With the release of Midnight Hour, I gave quite a few online interviews. I always enjoy that part of my job, especially when I get asked some unusual questions–and there have been some really strange ones. Anyway, this is an interview I did for B’s Book Reviews on Oct. 23rd. I thought you’d enjoy it, so here it is.

1. How did you feel writing the end of the Shadow Falls series/universe?

Do you remember the feeling when you were young and your parents told you that you had to move?   And you had these friends who you loved and who were a part of your life?  That terrible feeling that you were walking away from people you loved and you knew in your heart that these people would no longer be a part of your life?  I cried so hard when I wrote the end of Midnight Hour.  The Shadow Fall’s characters are like family to me.  Since 2010, I’ve been with these characters.  I’m not going to say that I wouldn’t return to this world to write another book, but for now there are no plans.

2. Out of the three main girls (Kylie, Della, and Miranda) which did you connect with most when writing as them?

That’s like asking me which of my children I connect with the most.  The truth is I connect with them all in different ways. They each have parts of me in them.  They have some of my traits, even some of my flaws. I spent five books with Kylie Galen.  I can honestly say, she’s more like me when I was young than the other girls.  Like Kylie, I’m an internalizer.  Even when young, I had a tendency to think something to death before I acted on it.

Della, however, she’s more like the person I’ve grown into, and often the person I wish I was more like.  She speaks her mind, calls it like she sees it.  I love that about her.  Ahh, but the very thing I love about her is what sometimes drives me crazy.

Miranda is smack dab in the middle of these two.  She’s sweet, but also a little sassy.  She can speak her mind when pushed.  But deep down she’s so insecure.  Dyslexia can do that to you.  I know, because we both share this trait.  I feel a special bond with her for that reason.  I loved watching her overcome the insecurities that dyslexia brings to so many people dealing with this disability. In Midnight Hour, Miranda moves past a lot of hurdles and finally knows and accepts her own abilities and strengths.

3. What is coming next?

I’m almost finished with my next young adult novel.  It will be out in September 2017.  I’m unable to really talk about it, but I can tell you that it’s a little different in that it’s not paranormal.  It’s contemporary.  But it has a touch of woo-woo, a paranormal thread.  It has touches of my humor, but tons of heart and an element of mystery that will keep the readers turning pages.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about this book.

You can still order Midnight Hour and share in the final chapter of my Shadow Falls series. Midnight Hour is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

Winner!!

The winner of last week’s giveaway is Jennifer Prager. Congratulations, Jennifer! You’ve won a $10 Amazon gift card. Email me at cc@cchunterbooks.com to claim your prize.

I did it.  On Friday night, I went shopping for my bird.  I got a twenty pounder this year.  Chubby little sucker.  While I’m not yet in the mood to perform the bi-annual holiday colonoscopy—where I stick my hand up the bird’s backside to pull out the giblets—I’m working up the courage.

In the Craig house, I’m the main cook.   Someone may bring a dish, but for the most part, this is my party and I’m running the show. This is not my choice, or my need to be top chef, it’s just happenstance when a person doesn’t hate cooking and doesn’t suck at it.

And I really don’t hate it.  Preparing Thanksgiving dinner is like a form of meditation for me.  I go in, find my Zen—well, I don’t find it until after I perform the colonoscopy—then it’s like I move from snapping beans to peeling potatoes to preparing the two P pies—pecan and pumpkin—in a yoga state of mind.

Now, I’m not going to brag that my Thanksgiving dinner is better than Martha’s, but I swear to you I’ve never sent anyone to the hospital, and I’ve gotten leftover requestseven from people who didn’t attend the dinner.  Oh, and I got a real compliment from a stuffing-loving Yankee friend of mine who said, “I still prefer my mama’s bread stuffing with oysters, but that was the best cornbread dressing I’ve ever eaten.”

And yes, I’m a cornbread-dressing gal.  I’m from Alabama and if anyone had tried to sneak an oyster in my grandmother’s dressing, she’d have brought out her Southern can of whoop ass.

That said, I respect a good stuffing, minus oysters, of course.  Frankly, every family has their own gotta-have Thanksgiving specialty dishes.  Some people don’t think you can ring the dinner bell unless they have a ham on their table keeping the turkey company.  But the way I see it is, after you fill up with turkey, dressing, and the side-dishes, you don’t have room for ham.  The only speck of pork on my holiday table is the bacon I use to season my fresh green beans.

Another thing that doesn’t appear on my table, or in my gravy, is anything I pull out of a turkey’s butt.  I know, I know, giblet gravy is almost a tradition—even a southern one.  But I’m sorry, I know where they came from, and in the Craig house they go straight from tail end to the trash.  I make gravy, darn good gravy, using the drippings from my turkey.

We’re not a yam or a sweet potato bunch people either.  Although, I admit I recall fondly my mama’s sweet potato crunch casserole that was more like pie with oven crispy pecans, corn flakes and coconut on top.  Yum.  But hubby’s not a fan, and growing up neither were my kids, so it got knocked off the tradition list.  Neither are we into gelatin salads or desserts.  Though I’ve had a few of both that are quite tasty.

Our dinner consists of turkey—not fried, but baked—dressing, southern mashed potatoes with lots of real butter, giblet free gravy, green beans, peas, rolls—to soak up the gravy—and pies and cookies.  Oh, I can’t forget the cranberry sauce.  Shamefully, I don’t make it myself.  I use the can.  As a matter of fact, we have a silly tradition—in honor of my daughter—of how we serve that cranberry sauce.

The first time we left my daughter at home for the weekend she was a teenager, and unaccustomed to feeding her own dog.  Well, let’s just say she didn’t excel at it.  When we came home, in the dog’s bowl, was canned dog food in a perfect cylinder-shaped form. Poor Bosco didn’t know what it was, and wasn’t eating anything in that shape.  So hubby always opens the can of cranberry sauce and serves it cylinder style.And every year we get a laugh out of it.

