Please Welcome Kenya Wright Author of Fire Baptized

Before we get started lets learn a little about the Michael Jackson singing Kenya.

Oh! And I don't want to forget the gifts Kenya is giving away:  Kenya will be giving away a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour as well as to the host whose post receives the most comments (excluding Kenya's and the host's).

So everyone, leave lots of comments!

Bio

Kenya Wright always knew she would be famous since the ripe old age of six when she sung the Michael Jackson thriller song in her bathroom mirror. She has tried her hand at many things from enlisting in the Navy for six years as a Persian-Farsi linguist to being a nude model at an art university.

        However, writing has been the only constant love in her life.

        Now Kenya is publishing her first book, Fire Baptized, the urban fantasy novel she always wanted to read. This novel is the first book in a series.

        Will she succeed? Of course.

        For she has been coined The Urban Fantasy Queen, the Super Iconic Writer of this Age, The Lyrical Genius of Our Generation. Granted, these are all terms coined by her, within the private walls of her bathroom as she still sings the Michael Jackson thriller song.

            Kenya Wright currently resides in Miami with her three amazing, overactive children, a supportive, gorgeous husband, and three cool black cats that refuse to stop sleeping on Kenya’s head at night.

http://www.kenyawright.com

Blurb

                  Since the 1970’s humans have forced supernaturals to live in caged cities. Silver brands embedded in their foreheads identify them by species: a full moon for Vampires, a crescent moon for Shifters, a pair of wings for Fairies, and the list goes on, for each supernatural species has been tagged and categorized by humans.

            Lanore Vesta is marked with a silver X, the brand of Mixbreeds, second-class citizens shunned by society. She stays to herself, revealing her ability to create fire only during emergencies. All she wants to do is graduate college and stop having to steal to survive. But when she stumbles upon a murder in progress, she catches the attention of a supernatural killer. Now all she wants is to stop finding dead bodies in her apartment.

            Enlisting help from her Were-cheetah ex-boyfriend Meshach and a new mysterious friend named Zulu, she is steered through the habitat’s raunchy nightlife. But their presence sometimes proves to be more burden than help, as they fight for her attention.   

            While the corpses pile up, and the scent of blood fills the air, Lanore is left wondering: will she find the psycho or die trying?

Interview

      1.     What or who inspired you to start writing?

            My ten year old step-son inspired me. One day we were walking around Barnes and Noble. I was telling him that I wished there were more urban fantasy novels with different ethnicities. He looked up at me and said, “You should write one. Your smart.” I laughed and told him, thanks. However, that idea remained in my mind the rest of the week. By the next week, I’d bought several books on writing a novel.

           

2.     Would you explain the details that make a story an Urban Fantasy.

            The two main details that make a story an urban fantasy are the supernatural elements (like vampires, shapeshifters, witches, etc) and that the story is set in an urban environment like the city. Usually the point of view is first person and there are romance, thriller, and/or mystery subplots. Fire Baptized’s main plot line is mystery, has a romantic subplot, and is full of several supernatural species, from Vampires to Mermaids.

           

 3.     How did you come up with your idea for Fire Baptized? (Love the title.)

                  Truthfully I listened to crazy music on repeat, asked lots of  questions, and then wrote down the answers. When I began creating   the world, I had Thom Yorke’s Hearing Damage and Raheem Devaughn’s Bulletproof playing on continuous repeat.

                  My first question: What would humans do if they knew supernaturals existed?

                  My answer: Humans would trap, kill, destroy, and study them. But then there would be a massive group of humans who would protest the inhumane treatment. Groups like PETA would organize against this. Governments would have to discover an alternative to dealing with supernaturals.

                 

                  My next question: How could the government contain them?

                 

                  My answer: Humans would force the supernaturals to live in caged             cities. And that was where the story began.

4.     What expertise did you bring to your writing?

                  When I wrote the book I had an enormous amount of fun drawing from my academic background. I am currently a third year student at the University of Miami law.  In creating the world, I considered the legal issues that would plague supernaturals. For example, in Fire Baptized’s world the US Congress has formed a law to limit vampires’ ages to a hundred years old. Presently, the Supreme Court is considering if the law is constitutional.

                  I also have a sociology degree. When I wrote the story, I focused a lot on social issues for each supernatural species. For example, its taboo for Pureblooded supernaturals to breed with Mixbreeds. Those that break the taboo are considered outcasts. There is also a strong sense of Mixbreeds trying to resist the habitat’s social order. My main character Lanore is involved with an organization called Mixbreeds for Equality. However, she’s not quite sure if her and the crazy revolutionaries in the group have the same goals. A lot of those ideas came from sociological concepts.

     

 5. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

                  I am an online stalker of Laini Taylor (author, Daughter of Smoke and Bones) and Jason Momoa (actor that played Khal Drogo and Conan the Barbarian 2011). I have Google alerts for them. I tweet them daily. It would be pretty sad, if it didn’t feel oh so good!

6.     As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

                  I’m currently writing the sequel to Fire Baptized. The novel is called The Burning Bush. The release date is May 2012.

7.     If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

                  I would be the main character, Lanore for two reasons. First, she has two gorgeous, muscular love interests. At times when I write the scenes I tend to become jealous. Second, she can create and control fire. If I could do that I would never worry about being attacked and even better, I could earn extra money performing at birthday parties.

                         

8.     Can you give us a sneak peak into this book?

(A peak from Chapter Two)

A creaking sound announced MeShack’s door was opening.

“Like a slow river, baby,” MeShack sang. His voice was a musical instrument, sending smooth liquid tones through the apartment. “So slow, you run through my heart.”

He bent his copper-toned body under the doorway’s frame.

