Interview and Giveaway with Moira Rogers!

Under The Covers is happy to be participating in the 18 & Over Book Blogger Giveaway Hop from Sept 15 - 18.  This hop is hosted by Bitten by Paranormal Romance and Reading Between the Wines Book Club. Make sure you visit their site to hop on to other wonderful blogs during this event.  And now...

Moira Rogers is here at UTC! Everyone scream! Yup, we are all excited to have them here with us. In a time when paranormal is all the rage, Moira Rogers manages to make her books stand out of the pack! For more information on Moira Rogers, please visit their website here.


Let's get started, shall we? The anticipation is killing me! Your Southern Arcana series has shapeshifters, psychics and spell casters. What was the inspiration behind this series?

Bree: Honestly we wanted to take the bits of paranormal lore that interested us most and mix them up in a pressure cooker, where tensions were high between spell casters and shapeshifters, spell casters and psychics and even the shapeshifters who were born shifters and those who were turned.

Nick and Derek are a great couple who know they are destined to be together. How do you ensure that readers feel the chemistry between them?

Donna: Actually, the hardest part about their relationship was finding a way to convey that certainty to readers. Bree and I were so familiar with it, we just sort of took it for granted. Then we turned in our final manuscript to our editor and she basically told us to fix it. LOL We'd glossed over everything that showed them growing closer together. So we tried again, and were very careful to show those tiny moments where nothing really happened, per se, but they were still falling in love.

You have the best collection of covers! Which one is your personal favorite and do you have a say in what gets put on the cover of your books?

Bree: I think Deadlock is my favorite Southern Arcana cover. And we do get a fair bit of input. Our artists, our editor and Samhain have been really supportive of us in keeping a feel and theme for these covers. We want the Southern Arcana covers to look cohesive together, and I think they do!

What intrigues you about the paranormal enough to write about it?

Bree: Everything! I know that's not a very useful answer, but I love it all. I love the monsters, and the chance to part from human cultural norms and morality, and even the chance to explore themes like prejudice and sexism from an alien perspective.

What does a typical writing day look like for you?

Donna: I have two young children, so there is no typical day! Now that they're both in school, though, I've fallen into a bit more of a routine. I drive them to school, then call Bree on my way home so we can plan and strategize for the day. When I get home, I usually throw something into the CrockPot for dinner and then head to the corner of the kitchen that serves as my office to get to work.

Is there another genre out there that you wish you could try in the future?

Bree: Maybe psychological thrillers or suspense--but I'd still want the romance. Actually, if there's one thing I really want to try, it's writing in a serial format. But we haven't found a project and method that work for us with that yet.

Who is your favourite heroine ever? 

Bree: Hmmm. I think it's a toss up between Hope, from Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and Savitri from Meljean Brook's Guardian series. Though I love so many of the heroines that those two authors write that it can be hard for me to pick one.

Who is your favorite author and what is it about your work that resonates with you?
Donna: Stephen King will always be my favorite author. In a way, I think what he does with horror is the same thing we do with the paranormal--he tries to find the common and mundane in it, because that's the part that makes it believable and scary, the things people can recognize from their own lives.

What makes a perfect alpha male?

Bree: Honestly, I don't know! I see so many different definitions of "alpha male" that I am never sure what it means in a general context. If you mean a perfect alpha werewolf male, I think it's someone who takes responsibility for the safety of others very seriously, who puts the welfare of others before their own wants and needs, and who never abuses their strength and power out of selfishness or blind arrogance.

Paranormal is all the rage! How do you make sure your supernatural creatures stand out among the crowd?

Bree: My main goal is to try to make my supernatural creatures fully developed characters, whether they're the hero or heroine of a book, or will only be appearing for a few paragraphs or even a single line. I don't know if it works as a strategy, but it's the one I've got. :)

If your life was a TV show, what channel would it be on and who would be cast as you?

Bree: I don't know if they have a TV station mundane enough for my life, but I think only Tina Fey could truly capture my immense awkwardness.

Thanks for the interview!

Moira Rogers is graciously giving away the first three books in her Southern Arcana series! This includes Crux, Crossroads and Deadlock! Open to everyone! Good luck, guys!

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