Darlene's Book Nook: Guest Post and Giveaway with B.A. Chepaitis, author of The Green Memory of Fear

Friday, April 27, 2012

Guest Post and Giveaway with B.A. Chepaitis, author of The Green Memory of Fear

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in B.A. Chepaitis' The Green Memory of Fear Online Book Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book.

About Barbara:

BARBARA CHEPAITIS is author of 8 published novels, including the critically acclaimed Feeding Christine and These Dreams, as well as the sci-fi series featuring Jaguar Addams. The fourth novel in that series, A Lunatic Fear was a nominee for a Romantic Times Bookclub award.

Her scripts have placed semifinalist with Niccholl’s Fellowship and finalist with Sundance Screenwriter’s award.

She is founder and director of the storytelling trio The Snickering Witches, host of WAMC Writer’s Forum, a Teaching Artist with the Lincoln Center-based Aesthetic education program, and concentration direction in fiction at Western State College of Colorado’s graduate program in creative writing.

CONNECT WITH BARBARA ONLINE:

Jaguar's Shoes
by Barbara A. Chepaitis

People often ask me if I’m like Jaguar Addams, the protagonist in my ‘Fear’ series of novels. My usual response is “Oh, no. She’s much taller than me. But we do share the same taste in shoes.”

She likes cool boots, and dangerous heels. In fact, in her opinion, shoes should either be stiletto and therefore double as a weapon, or have no heels at all.

That says something about who we both are, though her life is very different than mine.

I hang out in the country with some dogs and cats, the occasional cougar, the bats in our bat house and the birds everywhere. She lives and works on Prison Planetoid 3, which is a replica of Toronto. My daily round includes dog walking, writing, teaching, gardening, and cooking. Jaguar spends her days dealing with the worst criminals, using her wits and her psi capacities and her red glass knife to make them face their fears.

But over time characters and writers - like dogs and their humans - come to resemble each other in subtle ways. I’ve had occasion to ask myself, “What would Jaguar do?” and her courage, her integrity has guided me well.

It came in handy, for instance, when I was asked to help some Navy Seals rescue a wounded eagle from Afghanistan. I needed her persistence in getting that job done. It also was useful when I helped a friend face a courtroom where an accused child abuser was on trial, where it took all my courage to face both the trial and its outcome.

And it certainly is my point of reference when I’m buying shoes.

Of course, most of these scenarios ultimately become books, because for writers it’s all material. In fact, that courtroom scene became integral to my most recent Jaguar Addams novel, The Green Memory of Fear.

But aside from that, I learn from my characters, as I hope my readers do. I hope they ask “What would Jaguar do?” and since she’s honest, strong, and compassionate, for the most part I hope they find her life useful.

Above all, I hope she teaches them what she always says to her own prisoners: See who you are. Be what you see.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Barbara!

One lucky winner will win a paperback copy of The Green Memory of Fear.

On Prison Planetoid Three, Jaguar Addams uses her empathic gifts to make criminals face the fears that drive their heinous acts. Very few escape the telepathic web she weaves around them. . . . until now.

When Jaguar takes on an assignment investigating a psychiatrist on trial for abuse of a little boy, she finds a killer unlike any she’s faced before. Dr. Senci’s psi skills are a match for her own, and unless she consents to do as he wants, he’ll use them to kill everyone she loves.

Once she realizes who and what he really is, she leaves the Planetoid to go after him. But Supervisor Alex Dzarny isn’t about to let her go it alone, even if it means losing his own life to save hers.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is open to Canada/US only until 12:01 AM EST on May 4, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway