OCNB Author Feature and Giveaway - Nancy Holzner

Don't miss your chance to meet author Nancy Holzner 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!! 

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:

Nancy Holzner

 
 

Nancy Holzner is the author of the urban fantasy series, Deadtown!

Read on for:

• my interview with Nancy 
• a chance to win a signed copy of DARKLANDS - International! (leave a comment)
• PLUS a chance to win registration to the Olde City New Blood convention in St. Augustine, Florida! (Rafflecopter)

1. For those who don't know, tell readers a little about the world your Deadtown series is set in.

My Deadtown series follows the adventures of Victory Vaughn, a shapeshifter who kills other people's personal demons for a living. Vicky lives in Deadtown, Boston's paranormal-only district that was formed after a mysterious plague swept through the downtown and transformed two thousand Bostonians into zombies. The series looks at tensions between the human and paranormal populations, in the context of a crazy demi-demon whose ambition is to lead the legions of Hell beyond its boundaries to rule the other realms. In the middle of all that, Vicky is dealing with her werewolf lawyer boyfriend, a teenage zombie apprentice, a sister who wishes for nothing more than a normal suburban life, a vampire roommate with a habit of quoting Shakespeare, and a 300-year-old aunt who can kick any demon's butt.


2. And tell us about Victory, the series' kick ass heroine.

Vicky comes from a line of Welsh shapeshifters that traces its origins back to the witch/goddess Ceridwen. Among her race, the Cerddorion (ker-THOR-yon), females can change into any sentient creature, up to three times per lunar cycle. The closer to a full moon a shift happens, the more the animal brain takes over. The Cerddorion are dedicated to protecting humanity from demons, also descended from Ceridwen through another branch. Vicky runs her own business, exterminating the personal demons that arise from her clients' fear, guilt, or revenge. In the series, she learns that she may (or may not) be the long-prophesied Cerddorion champion who'll finally defeat the demons that threaten humanity. She's trained for this role since she was a teenager, and her arsenal includes guns, bronze-bladed knives, and a flaming sword. And although she's up for saving the world, mostly she just wants to earn a living, keep the peace with her family, and figure out her feelings for Kane, her workaholic werewolf boyfriend. She has a snarky sense of humor, she never runs from a fight, and although she can be unsure of herself she always tries to do the right thing.


3. What inspired this series?

I'd been reading a lot of urban fantasy (Kim Harrison, Rachel Caine, Jim Butcher, early Laurell K. Hamilton) and thought it would be a fun genre to write in. I saw a blog post from an agent who mentioned she didn't like to see the phrase "so-and-so wrestles with his own personal demons" in query letters—who, she wondered, would wrestle with your personal demons besides you? Instead of taking that question as rhetorical, I started thinking up possible answers. I combined the idea of a personal demon exterminator with an interest in Welsh mythology (I began my career as a medievalist), and Vicky was born.


4. What is your favorite type of paranormal creature? Is it safe to say zombies? Or is it something else?
I do enjoy a good zombie story, and it's been fun to put a twist on conventional zombies with this series. But I really like shapeshifters, including all kinds of werecreatures and shifters (like Vicky) who aren't tied to a specific animal. I'm also a big fan of ghost stories and would love to write a really spooky, atmospheric, Gothic one.


5. How are the zombies in your series different from others that readers might have read before?

They're not shambling, mindless brain munchers like the ones you see in horror films. Three years before the first book, Deadtown, takes place, a magically-enhanced virus killed two thousand Bostonians in a matter of minutes—or so it seemed. Three days after the tragedy, the victims began to rise. The quarantine zone became Deadtown, the district where all paranormals must, by law, live. The plague victims, officially known as "previously deceased humans," or PDHs, are popularly called zombies because they rose from their graves. Deadtown's zombies retain their personalities and wills, and they can talk and think like anyone else. But their skin looks more like a corpse's than that of a living person, and their eyes are blood red. They're not actively decaying, but neither do they heal. They're super-strong, vulnerable to sunlight, and nearly impossible to kill. They're always hungry, but they prefer junk food to human flesh—if you want to make friends with a zombie, carry Twinkies. Well, I should say they usually prefer junk food. A whiff of fresh human blood sends a zombie into a frenzy of blood lust, which tends to make human-zombie social situations rather awkward at times.


Fast Five:

1. Favorite guilty pleasure: A square of very dark chocolate with a glass of red wine.

2. Celebrity crush: This changes, but I was recently discussing Iron Man/The Avengers with a friend, so I'll go with Robert Downey, Jr.

3. Author you'd be starstruck to meet: Ilona Andrews (I've already met both halves of this husband-and-wife team. We were on some panels together at a con, and they were incredibly nice.)

4. Favorite writing snack: Coffee!

5. Favorite recent movie: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Not my usual genre, but I thought it was funny, well acted, and charming.

Thank you so much to Nancy for visiting today!

Leave a comment below for Nancy Holzner to read! Everyone who comments will be entered to win a signed copy of DARKLANDS (INT)!

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 the copy of DARKLANDS 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