to have read more. Is there more? I get the impression you created a very complex world and In My Dreams is just the tip of the iceberg.

There's lots more. I'm writing more paranormal romances about how the couples who are destined to bear the Chosen meet and fall in love. At least one and sometimes both of the people in the couple have realized their paranormal abilities so they can protect their offspring. Love's Potion is about one of these couples. The heroine of Love's Potion is Jasmine Flynn from The Look of Love. Bless and Carmel both appear in this novel. Love's Potion does reveal more of the underpinnings of this mythology, but again not all. The focus is on the love story, but with each book more of the world I created is exposed.

Maybe one day I'll write about the battles for world domination between the Chosen and the demons at the end of the next World War.

Your 'demonology' is unique. I liked how demons were more a metaphysical threat than a physical one. It was subtle and intriguing as opposed to the plethora of shape-changing, bloodsucking monsters in prevalent paranormal fiction today. How did you develop that particular angle in your story?

I make it all up. I'm a devotee of Buffy and popular demon lore, but I'm not the type to jump on a bandwagon.

I asked myself, would demons want you to know of their existence? If we knew for a fact that demons existed, wouldn't that profoundly change the tenor of this
technological/corporate/political world? We mainly now worship things such as money, power and fame. If we knew for a fact that numbers of demons were around, wouldn't there be a heck of a lot more people wholeheartedly putting their fairth in God and spiritual things rather than the things of the world or secular forms of godly devotions?

It seems if there are really such a thing as demons, they would be invested in keeping their presence mostly unknown. Their threat would be more subtle, and indeed metaphysical. The only monsters really running around are human and they don't shapeshift.

So I put demons on a spiritual plane--the astral--where they can't directly affect humans or the physical plane as humans can't directly affect the astral. Even the Bible says that the fallen angels were prohibited from materializing human bodies and procreating with humans after the Flood. Angels and the Supreme Deity don't directly affect human outcomes either because of the gift (or curse) of human free will.

Demons can only work through people. They refer to magic practitioners and sorcerers as "tools." The practice of such arts opens humans to subtle demon influence.

What demons fear most is that humans discover their existence in addition to discovering that we are dual beings, able to traverse and affect substance of the spiritual planes through actions of our souls, or spirit bodies. Humans are actually more powerful than demons, but are generally unaware of this.

Demons want world supremacy. They consider humans akin to cockroaches, fecund and disgusting, making a mess and dropping peices of themselves off where ever they go. The ultimate war will be between humans and demons. The Chosen are being born now. The Chosen aren't inherently different from other people, but unlike other humans, they innately recognize and use their natural powers and abilities--and can see demons.

The Chosen are the most profound threat the demons have ever faced. Demons are determined and desperate to kill the the Chosen when they're most vulnerable--as children. The parents these children also have come to recognize the existence of demons and have the ability to protect their offspring.

There is also a mythology that goes with this that explains the other magical peoples who once held dominion over the earth, genies, fairies, unicorns, elves, trolls and the like. The hero of Love's Potion is a genie.

How did you end up living in Kansas?

Both my parents were born here. (Is there any other reason why people live in Kansas? I dunno). Many of my great or great-greats were Exodusters and migrated here after slavery. Some established rural family farms and others moved by the cattle drive and meat processing communities where there was work. I left Kansas when young and returned after my divorce. I stay here because it's cheap and I like to be able to write and have food and shelter at the same time.

Did I mention that if anyone wants to donate a house to me in Vancouver, I'm so there.

More about The Chosen series

When I wrote IN MY DREAMS, I had a detailed paranormal magic system, a whole fantasy system that I was really excited about. The Chosen, the children who were going to save the world from demons at Armageddon. I have a rather complicated reincarnation thing going on too. . . Three sisters relive their lives over and over again because of their mother who cast a spell over them before she died on a slave ship during the Middle Passage.

There's a hero and a heroine, but the magic, the sisters, demon slaying, and astral plane stuff was more exciting to me. When I'm excited the words flow through my keyboard, I can't help it. If I'm not feeling soap-opera romance, that's not what I'm going to write.

