Guess what everyone?! Today I have Keri Stevens here with us! I got to meet Keri not long ago and let me tell you how incredibly fun she is to be around. She is bubbly and super sweet and just a incredibly awesome individual. If you haven’t gotten a chance to talk to her….well here is your chance to learn a bit about her! Keri graciously sat down and answered all my questions and has allowed me to do a giveaway (which we will get to in just a bit)
Welcome Keri! It’s great to have you here today!
1. Who is Keri Stevens? Tell us a bit about yourself 
I’m a wife and mother of three boys in northern Kentucky. I own a fitness business, but over the past couple of years I’ve been backing off the day job in order to write more.
2. Stone Kissed is your first published work….what made you finally pick up the computer and start typing? Was there a catalyst?
The story idea itself was the catalyst. I was taking a week-long dance workshop in Manhattan and I was dehydrated and exhausted and overwhelmed by my first trip to this biggest of cities. With my shields down, I sat in the courtyard of my hostel–Leo House, a lovely little facility run by nuns–next to one of the scariest Virgin Mary statues I’d ever seen. I began to talk to her, and pen in hand, I took down my hallucinatory imaginings of what she’d say. Within minutes I’d fleshed out a scene in which Scary Mary gossips, complains and tells my heroine how to fight dirty.
I’ve since learned this is the best time/way for me to draft–early in the morning, shields down, before my conscious mind gets a chance to wake up and say, “This is crap.”
3. Let’s talk Stone Kissed. What made you want to write about talking statues? Tell us about the book.
Buy: Amazon Kindle/B&N Nook/Carina Press
(love this cover BTW!)
In Stone Kissed, my statues talk to Delia, the heroine. Once I established that rule in my fictional world of Stewardsville, Virginia, it opened up all sorts of questions. What does a six-hundred year old armless bust think of the generations of people who “own” her? And if we squishy mortals keep dying and are replaced by others, who, in fact, owns whom? Our attitudes about property might be ridiculous to creatures who are much more durable than we.
After an arsonist torches her ancestral home with her estranged father still inside, Delia is forced to sell the estate to pay his medical bills. Her childhood crush, Grant Wolverton, makes a handsome offer for Steward House, vowing to return it to its former glory. Delia agrees, as long as he’ll allow her to oversee the restoration.
Working so closely with Grant, Delia finds it difficult to hide her unique talent—especially when their growing passion fuels her abilities.
But someone else lusts after both her man and the raw power contained in the Steward land. Soon, Delia finds herself fighting not just for Grant’s love, but for both their lives…
4. Tell us what you are working on now?
There are (at least) three books set in Stewardsville and several dozen other characters that are insisting their stories be told. This is the thing about small towns–real and fictional. Because everybody knows everyone, they can be more crowded than the biggest of cities (even or especially in an author’s brain!)
Right now, however, Kelsey Hardcastle–the pregnant hospital records clerk we first meet in STONE KISSED–is facing the music after her one-night stand with a male siren. WATER ROCKED is the working title of this related book in the series, and I’m editing like a freak right now.
5. Romance is subjective, so what is the most romantic thing you’ve had happen to you?
My husband introduced me to romance novels as a joke. He gave me a Jade Lee novel and I fell in love with it. I bought her backlist and an addiction to the genre was born. A few years later, after I got him his own autographed copy of her book, The Dragon Earl, he looked at me straight in the eye and told me, “I really think you’re going to do this. You’re going to sell that novel.”
What’s more romantic than a show of faith and support from the person you admire and desire the most?
6. You mention Jade Lee as an influence to you. Do you have other authors that influenced your writing?
Like Jade Lee, Diana Gabaldon blithely crosses all sorts of boundaries and breaks all sorts of “rules.” They move in and out of normal and paranormal universes, they set their books in unusual times, places and cultures. Their characters cross racial boundaries. I’m glad I read them both early on, before I know there were these so-called rules. And I’m glad I found Carina Press, where “no great story goes untold.”
7. I met you at the last Lori Foster conference, do you enjoy going to conferences and fan related get togethers? Do you plan on going to more?
I do enjoy them–I have to remind myself repeatedly that I’m at these events for work and not on vacation! That said, talking romance novels with like-minded people is nothing but pure fun. Next year I look forward to going to the Romantic Times convention in Chicago in addition to my hometown con–the Lori Foster Reader-Author Get Together.
8. Have you had any funny instances with fans since you’ve been published? Besides talking to me about my giant sex basket I won at the conference that is
Actually, Nikki–your giant sex basket pretty much trumps everything else! (You don’t want to know how many tickets I put in that bag…heh) The raffles at the Lori Foster conference are the best I’ve ever seen–and I used to be a professional fundraiser, so I’ve been to a LOT of raffles and silent auctions!
