Dark Awakened by H.D. Smith Interview & Giveaway

Dark Awakened

The Devil’s Assistant Series

Book Two

H.D. Smith

Genre:  Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Wild Fey, LLC

ISBN: 978-1-942030-03-4

ASIN: B00PNVCQ8U

Number of pages: 290

Word Count: 88000

Cover Artist: Robin Ludwig Design Inc.

Tag Line: Darkly delicious—relentless—and wickedly good … the Devil’s Assistant is back.

Book Description:

Last spring Claire’s seemingly normal—if not totally screwed up—life was tossed on its head. For five years she’d been one of the damned—a human that knows the truth about the otherworldly among us. She’d worked for The Boss—the Demon King himself—as his administrative assistant, handling everything from early retirements, to Maintenance’s incessant requests for dental.

No one gets dental.

Then she walked into Purgatory—totally not her fault—went back in time, and awakened powers she never knew existed. Now Claire has a prophecy hanging over her head, a diamond ring hidden in her sock drawer, and the blood of a long dead royal running through her veins.

And it’s only going to get worse.

Her vow to live free or die takes a serious hit when she’s forced back under The Boss’s protection. Of course, there’s no protection from fate, or the Bounty Hunter sent to deliver her to Purgatory. And as if being “the girl” in the prophecy wasn’t enough, Claire soon discovers there are three other contenders for her role—two of whom want her dead.

Follow more of Claire’s adventures in Dark Awakened, the second installment of the Devil’s Assistant Series, to find out if she’s lucky enough to escape with her life, or if she’s just the first notch on the next contender’s belt.

Available at  

Amazon  BN   Kobo   Amazon Print

Reviews for The Devil’s Assistant Series

Dark Hope is a serious thrill ride type of story ~Fang Freakin' Tastic Reviews

I fell absolutely head over heels in love with this book! It truly was dark & delicious. Mayhem, death, Demons, Pagan's, Druids and a kickass heroine!

~ Taking It One Book at a Time

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, very unpredictable and difficult to anticipate what happens next, which is always a good thing.   Claire is an intriguing character, everything she thought she knew is not quite true …I cannot wait for the next book in series, eager to figure out what is going to happen to Claire. ~ Musings From An Addicted Reader

I love when authors can create something that takes me on a wild ride I’ve never been before. ~ Book Lovin' Mamas

About the Author:

HD Smith has been writing for over ten years. She is a software developer by day, working for an awesome cruise line in Celebration, FL.

HD grew up in South Carolina, but has called the Sunshine State home since 1997.

She has Computer Science degrees from Clemson University (BS) and Florida Institute of Technology (MS). Her other hobbies include painting and screen printing. She enjoys creating t- shirts inspired by the places in her books. For more information, visit HD’s website at http://www.hdsmithauthor.com/

Interview

Where are you from? Central, SC (small town next to the equally small town of Clemson, SC—go tigers!)

Tell us your latest news? Dark Awakened, book 2 in the Devil’s Assistant series just released December 1st! I’m currently working on new edits for my young adult novellas, which I’m planning to rerelease in January.

When and why did you begin writing? I completed my first book (Keegan’s Point, a 40,000 word novella) in 2002, but didn’t publish it until 2011 when I discovered Smashwords.

When did you first consider yourself a writer? When I let my friend Stacie read the very first (very rough) completed version of Keegan’s Point … it was pretty atrocious, but everyone has to start somewhere :)

What inspired you to write your first book? All the characters trying to beat their way out of my head ;)

Do you have a specific writing style? Pantser all the way (sometimes called Discover writer) … I don’t outline, outlining is the kiss of death for a story in my opinion. I make a game plan and just start writing.

How did you come up with the title? The original title for book 1 was The Devil’s Assistant (now the series title), but after an agent said that she’d heard a lot of stories pitched with this title, I typed a bunch of random words into a document, then weeded through them until I found Dark Hope … I wanted to keep the “Dark” theme, so I did basically the same process with book 2, Dark Awakened. There are a lot of repeated titles out there (someone has already used Dark Hope—and I’ll admit that a non-fiction book of that title, with a really long subtitle, existed when I selected it), but I try to avoid repeats if possible. Unfortunately “Dark” is used by a lot of people, so there are not as many options as you might think. I have two other titles that are currently an option for books 3 & 4, but I will have to do my research again once those are ready to be released.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? Not really. I’ve read books where it’s clear the author has a passion for something (like organic foods for example), but I find most of that kind of thing usually just drags down the story or is oddly placed just to get it out there. I’m not trying to make a political statement or right the wrongs by bringing to light an issue (not that there is anything wrong with that, if that’s what you like to read go for it), but I’m writing about a kick-ass heroine who’s had fate screwing with her since day one—not a social commentary on violence in the workplace.

How much of the book is realistic? Not one damn bit ;) … however, I’ve been told it is easy to slip into my world of crazy and suspend disbelief.

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life? While it would be nice to have so much power I could blink us all out of existence on a whim, for the most part I’d say no—not really based on anything real.

What books have most influenced your life most? Choose Your Own Adventure series.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor? I read a lot of Urban Fantasy and have many favorites, it would be impossible to choose just one.

What book are you reading now? This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest? I listen to so many audiobooks that my list of new (to me) authors is long and changes often … I really like the world created by Benedict Jacka (Alex Verus series), it’s one of my new favorites.

What are your current projects? I’m working on re-editing Nowhere, NJ and Keegan’s Point, my two young adult novellas. I hope to have both out in January, then on to book 3.

What would you like my readers to know? There are only two possible numbers for any other number in a divide by two scenario. For example: 7 can be 3 or 8, and 2 can be 1 or 6. Using this rule and knowing one other trick will let you divide any extremely large number by two in a seemingly random order (take notes … so you can *wow* your friends with this feat at parties!). The trick of course is knowing whether the 7 you’re looking at in the middle of a really long string of numbers is a 3 or an 8 … you can determine this by knowing what number is before it (odd will give you 8 (the larger number), even will give you 3 (the smaller number)). For this exercise, you must consider 0 to be even (and all numbers start with an implied 0), and you must add .0 to the end of any number that ends in an odd number. So without further ado, 72727272772727227272 is 36363636386363613636 … just FYI … now if you’re still with me, the reason there are only two numbers is because the first number is half the value (ignoring any .5’s) and the second number is the first number + 5 (which is a direct result of the ignored .5) … so 7 and 6 are both only ever 3 or 8, which means 76 is 38 and 67 is 33.5 (because it’s really 67.0 (see note above), and 0 can be 0 or 5) … in the wrong hands a seemingly innocent question can have unforeseen consequences ;)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/floridaHeather

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hdsmithauthorpage

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7352038.H_D_Smith

Tour giveaway

5 eBook copy sets of book 1 and 2

1 prize pack containing $75 Amazon Gift Card and eBooks of Dark Hope and Dark Awakened

a Rafflecopter giveaway