Please welcome Kerry Schafer to The Qwillery. Kerry's most recent novel, Wakeworld, was published on January 28, 2014 by Ace.
TQ: Welcome back to The Qwillery. You've written 2 Between novels and 3 Dream Wars novellas. Has your writing process changed (or not) from when you wrote Between (Between 1) and now?
Kerry: Yes, it has changed a lot. I used to be a complete and utter pantster, just letting the story and characters take me wherever they wished. I also had a tendency to write when I felt like it. This was fun, but involved extensive rewrites. Between, for example, contains almost nothing from the original version other than a few themes, Vivian, Zee, and a penguin. Since then I've become much more disciplined. I usually have daily word count goals, which is new to me since getting a contract. I also have a tentative (although highly flexible) outline before I start writing, and definite sign posts I watch out for along the way. I still do a lot of re-writing, but not so much as I used to. (Knock wood, and hope I haven't jinxed my current projects! Yes, I'm a little superstitious)
TQ: What do you wish that you knew about book publishing when Between (Between 1) came out that you know now.
Kerry: Everything! Seriously - I had precious little idea of anything related to either traditional publishing or self publishing, and no idea of what was involved in marketing or PR. It would have made the road a little smoother to have had foreknowledge, but I don't think it would have changed my decisions or significantly altered the course of history in regards to my writing career. It's been a fascinating roller coaster ride!
TQ: Are the Dream Wars novellas and the Between novels related? What are the Dream Wars novellas about?
Kerry: There is absolutely no relation between the two series, other than that both of them play around with dreams. The Dream Wars are set in the small town of Williamsville, and are built around the concept of a supernatural being called the Dream Merchant, who will design a dream for you at your request - at a price that will be determined after delivery. The cost to our heroine, Jesse Davison, is her soul. She's stuck serving as a dream runner, a job she doesn't mind too much until her old sweetheart Will is sucked in and a group of bad guys start bootlegging dreams. The novellas are only the beginning - I fell in love with this world, and especially with Jesse, so there will be more forthcoming
TQ: Wakeworld (Between 2) was published earlier this week. Tell us something about Wakeworld that is not in the book description.
Kerry: There are a lot more dragons, and the relationship between Zee and Vivian gets complicated by the fact that he is a born Dragon Slayer and she is part dragon. Also - Jared gets some payback for his many sins in Between.
TQ: Which character in the Between series so far has surprised you the most?
Kerry: Weston Jennings, actually. I had no idea that he was going to turn out to be so important to the plot, or have such a devastating history. He was a lot of fun to develop.
TQ: What's next?
Kerry: Between #3! And a novel set in the war of the Dream Wars books. I'm also finishing up a paranormal mystery called Dead Before Dying. The first chapter of that is up at Book Country and I'm working on revisions.
TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.
Kerry: Thanks so much for having me!
Books of the Between
Wakeworld
Between 2
Ace, January 28, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 304 pages
Vivian Maylor is trying to hold it together. But her attempts to build a life with the man she loves seem doomed by the dragon inside her yearning to break free. Vivian is a dreamshifter, the last line of defense between reality and the dreamworld, and the only one of her kind.
Weston Jennings also believes he is the only one of his kind. He fears his powers as a dreamshifter, and resists learning to control them. After suffering a tragic loss, Weston heads deep into the woods of the Pacific Northwest to embrace a safe life of solitude. But when a terrible mistake leads to an innocent’s death, his guilt drives him to his former home, where he encounters what he never thought he would find: another shifter.
Now Vivian and Weston must work together to defeat a new threat to the dreamworld.
Between
Between 1
Ace, January 29, 2013
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 304 pages
Vivian Maylor can’t sleep. Maybe it’s because she just broke up with her boyfriend and moved to a new town, or it could be the stress of her new job at the hospital. But perhaps it’s because her dreams have started to bleed through into her waking hours.
All of her life Vivian has rejected her mother’s insane ramblings about Dreamworlds for concrete science and fact, until an emergency room patient ranting about dragons spontaneously combusts before her eyes—forcing Viv to consider the idea that her visions of mythical beasts might be real.
And when a chance encounter leads her to a man she knows only from her dreams, Vivian finds herself falling into a world that seems strange and familiar all at once—a world where the line between dream and reality is hard to determine, and hard to control…
The Dream Wars Novellas
The Dream Runner
The Dream Wars 1
TKA Distribution, October 27, 2013
eBook, 81 pages
What if you could order a custom dream? Any kind. Dark and twisted, sweet, sensual, or redemptive. For the right price, a dream runner will deliver one to your doorstep.
Jesse Davison skipped town the week she turned sixteen, with nothing but the clothes on her back and her father’s vintage Indian Scout motorbike. She swore never to return to the town where in one night of tragedy she lost everything she ever loved.
When news of her estranged mother’s death calls her home, she hopes for some time to sort out ten years of tangled emotions. But Jesse’s job doesn’t exactly allow personal days. She’s been forced into service as a runner by the Dream Merchant to pay back a debt for her own dream of revenge, and there are always orders to fill.
Struggling to figure out her mysterious inheritance is more than enough to get a girl down, and things get even worse when the man Jesse loathes—ex-boyfriend Will Alderson—shows up. But she soon discovers the person she’s been running from might just be the one she should be running towards. Too bad she’s been dreaming of killing him for the past ten years.
The Dream Thief
The Dream Wars 2
TKA Distribution, October 27, 2013
eBook, 90 pages
The underground dream trade is growing hotter by the second, and the Dream Merchant’s top delivery girl Jesse Davison wants out. She knows the ugly truth—that playing around with dreams can drive you crazy, or worse.
But it turns out freeing herself from the Dream Merchant isn’t Jesse’s biggest worry, and neither is the fact that her feelings for ex-boyfriend Will are resurfacing with a vengeance. Strange things begin happening as she investigates the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death in the sleepy mill town of Williamsville. Will’s father remembers her in an instant, despite his severe dementia. Her realtor Tom disappears into thin air, and his assistant claims to have killed him. It’s up to Jesse to get to the bottom of it all. And, unfortunately, working with Will seems to be the only way.
As the crimes begin to mount, Jesse realizes that Will’s memories, too, have been stolen, and it’s only a matter of time before the thief comes for her.
The Dream Wars
The Dream Wars 3
TKA Distribution, October 27, 2013
eBook, 85 pages
Ever since Jesse Davison returned to her hometown, life has progressively gotten worse. The more she delves into her mother’s death, the deeper the mystery gets. Her lover, Will, the only person she can trust, has been pressed into service by the Dream Merchant as a Collector—a soul sucking job Jesse didn’t even know existed. And it turns out the dream bootleggers who have been operating out of her barn aren’t just manufacturing dreams and stealing memories – they’ve found a way to control people’s minds. Marsh, a childhood bully-turned realtor, is convinced he killed his boss. And now he’s consumed by the desire to make Jesse his next victim.
Somehow, Jesse must find a way to free Will and put a halt to the bootleggers’ scheme. Because the way things are going? This dream business is about to explode into a full scale war…
About Kerry
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| Diane Maehl Photography |
*And yes, she does sometimes say ‘eh?’ but never, ever ‘aboot.’
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