The Crossroads Blog Tour (Day 9)

Welcome to day 9 of The Crossroads Blog Tour and today I'm featuring Joy Preble, author of Dreaming Anastasia (2009) and the upcoming sequel Haunted (January, 2011). Dreaming Anastasia is inspired by the lost Russian princess, Anastasia Romanov and you can check out the Goodreads description for the book here.






How did you come up with the idea for Dreaming Anastasia and how many books are there going to be in the series?

The story of the Romanov family tragedy has resonated with me for a very long time. And basically, one day, Anne’s character came to me. She was this ordinary high school girl who seemed to have a destiny that wasn’t ordinary at all – she came out of my head funny and snarky and smarter than her teachers. And some part of me wondered – what if she met a mysterious guy who turned her world upside down. Because I love that type of story. And somehow the Russian stuff chose to join in the fun. I did originally conceive of the story as a trilogy, although Dreaming Anastasia was a one book deal. But then came HAUNTED… so I hope you guys all enjoy book 2. Cause then I’ll get to do the third!


What can we expect from the sequel? *WARNING: SPOILER ALERT*

First and foremost, Ethan returns and the romance between him and Anne heightens considerably! So for those who wanted more romance in book one, hang in there; it’s coming. But Ethan’s been gone for awhile… and Anne’s got a new boyfriend named Ben. Plus Tess is back and just as feisty as ever. And Baba Yaga, too. But the story starts with the appearance of a mysterious and malevolent Russian mermaid called a rusalka. After that, there’s more peril, some serious kissing, and a lot of shocking revelations! And did I say kissing? And evil mermaids? Yup.


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

Somewhere in the middle of HAUNTED I swore I’d never write another paranormal mystery/historical fiction again. But I actually have a time travel story that’s been knocking at my brain. Right now though, I’m plotting out book 3 of the DA series, and actually hard at work at another project that’s not paranormal at all; much more realistic fiction with a literary bent. Hope to have more to tell you sometime this fall.


About your writing style, are you a pantser or an outliner? What would your one bit of writing advice be?

Both, actually. I generally start out and just write. But after about 30-40 pages, I pull it in and outline, develop characters more, really get a fuller grip on who these people are. But I need to write a character for awhile first; let him/her speak and act and give me hints.

What’s your favourite thing about Halloween?

Candy. Lots of it. After that, I guess it’s getting to dress up as someone I’m not. I’m a horrible costume creator, but I have fun anyway.


Favourite scary movie?

Jaws still makes me jump. So does Alien. And for psychological fright, nothing beats The Exorcist. But my absolute favourite is the 70’s version of The Shining with Jack Nicholson. “Wendy, I’m home!!” And those creepy twins. *shivers with delight*


If you could be any supernatural creature, what would you be and why?

Definitely I’d be a witch. But not like Baba Yaga. I’ll keep my hands in tact, if you please.


Thank you to Joy for answering all of my questions! To find out more about Joy and her books, you can visit her website here. She is also active on Twitter. And just in case you're wondering what the cover for Haunted (book two) looks like, 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.