Author Interview & Giveaway – Terry Spear

Posted December 28, 2010 by Jen in Author Interview, Giveaway Tags: , ,

Today I have the honor of bringing to you author Terry Spear.  With almost 70,000 copies sold, Terry Spear is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. She received her MBA from Monmouth University. An eclectic writer, she dabbles in the paranormal as well as writing historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Terry lives in the heart of Texas. Please help me welcome Terry to That’s What I’m Talking About. 
Twimom: Terry, welcome and thank you for stopping by.
Terry:  Thank you for inviting me here today.
Twimom: How long have you been writing and how did you start? What are your inspirations?
Terry:  I started when I was a kid, reading and dreaming up stories of my own! Not only was my father a great storyteller, who also had lots of adventures which sparked my own interest in creating stories, but when he died, I wrote about his 13th mission over Germany in WWII. That ended up being my first published work. So my dad definitely inspired me. Beyond that, loving to read stories and wanting to create my own, and then sharing these with readers who enjoy them and want to see more of the wolf world is an even greater inspiration for me.
Twimom: You current release, Wolf Fever, is the 6th book in your romance series featuring werewolves. What first attracted you to the shape-shifting, paranormal genre? 
Terry: When I was a kid, I loved “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” which was a Norwegian tale about a prince cursed to be a polar bear by day and man at night. I loved that story. Later, I saw the movie, Ladyhawk, where the man was a wolf during the day and the woman a hawk at night… and again, it was a love story where the two would never be able to be together as man and woman. Note, the hero was a wolf, and of course I was in love with him. But how much better would it be if she was a wolf too? And they could be together either in their wolf or human states? In my stories, that’s definitely the case. No curses, they’re all very well-adjusted werewolves. For the most part!
In the case of Wolf Fever, Carol isn’t accepting her werewolfism very well, but that’s to be expected. She foresees a future disaster within the pack and that pushes her to fight accepting what she is. And Ryan doesn’t want to concede she might actually have psychic abilities. But there’s more to the reason he can’t leave her alone. And she knows it too, even if he can’t admit to it being anything more than an investigator’s desire to learn the truth. 
Twimom: Oh, I LOVE Ladyhawk, too. I haven’t thought of the movie in ages. I see that you enjoy researching your Scottish roots. What’s the most interesting/surprising thing you’ve discovered about your ancestry?
Terry: When I was researching my mother’s Scottish ancestry, I didn’t know the MacNeill’s first name or the Campbell’s either that had started the family in Scotland, which was on her mother’s side. I only had the fascinating oral history that had been passed down for generations about the Lady Campbell, daughter of the duke of Argyll, who ran off with the commoner MacNeill. They had paid for passage to the Carolinas and were taken to Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, instead to settle the island. That’s all I knew. So I put that little bit of information on the PEI site and got a response from a distant relation who was a descendent of a close family line. He had a letter from my great-great-grandfather, written in 1906, detailing something of the trip over and how they nearly starved until the native Indians showed them how to locate and kill walruses to keep them alive. But my ancestors on my mother’s father’s side, also include the Scottish-born Playfairs, one of whom, a crater was named on the moon for. The younger brother, William Playfair, who we directly descend from, was the founder of statistical graphs, and apprenticed with Andrew Meikle, the inventor of the threshing machine, and he became personal assistant to James Watt, also a famous Scottish inventor. Another brother was famous for architecture, and his son even more famous! 
Twimom: Wow, how wonderful! Can you tell my readers more about your Highland Medieval Series?
