Bewitching Book Tours: The Necromancer’s Seduction by Mimi Sebastian
We’re happy to give our crew a special Valentine’s Day treat and give you a sneak preview of an upcoming book featuring Necromancer, Ruby Montagne. What could go wrong on the day of love between a necromancer and her demon warrior… especially when you throw in an alliance with a witch and a zombie? And we have an interview with author Mimi Sebastian and have included the book trailer below, so don’t miss out.
The Necromancer’s Seduction
The Necromancer Series, Book One
Mimi Sebastian
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ImaJinn Books
Cover Artist: Patricia Lazarus
Book Description:
She has never feared the walking dead. It’s the power required to reanimate the dead that startles her, seduces her. The power that dwells inside her…and is growing.
For Professor Ruby Montagne, being a necromancer has brought her nothing but heartache, and she walked away from that part of her life long ago. However, her quiet existence in San Francisco is shattered when she stumbles upon the body of a slain witch, and the supernatural community insists she transform him into a revenant to track the killer. But his murder was just the beginning, and Ruby soon realizes that the stakes are higher than anyone can imagine—and that revenants have nasty minds of their own.
Now demonic creatures have escaped into the human world, and zombies once again walk the streets. For humanity’s sake, Ruby forms an unlikely alliance with a witch, a zombie, and Ewan March, a demon warrior who sets her senses on fire.
She’s always distrusted demons and Ewan is no exception, but circumstances push them closer together, and Ruby not only finds it harder to resist him, she isn’t sure she even wants to. But she suspects his job of patrolling the portal separating humans and demons conceals a dark and deadly past that may consume them both.
With events spiraling out of control, Ruby unravels a plot that not only threatens the human and demon realms, but puts Ruby’s very soul in jeopardy. Because when the dead walk, no one is safe. Especially Ruby.
Interview with Mimi Sebastian
- When did you first begin writing, and what inspired you to write your first book?
- I have journals starting back from when I was ten or twelve years old. I used to write a lot of poetry and short stories. Writing has always been a part of me, but I never sat down to write a book until a couple of years ago.
Ruby, the necromancer, inspired me. Her story kept knocking around in my head, telling me about her power, control of the dead, and how that affects her humanity. Ruby’s power almost has a mind of its own and influences her in negative ways. And there are definitely limits set, lines that a necromancer should never cross, because it warps them, so it’s fun to explore what happens to her when she crosses those lines. In my mythology, without giving too much away, necromancers were born from the interference of the demons in the human realm. They have the ability to reanimate the dead, create zombies and revenants. Those are the basic powers, but I expand beyond those abilities, which plays into the necromancer/demon mythology, but that’s about all I can say.
- What books and authors have most influenced your life?
- Mark Twain because he was so funny, irreverent, but cared enough to write some of the most wonderful political satire ever, and along those lines, Kurt Vonnegut. I saw him speak once and things he said about life and writing still resonate with me. Dracula influenced the horror buff in me, because I love the atmosphere Stoker created and the way he wrote Dracula. Dracula is a horrible creature that eats babies, but Stoker still makes him appealing. Poets have also inspired me, like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and T.S. Eliot. Eliot’s Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is one of the most amazing poems ever, and I still reference it in my head. Oh, Ray Bradbury. I don’t know if he influenced my life, because that might scare me a little to explore that, but his writing has definitely inspired me.
- Tell us a little about your main characters. How has being a necromancer brought nothing but heartache for Professor Ruby Montagne? And how did she become embroiled with Ewan March, the demon warrior?
- Well, Ruby’s mom and grandmother died tragic deaths as a result of their ability. Her identity keeps her from developing close relationships with men or non-supernatural people, so she has actually lived a pretty isolated life, especially after her grandmother’s death. Her only supernatural friend is a witch, but mostly, she avoids the supe community, avoids using her power as a result of what happened to her mother, etc. (Can’t tell you that, sorry.) Ewan March has kind of watched her from afar, kept his distance because he understands her trepidation, but lots of unsavory things hit the fan, and they wind up working together and he takes full advantage of that situation. Ruby is not prudish or sexually immature, but her past and her powers have isolated her, despite her best efforts. She’s attracted to Ewan, but doesn’t want to get involved with a demon, but he has his own dark past (of course), and that intrigues Ruby so she begins letting down her guard to understand him better.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed doing with my characters is to not make them black or white, but to explore the gray areas. They all have to make horrible choices based their allegiances to their own supernatural race and past events.
- Faced with a world infested with flesh-eating biters, what would be your go-to method of defense and why?
- Gosh, plants, lots of plants. Especially watermelons and cherry bombs. They seem to work very well. (I just couldn’t resist. I love Plants vs. Zombies and they are coming out with Part Two this year.) World infested? Even Canada? My thought was in taking off to Canada. Canada never seems to suffer from plagues, asteroids, or nuclear attacks. I like road trips, so maybe staying on the road in a Zombieland way.
- In this ever-changing world, it behooves us to be prepared for disaster to happen at any moment. The Zombie Survival Crew members have a “go-bag” filled with items essential for their survival should disaster strike and they must flee to survive. What are the most essential items for your go-bag and why?
- ThinkGeek.com sells tactical canned bacon. Toss them out to the zombies as a distraction, or snack food when in a pinch. Underwear. A flame thrower. And fake blood and torn clothes in case you have to pull a Shaun of the Dead type zombie impersonation.
- How did you come up with the premise for The Necromancer’s Seduction? And what do you feel makes your book stand out in the zombie lit world?
- It goes back to my necromancer and telling her story, and because of the necromancer angle, my zombies are not disease zombies, but are brought to life by the necromancer. One of the main characters in the book is Adam, who she raises as a revenant, basically a zombie with his soul restored. He is bound to the necromancer. Her power is the only thing keeping him from launching into a Night of the Living Dead frenzy. The interplay between them was great to write because Adam struggles between remembering his human side and human emotions and his craving for flesh and urge to free himself from the bond with Ruby. There are moments when he attacks Ruby and, while she must work with him, she’s always wary of him.
I have zombie demon creatures and zombie rats. Actually, the rats come out in the second book. I live in an old house and a couple of years ago had to deal with a rat nest in the crawlspace of the house. Although they are gone (thankfully), they still haunt me, and I decided they needed to haunt my necromancer as well. When we were dealing with the infestation, I’d wake in the middle of the night and hear the faint patter of paws in the wall behind my bed. Nuts! Sorry, I digress.
- Is there anything you find particularly challenging in writing for a horror audience?
- Well, I can’t say my book is geared toward the horror audience, but I tried to include elements of horror because zombies are horrifying, even if Shaun of the Dead convinced us a zombie might make a good videogame partner. I’m not buying it. I think the challenge with horror is imparting fear through mood and atmosphere and not simply writing gore. I’ve read lots of classic and contemporary horror and, I like when authors build suspense slowly and carefully, and use sound description well. One of the things I never forgot about reading The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker and seeing the movie Hellraiser is the damned bell described in the book and used in the movie to announce the arrival of the Cenobites the first time. Bells in general kind of creep me out.
- Tell us a little bit about your years in the Ivory Coast with the Peace Corps. Are there things we could use come the dawn of the zombie apocalypse?
- West Africa is fantastic. There’s a saying in the Peace Corps: a volunteer goes to East Africa for nature, South America for politics, and West Africa to smile, or something like that. I was doing urban environmental management, and unlike many volunteers in the villages, my site was a small town, about 50,000 population. I had running water, electricity, a toilet in my house. We are talking luxury digs! I had to learn to completely change my understanding of cultural norms and boundaries. Kids used to show up at my house and hang out. At first, it rubbed my American sense of personal space, but once I made the mental shift, I began looking forward to the visits. They’d come over and I didn’t have to entertain them. They just wanted to hang, make tea, whatever. (Most people did not have tvs) And this is a key aspect of West African culture. Very social. Very community. Little kids ran around the neighborhood naked and everyone knew who that kid was, so it was okay, and if the kid had a problem or needed help, whoever was around, took him home. I often just sat with some of the woman in my neighborhood who sold street food. See, they’d often give me freebies. But it was that type of integration and just taking the time to sit with people that built the strongest relationships. I’m just as caught up in the rat race as the next person, but I wish we would just sit with people more.
We could learn a lot from the Africans to confront the zombie apocalypse. Every household had a machete or some type of sharp tool they used to kill live animals purchased in the market because a home cooked meal often required home butchering. If zombies showed up, the sense of community and butchering skills would serve them well, and I imagine the people would band together to take down the offending horde. And, talk about women kicking ass, women did most of the cooking and butchering, so they would probably lead the charge.
- What are you working on now? Can you tell us your latest news?
- My book comes out July 15! I’m currently editing the second book, The Necromancer’s Betrayal, and am trying to find time to edit a pirate book I wrote. The pirate book does not have zombies, but the beginning does start with a hanging.
- Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?
- Still being an avid reader myself, I appreciate good characters, and I hope that’s what people take from my stories. This has been a fun interview. Thanks!
Noemi Ghirghi writes as Mimi Sebastian and raised herself on books and the strange and unusual with an unhealthy dose of comics and Scooby Doo. Loving angst-filled romance thrown in the mix, she decided to blend all those elements in a steamy mix in her first Urban Fantasy series, the Necromancer Books. The first book, The Necromancer’s Seduction, debuts July 15, 2013, with ImaJinn Books.
Noemi spent two years in the Ivory Coast with the Peace Corps and loves to introduce tid-bits from her experiences in her writing. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA. A transplant from the beaches of Florida, Noemi now wanders the desert in Phoenix, AZ, and attempts to balance writing with a day career, fantastic family, and household diva: her Amazon parrot.
Don’t forget to check out the book trailer below!!
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