Interview & Giveaway with Heather Killough-Walden

Heather Killough-Walden Intro:

Happy Monday everyone!  Book Monster Reviews and !  LITERAL ADDICTION are very happy to welcome bestselling author Heather Killough-Walden back to our sites today!

Heather is a California native currently living in Texas with her husband and child.

Heather’s educational background includes religious studies, archeology, and law. She has traveled all over the world but hopes to one day live in a town with a world-class hockey team, since she loves the Pens!

Heather is the proud creator of numerous independent titles as well as THE BIG BAD WOLF, THE KINGS,  THE CHOSEN SOUL, and THE LOST ANGEL series, and the OCTOBER TRILOGY.  We highly suggest that you check out Heather’s entire library of literary excellence (all of her books are phenomenal!), but we’re actually here today to help her celebrate and promote her 2 latest releases, “A Sinister Game” and “Death’s Angel”, Book #3 of the LOST ANGELS series.

“A Sinister Game” was just released on November 18^th and is a re-release of her previously written work titled “The Game”.  It’s sort of an adult version of The Hunger Games but darker, more insidious, and sexier, mixed with some amazing Norse mythology and intrigue. Simply put, it’s amazing. J 

“A Sinister Game”

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In a world ruled by Game Leaders, a dark and dangerous man proposes a wager....

“If you can escape me for seven rounds, Victoria – if you can keep from being taken off of the board for that long, I will admit defeat and step down as Gray leader. But if I find you," he let the words sink in. "And if I capture you….” His voice trailed off just as his gaze trailed over her lips, her throat, her breasts.
His green eyes locked on hers again and she felt she would die right there at that table.

“Then you’ll join me. You'll give yourself to me for one night.” His smile was the devil’s promise. “This is the wager.”

But this is a game far more complicated and far more deadly than either of them anticipated. As the real world unfolds around them, what they thought they knew becomes obsolete, and the rules are ruthlessly changed... in this SINister game.

The latest book of THE LOST ANGELS series, “Death’s Angel”, was just released on December 31^st!  

For those of you new to Heather’s LOST ANGELS series, here are the synopses and quick buy links to get you caught up:

“Always Angel”

A LOST ANGELS prequel eNovella

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From the "New York Times "bestselling author of the Big Bad Wolf paranormal romances, a brand-new novella in the world of the Lost Angels. For millennia, the archangels have searched for their destined mates on earth. Now they are beginning to unite, but for Angel, it is a time of danger and fear. For with this culmination, her true nature will finally be revealed--opening her to the impossible desire, and the one man, she desperately craves...

“Avenger’s Angel”

LOST ANGELS Book #1

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When four female angels were created for the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Azrael, a chaos spurned by jealousy erupted, and the archesses were secreted to Earth. The four favored archangels followed, prompting a search that has lasted millennia. But for Uriel, the former Archangel of vengeance, the search ends the moment he lays eyes on Eleanor Granger, his one true archess. Can he protect her from the danger lying in wait for her - and win her heart?

“Messenger’s Angel”

LOST ANGELS Book #2

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Since the beginning of time, the archangels have longed to know true love.

When four female angels were created for the four archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Azrael, a chaos spurred by jealousy erupted, and the archesses were secreted away to Earth. The four favored archangels followed, prompting a search that has lasted millennia…

For hundreds of years, Gabriel has passed himself off as a common Scottish villager. Few know he is the Messenger, a powerful archangel who has secretly scoured the world for the only woman who can complete him. Now, he’s shocked to discover the object of his desire in his own backyard.

Researching her Ph.D. in the Outer Hebrides, Juliette Anderson has always been the rational type—until she looks across a quaint pub into the silver eyes of a stranger. He’s handsome. He’s intense. And he claims her with a searing kiss on the spot.

Every instinct tells her to run. But when a dark force rises, and the truth of her identity is revealed, she must put her faith in the mysterious man who enflames her.

