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A Q&A with Karen Marie Moning

What inspired you to launch a new series? And what is the single greatest new twist in the Fever series that fans can expect to enjoy?
Inspiration is a kind word. I didn’t have a choice. It’s the story idea that came and wouldn’t go away. I think the single great­est new twist in the Fever series is that Mac is a continuing heroine, on a critical mission, who gets caught in a danger­ous love-lust triangle with two of the most seductive men I’ve written to date.

If you were casting the Fever series for television, who would be the ideal actress to play Mac. Why?
That’s a tough one. I don’t watch much television and what I do see is after the DVD’s have been released, so I’m woefully out of date. If backed to a wall I'd say Mac is one part George from Dead Like Me, one part Sara Pezzini from Witchblade and one part sweet southern belle who's being forced to discover there's steel under all that magnolia, after all.

You write vividly sexy scenes. You write thrilling suspense plots. Do you find any one part of crafting these novels more challenging than another?
I find them equally challenging. The suspense plots have to be tightly constructed and seamlessly interwoven through the five books of the Fever series, which makes for a lot to keep up with, what to reveal, what not to reveal, how and when. The sexy scenes are very intimate and I don’t shy away from detail, which demands both total immersion and separation of self to write. There are some "sexy" scenes in this series that are far more disturbing than seductive and those are among the most difficult to write. I hope if I'm squirming, wanting to rescue Mac, so is my reader.

Were you surprised at any point in the writing of Blood­fever—meaning did anything come up in the creative pro­cess that was not what you anticipated when you began Darkfever, the first novel in the series?
In Faefever, the third book of the series, Mac says: "Sometimes my dreams feel so real it's hard to believe they're just the subconscious's stroll across a whimsical map that has no true north. Sometimes it seems like Dreaming must be a land that really exists out there somewhere, at a concrete latitude and longitude, with its own rules, laws, treacherous terrains and dangerous inhabitants." (She later finds out The Dreaming does, indeed, exist.) I feel the same about the Fever world. It’s so complete to me, so vividly and exactingly detailed that I think it must really exist out there somewhere. Since the story came to me in toto, there have been very few, minor surprises.

If you could stand in a room with your heroes—the men from any of your novels—not just the Fever novels—who would you most like to interview yourself? Why? What of the women?
Men: The Unseelie King. He’s rumored to be a million years old. I want to know if he’s sorry.
Women: Queen Aoibheal. I want to know if she’s really for­gotten, or if she’s just pretending.

Describe your writing routine when composing the Fever novels.
The location varies but the schedule is the same. I write best in the morning when my subconscious is still simmering with images and metaphors from dreaming. I wrote Darkfeverin Georgia, and Bloodfever in Key West; all that sunshine was a nice counterpoint to the darkness of the story. I start early in the morning, usually around 4:30 or 5:00 and write until 11, break for a two-hour lunch and go back to it around 1. I use the afternoons to edit and work on other aspects of my busi­ness. Before I go to bed I block out the scene(s) I plan to write the next day so my subconscious can mull them over while I sleep.

When you aren’t writing your novels, what are you doing for fun? And what kinds of books or which authors are your favorites?
Lately a lot of lying in the sun—I’m still in Key West and I’m afraid Mac has rubbed off on me, or maybe it’s all the Jimmy Buffet they keep playing down here. Usually, however, I’m not so sedentary. I love to work out, hike, bike, rollerblade, shop with my sisters, and travel with my husband and our cat, Moonshadow. I don’t get nearly enough time to read. The most recent books I finished were the latest by Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Charlaine Harris, and an early Dan Simmons.

And can you share a little sneak peek at what’s coming after Bloodfever?
The darkest hour is before dawn. It isn’t dawn yet.

For centuries, the shadowy realm of the Fae has coexisted with that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them...