Interview: Allison Pang

NRR: Can you share with us when you got started into writing?

I was always a storyteller, even as a little girl. I did some writing in high school and college here and there, but to be honest, I didn’t really start writing for publication until about two years ago. In fact, I had no plans to ever really get back into writing until I started playing Play by Post games online. I enjoyed doing that enough that I thought I’d take a look at seeing what was involved with getting published and the rest is history. 

NRR: What made you want to write in the Urban Fantasy genre?

I had originally started writing a Paranormal Romance, but my editor decided the storyline would be more suited as an Urban Fantasy, so I edited the book to reflect that. To be honest, UF is probably a better fit for me overall – it gives me a great deal more flexibility to do what I want as far plot goes.

NRR: What is your guilty pleasure? 

Heh. Bacon. Hello Kitty. David Garrett.  (Not necessarily in that order.)

NRR: How were you inspired to write A BRUSH OF DARKNESS?

One of the last scenes was partially inspired on a dream I’d had, so one of things I did was to try to explore the reasons behind it, and what sort of story would lead up to such a sequence.  There’s a few of my personal demons also taking shape in the book as well – some things that I needed to work through.

NRR: Does music in any way inspire your writing? 

Absolutely. It’s playing most of the time when I write or edit.  I will often incorporate a bit of what I’m feeling into the words, or try to find music that will help me express the emotion of a certain scene.

NRR: What are some of your favorite movies and/or TV shows?

I honestly don’t have much time for TV these days. I do watch True Blood when it’s on, and I suspect GRRM’s A Game of Thrones is going to be on my hit list when it finally airs, but often I’m watching whatever the kids are watching. (A lot of Spongebob sometimes.)

Favorite movies? I’m still a huge Terminator/Aliens fan. On the other hand I will totally stop and watch Dirty Dancing every time I catch it on TV. Guess that’s sort of a guilty pleasure, even though parts of it are so terribly cheesy. (But I was in 6th grade when it came out in the theatre, so I guess it was one of those defining movies of my youth.) I also watch a lot of anime. 

NRR: If you could collaborate with any author, who would it be and why?

Gah. That’s a tough one. Honestly, it would so totally depend on the story and the writing style of the other author. I’ve done collaboration writing before (for fun) and when it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t, it’s a pretty wretched experience.

NRR: Can you share with us a little about A BRUSH OF DARKNESS (of course no spoilers)?

I had a naked incubus in my bedroom. With a frying pan of half-cooked bacon and a hard-on. And a unicorn bite on his ass. Christ, this was turning out to be a weird morning.

Sure. It’s essentially the story of Abby Sinclair – a jaded young woman haunted by the nightmares and the death of her mother – who becomes embroiled in the otherworld politics between Faerie, Heaven, and Hell. When her Faerie boss disappears, Abby is forced to team up with a smexy incubus (whose succubus sister has also gone missing) to try to find out what’s going on. Along the way, she runs into many more denizens of the CrossRoads, including daemons, angels, werewolves and a pervy little unicorn that takes up residence in her underwear drawer.