OCNB Author Feature and Giveaway - Lexi George

Don't miss your chance to meet author Lexi George at the Olde City, New Blood mini-convention in St. Augustine, FL this coming February 8-10th!

Need MORE of an incentive to come chill out with some awesome authors by the beach?? 

How about if you win FREE REGISTRATION?? 

That's right... this week we're having a blog-hop-style contest and you could win your way in!! 

To enter, simply answer the question (that's at the end of this post) in the comments below. There will be 3 winners, who will be chosen randomly from all entries on the Rafflecopter form, announced on October 7th. 

(Winners will be responsible for their travel and hotel costs, but their registration fees will be covered by the mini-con!!) 

All of the featured bloggers for the event will be hosting special guests from Olde City, New Blood this week (September 30th – October 6th) and every post is another chance for you to enter to win. There will be additional chances to enter at some of the featured authors' websites, as well.

For a complete list of blog posts and extra author entries, please see the link list on the convention website:
Contest Links

And now for today's OCNB Featured Author:

Lexi George

Lexi George is taking over the blog today to talk about the most important character in her books - the town they are set in!

Read on:

• to see what Lexi has to say about small town life 
• to enter to win a copy of one of the books in the Demon Hunting series pictured above (leave a comment)
• PLUS a chance to win registration to the Olde City New Blood convention in St. Augustine, Florida! (Rafflecopter)

Knowing Your Place 

People often ask me where I get the ideas for my characters. Are they based on real people or do I make them up from whole cloth? Yes and yes. The characters in my books are fictional but some of their quirks, expressions, and personality traits are drawn from people I’ve known. Meredith Peterson, for example, is loosely based on the high school nemesis who bullied my oldest daughter—greatly exaggerated, of course. I started writing Meredith to vent my motherly rage at this girl who made my darling’s life a misery, and ended up getting a kick out of her bitchy ways. Meredith says things I might think, but would never say aloud. She is such fun to write she ended up in every book (so far) except for the novella, So I Married A Demon Slayer. Meredith is . . . um . . . something of a star, so I guess she got the last laugh. 

There’s one character I could not do without: Hannah, the small South Alabama town that is the setting of my demon hunter books. Without Hannah, there would be no magic, no supernatural woo woo, no Southern crazy. The town of Hannah is the source of the magic in my books and a magnet for the strange, scary, and wonderful. I grew up in a small town like Hannah (minus, alas, the sexy demon hunters), where everybody knows everybody else. I am the daughter of a circuit judge and a high school English teacher. You better believe I couldn’t do anything without someone taking note. The town I grew up in wasn’t on a river, like Hannah, and there were no mountains. My hometown was flat as a flitter and divided in two by a railroad track. There were no chain restaurants, except for a Pizza Hut, and that didn’t arrive until I was a senior in high school. There were two burger joints, the Ponderosa and the Dairy Bar, one at either end of town. As teenagers, those were our hotspots, and we made the circuit on Saturday nights to see who was hanging out. Later generations would hang out at the Piggly Wiggly (known affectionately as the Pig), but we ran back and forth between the two eateries. If nothing was happening there, we hit the country back roads looking for a bonfire or a party at the creek. 

My husband and I lived in NYC for a year after we were married. He loved it. He considered himself a New Yorker. I was a fish out of water. You should have seen the expressions on people’s faces in Manhattan when I bid them good morning or spoke to them in the elevator. I freaked them out. I am a small town girl from a part of the world where people drawl, and say y’all, and get all up in your b’ness. I’m not urbane or sophisticated or worldly. I got along in the city and I enjoyed my time there. I figured out the subway system and how to fold up a slice of pizza pie, eating and walking at the same time. I loved the bustle and noises and smells of the big city and the endless things to do, and the wonderfully (and to my simple palate) strange foods. But it was not a comfortable fit, nor one I could maintain long term. 

I am a small town girl, so, eventually, I came home. My husband, bless him, left the city he loved and came, too. The town we live in today is roughly the same size as my girlhood home and has a river and rolling hills created by a meteor. There’s a larger city nearby where the teenagers can escape to roller skate or take in a movie, but the feeling of the town I now call home is the same as the one I grew up in; small, intimate, and comfortable. I like small towns, and back roads, and leisurely Sunday drives down winding highways through the rumpled green countryside. I like running into people I know at the grocery store, bank, pharmacy and nail salon. It’s my comfort zone. 

There’s an old adage that you should write what you know. I know small towns. I know some crazy, zany Southerners. Heck, I am a crazy, zany Southerner. 

So, I squished the two towns I’ve lived in together and came up with Hannah. I don’t think my books would be the same without her. She’s as vivid and alive as any place I’ve ever been. 

As we say in the South, she’s a real character.

Thank you SO much to Lexi! Now, to give something away!

Leave a comment below for Lexi George to read! Everyone who comments will be entered to win one of the books in the Demon Hunting series (US only please).

After commenting, enter on the Rafflecopter form to win free registration to the Olde City New Blood convention in St. Augustine, Florida!

*Please note: To win a book in the Demon Hunting series you must leave a comment in the blog comments section below. 

To enter to win the free registration you must enter on the Rafflecopter form. 

They are TWO separate contests!

a Rafflecopter giveaway