Hanging out with Kendare Blake and giving away a copy of Anna Dressed in Blood!

I have a book in my hot little hands. Yes, I do. And, if you're lucky, even though this book doesn't release until August 30th, it could be in your hot little hands very soon, because I'm giving an ARC away RIGHT NOW! You seriously want this one. Seriously.

It's this:

and it's by my editor sister, Kendare Blake. This book is just bunches of WOW and OMG! You won't be able to put it down! Promise!

Here's the jacket copy:
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.


Kendare was kind enough to answer a few questions for me, so I thought I'd pass her answers along to you. Here goes...

Okay, so, first off, how much do you love your editor? (Hi Melissa :p *waves*)

I know! We got so lucky. Mel is always on the perfect wavelength editiorially. Her instinct on what to cut, what to soften, what to emphasize or blend is so spot on that whenever I read her notes it feels like I thought of it myself. A definite "Oh yeah. Of course" moment. Now if only she'd stop being such a slave-driver in my nightmares. Have you had those? Apparently me and at least one of her other authors have horrible Mel nightmares, in which she changes our covers and laughs maniacally, or forces us to write in German.

So, yeah...no. I've never had Mel nightmares. Now I sorta feel left out. All right then... Moving right along. What made you want to write from a (totally cool) male POV?

The book I'd just come off of had one male POV, and it was a lot of fun. Cas was the natural narrator, and it wasn't really that much of an adjustment, which I think stems from my 12 year bout of Tomboy-ism.

Tell the truth. Cas is your husband, right? Cuz I met him and he’s pretty cool too.

I may or may not tell him you said that. He gets so conceited! But truth...Cas isn't my husband. The only thing they really have in common is a ridiculous urge to climb rocks that are not safe for climbing. And an inherent fear of sushi. Cas is just...Cas. I have no idea where he came from, and I thought not a lick about his character before I wrote him. He just was.

If I was to try and hang out with Anna, what do you think she’d go after first? Maybe rip my still beating heart out? Or just tear off my head?

Hmm. Well, she really loves dismemberment. So maybe you'd just lose a limb? Hopefully not the arms because you need those for writing!

What’s with the ghosts? (Make of that what you will.)

The ghosts. Ah yes. Little bit of backstory...one of my best friends is obsessed with serial killers. She wrote her graduate thesis on Bundy and Dahmer. So I've heard a lot of nasty tales over the years. Police accounts of victims, that sort of thing. It's really terrible. Makes you want to live in a bubble. So when I wrote ANNA, and I needed horrible things...I just had to dig around in the back of my many, many repressed memories.

And, last but not least, I love the Wiccan theme of Anna Dressed in Blood. Fess up. You’re a witch, aren’t you?

Crap! The jig is up! Time to throw the cauldron in the back of the Volkswagen van and get out of here. But seriously, I enjoyed the Wiccan theme also. I've been familiar with the religion for most of my life, and though the Wiccan world in ANNA is fictionalized, I wanted it to stay grounded in reality.

Thanks for clearing that up, Kendare!

So, y'all want a copy, don't you? All you have to do to enter for an ARC of Anna Dressed in Blood is leave a comment below before noon on Friday (8/5/11). And, just because I love you, I'll throw in a signed copy of Original Sin. You can earn an additional entry for Tweeting or Facebooking the contest. Must be 13 to enter. Open internationally.

So comment away! And if you have any more questions for Kendare, I'll ask her to check in and we'll hopefully get them answered for you. =)