The book wasn't a romance. I slashed, cut and burned the story down to what I thought was the core of the romance and turned it in. After my editor recovered from her heart attack, she had a paranormal CE (someone who'd edited Joss Whedon--and she was GREAT!) edit it and another editor read it to see it was within the confines of a paranormal romance or if I'd simply gone insane. It got thumbs up and went into production with a wildly inappropriate cover (The Ass Cover). Yes, I'd told her that I was in a paranormal mode way before I turned it in, but nobody ever listens to me.

But the strength of the story was what I was excited about--the paranormal aspects--and I'd pared that down. I think it's a stronger fantasy than a romance. Fantasy readers do tend to like IMD better too. If I had left it as it was, it would have been even stronger.

For Love's Potion and Mr. Right Now, I'd decided the fix--lighter, simpler storylines and more focus on the hero would get me my paranormal and satisfy romance readers too.

Mr. Right Now wasn't the original title. All my other titles were paranormal and weird, I suppose. I'd stuck Mr. Right Now on the end of the last batch of titles for my editor to consider. She loved that one. At that point, completely title-exhausted, I didn't give a damn what the title was. When I was cleaning out my mail client trash a month later, I realized Mr. Right Now was the title of Wendy Duran's WIP--I'd read it ages ago, and I don't remember a lick of it--but apparently that title stuck in my head. I was horrified when I realized, and called her. Thankfully, Wendy said it was cool, so I have her to thank for the title. Oh, I have to thank Donna Hill for the title of In My Dreams too. (My own titles never work).

For Love's Potion, I write a lighter storyline. I'm still in major paranormal mode, but I made the plot far simpler and spent more time with the characters building their relationship. I think it worked well for my romance readers.

For Mr. Right Now, I deepened the erotic aspect and highlighted the luscious man. I also spent more time with my characters as far as their relationship. But I wanted this book to have more depth and texture than my romances. The paranormal plotline is there, but it is also simpler and more straightforward than IMD. The read is fast and short. I wanted to write a book that readers wouldn't put down.

I'm going back to the story that I originally was going to write for Love's Potion. . . featuring English professor Kofi Washington for my next book in The Chosen series (out fall 2006?). I need to lighten up that plot a bit.

I have two proposals that I'm working on. I have three chapters of one, but my agent thinks that it will be too unusual for a first sale (but the premise is kick-ass, dammit!), so I need to virtually write the entire book. I can't get over how NY wants to always publish more of the frickin' same when Lord knows I'm bored reading it.

In the meantime, I'm working on another one that is more like what else is out there. This has a sorceress heroine and demony vampire villains. . . but I can't bring myself to write the usual dead fuckbuddy vamp story, so it's a bit different. But not too different not to be similar! (!)

 

The brilliant Holly Lisle on In My Dreams

The up-side of being sick as a dog and flat on my back for a day was that during my awake periods I got to do some reading for fun. And I read Monica Jackson's In My Dreams

I loved it.

I picked it up because it looked like my sort of book -- I like contemporary novels, like paranormal, and there were a couple of intriguing teases on the cover blurb that pulled me in.

But the cover misses the book entirely. If you go in expecting just a romance with some spookiness tossed in, you're going to get way more than you paid for. In My Dreams works well as a romance. But it's much more than that. It also works as a well-thought-out and well-crafted fantasy novel -- one that ought to thoroughly piss off both fundamentalist Christians and hard-line pagans, because Jackson ties in Christianity with magic in a way that rings true, and that soars. The magic system is sweet, the backstory is moving and in places heartbreaking, and the themes about family and self-sacrifice resonate through the entire book.

While you're waiting for Jackson to write a stunner of a big fat fantasy tome (and I am now waiting for that very thing) pick up In My Dreams.

The insanely talented Tamara Siler Jones on In My Dreams

Over the weekend, before I tackled the blog upgrade, I got to cuddle up with a book that I'd been salivating for by Monica Jackson .

It rocked.

I've said over and over that I don't routinely read romance novels. I don't, but this wasn't what I'd consider a romance novel. More of a paranormal thriller. With sex. The characters were fun and feisty and it's the first book I've read in a long time that I slurped up in one sitting. Bless is an ER nurse who sees auras and uses that to help people. Soon, thanks to family drama, she finds herself in a battle against demons to save a baby. It starts with a run and doesn't stop until the end. All in all, a fun read.