I heard about Delia’s Shadow from Jodi Meadows. She was talking about it on Twitter and I was just curious enough to go to NetGalley and see what she was talking about. I got approved, devoured it and was immediately begging Jaime for more. I was so thrilled to learn that it was going to be a series.
As the release date for the sequel, A Barricade in Hell, got closer, I started obsessively refreshing the info page at Edelweiss to see if the pretty little request button ever showed up. Alas, it did not. However…I was able to get my greedy hands on an arc of it when Patrick let me go in the back room of Mysterious Galaxy.
I asked Jaime if she would be open to doing an interview and she said yes! Before we get to her answers, let’s check out the book.
Delia Martin has been gifted (or some would say cursed) with the ability to peer across to the other side. Since childhood, her constant companions have been ghosts. She used her powers and the help of those ghosts to defeat a twisted serial killer terrorizing her beloved San Francisco. Now it’s 1917—the threshold of a modern age—and Delia lives a peaceful life with Police Captain Gabe Ryan.
That peace shatters when a strange young girl starts haunting their lives and threatens Gabe. Delia tries to discover what this ghost wants as she becomes entangled in the mystery surrounding a charismatic evangelist who preaches pacifism and an end to war. But as young people begin to disappear, and audiences display a loyalty and fervor not attributable to simple persuasion, that message of peace reveals a hidden dark side.
As Delia discovers the truth, she faces a choice—take a terrible risk to save her city, or chance losing everything?
Sounds good, right? {Hint: it totally is!}
1. Where did the idea for the Delia Martin books come from?
Most of my books start with an image, something I’ve seen or a bit of research that sticks in my head. Believe it or not, I dreamed the whole opening scene to Delia’s Shadow. I saw a young woman standing next to a train, steam and fog billowing all around her. Someone was following her, but I didn’t know who or why. Once I figured out it was a ghost, the rest of the first book blossomed in my head and all the characters set up housekeeping.
Knowing that Delia could see ghosts, and fought admitting that even to herself, set up all kinds of possibilities and raised all kinds of questions. The books, all three of them, evolved out of me trying to answer those questions. Who Delia was, who her friends were, who might help her find answers and learn to cope with this ability, why did ghosts come to her, wanting help; all of that found it’s way into the books and turned ideas into story.
Gabe, Dora, Jack and Sadie evolved that way as well. Once I knew the characters, their hopes and fears and dreams, I knew their stories.
I’ve always said that I tell stories about people’s lives. That’s very true in this case.
2. I know why I love Delia and Gabe. Why do you love them and why should we root for them?
I love them because they are the kind of people I’d like to know, and become friends with in real life. Both of them keep going in the face of personal loss and terrible things happening around them. Both of them don’t let the darkness stop them from loving, or from having a sense of humor.
Delia faces her fears, no matter what they are, and does what needs to be done. She protects those she loves and cares about, even when that means putting herself at risk. I don’t think anyone could accuse her of being a coward. That’s the way I see her anyway.
And Gabe…I have a major crush on Gabe. My motto has always been to write the kind of guy as you’re hero that you’d want to have a relationship with. That would be Gabe.
3. Do you have a favorite scene in either book?
The scene in Delia’s Shadow where Delia meets Gabe’s parents for the first time. I love the interactions in that scene.
That’s the one I’ll pick anyway. There are a lot more scenes that I love in both books.
4. What was the weirdest thing you googled while researching?
I guess “weirdest” depends on your perspective, because my research takes me down some twisted pathways. But I’d have to say that for A Barricade In Hell, it had to be the German Kaiser’s involvement with the occult.
5. Describe A Barricade in Hell in 5 words.
I know writers are supposed to be able to reduce books to a one-line pitch at will, but I don’t think I can, not without being glib.
A Barricade In Hell is about the balance between good and evil shifting, friendship, betrayal, hope, love, and the power of belief. That’s more than five words.
Speed [ish] round:
1. You get the call/email/letter that says you’re being published for the first time. What happens next?
Lots of jumping up and down, excitement, emailing all the friends in the world, and crying.
2. What three things would you take to a desert island?
Books, music, and my cats. Not in that order, but those are the three essentials.
3. You can only read one book for the rest of your life. What is it?
An impossible question. The impossible answer is the next one on the pile.
4. Who are your favorite swoony boys?
Aragorn, Han Solo, Thomas Gibbon and Shemar Moore from Criminal Minds
5. What is the one thing about publishing you wish someone would have told you?
That the highs are the highest, and the lows are really, really low.
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Jaime Lee Moyer lives in San Antonio, land of cowboys, cactus, and rhinestones. She writes books about murder, betrayal, friendship, magic, and kissing, an activity her cats approve of (even the kissing).
Her first novel, Delia’s Shadow, was published by Tor Books September 17, 2013. The second book in the series, A Barricade In Hell, comes out June 3, 2014, and the third book, Against A Brightening Sky, in 2015.
Jaime’s short fiction has appeared in Lone Star Stories, Daily Science Fiction, and the Triangulations: End of the Rainbow, and Triangulations: Last Contact anthologies. She was poetry editor for Ideomancer Speculative Fiction for five years and edited the 2010 Rhysling Award Anthology for the Science Fiction Poetry Association. A poet in her own right, she’s sold more than her share of poetry.
She writes a lot. She reads as much as she can.
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Huge thanks to Jaime for always dealing with my fangirling taking the time. Make sure you’re checking out her blog, following her on Twitter and adding all of her books to your Goodreads shelves.
Now. Haven’t had a chance to start this series? I think you’re seriously missing out, so I’ve got a paperback copy of Delia’s Shadow up for grabs. The book will be coming from The Book Depository, so it’s international. Additional rules are here.
I’m gonna go with the most truthful answer possible for me. No, I don’t really believe in ghosts, but just in case… I don’t want to be proven wrong!
Thanks for making the giveaway international!!
I think I do believe in ghosts, but not in the way that they are normally thought of. I believe that people are never really gone forever, that they can return when they want to check up on their loved ones. I (kind of) believe in the malevolent ghosts of horror movie lore, but I don’t think that they are there for revenge or to terrorize people. I think they’re just scared and angry, not wrathful. It sounds silly and naive, but I like to keep an open mind. Who am I to say that something doesn’t exist just because I can’t see it?
I absolutely believe in ghosts and spirits. I believe they are all around us, watching us.
I used to believe in ghosts, but no longer do. Maybe energies though….there is a possibility…
No, I don’t believe in ghosts. However, it’d be cool if they’d existed.
Ghost, spirits, demons, I pretty much lump them all together and then say I believe in demons :) Daemons used to be believed to be benign or neutral spirits of nature. It were religions that came later that said demons were bad. But being a person that doesn’t believe in the existence of good and evil (everything depends on an individual’s likes and dislikes, there’s no cosmical law of good and evil), I believe demons are simply spirits that ‘roam’ the Earth like living creatures do. And as demons can be classified to hundreds of different beings, who’s to say human ghosts are so different from them that they deserve to be classified as something completely different? It’s like those ignorant people that say a ‘human’ isn’t an animal :)
In any case, my friend’s house used to be haunted and it got us pretty obsessed with ghosts back then. I’ve seen some awesome things that I deeply hope (and believe) were not my imagination. There were many ‘group sightings’ as well, and it’s quite hard to believe we all went delusional together, seeing the same thing at the same time ;)
Sometimes I do believe in ghosts (especially when I read about real life paranormal activities)
Sometimes I believe.. but not much :)