Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester is happy to shine our Friday spotlight on author Christine Feehan. Christine Feehan is a #1 New York Times and International bestselling author of over 85 novels. She is also a 3rd degree blackbelt who taught self-defense for 20 years, a mother, grandmother and even great-grandmother who lives in the Northern California coast in the Redwoods near the ocean.
Her first book, Dark Prince was originally released in 1999 and she has gone on to write seven series, single titles and novellas.
Christine, where can people find your work? (Besides Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester–though they should totally check here first!)
You can find my work in most bookstores and online. And of course, in libraries.
How can we follow your work and share your awesomeness?
Most of my “awesomeness” happens on the weekend with my grandchildren, but as far as my work goes, I try to be available to my readers in a few different places: Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and my own online community which was established in 2009 and has over 150,000 members.
What else can we expect from you in the near future?
I’m constantly writing and try to release six books a year. This year I released Savage Road in January, Phantom Game in March. Now I have Shadow Fire which releases April 26th.
The rest of the year is just as busy with-
Red on the River releasing June 28th. The same day my son, Brian Feehan, has his first novel release – Harmony of Fire.
Dark Whisper is out October 11th
Leopard’s Scar is out November 29th
And Recovery Road will release tentatively January 31st of 2023.
What kind of research went into writing this book? What is your favorite research story? What cool facts and findings didn’t make it into the book, but you loved discovering?
For Shadow Fire I didn’t have a lot of research. I had done research for past books that I was able to utilize, but this book really only required extra research about France, contracts for arranged marriages and bombs. You know, the usual. LOL
For Red on the River though that required a huge amount of research. I sent my daughter, Denise, who does all of the research that requires travel, to Las Vegas to research the city, but also the surrounding parks since the women in this book do hiking, rock climbing and bouldering. I want scenes that involve those things to feel real to readers. Denise also went with a friend to Tuolumne which is such a beautiful area.
I also had to research poker and gambling. I am not going to admit to how much help I needed before, during and after writing those scenes but I can promise you no one is going to ask me to any celebrity poker tournaments in the near future. I may not even be asked to play Go Fish! LOL
What was the inspiration for the Shadow Rider series? What were the steps you took to bring it from initial inspiration to the finished books?
For my Shadow Rider series it all started as I was watching my Black Russian Terriers, which look like big black bears, prance and play together in the dog yard as I watched from up on the balcony. It was that time of day when shadows were everywhere and as one dog would run into the shadows it appeared to me that he completely disappeared before coming out in the sunshine several feet away.
I thought it would be cool if we could travel using shadows and come out wherever we need to. And then, my author’s brain said – “What if assassins could ride the shadows to mete out justice?” And the Shadow Rider series was born.
What was the biggest challenge in writing and putting out Shadow Fire? How did you overcome that challenge?
I can’t say that I had a particular challenge in writing Shadow Fire. I’m so comfortable with the characters and knew who the hero was going to be. If there was a challenge, I would say it was that I had no idea I would write Elie’s story. He was a secondary character, not even a cousin, to the Ferraro family which I’d about written previously. Since I hadn’t considered writing his book, I honestly didn’t pay much attention to the details I gave about him. That came back to haunt me. I was locked into some of his personality traits and history.
Christine, thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer our questions! And good luck with Shadow Fire!
Annie's Book Stop of Worcester 