And that is the best part of Thanksgiving. Not the cylinder-shaped cranberry sauce, but sitting around the table, laughing, loving and reminiscing while surrounded by family and friends. It almost makes sticking my hand up a turkey’s backside worth it.

Oh, and the next best thing is I don’t have to clean up. Since I do the cooking that job goes to those who didn’t.

So what’s it like at your house on Thanksgiving?  What are the traditional side dishes that show up at your table?  Do you do the cooking?  Do you put oysters in your dressing or stuffing? I’m giving away a $10 amazon card to one person who shares something about their Thanksgiving.  Make sure you come back next Tuesday to see if you won.

Happy Thanksgiving, Y’all!

Winner!

The winner from last week is Kristen. Congratulations, you’ve won an e-copy of Fighting Back. Email me at cc@cchunterbooks.com.

Midnight Hour has been out for a few weeks now.  This book is very special to me not only because it’s my final Shadow Falls book, but because I really felt Miranda’s story needed to be told. After all, I wrote Kylie’s story.  I wrote Della’s story.  I couldn’t leave Miranda out.  When she first came into being, and I gave her my own disability of dyslexia, I felt compelled to write her story so I could watch her really overcome the self-esteem issues that so often come with dyslexia.  I also really wanted to go into Perry Gomez’s story.  And Perry gets his own point of view in Midnight Hour as he reconnects with his parents who abandoned him at three years of age and continues his connection with the FRU.  It’s a heart-tugging story. And Miranda and Perry both learn a lot in Midnight Hour, thing like:

• Our decisions, the paths we think we should take are often paths that our parents guided us to follow.  Sometimes we need to stop and listen to our own hearts to know which road to take.
• Sometimes the irritating tension between two people can end up to be a different kind of tension.  One that involves the heart.
• Sometimes the hardest thing to forgive someone for is hurting themselves.  But sometimes when we do put ourselves in danger, we’re doing to save the same person who will likely never forgive us.
• Even in the supernatural world, men are from Mars and women are from Venus.  We will never quite see things the same way, but it’s a lot of fun trying.
• No matter terrible or horrific things stem from family linage, you don’t have to follow that path.  The sins of our fathers are not our sins to bear.  Our destinies are our own.
• There is almost nothing that can’t be solved at round-table-diet-coke discussion.
• Graduation means saying goodbye.  Graduation means leaving pieces and parts of our past behind.  But it is a passage that we must take in one of the last steps into adulthood.

You can buy your copy of Midnight Hour at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

Giveaway!

I’m giving away an e-copy of Fighting Back to one person who leaves a comment.

I’ve gotten so many emails from fans telling me how much they enjoyed Midnight Hour, but I think there are a few of you that haven’t picked up your copy yet. So, let me take a minute of your time to share a few reviews:

“This book is a triple threat- the perfect ending to a series, an amazing release date with it being a week before Halloween, and an epic story for a beloved secondary character. That is right follow readers- Miranda gets her own book and CC Hunter does not disappoint.”     —–The Reading Cave

“I was so sad when the story ended, but came away satisfied. The plot resolved itself in a way only C.C. Hunter could do.  This book gets ten glittery stars because it was a great end to a wonderful series.”  —-Andrea Heltsley Books

Still not convinced? Well, maybe you’d like to know a little more about what Miranda discovers in Midnight Hour. There is family drama with her mom, a magic mishap of epic proportions and boyfriend troubles, and Miranda still learns:

• Belief in yourself not only changes how you see yourself, but also how others see you.
• Change can be both exhilarating and scare the crap out of you—all at the same time.
• Some of us are born fighters and others need a little training.
• Breaking up is hard to do!
• There is a girlfriend code of ethics that shouldn’t be broken.
• Parents makes mistakes, some of them are forgivable.  Others should have never become parents to start with.
• Becoming who you need to be is sometimes more about accepting who you are.

Now are you ready to read Midnight Hour? You can buy your copy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

In Midnight Hour, Miranda has to choose between two guys–Perry, the sexy shapeshifter who broke her heart and Shawn, the cute, thoughtful FRU warlock. Have you ever been in that kind of situation where you had to choose? How did it turn out?

Denmark was fabulous.  It’s beautiful, it’s ancient.  It’s amazing.  But the best part was the people.  The librarians, other writers, the fans and just the people from my Denmark publisher.  The festival, Herlufsholm fantasy Bogmesse, was fantastic.  The old monastery  was amazing.  You felt history as you walked around.  I felt as if I made friends there. I was invited into people’s homes for dinner and wined and dined by the publisher.  I loved every moment.

The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. It contains exhibits from around the world.

I see dead people…

The Little Mermaid  is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen depicting a mermaid. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen. Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Danish authorHans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since 1913.

The book festival was wonderful and over 1,000 people showed up–and I think I met every one! They all loved Shadow Falls and wanted to know what happens next for my characters. They loved them all as much as I do. It was really a fantastic experience. I also enjoyed meeting the other authors at the festival. Some even came dressed in Halloween costumes. You could say they were dying to meet me! And my husband even made a special friend. LOL

We stayed at a wonderful hotel in Naestved. It’s history can be traced back to 1778, and the hotel restaurant is beautifully furnished in the cellar, where an abundance of candles invite you to a cozy experience.

Did you know there are more bikes in Copenhagen than there are people?

Over all, it was an unforgettable trip. Here are a few more photos I wanted to share.

WINNER!!

The winner of last week’s giveaway is Vickie Wu. Congratulations, Vickie, you won a signed copy of Midnight Hour. Please email me at cc@cchunterbooks.com with your mailing address.