Terry: I love historical romance, and so I had wanted to write about the Highlands in medieval times. No guns. I wanted an early age and I was fascinated with Henry I as having the most mistresses of any king, but also at the time, he was the most learned. But when his father died, and his older brother met with a tragic end during a hunting accident that Henry was participating in, and suddenly, he had the crown while the brother who should have had it was overseas, well, it just seemed like the perfect time period to write about—lots of conflict, romance, and adventure. I was fascinated with how the Saxon princess and her brother fled to Scotland when William of Normandy took over and she became the king’s wife, and then their daughter became Henry’s wife, thereby tying the Saxons and Normans and Scots royalty together. Yet the Highland clans didn’t want to give up their autonomy. In my book Winning the Highlander’s Heart, I actually included some of the people of that time period that the hero and heroine stay with, one in particular who was a Saxon lord who had sided with the Normans, and kept his castles and titles, when others lost everything after the invasion.
Twimom: Do you write any other genres?
Terry: I have a vampire novel out, Deadly Liaisons—it’s about a vampire hunter who is bound and determine to find the vampire who killed her parents and terminate him, but the prince of the vampires in Oregon takes her under his wing, vowing to protect her, even though it looks as though the best protection he can offer her is to turn her. She’s torn between being one of the kind she’s supposed to terminate, and bringing an end to the vampire who has taunted her all her life, not to mention she’s falling in love with a vampire—which just cannot be. 
I also write paranormal YA and have The Vampire…In My Dreams and Deidre’s Secret out.
Twimom: I always like to ask authors about their reading habits… What is the best book you’ve read in 2010? What types of books do you enjoy reading? 
Terry:    I read tons of books (many audio since I don’t have a whole lot of time to sit down and read). I try to list them on Goodreads after I’ve read a few because I have a mind like a sieve when it comes to titles and authors! I have a time remembering names anywhere I go! I listened to the Truth series by Dawn Cook recently and just loved it. On my trip to Scotland and back, I read several books, and when I visit my son, I read at night. Mostly, I read historical, and on the trip, I picked up all Highland romances. But I also love fantasy, as was the Truth series. I love time travels but it’s harder to find them. I also read YA, and read a series recently that I enjoyed, which was a fantasy by Tamora Pierce, the Beka Cooper stories.
Twimom: What upcoming release are you most excited to read?
Terry: I recently read one of Stephanie Laurens new books and am interested in her next one. And I’ve been enjoying Lisa Kleypas’s audio books also.
Twimom: Terry, once again thank you so much for taking the time to tell my readers a little bit about yourself and your writing. It was wonderful chatting with you.
Terry: Again, thanks for having me!! And good luck to everyone who comments!
Readers: You can find Terry on line at 
GIVEAWAY:  I have two (2) copies (two winners) of Wolf Fever to giveaway here at That’s What I’m Talking About. Thank you to Sourcebooks for sponsoring the giveaway of Terry Spear’s latest book. To enter, please leave a comment  and your email at the end of today’s interview or my review of Wolf Fever yesterday (Dec. 27, 2010). Winners restricted to US and Canada mailing addresses, only. Contest open from now until 9:00 PM EST on Friday December 31, 2010. Two (2) winners will be selected from the comment entries using random.org.

 

10 responses to “Author Interview & Giveaway – Terry Spear”

  2. diva donna

    Wow, Terry has 70,000 books sold. I think people know good books. Yes, everyone Terry books are that good.
    I love them. And Twimom you know wolves too. I like your sidebar tribute to Joe Mag from True blood. That’s great wolf flesh. He’d be a good character for a upcoming book Terry. I’d bet he look good in a kilt and carrying a broad sword.
    dmf747@comcast.net

  3. Robin K

    Looks like a wonderful addition to the series. I am collecting them all to rad together and would love to win this one. Thank you for the interview and the contest.

    robin [at] intensewhisper [dot] com

  6. Barbara E.

    I hadn’t run across any of Terry’s books until I started seeing her on blogs. I’ve definitely got to get started on this series, it sounds fantastic.

    Barbed1951(at)aol(dot)com

  8. Scorpio M.

    I am a fan of Terry’s wolf series. The Seduction of the Wolf was *so* good. Can’t wait to read the latest! Thanks for the in-depth interview.

    jenma76 at hotmail dot com

  9. elaing8

    Enjoyed the interview. I am looking forward to starting this series.I’ll have to check Deadly Liaisons out too.
    elaing8[at]netscape[dot]net