“Death’s Angel”

LOST ANGELS Book #3

Just Released 12/31/12!

Buy from Amazon | B&N

Since the beginning of time, the archangels have longed to know true love. When four female angels were created for the four archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Azrael, a chaos spurred by jealousy erupted, and the archesses were secreted away to Earth. The four favored archangels followed, prompting a search that has lasted millennia.

As the Angel of Death, Azrael could never be like his brothers. While the others fell to Earth in human form, Azrael descended as a vampire. Today, as the lead singer of a popular rock band, he keeps his true nature hidden--a powerful darkness constantly at odds with his angelic self. Beneath his mask, Azrael holds onto the hope that he will one day find the archess who will complete him.

At his brother Gabriel's wedding, Azrael set his golden eyes on Sophie Bryce, the maid of honor. He is certain she is his destined mate, and will do anything to make her his. But Sophie is unaware of her archess identity, and is haunted by unspeakable demons of her own.

When supernatural forces emerge from the shadows, threatening Sophie, Azrael is the only one who can protect her. But to do it, he must reveal his true, savage self.

They all sound fantastic, don’t they!?  Now that you're all more familiar with the series, let's get to know more about this incredible author and her work...

LITERAL ADDICTION/Book Monster Reviews:  Hi Heather!  Welcome back to our humble abodes. J  Thank you so much for being with us again today!  We’re honored to have you back and we’re very happy to help spread the word about your new releases!

Heather: Hi ladies!! Thank you so much for having me back! I’m happy to be here. J

LITERAL ADDICTION/Book Monster Reviews:  We asked you a lot of our good ‘staple questions’ the last time we had you with us, but we’ll try to pull a few more fun ones out of the hat…

Q1):  If you could have a superpower, what would you want it to be and why?

Heather:  Again – just one??? I want the ability to heal. There is too much pain in the world and I’m over it.

Q2):  What's a typical writing day like in the life of "Heather Killough-Walden”?

Heather: I don’t have whole writing days. I might have… writing half-hours. Because I self publish, I spend most of my time doing things that don’t involve writing. Unfortunately.

Q3): We asked you last time what 3 things were that always make you smile. What are 3 things that never fail to piss you off?

Heather:  I have to pick just three?? LOL  Well, to be honest, other than the obvious evils of murderers and rapists and war, the things that truly never fail to infuriate me are things that bring me pain or discomfort due to people’s inconsideration.

1. For instance, I am very photosensitive, so I keep all of my windows and blinds shut tight at home. I despise it when people come to visit and instantly begin pulling up shades or opening the blinds. I can’t stand that. I have to go through the house putting everything back to normal and usually have the beginnings of a migraine before I’ve finished.

2. Another good example has to do with my allergies. When I took the allergy test at the allergist’s office, it was one of those pin prick tests up and down my back – something like 30 to 50 pokes filled with allergens of different types. By the time the nurse was done poisoning my skin, my back was so pockmarked with swollen lumps, I was in hell. I was writhing. I literally could not sit still, and I was sweating. You’re supposed to wait a certain amount of time for the allergens to take hold, but mine had me immediately so the doctor came in early. She took one look at my back and made a surprised exclamatory sound. She asked me if she could take a picture of it for the medical journals. I said, “As long as you get rid of this itching, I don’t care what the hell you do.”

In short, I have horrid allergies to every kind of grass, every kind of weed, every kind of tree, cats, horses, dogs, cockroaches, etc., etc., etc. The cat allergy? It was literally a worse reaction than the histamine reaction. I know that makes no logical sense, but it’s the truth. Just ask my doctor.

So when someone has fifteen cats and they come over to my house knowing that I am allergic and they don’t bother to shower first and wear non-cat-hair-covered clothes, I get pretty pissed off. As I’m sitting there breathing into my nebulizer, I’m usually fantasizing about ways to kill them.

