Yes, I have bragged about loving The Fey before. This is not the same story on a different day though. This is a NEW story! In fact, this is an exclusive interview with the multi-talented Claudia, as part of The Fey’s Blog Tour!
I am, again, encouraging you to do buy & read the book … but now, I am offering you two fun opportunities:
1) Comment and I’ll toss your name into a hat (or, more likely, a mason jar). A winner will be drawn to receive their very own SIGNED copy, free! (Mine isn’t even signed, you lucky devylite you!!)
2) A 10% discount, if you order from The Fey’s Store and apply the coupon code: 5GJG6Y8X
I am so excited to be a part of this! Read on to learn a little about Claudia H. Christian, as well as a little about Alex the Fey. And, once you’ve met Claudia and Alex, read the excerpt from the book - go on, I dare ya!
THE INTERVIEW:
Claudia, when we first met, you were a constant source of strength and warmth for me. I have since learned a little more about you, from reading your blog (On a Limb with Claudia) and speaking with you on various social networks. I must say, you have accomplished a LOT in your life, all on your own.
When did becoming an author enter your mind? Was it a conscious thought, or was it something you stumbled into blindly?
I had always, always, always planned to be a writer. In high school, I never had an edit on my work. I received A’s in English classes and literature. AP English was the only class I always attended. I graduated with a real arrogance that I was going to take the world by storm. Then life intervened. My parents reneged on paying for my fancy pants liberal arts degree (that, in my mind, guaranteed my writing success) and I met a professor named Jonathon Swift.
Professor Swift and I met in a Basic English class. Now, Professor Swift did not like me. He did not like my writing. And more than anything, he did not like the breeze way I could churn out a short story in the matter of minutes. He battered me for a semester then almost didn’t pass me. I took a Shakespeare class the next semester. When it came time to write a paper, I locked up. Now, I grew up on Shakespeare. But I could not get a word out.
Between working fifty plus hours a week and Professor Swift, I made the easy decision to transfer to UC Berkeley where I studied Biochemistry. I took a couple literature classes – Joyce’s Ulysses and a women in literature class. But never wrote another paper.
Until I went to graduate school. My teachers marveled at my capacity to bring them into the therapy sessions. And still I refused to write fiction.
I started writing again when we moved to Denver. For three and a half years, I wrote a self help column called “Claudia’s Corner” in a local throw away. I wrote self help, inspirational articles and newsletters for over six years.
Then…
One of the things I love about Alex, in The Fey, is that she is incredibly strong and powerful, but does not lose any of the warm and loving characteristics that romance-story lovers look for in a novel.
How did Alex come to you, and how did you know what her story was going to be?
One night, Rebecca Hargreaves came to sit on the side of my bed and tell me about her family. I’ll never know if it was a ghost or a dream or….? But there she was. She wouldn’t leave me alone or ‘let me off the hook’ until I started writing.
I didn’t know what Alex’s story would be. In fact, in The Fey, you can see how complicated her relationships is with her mother, Rebecca Hargreaves. Trying to get it right, I wrote three complete versions of her story.
Was it difficult maintaining the “female” aspects of such a strong and deliberate character?
Like a lot of women my age, I grew up in the time of women fighting for equal rights. I saw women discard their femininity to, in my judgment, become the men they hated. I worked for a number of these women in science. The “masculine” woman is common in thriller fiction because so many of these characters are written by women of that generation.
When I meet strong and capable women, Navy SEALs for example, they start with the brusque ‘I can kill you’ attitude. Then, in a moment, dissolve to talk about children, their mothers, their broken hearts, and their friends. They are women first.
Alex Hargreaves is written as a reflection of these strong, capable, relational, warm, loving, and kind women.
One of the more appealing aspects of The Fey is that the book is not all action, nor is it just a drama … it also has romance intertwined throughout the story. A wide range of people can read and enjoy The Fey without having to endure constant killing or drawn-out romance scenes at any point.
Did Alex’s story lend itself to such a well-balanced novel, or did you have to work hard to maintain the balance?
I was lucky to have a dedicated group of early readers. They gave me the readers perspective. As a writer, I knew what I was saying. I knew what I meant. The early readers helped me understand the pieces that were missing, where details were missing, and what was just too much. They also held a very high bar for me. ‘What are we three?’ ‘Get this right!’ ‘What the hell?’ One woman wrote on the first draft, ‘I’d never buy a book that had this kind of language. Never.’
The Fey, and the series, are a direct result of the unyielding standards of some very dedicated readers.
Were you consciously trying to appeal to any one group of readers, or did you hope to rope us all in with a single book and get us hooked?
I wanted to tell the story of this amazing person. While I didn’t consciously try to appeal to a market or group of readers, I had a sense that telling a story is quite different from reading it. I remain dedicated to telling stories in a way that they can be understood by women and men.
We get to meet and fall in love with many people in Alex’s story. Some of these characters, despite knowing what we know from reading The Fey, are characters we would want to know more about.
