I decided to answer some more of the questions I have had fans ask me. Some are rather odd, but some are ones I get asked a lot, so you’ll probably want to know the answers, too.

1. Where did you come up with the idea of Kylie’s supernatural being?

Well, the great thing about being a writer is that you can make up stuff. You really aren’t bound by nature’s laws. Want a vampire in your novel? Bam, you write one in. Want a dragon? Same thing! When I was writing about Kylie, I knew she was special and I wanted the kind of paranormal she was to be special and just as unusual as she was. So, I asked myself, why does she have to be just one kind of paranormal? Why can’t she be them all? And so that’s what I made her—a chameleon!

2. I have decided to get a tattoo of an open book & coming out of it will be emblems representing one of my favorite book series. What you think would be a good symbol to represent Shadow Falls? As the creator of Shadow Falls, what comes to mind as a good symbol to represent Shadow Falls? As the creator of Shadow Falls, what comes to mind as a good symbol to represent it?

This was a very difficult question to answer. I don’t have any tattoos, and I can’t imagine anything I could put on my body that I’d still like ten or even five years later. But I know tattoos are popular, so I answered the best I could. Maybe a chameleon or a death angel?

3. When you write those sexy, romantic scenes, do you research them with your husband?

Heck no!  Now don’t get me wrong, my husband can be very romantic, but he’d kill me if I wrote about personal things. Actually, I just remember back to when I was a teenager and how I felt and what guys did to impress me or what things that made me go all soft and gooey inside. Turns out, I have a pretty good memory. J

4. Is there going to be a Shadow Falls movie?

Good question—and it’s one I’ve been asked a lot lately. Actually, my best answer is that I don’t know. A while ago I sold the rights to Shadow Falls to CDS. CDS was even working on writing scripts. I was even asked to clarify some things and give my input. But then, suddenly, CDS was sold to another company. So, now I don’t know what’s going on and where the Shadow Falls movie stands. I will tell you that as soon as I hear anything at all, I’ll announce it first on my blog.

5. How do you come up with your characters’ names?

I’m the worst at picking my characters’ names! I’ve tried all sorts of things, but the best I’ve found is to just go to a real (not virtual!) phone book and pick out random first names, then pair them with random last names.

So do you have any crazy or not so crazy questions for me?

I hope those of you that celebrate Easter had a nice day. We had a great time. Sometimes I make lasagna for Easter dinner, but I know a lot of people have ham.  But it’s one tough holiday for the diet with all the candy. I love chocolate with nuts—or salted caramel. Better yet, chocolate covered caramel & nuts with salt!  What’s your favorite kind of Easter candy? Do you eat the chocolate bunnies? Do you bite off the head first? Do you like Peeps? Some people say Peeps are really bad for you because it isn’t real food. Now I’m not a Peeps fan, but I know people who would kill the Easter Bunny if he didn’t bring them Peeps.

Do you hold an Easter egg hunt? Do you hide dyed eggs or the plastic kind? Sometimes we have an Easter egg hunt, but not every year. Ever wonder how Easter egg hunts got started? I did, so I went to Wikipedia to find out. According to Wiki, the specific custom of the Easter egg hunt can be traced to the Protestant Christian Reformer Martin Luther, stating “We know that Martin Luther had Easter egg hunts where the men hid the eggs for the women and children, and it probably has this connection back to this idea of eggs being the tomb [of Christ].”  Hmmm…I’d never have guessed.

Anyway, Easter is a fun time in our family for all of us to get together. I hope you had a wonderful Easter, too.

Winner!

The winner of last week’s giveaway, a bag of CC Hunter swag. is Samantha. Congratulations! Please email me at cc@cchunterbooks.com and give me your mailing address.

I get a lot of questions from fans, so I’ve been answering a few over the past weeks, and I’ll probably be answering more. So her’s another one.

Why did you have Kylie be a ghost whisperer?

When St. Martins came to me and asked if I wanted to write a young adult paranormal series, I really hadn’t written a paranormal book before.  The closest I’d come was when I wrote an adult romantic suspense, and the mother of the heroine, who had recently died, was visiting her daughter in her dreams.  It was a little spooky and I felt it added a layer of intrigue to the book.

For some reason, I’ve always loved ghost stories.  Do you remember the TV series Ghost Whisperer?  I loved that show.  Well, several months ago I found a new show, Saving Hope.  It’s a medical show like ER.  Most of the characters are doctors and nurses.  It has medical crises and life issues between the characters.  But one doctor has an amazing talent of seeing spirits.  So, it’s basically ER with ghosts.

Most of the time, he sees them when they are in that stage between life and death.  He can be operating on a patient and their spirit is at his side asking questions. It’s just creepy enough that I really like it.

