Welcome to the 2024 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

 

 

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close four days after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 5th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

J.M. Celi will be at the Rhode Island Author Expo   

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? J.M. Celi

Where do you call home? Bellingham, MA

What genre(s) do you write? Urban Fantasy

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger? Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most?  Medieval Fantasy, Sci Fi, and Urban Fantasy. I think they appealed to me because they were the greatest departures from real life. 

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why? The Dragonlance Novels by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman - which were medieval fantasy. I think they appealed to me because they were the first book series I read, and they opened up the world of fantasy to me.

What are some of your favorite books today? The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne, The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, and The Hollows series by Kim Nelson. 

What inspired you to become a writer? I was listening to a lot of audio books during my commute into work. The more I read, the more the spark of inspiration grew. 

 

The Unlife of Lisa Cooper: Conviction 

 

For over century and a half, Lisa has kept the toll of her curse at bay. In doing so, she's maintained the remnants of the woman she was in life, but she has denied herself a great deal of power. Such a sacrifice can be dangerous in nights filled with supernatural threats.  Matters complicate when a mortal becomes entwined in her life. Can Lisa keep her secret hidden from a new friend while protecting him from the horrors that threaten herself and everyone close to her?

Tell us a little about how “The Unlife of Lisa Cooper: Conviction” came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else?  Lisa Cooper was a vampire character I'd had in my head since the 90s. I think I'd always wanted to write a story about her, but I never took that leap until a few years ago. I wanted to show a vampire who was not the monster you had to kill, the love interest of another protagonist, or some hero's supernatural sidekick. I also wanted to show the humanity within a vampire struggling with her curse.

Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book? Some of the characters who were written to be antagonists were rewritten to become allies. Some of the allies were rewritten to become villains.

Which character was the most challenging to create. Why? I'd have to say Tracy. Tracy is another vampire in Lisa's "bleed" (a term given to a vampire territory). What made Tracy challenging was that she would often chide Lisa on being too reluctant to use her gifts. Sometimes she'd do the tough love thing. I had to write Tracy in a way that readers wouldn't outright hate her, but see her point of view as a counter to Lisa's reluctance to draw too heavily upon her curse.

What do you like best about being a writer? I love the creative process of taking the scenes in my head and putting them on paper. In a strange kind of way, once those scenes have been committed to words on a page, those stories have come to life. 

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb.  It would be Kevin Hearne, hands down. He was an author whose works gave me a push to start writing myself. I love his works, creativity, and humor.

You can follow J.M. Celi here - 

https://www.jmceli.com

https://www.facebook.com/jm.celi.54 

Instagram - jm_celi

Threads - https://www.threads.net/@jm_celi

J.M. Celi is giving away A\a hardcover of "The Unlife of Lisa Cooper: Conviction".  To enter comment below --> Do you read Urban Fantasy? If yes, list your favorite. If no, what is your current read?

 

(Comments are open for 4 days)