3. This pet peeve is probably going to piss off some dogmatic individuals, but to be honest, anyone not willing to open their minds a little probably wouldn’t be a fan of my work anyway, so I most likely don’t have much to worry about. I’ve got good readers.

One thing that gets under my skin pretty badly is when an individual of a certain religion automatically assumes everyone else is of that same religion or that, if they’re not, they should be. I’m not a Christian. But you wouldn’t believe how many people have assumed I am. No one has even bothered to ask. We are so afraid of being mistreated because of our religious preferences, we hide them as if they are damning evidence of homicide. People tell me “I’ll pray for you” constantly. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind positive energy sent my way, and good vibes are good vibes whether they’re in the form of prayers or happy thoughts or wishes made on dandelion seeds. So, that doesn’t really bother me. But I do get fairly irritated when people rely on religion to remain ignorant. Science should not have to compete with dogma to advance and to educate us. It should not even be an issue. It should be separate – a step in growing smarter and nothing else. It was once considered sacrilegious to believe the world was round, but we know better now. Because of progress and science and education. Religion is very old, and the only evidence we have of its existence is in the form of texts that were written by humans – very old humans who lived in old, uneducated times - and then translated, lost, bribed into being changed, altered, translated again, lost some more, and put together incomplete in order to satisfy a religious power of state. It’s so sad when someone feels that they must remain as ignorant as the people who created the religion were. That makes no sense. People change, things change, the world changes, and time goes on. We must adjust what we think and feel and how we behave so that we exist in logical normalcy. To do otherwise is absurd. So refusing to teach evolution, forcing someone to add “God” to their curriculum, and telling a little girl that she can’t dress up as a witch for Halloween because witches are Satan’s mistresses all thoroughly piss me off.

Now, I have to add a few more things because you’ve opened a can of worms and I can’t resist. LOL

4. Please don’t quote platitudes at me. If you don’t have a well thought out response for something, if you can’t help the conversation by what you are going to add, if your words will only serve to judge, or if what you are about to say accomplishes nothing but causing someone else to feel bad about themselves, then please shut the hell up. Keep it to yourself. No one needs to hear your ignorant, shallow prattle. Get educated, then talk to me. Otherwise, can it.

5. News flash: When a person is venting, they need you to listen, not belittle their feelings. For instance, the fact that someone makes a comment about how they are uncomfortable in the heat or the cold they are experiencing is NOT an invitation for you to say, “I’ll trade you! At least it’s not blah-blah-blah (insert temperature/climate/weather).” Try having some empathy instead and say something like, “Wow, that really sucks! I hope you can find a way to keep cool, girlfriend! I know how heat is mean to you!” Everyone has bad experiences – we get it. But if you’re always trying to top the other person’s discomfort with your own instead of giving them the support they need in the form of a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, and a bit of empathy, then you’re not doing anyone any favors. This is not a Lethal Weapon scar contest. Keep your own complaints to yourself until it’s your turn to vent.

6. Please don’t hate on people with certain eating habits. Our bodies are our temples. We have to exist inside of them. It’s not very fair to ask us to put something in or on them that would make us uncomfortable in our own skin. Is it? Leave your intolerance in the closet where it belongs and try some soy chicken, for fuck’s sake. It’s really pretty good.

7. Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking. You will automatically dislodge yourself from whatever place you’re currently occupying on my favorite persons list and slide five notches down.

8. And a quick conglomerate of things that piss me off: doctors who are afraid to prescribe much needed pain killers (what the hell else is a doctor good for, for crying out loud???), people who insist that semi-automatic weapons are necessary civilian gear, speed limits so slow you spend most of your time watching the speedometer rather than the road in front of you, poisonous political news media perspectives, insurance companies, schools that think reading the Scarlet Letter is good education, technology (really pisses me off, but I also love it and depend on it so there’s a double-edged sword for you), people in the public eye not being allowed to express their true feelings, and crappy fan fiction writers who make millions off of stealing other people’s creative inventions.

