Get Lost With Rose Anderson!

Folks, please help me welcome Rose Anderson to the blog!

BOOK BLURB:
What does an immortal Native American shaman do when the grave he’s sworn to watch over for all eternity disappears under urban development?

His purpose of guarding his wife’s burial mound gone, Ashkewheteasu seeks to end his immortal existence. In his despair, he assumes the form of a wolf and steps in front of a moving car and into the life of Dr. Olivia “Livie” Rosalini. The veterinarian saves the animal’s life, and in the process saves the man within. Unbeknownst to Livie, the dog she’s taken into her home and grows to love is a magical being seeking to win her heart as a man.

While Ash is learning a new world filled with new love, friendship, and happiness, an old menace makes plans to steal it all away; just as he had 3000 years before.

Setting the stage: Ash the shape-shifting shaman goes to dinner with Livie and discovers beer for the first time. He must return to her house because he lives there as a dog. It’s not easy to alter your body when you’ve had a few.

Mini Excerpt::

Ash felt odd. The sensation was not unlike the altered mental state brought about by the ordeals of his training, when his mind ventured in another world while his body stayed in this one. His earlier jumble of thoughts returned. It is the beer. The beer is bringing this sensation. It was only a guess but the odd feeling was intensifying since the last two glasses. Watching Livie drive away, he slid his hand down the front of his jeans to grip himself. Kissing her had made him hard and now he ached.

Knowing he had to resume his wolf form at Livie’s home, he took a deep breath and shifted, but his inebriated mind was not concentrating and he ended up with a raven’s head atop his man’s body. He tried again. Forgetting that he still wore clothes, he found himself a small bird, pinned and struggling under the heavy garments that had fallen to the ground in a heap. He shifted into a feathered snake before taking the form of a mouse and working his way out of a sleeve.

The movement caught the attention of an owl on its nightly hunting foray. Just as it was about to swoop low on silent wings, intent on nabbing the large field mouse, a naked man with a mouse tail and whiskers appeared. The owl, clearly startled, flew off into the night. Laughing, Ash raised his arms and yelled after it, “This is not your night, my brotherrrr!”

   Tail and whiskers absorbed into his changing form and once again bare skin grew feathers. He shifted into a raven — a six-foot-tall raven. Laughing at himself, he made his body small and flew fast to Livie’s home, albeit not in a straight line.

About Rose
I love descriptive words and choose them as carefully as an artist might choose a color. My active imagination compels me to write everything from children’s stories to historical nonfiction. As a persnickety leisure reader, I especially enjoy novels that feel like they were written just for me. It's hard to explain, but if you've ever read one of those, then you’d know what I mean. I tend to sneak symbolism and metaphor into my writing. You might say it's a game I play with myself when I write. And I so love when readers email to say they've found something. I’d like people to feel my stories were written just for them, for that’s the truth. These hidden insights are my gift to my readers.

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Q&A:

First off thanks for having me Lexi!

ALEXA: Thanks for joining us! What’s the first book you remember reading?

ROSE: I started kindergarten already knowing how to read and no one in the family remembers teaching me. I read absolutely everything as a child. I could tell you the recipe for the Quaker Oatmeal meatloaf because it was on the box. I could tell you what the Surgeon General said about smoking from my parent's cigarette packs. I could list the songs on the back of the Beatles' first album. I could literally Sing Along with Mitch, and yes, the cans of Alpo dog food really did have horse meat in them. From the start I read information. I’m still an info hound and choose that over fiction most of the time.

Thinking on it now, I’m sure I read novels for kids but don’t remember titles. The first novel I connected with came when I was thirteen. It was Jane Eyre. All these years later I’m still in love with Edward Rochester.

ALEXA: What’s your favorite love word?

ROSE: Ecstasy.

ALEXA: What’s your favorite fairy tale?

ROSE: Beauty and the Beast. I love romances where masks play a role. The hero has his true self and what he shows the world either by design or by fate. The heroine must see beyond the mask to the man within. In the Beast’s case, his mask comes as a curse that traps him in a beast’s body. I suppose when you break this down, what really captures my imagination in all stories with masks are the clues to the truth. With the Beast, he frightens everyone around him, yet is perplexingly gentle when he thinks no one is looking. A love a good mind game in a story and try to add that feature to my own writing.

ALEXA: What turns you off like nothing else?

ROSE: Cruelty in all its forms from disrespect to violence.

ALEXA: What was the first story you remember writing?

