Thursday, April 4, 2019

INTERVIEW WITH DESDEMONA WREN (Marjorie Diaz Series)



 
I'm not going to lie. I'm really happy to see March behind me. Not the best month. But now the cherry blossoms are abundent and the temperatures are climing. Let's carry on with the good stuff.

Today we have author Desdemona Wren in the house, and we had a chance to chat a bit about her new book.
SC: Tell me a little bit about your main character of this book.

DW: The main character of Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Ancestral Politics & Foul Play is Marjorie Diaz. She’s a twenty-two-year-old who just graduated from college with a political science degree and an internship to work with Michelle Obama on her senate run. An internship she can’t take because her ex-boyfriend’s family has decided to put a hit out on her, which is a real bummer.
Marjorie is part Mexican and part Scottish and she’s on the short side (she’s 5’5, but her best friend is 6’1 so it really makes her mad). She’s a little chubby cause she really likes to eat and she’s a sex-repulsed ace who is heteroromantic but has a penchant for always falling for the wrong guy.

Hence why she’s in this whole mess in the first place.
SC: She's taller than me, lol. It sounds like she's going to run into some supernatural shenanigans. Do you believe in the paranormal and if so, do you have an experience you can share?

DW: I definitely believe in the paranormal.
And a lot of my friends have stories that are way creepier than mine, but when I was in college, there was a building on campus that everyone swore was haunted. I didn’t believe them because, as far as I knew, nobody had ever died in that building.

There was this one instance, though, when I was getting off the elevator in the basement where the recycling and stuff is and when I stepped off the elevator one of the recycling bins flew across the room and paper flew up in the air. Like, it was the basement. There were no windows or anything. Even if there had been windows, wind from the middle of nowhere South Carolina can’t fling a recycling bin across the room.
It was creepy! I never went to that basement again after that.

SC: Can't say I blame you. What titles are you working on now that you can tell us about?
DW: I have a lot of stuff I’m working on. I’m planning on a few more releases this year, all of them fantasy or urban fantasy.

To be more specific, I’m working on Nighthawks, the sequel to my first book Bloom: A Monster Love Novella and I’m working on Marjorie Book 3, the final book in the trilogy. I also have a time travel book with unicorns I’m writing right now called The Incredible Origin of Suzie Q, Demon Hunter Extraordinaire and even a reverse harem title about a dimension hopping space princess.
I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire, I suppose.

SC: You've been an absolute delight. Thanks for spending time with us. Let's look at your book now.



Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Ancestral Politics and Foul Play
Marjorie Diaz Series  
Book Two
Desdemona Wren

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: AntlerDoe Media

Date of Publication: 4/2/2019

ASIN: B07P86KDNM

Number of pages: 332
Word Count: 70,290

Cover Artist: Ariel LeAnn Cat’s Paw Media

Tagline: Marjorie Diaz is being hunted by a powerful magical family
that will stop at nothing to kill her.

Book Description:

Marjorie Diaz has been marked for death.

After her relationship with Patrick Watkins ends, Marjorie discovers that everyone in her life has been lying to her. Even her best friend, Lucian Maravalle.

Now, Marjorie is being hunted by a powerful magical family who will stop at nothing to kill her.

Lucian and her family have sworn to protect Marjorie from these nightmarish beasts, but Marjorie isn’t sure she can trust them. They keep secret after secret and, even after Marjorie has begged for them to tell her everything, they continue to keep her in the dark.

Marjorie struggles with her own mortality as she embarks on a futile journey to remain alive and reason with the beings that are hunting her.

She finds out the hard way that humans don't matter on the other side of the veil. Unless Marjorie has something of use to offer, she's better off dead.

Book 2 in the Marjorie Diaz Series.

