Welcome Lou Harper to Love Bytes 🙂

Lou kindly offered to answer some interesting questions drawn up by our own Carissa , who also reviewed Lou’s latest release for us and on top of this all there is a giveaway! at the end of this post! 🙂

Carissa:Hello, Lou!  Thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions from me.  Your story, Dead in the Desert, was actually the first book I reviewed here at this blog, so I guess it is only fitting that you are the first author that I get the chance to interview, as well.  I have been a fan of your stories for a long time, and reading your latest story, Dead Man and the Army of Frogs, was a real pleasure.  I love Denton and Bran, and their series has to be one of my all-time favorites–and only partly because of the tail. 😛

Since I have never done this before I decided to ask the questions that I really wanted to know the answers to, and hopefully everyone will not be bored to tears.

Lou :I’m glad you enjoyed the book, and I’m sure if anyone gets bored it’ll be my fault.

1) We first met Denton in Gabe and Harvey’s first book, Spirit Sanguine. Did you know that the Dead Man was going to get his own series when you first wrote him into that book?

Not at all. I like having fun with the supporting characters, fleshing hem out. With Denton I succeeded a little too well. When a couple of my critique partners commented on him I decided to give Denton his own story. It was fun coming up with adventures and a romantic foil for him. Necromancers are woefully underrepresented in the genre. Wouldn’t you agree?

2) In the first book in this series, Dead Man and the Restless Spirits, Bran confesses that he turned his first lover (for lack of a better term (well, other than tool or douche)) into a frog by accident.  Was there a reason you choose to turn Peter into a frog instead of another animal? (I ask because you always include such interesting mythology into your paranormal books, and I was wondering if there was any particular significance to frogs in mythology.)

Uhm, well… This will probably disappoint you.

There is a witch trial scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail with this bit of dialogue:

Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she’s a witch?

Peasant 3: Well, she turned me into a newt!

Sir Bedevere: A newt?

Peasant 3: [meekly after a long pause] … I got better.

I love the absurdist humor of Monty Python and this scene played in the back of my head while writing that part about Bran’s past. Now, I know newts are not frogs but they are both amphibians. Plus, I have a lifelong love for frogs and toads. When I was little I used to spend the day trying to catch them whenever my dad took me fishing.

3) We met Bran’s mother in the first book of this series, and we get a chance to meet Bran’s father in this new book…will we be getting a chance to meet any of Denton’s family in future books? And, well, I guess to go along with that question: Will there be any future books in this series?

I don’t know. I love these guys, and in my head I see them in many different situations that haven’t made it into any of the books yet. I’d like to return to them at some point but right now I’m in neck-deep in other projects. I have tentative plans to write a series of related stories set in Los Angeles. Both Bran’s mother and the Old Crone would play roles in those.

4) You have been given control of your very own frog army–a frarmy, if you will–what is your first command to your leap-footed minions?

To take over the world, of course. 🙂

5) Out of all your boys, do you have a favorite couple? (Don’t worry if you do, it’ll be our little secret.)

Whoever I’m writing at the moment. I love them all but differently.

6) A lot of your books are made up of interconnected short stories, tied together into a larger, overall story.  Was this something you just happened to fall into, or is there a reason you prefer to structure your books like this?

Spirit Sanguine was the first book I wrote this way, but it didn’t happen by design. My original idea was to write a short and fun little story about an unconventional vampire, because I was sick to the fangs with brooding bloodsuckers. But the characters got away from me. Halfway through what turned out to be the first story I realized Harvey and Gabe had too much backstory to give them justice in a single novella. Since I read Marshall Thornton’s first Boystown books around that time, and they have and episodic structure, I decided to go the same route.

I tend to write lean, but this structure helps me create longer books. Relatively speaking.

7) I’ve been asked by a friend, Emma Sea, to convey her fangirl squees to you, and to ask if you set out at the beginning of the year with a set plan of what you are going to write, or do you simply focus on one book at a time? (Also, from the way she squeeed, if you happen to write another book in the Last Stop series, you might just gain yourself a loving and devoted minion.)

Hi Emma! *waves*

I’m a planner, though I haven’t always been. These days I have a calendar taped to the wall next to my desk. On it I mark my release dates, and block out the time periods I’ll need to write certain books. Usually I know what the next two-three books will be, but beyond that that it starts getting foggy.

By the way, thanks for the reminder—I need to start working on my schedule for next year.

8) I noticed when I was going thru your website the other day that you, in fact, design not only your own covers, but the covers of some of my favorite books (I’m especially partial to the covers of Cat Grant’s Bannon’s Gym series–yummy yummy fighters). How long have you been designing covers and how did you get started doing it?

Almost since I started writing. I have a background in photography and graphic design, so it was natural to me to get into cover design. At the beginning I made free covers for friends for their self-published titles. Then I got an assignment for Josh Lanyon and through him Harper Fox. The rest of my cover designer career started to grow from that.

