Nancy Holzner grew up in western Massachusetts with her nose stuck in a book. This meant that she tended to walk into things, wore glasses before she was out of elementary school, and forced her parents to institute a “no reading at the dinner table” rule. It was probably inevitable that she majored in English in college and then, because there were still a lot of books she wanted to read, continued her studies long enough to earn a masters degree and a PhD.She began her career as a medievalist, then jumped off the tenure track to try some other things. Besides teaching English and philosophy, she’s worked as a technical writer, freelance editor and instructional designer, college admissions counselor, and corporate trainer. Most of her nonfiction books are published under the name Nancy Conner.Nancy lives in upstate New York with her husband Steve, where they both work from home without getting on each other’s nerves. She enjoys visiting local wineries, listening obsessively to opera and she says there are still a lot of books out there that she wants to read. Thank you so much for coming by Nancy.

Thank you for inviting me to stop by. I'm very happy to be here!

1. Let’s start off with a summary of your DEADTOWN series for followers that need to bump it up on their TBR list.

DEADTOWN features Victory Vaughn, a shapeshifter who is Boston's only professional demon slayer. Vicky makes her living killing other people's personal demons but finds herself wrestling with bigger, badder demons of her own.

Deadtown is Boston's paranormal district. Three years ago, a mysterious plague hit the downtown at lunchtime on a weekday, killing two thousand Bostonians before mutating into something harmless. Paranormals, who were immune, helped maintain the quarantine zone and deal with the bodies—three days later, the bodies rose. The quarantine zone became the city's paranormal district, with all the newly reanimated “zombies” and other paranormals required by law to live there.

Vicky has a teenage zombie apprentice, and her roommate is Juliet, a 650-year-old vampire who takes exception with Shakespeare's depiction of her. She dates Kane, a workaholic werewolf lawyer whose goal is to establish paranormal civil rights at the federal level. And a book of ancient prophecies, written in the language of Hell, predicts a pivotal role for her in the coming war between demons and humans.

2. Writing reference and how-to books is much different than writing urban fantasy. Was switching an easy slide or did you have to rethink the process? How long did you think about doing it before you took the plunge and started seriously writing urban fantasy?

For several years, I worked on fiction simultaneously with writing the nonfiction books. I published a couple of short stories, abandoned an attempt at a novel, and finished a mystery, which my agent sold to a small press. Switching from nonfiction to fiction became a part of my work day: I'd  spend most of the day writing the how-to or tech book I had under contract, take a break, and then switch to fiction in the evenings. Because we both worked at home, my husband and I liked to go out to a coffee shop in the evening. The switch in venue helped me switch what I was writing. Different surroundings, different project.

The two kinds of writing are very different. For a nonfiction book, I rely on a detailed outline. The outline becomes part of my contract, and I rely on it to structure the book. It helps me know how many pages to devote to each topic and what needs to be covered. Also, technical and reference publishers tend to frown on including zombies. :) For fiction, I start with a much looser outline (a 5- to 7-point bulleted list) that allows for plenty of changes and surprises as I write. It's important to let a story develop organically—and those twists and surprises are the best part of writing.

I started writing urban fantasy because I was reading almost exclusively in that genre at the time. It was so much fun to read, I thought I'd try writing it. And doing that was as much fun as I'd hoped!

3. Do you feel like some of Tina’s personality traits surfaced from past experiences of being a parent?

I have a daughter, but she and Tina don't have much in common. Tina is more a composite of some of my favorite—and most frustrating—students from when I was teaching high school. She started out as almost a caricature of a teenager, but she's grown in ways that have surprised me.

4. Is it sometimes hard to separate yourself when you leave the keyboard, or do your characters follow you and continue to badger you throughout the rest of your waking hours?

When the writing is going well, my characters follow me everywhere. They won't shut up. Occasionally, though, they take off on vacation without telling me where they're going. Not even a postcard.

