Welcome Clover Autrey!

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

Welcome

Clover Autrey

Dawn and Clover

 

Clover is a fellow member of NTRWA. She is super sweet and amazingly down-to-earth. I have truly enjoyed getting to know her. So, now I have the pleasure of introducing her to  you!

Everyone, this is Clover. 

Clover, this is everyone! 

Let's Get to Know Clover! 

 First, I am sure you get this all the time, but I know there has to be an interesting story behind the name Clover. Can you share that with us?

Not that interesting, I’m afraid. I simply have a quirky dad. He saw some old western where his favorite actress Julie Adams—she of the Monster of the Black Lagoon fame—played a girl named Clover Doyle. I have never seen it and my dad has long since forgotten the western’s title*, but he was adamant about the name.

* according to IMDB.com the movie is Slim Carter.

  You also write under CC James. How did that name come about?

All my romances are written as myself, but I also wanted to play around with non-romance. My alter-ego writes a series about two half-immortal teens who travel between two dimensions, keeping humanity safe from demons since the rest of the immortals no longer believe humans are worth protecting. The guys are based heavily on Sam and Dean from Supernatural because I’m nuts about that show. The CC comes both from my own initials and as also a way for me to honor my two boys, Cameron and Chase, who have both passed away. 

    You write mostly fantasy and some spine-shiver inducing horror/supernatural. How did you come to be involved with those genres?

I’ve always been a fantasy/paranormal girl. Ghosts, myths, psychic abilities, all that otherworldly stuff, real or imagined are fascinating. My sister and I used to scare ourselves silly telling ghost stories late at night, especially spending the night at our grandmother’s house, which really was haunted. 

What is your favorite part of the writing process? (First draft, editing, relaxing with a glass of wine when it's all done?)

Definitely editing. My first draft consists of just getting all the story down, raw and unpolished. Then I go back and layer in details, extra sensory descriptions, and change any boring overused sentences into unique expressions for each character and situation. Once the story is down, I can spend a lot of time thinking about just one sentence or scene at a time. 

Highland Sorcerer

The covers of your books are absolutely stunning. You recently posted about how they are created. Tell us a little about that.

Thank you. It’s a joint process between myself and myhusband. I choose the picture. I look for one where the model has an expression that hits me or makes me wonder what they are thinking about. I choose based on the emotion it invokes, even if it is a drab all around picture or not, because I know my husband can bring those out through a combination of color saturation and vibrancy. It’s amazing what he can do. Then it’s back to me for cropping and playing around with the fonts. (Notice how I get the easy parts?)  But I’ve been really really pleased with how they’ve turned out. They just have an emotional otherworldly feel.

Tell us about your current release. What was your favorite part of writing this book?

The Highland Sorcery series just makes me grin, I enjoy writing it so much. It started out as a basic girl meets Highlander in kilt who travels back in time, but knowing me, I had to toss in otherworldly elements like witches and healers and shapeshifters and sorcerers. Even vampires, dragons, and oh yes, supernatural Nazis. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun writing or flinging characters back and forth through time.

The first is HighlandSorcerer with the next The Vampire and the Highland Empath coming out in June followed with Highland Shapeshifter.

What is next for you? Do you have a current WIP?

I have three more of the Highland Sorcery novels to finish, as well as the next in the CC James Anointed books, and then I want to get started on a darker YA titled The Reaped about a girl who’s spirit gets dragged into an alternative reality and plunked into a dead girl’s body to be a super-soldier.  I’ve got a mess of writing to keep me busy and slightly insane.

Where else can we connect with you? Facebook? Twitter? Blogs?

I’m on all of those. Facebook

Twitter 

Blog 

Website 

Thank you so much for sharing with us, Clover! 

So, what questions do you have for our guest today? You should totally check out her website. Her book covers are truly beautiful. I wanted to post one of the CC James covers, but just between you and me: They kind of freak me out. 

Clover= Awesome writer

Dawn= Big, fat chicken!