Author Interview with Crystal Collier

Today, I want to welcome Crystal Collier popular blogger and brand new author to the blog. (Congratulations, Crystal!) Her book Moonless will be available November 13.

1. Writers get lots of ideas for stories, but not all of them become books. How did this book start, i.e. why did you fall in love with these characters and this story?

It was 2002, I had just come off a Dickens reading binge and was in the process of querying my first book when I had a dream. One week and a hundred pages later, I stared at the first draft of the easiest story I’d ever written. I tried to ignore it over the ensuing years, but sweet Alexia, freaky Bellezza and he-who-will-steal-your-soul with his blue-blue eyes… Have you met these characters?

2. How did you come up with the title?

Originally the book was “Faery Moon: Dark Night.” The next title was Dark Moon. During Pitch Wars 2012, my amazing coach, Sharon Johnston, went through a brainstorming session with me to find a one word title. She tossed out MOONLESS, and what can I say? She’s brilliant.

3. What kind of research did you do for your novel? Anything weird or strange?

It’s a darn good thing no one is monitoring my web searches. I think one of them was most creative ways to kill someone. Yeah… Tons of research went into this book—years worth. (Like 8.) I now fancy myself somewhat of an expert on the time period, although I won’t claim to be a historian.

4. In your novel the Soulless play a significant role. Can you tell us more about them?

These are beings who’ve been around for centuries. While their bodies decay, their minds never do, and the longer they’ve been around, the hungrier they become. They feed off people—not blood, but a life essence all the same, seeking to satiate a hunger that will never be satisfied.

5. How do you plan to celebrate the book’s release?

I will be eating cheese and consciously ignoring my sales.

6. Are you working on a sequel to your novel?

Soulless, book 2, is in editing with an anticipated release of spring, 2014.

7. Can you share one thing about yourself that might surprise us?

I answer to the name of Chicken, and it’s not even a derogatory thing. In fact, it was my “cool” nickname in high school.

Here's the blurb, and check out that gorgeous cover!

In the English society of 1768 where women are bred to marry, unattractive Alexia, just sixteen, believes she will end up alone. But on the county doorstep of a neighbor’s estate, she meets a man straight out of her nightmares, one whose blue eyes threaten to consume her whole world—especially later when she discovers him standing over her murdered host in the middle of the night. 

Among the many things to change for her that evening are: her physical appearance—from ghastly to breathtaking, an epidemic of night terrors predicting the future, and the blue-eyed man’s unexpected infusion into her life. Not only do his appearances precede tragedies, but they’re echoed by the arrival of ravenous, black-robed wraiths on moonless nights. 

Unable to decide whether he is one of these monsters or protecting her from them, she uncovers what her father has been concealing: truths about her own identity, about the blue-eyed man, and about love. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with the man of her dreams and risk becoming one of the Soulless. 

Add Moonless to your Goodreads list.