ROSE: It was back in high school in an honors English class. We’d just finished reading The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien The teacher chose a Hobbitesque theme for a composition. I wrote about a dragon waiting on her egg to hatch. I’d never really done creative writing up to that point, nothing beyond the mandatory book reports. Freshly immersed in the imagery of Tolkien, I fell into the zone and it basically wrote itself. The teacher kept it with praise saying I needed to pursue writing. I didn’t take her seriously but I did take journalism classes and got on the school paper because of her. Boy I wish I still had the dragon story. I have a perfect dragon illustrator and I’d publish it. But I wrote it a zillion years ago before zerox and computers allowed you to copy anything with ease. Like any student, I wasn’t about to write the thing out by hand twice!

ALEXA: Who's your favorite villain?

ROSE: In literature? That would be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Moriarty. There’s just something about a brilliant mastermind. He’s not evil as the recent movie portrays him, he’s wickedly intelligent. Just as Sherlock Holmes keeps himself from drowning in the mundane by solving mysteries, Moriarty feeds his mind by creating perfect crimes.

In my own novels? That would be Adrian Doyle. He’s my bad guy from my 500k five-book, five-years-to-write, as yet unnamed magnum opus. I’ve just returned to working on this series after learning the ropes of the publishing world on romances. Adrian is also a brilliant mastermind, but he is also a sociopath. That makes him particularly dangerous.

 

ALEXA: What’s the first thing you do when you finish writing a book?

ROSE: I’ve been blessed with a great bunch of friends who have wonderfully supported my efforts as an author. They’re my extended family and I share the highs and lows with them. It’s nice when people believe in you. They come over to help celebrate each new release with the standard champagne and cheesecake. One of my author-hits-the-big-time dreams is to have a large enough piece of property that we can all live and grow old together on.

ALEXA: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you go and specifically why?

ROSE: Going back in time with the potential to change things, I’d target the ones that have done nothing but set humanity back. First of all, I’d stop the burning of the Library at Alexandria and the smaller great institutes of learning like it that were also destroyed by the church. I believe if that could be fixed, I’d correct all of the ills the world has today in one fell swoop. That library was around for more than 300 years and held the wisdom of the ages. With that wisdom to start from, women would have their rightful place beside man. Greed would have no footing and war, atrocities, and bigotry wouldn’t exist. Organized religions that encourage such would have no hold and power over humanity. But spirituality, respect, and kindness would rule. As a result, suffering in all of its forms for man and animal would end. :) That’s just a peek inside my head.

ALEXA: What do you do to unwind and relax?

ROSE: I’m a world drummer. I regularly get together with my friends and our collection of percussion instruments from around the world and we jam. We’ve been doing this for about 12 years now and are so entrained (in sync with one another), we all stop playing at the same time without tapering off. Pretty amazing. We’ve been talking about making a CD lately.

ALEXA: Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?

ROSE: It’s so hard to choose!  I’d love a big sit-down with all of them. Ash from The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo is a 3000-year-old shaman. I’m sure he has some interesting insights, especially from the standpoint of someone basically coming from the Stone Age to live in a modern world.

I’d never invite Conte Acario Bruno (my villain from my Loving Leonardo series). He’s a misogynistic jerk!

ALEXA: What's your favorite kid joke?

ROSE: A pirate walks into a bar with a ship’s steering wheel stuck to his pants. The bartender says, “Hey buddy, you have a ship’s wheel stuck to your pants.” To this the pirate replies, “Yar, it’s drivin’ me nuts.” (lol, it still make me laugh.)

Watch the Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo trailers on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy4d8SF5OUA&feature=youtu.be

Inspired by Native American mythology and a very real urban legend. Read the spark that started the story on USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2013/01/09/rose-anderson-the-witchy-wolf-and-the-wendigo/1822015/

For a chance to win a PDF copy of my breakout novel, my first erotic romance, Hermes Online (a CataRomance Sensual Reads Reviewer's Choice Winner!), leave a comment in the comment section below. Share one fabulous historical tidbit you’ve found. Here’s mine: Native American legends in the Great Lakes area of USA’s upper Midwest tell of grave guardians in the form of wolves that walked as men do – on two legs.

Tell me yours in comments!

Note: Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to North America addresses only unless specifically mentioned in the post. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Winners of drawings are responsible for checking this site in a timely manner. If prizes are not claimed in a timely manner, the author may not have a prize available. Get Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the listed prize. GLIAS does not automatically pass email addresses to guest authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address.