Interview with J.K. Coi

Jen: This week we welcome J.K. Coi as our special guest. J.K., will you please share a short bio with us?
J.K.: Sure. Do you want interesting, or do you want the truth? (lol) I’m Canadian born and bred, and I currently live in Ontario with my husband and six year old son. I work full time in a busy law firm. Litigation is my forte, although I had recently been working in Intellectual Property which is trademark, patent and copyright law. When I’m not working and I’m not writing (rare) I like to do stained glass.

Jen: Tell us about Dark Immortal.
J.K.: Dark Immortal is book 3 in the Immortals Series.

Here's the blurb...
Five years of happiness, erased in one vicious attack.

Diana. Beautiful. Strong. Brave. She once freed Alric from his prison and the insanity of his own mind, offering the kind of love only a fool would deny. Now she lies broken and comatose from a vampire attack, locked deep inside herself where he cannot reach her.

Diana awakens in a strange bed with no memory of how she got there. She only knows that the huge, muscled man leaning over her is straight out of nightmares full of blood and pain. Married to him? It can’t be true…even if her body craves his touch, and the anguish in his eyes shatters something deep inside her.

Alric has no intention of giving up on the woman who never stopped fighting for him. His one hope is that time will heal her mind. But with a demon god poised to tip the balance of power, time is not on their side…

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story. J.K.: I used to write short stories when I was in high school, which continued on into university. But I didn’t start to write seriously until after my son was born. My call story isn’t really any different from every other author. My first book took about a year to write, then edit. I entered a contest with it—and won—then I started to submit to agents and editors. After a slew of rejections, I did find a home for it with Linden Bay Romance. They were immediately interested in whether or not I planned a series. I hadn’t given that a lot of thought, but once the idea was planted, it made a lot of sense and I liked the idea of giving the other characters their story.

Jen: How do you approach your writing? Do you plot or go with the flow? J.K.: I generally start with a scene in my head. I let it sit there for a while until I have a good idea who the characters are, and then I let myself play with the “what ifs”. I don’t plot too much, because once I start writing, my train of thought goes off in different directions and the rough idea I started with doesn’t look anything like what I finish with.

Jen: Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing? J.K.: Just the computer. I don’t have a special toy sitting on my desk or a hat I need to be wearing. The hardest part for me is finding time. So wherever and whenever I can carve out an hour or so, I’m happy.

Jen: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Easiest? J.K.: The most challenging part is finding time—and when I do have time, using it effectively, not letting distractions get in the way. The easiest part is probably starting something new. When I’m finally at the point where I’m ready to sit down and start a new book, I’m flying. It’s fresh and exciting and the words flow the best. Then that energy eventually runs out and finishing takes more discipline.

Jen: Do you do anything special to celebrate a sale, new contract, or release? J.K.: I should, but in fact every time I’ve gotten a new contract (besides the first one), I’ve been under a massive deadline and had no time to celebrate properly. Maybe I’ll try to do something cool next time.

Jen: Is there a genre that you’d like to write? J.K.: I enjoy writing urban fantasy/paranormal. It’s what I do best, although I’m currently working on a straight contemporary as well as a post-apocalyptic futuristic romance.

Jen: What's next for you? J.K.: I’ll have two more books coming out this year. Forever Immortal is out early-Summer and Absolute Justice will be out in the Fall. Forever Immortal is Gideon’s story, while Absolute Justice is about a vampire that we met in book 2. You’ll be able to read more about these books on my website: http://www.jkcoi.com

Jen: Where can you be found on the web? J.K.: I have a quarterly newsletter that has lots of great information and treats, and you can sign up here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jkcoi/join. Also, visit me at my website for more information about upcoming books, chats, interviews, reviews, and all things Immortal: http://www.jkcoi.com. I’m also on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jkcoi and I blog at http://www.jkcoi.blogspot.com.

Jen: Do you have anything you’d like to ask our readers?
J.K.: I always love to find out what people are doing. I mentioned above that in my spare time I like to do stained glass. What are your hobbies? Love to read? What great new authors have you discovered lately? Finally, if you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask! Thanks so much to Jen and Book Talk for having me here today!

Jen: And thanks to you, J.K., for joining us this week. Readers, J.K. is giving away an ecopy of Dark Immortal to a random commenter this week. So, answer one of her questions or ask her something and you'll be entered in the drawing. A winner will be chosen on Thursday, February 26 around 5:00 pm PDT.