Guest Author: Thea Harrison - Dragon Bound

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I'm delighted to host Thea Harrison on the blog today. I absolutely adored her debut paranormal romance, Dragon Bound (out now), when I read it for a quote last year. Since then, I've also read an early copy of the next book in the series, Storm's Heart, and fallen in love all over again.

Thea has several excerpts available on her website that you can check out. She's also giving away a copy of Dragon Bound to a commenter on this blog (Goodreads readers, swing by and enter on the main blog). Enter by 10 pm Thursday 5th May, New Zealand time, to go in the draw. 

Please welcome Thea to the blog everyone!

Thea Harrison

I was thrilled when Nalini approached me and asked if I would write a guest blog for her, but because I classify myself as “blog challenged” I asked her for a little guidance about what to focus on.  She wrote back quickly with a few ideas.  How did Dragon Bound come to be? What do I love about the hero and heroine? Why did I decide to write a paranormal romance? What great questions!

Dragon Bound came into being when the economy hit the skids.  My job was not going well.  I worked for a nonprofit, and a large part of my responsibility was to research grant opportunities and write grants.  Large grant making institutions that we had relied upon for funding for our programs were rerouting money to go to urgent needs like foodbanks. 

Not only that, but their financial portfolios were suffering huge losses.  One program officer told me their charitable trust was “fortunate” that they had lost only a third of their assets.  I found myself in the unfortunate position of having to recommend the termination of my own job to my boss.  As I was phased down, like so many others, I began to job search… and I decided it was also a perfect opportunity to try my hand at writing again.

Years ago I had published sixteen Harlequin Presents titles under the name Amanda Carpenter.  Single parenthood and school pulled me away from writing, and I always knew I wanted to return to it someday when the opportunity presented itself.  Images and ideas had floated around in the back of my mind for years.  I fiddled with a project or two but could never really get it off the ground.  When I finally sat down to write Dragon Bound, I knew the story would be a paranormal romance.  I had been reading science fiction and fantasy all my life.  Writing a paranormal romance seemed the perfect match for me, as it combined romance, which I had also read and written for years, with the fantasy elements I loved so well.

When I started Dragon Bound, the story exploded onto the page.  I had a complete draft written in 44 days.  I giggled and snorted the whole time I was writing it.  If anyone had witnessed me as I worked, I’m sure they would have thought I was a total nut-job.  The hero and heroine, Dragos and Pia, kept surprising me.  When I say that something “fell out of Pia’s mouth” that’s exactly how it felt inside—what she said was as much of a surprise to me as it was to her.  And Dragos simply didn’t have any of the normal brakes we humans have on our behavior.  They were a constant delight, and I loved every minute of it.

I was also putting out hundreds of job applications during the worst of the recession.  As discouraging as the job hunt was, I found revising the story as enjoyable as writing the rough draft.  I went through the query process in searching for an agent, approached seventeen agencies, had several nibbles of interest, and ended up with my wonderful agent Amy Boggs at the Donald Maass Literary Agency.  Together we ironed out more wrinkles in the manuscript, and she began the submission process.

Other aspects of my life continued to be increasingly painful.  Congress had stalled on passing an emergency extension on unemployment. I had exhausted all of my resources. I kept telling myself, wow, this could be like one of those stories where someone with $2 in their pocket wins the lottery.  Something good has got to happen sometime.

Then something good did indeed happen.  In March, 2010, Amy called with a multi-book offer from Berkley, and the Elder Races series was born!  Following the release of Dragon Bound on May 3rd is Storm’s Heart on August 2nd and Serpent’s Kiss on October 4th.  As for me, I’m feeling like I won the lottery and I’m still mopping my brow!

And if I can just emit a high-pitched fan-girl squee for a moment, Nalini is one of my favorite authors!  I was very excited when she invited me to guest blog.  Nalini, thank you very much for having me!  It’s been a pleasure.

So who are your favorite authors, and why?  Do any of them make you laugh out loud?  I would love to give away a signed copy of Dragon Bound to someone who comments!

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