- If you were not a writer what would
you be doing (or alternatively, what is your “day” job if you do both)?
I’ll always be a writer. However, because I’m fond
of eating regularly and sleeping indoors, I’ve also had a variety of day jobs
over the years. Some, like actor and singer, don’t pay well at all, and some,
like security guard, pay the rent but are, er, not challenging. My current day
job is contingency planning, which is a fancy way of saying “planning for
disaster.” Chantal Hammond, the heroine of my latest paranormal romance,
Chantal Hammond, is trained as a first-responder and rescuer. I’ve met a fair number
of these folks in my career.
- If you wrote a book about your life
what would the title be?
Too Many Plots and Too Few Cats.
I’d need to live to be 200 years old to write all the story ideas I have in my
Plot Bunnies folders. I write paranormal romance and space opera, and the
possibilities are only limited by my imagination. SHIFTER’S STORM (Ice Age
Shifters Book 5) has a dying fairy fantasyland as its setting. Writing books is
kind of like making my own fantasyland, but with words instead of magic.
And life is too short to be without cats. 😉
- What is the hardest thing about being
an author?
For me, the hardest thing about being an author is
prioritizing the stories I want to tell. Since it seems unlikely that I’ll live
to 200, I have to pick and choose the stories I want to write next. Reader
requests figure in there, too.
- What is the best thing about being an
author?
The best thing about being a writer is that every
experience, good or bad, helps you write better stories. All my stories start
with characters who needs things from each other. After that, it’s my job to
get them into trouble. The second best thing is meeting readers who love the
stories I write.
- Have you ever been star struck by
meeting one of your favorite authors? If so who was it?
Right after I published my first book, I lucked into
meeting the fabulous S.E. (Susan) Smith at a conference. I loved her Cosmos’
Gateway science fiction romance series and her story Touch of Frost,
which is a quirky blend of science fiction and paranormal romance (my favorite
genres). She is a delightful, warm, and down-to-earth person with magic in her
fingertips. By which I mean she puts out an amazing number of quality series in
my two favorite genres. Several years later, she was kind enough to invite me
to write a story in her shared world of Magic, New Mexico.
- What book changed your life?
Catseye
by Andre Norton. I complained to my parents one summer about boredom because
I’d read every age-appropriate book I had at the time. They gave me a
speculative fiction book to read. I wanted more, so they gave me Catseye.
Great characters and story in a far-future world, plus cats! That started my
lifelong love of science fiction and fantasy. Then I fell in love with romance,
so it seems like destiny that I now write romantic science fiction and fantasy.
- What were your some of favorite books
growing up?
See above about science fiction, fantasy, and
romance. I never read an Andre Norton book I didn’t love. I devoured Anne
McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, many of the classic SF stories from the 1950s and
1960s. I gravitated toward Harlequin’s romantic suspense novels because the
heroines were more often competent in their own right, not just the prize for
the impossibly brave hero.
- What books are currently in your to be
read pile?
My TBR is the size of Mt. Everest and growing like
it’s a volcano about to erupt (though it never does). My guilty pleasure in
paranormal romance is the various Zoe Chant paranormal romances because the
characters are genuinely nice people who deserve to find each other and
overcome obstacles to being together. Lindsay Buroker has a whole new space
opera series out that is impatiently waiting for me to have time to binge-read
them. And I just stumbled across Koko Brown’s promisingly hilarious witch
series, starting with Something Witchy This Way Comes.
- Which do you prefer ebooks, print, or
audio books?
I love the kinesthetic feel of books, but even more,
I love being able to take my entire TBR on the plane in one small device, as
opposed to checking an entire extra suitcase full of books.
- If you could live inside the world of
a book or series which world would it be and why?
I’m picking a world I developed because I designed
it with things I like. In my Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series, the
world of magic is hidden from normal human life. Magical folk have sanctuary
towns. Most are hidden, but Kotoyeesinay, Wyoming is different. They hide in
plain sight by pretending to be a tourist town with a magical theme. Powerful
spells and charms keep the non-magical tourists from realizing the car mechanic
is actually an ogre and the shop owner is actually a dark elf. For the magical
denizens, Kotoyeesinay is a melting pot of people and creatures that just want
to live peaceably together as a community. That’s where and how I’d want to
live.
Shifter’s Storm
Ice Age Shifters
Book 5
Carol Van Natta
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Ice Age Shifters
Book 5
Carol Van Natta
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Chavanch Press
Date of Publication: 12 December 2019
ISBN: 978-1946165176
ASIN: B081NPSFT9
Number of pages: 220
Word Count: 49,000
Cover Artist: Amanda Kelsey,
Razzle Dazzle Design
Tagline: In a dying fairy fantasy land, can two shifters tell if the magic between them is real?
Book Description:
In a dying fairy fantasyland, can two shifters tell if the magic between them is real?
While volunteering for hurricane cleanup, sheriff’s deputy and leopard shifter Chantal Hammond stumbles across two escapees from a fairy fantasyland. Unfortunately, when she tries to help, she ends up trapped. She quickly discovers she's lost in a mini-world of trouble, and more captives need rescuing.