5. Finish this sentence.

Writing, to me is,.......

...something I do every day. Writing means a lot to me, but everything follows from the practice of writing daily.

6. Do you plan to use mythology as a part of future projects? If so will you stray, or stay with with Mabinogi stories?

I'm interested in all kinds of mythologies, because they use stories to explain how the world works. Taking those stories at their word and bringing them into the present day can be a springboard for all kinds of great plots. That said, I'm thinking of writing some spinoff stories, perhaps featuring Aunt Mab, drawn from other aspects of Welsh stories  and mythology that I haven't worked into the DEADTOWN books. 

7. Recently, the cover for DARKLANDS (due to be released next July) was revealed on your web site. It’s awesome, by the way! Tell us how much input do you have when it comes to designing, and the finished result for your book covers.

Glad you like it! I've been very lucky with my cover designers at Ace.

My editor asks me for input before the cover meeting. At that point, the manuscript may not yet be finished, so she asks about major scenes and any cool new weapons Vicky might have. A couple of months later, I'll see a draft of the cover. By then, the concept is nailed down and the only changes will be tweaks. So my main chance to influence a cover is to give my editor ideas to take into the initial cover design meeting. But honestly, I'm not a design professional, and the actual designers have created covers that far surpassed any ideas I had. 

Nancy was able to convince Vicky to come along with her today and we have a few questions we would like to ask her now. 

8. Vicky, how would you describe the relationship between Nancy and you? Does she listen to you when you have something you need to discuss, or you don’t like a scene she has written?

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say “sadistic,” but there have been times when I fought my way through a really tough situation and expected a breather, only to hear Nancy asking, “What's the worst thing that could happen now?”—and then brainstorming a whole list of possibilities. She tends to pick the worst one, and I'm the one who deals with the fallout.

I prefer to work solo—that's partly why that whole apprenticeship thing with Tina didn't work out. Still, Nancy and I make a pretty good team. She thinks up impossible situations, and I fight my way out of them. Once in a while, though, she tries to push me into doing something I wouldn't normally do. That's when I dig in my heels, and the story just stops. That gets her attention, and eventually she sees things my way. 

9. What is your all time favorite situation you have found yourself in that Nancy has published?

Something pretty amazing happens in DARKLANDS (something I never imagined could happen), but since the book isn't out until the end of July, I'd better not talk about that yet. So I'll pick a moment in HELLFORGED, when Kane bought me a replacement for a watch I'd lost that keeps outside time in other people's dreams. I knew then that he was paying attention in a way I hadn't realized. Gave me butterflies. 

10. Vicky, tell us three things about yourself that we haven’t read in Nancy’s books.

Okay. One, I love Thai food, but Nancy has never yet set a scene in a Thai restaurant. Two, I'm an Aries (nobody knows this because Nancy let my 29th birthday fall between books). And three, when I was a kid nobody ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Because of some demonic prophecies that may or may not come true, along with a few other reasons, it was assumed my career path was demon fighter. And that was fine—it was want I wanted, more than anything. But one time when I was in high school, I watched ambulance workers help this kid who'd been hit by a car while riding his bike. For a few minutes, I thought that would be a great job, to be an EMT. Instead of killing things, I could save people, or at least try to. That really appealed to me. 

Thanks for visiting with us Nancy and Vicky. For more information about your books and future projects Nancy, where can our followers find you?  

My Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/NancyHolznerBooks

I'm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/NancyHolzner

And my website is http://nancyholzner.wordpress.com/ 

Thanks so much for a fun interview!

You are welcome and please come back anytime, we enjoyed talking to you and Vicky.

Nancy is having an awesome giveaway for one of our lucky followers. She is offering a signed copy of one of her book. Winner’s choice: Deadtown, Hellforged, or Bloodstone. Just be a follower, and leave a comment or question for Nancy with you email address. Nancy also wants everyone to know that this is open to our international followers so take a minute, visit with Nancy, and good luck to all.