PSF Interview & Giveaway: MaryJanice Davidson “Undead and Unfinished”

**Visit Tynga’s Reviews today for her PSF Interview & Giveaway with Jocelynn Drake author of PRAY FOR DAWN & WAIT FOR DUST**

I’m so glad to welcome MaryJanice Davidson to the festivities today. I happily stumbled onto her Queen Betsy series years ago and have since enjoyed her snarky Fred the Mermaid series & her bionic Gorgeous series.  I’m no where near finishing her more than 50 books to date, but just give me time. Back to Betsy, the ninth book in the series UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED is releasing on July 6, 2010, and MaryJanice was kind enough to accept my interview request and giveaway a couple Betsy books too. Details below.

MaryJanice Davidson is The New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of the Undead series. MaryJanice’s inimitable style has also delighted fans of the Mermaid series (Sleeping with the Fishes), the Wyndham Werewolf series (Derik’s Bane), and the Royal series (The Royal Treatment). With her husband, Anthony Alongi, she also writes a series featuring a teen were-dragon named Jennifer Scales. Appearing several times a year on the best-seller list, as well as occasional Federal "person of interest" sheets, she takes time from the living hell that is being paid to do what she loves best to seek out the nearest Cinnabon franchise. Her goals include working for world peace, figuring out how to make potstickers, and speaking at writer and reader conferences around the world. (Australia is still recovering.)

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Undead and Unfinished (Queen Betsy, Book 9) by MaryJanice Davidson

To be released July 6, 2010!

MaryJanice Davidson once again proves that her humorous New York Times best-selling Undead series is unlike any other. In Undead and Unfinished, the ninth novel featuring the adventures of Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor, Betsy strikes up a deal with the devil. Now, Betsy has the ability to read the Book of the Dead without going insane and she finally gets the chance to discover all the dark mysteries it holds. When a visit to Hell turns into a time traveling journey filled with risky encounters, Betsy gets more than she bargained for. As she interacts firsthand with her past generations, Betsy’s meddling will impact the future in ways she does not yet understand.

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Interview

ATUF: There was a major style change in the Undead cover art between books 6 and 7. What motivated that change and what are your thoughts on the two styles?

 

MJD: My publisher changed the look of the covers for 3 reasons:  1) I was getting a lot of fan mail from 11 and 12 year olds who were buying Betsy because of the cartoon covers.  2) When my first Betsy book, UNDEAD AND UNWED, came out it was the only game in town.  Before Betsy, there really wasn't anything out there in paranormal chick lit.  But these days, you have to elbow cute cartoon-ey covers with young hip heroines who collect designer...suits (or earrings, or sneakers, or...get it? :) I was looking at an end cap filled with these kinds of book, and I had trouble picking mine out of the crowd.  When your books are blending in with absolutely everything else, it's time for a change.  3) Although the Betsy books are funny and will always be funny, the series did take a darker turn beginning with UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY, and the covers reflect that.

ATUF: Betsy has said in the books that she reads Gone With the Wind at least once a year. Do you share her love for Scarlett O'Hara?

MJD: You bet!  What's not to love?  Scarlett is vain, calculating, lonely, clever, and ruthless.  I was so enchanted with the characters from the book, I didn't notice until a couple of years later that...apparently there's a WAR of some kind going on when Scarlett's not getting married.  Weird!  A war, you believe that?  ;-)

ATUF: The Undead books really epitomize for me Paranormal Chick Lit. Are you comfortable with classifying the series that way?

MJD: Oh, sure.  I don't lose much sleep wondering where they're going to display my books.  "What if they end up in True Crime?  Or Cooking?"  The thing is (I'm gonna get really arrogant here, so apologies in advance) since I invented that new subgenre, Paranormal Chick Lit, I certainly don't mind if my books are classified that way.

ATUF: UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED marks the ninth title in this series. Has it been hard coming up with fresh stories for Betsy, and how many more books would you like to see for her?

MJD: I'm really lucky in that coming up with new things to torture my characters with has never been a problem...when I'm writing one of the books I'll think, "Now that the Anti-Christ knows how to teleport, Betsy and Laura should really...etc., etc. fill in the blank".  I'm contracted to write two more books, but I'll keep writing them as long as you guys want to keep reading them.  That's the nice thing about a heroine who resists the whole "I've learned something today" mindset.  Betsy never learns, so the plot possibilities are endless.

