Author Julie Anne Long visits the Dollhouse!

With the upcoming release of Alchemystic, book one of The Spellmason Chronicles, it’s really made me nostalgic about my journey as an author over the past five hears of being in print.  Alchemystic will be my fifth published work, and you don’t get there without learning and loving a few things along the way.  With that in mind, I thought I would share some of my favorite moments, focusing each day on one of the four books in my Simon Canderous urban fantasy novels leading up to the beginning of my new series. With that said, let’s share the warm and fuzzies, shall we?

Dead Matter (Book Three)

The gist:
Psychometry-the power to touch an object and divine information about its history-has meant a life of petty crime for Simon Canderous, but now he’s gone over to the good side. At New York’s underfunded and (mostly) secret Department of Extraordinary Affairs, he’s learning about red tape, office politics, and the basics of paranormal investigation.

The spirit populace of Manhattan doesn’t appreciate its well-deserved RIP being disturbed, and Department of Extraordinary Affairs Agent Simon Canderous is sent in to do damage control. Meanwhile, his vacationing partner, Connor Christos, is in a sorry state, and he tells Simon that each night he’s being haunted by visions of his long-lost brother at his window. Simon is worried that his partner may be going crazy-or worse, maybe he’s not…

Favorite Child Syndrome
Dead to Me may have been my first and holds a special place in my heart, but Dead Matter is personally my favorite of the series. So much went absolutely right in the creation of this book. The nice thing about writing a book three while cleaning up book two on its way to publication is that it allows you to seed in supporting material for the new book into the old one before that goes to print. It helps reinforce all author’s secret plans that this connective tissue was written in all along, but really we’re just building up our new book lies to make us seem much more clever than we are. Shhh!

Gibson-Case Center
Creating this particular location in the Manhattan was a lot of fun and is based on a real world place. It’s a high-tech building at the southwest corner of Central Park that’s a self sufficient city within the city itself. It also home to a very special group of paranormal guests and it has many real world properties of the building it’s actually based on, The Time Warner Center. I love taking real things and twisting them to give that flavor to my work that lends it more credibility with the reader without pulling them out of the story. My favorite Easter egg to this location, however, is its name. I’m a huge fan of the king of cool future technology, William Gibson, and the ‘Case’ part is the name of the main character from one of my favorite books of his, Neuromancer.

Vamps!
Dead Matter is sort of the natural conclusion to events that stemmed from Dead To Me that also ran through Deader Still. We get to learn why no one has heard from the vampires in Manhattan for quite some time. Some people hated that vampires are even mentioned, but I enjoyed my personal take on them—creatures that are sort of out of sync with time, to the point that one of the major characters from them has chosen the name Brandon Walsh believing Beverly Hills 90210 is still a current popular show. I also have another vampire who I would love to write more about from the series, an architect who has tried to adapt through the centuries and keep the core of who he is alive. He fascinates me. We’ll see if I ever get the time to explore him more.

Next up: Dead Waters, Book Four of The Simon Canderous Novels

When not plotting against his mortal enemy Patrick Rothfuss, Anton Strout is the author of the Simon Canderous urban fantasy series for Ace Books including Dead To Me, Deader Still, Dead Matter and Dead Waters.
His new book with Ace Books Alchemystic is the first in the upcoming Spellmason Chronicles and comes out 9/25/12.

He is also the host and curator of content for The Once & Future Podcast, a weekly show that focuses on discussions with other working writers.

His other writing has appeared in a variety of anthologies—some of which include Simon Canderous tie-in stories—including: Boondocks Fantasy, The Dimension Next Door, A Girl’s Guide to Guns & Monsters, Pandora’s Closet, Spells of the City, and Zombie Raccoons & Killer Bunnies, Spells of the City, Boondocks Fantasy, After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar, and the upcoming Human For A Day .

He currently lives outside New York City in the haunted corn maze that is New Jersey (where nothing paranormal ever really happens, he assures you). In his scant spare time, he is an always writer, sometimes actor, sometimes musician, occasional RPGer, and the world’s most casual and controller-smashing video gamer. He also works in the exciting world of publishing, and yes, it is as glamorous as it sounds.

He can be found lurking the darkened hallways of www.antonstrout.com.

Paperback Dolls is made up of women from different parts of the world, with different backgrounds, different tastes and beliefs that were brought together through a love of reading. We like to think of ourselves as a cyber version of "The View" that focuses on books, authors, and reading. We are proof positive that one common love can unite the most opposite of people and form lasting friendships that introduce other ways of life and perspectives to each other.

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