Fantasy Man Friday & Author Interview: Allison Pang

Yes! I have a treat for you today. It’s Friday, but it’s also time for an author interview. I managed to track down and tag ask Allison Pang a few questions and she was even good enough to provide me a banquet of man candy to choose today’s Fantasy Man from. So, without further ado, I give you, Allison Pang  *applause*

A marine biologist in a former life, Allison Pang turned to a life of crime to finance her wild spending habits and need to collect Faberge eggs. A cat thief of notable repute, she spends her days sleeping and nights scaling walls and wooing dancing boys….Well, at least the marine biology part is true. But she was taloned by a hawk once.  She also loves Hello Kitty, sparkly shoes, and gorgeous violinists.

She spends her days in Northern Virginia working as a cube grunt and her nights waiting on her kids and cats, punctuated by the occasional husbandly serenade. Sometimes she even manages to write. Mostly she just makes it up as she goes.

What made you decide to become a writer? Do you consider yourself a romance writer, or an urban fiction writer?
I don’t think I really “decided” to become a writer. I’d always written as a kid, but I completely stopped after college and didn’t attempt to write anything for nearly 15 years after that. I was very disillusioned with writing after taking a number of literary English classes. I don’t think I fit into with the literary writing mold and I honestly had no idea how one went about getting published at that time, anyway. I just assumed it was something “other people” did.

Authors today are so very lucky with the information that the internet provides – workshops, writing groups, agent blogs, publisher sites – everything is just out there 24 hours a day.  When I finally began writing again, (via online PbP gaming and a co-writing project), it was fairly simple to start researching the mechanisms of how to get published. Assimilating all that information is an entirely different story!  

I don’t really consider myself a UF vs PR author. I’m a whatever-the-story-needs-to-be-at-the-time author. 😉 

What the hell is UF, and will there be a test on this later?
UF is Urban Fantasy. It’s very similar to Paranormal Romance in that you have a lot of fantastical elements involved (often placed in an urban setting). However, the main difference is that although UF often has romance or romantic elements as part of the story, it is not the focus of the story. In theory, if you can remove the romance and still have a story, it’s UF, not PR. 

What’s your writing routine like? Let me clarify, are you an evil overachiever who sets a goal of 5k words a day and reaches them every day? *growl* 
Well, I work full time and I have young kids, so the majority of my time does have to go to that. These days I do the work thing, come home and do kid duty (often falls to me since my husband works most nights and weekends).  I honestly don’t really try to seriously write anything until after they are in bed. My writing window is usually about 10 PM to 1 AM , depending on how quickly I can get the words on the page. If I’m really good and I manage to finish with some extra time, sometimes I sneak in a little WoW or Dragon Age, but that’s pretty rare these days. 

Daily word count during the work week is at least 1000 words a day. Weekends, I do try for more – and right now I’m under deadline, so I just do as much as I reasonably can without burning out. It doesn’t do much good to grind out 5000 words if I’m just going to have to take out 3000 later because they’re crap.

Is A Brush of Darkness the first in a series? Did you plan a series when you started writing it and do you have an idea when the next will be released? 

It is the first of at least three books, so far. At one point I had visions of writing seven, but at this point it’s really up to the publisher. The main story arc will take us through these three, but then I may have a few spin-offs with some of the secondary characters. (*cough* Assuming the publisher wants more. LOL)

How does it feel to know that in just a few months, Allison Pang’s A Brush of Darkness will be gracing bookshelves? Are you ready to ruuummble I mean, are you ready for book signings?

Pretty damn cool, actually. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet and the concept of doing a signing makes me freak out a little. (In a good way!) Guess I need to start perfecting my signature.

David Garrett. You realize I had no idea who he was before we met up on the interwebz. Have you always been a fan and just how many of his shows have you been to?

I just learned about him a year or so ago, (and since he’s been performing live since he was ten or so, no, obviously I haven’t always been a fan. LOL). I’ve been to two shows in the last year, and I’m going to a third in February. (And yes, I sucked it up and bought Meet & Greet tickets…so I can be all fangirly in person.)

Who are some of your role models? I ask because every time I turn around, I’m coming across yet another amazing author I want to be like when I grow up.

Too many to mention, honestly. I was a pretty hard core fantasy reader growing up, and that’s where I tend to gravitate as far as reading in my spare time goes – Jacqueline Carey, George R. R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Lynn Flewelling and Charles de Lint, among many others.

What do you do in your spare time, when you’re not ogling David Garrett, playing with your Hello Kitty mouse, or eating bacon?

I have no spare time. But if I did, I would hang with my family more. Otherwise, it’s all about WoW or cross-stitching. And sometimes making lousy 3D Poser art.

Who’s your favorite hunky movie star? And you should already know who has my heart, *waves at Gerard Butler* so don’t even think about it, missy! 😉

Hmmm. Don’t think I have one right now. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I went to the movies for fun and not have it be either animated or involve a chipmunk. That being said, I’ve got a passing fondness for Ewan McGregor.

What’s up next for Allison Pang?

Finishing up the next book in the series (due in November) and then revisions. And then starting all over again with the third book.  I’m also hoping to try to finish up a few additional side projects and sell them, but obviously the paid work comes first.

Thank you, Allison! You’re full of awesomesauce with a cherry on top. Now, here’s the blurb and cover for Allison’s debut novel, A Brush of Darkness, out January 25, 2011. Look for it!

I had a naked incubus in my bedroom. With a frying pan of half-cooked bacon and a hard-on. And a unicorn bite on his ass. Christ, this was turning out to be a weird morning.

Six months ago, Abby Sinclair was struggling to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Now, she has an enchanted iPod, a miniature unicorn living in her underwear drawer, and a magical marketplace to manage. But despite her growing knowledge of the OtherWorld, Abby isn’t at all prepared for Brystion, the dark, mysterious, and as sexy as sin incubus who shows up searching for his sister—and is convinced Abby has the key to the succubus’s whereabouts.. Abby has enough problems without having this seductive shape-shifter literally invading her dreams to get information. But when her Faery boss and some of her friends vanish as well, Abby and Brystion must form an uneasy alliance. As Abby is sucked deeper and deeper into this perilous world of faeries, angels, and daemons, she realizes her life is in as much danger as her heart—and there’s no one she can trust to save her.

And now…for today’s Fantasy Man…I’ll admit that Allison’s blurb inspired me. Ahem. Or it might’ve been the many, many pictures of man candy she sent me (I didn’t write much that night!), but I am prepared to drool. Are you? 

I know, this isn’t the first time I’ve used this picture, but what can I say? He has thighs I want to sink my teeth into! Gr-owl!!

Happy Friday everyone!