Giveaway & Guest Post: Yvonne Navarro, author of The Dark Redemption series

I am happy to welcome Yvonne Navarro to Book’d Out today. Yvonne is the author of Highborn and the soon to be released Concrete Saviour, from her  new urban fantasy series, Dark Redemption. Yvonne is offering readers the chance to win one of two signed print editions of Highborn, read her guest post for details.

About Highborn{Dark Redemption #1}: Brynna is a fallen angel trying to earn redemption. She’s escaped from Hell in search of a new life on Earth, but Lucifer’s deadliest hunters are hot on her trail. Police Detective Eran Redmond is after her for a different reason: he needs Brynna to help him find a serial killer who is terrifying Chicago . . . and the trail leads them right to Hellspawned demons of the most dangerous kind. She’s also got a very human problem: dealing with a stubborn, attractive cop who makes her long for everything she knows she can’t have.Staying alive long enough to earn a shot at Heaven will mean breaking some major rules in the mortal world, as she learns just how complicated and wonderful being human can be. With so much stacked against her, even Brynna has to wonder if she’s crazy. But she’s not giving in without a fight.Not a chance in Hell. . . . READ AN EXCERPT

About Concrete Saviour {Dark Redemption #2: Once an irresistible, soul-destroying seducer of men and women through the ages, fallen angel Brynna Malak has fled Hell to seek redemption. But is such a thing possible? While dodging the brutal Hunters sent to retrieve her she must also save the life of a teenaged girl fathered by an angel and whose destiny is to complete a preordained task. At her side is a Chicago police officer who fights his undeniable attraction to her. And Brynna has made up her mind: she will die for eternity rather than return to Hell or give up her quest. Yet to continue, she must begin the long and difficult journey of learning to love and appreciate both the joys and the tragedies of being human

To Me or Not To Me

Not too long ago I discussed the idea of separating myself from my characters as part of a recent roundtable discussion for the International Thriller Writers online magazine, The Big Thrill.  Thinking about that, I wanted to go deeper into it, and this great invitation to do a Book’ d Out blog gave me the perfect chance to do just that.

My first inclination was to ask “Why would I want to?”  My personal preference is to BECOME the character, forget I’m the person writing the book, and completely immerse myself—in my head, of course—in whatever mischief and mayhem my character is causing.  I want to write the way I like to read, where the words transport me into the story and make me literally forget that I’m turning the pages of a book.  All I do it put into words what that character sees, does, speaks, feels.  His or her world becomes mine and that gets conveyed onto the computer screen.  The real world fades and all I see in my head is the character’s world and what’s happening in it. I hear the conversations– voices in my head!– and feel the emotions. It’s method acting turned into method writing.

But what if separating yourself means not putting parts of your own personality into your story?  Ah—that’s an entirely different issue, isn’t it?  Everyone does this, sometimes not intentionally.  You show yourself in the little quirks of behavior, attitudes and reactions you give your characters.  You double as Mommy and Daddy to every person you create, watching them inherit the best and worst of yourself, maybe grinning a little as you go along because you get to surreptitiously pass along your opinions and beliefs, and if someone doesn’t like them, you can say, “Hey, it’s only fiction.”

But then the subconscious slides in and gives them a few hereditary traits you never intended to pass along.  I would never point a finger at myself (::ahem::) but I see this both in books and movies.  The one I remember the most was a David Lynch film where the driver of one car ends up beating the heck out of the guy tailgating him.  Now that I bring it up, maybe that comparison doesn’t even belong here, because there was nothing subtle about that message!

Me, I have some kind of a dog in nearly every solo novel.  The extent to which I’m against the way racing Greyhounds are treated came out in my novel Deadrush (Bantam Books, 1995), and I didn’t even realize it until I read the publisher’s proofs.  Enough time had passed to where I thought “Whoa, I certainly carried on about that!”  When I mentioned it to my editor, her reply was, “Yeah, I was kind of wondering what you were doing there.”  It was late in the publication schedule so we left it alone, but you can bet I try to self-monitor a little more now.  Why?  Because my opinions are my opinions, and it’s way too easy to move from fiction to preaching.  You know that old saying: “Get off your soapbox!”  I don’t know where the word “soapbox” came from in regards to pontificating (now THERE’S a great word!), but the last thing I want a reader to do is roll her eyes because I feel strongly about the plight of green toads in Bora Bora and all she wants to do is read about the zombie that creeping around the museum aquarium and about to munch down on the heroine!

Best I pay attention to the story instead of me, huh?

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About the Author

Yvonne Navarro has written twenty-two novels, taking a crack at every genre via both original and media tie-in fiction.  Her work has won a number of writing awards, including the Bram Stoker for her YA book, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Willow Files, Vol. 2.  Her latest book is Highborn, the first in the Dark Redemption series; the second, Concrete Savior, comes out in June 2011. She lives in southern Arizona with her husband, author Weston Ochse, along with three rescued Great Danes (Goblin, Ghost and Ghoulie) and two people-loving parakeets.

Author Website I Books I Facebook I Twitter

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Enter to Win

Yvonne is offering two print editions of Highborn.

One US/CA reader will win a signed print edition with a set of Zombie Eyes magnetic bookmarks

One reader outside the US/CA will win a print edition of Highborn (*shipped via bookdepository.com)

Entries close: April 30th 2011 {drawn via random.org}

Required To Enter:

Leave a comment on this guest post OR the Yvonne’s website  OR Yvonne’s Facebook page and comment on something relevant to this guest post.

Include your name, email address  and country.

For extra entries:

+1 if you tweet, blog or facebook this post Use the icons below to make it easy and provide a link OR tweet the following:

I entered to win Highborn {Dark Redemption #1} by Yvonne Navarro at @bookdout, you should too!  @YvonneNavarro http://wp.me/p12MUP-st

+1 if you add Highborn and Concrete Saviour to your to-read list at Goodreads or Library Thing

Good Luck!