9) Since you have just published Dead Man and the Army of Frogs, what is up next for you in the book world?

Secrets and Charms is coming out with Samhain Publishing in December, right before Christmas. The book is linked to Secrets and Ink. If you read that book you might remember the protagonist’s best friend, Olly. In Charms Olly gets his own adventures. There’s romance, Hollywood, and a touch of murder.

I’m currently working on the third book in this world, Secrets and Bow Ties. It’s slated to come out in May. And I committed myself to a fourth Secrets book. Oh, and I hope to be able to squeeze in an LA Paranormal novella featuring psychic Leander and his grumpy boyfriend, Jon. Wish me luck.

10) And lastly, and most importantly…Gerard Butler: with or without the kilt?

Definitely with kilt. No question. You need something to get your imagination revving.

 

Thanks so much for letting me interview you. I had a lot of fun coming up with questions, and I am looking forward to hearing your answers. I’m really looking forward to your next stories.

– Carissa

(And, just to let you know, my answer to question 10 is with…but I would be more than willing to be swayed over into Naked Butler land–and wow, that sounds like a rather terrifying place, actually. I keep getting flashes of Alfred from Batman walking around starkers. *shudders*)

🙂 Michel Cane was a rather handsome lad in his youth. Maybe you should watch one of his old movies so you can picture his young version in kilts. In addition, even older man can have good calves. Just look at Sean Connery. Everything’s fine as long as there’s no wind.

Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Dead Man and the Army of Frogs

SERIES:  Dead Man #2

AUTHOR:  Lou Harper

PUBLISHER:  Harper Books

LENGTH:  142 pages

BLURB:

All Denton wanted was a few minions. He got frogs instead. 

Web developer by day and necromancer by night, Denton Mills is used to seeing things nobody else can. When he starts hallucinating frogs, he simply assumes they have something to do with his boyfriend Bran’s obsession.

Bran Maurell is a witch, who in a youthful outburst, accidentally turned his then-lover, Peter, into a croaker. Bran has been trying ever since to reverse the spell. A fresh amphibian encounter only spurs him to double his efforts.

As if Peter’s ghost coming between them weren’t enough, Denton and Bran are forced to deal with several errant spirits stalking the citizens of Chicago. Between a French chef who refuses to admit he’s dead, and malevolent creatures bent on causing mayhem, jealousy may be the least of Denton’s problems.

REVIEW:

Culinary ghosts, demon dads, cheese wielding seers…and kilts! (Glorious kilts!) Life sure is getting interesting for Denton Mills and his boyfriend/witchy neighbor, Bran Maurell. And that is not even going into the whole demon-ridden frogdemic hopping its way thru Chicago’s streets.

But you don’t get to be the Dead Man and live a perfectly boring life. So Denton and Bran are going to have to strap on their detecting hats, tighten those kilts (if Denton can ever manage to convince Bran of their awesomeness), and go out there and bust some ghostly ass. Or, you know, call in Bran’s dad for some help.  But even a semi-parental demon might not be enough to stop the ghost of Peter Past from poking his green little nose in where it no longer belongs–that is, anywhere within a hundred miles of Bran!

While I adore just about anything written by Lou Harper, I must admit that Denton, Bran, and their ghostly hijinks are my favorite.  Denton is just so damn funny, and Bran…well he has a secret weapon (hint: it’s in his pants) that just makes my heart flutter for all types of reasons.  Their stories are always a great mixture of humor and mystery, and while I kinda wish they were like a thousand times longer (because I really don’t want to stop reading them), I like the short story aspect of each case in the book.  The cases always connect so well to the whole overreaching plot, but give us little problems to solve along the way–which I find a lot of fun.

And I love the magical aspect of these stories. Denton and Bran’s magic fit so well with each other, and I like that Denton doesn’t know everything about his gift…but neither does Bran.  They are trying to wing-it half the time, and I like that it is not always so simple.  Plus it gives them plenty of reasons to talk to Bran’s parents, which is a lot of fun.  And not just because Bran gets suitably embarrassed every time it happens.

These stories are a pretty quick read, but what they offer in place of that time is a very well constructed plot, lots of laughs, and some major sexy times.  And kilts.  So many wonderful kilts in this one.  I, for one, am totally in favor of Denton’s plan to introduce the awesomeness of kilts into Bran’s life. And if it gets them both wearing kilts on a regular basis, then I shall be one happy lady.  There are never enough kilt-wearing men in my life.  Ok, that is a lie…I wouldn’t mind if my brother’s fiancé’s father would stop wearing them.  So wrong on so many different levels.

This was a great addition to the Dead Man series, and Lou Harper’s work in general.  I am really looking forward to whatever comes next.

RATING:  

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