Today, I'm featuring another up-and-coming author, Jessica Redmerski. Jessica's debut novel, The Mayfair Moon, is a YA Paranormal tale about werewolves, young love and the mysterious Mayfair family. Can you say delish? I thought so. In fact, I liked it so much, Jessica's agreed to an author interview. Woot!
Minions....please welcome Jessica.
Jessica: Hi Mina! Thanks for the opportunity to be here. You review and spotlight so many great works of fiction on your blog and I’m honored to be given the chance to be a part of it.
Mina: Aw, thanks. Now down to business. The Mayfair Moon is your debut novel about werewolves. Can you tell us a bit about your novel and why you chose werewolves?
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Jessica: THE MAYFAIR MOON is a YA Paranormal Romance. Now, while I think it being about werewolves alone might help to work against it because the market seems inundated by lycanthropes and vampires, I can say that TMM is very different in one major aspect: the werewolves in my book are not wolves; they are monstrous and beastly. I’ve always been a huge fan of traditional werewolves as depicted in films like The Howling, Dog Soldiers and Underworld and when I couldn’t find any YA books out there with werewolves like these, I decided to write my own!
Mina: You had me a "monstrous and beastly." Love it!
What other YA paranormal romance books would you compare your novel to?
Jessica: That’s hard for me to answer because, like I mentioned, I could not find any other traditional werewolf novels for young adults. I’d like to hear from readers what books out there they think THE MAYFAIR MOON can be compared to. Their opinions would probably be more spot on than my own.
Mina: What type of music did you listen to (if any) for inspiration for the The Mayfair Moon?
Jessica: I tend to listen to a lot of underground and Indie music and for inspiration on this book, it was no different. Agents of Oblivion (Wither), Acid Bath (Bones of Baby Dolls & Scream of the Butterfly) Arcana (Wings of Gabriel) and more widely known stuff like Evanescence and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Mina: Cool! What makes this tale a YA crossover? And what age range would you suggest?
Jessica: Loving crossover books myself, I knew going into this what I did and did not want to do to make sure (or at least hope) that I gave it solid crossover potential. Being an adult reader of YA books, I have always been more drawn to those that focus more on survival, adult issues and character growth rather than how some of us ‘expect’ teenagers to act. You won’t really find obvious emphasis or excessive use of slang, or scenes focused on bullies, Queen Bee’s and proms and such in TMM. I gave my characters more realistic lives given the life-threatening (and first loves) situations they are faced with. But at the same time I don’t overshadow the fact that they are teenagers/young adults and should also be able to relate to readers of that age. A fair age range I would say is 16 – 40, possibly.
Mina: Can you tell us more about the Mayfair family? Is there a Book 2 on the horizon?
Jessica: The Mayfair bloodline itself is the equivalent of royalty. Isaac’s father is the oldest living and most feared and dangerous leader in lycanthrope history. I don’t want to give too much away though because more of it will be unveiled in Book Two and Three. Book Two, KINDRED, is in the works.
Mina: What other novels are you writing?
Jessica: Aside from KINDRED, I’m writing a Middle Grade Fantasy called PATHIA’S GUILD – THE LEGEND OF NAZUR & GRIMMETT, which I hope to publish around the end of the year/first of 2013. But as early as the end of next month, I’ll be publishing ‘my baby’ DIRTY EDEN, a wickedly fun and dark Contemporary Fantasy (for adults).
Mina: Awesome! I'm sure your readers will be psyched to know your writing Book 2, Kindred, right now. Looking forward to that one myself. :)
I do a monthly segment on my blog called Creepy Classics where I review creepy classic literature like Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. What is your favorite Creepy Classic & why?
Jessica: THE PICTURE Of DORIAN GRAY is a great one and definitely one of my favorites! I have to say that my all-time favorite Creepy Classic is DRACULA by Bram Stoker. But I also love the tales of the Brothers Grimm and, of course another obvious one, FRANKENSTEIN.
Mina: Excellent choices! And now...let's learn some more about The Mayfair Moon.
Seventeen year-old, Adria and her sister, Alex, have always been close. Their mother’s poor choices and an alcoholic stepfather force them to grow up quickly. On one fateful night in Athens, Georgia, Adria’s quiet refuge near a wooded park becomes a place of chaos worse than home could ever be. They encounter a terrifying clash between two battling werewolves and barely make it home alive.
Unable to hide the wounds, or tell the truth about how they got them, Child Protective Services take the sister's away where they are sent to live with their aunt and uncle far away in Hallowell, Maine. Adria tries to adjust to her new life and school, but Alex’s bizarre, standoffish attitude becomes more rebellious and hateful. Adria refuses to give up on her sister, even after Alex runs off with a new boyfriend and his notorious family. But like her sister, Adria meets a mysterious family too, including Isaac Mayfair, an older boy who captivates her regardless of atrocious first impressions and his odd family life.
Strange and tragic things begin to happen in the small town of Hallowell: teenagers come down with a devastating 'illness', some disappear and one even dies. In the midst of everything, Isaac is adamant about protecting Adria, even from her sister whom he has warned her to stay away from. Just when Adria thinks her sister has finally come back home, Alex reveals her dark secret.
From that night onward, Adria’s life only gets more complicated as she learns about the werewolf world, and about how it is rare that females ever survive ‘The Transformation’. Because Adria’s sister survived, the leader of the notorious Vargas family now wants Adria for himself. Isaac will stop at nothing to protect Adria from Viktor Vargas, even if it means breaking the Forbidden Law and risking his own life.
The love between Isaac and Adria is unyielding, but the one thing that stands between them and that love is Adria’s humanity. While she knows that their time together will not last because he will outlive her, still she does not want to become a werewolf herself. When it seems that nothing will ever make their dilemma bearable, an eavesdropper spills a dangerous secret that Isaac never had any intention in revealing.
The Blood Bond. A forbidden bond with harsher consequences than even the risk of transformation.
Ultimately, no matter what path Adria takes, her life and the lives of those she loves will be in peril. As she learns about the werewolf world she also learns why her place in it will change the destinies of many, but most of all, her own.
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Jessica: Thanks again, Mina for having me! I hope everyone enjoys the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Mina: You're welcome! Thank you for the interview.
The Mayfair Moon is now available via Amazon! Stay tuned as I'll review this dark, YA paranormal tale, minions. Literary stalkers can find Jessica Redmerski:
