Dead Harvest
Jeanette Battista
&
Tracey Phillips
Someone’s been raising the dead and it’s J’s job to find out who. As a detective operating in the Underworld, J—with her powers of shadow manipulation—is uniquely equipped for the job. What she isn't counting on is the help of an escapee from a mental institution who seems to attract trouble just by existing.
It’s up to J and T—two very unlikely allies—to find the necromancer and bring him before the Underworld Balance Magistrate for judgment before the human world gets wise to the dead walking among them.
Hi Jeanette and Tracey!
How are you guys doing today?
Jeanette: I am awake, which should count for something, I
think.
Today we are here to talk about you both, and your new
release, Dead Harvest. I’ve not read it
yet, at the time of this interview. What
can you tell me about this story?
Jeanette: I think fans of Buffy, Monty Python, and Terry
Pratchett will enjoy the story we’re telling and the world we’ve created. Dead
Harvest is the first in a series about two female detectives who are little
more than strictly human. They work in the Underworld solving cases for the
Underworld Balance Magistrate.
Tracey: It’s the
heartwarming tale of one woman’s struggle to make her family proud. Everything
else is just details.
I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with several author teams,
and they all work differently. How did
you two divide tasks when writing this book?
Tracey: We meet for
burritos and make each other laugh. Then
we divvy up the chapters.
Jeanette: We take turns writing a chapter. When I’m done
with my chapter, I send it to Tracey. She reads it and gives me feedback and we
talk about what the next chapter needs to be about. Then I’ll make my revisions
as she starts writing her chapter.
Is this the first book you’ve written together, and are
there plans for any others?
Jeanette: Technically, we’ve written other books in this
series before we wrote this one. But then we thought about it and wrote the
first chronological book so we didn’t need to do a lot of retconning later. And
yes, there are plans for MANY others.
Tracey: This is
actually number 3 of 4, although chronologically it’s the first one. So yes, there are plans for others. Lots of plans!
The characters in this book go by the initials J and T. Are these characters modeled after their
authors?
Tracey: We do tend to
write more for the character that shares our initial, but the joke that started
the whole thing was that these characters had names that were so horrific that
they decided to shorten them.
Personally, there are aspects of both characters that I find appealing.
Jeanette: Oh, I wish! I think T
might be everyone’s wish fulfillment. They may have parts of us in them, but
the initials are accidental. We picked really horrible names for both of them
so that they’d want to go by initials because the names totally don’t fit their
personalities.
If you were to pick a soundtrack to go along with Dead
Harvest, what kind of music would be on it?
Tracey: Probably
White Zombie with a little Barry Manilow mixed in, because T is a fan.
Jeanette: See, I would have thought T would have been more
of a Neil Diamond girl. J I
write with music--I always have a score going through my head when I think of
scenes, especially action ones. And I tend to write visually--like I’ll see the
scene as how it would look in film or tv. So my playlist for Dead Harvest had
Sisters of Mercy, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy--those kind
of bands.
What are some of your favorite books that you would suggest
to your readers?
Jeanette: I’ve read so many great books this year. Ones that
I couldn’t stop thinking about were Shadow and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight,
and Unspoken. Hugh Howey’s Wool was terrific too. And I really enjoyed Texas
Gothic.
Tracey: I have a
middle schooler, so I am completely absorbed by all things Rick Riordan right
now. In my life as a grownup, I’m
enjoying Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, as well as some nifty historical
fiction by Sharon Kay Penman.
This is a really eerie and wonderful cover on Dead
Harvest. Who designed it, and if it
wasn’t you – how much input did you have?
Jeanette: I found the cover image of the stone face. I just
thought it was so awesomely creepy that we had to use it. I gave that to our
cover designer--Char Adelsperger--and she came up with the rest. She’s done all
of my covers and I love her.
Tracey: Char did the
design work, and Jeanette found the initial image. I just smiled and nodded a lot, and I love
the result!
What is the best part about being a published author?
Tracey: The
satisfaction of actually being able to share something you made with other
people. Sounds corny, but there you go.
Jeanette: I love hearing from readers. Even if someone
didn’t like the book, it’s pretty awesome that they took the time to pick it up
and read it. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so it’s cool that I’m able to
do that!
If you could be a character in any book by any author, who
and which book would it be?
Jeanette: I remember
reading The Lord of the Rings and wanting to be Eowyn. She got to ride horses,
wield a sword, kill stuff--basically be a badass. And she killed the Lord of
the Nazgul, so she totally rocked it.
Tracey: I would like
to be Galadriel from Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but only if we got to
see just how much of a buttkicker she really is. Tolkein alludes to it, but you never get to
see her in action. So if there were an
Adventures of Galadriel series, I would absolutely love it!
Do either of you have any other projects in the works
individually that you can share with us?
Tracey: The
aforementioned middle schooler has commissioned a series that I’m working
on. Hope to have the first one done in
the next month.
Jeanette: I write the
Moon Series, which just finished up with Hunter Moon in December. And I’ve got
other projects that my agent is currently trying to sell, so hopefully there
will be more out soon.
And lastly, a little bit of “This or That”
Zombies or Vampires?
Jeanette: Vampires--the bloody kind, not the ones that sparkle
Soda or Pop?
Jeanette: Soda
Country or City?
Jeanette: City
Ice Cream or Potato Chips?
Jeanette: Ice cream
Reading or Writing?
Jeanette: Reading
Millionaire now or Live Forever? Jeanette: Live forever. All the books I could
read!
Tracey:
Zombies or Vampires?
Vampires, but the kind that actually, you know, murder people.
Soda or Pop? In the south, everything is Coke. Or Co-cola, if you’re really southern.
Country or City?
Suburbs, baby.
Ice Cream or Potato Chips? Potato chips.
Reading or Writing? Writing.
Millionaire now or Live Forever? Millionaire now,
please. Carpe diem!
Ok, I think that’s it for now. Thank you so much to the both of you for
talking with me today! Best of luck to
you on the rest of your tour!
Tracey is a science writer by day and gamer by night. She’s worked in a tea factory, dropped creamed spinach on a four star General, wrangled the prose of college freshmen, and stage-managed more amateur theatrical productions than you can shake a stick at. Her random and misspent youth also included a yearlong sojourn in Scotland that left her with a strange fondness for daffodils and fife and drum music. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two children, every video game console known to man, and an extremely low-maintenance cat.
Jeanette graduated with an English degree with a concentration in medieval literature which explains her possibly unhealthy fixation on edged weapons and cathedral architecture. She spent a summer in England and Scotland studying the historical King Arthur, which did nothing to curb her obsession. To satisfy her adrenaline cravings—since sword fighting is not widely accepted in these modern times—she rode a motorcycle at ridiculously high speeds, got some tattoos, and took kickboxing and boxing classes. She gave up the bike when her daughter came along, although she still gets pummeled at the gym on a regular basis.
When she’s not writing or working, Jeanette spends time with family, hikes, reads, makes decadent brownies, buys killer boots, and plays Pocket Frogs. She wishes there were more hours in the day so she could actually do more of these things. She lives with her daughter and their two psychotic kittens in North Carolina.
Twitter: @Battista_j
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jeanette.battista
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jeanette.battista
Follow J (character) on Twitter @J_DiscreetDemos
