I’m pleased to welcome author Allison Pang here today to Dark Faerie Tales to talk about A Brush of Darkness, the first book in her new Abby Sinclair urban fantasy series. You can read the first chapter of A Brush of Darkness here.
One lucky commenter will have a chance to win a copy of A Brush of Darkness. Allison will stop by periodically, so you can leave any questions or comments that you have below. As always, details are listed at the end of the post.
Author Bio:
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.
You can visit Allison around the web here: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Welcome Allison!
DFT: Could you start things off by telling us a little about A Brush of Darkness?
It’s the story of Abby Sinclair, who is pretty much a normal girl, essentially tossed into this mystical world that overlaps our own. Everything she does has political repercussions, but directions are hard to come by and she finds herself struggling to figure out how to manage. When her Faery boss goes missing, Abby is forced to try to find her, joined by a perverted unicorn and a sexy incubus, who may or may not be setting her up.
DFT: Can you tell us a little about the main characters in A Brush of Darkness?
The two main ones would be Abby and Brystion – as mentioned above, Abby is fairly normal, but she’s physically broken due to the car accident that took her mother’s life and left Abby with seizures, a metal plate in her head and a busted leg. She also holds a great deal of emotional scars from this as well.
Brystion is an incubus in search of his sister. He’s broken in his own way too, but he rarely shows it. He has a tendency cover up his own uncertainty with a dry sense of humor.
And of course, there is Phineas – the cat-sized, panty-sniffing unicorn. He’s a sort of an obnoxious Yoda.
DFT: If you could describe your main characters with only 3 words, what would they be?
Abby – broken, loyal, lost
Brystion – arrogant, smexy, vulnerable
Phin – pervy, wise, smug
DFT: What is something we can look forward to in the series that you are especially excited about?
Hmm. I don’t want to give too much away, but we’re going to find out a little more about Abby’s family, which is pretty cool. We’ll also get to know Moira’s brother, Talivar, better.
DFT: If you could pick one special ability, like your characters have, what would it be?
Oh – I’d be the violin girl for sure. I love Melanie and I’d love to be able to play an instrument like that!
DFT: What is the last book you took out of the library or bought at the store?
I have no time to go to libraries much these days which is very sad, but I buy a ton of books. The last thing I bought was Seanan McGuire’s A Local Habitation (the October Daye series)
DFT: What’s next on the writing horizon?
Revisions on the second book of the series and the writing of book three (both should be out next year).
DFT: How do you come up with your characters’ names?
I honestly don’t know. I just go with whatever sounds right at the time. Some are real names and some I make up on the fly.
DFT: What is your favorite book by another author?
I love the Kushiel’s Dart series by Jacqueline Carey.
DFT: What made you start writing the books you write, and how do you come up with the stories?
I started BoD as an experiment to see what I would need to do to get published. I wasn’t actually expecting to make it that far – it was supposed to be my “trial run” book, so I’ll admit I was a bit surprised when it sold! As far as coming up with the stories – I guess I write the stories I want to read.
DFT: What is your writing day like?
I have a full time job and kids, so I honestly don’t do any writing until after they go to bed. Usually between the hours of 10 PM and 1 AM is my writing time.
DFT: Do you plot out your books in advance?
Not really. A basic outline because my publisher requires it, but I’m a pantster so I tend to stray and just see where things go.
DFT: Is there another genre you’d like to try writing?
As long as there is fantasy involved in some fashion, I’m good with that. I have zero interest in writing contemporaries.
DFT: Tell us something about your research process and the choices you make when creating the story.
If there’s a concept I like, I’ll keep a few notes about it, but I honestly don’t do much research. I had a large interest in faery lore growing up, so a lot of BoD was just written out of what I already knew. I choose the things that are going to fit with what I want to do and tweak the rest.
DFT: Who is your favorite character in this book, and why?
Probably Melanie, for the reasons stated above. I just dig someone who is so confident in her own ability and knows who she is.
DFT: Do you have a favorite scene or line from A Brush of Darkness?
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.
DFT: What is your favorite part of writing this series?
Just getting to write up a little of the snark, I think. Some of what Abby says is very close to what I say sometimes, so that’s fun.
DFT: Which urban fantasy world would you like to live in, and why? i.e. The Hollows, etc.
Hmmm. You know, I really dig Kelly Gay’s world in A Better Part of Darkness, so I’d probably stop by there for a visit. I adore the way the paranormal creatures are part of the everyday world.
DFT: If you could be any paranormal creature, which one would you be and why?
A unicorn, of course. 
DFT: Thanks for stopping by, Allison.
GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:
One lucky commenter will have a chance to win a copy of A Brush of Darkness.
To enter, just leave a comment about this post:
1. +2 entries for becoming a follower of this blog and Dark Faerie Tales on Twitter.
2. +3 entries for tweeting about this contest, blogging about it, linking via your sidebar etc…(please tell me where!).
3. Giveaway is open to US and Canada only.
4. Giveaway ends Thursday, March 3rd at 11:59 PM EST.
5. The winner will be picked with the help of Random.org.
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*fingers crossed*
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