Q4):  What was the last great book that you were able to enjoy, and what are the top 2 titles on your ‘Absolutely Must Read ASAP’ list right now?

Heather:  I loved “Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms.” I want to read the sequel, and I got it for a holiday gift, but I probably won’t be able to get around to it for a very long time. I also received a Star Trek Deep Space Nine paperback – which I most likely won’t get to read for an even longer time.

Q5):  If you could spend the day with anyone (alive, dead, fictional, etc.) who would you want to spend it with and what would you want to do? 

Heather:  What an interesting question. Wow. Well… LOL, if you want to go the fictional route, spending it with a genie and getting wishes granted would be good. ;) I’d love to take a ride on a Starship or the Millennium Falcon. I do wonder what wise and irritating little snippets Yoda would throw my way. I’d like to have tea with the Hatter. I want to be enrolled at Hogwarts. I could go on and on, lol. As far as real people are concerned, I’m related to Benjamin Franklin. I’d love to speak with him for a bit. I’m a huge fan of Samuel Clemens – he was hilarious. I think it would be fantastic to sit down with Albert Einstein and see what it is like to converse with a real genius. If I could go back in time in order to speak with these people though…. I’d rather spend my time saving lives. Think of the differences we could make if we truly listened to someone who was homicidally depressed, convinced a person to vote, or threw one hell of an attention-grabbing fit in Boston’s Logan airport on September 11^th, 2001….

Q6):   You told us last time that the LOST ANGELS series started out as sort of a joke. Something you set out to poke fun of, but then the characters sort of took over. Has the underlying inspiration from the series changed at all now that you’re on to book #3?

Heather: Oh yes, it most definitely has changed. The fact that Uriel was an actor portraying a vampire in a wildly popular teenybopper vampire film was most certainly funny to me. But now the Lost Angels has developed into what it was always meant to be. It has a life of its own – a dangerous, dark and undeniably sexy one.

Q7):  What about “A Sinister Game”? Was there any specific inspiration that led to the creation of The Game or the re-write that ended up becoming “ A Sinister Game”?

Heather: The Game was inspired YEARS ago by a very vivid dream I had of Victor Black. Whooeee…. He blew my mind. I woke up, scribbled tons of notes, and began writing the next day. However, the book was riddled with grammatical errors and eventually I took the book down. Years later, I began to receive SO many requests day in and day out for a re-release, I eventually caved. But I wasn’t going to repost it without editing it, so that’s what I did. I changed so many things. It’s fifty times better than it was the first time around – and it was really good then.

Q8):  The last time we talked you had 5 full length books and the 1 prequel eNovella planned for THE LOST ANGELS series? Has that changed at all? Do you have any idea when “Warrior’s Angel” and “The Last Angel” might be available?  

Heather:  I’m not certain when those two books will be released, but I do plan to write a spinoff series eventually. There is far too much potential in this series not to expand upon it.

Q9):  What about THE LOST ANGELS series are you the most proud of so far?

Heather:  The epic twist it has taken. The story it wants to tell is mind-blowing. You’ll see what I mean when you read Death’s Angel.

Q10):   What were some of the challenges in bringing the LOST ANGELS series to life?

Heather:  I’m a writer, so of course I feel that the very act of writing brings a tale to life. In that respect, the only challenge I faced was writing it. Now, if you’re talking about the challenges of print publishing…. I won’t even go into them. But suffice it to say that they are plentiful and they are severe.

Q11):  What’s up next for Heather Killough-Walden fans to look forward to?

Heather:  Well, I know quite a few people who are looking forward to the third book in The Kings series, The Warlock King. J It releases February 14^th – Valentine’s Day. Also on the horizon is the re-release of The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream. No date yet for that one, but as soon as I have one, you know I’ll be sharing it with my FB and Twitter peeps.

Q12):  Is there anything special you want to make sure and say to your readers while we have you here today?

