Nocturne Romance Reads: Interview: Hannah Jayne

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

HJS: I was in the second grade. My teacher, Mrs. Sullivan, told us we had to write a story long enough to fill three pages (remember those big, fat-lined pages that were basically newsprint paper?). I filled 12. That fabulously horrendous story about two time traveling orphans who met a beachcomber and his dog sealed the deal for me: from that moment on, I knew I was going to be a writer. I wrote all through school and then when I finished college, I worked a dead-end job waiting for the Great American Novel to find me and agents to come beating down my door. Ten years passed while I "waited" at the job that was supposed to be a one-summer thing. Finally, I decided it was now or never - I quit my job and decided to write. Then my house burned down. Talk about a sign from above! At that moment, I knew there was no going back. Life is simultaneously too short and too long not to live your dreams.

NRR: How were you inspired to write Under Wraps?

HJS: I hate to say this, but I almost wasn't! My first book (as yet unsold) was with two publishing houses who ultimately came back and said, "we like her style...can she do paranormal?" Thinking Twilight, I flatly told my agent no way. Then I called her back the next day and said, "okay, this is what I've got." I completely fell in love with Sophie as I wrote her. And you know, Parker Hayes isn't too bad, either!

NRR: What is your guilty pleasure?

HJS: Bad television that I'm way too old for. Pretty Little Liars, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Degrassi. Ditto bad pop music. I think I'm the only person in the world who has AC/DC on her iPod right next to Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. And yes, I do own Lindsay Lohan's first album.

NRR: Which actors could you see playing Sophie and Parker?

HJS: Great question! I can safely say not Tori Spelling or Valerie Bertenelli (add "watching Lifetime" to the answer above, please). And not someone too overly fit who would have to gain weight to play Sophie (so that rules out most of Hollywood). I really don't know... what do you guys think?

NRR: Which authors would you say help inspire you?

HJS: Definitely Elaine Viets who writes the Dead End Job mystery series. Juliet Blackwell with her Witchcraft mystery series - she manages to write gorgeously and still keep her books light and fun. Penny Warner's Killer Bash books - she's a total pro. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Southern authors Lee Smith, Kaye Gibbons and Jill McCorkle. I think they are the superstars in taking mundane or really sad situations and making them hilarious/inspiring/moving/ridiculous.

NRR: Can you share with us a little bit about Under Wraps (of course no spoilers)?

HJS: Well, when they told me to write paranormal I was a bit against it - so that's how Sophie Lawson, completely normal girl, ended up working at the Underworld Detection Agency - basically, the demon equivalent to the DMV. Sophie is executive assistant to a werewolf and shares an apartment with fashion-whore vampire Nina, and Nina's dressed-as-Count-Chocula nephew, Vlad. Dodging pixies and hobgoblin slobber is all par for the course for Sophie at the UDA until Detective Parker Hayes saunters in - chiseled, gorgeous, and reporting on a handful of heinous crimes that have Underworld inhabitants written all over them...

NRR: What can we expect to see from you next?

HJS: Under Cover, the second installment in the Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles will hit shelves on 11-11-11!

The Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles: Under Wraps

Sink your teeth in 3.1.11

Pre-order your copy on Amazon now!

Under Wraps by Hannah Jayne