“Like a slow river, baby.” He wrapped a pink towel with yellow flowers around his waist and closed the door. Drops of sweat clung to the rows of muscle on his stomach. “You run through my heart. Like a slow--”

“Would you stop? You’re going to get that song stuck in my head.” I glared at him. His skin glowed like honey poured over layers of caramel. His black pupils blazed within hazel irises. I looked away and asked, “Is Joanne asleep?”

“Is that her name?”

I rolled my eyes and nodded.

“Yeah, she’s asleep.” He walked in a bowlegged stride toward me, bent down to kiss my X brand, and snatched the joint from me. “Cool shirt. The hot Were-cheetah that bought you that shirt must be a comedic genius.”

“Or a pre-med geek who thinks he’s funny,” I muttered. The shirt I’d put on after my shower said, ‘I wish I was an Ion so I could form an exothermic bond with you.’

“I see you’ve been in my marijuana supply tonight,” he said. "And I'm not a geek. Hot band leaders can't be geeks."

"You're right. Perhaps the best words to describe you would be humble and modest," I said. He smiled and flexed his biceps in response.

Humming, he walked into our kitchen, pulled a rubber band out of the ‘everything’ drawer, and tied his black curls into a pony tail that went past his shoulder and lay at the center of his back. He’d gotten the hair from his father, a Were-cheetah from somewhere in Africa. Everything else came from his Iranian Were-cheetah mother.

 Ten stray Pixies flew from under the door table and swarmed in MeShack’s direction.

“These freaking strays are killing me. No more, La La. I’m serious. I convinced Janice to take two home with her.”

“Joanne,” I corrected, watching him pull out sugar cubes and hand one to each pixie.

“I haven’t seen you smoke in years. What’s up?” He grabbed a slice of raw ostrich meat from the refrigerator, folded it, and then stuck the entire piece in his mouth.

 I scrunched my nose up in disgust. “On a scale of one to ten, with ten being horrific, today was a hundred thousand.”

“Why?” He drank milk straight from the carton, threw the empty container into the trash, and burped.

“What’s wrong?” He balanced the joint between his full lips and sat down next to me. “Whose neck do I have to break tonight? Please say it’s Zulu.”

“For the thousandth time, I’m not dating him.”

“Whatever, La La.”

 MeShack had called me La La since we were nine. Most Shapeshifters knew how to control their shifting by six. His mother and my father were drug buddies. She’d been too busy getting high with my dad to teach MeShack control. When I met him, he couldn’t say Lanore. His face had shifted in and out of cheetah form. La La had been the only words he could manage as his long tongue hung out of the side of his furry mouth.

9.     Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

                

                  I am a premium member on the website critiquecircle.com. It has helped me a lot because I was able to discover the things that worked or didn’t work in my novel.

                  For example:

                  I originally had a vampire love interest for Lanore. Everyone hated him. They found him creepy and cliché. I hated the negative feedback, but I didn’t comment. Instead I embraced the critiques, reread the scenes, and had to admit that they were right.

                  So after laying in the fetal position with a glass of pinot noir, I killed off the creepy, cliché vampire and created Zulu. He is a Mixbreed revolutionary that created the group Mixbreed for Equality. He also happens to be pretty hot. I worked on this character for a long time, and then resubmitted my chapters to my critique group. All twenty of my critiquers loved him. Additionally, one critiquer proposed to him. Another is stalking him as we speak.

10.     When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

                  I knew I would submit my work when I wrote my first sentence, “I raced past the University’s gates, splashing water onto homeless Vampires.” It had taken me a week to write that one sentence. I was so proud of myself. It was like I’d climbed up this huge mountain. From that point on, all I could think about was publishing the novel.

           

11.  What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

            The best advice I received regarding writing is from a quote.

“If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”  Toni Morrison.

            The worst advice I received was from a fellow writer. She told me that writing is a controlled process. If you are not outlining every chapter, scene, and detail, then the book will be bad. I disagreed. I believe a book can be created by many paths.

11.  Do you outline your books or just start writing?

                  Honestly, I do both. When I first started Fire Baptized, I just started             writing. After the third chapter, I realized that I loved the world so much I      would probably go all over the place. I spent the next couple of weeks       creating an outline that I followed some of the time. Before I sit down and       write a chapter I know what I want the chapter to say and do, but     sometimes the story writes itself, and I have to stray away from the outline       and let the characters speak for themselves.

12.  How do you maintain your creativity?

                  I am a sponge for fantasy and pop culture. I read hundreds of books in the fantasy and sci-fi genres. At times, I’ll read a genre I’ve never considered. Once I read a book in the cyber punk genre The Electric Church. It is by far one of my favorite books now and helped me name my book. I also watch any fantasy or horror show on television, from Dexter to Game of Thrones to Vampire Diaries. I love them all. Additionally, I have three children of my own; 5 years old, 4 years old, and a 9 month old. Those three keep my imagination burning.

 13.  Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

                        MeShack is my favorite character. He is a half Black/ half Iranian,                            Were-cheetah. He is not only the type of guy you ask to walk down a dark                                 alley with you, he’s the one you invite into your bed.

                  When he’s happy, his purr vibrates throughout the room and can be heard several feet away. He loves to prowl after Lanore and proclaim his undying love for her all the time. However, Lanore is skeptical because he’s a playboy. As the lead singer of Mahogany Groove, he has a swarm of female fans that throw their panties at him whenever they see him.

14.  Are your plotting bunnies angels or demons?

                  Both. My plotting bunnies are angel/demon hybrids.

15.  Anything else you might want to add?

                        I want to thank you for taking the opportunity to support my book and learn about me and my writing process! I would also love to invite people to check me out on my website www.kenyawright.com or on my author goodreads’ page             http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5402447.Kenya_Wright .