Heather:  I can’t tell you how much you all mean to me. Honestly. We all come from different walks of life, from different cultures and even different countries, and yet you have welcomed me into your hearts and offered the kind of support and encouragement that can’t be bought. It can’t be stolen or taken. It has to be freely given – and you’ve done so. This means… this means the world to me. Thank you. Thank you for being there when I open Facebook, thank you for sharing my posts, thank you for re-tweeting my words, thank you for buying my books and convincing your friends and families to do so, and thank you for laughing with me and crying with me and being a part of my life.

Thank you.

XOXO

LITERAL ADDICTION/Book Monster Reviews:  Heather, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule once again to be with us!  Congratulations on the release of “Death’s Angel”!  We hope that we turned some new readers on to your work and we’d love to have you back for the next book of THE KINGS series if you’re interested since we haven’t specifically promoted that one yet for you. J

Heather {closing comments}: You call, I’ll be here. J I love you guys.

To find out more about Heather and keep up with all those amazing books she has, you can find her at the following sites:

Website:  http://www.killough-walden.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heather-Killough-

Walden/204947809542189

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/KilloughWalden

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3427995.Heather_Killough_Walden?origin=

Heather is giving away an eBook of “Death’s Angel” to one winner at Book Monster Reviews and another winner over at LITERAL ADDICTION.

Chelle from LITERAL ADDICTION is also offering up a gifted eCopy of “A Sinister Game” to another winner from each site (Amazon or B&N only).

To Enter:

 Fill out the Rafflecopter widgets for today’s Event, follow the directions, take action, and mark as ‘Done’.

For another chance to win, go to LITERAL ADDICTION and enter over there as well.

Good Luck!

Don’t forget:

Heather is running a BIG Giveaway Tour outside of our posts. Rules are really simple. All you have to do is follow the blog tour, make a comment on the site of each showing, and sign up for the giveaways on that site (who knows - you might win more than once) you’ll be entered to win one of our swag prizes and/or signed Death's Angel copy. 

So here are the rules: 

1. Make note of the dates listed below for NAL's blog tour. Mark them down, copy them, memorize them - whatever. 

2. When the date rolls around, visit the site that is hosting my tour (Heather will probably post the appropriate URL to Facebook for ease), read the interview or blog or teaser, etc., comment on it in that site's comment space, and sign up for that site's giveaway if there is one.

3. Share or post the link to the blog/interview on your Facebook page. (This step is absolutely vital!)

4. Then send Heather a quick Facebook private message to let her know you've done all of this. 

5. Once the blog tour is over (January), she will go back, calculate which of you successfully followed her all the way through, and enter your names in a randomized draw. 

6. The draw will work in this order: First name drawn will win the Swarovski angel wing pendant. Second name drawn will win the classical angel journals. Third name drawn will win the Angel and friends good luck talisman charms. Fourth name will win the silver angel wing post earrings (if you win this and do not have pierced ears, let me know and we’ll work something out). Fifth, sixth, and seventh names drawn will win signed copies of Death’s Angel.

7. Seven total winners, not all that much work. J

Blog Tour Calendar: 

December 30th – The Book Reading Gals. Sunday Snippet, teaser excerpt, and a review of Death’s Angel. 

January 1st – Love to Read for Fun. Question and answer session, teaser excerpt, review of Death’s Angel. 

January 2nd – Romance Books. Forum, question and answer session, review of Death’s Angel. 

January 3rd – Romantic Crush Junkies. Question and answer session, teaser excerpt, review of Death’s Angel. 

January 4th – Fresh Fiction. Twelve days of Christmas giveaway. 

January 5th – Coffee Time Romance. Question and answer session, giveaway.

January 7^th – LITERAL ADDICTION and Book Monster Reviews. Question and answer session, giveaway. 

January 8th – Literary Escapism. Exclusive excerpt! 

January 10th – Under the Covers. Book blog, question and answer session. 

And that’s it! There will probably be other guest spots coming up, but this is NAL’s specific calendar and this is the one that counts for the giveaway.

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