SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT, by Terri Garey

Setting: modern day Atlanta, Georgia, in the historic yet quirky neighborhood of Little Five Points

Subgenre: Paranormal, urban fantasy

Hero: Joe Bascombe, MD. Chief of Emergency Medicine at Columbia Metropolitan Hospital

Heroine: Nicki Styx, a free-spirited vintage clothing store owner whose recent near-death experience has left her a beacon to the restless dead.

One sentence summary: SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT puts a new twist on Christmas spirits in this story about three ancient and powerful souls—theThree Fates—who are out to teach Nicki Styx a lesson by sending a succubus to enthrall the man she loves, and draw him down into darkness.

Scene you like most and would never cut: There’s a scene when Nicki learns the truth about who the evil spirits really are, from the Devil himself, who’s had the hots for her for some time. J It’s intense, surprising, and was huge fun to write. I was able draw on old legends, old myths and Biblical history, then blend them all together into an entirely new mythology, which I get to explore further in future books. I’m having great fun with the world-building, and the story-telling!

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: “Those socks look great with those sandals.”

Your hero, is he a boxer or brief kind of guy: athletic style boxer briefs, Calvin Klein

Ancillary character you had the most fun with: Evan Owenby, Nicki’s business partner and best friend since childhood. Evan is a good-hearted fashionista who’s scared to death of anything having to do with ghosts or spirits, but he sticks by Nicki every time her world goes haywire. He’s a cross between Carson Kressley and Oprah. J

Your heroine’s favorite hobby: frequenting garage sales and thrift stores for buried treasure to sell in her shop, and hanging out with her hunky doctor boyfriend

Your hero’s favorite hobby: Joe’s an E.R. doctor, and a very busy guy. He’s either at work, with Nicki, or at the gym.

What you think readers will like best about this book: This book, like all four in the Nicki Styx series, is about the delicate balance between Light and Dark, laughter and sorrow, good vs. evil, and the choices we make every day on one side or the other. My heroine uses humor to cope as she’s forced to deal with some very dark topics: voodoo, evil spirits, murder, suicide, demonic possession. My books are meant to spook you out, make you feel, make you think, and every now and then, make you chuckle. Silent Night, Haunted Night is a slightly different version of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, and shows how the choices you make can really come back to haunt you—Nicki Styx style.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: The Devil, Sammy (Satan) Divine. Blond-haired, blue-eyed and sinfully sexy, Sammy is hotter than Hell and lives there, too.

What’s next: Speaking of Sammy J , THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN and THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, spin-offs from the Nicki Styx series, will be published by Avon in 2011. These books will be darker, sexier, coming from the perspective of a darker, sexier character – Samael the Fallen, a/k/a the Devil himself. In THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN, the world’s most diabolically misunderstood bad boy takes on the job for which he was originally created – that of a guardian angel. Finally offered a chance to step into the Light, will he take it, or remain forever trapped by the Darkness he himself created?

Question of the Day:

Nicki Styx and her boyfriend Joe are faced with some tough choices in SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT. When was the last time you were faced with a choice you didn’t want to make? Do you feel, in the end, it was the right choice?

GIVEAWAY: 3 copies of SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT, each with a snowflake Christmas ornament will choose winners at random.