Interview with AE Jones - Mind Sweeper - Giveaway

Today I'm pleased to present Award winning author AE Jones who is here today speaking about her 2013 RWA Golden Heart winner Mind Sweeper.
She's also graciously offered one e-copy Open Internationally of her novel.
Enjoy!

• ISBN-13: 9781941871003
• Publisher: Gabby Reads Publishing LLC
• Publication date: 9/6/2014
• Pages: 370

2013 RWA Golden Heart^® Winner, Mind Sweeper

An angel, a demon and a vampire walk into a bar. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it's just another day in the life of Kyle McKinley.

Kyle was born with the ability to erase memories, and the inability to keep her opinions to herself. She and her teammates – a vampire who looks like a sexy pirate with fangs, and a Shamat demon with a penchant for Italian pastries – provide supernatural damage control when humans see too much. Today’s problem? A sword-wielding angel and a demon had a supernatural smackdown during happy hour in a Cleveland bar, leaving behind a headless vampire and a dozen human witnesses.

This latest supernatural slip-up is attracting all kinds of attention. So much attention that the police step in, and Kyle has to deal with Joe Dalton, a know-it-all human with the sexiest turquoise eyes she has ever seen. Kyle has no room in her life for yet another human who will treat her like a freak. However, Dalton definitely makes her naughty parts sit up and take notice, and it’s more than mutual. But before they can act on their attraction, they must join forces to solve a dangerous puzzle. And when they uncover the truth, the apocalyptic ripple effect forces Kyle to make a choice. Learn to trust again, or risk losing everyone she cares about, including Dalton.

Mind Sweeper is Book One in the Mind Sweeper Series.

Book Two - The Fledgling, A Mind Sweeper Novella (coming October 2014)

Book Three - Shifter Wars, (coming Fall 2014)

Giveaway Details
One e-copy of Mind Sweeper
Open Internationally
please use Rafflecopter form
below to enter
Thanks AE
Good Luck!

Hi AE, welcome to The Reading Frenzy
Congrats on winning the Golden Heart 2013 for your new upcoming novel Mind Sweeper.

Hello! And thanks so much for having me on your blog and for the congrats! Winning the Golden Heart still seems surreal to me and it has been over a year now. 

Tell my readers a little about this novel.

Mind Sweeper is my novel that released today and is my Golden Heart winner.

The story centers around Kyle McKinley, a woman with the ability to erase memories. She works on a supernatural team who keeps other supes in line so that humans (norms) don’t find out about them. And if humans do see too much, Kyle steps in and adjusts their memories. Her job is the equivalent of supernatural damage control. This time, the supernatural slip-up is a doozy. An angel chops off a vamp’s head in front of human witnesses and Kyle and her team have to cover it up and figure out why it happened in the first place.

And while she is doing all that, she has to deal with Dalton a human cop who won’t leave her alone, no matter how much she tries to push him away.

Now tell us what exactly is the Golden Heart Contest.

Romance Writer’s of America is a national organization with 10,000+ members. Each year, they have the Golden Heart contest that unpublished authors can enter. RWA can receive over a thousand entries in a year. Judges pick the top finalists and then the winners are announced at an awards ceremony during RWA’s national convention. I won for the paranormal romance category in 2013. And when my name was announced, I gave an acceptance speech in front of 2000+ people, many of whom were famous writers. Can you say pressure!

Ok I’ve got to ask.
What’s the AE stand for :)

Ha! I could get all cutesy on you, but I’ll just tell you the truth. It stands for Amy Elizabeth which is my name. When I decided to write paranormal, I felt that AE Jones sounded more ‘paranormal-ly’ if that makes any sense? If I ever decide to write contemporary stories, I’ll probably use Amy and I always have Elizabeth to use if I venture into historical romance!

Your bio says you found nirvana when Buffy hit the small screen and you decided that’s the genre you want to write in too.
What is the most important aspect of fantasy in your opinion?

I think the world-building aspect of it. That is what pulls people to paranormal in the first place. Beings who can do amazing things that we can only dream about. But I also think that worlds need rules and as a paranormal/urban fantasy writer I have to make sure I stick to the rules I create. If my vamps incinerate in the sun, I can’t all of a sudden decide that they can sunbathe in book three of the series!

Now it’s not just paranormal/fantasy that you write but paranormal romance.
Why did you decided on the romance side of your favorite genre?

The bottom line for me is that life is about relationships. So romance just makes sense. I like books that have strong plot and characters and the interaction between the hero and heroine is a great way to know what characters are made of. Plus in paranormal, there is something so cool about really powerful beings who can do stupendous things, but still flub it up when it comes to love. It’s a great foil.

AE, this is your debut novel but you’re already a very community minded author, belonging to the RWA(Romance Writers of America) and a co-VP of the North East Ohio Romance Writers of America.
Why do you think being involved with your peers is so important?

Wow, great question. I would not be where I am today without RWA and NEORWA. I had the DESIRE to write, but I needed to LEARN HOW to write. Writer communities help you do that. But even more importantly, they provide a support system which every writer needs. The actual act of writing (unless you write with someone) is a very solitary process. It helps your confidence and your sanity to know there are others out there who want to share their stories with the world.

I LOVE when authors recount the “call” when they sold their book.
Where were you and what were you doing when you got the “call” and what was the first thing you did when you hung up the phone?

Actually, I didn’t get the “call.” Instead I’ll tell you about my “revelation” instead. While at the 2013 RWA National Conference I attended several self-publishing workshops and listened to authors like Lilianna Hart and Courtney Milan talk about their journey publishing their novels. And a seed was planted in my mind. Over the next few months, I read about self-pubbing and I started to get excited about the thought of publishing my own work and being in control of it.

In January of this year, I had the revelation that I wanted to jump off the cliff and self-pub my series. I remember talking to my Dad about it and when I said the words out loud, I got tingles and butterflies in my stomach. It reminded me of the feeling I got when I decided to be a writer.

So I have spent the last nine months learning the process, from finding an editor, and a cover artist, and a book formatter, and…well the list goes on. And I am so proud to be sharing this series with everyone.

What are you working on now?

I am working on book four in my Mind Sweeper series. It is a novella about Jean Luc, one of my secondary characters in the series.

AE you also have a connected novella coming out in the fall.
Is this going to be a series?

Yes. Mind Sweeper is the first in the series. My novella is called The Fledgling and that will be out in October.

I will then follow up with the third book later this fall called Shifter Wars. This is a novel about Kyle and some new adventures she and her team embark on.

Books four and five will come out in 2015.

AE congratulations again for winning this contest, good luck with the new novel and all your future endeavors.
Will there be any signings/events where new fans could meet you in person?

Thanks! Right now, most of my events are ‘electronic’. Over the next couple weeks I will be blogging like a madwoman, so you will be seeing me in cyberspace! My website www.aejonesauthor.com will have lists of events and I also have a new releases email list that you can sign up to get notices about my books.

Thank you so much for having me here today. It’s been a blast!

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Growing up a TV junkie, award winning author AE Jones oftentimes rewrote endings of episodes in her head when she didn’t like the outcome. She immersed herself in sci-fi and soap operas. But when Buffy hit the little screen she knew her true love was paranormal. Now she spends her nights weaving stories about all variation of supernatural—their angst and their humor. After all life is about both…whether you sport fangs or not.

AE lives in Ohio with her eclectic family and friends who in no way resembles any characters in her books. Honest. Now her two cats are another story altogether.

CONNECT WITH AE - Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - 

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