Going forward, do you think there will be any sequels or prequels to Alex’s story?
The original plan included eight Alex The Fey books. The second book, Learning to Stand, is in it’s final revisions. The third book, Who I Am, is in first draft form. As long as any of these characters have something to say, I’m dedicated to writing their story.
[Devyl here, injecting some information I was reminded of while reading Popping Bubbles, the first stop on the Blog Tour: The Fey is serialized at AlextheFey.com. The novel will run through the end of the year, then will be removed. Learning to Stand will take it’s place in February, 2010.]
If so, will we get to see inside the minds and hearts of some of her team members and loved ones?
The easy answer is ‘yes’. There’s a lot to learn from each of these characters. As the books continue, the characters evolve, change, grow and learn. In The Fey, a group of friends come together with a common objective. In Learning to Stand, they must become a team. In Who I Am, that team begins to grow and evolve.
As any of my dedicated readers know, I read The Fey in one sitting. I simply could not put the novel down. Once I delved into the story of Alex the Fey, I had to know everything about her, and I needed to know how things turned out. At one point, I had to get up and clean and cook dinner … so I did everything one-handed, without watching what I was doing, because I was reading the entire time!
Gosh, thank you so much for giving The Fey your time and effort!
Please provide us with an excerpt, because I would love for my friends to get excited about readingThe Fey too! [Edited by Devyl to add: You can listen to the excerpt, if you prefer. Click the link (http://alexthefey.com/audio/chpt34.mp3) to download the file or right-click and save the link as an mp3 file.]
THE EXCERPT FROM THE FEY
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Thirteen years earlier
Intelligence officer in training, Sergeant Alexandra Hargreaves, walked down a dim hall in the bowels of Fort Bragg. After shaking her awake at two in the morning, the two Military Police officers, one on either side of her, kept a clipped pace through the halls. She had no idea what was going on. She only knew that they wanted her to come with them.
They reached a door at the end of the hall. Unlocking the door, they held the door open and instructed Alex to enter the room. Alex stepped inside the small room and turned just in time to see the MPs close the door. She was locked in this room.
There was a battered table in the middle of the room with a chair on either side of it. Alex dropped into a chair at the table while she looked around the room. A white board filled one wall and the other walls were bare cinder block. The room was more like an austere closet than an actual meeting or training room.
Hearing a sound, she turned to see the door open.
“I was lying in my hospital bed,” Ben said. He leaned against the closed door. “They told me that some Sergeant aced the intelligence exam. What should they do? I said, ’Give the Sergeant the test again’. How stupid can they be?”
Using a cane, he moved with obvious pain. Alex rushed to his side.
“What did you expect? They gave me situations I could have solved when I was a child,” she said.
Tucking an arm under his shoulder, she helped him to the table. He dropped into the chair she vacated.
“That may be true, but you have now tested out of Special Forces Intelligence training. Alexandra, they test you at the beginning of training so that they have something to compare to at the end of training.”
“Oh, I was supposed to blow the test? Why didn’t you tell me that? I’ll take it again. Can I take it again?”
Ben laughed.
“Are you here to take me home?” Alex asked.
“Not a chance. The CIA has dibs on anyone that does well on those exams. The Director himself is salivating over your scores.”
“I want to be a Green Beret not a CIA agent.”
“You sure you want to do this? You are moving into a world of elite intelligence. They will call you from your hospital bed and make you work.”
“I’m sorry, Ben. You know I’d never….”
“Sit down,” Ben said. He tapped a cigarette against the table. “I can’t smoke in the hospital.”
While Alex made faces at him and his habit, he bowed forward to light the cigarette.
“Tonight, you and I are going to run scenarios to make certain that you didn’t cheat on that exam. We are monitored – video and sound. If it is determined that you did cheat, you go home. If you didn’t cheat, you will join three seasoned Special Forces Intelligence officers in a class taught by me.”
“I get to take a class from you? Well…. That’s great!”
“There’s a condition.”
“What?” Alex crossed her arms over her racing heart. She hadn’t been this excited since she received her acceptance letter to Special Forces training.
“You will be attached to the CIA. If we need you, and you’re available, you will work for us.”
“Work?”
“I will arrange for you to work under me. The work will be anything from strategy to actual field work.”
“But I still get to be a Green Beret?”
“Yes, Alexandra. You will still be a Green Beret. That is, if you can prove that you didn’t cheat on the test.”
“I didn’t so that’s easy….”
“You have to prove it. We’ll run scenarios tonight. Depending on how well you do….”
“We get to run scenarios all night?” Alex cut him off. She was positively bursting with excitement. “Then I get to take a class with you! That’s wonderful! Ok, go ahead.”
“You are a sick, sick girl. You will join your group tomorrow morning on no sleep.”
“That’s all right. I can go at least ninety hours without sleep, easy. Can you make the situations really hard?”
Ben laughed.
Now, get out there and buy your copy of The Fey today!
xoxo