ATUF: Which of your series leads would you say are most and least like you? Vampire Queen Betsy, Fred the Mermaid, Caitlyn the bionic woman, Jennifer Scales the dragon, or Christina the Alaskan Princess ?

MJD: Well, I'm tall and blonde and vain, and also never learn from any mistakes, ever, so Betsy's probably the most like me.  On the other hand, Fred is moody and sour and a disaster at a party, and I certainly have my days when I'm grumpy...but then Caitlyn is superficial and easily distracted, so...oh, hell.  They're all me, in one way or another.  Jennifer Scales is probably the least like me:  an honorable and clever young lady who never hesitates to put herself in danger to help someone else...yeah.  Jennifer is pretty much my polar opposite.  ;-)

ATUF: If the Queen Betsy series was ever made into a movie, who would your dream or, to keep things interesting, nightmare cast be?

MJD: Jenna Elfman (Dharma) for Betsy, natch.  Clive Owen as Sinclair (oofta!  I'm sweating just typing that), and Queen Latifah as Jessica.  A reader suggested the guy who played Jack from WILL AND GRACE would be a good Mark, which I thought was a cute idea.  And the woman who plays Bones on BONES...I thought she'd be a great Fred.  She's got that dour, socially clueless thing going on.

ATUF: Can you tell us about your favorite scene in UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED?

MJD: No question, when Betsy and Laura end up in Salem, MA, during the height of the witch hysteria in the sixteen hundreds.  Betsy rescues a woman who was about to be burned alive, insults the entire congregation, then beats the snot out of the head Old  White Guy, while Laura wrings her hands and looks on and calls encouragement ("You have a lovely church!") and entreaties ("Not the face, Betsy!  Not his face!") from the back of the church.  Oooh, boy.  Way too much fun.

ATUF: What other projects can we look forwarding to reading from you soon? Specifically Me, Myself and Why.  The excerpt on your Coming Soon page already has me hooked (and I hope Mr. Donald Duck tattoo shows up again).

MJD: Yep, ME MYSELF AND WHY is the first in my new trilogy from St. Martins Press.  It's about an FBI agent with multiple personality disorder.  She works for BOFFO (Bureau of False Flag Ops), which is a secret FBI division that only employs nutjobs.  Kleptomaniacs, schizophrenics, manic depressives, sociopaths...so, it's actually like many government agencies.  What I'm having fun with (and so's my editor!) is that these guys are catching killers because of their psychoses, not in spite of them.  My editor calls their various diagnoses "their super powers".  I'm working on the second book, ENEMY MINE, right now.

I've also got the new Jennifer Scales book, RISE OF THE POISON MOON, out this July right after UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED in early July.  And next I'll be starting an all-paranormal antho, UNDEAD AND UNDERWATER, which has a Betsy/Fred team up as well as a novella about a new character, a super hero with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  Because a story about an ordinary super hero would be...ordinary!

ATUF: What are some of your favorite titles/authors in the paranormal genres?

MJD: Michele Bardsley's vampire series about a soccer mom turned undead, DON'T TALK BACK TO YOUR VAMPIRE among other titles.  Cute, cute series!  And Dakota Cassidy's Accidental series (THE ACCIDENTAL WEREWOLF, among others).  But ironically, I almost never read in my own genre anymore because I spend so much of my time writing it or thinking about it or thinking about writing it.

ATUF: What was the hardest thing you had to learn in order to become a published novelist?

MJD: Rejection slips are not personal.  They aren't.  I swear!  (No, really, it's true...)

ATUF: In honor of Paranormal Summer Fest, can you describe your perfect Paranormal Summer read? And where would you love to be vacationing while reading it?

MJD: That would be GONE WITH THE ZOMBIES...you know the trend about re-writing classics, like PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES?  My ideal would be someone doing that to Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND.  And I would read it in the Caymans...my brother-in-law got married there and it was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen.  I hardly even missed having a television.  Hee!

ATUF: Thanks so much for stopping by MaryJanice.  Come back anytime!

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Visit MaryJanice online:

• Website
• Blog
• Facebook
• Myspace

Want to read more from MaryJanice Davidson (courtesy of Fantastic Fiction)?

