Please give a warm welcome to T.J. Deschamps, who will be sitting In the Armchair today. She’s fun, fierce and a fellow author of Paranormal Women’s Fiction. She also writes Fairytale Retellings and SciFi.
Tammy and I met recently through the 20 Books author forum on Facebook, and now run a Paranormal reader group called Divining Tales together on Facebook, along with other authors (it’s a load of fun. If Paranormal Women’s Fiction and Paranormal Romance are your thing, come and join us).
I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.
What do you write?
I write Paranormal Women’s Fiction because I was tired of the chosen one trope and the hero’s journey. I liked the ancient story concept of the heroine’s journey where the main character doesn’t have to go it alone. Ensemble casts with a found family working together to solve problems works a lot better for me than an individualist/loner approach.
Which authors have influenced how you write?
Everyone I’ve ever read. As well as the classics and folklore, I studied African American Lit in college. I learned so much from greats like Ralph Ellison and Alice Walker. It’s criminal Octavia Butler’s isn’t more widely read. I also like contemporaries like N.K. Jemisin, Fonda Lee, and Nnedi Okorafor. For work closer to my own, I’d say Ilona Andrews, Annette Marie, Shannon Mayer, and K.F. Breene. I also love Rachel Aaron’s work. The queen of snark Charlaine Harris. I believe that you study writing like one would any other medium of art. A contemporary writer has a duty to not just study the dead classics but take the pulse of the streets and infuse that into their works.
What advice would you give others starting their writing journey?
If you’re going to ‘write to market’, write in a market where you’d shop.
What draws you to the genre you write?
I’m forty-six, separated from my husband of 20 years, and a mom of three. I’ve lived all over and I have a lot of life experience. YA is such a hot genre, but I cannot read children. I love Paranormal Women’s Fiction because life isn’t over at middle age. For many of us, whether we’re married or single, it is a time of transition. Our kids are moving out or have already gone on to college or whatever. Our purpose is being redefined. We’re in a stage of transition that can be beautiful. I want to add a little magic to that.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on a few projects, one of which is Eastside Witch Hunt. It’s a Paranormal Women’s Fiction novel and the sequel to Eastside Hedge Witch, the first book in the Midlife Supernaturals verse. Miriam and gang did something at the end of the first book that comes to bite them in the tush. Also in the project queue, is The Bog Witch Diaries (working title). The story is set in the Midlife Supernaturals verse but in a coastal California town called San Pedro. The main character, after going on 176 dates, decides she’s cursed from finding love after a divorce so she’d rather play matchmaker instead. She opens a supernatural matchmaking service. Hijinks ensue.
Blurb
Midlife Supernaturals is a storyverse where middle-aged women in their forties smash the patriarchy, fall in love (or serious lust), and work a little magic. Don’t let the “Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novels” title fool you into believing these women are TERFs. This storyverse is as diverse as the real world with a little supernatural spice to make it fun.
Excerpt from Eastside Hedge Witch: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel (Midlife Supernaturals #1)
No one expects to run into a hellhound on their pre-dawn run in the Seattle suburbs, not even me, and I’ve had a long history with the stinky mutts and their master. I stop dead in my tracks, my heart thudding faster than the beat in my earbuds. After pressing the bud in my right ear, the music ceases. Ambient noise filters in.
Luck is on my side, sort of, as I am downwind of the monster, not the other way around. The reek of sulfur was what had given away the hellhound circling my neighbor’s begonias long before I spot the glowing red headlights where eyeballs should be. Besides the glowing red eyes, there’s no mistaking the hellhound for a lost pooch or a coyote on the prowl. The arch of its back reaches about as high as my chest, and I’m about 5’6″, not tall but not short either. It’s three times as wide as my hips, and I’m, as my daughter’s generation puts it, “thicc.” Under a sleek coat of slate-gray fur, sinewy muscles ripple. Even without looking inside its muzzle, I know viscous slobber covers several rows of razor-sharp teeth. But what really gives away the doggo is not a helpful Lassie are the shadows, darker than dark, swirling about the killer canine.
Those shadows will suck you into a whole new world. Somewhere you don’t want to take a magic carpet ride, Aladdin, not one little bit.
Buy link
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About T.S. Deschamps
After living all over the U.S. Eastern seaboard, I made the Eastside suburbs of Seattle my home. There, I live with my three teenagers, two cats, and a tortoise. Some of my hobbies include reading, lifting weights, Scrabble, and collecting dragon stuff and the occasional spell.
Contact T.S. Deschamps