Out of the Darkness by Jaime Rush is the second installment in the Offspring series. Recently I spoke to Jaime about her new novel.
Bring us up to speed on this world and the characters.
Though this story can stand alone, it continues the quest of the Offspring to find out what their parents were given that they inherited, boosting their psychic abilities. And there's the small matter of the government baddie who's hunting them down.
Tell us about the book. What can we expect in Out of the Darkness?
In a flash, Zoe Stoker goes from tattoo artist to target of an assassin. All her life she's felt like a freak, and now the Offspring, people who also have remarkable psychic abilities, are her only hope. The enemy grows more dangerous...and so do her feelings for one sexy loner as she gains command of her powers and loses control of her heart. The reader can expect lots of pulse-pounding action, sexy romance, and the fascinating dynamics of a group of people thrown together in a dangerous situation.
Who is the audience for the book? Does it play to a female fan base or is this accessible for men as well?
My reading audience spans ages and gender. I get mail from teens and from women in their seventies, as well as men. If a man can handle some sexiness mixed in with his action, he'll love this series!
What's the genre for this book? Talk about the differences between Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance.
When people ask me what kind of books I write, I tend to toss out different answers: paranormal romantic suspense; paranormal romantic thrillers; psychic romantic suspense; urban fantasy romance. It really embodies all of that. Paranormal, yes. My characters possess psychic abilities. But when I call it paranormal, some readers think vampires, werewolves, or other creatures. I call it psychic suspense, but it's not like Medium where a mystery is solved because a character "sees" the future. My characters do more than that. One has pyrokinesis (setting fires), one gets storms of images that tear his brain apart, one has telekinesis (moving things), one can see ten seconds into the future...you get the idea. The easier part is the thriller or suspense tag, because either works. By definition, paranormal means beyond normal, and that certainly describes my books.
Paranormal romance centers on the romance, usually featuring a different couple in each installment (if it's a series). Urban Fantasy usually features the same hero as the main character, with a cast of others and perhaps a romantic thread. Dark Fantasy is more beyond the realm of reality, like dragons and other worlds, and I think they are more complex.
Are the Offspring based on any particular aspects of folklore or myth?
Our government created a program that used gifted people to remote-view (psychically spy on) our enemy, which was primarily the USSR at that time. Several agencies had custody of this program, best known as Stargate, over twenty-four years starting in 1971. The Soviets were also pursuing paranormal means for spying and warfare. It was this program that inspired my series. In a separate experiment, the government would give their own people LSD without their knowledge to see if it would make them more susceptible to interrogation. They actually made it kind of a game. One man hurled himself out a hotel window to his death.
My mind started playing the writer's What If? game. What if the government created a program that employed people with potentially dangerous psychic abilities? What if these people were given a substance that enhanced those abilities, but ultimately made them crazy and so they had to be terminated to protect the program? What would happen to their offspring, who might have inherited both the ability and the insanity? What if the man behind the original program began searching for the offspring, to either use them for a new program or terminate them? And thus, my group of Offspring began forming, joining together to find the truth about who they are and who killed their parents. Different people, outcasts, fierce, loyal, banding together to survive.
Tell us about Zoe Stoker.
Zoe grew up thinking she was demon possessed, because whenever she gets emotional, things start flying. Now she realizes she's just a freak of nature, which keeps her from getting close to people. Little does she know she's going to get closer to people than she ever planned to!
When she revealed herself as being a tattoo artist to me, I knew nothing about tattoos. I had a lot of fun researching that world and came to realize what an art form tattoos really are.
Tell us about your other identity: Tina Wainscott.
I wrote 18 books under my real name, for St. Martin's Press and Harlequin. I went from writing romantic paranormal suspense to psychological suspense. When I realized I needed a big change, the Offspring series formed in my mind, and I sold that to a new publisher who wanted to bring me out as a fresh new name. I may return to my original name, but for now I'm very busy as Jaime.
You've written a lot of books. What keeps it fun for you?
Meeting new characters, immersing myself in new situations, and the changes I talked about in the previous question. Writing a series was a great change and lots of fun, as my previous books were all stand-alone.
What's next?
I have an anthology coming out in February 2010 with Lynsay Sands and Pamela Palmer, and my third book, Touching Darkness, comes out in May. I also have couple of fun things going on. First, my Kick Butt First Line contest, which is open to both readers and writers. And second, my BE IN A BOOK! YOUR NAME, NO CONTEST, NO KIDDING! promotion. It's my way of thanking folks for being a friend, supporting my books, or just being them. They just fill in their name and email address in the form at my website and their names will be included in Touching Darkness. See www.jaimerush.com for details.
Visit Jaime online at www.jaimerush.com/
Jonathan Maberry is the multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author of PATIENT ZERO (St Martins Griffin), THEY BITE (Citadel Press) and BLACK PANTHER (Marvel Comics). Visit his publishing industry blog at www.jonathanmaberry.com
