Blog Tour Interview and Giveaway: Black Night by Christina Henry
Honorary Doll Lisa: I would like to welcome Christina Henry to the Paperback Dolls. I met Christina at a joint signing with another author. One week before the signing, I picked up Black Wings, Christina’s first book and read it through in one night. It was a fine start to her Black Wing Series.
HDL: Since this will be your first interview here at Paperback Dolls, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
CH: I’m a thirtysomething (OK, almost fortysomething) mom of one boy and I’ve been happily married for eleven years.
When I’m not writing or helping my son build robots out of Legos I like to run long distances, bake sweet things (this is one of the many reasons that I run), and read as much as I can. I really enjoy watching movies where people get eaten by monsters – The Host, Jaws, Alien, and Night of the Living Dead are some of my favorites. I’m also slightly obsessed with samurai films – Yojimbo is my number one – and anything really off-kilter, like The Good, the Bad and the Weird.
HDL: Please tell us a little bit about your first book, Black Wings and a little bit about your soon to be released book, Black Night.
CH: Madeline Black is an Agent of death, which is a crummy inherited job that you get when your closest blood relative dies. Agents are responsible for escorting souls after death, and the Agency is a giant, paper-pushing bureaucracy that predicts and then records all deaths. In Black Wings, deaths start occurring outside of the natural order – that is, they were not predicted and therefore not meant to be. It’s up to Maddy to find out why, and along the way she learns a lot of unexpected things about her bloodline.
Black Night picks up about a month after the events of Black Wings. Maddy’s life has completely changed since she’s learned more about who she is, and because of her unexpected inheritance she gets sucked into a diplomatic mission to the local faerie court. Unfortunately, the last ambassador was killed for a breach of etiquette and Maddy is hardly a subtle individual, so things are practically guaranteed not to end well.
HDL: If there is a lesson that each of your main characters need to learn what would it be?
CH: Madeline: Not to trust so easily and not to lose her temper as often
Beezle: Restraint! This gargoyle seriously needs a low-calorie meal plan
Gabriel: He’s got to learn to let go. He suppresses everything he feels.
JB: He’s so preoccupied with doing the correct thing he never stops to ask if it’s actually the right thing to do.
Azazel: He’s got some very medieval ideas about the duties of a daughter.
Other Character you wish to mention? Lucifer: Needs to stop treating everyone like pieces in a giant game of chess.
HDL: A popcorn-eating (more like gorging) gargoyle?…I was hooked! Where did you get the ideas for your characters?
CH: I heard Maddy and Beezle talking in my head before I saw them. I think I’m a very aural writer. I love to write dialogue, and it’s often dialogue that dictates the pace of each book.
I created Beezle so that Maddy would have someone to talk to. There is a real danger when you write a book in first person that you will end up spending all your time inside the head of your protagonist. You want something that will break up that endless flow of thought. Beezle was perfect because he is a home guardian, which means that he’s not likely to be out running around doing his own thing like a roommate or a boyfriend would. He’s always at hand when Maddy wants him – and even when she doesn’t want him!
HDL: Besides the fact that you live in the Chicago area, why did you choose to place the Black Wing Series in the windy city?
CH: Black Wings is my first book, and I honestly wasn’t sure that I was up to the task of creating believable characters, an exciting plot, an original mythology AND making up a new place for all of this to occur. Chicago is my home – I know it the way only a resident can. I think it adds a lot of authenticity to the book and when you have that base of authenticity it’s easier for a reader to believe there could be a monster running around on these streets.
HDL: This is a 3-part question: I understand you have a 5 year old. I can still hear my mother’s voice in my head; all the quirky sayings she had still ring in my brain. When your son grows up and reads your books, are there any “sayings” in your books that he could point to and say, “Yup, that is my mom!” Are there any life lessons you would like him to take away from your books? Is there a character that will hopefully speak to him?
CH: I don’t know that there are any specific sayings in that book that would definitively say “me”, but I know from a lot of my friends and relatives that Maddy’s voice sounds a lot like mine. She has my sense of humor, that’s for sure – the kind of humor that makes people laugh nervously, like they aren’t sure if I’m joking or not.
I would hope that when he’s old enough to read the books he’ll recognize Maddy’s good qualities as the things that his father and I both value and that we’ve tried to instill in him – courage, intelligence, the ability to laugh even when things look bleak.
HDL: If there were a question that no one has asked you as of yet, and you really wish they would, what would that be? (With the answer please!)
CH: Unfortunately, I can’t think of one! I’m really bad at coming up with blog topics, too. I never know what other people might be interested in.
HDL: How many Black Wing books are under contract?
CH: Right now there are six books under contract. I just handed in the third book in June.
HDL: The next in the series is Black Night and is due to come out at the end of this month. Do you have the title for the third book and if so, would you care to share?
CH: The third book is called Black Howl and it’s set to be released in February of 2012.
