Welcome to Feature Friday with Cecilia Dominic and her new release Blood’s Shadow.
Book blurb:
Encountering werewolves can be deadly. Trying to cure them? Murder.
The Lycanthropy Files, Book 3
As the Investigator for the Lycanthrope Council, Gabriel McCord encountered his share of sticky situations in order to keep werewolf kind under the radar of discovery. Now, as the Council’s liaison to the Institute for Lycanthropic Reversal, he advocates for those who were turned werewolf against their will.
Everyone seems to be on board with the Institute’s controversial experimental process— until one of its geneticists is found lying on his desk in a pool of blood. Gabriel races to single out a killer from a long list of suspects. Purists, who believe lycanthropy is a gift that shouldn’t be returned. Young Bloods, who want the cure for born lycanthropes as well as made. The Institute’s own very attractive psychologist, whose most precious possession has fallen into the hands of an ancient secret society bent on the destruction of werewolves.
Failure means he’ll lose his place on the Council and endanger the tenuous truce between wizard and lycanthrope. Even if he wins, he could lose his heart to a woman with deadly secrets of her own.
Warning: Some bloody scenes, adult language, and consensual sex between adults. Also alcohol consumption at Scottish levels and tempting portrayals of unhealthy Scottish food.
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So Welcome Cecilia! Let’s get to know you a bit!
Thank you so much for interviewing me today, Rebekah.
What is your Latest Obsession?
While I do have occasional writing-related obsessions, most recently anything steampunk, my current one is probably my kitten Timothy Mouse. He’s just so adorable! He’s also a little pain in my rear end, so it’s a good thing he’s cute. I’m a psychologist and don’t have kids, so I might be a little too focused on raising him to be a well-adjusted, social kitty. I’m trying to be sure to spend a good amount of time with him and balance play time with cuddle time. He does have some quirks like an obsession with playing in his water bowl, then walking near his litter box so that I and Hubby end up with little clay paw prints across our desks.
Who is your Secret Crush?
Have you seen the guy on the Blood’s Shadow cover? I actually asked my editor if it was normal for authors to fall for their creations. She said yes, so I felt better about it. I have to give kudos to the cover artist Kanaxa – she’s amazing. I asked her to come up with what it would look like if Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth had a baby. Are any scientists reading this? We need to make this happen!
Shoes? Purses? or Jewelry?
Hmmm, I wear a ten and a half, and most stores don’t carry half sizes over nine and a half, so shoes are really hard to find. As for purses, I’m boring. I find one I like and tend to stick with it, even getting it in black and brown if I can. Jewelry – yes, please! I’m a big fan of small pendants, which I tend to buy when I travel. I also have a cool chain-link and crystal necklace from an artist at DragonCon.
Coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate? Or something else?
It depends on the time of day. If it’s morning, coffee. Lunch time or later, tea. And then for the evening, wine or Belgian beer. I’ll occasionally do hot chocolate around this time of year with either Bailey’s or Peppermint Schnapps in it.
What was your Best Vacation Ever?
Oooh, that’s a tough one. I love to travel. Most recently, I was in Philadelphia and really delighted in the Reading Terminal Market. It’s just such a fun place with all kinds of food vendors and treats tucked in like the Cookbook Stall, where you can find books with ideas of what to do with all that amazing food. I could spend a day just wandering through all the aisles of stalls and eating.
Probably my favorite vacation so far was the one Hubby and I took to Scotland in 2006. We had a week to ourselves to explore, and then we did an adult education course through the University of Stirling because he had a scholarship through a Scottish association he’d never used. It helped us to see the historical details of the country we hadn’t noticed or understood when we were just traveling on our own. Several of them made it into the setting of Blood’s Shadow. It was also the first and only time I visited a standing stone site, which was also a long-time dream of mine. No, I didn’t fall through time like the character in the Outlander series, thank goodness. I would not do well in a time without running water or toilet paper.
Favorite Music to Write to?
It depends on what I’m writing. When I was writing my new adult contemporary with romantic elements, which will be out in May (squee!), I had playlists for each main character, mostly of nineties and modern pop music. Now that I’m writing a steampunk, which is tentatively scheduled for an August release (double squee!), I’ve been listening to classical music from the romantic era, which is my favorite period. Seriously, I’ve been geeking out over the overlap between music history, which I took in college, and nineteenth century history.
Side note – has anyone else noticed that we don’t talk much about the 1800’s beyond Napoleon, the Industrial Revolution, and the American Civil War? There’s so much more!
Oh, right, music. Chopin, Liszt, Schumann – swoon! For the Lycanthropy Files, it was either classical or modern music, but probably more classical. It’s hard for me to write if I’ve got other words coming in my ears.
One food it grosses you out to eat:
I’m half Belgian and half Italian, so I ended up with strange cross-dislikes. The two applicable ones are mayonnaise, which totally grosses me out, and olives, which I just can’t like the flavor of on their own, no matter how hard I try.
Where to Find Cecilia!