CONTENT WARNING: Gore, Body Horror, Major Character Death


Excerpt:

Marjorie sucked in a breath, sitting up so quickly her head spun.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped, clawing at her throat and chest. “Oh, my God.”
The room around her was pitch black. She couldn’t see anything beyond her face, which was disorienting. She raised her hands, waving them around to try and focus on something in the inky blackness. She could just barely see them moving in the dark. So she wasn’t blind, at least. That was good to know.
She looked around the room; the sigils no longer shone around her. There was no eerie green glow to light her way through the room. She turned on the bed, nearly teetering over the edge when the mattress was no longer as large as she remembered.
“Wha?!” she exclaimed, catching herself and straightening up. Her back hit the edge of something soft and she turned around, blinking at it. She pressed her hands against what she thought were large pillows, only to realize she wasn’t in a bed at all. This was a couch.
She stood up immediately.
“Marjorie?” a familiar voice asked, a light flipping on overhead.
Marjorie whirled around, finding Angeli in the doorway to his bedroom. He was shirtless and dressed in loose sleep sweats. He scratched his head and yawned.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” he said with a lopsided grin.
Marjorie narrowed her eyes.
“I’m still here?” she asked.
“You’re still here, darlin’” he responded, flashing her a grin. “You passed out for a few days. I was actually worried you were dead for a little while there.”
“I...never left?” Marjorie asked, confused. “I’ve been here? Passed out? For days?”
Angeli gave her a weird look. “That’s what I said,” he informed her, speaking slowly. “You okay there, baby girl?”
Marjorie had no idea if she was okay. The pain she’d felt in those dreams...returning to her apartment to find Lucian and Emmanuel there...how had that all been the same dream?
She groaned. It was too early in the morning for her to even be worried about this. Or late at night? She didn’t know. Her head throbbed.
“Marjorie?” Angeli asked, drawing her attention back to him. “You okay?”
“I have no idea,” Marjorie said honestly. “I...just...I feel weird. Like, weirder than usual. I think it’s safe to say that I am definitely not into whatever the hell that was.”
Angeli laughed. “That’s probably normal,” he said, shrugging.
Marjorie glowered at him. “I don’t have time for this,” she griped. “I need to go home.” She scrubbed her hands over her face. “I need to sleep in my own bed and I definitely need to shower.”
“Why not just shower here?” Angeli asked, tense. “Before you wander out into the streets of New York? You’ve been passed out for two days.”
Marjorie shot him a look. “I would rather shower in my own apartment, thanks,” she snapped. “Who in their right mind would shower before braving the streets anyway? I’d much rather rinse the filth of the city off and change into some nice pajamas, then never leave again. Ever.”
“I’m not sure it’s safe for you to wander around Brooklyn at 3am,” Angeli said. “That’s all.”
Marjorie checked the clock on the wall. “That clock says 5am,” Marjorie countered. “I think I’ll be fine with the morning commuter crowd.”
“That clock is wrong,” Angeli said quickly, edging toward the door.
He was acting weird. All his normal nicknames and sickly charm were gone. It was like there was something he wasn’t telling her.
Alarm bells went off in her head.
“I need you to let me go,” Marjorie said, watching him warily.
“I’m not keeping you here,” he responded as he moved himself between her and the door and squared his shoulders. He looked like he was getting ready for a fight.
“What do you mean you’re not keeping me here?” Marjorie asked, jaw clenched.
“Exactly like I said, I’m not keeping you here,” Angeli repeated, crossing his arms.
“If not you, then who is?” Marjorie pressed, eyes narrowed.
Angeli’s lips cracked open in a slow, sinister smile.
A shiver ran down Marjorie’s spine. That couldn’t be good.
“I thought you’d never ask,” another voice said from behind her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and it took all the strength in her body to keep her knees from buckling.
The source of the voice moved forward, his footfalls soft on the rough gray carpeting of Angeli’s apartment. When he stood behind her, Marjorie could feel the heat coming from his body and her stomach flipped and gurgled.
“Hello, Marjorie Diaz,” he said. “I believe we have a lot to talk about.”
Marjorie turned her head slowly, her skin erupting in goosebumps and frightened tears prickling in her eyes.
“Patrick,” she gasped.

About the Author:

Desdemona Wren is an urban fantasy and science fiction author who writes gay fiction with monsters, witches, and fantastical plots. She's from Seattle, WA, but currently resides in the mystical land of Northern California. Where everybody wears coats all the time, nobody says 'brah', 'bruh', 'bro' or any variation of that word, and absolutely nobody surfs.

She has two cats named Oliver and Ophelia who have traveled the world. From The Great Smoky Mountains, to the tallest peaks of The Cascades, and even to the Grand Canyon; they've been everywhere.

She has written two full-length novels: Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society and Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Ancestral Politics & Foul Play; one novella: Bloom: A Monster Love Novella (Book 1); and one short story featured in a Cinderella Anthology: Call Me Eli.














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