HDL: Thank you so much for agreeing to interview with Paperback dolls! Good luck to you on the future of the series and I hope to interview you again for your third book!
CH: Thank you so much, Lisa! I’d be happy to come back anytime.
Paperback Dolls would like to thank both Christina Henry and our HD Lisa for sharing this interview with us! We would definitely love to have you back anytime!!
CHRISTINA HENRY is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on and watching movies with samurai, zombies and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.
WEBSITE |
Buy Black Wings (Madeline Black 1): – Book Depository
Black Night (Madeline Black 2) releasing later this month on July 26, 2011!
Up Next in the series is , due for release February 21, 2012!
Christina is givingaway one signed copy of Black Night, Medeline Black 2, to one lucky follower!
Madeline Black is an Agent of death, meaning she escorts the souls of people who have died to the afterlife. Of course, not everyone is happy to see her…
If obstinate dead people were all that Maddy had to worry about, life would be much easier. But the best-laid plans of Agents and fallen angels often go awry. Deaths are occurring contrary to the natural order, Maddy’s being stalked by foes inside and outside of her family, and her two loves-her bodyguard, Gabriel, and her doughnut-loving gargoyle, Beezle-have disappeared. But because Maddy is Lucifer’s granddaughter, things are expected of her, things like delicate diplomatic missions to other realms.
Please enter me in contest. I would love to read this book. It sounds very good.
I have been waiting for Black Night to be released to find out what happens with Madeline and her father. Glad it’s finally here.
I have started following this tour and I think this series sounds awesome. I would love to read this book and of course will absolutely have to check out book one :) what an excuse to thwart the budget gods:) Thank you for the invite to this wonderful interview and give away opportunity.
dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com
I have Black Wings and admit I haven’t read it yet, but I have a good excuse- toddler. I think I need to bump it up the TBR pile. Especially since you said you tend to go heavy on the dialogue. I often find myself skimming ahead in a book to get to dialogue, so I’m sure I’ll love these.
b(dot)cardone(at)hotmail(dot)com
I really love the first one, i can’t wait to read this one !
thanks for the giveaway !
sorry i haven’t seen i can’t participate.
Sounds like an amazing book :)
Brilliant giveaway :)
Never mind about my entry, i do not live in the US / Canada
Read Black WIngs a couple weeks back and man I loved it. I know I highly recommended it to a couple of people. Maybe I love Gabriel’s character is because well that’s my youngest son’s name! LOL Maddy’s “intended” I want someone to break his wings and shove them up orifices but yeah. LOL. I’m a Gabriel gal. Can’t wait for the second and third to see how all’s going. Yes I love the gargoyle, he can come over to my place
Ooops forgot the add Raonaid at gmail dot com
Black Wings was an amazing debut, and I cannot wait to read Black Night. This authors has created a fabulous cast of characters with a dark and amazing story in a dangerous world.
haha ohh typing in an arm brace sure makes me make typos, sorry that is somewhat of a mangled comment. This author!
I read the first book and really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to the next book and saying what happens with Maddie and Gabriel and between Maddie and Daddy Dearest, Azazel. :P
It does sound like an amazing book but I haven’t read the first one yet, can one read this one without it?
dsadler53 at yahoo dot ca
Sounds like a great book! Thanks!
I would love to win this book, it looks great. Thanks for the giveaway and the chance to win.
The book sounds really good. I’d love to read it. Please enter me. Thanks!
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net
OMG, I have to build robots out of Legos all day long! Fun stuff, right?! LOL I really can’t wait to read this book, it looks like one I will definitely like! Thanks for the contest:)
This series sounds very good…since I haven’t read the first one yet I would have to go back and read it first. I am a total series junky!
mmafsmith at gmail dot com
I think that Christina’s character, Madeline, sounds intriguing as well as different from the majority of female main character driven urban fantasy books out in the market. I have not read any of her books yet, but I would REALLY love too — especially winning would be very nice and a wonderful positive event!
Would love to win
This sounds like a great series and I love the covers.
I would love to read this book, it sounds really good.
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I’m so desperate to read this book. I LOVED ‘Black Wings’.
TheKimberlyDuwe at gmail dot com
I loved the first book. Beezle is such a fun character. I actually had an ARC of Black Night, but had to give it away before I could read it . I would love my own copy ;) Using the gates as her wings was such a clever thing.
This sounds like an interesting book that features a different kind of heroine. She sounds more mature and composed than other urban fantasy heroines. Would love to read Black Night!
angeldream3[AT]gmail[DOT]com
Looks and sounds good.
I just love this series! Beezle? I can’t get enough of him. I am looking forward to more, more, more!
Lovely =) I can’t believe there are 6 books lined up. Awesome. I loved Black Wings. I can’t wait to read more of Maddie and Gabrielle. Please count me in.
Great interview. Would love to read this!
Sounds like an awesome book!!!! Love the cover!!
Great interview –I love your books They are on my TBR pile
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