Linda Kage Blog Page: Start the week with HOLLY HUNT

I shook my head, kissing her on the cheek. "Relax. Cooking should be fun."

She laughed, her blush visibly darkening, and tried to relax. She didn't do very well.

I laughed, taking the knife from her hand and put it on the counter. She turned her head to frown at me, and I kissed her on the lips. I pulled back when I felt her relax again, laughing as one of my favorite songs echoed around the kitchen.

"Come on!"

"What—? But, dinner—"

I laughed, spinning her around. "Forget dinner. You can't cook when you're tense. It ruins the flavor."

Clarissa looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. It probably seemed that way. "What?"

I laughed, spinning her around and dancing to the song. "Dance, Clarissa!"

I heard her bastard cat object from the bathroom, but I ignored him.

Clarissa turned red again. "I can't!" she cried, her body following my silent motions and dancing anyway.

"Nonsense!" I laughed, pulling her into my arms and doing a fake waltz with her, too fast for the music. "Have some fun!"

"No, really, Lucifer, I can't." She tried to pull away from me, but I didn't let her go, holding onto her hand.

"Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong," I sang along to the up-beat recording of the famous song. "Under the shade of a Coolibah tree..."

Clarissa laughed at my horrible singing, starting to relax, though she was still blushing. "That's terrible!"

"I bet you can't do better!" I retorted, spinning her around the small space between the living room and kitchen.

"I can too!" she answered, laughing. The chorus started up and she sang along with it. "Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling, who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me..."

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You just read an extract from:
The DEVIL'S WIFE
by
Holly Hunt

Buy Link: Champagne Books
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Linda Kage: Today it's all about author, HOLLY HUNT. Hey, Holly. Why don't you tell us a little about you and what you write please.

Holly:Well, I'm Holly Hunt, known around the erotica bookshelves as Jophrael L. Avario, and I'm... well, I'm a writing addict. I write in many genres, and refuse to stop writing, even for small things like sleep, school and work.

I have horror, urban fantasy, erotica, teen fiction, sci-fi, comedy, romance, pirate, historical and fantasy stories sitting in my files, as well as a few plays and poems, waiting for me to get back to them, either to finish, rewrite or edit, whatever the case may be. I'm very adaptive in that regard.

Kage: What happened to the first book you ever wrote?

HOLLY: Well, the first story I ever wrote was thrown out of everywhere but my mind when I was 10. The first book I wrote was 180,000 words long, so my high school librarian helped me cut it into three books, edited and critiqued it for me, then convinced me to give the first one to my Deputy Principal! Boy was I surprised at their enthusiasm for it.

It's now a series of four or five (depending on if I write the Asian arm of the epic or not) books that I'm rewriting heavily for resubmission (submission #15 ought to do it!). It's basically a rewrite of the Earth's history, if the Gods were as present as the ancient Legends say they were - and if they had a reason to be around, like preventing World War 3!

Kage:What’s your backlist and coming soon bookshelf look like?

HOLLY:My backlist is incredibly short.

The Devil's Wife is an urban fantasy that follows the Devil as he realises that the torture of his own existence is nothing to some peoples' lives, was released in March at Champagne Books.

Blood Lovers, written under my alter-ego, the fabulous Mister Jophrael L Avario, is an erotic gay vampire novel that was released at the beginning of April. It has a sequel I'm finishing now, Dust to Dust, which will eventually land in the lap of the fabulous Ellen at Carnal Passions to suffer through—I mean, read.

Blood Moon, my 'coming soon' book, is hidden away on my editor's desk at Wild Child Publishing, where it will soon go under the knife. And considering that it shares enough elements with Blood Lovers and Dust to Dust for the three to be considered a trilogy, that's going to be a bit hard to navigate.

Kage: Which story are we going to talk about today?

Holly: The Devils' Wife, with Champagne Books, is my most favourite story so far. It's basically a retelling of Lucifer's fall from Heaven, but from his side - And, as he says, "Yes, God and I fought, I fell, and became the Devil. But history is written by the winning side. What God has told you humans through the Bible was never how it went down. There was so much more to the story than that..." So far, everyone who's read it has either loved Lucifer or fallen in love with Aspen, the heroine's talking cat (and Lucifer's ex-brother-in-law, so you can tell whose side he's on!)

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THE DEVIL's WIFE
by
Holly Hunt

Lucifer Morningstar is a law-abiding, upstanding gentleman of New York City.

Lucifer Morningstar is the Devil.

The owner of powerful magic, Lucifer could have the world at his feet, if not for his apathy and loneliness. Deprived of the ability to understand the emotions of others and his power depleted, Lucifer is no longer able to help even his houseplants.

But there’s a problem with God’s plan to eliminate the Devil forever: Lucifer is fighting Her more than he ever did. He’s found a reason to survive, someone to stand by him through the rough and smooth of his life.

He’s found a new wife.

Clarissa Avario opens Lucifer’s eyes to the darkest side of the real world, full of paedophiles, murderers, rapists and thieves.

Can Clarissa convince Lucifer to do more than stand back and watch the city fall apart? The Devil will do anything to fix Clarissa’s world, including take on Heaven.

And he will kill anything, God, Demon or Angel, that gets in his way.

Buy Link: Champagne Books
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Kage: What would the story be rated if it were a movie?

Holly: Definitely PG-13 for language and the darkest side of humanity – rape, torture, kidnapping, etc. But the romance between Lucifer (the Devil) and Clarissa (his wife) is so strong that everything else fades to the background – which is why it's being marketed as a Paranormal Romance, rather than an Urban Fantasy.

Then again, it's devil-sympathising would probably have it playing only at selected cinemas and banned in over 50 countries. Because that's a rational response to going against the norm.

Kage: If you HAD to fit this story into a cliché, which one would it be?

Holly: Forbidden love, complete with a knight-in-shining-armour introduction for Lucifer.

Kage:Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit these two books under, what makes this book so unique from every other book out there?

Holly: The Devil's Wife was originally written in only 2 weeks, including preliminary editing (ie, spell-check) which was all that was edited before being sent out to publishing houses. I ended up receiving two acceptances for it, 12 months apart. Thankfully, I settled on Champagne Books as the right home for it!

Kage:What was the easiest part to write?

Holly: The easiest part, for me, is always the action. With Lucifer's ch apters, there's always a lot of action. He's also the only character that just flowed when I was writing it. He's a lovely man, and I look forward to writing about him again sometime – after all, his son Jophrael and daughter Chelsea have to have their say sometime.

Kage:What do you like most about the main character(s) and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?

Holly: If you take each viewpoint character as being a main, there's 7 main characters in The Devil's Wife. But if you keep the main characters as being God and the Devil (even if God only gets a few viewpoint chapters), then it's a lot easier.

Lucifer is... charismatic. You'd think he's a charmer, being the devil, and he is, but he's also sweet, protective, a good cook, loyal and willing to go to the ends of the Earth – or take on heaven – for the woman he loves. What did I learn from him? That no man could ever be like that. I also learned from him how to be a better cook, and I've been improving lately.

What did I like least about the main characters? Well, for one, God is a bitchy OCD sufferer who needs a good slap (I think so, anyway). She's compulsive, antagonistic, arrogant and runs the world the way a CEO runs a Fortune-500 company – no heart, no care, just an eye on the money. What did I learn from her? That I'd rather spend the afterlife in Club Hell than Heaven Inc. Because if I go to Heaven, I'd have to knock her out, at least once.

Kage:Holly, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?