Prehistoric sloth shifter Dauro de Mar and his friends have cruelly been imprisoned in their animal forms for years. His plan to lead the escape is mostly wishful thinking until an intoxicating and magical leopard shifter arrives still in her human form. She's their game changer.
It's going to take Chantal's and Dauro's combined skills, magic, and courage to evade evil hunters and greedy fairies, and get everyone out of this mess. Especially since the fairy fantasyland is disintegrating. Can they fight off danger—and their sizzling attraction—long enough to win their freedom? Or will they be destroyed by the mother of all storms when this magical land dies?
Find out today in Shifter's Storm, another sizzling hot Ice Age Shifters® paranormal romance from USA TODAY bestselling author Carol Van Natta.
Shifter's Storm is a complete story with a happily-ever-after and no cliffhanger, and can be enjoyed without having read the rest of the series.
Excerpt:
Dauro ya
Ketumino da’Nok de Mar lumbered up onto the bank of the impossible river and
snorted forcefully to open his nose and ear flaps. The pretend sun was more
than halfway toward the far horizon. He shook up and down to help his fur shed
water.
The world shook.
Even the distant orchard trees to his left swayed.
What?
Dauro’s giant
aquatic sloth form was massive, but not that massive. Certainly not massive
enough to shake an entire magical fairy demesne.
The world shook
again, longer this time. Water sloshed onto the river’s banks, lapping at his
back paws.
When Nessireth,
the ancient fairy who created the demesne to house her collection of aquatic
exotics like him, went on a rampage, the wind blew heat and the central castle
trembled. But she’d died and turned to fairy dust two months ago.
A memory
surfaced of feeling something similar a couple of hundred years ago, soon after
Nessireth moved the demesne from the high, cold place to a warm island
location. The demesne’s anchor had been tugged by a violent real-world storm
she’d called a hurricane. After a second one a few years later, she’d used her
then-abundant magic to add more anchors. That cured it.
Dauro also
remembered a recent comment from Kelvin, the young pygmy hippopotamus shifter
who had been Nessireth’s final acquisition. Humans were now living everywhere,
and they’d been burning forests and fossils. Scientists said it changed the
climate and predicted more hurricanes.
Dauro believed
it. Heat and magic were similar—increased energy in a stable spell guaranteed
unstable results.
More shaking.
The river water surged in a wave, wetting his front paws.
Fairy demesne
magic made the circular river constantly flowing to provide habitat and feeding
grounds for him and the other aquatic shifters and creatures. It hadn’t ever
changed… until today.
That brought
home to him that he and others needed to get serious about escaping. Nessireth
had bragged about spending millennia to construct her demesne, but it was
decaying daily without her active magic to maintain it. The false moon wasn’t
as round as it used to be, and had a noticeable pink tint. Just last week, the
constant breeze had taken to gusting chaotically.
None of the
captives knew what would happen if the demesne collapsed with them still
inside. Dauro was certain it wouldn’t be good.
His giant sloth
liked solitary peace and quiet, but his suppressed human side knew he needed to
check on the rest of his friends. Nessireth’s death had given him more freedom
than the others. And his limited telepathic skills as a sloth meant he had to
visit them himself. Nessireth had forced each of them to remain their animal
form, and the demesne would keep them that way forever… as long as the magic
held.
As the oldest of
Nessireth’s acquisitions, he’d become the sinchi, the temporary champion of the
collection. In his opinion, formidable size, war experience, and a talent for
magic while in animal form didn’t make him a leader, but he was the best they
had.
Before his
energy-saving sloth succumbed to the lure of a nap, he plunged back into the
water. Digging his strong, clawed toes into the silty bank, he let the water
flow over him for a minute while he thought. Downstream was the long way around
the river, but wouldn’t tire him out as fast. So far, the magical
protein-enriched sea grasses he depended on for food still grew overnight, but
for how long?
He shoved off
and let the current help him swim toward his friend Sunscar’s territory. The
closer he got, the more the magic in the water felt as agitated as the river
itself.
And no wonder,
because the lake’s wall was breached. Instead of an orderly river running next
to a placid pool, the whole area was now a flooded swamp. The demesne’s castle
was already repairing the wall, but the water had no natural way to drain back
into the lake.
Even worse, the
damage had activated the water-based defensive spells, which were fighting with
the castle’s defenses. Grab-weed tried to strangle the broken pieces of the
wall, as if they were attackers. Two of the animated castle statues tore at the
weeds so the wall could heal.
About the Author:
Carol Van Natta is a USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. Series include the Central Galactic Concordance space opera series that starts with Overload Flux and Minder Rising, and the Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series that starts with Shifter Mate Magic and Shift of Destiny. She shares her Fort Collins, CO home with a resident mad scientist and just the right number of equally mad cats.
Sign up for Carol Van Natta’s author newsletter: https://bit.ly/CVN--news
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carol.vannatta/
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