While Shadow Falls is finished, you may think my ghost writing days are over.  But nope.  I’m just getting started. The book I finished writing in November is a contemporary, meaning not a paranormal.  And while there’s a lot going on, a life crisis, a mystery, a romance, friendships, there’s some woo-woo that I think you guys will love.  I know I loved, loved writing that book.  I can’t wait to be able to tell you more.  And I think I should be able to do that in the next few weeks.

But back to those woo-woo scenes.  I loved writing them so much that when I was working on the last young adult novel, another idea exploded in my mind.  It was so strong that no sooner had I finished one book, this idea dragged me back into my office, plopped my butt back in my desk chair, and screamed, “Write me now!”

So that’s exactly what I’m doing. This one doesn’t just have a little woo-woo, it’s jammed packed and busting at the scenes with woo-woo.  My poor heroine has enough on her plate being the new kid in school, but then she’s also concerned about her dad who seems to be going through something, but isn’t telling her what it is.  The dad, who worked at the same place for over fifteen years, now can’t seem to hold down a job.  But the ghosts don’t seem to care that her life is an accident waiting to happen.  The dead knocking on her door all need something, and she’s their only hope.  They aren’t about to let her off the hook.

So while trying to deal with her own life crisis, she has to deal with their crises as well.  Some of their issues are easy to solve, like finding their pet a new home.  Others, however, bring her face to face with evil, and make her realize there are scarier things than death.

I’ll be sharing more about my next two books soon. I promise.  Meanwhile, one person who tells me what they are reading, or mentions a scary book or movie they’ve read or seen, will win a bag of C.C. Hunter swag.

Could Kylie communicate with Socks, her cat?  Do you communicate with your pets?

You know Derek could talk to animals, but for some reason, I never went there with Kylie.  I think she communicated with Socks the way I communicate with my animals.  They stare me down trying to tell me something, and I know they want something, so I keep offering them things, toys, food, a good petting, and they keep looking at me as if I’m stupid until I finally get it right.

That isn’t to say that they don’t communicate better between themselves.  I honestly believe animals are a lot smarter than we think they are.  And I seriously believe that they can talk to each other.  I saw it with my cats.

Skitter was a feral cat.  He didn’t like people that much.  Well, he loved me and tolerated my husband.  But not so much anyone else.  When he was around eight months old, I brought home Bob, another cat.  But he was big teddy bear.  Someone dropped him off at a pet store when he was three weeks old.  He had been bottle fed. At six weeks I brought this little creature home.

I was afraid Skitter would kill him, so I decided to keep them separated for a while.  But the next day my son left a door open and when I went upstairs Skitter had Bob on the bed. I thought he was dead, but nope.  Skitter was cleaning him.  Skitter, while a male, became a surrogate mother to Bob.  Bob, a scaredy cat, depended on Skitter for everything.  Bob was always looking to Skitter to see if f it was safe to swat at a mosquito, or if he should run from a shadow.

Well, one morning hubby, Skitter and I were still in bed.  We heard Bob come pouncing up the stairs.  He stopped in my doorway. His hair was all puffed out with fear. He looked at Skitter and said, “Meow, me…ow, meo, meo.”

It was so odd, as if the cat was talking, but then what happened next was even more amazing.  Skitter stood up on the end of mattress.  And I swear it sounded like he was asking a question.  “Meow…meo, Meo?”

Then Bob answered.  “Meo, meo!”

Skitter then leapt off the bed and they both went storming down the stairs.  Hubby and I were both dumbfounded.

We got up and went downstairs. There, in our entryway, was a snake.  I swear on my life, Bob ran up those stairs to tell Skitter.   “Hey, there’s one of those squirmy creatures down there.  A snake, yeah it’s called a snake.”

Skitter asked, “Are you sure it’s not a worm.”

Bob answered.  “Oh heck no.  It’s big, I’m scaaaaared!!

So Skitter being the feral, kick-ass cat that he was, jumped up and ran down stairs to take care of it.

So while I don’t actually talk to my animals, I’m convinced they talk to each other.  And I love animals.  I think they make us better humans.  In almost every story I write, there’s either a cat or a dog.  In the book that releases in February 2018, there’s a puppy that works his emotionally healing magic on my hero and heroine.  And believe me, in that story there’s a lot of emotional healing to be done.

In the story I’m working on now, there’s a cat, Pumpkin.  And let’s just say my heroine, Riley, is a little like Kylie in that she keeps getting visits from dead people.  Poor Pumpkin ends up being a ghost detector.  It’s not a job he signed up for and he’s a little like Bob, always hiding under the bed.

In an adult romance, I added a huge junkyard dog that was about as sweet as honey.  Yup, I love using animals to help tell my stories.  So do tell, how does your pet communicate with you or other animals?  One person who leaves a post will win a e-copy of any one of my books. (Sorry, but this giveaway is for U.S. residents only. And if you’re reading this on Goodreads, you must go to my website blog to leave your comment.)

Winner!

The winner of last week’s giveaway, a Magic 8 Ball is Courtney H. Courtney, email me at cc@cchunterbooks.com with your mailing address. Congratulations!