Bookish Lifestyle: Release Day Promo: Interview + Giveaway with Cassie Alexander, the author of Edie Spence series

I'm extremely honored and excited to have Cassie Alexander stop by the blog today for an interview and giveaway to celebrate the release of her new book! Shapeshifted, the third book in Edie Spence series, hits the shelves today and it's SMOKING HOT! Be sure to pick up a copy in your local book store! We are also hosting a giveaway of books 1-3 on the blog today - and they're all signed by the wonderful author!

1. Welcome to Bookish, Cassie! I'm so excited to have you here with us today! How would you describe Edie Spence series to those who haven’t heard of it yet?

Thanks Evie, I’m glad to be here!

Edie’s a nurse who works on a floor for injured supernatural creatures, written by a nurse, so the medical stuff is as real as it can be when vampires are involved ;).

2. Combining urban fantasy with medicine, Edie Spence is a breath of fresh air in the paranormal genre. Could you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your series?

I’d written a ton of other books before Nightshifted, the first book in the Edie Spence series – but none of them had been paranormal before. It wasn’t until I started working at a hospital that I began to notice the similarities between working nightshift and being a character in a paranormal book – if you haven’t worked a night (or spent a night!) at a busy hospital, you don’t really realize how strange and bizarre they can be.

After discovering that, writing Nightshifted was only a matter of time.

3. Was Shapeshifted any easier or harder to write than the first two books in the series, Nightshifted and Moonshifted?

It felt a little easier than Moonshifted – I knew where I wanted the plot to go pretty clearly, right from the start. But being a third book, I had to walk that line between in-cluing people who might not have read the first two books versus not wearing out a previous reader’s patience.

I also had to do a ton of research – Shapeshifted has Latino characters and deals with finding Santa Muerte (she says, mostly spoiler free) and I wanted to be sure to get those parts particularly right.

4. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Half and half. I wouldn’t start writing if I didn’t know where the book was going – but sometimes books surprise me along the way and I just have to run with a new idea and try to keep up.

5. What is your favorite part of the writing process? Least favorite?

First drafts and editing (and also vice versa ;)). Every time I’m doing a first draft, I’m all, “OMG I wish I already knew everything that went on and that I was editing!” and then every time I’m editing, I’m all, “Wow, remember how awesome it was when none of this counted because it was all first draft?” The author-grass is always greener on the other side ;)

6. What are some of your literary inspirations? Favorite books/authors?

I actually came from a science fiction background, so a lot of my inspirations are old school – Dune, by Frank Herbert, and the Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

Nowadays I read mostly non-fiction research stuff, but I always make time for the newest October Daye book by Seanan McGuire, and anything by Diana Rowland and Kat Richardson :D.

7. The fourth book in Edie Spence series, Deadshifted, is set to publish in December this year. What can we expect from it?

People who’ve read my stuff know that I like to switch things up, sometimes Quite A Bit. So, more of that – and another cataclysmic big bang action ending. (I’m so excited by one of the set pieces in this ending, you have no idea, but I refuse to give it away – although I will tell you than when I thought of it I emailed my agent on ambien to tell her how amazing I thought it was going to be!)

8. What's next in line for you? Are you working on a new book now?

I’m working on the fifth book in the Edie Spence series, which I think is going to be titled Bloodshifted. And then I’ve got a few other ideas I’m kicking around, assuming I get any free time this summer to write them.

9. What books are on your summer reading pile?

Ooooh – well, I’ve got a copy of Celebromancy, by Mike Underwood, early, so I’m definitely reading that. I’ve been reading some middle grade recently, which I love – the length means I can finish them in a few hours – so Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby, and then Mirage by Jenn Reese. My non-fics for this summer are Medical Cannibalism by Louise Nobel, and the Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon – both of them quite dense, so they’ll take a while.

10. If you could write a letter to your 16 year old self, what would you talk about?

That all of this stuff that feels like it matters, does, but not as much as you think. And it’s all going to be okay – just keep doing what you’re doing. Eventually you’re going to be rewarded for being exactly who you are, so stop trying not to be her so badly. She’s not such a bad person to be – trust me!

About Cassie Alexander:

Cassie is a registered nurse and the author of the Edie Spence urban fantasy series. Nightshifted, her debut novel, was released by St. Martin's Press in May 2012, and Moonshifted followed in Nov 2012.

Deadshifted will be out in Dec 2013, and then Bloodshifted will be out in June 2014.

She's always a week slow on emails due to that pesky work thing, so apologies in advance for belated replies.

Connect with Cassie: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Blog

Nightshifted (Edie Spence #1)
Mass Market Paperback, 331 pages
Published May 22nd 2012 by St. Martin's Press

From debut author Cassie Alexander comes a spectacular new urban fantasy series where working the nightshift can be a real nightmare.Nothing compares to being Nightshifted.

Nursing school prepared Edie Spence for a lot of things. Burn victims? No problem. Severed limbs? Piece of cake. Vampires? No way in hell. But as the newest nurse on Y4, the secret ward hidden in the bowels of County Hospital, Edie has her hands full with every paranormal patient you can imagine—from vamps and were-things to zombies and beyond…

Edie’s just trying to learn the ropes so she can get through her latest shift unscathed. But when a vampire servant turns to dust under her watch, all hell breaks loose. Now she’s haunted by the man’s dying words—Save Anna—and before she knows it, she’s on a mission to rescue some poor girl from the undead. Which involves crashing a vampire den, falling for a zombie, and fighting for her soul. Grey’s Anatomy was never like this…

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

Moonshifted (Edie Spence #2)
Paperback, 352 pages
Published November 27th 2012 by St. Martin's Paperbacks

After surviving a brutal vampire attack, Nurse Edie Spence is ready to get back to work—attending to supernatural creatures in need of medical help. But her nursing skills are put to the test when she witnesses a hit-and-run on her lunch break. The injured pedestrian is not only a werewolf, he’s the pack leader. And now Edie’s stuck in the middle of an all-out were-war…

With two rival packs fighting tooth and nail, Edie has no intention of crossing enemy lines. But when she meets her patient’s nephew—a tattooed werewolf named Lucas with a predatory gleam in his eye that’s hard to resist—Edie can’t help but choose sides. The question is: can she trust this dangerous new ally? And can she trust her own instincts when she’s near him? Either way, Edie can’t seem to pull away—even if getting involved makes her easy prey…

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

ON SALE TODAY:

Shapeshifted (Edie Spence #3)
Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Published June 4th 2013 by St. Martin's Paperbacks

Nurse Edie Spence is once again called upon to save a life…and this time, it’s personal. Can her new community of zombies, vampires, and shapeshifters come to her rescue when she needs them most?

When Edie was fired from her paranormal nursing job at County Hospital, her whole world came crashing down. Now she’s is once again shaken to her core. Her mother is deathly ill and there’s only one thing that will save her: vampire blood. But with the paranormal community shunning Edie, where can she obtain it…without losing her own life in the process?

SHAPESHIFTED

Edie hopes to procure it at her new job at the clinic across town, where the forces of evil loom large. Vampire gang wars are rampant. Old underground enemies are rising to the surface. And Edie’s zombie ex-boyfriend has arrived at the scene—but is he the same man he used to be? And what should she make of the enigmatic doctor with whom she shares an unexpected connection? She’ll have to figure it out soon, because all hell is about to break loose—literally—and time is running out…