Blog Hijacked for Fey Blog Tour….

Hi there! I am Claudia Hall Christian. Some of you may know me from my blog, On a limb. Melissa loaned me Rock and Drool so that I could introduce you to my novel, The Fey. I met Melissa through Plurk. She was one of my first friend there. She is such a warm, open and honest person that it’s very easy to be her friend.

Without further ado, here’s Melissa’s interview with me about The Fey.

1.  What is The Fey about?

At it’s most basic level, The Fey is about a young woman, Alexandra Hargreaves, who was cruising along in her life. She had a wonderful job, a great team of people to work with, a handsome devoted husband and a wonderful home. In the wink of an eye, everything changes. We meet her at the moment of that change. And, then, everything gets worse.

The Fey is a fast paced thriller that will keep you riveted to the page from start to finish. The romance will warm your heart. You’ll even laugh at the antics of Alex and her friends.  Feel free to check out the reviews posted at AlextheFey.com.

2. How were you inspired to write The Fey?

One night,  Alex Hargreaves mother, Rebecca, came to sit on the side of my bed and tell me about her family. I’ll never know if it was a ghost or a dream or….? But there she was. She wouldn’t leave me alone or ‘let me off the hook’ until I started writing.

I didn’t know what Alex’s story would be. In fact, in The Fey, you can see how complicated her relationships is with her mother, Rebecca Hargreaves.  Trying to get it right, I wrote three complete versions of this story.

3. Was it difficult maintaining the “female” aspects of such a strong and deliberate character?

Like a lot of women my age, I grew up in the time of women fighting for equal rights. I saw women discard their femininity to, in my judgment, act like the men they hated. I worked for a number of these women in science. These types of masculinized female character are common in thriller fiction because so many of these characters are written by women of that generation.

When I meet strong and capable women, Navy SEALs for example, they start with the brusque ‘I can kill you’ attitude. Then, in a moment, dissolve to talk about children, their mothers, their broken hearts, and their friends. They are women first, soldiers next.

Alex Hargreaves is written as a reflection of these strong, capable, relational, warm, loving, and kind women.

4.  I’m confused by the fact that Alex and Max are “identical twins”.  How is this possible?

Male/Female identical or monozygotic twins are possible, but incredibly rare. There are three documented cases in the world right now. And even then, technically they are not identical because one has two X chromosomes and the other has an XY chromosome.

Alexandra and Maxwell Hargreaves are monozygotic twins. A few of our early readers are monozygotic twins. They have agree that beyond the way they look, Alex and Max act like monozygotic twins.

5. Why The Fey?  What made you decide to give Alex THIS nickname?

There were a number of reasons for the name. First, “fey” is from an Old Norse word that means abnormal or in the realm of the supernatural. In popular terms, fey means a fairy or sprite.

Alexandra Hargreaves, the Fey, has a number of fairly like qualities. She has an uncanny knack for knowing what’s going to happen. She can talk to the dead.  In Chapter Thirty-five, the men talk about how she has a sweet smell which they attribute to fairy dust.

Fey is also a word for an effeminate male. In an effort to protect her, her team calls her Fey as a way of hiding the fact that she’s female. Unless they have met her, usually in some awful place in the world, people believe that the Fey is male.

Finally, the Disney movie, Pinnochio, is a part of the Alex the Fey mythology. The Blue Fairy, for example, visits John, Alex’s husband, to warn him that she will be killed. Alex sees Jiminy Cricket as Death. Alex and Max believe that Max is Pinnochio.

6. The Fey is the first in the Alex the Fey thriller series.  What can you tell us about the series?

We follow Alex, her family and friends through the series. The second book, Learning to Stand, takes off where The Fey ends. Will Alex be able to step into herself and her new life? The third book, Who I Am, finds Alex attempting to live her new life. While I have eight books outlined, I enjoy these characters and will continue to tell their story as long as they have story to tell.

7. Where can a reader get a copy of The Fey?

The Fey is available in paperback at Amazon.com. For a special Rock and Drool discount, use this code: 2XXS73MM at our store and receive a ten percent off. Also, a chapter a week of The Fey can be read at AlextheFey.com. The Fey will continue through November, 2009 and Learning to Stand will take it’s place in February, 2010.

The best place to stalk me is either at Plurk, Twitter or on my blog, On-a-limb.com. 

Thanks for your time.

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