A Conversation with Abbie Roads, Author of HUNT THE DAWN (Fatal Dreams #2–with a giveaway!)

Welcome, Abbie! What 5 things should readers know about you?

1. I love animals. All animals. Even snakes despite the fact that they scare the crap out of me.
2. I’m a vegetarian. But I also don’t judge people who want to eat meat. It’s a personal choice for me, one that goes along with loving animals.
3. I’m a country girl. I grew up surrounded by fields of corn, wheat, and soy beans. I feel most comfortable in wide open spaces and could NEVER live in a city. <shudders at the thought>
4. I’m a very deep introvert. Most of the time when people meet me they have no clue how introverted I am. I know how to fake extrovert pretty well. But after I’m social, I need a rest and recovery period or else I start to get grumpy.
5. I am so in love with my husband. After 22 years of marriage I feel like I’m the luckiest girl alive to have my guy. He’s my best friend and my biggest supporter.

I’m with you on #3! And #4, actually. And awwwwww for #5. So sweet! 🙂

 

Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

I started writing this book way back in 2011 and worked on it for two and half years. At one point I trashed the version I’d written and started over from scratch re-writing the whole thing. So my memory is a bit fuzzy…

Books don’t come to me fully formed. They come in pieces and parts as I’m writing them. One of the essential elements to this book is Lathan’s ability with “Scent Memories.” Let me explain a bit about how it works.

Each time we form a memory, our brains automatically link the scent in the air with that memory. It’s unconscious. For example, every time I smell Eternity cologne I think of my high school boyfriend. I certainly don’t want to think about my high school boyfriend, but my brain does it automatically.

Before I started writing HUNT THE DAWN, I played around with the idea of scent memories. Asking myself what if… Until I came up with Lathan’s ability to see other people’s scent memories.

Very cool! Now I’m even more anxious to read it!

 

What are you working on right now? What can readers look from you in the next year?

Right now I’m working on Book 3 in the Fatal Dreams Series. For those of you who’ve read or are going to read HUNT THE DAWN, it’s Thomas’s story. As with all my characters, Thomas’s life has been full of misery. But when he meets Heleena… Life takes a sudden and unexpected turn.

April 2017, Book 1 of the Fatal Truth series releases—SAVING MERCY. I’m super excited about this new series. It’s still dark and dangerous, but the flavor is a bit different. Cain Killion is the son of serial killer who falls for his father’s only surviving victim. Mercy Ledger is the girl who lived while her whole family was murdered. The two are drawn together through their shared pain at the hands of Cain’s father. But the past isn’t easily buried.

Ooooh, they both sound GOOD! Can’t wait!

 

What authors and/or books inspired you?

Thomas Harris and his Hannibal Lecter series have been a huge inspiration to me. I admire how he can make such horrible things happen to his characters, all the while writing it in such a beautiful way that it almost reads like poetry to me.

J.R. Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood books have impacted how I write. Her books are heavy with male point-of-view. Reading this gave me permission to let my heroes have free reign in my books.

Nice choices! (And the first one is definitely not typical for romance authors!)

 

What are you currently reading? What are your thoughts about it so far?

I just started listening to Asa Maria Bradley’s Viking Warrior Rebel while I’m getting ready for work in the mornings. I don’t have much time to sit and read books, so listen to them.

I’m only a few chapters in, but I’m loving Astrid’s combination of strength and vulnerability. And her attraction to Luke is scorching hot!

I hear you with the audiobooks! I listen in the car, though—it’s NPR in the AM. Asa Maria Bradley’s new to me—I’ll have to check her out!

 

If you had to “sell” your book in a single Tweet, what would you say?

I’m stealing part of this from a review because to me it perfectly encapsulates everything I want my novels to be:

Hunt the Dawn is dark, gritty, disturbing, creepy, sexy, sweet, humorous, and utterly wonderful! An un-put-downable read.

Perfect! Thanks so much, Abbie!

 

About Abbie Roads:

Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor known for her blunt, honest style of therapy. By night she writes dark, emotional novels, always giving her characters the happy ending she wishes for all her clients. Her novels have finaled in RWA contests including the Golden Heart. Race the Darkness is the first book in the Fatal Dreams series of dark, gritty romantic suspense with a psychological twist.

Out of darkness and danger

You can’t hide your secrets from Lathan Montgomery—he can read your darkest memories. And while his special abilities are invaluable in the FBI’s hunt for a serial killer, he has no way to avoid the pain that brings him. Until he is drawn to courageous, down-on-her-luck Evanee Brown and finds himself able to offer her something he’s never offered another human being: himself.

Dawns a unique and powerful love

Nightmares are nothing new to Evanee Brown. But once she meets Lathan, they plummet into the realm of the macabre. Murder victims are reaching from beyond the grave to give Evanee evidence that could help Lathan bring a terrifying killer to justice. Together, they could forge an indomitable partnership to thwart violence, abuse, and death—if they survive the forces that seek to tear them apart.

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fzLNuj
B&N: http://bit.ly/2fzJnvQ
iBooks: http://apple.co/2fzF5Va

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