Queen Betsy
1. Undead and Unwed (2002)
2. Undead and Unemployed (2004)
3. Undead and Unappreciated (2005)
4. Undead and Unreturnable (2005)
5. Undead and Unpopular (2006)
6. Undead and Uneasy (2007)
7. Undead and Unworthy (2008)
8. Undead and Unwelcome (2009)
9. Undead and Unfinished (2010)
Betsy the Vampire Queen (omnibus)
Dead and Loving It
Dead Over Heels

Alaskan Royal Family
1. The Royal Treatment (2004)
2. The Royal Pain (2005)
3. The Royal Mess (2007)

Wyndham Werewolf
1. Love's Prisoner (2000) (in Secrets 6)
2. Jared's Wolf (2002) (in Secrets: 8)
3. Derik's Bane (2005)

Cyborg series
1. Hello, Gorgeous! (2005)
2. Drop Dead Georgeous (2006)

Jennifer Scales (with Anthony Alongi)
1. Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace (2005)
2. Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light (2006)
3. The Silver Moon Elm (2007)
4. Seraph of Sorrow (2009)
5. Rise of the Poison Moon (2010)

Fred the Mermaid
1. Sleeping with the Fishes (2006)
2. Swimming Without a Net (2007)
3. Fish Out of Water (2008)

Novels
Adventures of the Teen Furies (1998)
By Any Other Name (1998)
Thief of Hearts (2001)
Under Cover (2003)
Doing It Right (2007)
Me, Myself, and Why? (2010)

Anthologies
Secrets 6
Naughty or Nice
Secrets: 8
Cravings
Perfect for the Beach
How to Be a Wicked Woman
Merry Christmas, Baby
Men at Work
In Other Worlds
Charming the Snake
Kick Ass
Mysteria
Fangs Again
Surf's Up
Valentine's Day Is Killing Me
Over the Moon
Demon's Delight
No Rest for the Witches
Mysteria Lane
Faeries Gone Wild
Bite
Bad Boys with Expensive Toys
Really Unusual Bad Boys
Wicked Women Whodunit

 

Giveaway

Giveaway courtesy of MaryJanice Davidson

Hardcover copies of Undead & Unpopular and Undead & Uneasy by MaryJanice Davidson

 

Book Description

Undead and Unpopular (book 5)

Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor already has plenty on her plate. For one thing, next week is her birthday—the big 3-1 in human years, and one in undead years. (Yes, she bit the dust on her birthday last year.) On top of that, she still has wedding plans to finalize—and it's not helping that the prospective groom is avoiding anything to do with it. And then there's her decision to stop drinking blood—something she has yet to share with Eric Sinclair, her fiancé—who also happens to be the vampire king.

The last thing she wants to deal with is uninvited guests, even if they happen to be the powerful European vampires who have finally come to pay their respects the week before her birthday. Some of them don't want Betsy as their queen and will do anything to get ride of her. As if turning 30 last year (not to mention dying) hadn't been traumatic enough. And trying to give up blood is making her really cranky.

Undead and Uneasy (book 6)

In the days leading up the The Big Day, Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor seems to have a full house—and the wedding guests have yet to arrive. Along with her human buddies, there's a ghost, a werewolf and a Fiend crashing at her place. And though her fiancé, Vampire King Eric Sinclair, conveniently disappears when the conversation turns to seating charts and flower arrangements, he does manage to make his oh-so-sexy presence known at other moments.

Betsy knows the next few weeks won't be smooth sailing—but she never expects just what's in store for her. Cold feet are no surprise, especially with an undead groom. But when Sinclair truly goes missing—and not just to avoid wedding preparations—along with most of her friends and loved ones, Betsy is frantic. Alone and afraid for the fate of everyone she loves, Betsy can't trust anyone as she tries to find them and whoever is behind all the disappearances. And what happens next will shake the foundation of the vampire world forever.

GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES

1. Open Internationally
2. Fill out the form below
3. Entries for all Paranormal Summer Fest giveaways must be received by Midnight MST on July 4th.  All the giveaways winners will be announced on July 6th.

I would greatly appreciate if you shared this giveaway on your blog or favorite social networks.  And please say hi to MaryJanice. Thanks!

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