The Crossroads Blog Tour (Day 4)

Welcome to day 4 of The Crossroads Blog Tour and today I'm featuring the very lovely Judith Graves, author of Under my Skin (March, 2010), the upcoming sequel Second Skin (2011) and the third book in the series Skin of my Teeth (2012). Judith is also the organiser of the tour so hats off to her for all her hard work.





I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading Under My Skin and I must offer my apologies for not putting my review up yet (as I read it a little while ago now). Under My Skin is not available in UK stores but you can buy it from online sellers. If you are a UK book blogger and are interested in reading the book, I will shortly be putting it in a tour on UK Book Tours.

Warning, some of the answers in this interview contain spoilers

In UMS, Eryn uses an ATHAME. How do you pronounce this? LOL

An athame (atha-may) is a ritual dagger used in Wicca, witchcraft, etc. It’s not typically used as a weapon, but in Eryn’s world…sure. Why not? It’s made of pure silver, has a rosewood hilt, is infused with powerful magic (Dutch witches, ya know), and has saved her life on a daily basis.


In UMS, Matt and Alec are brothers and whilst Matt has healing abilities, Alec is all human. How come?

First, Lynsey, you used “whilst” and “is all” in the same sentence. That was just cool. ;) Second, is Alec “all human”? Hmmm…you sure? Better read Second Skin to find out.


What can expect from the sequel Second Skin? Will we find out why Logan wants Eryn so much and what the prophecy is all about?

If you enjoyed the various beasties in Under My Skin, you’ll get a thrill out of the new creatures introduced in Second Skin. They’re a real scream. Eryn gets to explore the dark side a smidge, perhaps too much. Be ready for a few revelations and more hot scenes between Eryn and her two love interests, Wade and Alec. As for Logan and the prophecy – no spoilers here - you’ll have to read Second Skin for the goodies.


How many books will there be in the series?

Three.


Are you writing anything else at the moment or have any ideas in the pipeline? Will they be paranormal in nature?

I’m working on several other projects. One is another paranormal YA, and I’ve been meaning to finish a YA contemporary – like forever.


I know you’re a big music fan and I’d like to know how influential music is in your writing. Do you have a playlist for Under My Skin? Did you write any songs based on the book?

I do have a playlist for UMS and the other books in the Skinned series, but it constantly changes as I write and new plot tweaks develop. As a songwriter, I write tunes based on characters and their emotions. I wrote one from Eryn’s point of view called, “You”. Here’s a vlog of me belting it out from my music room for my blogger friend, Mel from He Followed Me Home (http://hefollowedmehome.blogspot.com/): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxrurf7cdzw


I wanted to ask about your writing style. Are you a pantser or an outliner? What would your one bit of writing advice would be?

I outline and plot to death, but most of those ideas get tossed. Best writing advice: push to the finish – get to the end – then worry about cleaning up the mess in revisions.


What’s your favourite thing about Halloween?

The decorations. The candy. The movies. The costumes. The creep factor. Oh, hell, I love it all.


Thank you to Judith for answering my questions! To find out more about Judith and Under My Skin, click here to visit her website. Check out the Goodreads description for Under My Skin here and Second Skin here. In case you're wondering what the cover looks like for Second Skin, here it is in all its glory...


Each day of The Crossroads Tour, a new question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the 16 different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all 16 answers by the end of the tour, on Halloween. Click here to get today's question and links.