Friday, January 6, 2017

Fast Friday Indie Interviews: Christina Harlin

Christina Harlin

Tell me about yourself, Christina?

Well, okay . . .  cue music, Martin!

Rifftrax and Netflix and cooking spaghetti.
Hitchcock and Bergman and Wyler and Petty.
Old Monty Python, the albums of Sting:
These are a few of my favorite things.

Computer gaming and Bioware romance
Friday night pizza and ratty old sweatpants
Star Wars and Buffy and Lord of the Rings
These are a few my favorite things . . .

Retribution,
Evolution,
Plenty more to add . . .
I simply keep doing my favorite things
So I never feel too bad!

Lonely asylums and creepy old mansions,
Writing a book full of ghost-hunting action,
Scaring myself like I am Stephen King!
These are a few of my favorite things.

Tormenting characters, finishing chapters,
Prescriptions for codeine and muscle relaxers
Getting good news when my telephone rings:
These are a few of my favorite things . . .

Introverted,
Bit perverted,
Sometimes costume-clad.
I simply keep doing my favorite things
So I never feeeeeeeeeeeel toooo baaaaaad!

Tell me about your current Book:


Question: What happens in my latest book, Preta?
a.    When a hunger demon is summoned to punish the visitors at a secluded mountain estate, telepath Rosemary must banish the thing from Earth, or else over thirty people could die, driven so mad with hunger that they will eat anything.

b.    When healer Kaye is badly bitten by a preta, her lover Stefan must rouse her to use her healing powers on herself, or she could die in his arms.

c.    When Sally Friend meets a big bad wolf, she must get him alone in his mountainside cabin, or else she’ll never get see what, uh, big fangs he has.

d.    All of the above.

Answer:  Ha!  Spoilers, much?  I’m not telling you!

Preta is the fourth book in my Othernaturals series, all of which are about the paranormal adventures of the ghost-hunting team from the fictional web show Othernaturals.  The team includes: the producer and telepath Rosemary; director and ghost-spotter Greg; Stefan, the medium, and his resident ghost Brentley;  Kaye, the healer; young psychic vampire Sally; animal empath Judge; and Andrew, the talented psychic who joined the show in order to restore his destroyed reputation.  Keeping the stories humorous, sexy, and simmering with chemistry is important to me, even while trying to give my readers their share of hair-raising scares.  My hope is that readers will find reading the Othernaturals books both frightening and fun.
Preta is definitely the most fast-paced book in the series thus far, taking place over 36 frantic hours during which the team is trapped in a mountainside mansion with an ever-growing group of ravenous houseguests.  The book is my nod to the zombie horror genre (a guilty pleasure of mine), without having real zombies smelling the place up.

Here is the synopsis from the back cover, with a little editing per your instructions:
They are isolated in the mountains, the hunger is growing, and they are running out of time.
Rosemary Sharpe leads her Othernaturals team to the mansion in the Rocky Mountains where her rock-star grandfather and his friends once gathered. Among the musicians and artists who still commune there are a wolfish groundskeeper, whose animal magnetism is irresistible to psychic vampire Sally Friend, and an unwelcome intruder from Rosemary's own carefully guarded past.

The Othernaturals have come to help a former freedom rocker who has fallen under a hunger hex. In the secluded mountainside mansion, however, they find not one hexed woman but an infection spreading out of control, sending the houseguests into a ravenous frenzy. The victims are becoming the "preta," warped by a vengeful entity targeting anyone who has led a life of greed.  One by one, avenues of escape disappear, and the house falls further into madness.

Whether the infection's spread is natural or paranormal, someone seems determined to keep the Othernaturals trapped on the mountain until all souls have been judged - and in the world of the preta, the guilty are punished, but the innocent are eaten.

Preta* is the fourth book of paranormal investigations by the gifted cast of the web show Othernaturals.

“Experts” in a field relating to this kind of thing say, “Failure to read Preta ASAP will lead to Social Outcast Syndrome!”  Don’t be a victim of this terrible affliction!  Read Preta now!

What are you working on now? 

A Fast Friday Indie Interview!  Plus, each week I write two to three essays about specific movies for my film blog, The Movie Orphan.  I’m also working on the fifth book in the Othernaturals Series.  Next time out, the team must cope with death-omen doppelgangers called Fetches!

Where is your favorite place to be when you write? 

I’ve worked at the same battered, warped desk since 1992.  Computers atop it have come and gone, but that old desk knows what it’s there for. I put Pandora on my headphones and go to work.  I set a definite amount of time during which I must work – yes, even on, especially on, the days I don’t feel like it.  I tell myself, “Chris, you’re going to write for an hour.”  Though it doesn’t happen every day, it’s a great pleasure to look at the clock and realize nearly three hours have passed without my noticing.

What is your favorite Website?

Recently, a friend absolutely destroyed my free time by introducing me to Sporcle.com, a site that has hundreds of trivia quizzes in dozens of categories.  The subject matter ranges from general nonsense to serious historical and geographical topics.  User-friendly, addictive and quite educational (assuming one is doing the smart quizzes; I don’t always), Sporcle.com is a mighty, time-sucking black hole.  I go on to do “just one” simple quiz about matching characters to their novels, and two hours later I’m taking quizzes about members of 1970s bands or a logic puzzle about famous movie villains. Super fun, but don’t go near it if you want to accomplish anything that day.

Links:

Emailclharlin@kc.rr.com
Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/Christina-Harlin/e/B004V1LCVK/
Blog:   www.themovieorphan.com  (Although this is a site at which I write movies, obviously.)
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/clharlin/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1391999.Christina_Harlin;


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