Happy New Year, Booklovers!
Join me in welcoming this week’s guest author Janet Raye Stevens with her featured book, A Moment After Dark.
Good morning, Janet. What may I get you to drink?
JRS: I drink tea. Copious amounts of tea. Earl Gray, hot. Funny thing, I don’t like iced tea, but love iced coffee.
Ally: I guess I’m just the opposite – love iced tea, don’t really care for it hot. In any case, I will have a “cuppa” ready for you by the time you’ve told readers a little about yourself.
Bio:
Meet award-winning author Janet Raye Stevens, mom, reader, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and weaver of adventurous, suspenseful, and stealthily romantic tales. A Derringer Award nominee and winner of RWA's Golden Heart® and Daphne du Maurier awards, Janet lives in Massachusetts with her handsome better half and their equally impressive children.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “I had the singular pleasure of meeting the Three Stooges when I was six, and was presented to the Queen of Bhutan much, much later. The Queen wore a gorgeous gown of colorful Bhutanese textiles; the Stooges wore goofy grins and costumes smeared with eggs and white paint from their antics performing at the Shrine Circus.”
Website: https://janetrayestevens.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janetrayestevens/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/janrayestevens
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janetrayestevens
Meet award-winning author Janet Raye Stevens, mom, reader, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and weaver of adventurous, suspenseful, and stealthily romantic tales. A Derringer Award nominee and winner of RWA's Golden Heart® and Daphne du Maurier awards, Janet lives in Massachusetts with her handsome better half and their equally impressive children.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “I had the singular pleasure of meeting the Three Stooges when I was six, and was presented to the Queen of Bhutan much, much later. The Queen wore a gorgeous gown of colorful Bhutanese textiles; the Stooges wore goofy grins and costumes smeared with eggs and white paint from their antics performing at the Shrine Circus.”
Website: https://janetrayestevens.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janetrayestevens/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/janrayestevens
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janetrayestevens
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
JRS: A Moment After Dark is a mashup of my lifelong interests in both World War II history and the odd and unexplained. As a kid, I lived in a public housing project, populated for the most part by WWII veterans. Practically every dad, and some of the moms, had served in the war in some capacity. I grew up hearing their stories and developed a passion for the history of that time period. I also loved spooky movies and TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows as a kid and read anything I could get my hands on with supernatural and paranormal elements. When I began writing fiction, my life-long interests in history and spooky stuff just naturally blended together.
Ally: If you could live in a fictional setting of your choosing for the next six months, where would it be? Explain where the setting came from and why you chose it.
JRS: Oh, there’s a lot of fictional places I’d love to spend time in, but #1 would be Oz. Going back to my childhood again, I loved that movie and watched it every year when it came on TV. I always imagined myself flying off to Oz in one of Glinda’s bubbles. But, unlike Dorothy, who was singularly focused on getting home, I’d spend as much time in Oz as I could, taking many detours from that yellow brick road (while avoiding witches from all compass directions) as I explored that fascinating world.
Ally: If you were thrown into a different time period—either past or future—what book hero would you want with you? Why?
JRS: That’s a great question because, in addition to historical mystery and paranormal, I also write time travel, so I spend a lot of my days bopping around in time. I’d like to have Sully, the tough but tender-hearted hero of my time travel series, Beryl Blue, Time Cop as my wingman. He might be gruff and frequently opinionated, but he’s smart, funny, protective, resourceful, and always, always does the right thing.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
JRS: It’s a new year, time to write some new stories. First up is a time travel novella set on the Titanic, because doesn’t everyone who writes time travel eventually get around to a “try to save the Titanic” story? I’ll be offering that story free to readers who subscribe to my newsletter (easy-peasy to do—just visit my website to join the adventure!). Then I’ll be on to the next book in my Beryl Blue, Time Cop series, It’s Been a Long, Long Time, coming out in April, and also noodling with a sequel to A Moment After Dark.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you chose to answer?
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
JRS: A Moment After Dark is a mashup of my lifelong interests in both World War II history and the odd and unexplained. As a kid, I lived in a public housing project, populated for the most part by WWII veterans. Practically every dad, and some of the moms, had served in the war in some capacity. I grew up hearing their stories and developed a passion for the history of that time period. I also loved spooky movies and TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows as a kid and read anything I could get my hands on with supernatural and paranormal elements. When I began writing fiction, my life-long interests in history and spooky stuff just naturally blended together.
Ally: If you could live in a fictional setting of your choosing for the next six months, where would it be? Explain where the setting came from and why you chose it.
