Angie, Thank-You for agreeing to be guest here today
Can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself?
Sure. I’m the author of the Accidental Demon Slayer series. It’s about a preschool teacher who finds out she’s a demon slayer and is forced to run off with her Grandmother’s gang of geriatric biker witches. Happens every day, right?
How long have you been writing?
Oh geez. Do you count the romances I wrote for my friends in high school where each of them ended up with their dream guy? I’ve always loved to read, and write, but I began to write seriously about four years ago.
What is your writing process like?
I wish it was classy, but here goes: pour a Diet Coke with lots of ice. Open manuscript. Decide I need Triscuits and Laughing Cow cheese in order to be creative. Read and tweak work from the day before. Get more Diet Coke and perhaps a few more Triscuits – who needs to count calories when the fate of a demon slayer is at stake? Write like a mad woman for about two or three hours.
I’m not one of those writers who can just turn it on and off. I have to ease into the story and get a feel for what needs to happen next. I know I’m on the right track when things start happening that surprise even me – like when dogs start talking, my demon slayer is attacked by Frozen Underwear spells or when her sexy griffin boyfriend decides to take things into his own hands. I really like it when that happens.
Can you tell us about your two books The Accidental Demon Slayer and the Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers?
The Accidental Demon Slayer is a quirky book about a straight-laced preschool teacher who runs smack dab into her fate when a demon shows up in her bathroom. Turns out, that’s just the beginning. Soon her hyperactive terrier starts talking, and her long-lost biker witch Grandma is hurling Smuckers jars filled with magic. And just when she thinks she’s seen it all, Lizzie learns she’s a demon slayer—and all hell is after her.
Of course, that’s not the only thing after her. Dimitri Kallinikos, a devastatingly handsome shape-shifting griffin needs Lizzie to slay a demon of his own. But how do you talk a girl you’ve never met into going straight to the underworld? Lie. And let’s just say he tries a little bit of seduction too.
People have been saying The Accidental Demon Slayer is like the movie Shaun of the Dead, only with witches, and I take that as a great compliment.
The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers is the story of what happens when you take a bunch of biker witches to Las Vegas. Well, it’s more than that, I suppose. Lizzie and the gang head to Las Vegas to save her uncle from marrying a succubus.
As she experiences all kinds of new (and weird) things in Vegas, Lizzie is determined, once and for all, to master her powers. In fact, she’s going to write the book on demon slaying. So she begins a journal, The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers, where she records what she’s learning, starting with newfound discoveries about demons, gargoyles and a particularly mischievous live spell named Beanie who likes to fill Lizzie’s boots with pumpkin spice latte.
Things get dangerous when the demons get their hooks in Dimitri. He’s much darker and sexier in this book. And we introduce a new character, Max, who is half demon and 100% yummy.
When will your next book release?
I have two novellas coming out – a vampire story in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2 (out this September) and a voodoo story in My Zombie Valentine (out in January 2010)
Then I have a book out at the end of January 2010 called A Tale of Two Demon Slayers. This is the third Accidental Demon Slayer book. In it, Dimitri takes Lizzie to his family home in Greece where she discovers all kinds of juicy secrets about his past.
What are you currently working on?
Well I just finished A Tale of Two Demon Slayers a few days ago. I’ll catch my breath for a week or so (and catch up on email), and then head right into the fourth book in the series, tentatively titled The Last of the Demon Slayers.
Do you prefer working with demon slayers or demons? Why?
Both. Lizzie, my demon slayer, is growing in power and it is a lot of fun to invent new ways to test her and train her (and surprise her with her abilities). Yet it’s also fun to come up with the demons she needs to battle. So far, I’ve had a mad scientist-type, a sex-on-the-brain succubus and a power-hungry villain of mythical proportions (literally). Since coming up with quirky characters is one of my favorite things to do, I’m in heaven. Even with a few demons around.
Where do you get your ideas for your books?
I don’t have a formal process. Rather, I figure that if it amuses me, my readers will probably be amused too. A lot of what I write evolves on the page. Like when I sat down to write The Accidental Demon Slayer, I had no notes about a sidekick for my heroine. But in the second chapter, when Lizzie learns she’s a demon slayer and there are some very scary, very angry creatures on her tail, she takes comfort in her dog. As I was writing, I thought, ‘This is a sweet moment. Now how do I throw her off?’
I made the dog say something to her. Nothing big. After all, he’s only after the fettuccine from last week. And he knows exactly where Lizzie can find it (back of the fridge, to the left of the lettuce crisper, behind the mustard). It tickled me, so I did it. Thanks to her unholy powers, Lizzie can now understand her smart-mouthed Jack Russell Terrier. I ended up having a ball with it. Pirate can say and do things that my heroine can’t. He’s such a kick to write.
As an author, you must be an avid reader. What books do you enjoy reading? Who are your auto-buy authors?
Oh my first love will always be books. Being a writer hasn’t changed that a bit. Favorites lately have included Katie MacAlister’s Ghost of a Chance, Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre, Stakes & Stilettos by Michelle Rowen (her entire Immortality Bites series is amazing), Kiss & Hell by Dakota Cassidy, No Rest for the Wiccan by Madelyn Alt, La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock, Midnight Sins by Cynthia Eden. And of course Dead and Gone. I want to read that one again because I read it too fast the first time. Charlaine Harris is such a great writer. I also want to re-read Beyond the Rain, a debut by Jess Granger that has been getting lots of great buzz. So many books, so little time!
What books are on your keeper shelf?
The entire Sookie Stackhouse series, the entire Amelia Peabody series, The Corset Diaries by Katie MacAlister, The Mummy by Ann Rice, the Shades series by Linda Fallon (Shades of Midnight, Shades of Scarlet, Shades of Winter – this series is only three books long, but it’s one of the best gothic romance series I’ve ever read). Dark Fever by Karen Marie Moning (and the rest of that series as well). Lair of the Lion by Christine Feehan (sooo sexy and dark), Janet Evanovich’s Three to Get Deadly (my favorite in the series), Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, World War Z by Max Brooks. The list goes on…
What was the first romance book or the first book that stood the test of time for you?
That would have to be And One Wore Gray by Heather Graham. It was one of the first romances I ever read (I had to keep them taped under my bed – literally.) I just loved that book. I re-read it about a month ago and it’s still wonderful.
If one of your books was made into a movie, which book would you like it to be and which actors would like to see as the lead characters?
That’s such a hard question because I think more in terms of books than movies. If I had to venture, I’d say Sandra Bullock for Lizzie and a Greek Harrison Ford for Dimitri. For Grandma and the biker witches, I think we’d have to hire every senior-age actress in Hollywood.
If you could switch lives with one of your characters who would if be & why?
Pirate the dog. He’s so outgoing he could make friends with a doorknob. I’ve always wanted to be that way.
When you are not writing or reading, what do you enjoying doing in your spare time?
I’m a computer games addict – the Sims, Civilization, and this game I found at the dollar store that is totally addicting called The Guild. It’s by a German company and the translations are hilariously bad, but it’s an engrossing strategy game (business, politics and highway robbery medieval-style) that pulls me in every time. I also like to go out and do trivia with my friends and husband. Geez, I sound like such a dork. I also go mountain climbing (okay, I don’t, but I needed to say something cool).
If you could ask readers any one question, what would it be?
If you could meet any author, living or dead, who would it be?
Where can people find you on the web?
http://www.facebook.com/angie.fox
***Leave a comment answering Angie’s questions and one lucky commenter could win their choice of The Accidental Demon Slayer, The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers, or a Kiss My Asphalt Shirt. Good Luck 
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