1--What is the title of your latest release?
BLOOD OF THE SORCERESS, (PNR/Witches/past lives in ancient Babylon. The Portal-Book 4 of 4.)
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Harem slaves in ancient Babylon, three sisters commit the unforgiveable crime of falling in love. They and their lovers are cursed, then the women are sacrificed.
Now, these three women live again. They must reunite in the modern world, find their lost loves, and free the one who’s suffered most of all.
But the jealous evil of that long ago time has returned as well and will stop at nothing to destroy them yet again.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The three main books of the series are set the Ithaca NY area, on the tip of Cayuga Lake. It’s in my neck of the woods, one of the most beautiful places on earth, I think. And the Cornell campus is there, too, and it’s breathtaking. I always wanted to put some scenes from a book there.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I would be a part of her coven. We’d be sisters.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Light. Powerful. Unstoppable.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned all about the Statler Hotel on the Cornell University Campus. It’s a working hotel, run and staffed by students as part of their hospitality studies. Also learned a bit about Catholic rites of Exorcism. Creepy!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Totally done. I write the first draft straight through.
No matter how many times I edit the early chapters, there are still going to be elements in the later chapters that weren’t there originally, and I’ll have to go back and weave them through. So since I have to go back anyway, why not do it all at once?
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
My homemade chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. Not only decadent, but vegan, whole grain, and gluten-free.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
Ahh, well, I have many. It’s winter now, so I’m either at my stand-up/ treadmill desk, adding years to my life, or curled up on the sofa with a blanket on my lap, where I enjoy writing far more while taking years off.
In the summer, I write outside. I have three or four spots to choose from most seasons. There’s a spot by the little waterfall, and a spot by the bigger waterfall, (my husband builds waterfalls) and a spot under the pergola in between and a spot under the maple tree. I hope to have a nice patio out back this summer, so that will become a spot.
I’ll attach a photo of my favorite summertime writing spot.
10--Who is an author you admire?
There are so many! But my obsession at the moment is Robin Wall Kimmerer. She writes these beautiful books like Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss and The Serviceberry that combine the wisdom of her native roots with the science she has mastered as a scientist. They’re all about nature and plants and they are beautiful. Especially in audio, which she narrates herself. They’re healing.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Ask and it is Given, Jerry and Esther Hicks
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was a mom of 5 little girls with a plan to get a “real job” as soon as the youngest started kindergarten. There were two weeks until that date. I was checking job listings. Nothing I’d submitted had been out long enough to even dream I might hear back in time. A mere four weeks ago. I’d never heard back from a publisher in less than three months.
I had been out, and the older two had stayed home alone, met me at the door and said my agent had called and I had to call her back right away. No we didn’t have cell phones back then. I didn’t anyway. It was August 1992. I went to the bedroom extension for privacy. All five girls followed.
I made the call, and the agent said, “You did it, kid!” and I said something brilliant like, “Did what?”
And then she told me I had an offer from Silhouette Intimate Moments for a romantic suspense called, “Reckless Angel.”
A month later, MY new editor at Silhouette Books, Melissa Senate, purchased Twilight Phantasies for the new Shadows line. It was my very first vampire romance (and the first to use “twilight” in its title. I actually had7 or 8 books with twilight in the title before that other one.)
Twilight Phantasies grew into a 24-story series that’s still ongoing. The Wings in the Night series is my life’s work, really.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read 80% non-fiction. I like books about nature and science and ancient cultures and natural magic, and I like biographies. I read Carole Burnett’s and Paul Simon’s, Elton John’s, and Mel Brooks’, and the book about The Princess Bride. I love books that explore the spiritual side of things, like Ask and it is Given and Getting into the Vortex by Jerry and Esther Hicks.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Do I have to pick one? Three came to mind in this order: The Princess Bride, Young Frankenstein, Airplane! (You will find common denominators here.)
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn. I live where the riotous foliage is the highlight of my year.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Home, eating something I shouldn’t, and watching something wonderful with my hubby by my side. Flowers. Dessert. He never just signs a card. There’s always a wonderful message.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Oh, that’s easy. Forks Over Knives is a documentary you can find on Prime for a couple of bucks, and probably free with ads on Tubi and the like. It changed my life. The relationship between what we eat and our health ought to be obvious, but this film stunned me. We cleaned out our cupboards, fridge, and freezer the very next day and started fresh.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
It’s called whole food, plant-based, and it’s the only way we eat.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I have 5 daughters, 13 grandkids, and 3 greats. There’s always a birthday, school play, concert, game or match to attend. I have a weekly foodie Substack (www.EatLikeYouGiveaShit.com) and weekly a spiritual Substack (Blissblog.org) and my weekly Coffee House Blog and weekly to every other week newsletter. Free time. Ah, what a notion!
20--What can readers expect from you next?
HONKY TONK COWBOY. It’s book 2 of The Texas Brand: Generations, a spinoff of my bestselling series ever, The Texas Brand
It’s the sequel to HARRISON HYDE AND THE RUNAWAY BRIDE
Looking at a late summer release. Date TBA.
The Portal #3
For the crime of loving an ancient king’s favorite harem slave, Demetrius, the king’s most trusted soldier, was forced to watch his beloved Lilia executed alongside her sisters—pitched from a cliff outside ancient Babylon. But for Demetrius, the fate was worse than death, for his soul was stripped away and he was sentenced to eternal darkness, solitude, stasis.
Lilia has reincarnated over and over, awaiting the time when she could rescue her soulmate, restore his soul, and make him remember the powerful love they share.
Now that moment has come. With her sisters’ help, Demetrius has broken free. His body has been restored. But he’s still missing pieces of his soul and held in the thrall of the same high priest who cast the terrible curse so long ago.
With neither an intact soul nor any memory of where he’s been or why, he devotes himself solely to pleasure and power, and finds plenty of both.
Somehow Lilia must convince him to reclaim his humanity, even though it means giving up all the rest. The wealth, the women, the power are a small price to pay for his soul. But only he can choose, and if he chooses wrong, he and Lilia and the love that might save us all will be lost forever.
The Portal is a 4-book series: Legacy of the Witch, Mark of the Witch, Daughter of the Spellcaster, Blood of the Sorceress.
Romance Paranormal [Oliver-Heber Books, On Sale: March 25, 2025, e-Book , / ]
New York Times and USA Today bestselling, RITA® Award winning Author Maggie Shayne published 62 novels and 22 novellas for five major publishers over the course of 22 years. She also spent a year writing top story arcs for CBS’s Guiding Light and As the World Turns and was offered the position of co-head writer of the former. An offer she tearfully (it was lots) turned down. It was scary, turning down an offer that big.
But in March 2014, she did something even scarier. She went indie. And it went so well that by July 2015 she incorporated her business, Thunderfoot Publishing Inc. She’s never enjoyed her job more. This new frontier of publishing is bringing Maggie success like she’s never seen before in two distinct areas of her work.
First, her contemporary western romances, The Texas Brands series and the Oklahoma All-Girl Brands. And secondly her beloved paranormals, including the Wings in the Night series, which has the distinction of being the second vampire romance novel series ever, launching just a year after Lori Herter’s Obsession series created a new genre.
Maggie is also an acclaimed thriller writer with her award winning Brown and de Luca novels, and many more. Maggie Shayne is extremely accessible to her readers, interacting with them daily, via her Facebook pages and twitter accounts.
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