JRS: Oh, there’s a lot of fictional places I’d love to spend time in, but #1 would be Oz. Going back to my childhood again, I loved that movie and watched it every year when it came on TV. I always imagined myself flying off to Oz in one of Glinda’s bubbles. But, unlike Dorothy, who was singularly focused on getting home, I’d spend as much time in Oz as I could, taking many detours from that yellow brick road (while avoiding witches from all compass directions) as I explored that fascinating world.
Ally: If you were thrown into a different time period—either past or future—what book hero would you want with you? Why?
JRS: That’s a great question because, in addition to historical mystery and paranormal, I also write time travel, so I spend a lot of my days bopping around in time. I’d like to have Sully, the tough but tender-hearted hero of my time travel series, Beryl Blue, Time Cop as my wingman. He might be gruff and frequently opinionated, but he’s smart, funny, protective, resourceful, and always, always does the right thing.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
JRS: It’s a new year, time to write some new stories. First up is a time travel novella set on the Titanic, because doesn’t everyone who writes time travel eventually get around to a “try to save the Titanic” story? I’ll be offering that story free to readers who subscribe to my newsletter (easy-peasy to do—just visit my website to join the adventure!). Then I’ll be on to the next book in my Beryl Blue, Time Cop series, It’s Been a Long, Long Time, coming out in April, and also noodling with a sequel to A Moment After Dark.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you chose to answer?
- An author (living or dead) you'd love to take to lunch: Jane Austen. If she’s busy, Charles Dickens.
- A movie you’ll always remember: Oh, Casablanca, absolutely. That movie has everything—action, suspense, danger, romance, great characters, crackling dialogue, and surprising bursts of humor. The story’s writing has influenced my own writing style more than a little.
- Pie or cake? What kind? Cake, hands down. It has to be chocolate, but I’m adventurous when it comes to frosting and like a variety of flavors.
- If you couldn't write anymore, what would you want to do? Read, of course!
- Favorite holiday song: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It’s sad, longing, a little gut-wrenching but ultimately hopeful.
A Moment After Dark
Genre: World War II historical suspense with paranormal elements
Rating: PG-13
She sees the future with a touch. A powerful gift in a time of war.
The enemy wants her. The Allies need her.
Addie Brandt is cursed. When she touches someone, or an object that belongs to them, she sees their future, and it’s rarely good. Mocked and teased her whole life, Addie hides from the world in her family’s funeral home. But when her second sight shows her a horrific attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval base, the gruesome images are too intense to ignore, and she sets out to raise the alarm. Will anyone listen?
Federal agent Jack Dunstan needs a miracle. He’s still reeling from the betrayal that nearly decimated his team of agents with paranormal powers, a vengeful Nazi spy with a terrifying ability of his own is out to destroy him, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before America is drawn into the war raging around the world. Hearing rumors of Addie’s vision, he seeks her out, hoping she could be the miracle he’s looking for.
Addie’s not sure she trusts Jack Dunstan. He’s rude, cocky, and insists on calling her curse of second sight a “gift.” But if she wants to save lives and prevent a terrible disaster, she has to put aside her fears and embrace her ability.
With the US on the brink of war and an enemy agent hunting her for her power, Addie must learn to trust Dunstan—and herself—to stop an attack that could forever change the course of history.
AMAD links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Moment-After-Dark-Paranormal-Suspense-ebook/dp/B09MDQL14Z/ref
Other Booksellers: https://books2read.com/u/bOJBkN
Genre: World War II historical suspense with paranormal elements
Rating: PG-13
She sees the future with a touch. A powerful gift in a time of war.
The enemy wants her. The Allies need her.
Addie Brandt is cursed. When she touches someone, or an object that belongs to them, she sees their future, and it’s rarely good. Mocked and teased her whole life, Addie hides from the world in her family’s funeral home. But when her second sight shows her a horrific attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval base, the gruesome images are too intense to ignore, and she sets out to raise the alarm. Will anyone listen?
Federal agent Jack Dunstan needs a miracle. He’s still reeling from the betrayal that nearly decimated his team of agents with paranormal powers, a vengeful Nazi spy with a terrifying ability of his own is out to destroy him, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before America is drawn into the war raging around the world. Hearing rumors of Addie’s vision, he seeks her out, hoping she could be the miracle he’s looking for.
Addie’s not sure she trusts Jack Dunstan. He’s rude, cocky, and insists on calling her curse of second sight a “gift.” But if she wants to save lives and prevent a terrible disaster, she has to put aside her fears and embrace her ability.
With the US on the brink of war and an enemy agent hunting her for her power, Addie must learn to trust Dunstan—and herself—to stop an attack that could forever change the course of history.
AMAD links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Moment-After-Dark-Paranormal-Suspense-ebook/dp/B09MDQL14Z/ref
Other Booksellers: https://books2read.com/u/bOJBkN
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