Thank you for having me. I hope your readers and you enjoy STONE KISSED–especially the lucky drawing winner!
Find Keri!
Website: www.KeriStevens.com
Keri has given me a epub file (though I can get PDF as well if needed) of Stone Kissed to give to one lucky commenter! This is open internationally and I will leave it up until 11:59 pm EST on August 26th. All you have to do to enter is say hello to Keri and tell us, if you could talk to statues would you seek them out or would you try and ignore your ability as much as possible?
*As always, winner to be picked by random.org*
Nikki, thanks for welcoming me! And congratulations on crossing the 100K visitor mark!
Thanks for coming by today! 100K kinda snuck up on me
Great interview! I’ve been following Keri on Twitter and she has the best tweets ever. I’ve had Stone Kissed on my TBR pile and I would just LOVE to win a copy. It looks like such great new premise for a story.
I was at Lori Foster event too. I hope to go next year so I can go fan girlie all over again. LOL
I love how she mentioned Diana Gabaldon! I just met Diana last weekend and I am still flying high. I did a blog post about meeting her and then yesterday Diana did her own blog post and linked my site on hers. Talk about squeeing!!
To talk to statues would be amazing. Think of the history and what they would have seen! I’d probably ask all kinds of historical questions. I would totally seek them out.
MichelleKCanada
@AnotherLookBook
http://anotherlookbookreviews.blogspot.com/
Michelle,
Are you coming back to Lori Foster next year? It’s a given for me from now on.
Going to check out your Gabaldon blog (and Oh, Em, GEE! Gabaldon linked you!!!!)
Hi Keri! Thanks for the comment on my blog!
I really really want to go back to the Lori Foster event. It was a 7 hr drive from Canada but if my girlfriend is willing to do it again, I will for sure be there.
MichelleKCanada
Hi Nikki and Kari! Thanks for the giveaway!
I’d have to go in the middle; if it was to help solve a case/mystery I would go to them, but just going about my everyday life people would probably think I had somekind of phobia of statues.
Deann–that’s EXACTLY my heroine’s problem! The statues tend to get over-involved in her personal life, which is kind of nuts-making.
Hello Keri! I would probably talk with the statues since I love some juicy gossip! lol Nothing mean spirited, just juicy.
Bridgett, the funny thing is I’ve had readers since tell me that they will turn the figurines on their shelves and mantels around sometimes because they no longer feel they have privacy in their homes. I admit that I get a big kick out of that.
Congratulations on getting published, Keri.
I’d love to be able to talk to statues, particulaly cause I can always walk away and they can’t follow to nag like ghosts.
acm05atjuno.com
acm05: Statues don’t even believe in ghosts. Ghosts are WAY too insubstantial for things made of stone. (Which isn’t to say that I don’t believe in them–all sorts of weird things happen in Stewardsville
)
Hi Kerri & Nikki~
I follow Kerri on twitter also and she does have some funny tweets! lol If I had the power to talk with statues, oh yeah, I would go forward with it! Can you imagine talking with the statue of David? ( lol, now THAT would be an interesting conversation!) Just think of the possiblities you could have with the statues of the Gods ~ Zeus, Athena, Venus? It would be great~
Christi,
Thanks for dropping by! You’ve been a great supporter of mine online and best of luck with your books, too!
One of the questions I had to ask myself was…does the statue carry the personality of the person or god it’s supposed to depict, or of the person who sculpted it, or what? I went with a mix of both. Athena, for example, is definitely a smarty-pants. And being Greek, she has different opinions on EVERYTHING from the Roman matron. There were so many things I had to cut or leave out because while it was fun to play, I had to remember the story is ultimately about Delia and Grant (those squishy humans!)
Great interview to my favorite RWA date!
Keri was my date to the RITA/GH awards ceremony in NYC this year. She’s a good date. Really puts out…the comments. Geesh people, minds out of the gutter please.
Don’t enter my name in the drawing as I have STONE KISSED and read it quite some time ago. It is an awesome concept. I really am looking forward to her next book.
Awww, Cynthia. You give good…date night, too
If i had that ability I would be off to Greece to talk to those statues! Or Egypt! It would be awesome. Thanks for the giveaway and interview!
Viajeradelmar@aol.com
Nikki,
Yeah, just imagine if taking care of those statues were your job? I think it must be incredibly tedious work to be a conservator–unless you get to talk to your “patients.”
I think I would talk to them and try not to let anyone see. I think it would be great.
Thanks for the chance.
Mary
mary_reiss @ hotmail.com
Mary, that’s what my heroine, Delia must do. She has to pretend in public that she’s not talking to the statues. Sometimes the stones cooperate with her need for secrecy…and sometimes they don’t!
Hi Keri, I think it would depend on the statue. I’d love to talk to a statue from Pompeii or Ancient Greece.
Morganlafey86(at)aol(dot)com
Pompeii fascinates me, Krysta. You have actual stonework there…and then you have the statues of the dead made at the moment the lava flowed over them. They’re actually more like mummies in my mind, and when I see either of those I send up a little prayer.
I would love to talk to statues and find out what the real scope was.
People get up to all sorts of fascinating things when the *think* they’re in private, don’t they
?
Hi, Keri. I would love to talk to statues they must have some stories to tell since they get to watch so much and no one gives it another thought. I’ve been known to talk to them even if they say nothing back.
Renee, since I’ve read this book I’ve had a LOT of people tell me they actually talk to statues in real life. I bet it’s more normal than not!
Hi Keri, I can’t wait to read Stone Kissed! If I developed the ability to talk to statues I’m sure I would end up too heavily medicated to seek them out. LOL I’m not the bravest person in the world but I can’t wait to see how Delia handles the situation.
ROFL Laura, in Delia’s case, she was born with the ability and didn’t know she was abnormal until her parents made that clear to her (which is why she and her father are estranged at the beginning of the book.) But yeah–some of the residents of Stewardsville come into their own various powers at puberty in future books,and that just makes an awful few years worse. Wishing you happy reading!
As I once told a college friend (who came upon me talking to myself), I used to talk to the family dog but while in school, I was reduced to talking to myself. I think talking to any object, be it statues or lamps, got to be better than talking to yourself. It’s the degree of perceived craziness with talking to yourself being the craziest, then talking to inanimate objects, and finally, talking to living things (dogs, cats, hamsters, plants – at least all that CO2 will help the plants grow).
So, sure, if I could, I’d talk to statues. I hope they have interesting (to me) things to say.
Okay…confession time. I do talk to myself. I have been known to talk aloud to myself while walking down a street. Sometimes the only way to try on dialogue is out loud. And when I get caught, I sniff haughtily and say, “Of course I talk to myself. Sometimes it’s the only intelligent conversation I can get.”
I doubt I’m getting away with it, though…
LOL! I’ll have to try that line sometime.
Also, please don’t enter me for the giveaway because I have already read STONE KISSED and enjoyed it immensely.
Hi Keri
If there is one thing I’ve learned about all the books I’ve read is that… any kind of extraordinary abilities I might have should never be ignored and in fact should be fully embraced. So yes, if I could I would absolutely talk to statues… seems innocent enough and you never know what they might say:)
Thanks for the giveaway!
yadkny@hotmail.com
Yadira–amen to that! There’s a reason my motto is “Leap! And love will catch you.”
I would definitely talk to them if I could. I’ love history so the chance to hear the real scoop would be something I couldn’t pass up. I guess I’d have to try to only do it at night so there wouldn’t be people around to hear me.
Jen at delux dot com
Jen,
My heroine completely agrees. When she needs to talk to the graveyard statues, for example, she chooses the hours when the cemetery is least populated by humans.
Hi Keri! Congratulations on publishing your first book. I really like the premise for STONE KISSED. I think having the ability to talk to statues would be interesting especially in places that have a famous or infamous history. I would definitely try to talk to them but only if I have the chance to seek them out rather than have them seek me out. It might be scary but interesting for sure.
Na–yeah, it would be mighty uncomfortable if statues could come and go as they chose, wouldn’t it?
Have you ever seen the episode of Dr. Who called Blink? Honestly, after seeing that episode, I don’t want to talk to statues. Probably not fair, but true!
jepebATverizonDOTnet
I haven’t seen it yet (we’re WAY behind on the new doctor–just got to Tennant). But I can’t wait to see how they twist that. From what I hear it’s a wee bit darker than my spin in Stone Kissed.
Hi Keri. I follow your tweets on twitter-very entertaining. As far as talking to statues, why not? I often talk to myself so talking to statues can’t be any stranger than that. : )
kamwh1207(at)att(dot)net
Tina,
LOL I’m the same way.
Hi Keri!! Your book sounds amazing and I LOVE the cover! And to answer the question.. duh! I would talk to them. Maybe not in a crowded place because I don’t want people to think I’m crazy. But discreetly sure! That’d be awesome!
ruby95660[at]yahoo[dot]com
Ruby,
The folks in Carina Press’s design department consistently do the most amazing covers. I still remember opening the file on my computer and being blown away!