I am fortunate to have one of the coolest critique partners around, Regan Summers (aka, Hillary Jacques). This means I get to read her new stories before the rest of the world. Yes, you should all be extremely jealous because the woman knows how to create some of the most memorable characters and worlds around. I’ve invited her here today to talk about some of these stories.

You never fail to set your novels in interesting locations. Places that, to many of us, seem quite exotic. Don’t Bite the Messenger is set in Alaska, and Running in the Dark is set in Chile. Since I know that you live in Alaska and have never been to Chile, I was surprised at how equally real you were able to depict both locales. What kind of research was involved in order to get Chile to feel so real in your book?

Thank you so much, and thanks for hosting me! Chile. Heh. Yeah. I ended Don’t Bite the Messenger with Syd and Malcolm heading off to Chile, which was fine…until I decided to write a sequel and realized it would have to be set there. I considered skipping ahead and placing the next story in a familiar location, but decided what the hell? I love traveling and discovering new places and this gave me an opportunity to really dig in.

Because I wanted the story to feel realistic without being bogged down in the details of the place, I didn’t just watch documentaries and read travel guides. I spent a lot of time on Google Earth, digging down to find areas that would reflect the atmosphere I was looking for in certain scenes – especially the industrial areas and lofty homes where the different strata of vampire hives resided. But, actually, the best research I did was to watch music videos by local indie bands. They tend to be filmed in the city, at night, which was perfect since most of the action in the book takes place at night. Very fun. And, of course, now I’m dying to visit.

The heroine of your Night Runner series, Sydney Kildare (AKA she of many aliases), is one of my favorite heroines because she is tough, smart, and careful. She is easy to relate to, but not without flaws. How did she spring into being?

Syd’s one of my favorite types of people, and I like to write about people that I admire (though not perfect people, because that is dull). She’s brave, driven and self-sufficient. However, she comes from a pretty ragged background, so while she’s flexible, she walks away from things – and people – too easily. Almost as if she’s afraid they’ll abandon her if she doesn’t go first. In Don’t Bite the Messenger, she’s got this plan for retiring from being a runner (a courier for vampires). It’s a good plan in that she’s thought the money through and wants to get out before she crashes from the stress or is crushed by the inherent danger of the job.

But the one thing she doesn’t count on is that she became a runner because she needs the rush that comes from doing what she does, from skating the edge every night and coming out whole each morning. Malcolm, being a vampire, is an obvious danger and that’s one of the reasons she’s attracted to him. He has other, exceedingly attractive qualities as well.

I have a total girl-crush on Soraya—a character who was introduced in Running in the Dark. The woman embodies the word badass, and yet we also catch some very interesting glimpses of a squishiness beneath the steel. Will we be seeing more of her? (Please say yes!)

Soraya. The reader feedback I’ve gotten on this character has been passionate! Soraya was, to borrow from Wreck-it Ralph, conceived with the most tragic backstory ever. She discloses a shocking sliver of her life in Running in the Dark but the rest of it…let’s just say that I was covering my eyes and peeking through my fingers when writing her flashbacks. And, to answer your question, those flashbacks take place in another story in which she gets a piece of happiness all her own. (That piece looks a lot like Josh Holloway and has a sweet southern drawl, in case you were worried for her.)

She and Malcolm are interesting. They’re nothing alike, but they’re connected by this fateful encounter, and, having been thrown together, it turns out they make each other better people. It’s sweet. Syd doesn’t get to see that side of Soraya, of course. She mostly gets the bone-crunching side.

Under your other identity, Hillary Jacques, you are in an awesome anthology Carniepunk. Not only is the concept cool and creepy, but the list of writers involved is very impressive. How did this idea come together?

I like how you say that. Like I’m a secret agent or spy. Which I’m totally not. >.>

Yes, Carniepunk! Carniepunk was born on a lazy Sunday afternoon on Twitter, as the very best things are. Kevin Hearne – who is a talented and hilarious urban fantasy author and you all should totally check him out – and I were chatting about…I don’t know what. I think the Library of Congress keeps all tweets, so someday I’ll go there and rediscover the origins of Carniepunk and say something reverent…or crude. Probably crude, knowing me.

So, we were on Twitter and started talking about carnies and how perfect a carnival setting would be for urban fantasy. Then we coined the phrase “carniepunk” and headed off to live our boring, non-Twitter lives. The End.

Or was it!? The concept wouldn’t leave out minds, so we got together again to discuss it, after which he started pinging authors and we put together a proposal and here we are today!* It will be published by Pocket on July 23^rd, both as a trade paperback and as an e-book. This is an amazing group of authors and, every time we mention the concept, people light the hell up about it. I just received my ARCs (advanced readers copies) so I get to read the stories, and so far I’m blown away. Also, I’ll probably be giving one or two away on my blog soon, so stay tuned!

*There were several bumps and a significant amount of time between that Twitter conversation and the book finding a home, but nobody wants to hear about that stuff, right?

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