Original Sin WINNER!!!

Thanks so much to all of you who entered my Personal Demons and Original Sin giveaway! I have the best followers! You guys rock!

As usual, there were a ton of you. I will announce the winner in just a second. But you know me. I can't help myself. There will be another contest. I'm not telling you the prize yet...because I'm tricky like that, but here's a hint:

The contest will post on Monday, but tomorrow I have a fun announcement involving the words sneak peek and Original Sin. :p

Before I get to the winner, there were some questions in the contest comment thread that I promised to answer.

@Lady Reader asks: Will there be a 4^th book?

Nope! Book three is due to my editor tomorrow, and it wraps up Frannie, Luc and Gabe’s story. :p

@Mindy fangedmom asks: What is your favorite thing about your books? Tell me in one sentence why you think I should read them.

I love my characters. One sentence? I’ll tell you in one word: Luc.

@L8BloomerOnline asks: If you could go back and give your unpublished self advice, knowing what you know now, what would it be?

See this and this. =)

@Nicole asks: I just wanted to say I really liked an older blog post of yours that talked about how you have to know the basics of your whole series before you release the first one, with foreshadowing and all that. I'm having to deal with that a little right now. It's like I have strokes of genius with certain ideas that can really get the plot going, but then I'm worried I'll forget to mention it at a later or even earlier time. Is there any way to fix this or somehow make it less painful? Thanks!

Honestly, I keep everything in my head. I know a lot of writers who do story boards and keep character profiles. Me, not so much. I’m pretty much the last person to ask about writing strategies.

@Katrina W asks: I must say you have made it hard which of the boys to love the most I am torn. So I have a question, did you base any of your characters around anyone you know?

Not in the Personal Demons series. They’re all my made up pets. =)

@Birgit asks: Do you dislike revising or is it just part of the fun for you, like plotting and actually writing?

I have an amazing critique partner, agent and editor, so I really enjoy revisions for the most part. They help me make my manuscript into the book I thought I wrote.

@Kristi The Book Faery asks: My questions for you are how much research did you have to do to A) Angels and Catholicism and B) Demons and Hell?
Also, did you base any of the book on theory ---I mean partly, of course, because it was fiction but your descriptions were so vivid that I wondered how much of that came from your own personal concept of Hell or if you researched concepts of Hell from the Bible or other fictional accounts, i.e. Dante's Inferno etc...

The beauty of fiction is you can make stuff up. I did a ton of research into demon and angel hierarchies, religious concepts of Heaven and Hell (without deference to any one religion), biblical interpretations, and papal encyclicals, as well as fictional accounts such as Dante’s Divine Comedy. (Specifically, the middle of the three books, Purgatorio, from which I’ve pulled a quote that embodies each book for the epigraph.) I took everything I learned and put a contemporary spin on it.

@Safari Poet asks: How do you keep all the facts straight in your head? That can't be easy, especially if it's a series. Do you have a board that to others would look like you're planning world domination that is full of all the facts or everything in a notebook?

The truth is, I’m horribly lazy. I know writers who keep notes on everything. When I’m not sure about something specific, I pull up my manuscript (from the previous books) and search by key word for what I’m looking for.

@RachelJames asks: Does Gabe have a point of view in Original Sin? Does he? DOES HE!!!!?

Sadly, no. I write when my characters have something to say. I write what they tell me. I don’t get a say in who speaks up when. That’s totally up to them. Not only didn’t Gabe want a POV in books 1 and 2, but he got pissed off when I tried to make him talk. Finally, in book 3, he’s demanding a POV, and he’s got tons to say. =)

So, onto the winner of the Original Sin ARC, Personal Demons and the signed Rachel Hawkins/Sarwat Chadda tote.

The winner, as chosen my the randomizer is...

John the Bookworm!!!

Congrats!! I will be emailing you... :p

*blows virtual noisemaker cuz the real ones hurt my ears*