Lisa Kessler – Night Walker

Happy Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here with one of my favorite paranormal romance authors – Lisa Kessler aka Lady Disney.

Lisa, I’m thrilled to have you as my guest today. Let’s start off with the Scribes’ favorite question!

How do you battle the doubt monster?   

This is a great question because I have not yet mastered the Doubt Monster! LOL  Maybe we never really do?  Some days the words flow and I know in my heart the story is cooking!  I love the characters and the pacing is super.  Then other days I stare at my story and have this nasty whisper in my head that says “This is boring.”

So I wish I had a magic cure! I’ve been lucky that on my lowest days, somehow a reader out there must sense it because out of the blue I’ll get an email or a facebook note from someone who read something of mine and wanted to let me know they enjoyed it.  That can make a WORLD of difference! 

Otherwise I’m forced to gag the monster and keep typing! LOL

What story haven’t you told yet that you want to tell?  What is holding you back?

I started a third book in my werewolf series called, Blood Moon, and just after I started working on it, my Night Series sold to Entangled Publishing, so I had to set that book aside to work on the Night books. 

But that werewolf hero, Gareth, just keeps growling in my ear sometimes and I’m itching to go finish that novel…  Someday soon!

They say that every author has a partially completed, quite-possibly-terrible half a story shoved in a drawer somewhere.  What is yours?  What is it about?  What makes it terrible?  Would you ever consider picking it up and finishing it?

I have a novel that I started years ago before there was a YA section in the bookstores called, Perfect.  I started it as a horror novel about cloning and experimental drugs, but now that there is an entire genre of YA, I think if I toned it down just a hair, it might work for that.

It’s my grown daughter’s favorite story I’ve written, so I’ve promised to finish he book someday.  It’s about a teen girl who finds out that she is really an experiment for a drug that makes “Perfect” children.  She’s never been sick, or injured or outside of her house.  Ever. 

 But she’s about to turn 18 and the experiment will be finished.  And she will be too.

 Author Jane Haddam says that anyone who seriously annoys her gets bumped off in her next book.  How do you incorporate your real-life experiences into your stories?

In my novel, Night Walker, my heroine, Kate, has an ancient VW bug convertible that is held together with vice grips, bungee cords, and duct tape.  I based her car off of two cars I grew up with as a kid. J

Let’s talk about Lady Disney? Who is she and how did she come about? And what is behind the fabulous Cruella costume?

I wish it was a cooler story! LOL  When I started writing most of the sites, like facebook, twitter and even just a website of my name were already taken.  Lisa Kessler is also a fabulous professional photographer in New York!

The email address that I’ve had forever is LdyDisney (and I’m a crazy Disney fanatic) so I used that handle for twitter and facebook. 

My “power suit” (Cruella) is a holdover from MySpace.  When I started writing horror short stories, I used my “power suit” for fun, but every time I changed my pic back to my street clothes, I’d get a bunch of notes that they couldn’t find me and where was Cruella! LOL

So apparently I had accidentally branded myself! J  It turned out that people remembered my Cruella power suit and could find me because of it.  Who knew?

I’ve been gradually switching over to my headshot, but I’ll probably always wear my power suit on Twitter…

Please tell us about your latest book. The cover for Night Walker is <fans face> so hot! What’s next in the Night series?

I just got the big news that Night Walker has been picked up for national mass-market release!  So in May Night Walker will be in bookstores across the country in a mass-market size paperback!  I’m so excited that Calisto will be able to find more readers…  Woot!

The big re-release also shook up my future release schedule a little, so the next release will be Night Thief which is a prequel novella to Night Walker.  It should be available in September.  I can’t wait to share Kane with all of you!  *swoon*  I should have a cover for it soon…

What’s the most dangerous or risky thing that you’ve done?

While researching for Night Demon (Book #2 in the Night Series) I went to Cancun to tour all the Mayan ruins.  My kids were smaller then and we visited Chichen Itza.  They talked me into hiking the big pyramid.  The steps were so steep we had to monkey crawl up.

Have I mentioned I’m terrified of heights?

So anyway, I got up there and realized how high up we were and how steep the stairs were, and of course there wasn’t a handrail, so…  I started to panic! I may have evencried.  Anyway, my sweet son sat on his butt and told me we could scoot down.  Those stairs were much cleaner thanks to me wiping them down with my backside…  Hundreds of them! LOL

We lived, and I kissed the ground when we finally made it down!  Yikes!!! LOL

Lisa’s Bio:

I’ve been dreaming up stories since I was in elementary school. My first book was titled “The Wonders of Unicorn Creek” and my publisher was Dehesa elementary school. 

Since then, I’ve published numerous short stories in anthologies and magazines. My story, “Immortal Beloved” was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award and was recently re-released in the “Dead Souls” anthology, along with a follow-up never-before-published story, “Subito Piano”. 

I’ve completed 4 novels so far, and just received a contract from Entangled Publishing to publish my Night Walker series!!! 

Night Walker will be available Fall 2011… 

I also post new short stories on my Blog, so feel free to stop by for a read. http://lisakessler.wordpress.com/

Thanks for being our guest today, Lisa! Paranormal romance fans, don’t miss this book. If you have a question for Lisa – ask away!!