Jessica Andersen | DAWNKEEPERS... Novels of the Final Prophecy

Hi!  Jessica Andersen here, author of the Novels of the Final Prophecy.  Thanks for joining me today!

Here’s a quick blurb on the series, and particularly Dawnkeepers, which came out this month to rave reviews (yay!):

The final four-year countdown to the end of days has begun.  According to ancient Maya prophecy, demons from the underworld will arise on December 21, 2012.  Only the Nightkeepers, mortal descendants of an ancient race of magic-wielding warrior-priests, can prevent the apocalypse by stopping the demons from bringing the old legends to life.

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Unlike his fellow Nightkeepers, Nate Blackhawk isn’t about to let the gods determine his destiny- especially when it comes to his feelings for Alexis Gray, his ex-lover and nemesis.  But when they’re forced to work together, racing to recover seven antiquities before the demons get their claws on the vital artifacts, Nate and Alexis will have to face their feelings - and their past - in order to defeat a dire and ancient enemy.

One of the questions I’m frequently asked about these books is whether I set out to write strong heroines, and the answer is: absolutely, yes! 

In part, that’s because I write the sort of stories I love to read, and watch on TV or in the movies: big, fat, complex love stories in which the heroine stands up for herself, and even rescues herself now and then, rather than waiting for the hero to come save her.  But at the same time, I love a big, strong macho guy who has his own opinions, and doesn’t just roll over on his convictions because he’s looking to get some.  I want to believe that my hero and heroine are not only going to live happily ever after, but that they’re also going to do it as individuals, too, meaning that they’re going to stay themselves rather than one of them being subsumed or changed too far by the other. 

I don’t like stories in which one character has to give up too much or lose too much of herself make me sad. . . and imho, this happens more often with heroines than vice versa.  In the stories I love and write, I want to feel that the hero and heroine are stronger together than apart, and that both of them contribute to that strength. 

In Dawnkeepers, Alexis is a type A overachiever determined to become an advisor to the king, as her mother had been before her.  She has her insecurities (don’t we all?) but they don’t stop her from functioning and being a fully realized person, even when she’s being forced to work with the ex she hasn’t managed to get out of her system.  She stands up for herself, asks for what she wants and needs, and demands not that she and Nate meet each other halfway, but rather that they propel each other to greater heights. . . both in and out of the bedroom.  That is, in part, what makes Dawnkeepers my favorite of the books I’ve written so far.  I love that Nate and Alexis empower each other.

So tell me. . . anyone have recommendations for some stories in which awesomely strong heroines are matched with equally awesome heroes?  Anyone who posts is entered to win a signed copy of Dawnkeepers!

Jessica Andersen
JessicaAndersen.com

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Jessica Andersen | Of Mayan Myths and Hot Men

As I talk to people about NIGHTKEEPERS, one question that comes up repeatedly is one of inspiration, and how I came to take pieces of ancient Mayan mythology and bring them into a modern day paranormal romantic thriller. Given that I’m a scientist by training and have spent the last bunch of years writing medical romantic suspense, it might seem a little off-topic for me to be writing about Mayan mythology. But really it isn’t. . . it goes back to being a little kid and visiting a big pyramid.

This was back when Cancun was just starting to become Americanized. My parents and I stayed at small local hotels and took rattling bus tours to Mayan ruins across the Yucatan. I soaked up enough Spanish to ask where the bathroom was, and to order a burger and Coke. More, I learned how the Mayans were masters of astronomy, and how they played a winner-loses-head ball game in huge, open-ended ball courts. I discovered flan (and subsequently Montezuma’s revenge), haggled at open-air markets, and learned a bit about how the coming of the Conquistadors in the early 1500s had changed the landscape forever.

Ever since, I’ve been fascinated with the Maya. I can still close my eyes and feel the damp chill of the narrow stone stairway inside the great pyramid at Chichen Itza, or remember the squirrelly quiver at the pit of my stomach as I stood at the edge of the Cenote Sacrada- a water-filled sinkhole hundreds of feet across and down, that the ancient Mayans used for ceremonies and sacrifice. It’s those images, those memories of history and grandeur and a deep sense of otherness, that came back to me, grabbed me by the throat and dragged me along for the ride when I stumbled over a reference to the endpoint of the ancient Mayan calendar, and how it aligns with scientific concerns about a stellar conjunction set to occur on that very day. . . December 21, 2012.

I mean, how cool is that?

So I started working on the concept for NIGHTKEEPERS and the subsequent books in the series. But the stories that I love to read and write aren’t about a place, or a situation. . . they’re about the people in those places and situations: How does a guy with a business degree and part ownership of a garden center deal with learning that he’s not only the last leader of a dying race of magi, but it’s up to him to save the world? How does a no-nonsense detective hunting her brother’s killer cope with learning that his death- and her own potential sacrifice- are tied up in ancient prophecies and the so-called 2012 doomsday? How do they both deal with an attraction that is part magic, part basic chemistry, and one hundred percent complicated?

I researched history and mythology, and I thought about the lives and loves of the modern-day magi sworn to protect mankind from the 2012 doomsday, and eventually I sat down and started to write, always with the question in mind: what would surprise me if it happened next? What would make me say, “Dude… didn’t see that coming!” For me, that kick of excitement is another kind of inspiration.

Thus, for me and the writing of NIGHTKEEPERS, inspiration began with a long-ago vacation and a lifelong interest, and then became a love story, and an adventure. I hope you’ll join me on that adventure, and that you’ll love Strike and Leah as much as I do.

Jessica Andersen
http://www.jessicaandersen.com/