Fallen Angel Reviews is extremely excited to introduce best-selling author Sherrilyn Kenyon. Thank you so much for joining us. I would like to warn readers that there are a few small spoilers for those who have not read EVERY Dark Hunter book

You've held a number of fascinating jobs, can you tell us a bit about them?

Well, I'm not sure where to start with those. I've done everything from scrape gum off the floor to being a Music Director at a Radio Station. Since I was extremely poor most of my life, I worked two to three jobs up until 2004. Some of them were really neat and others not so fun. One of my favorites was also probably one of the hardest. It was being a camerawoman for a local station. The equipment was excruciatingly heavy and being short was a bit of a problem at times, but I really did love it.

Can you tell us how growing up as the only girl influenced your 'voice' as a writer?

Strangely enough people assume that, but I wasn't really the only girl. I have an older sister who has Cerebral Palsy. Because of her problems, we were never allowed to pick on her so I got the brunt of that love :) That being said, I think it gives me a really good understanding of the male mindset that women who are never around men lack. Whenever I write a hero, I can sometimes hear them in my head and they definitely taught me all I know about bantering LOL. They also taught me how to have a thick skin and for that I will always be grateful.

I was lucky enough to see you and speak with you at one of your signings and can I just say that you are a truly nice person; it's nice to see that you've stayed centered in all of your fame. Can you tell us how you accomplish this?

See the above boy thing LOL. They bust my chops all the time so there's no way I could ever develop a real ego. I think I had one once, but it was left quivering on the side of the road after an encounter with reality ;) Seriously though, I'm amazed every day by where I am. My greatest dream ten years ago was to have a double wide trailer, seriously. Ten years ago, we were on welfare and so I never take any of this for granted. I know how hard it is to make money to buy something as small as a book and I know just how important that book is a reader's sanity. As such, I'm grateful my readers choose to spend their hard earned money on my work and I make sure they know it. My mother always said that you treat people with respect and you let them know you appreciate them.

With Dark Side of the Moon having an eleven city tour, you must miss your family. Do you ever bring them along with you? How does it work? Do you travel by bus? Plane? Is everything organized to the second, or do you have some leeway?

I miss them like crazy and I always travel with pictures of them and their voices recorded. They are my life. I would LOVE to travel with my family, but my eldest son has autism and my baby has ADHD. They don't travel well LOL. My eldest has to have everything in order and my baby can't follow order to save his life so one of them is always having a problem dealing with the other. That being said, I do take my middle son with me at times for conventions that I know he loves. And if it's a local event such as MTAC or DragonCon, I will take the whole family. But that's only because it's on home turf. I'm hoping when they're older, it'll be easier for us to do events together.

Why does Sherrilyn have more books than Kinley? Do the Dark Hunters "speak" to you more? Is it by reader demand? Publisher request?

Publisher's schedule. The Avon list only has so many slots a year and we get the Kinley's in as best we can. St. Martin's isn't as rigid a program and so they can accommodate more books a year.

With four different series and two different pen names, how do you keep everything straight?

I'm not sure. It's kind of like how you remember your family's likes and dislikes, their birthdays, significant events, etc. Somehow it all just stays there-- of course my theory is all that information is why I can never remember where I put my keys. My brain is too full of Avalon, DH and BAD details to remember something as insignificant as where I left that Coke I was drinking.

Do you work on one project at a time, if not; have you ever found a Dark Hunter appearing in one of your historical works?

I try to only work on one book at a time, but things such as galleys and revisions invariably come in while I'm in the middle of something else. Then I have to stop midstream and work on the other. It can get annoying at times, but I love what I do so I would never complain.

You mention that the Dark-Hunters came from a number of short stories you wrote after meeting Acheron. How did you meet him? Do you have any intention of releasing those short stories? Have they all been expanded to novel form?

No, I would never try to expand them. They were what they were and they're ancient history. Just like in real life, my people have grown and changed. I'm a lot older now than when I began the series and I've learned a lot. So they will only live as happy memories in my mind.

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina plays a part in your latest book, Dark Side of the Moon, would there be a possibility that you'd do a novella detailing the accounts of the Dark Hunters that stayed behind to help?

Doubtful. I know from friends and family who lived through it how hard it was and I don't know if I could go there. I just don't think it would be right. I think it's best that we move forward and focus on building New Orleans' future than reliving the pain of her past.

There are two more full length books between now and Acheron's story, per your signing, can you tell us why and give us glimpses into them?

They were always planned that way. Sin's book sets the stage for Ash's, as does Xypher's. We can't have Ash's book without those being told.

Will we ever get to see a Simi Cookbook?

Hmm that would be a cool book. I never thought of that, but I would love to do a Simi's Book of Manners. Her unique world views would truly be something to behold.

Why was Ash so upset about Simi and Nick?

It will make total sense in Ash's book. But he had a really good reason for his overreaction. I've always said that we're all prisoners of our pasts. For better or worse, our reactions are all borne of what we've been through and Ash is no exception.

Why is Nick so angry at Ash? He's the one who forced Ash to do what he did.

Not really he didn't. Nick made a mistake and so did Ash, and as Ash would say, emotions don't have brains. Nick's pain is brutally raw and when you hurt like that you don't make rational choices. For the first year of my niece's life, I couldn't stand to be around her because I kept thinking that had she not been born, my brother wouldn't have died. I knew even when I had that thought that it was stupid and wrong, and still I couldn't look at her without hatred inside me. I wanted him back so much that I was incapable of seeing reality. It didn't mean I didn't love her, but I couldn't stop what I felt whenever I saw her. I couldn't see past the injustice of his being torn out of my life.

Unless you've been through that kind of painful injustice, you can't really understand the dark places you go. Places you don't want to be.

It's twenty years since I lost my brother and I still feel the sting of it every single day. It took me three years before I could even breathe again. Five before I could set aside the rage that demanded justice for it. Like Nick, I never got my justice and that is hard to cope with too. Even now.

But if you are around good people who have your best intentions at heart, you can learn to function again. Unfortunately, not everyone has your best intentions inside them. They pretend to be your friends and they use your pain to benefit themselves. They use it to manipulate you.

Nick is in that place now and he's doing his best to find himself again. But he needs time. Not to mention, he can't even go home. The home and the people he knew are gone. His is a journey of pain and discovery. I'm hoping we get him back, but the final decision is his.

Can you tell us where your interest in mythologies and ancient cultures comes from? Will you deal with the Celtic pantheon again?

I intend to eventually. I've always been fascinated by ancient lore. When I was a small child, my grandfather gave me a book on Greek mythology and I've been hooked ever since.

Will we see more of Zarek and Astrid? More of the Deveraux family?

Absolutely! They are still in my heart and will definitely be back in future books.

Your historicals are intertwined, do you prefer to have books that follow the same people, or at least revisit previous characters?

I've never written an unrelated book and I don't think I could if my life depended on it. Every time I write a world, I fall in love with everyone in it and so I want to find out as much about all of them as I can. And I want to go back and revisit them. They are family after all.

Why choose the late 1700's and early 1800's as your time period in your historicals?

Um, I don't. I write primarily in the middle ages. It and Ancient Greece are my areas of expertise and it's what I studied in school and on my own.

You've added the paranormal to your latest series The Lords of Avalon. Can you give us an overview of the series? Will this be a set number of books? Or will it continue indefinitely?

I hope to keep writing them indefinitely. The concept is one I've been working with for decades now. I was working on my thesis about Celtic myths being the backbone of the Courtly Love movement and of course Arthurian legend is a large part of that.

As I read and researched, magic was an integral part of the lore. I kept thinking in the back of my mind, what if Camelot was real? Where would all that magic have gone? What happened after the death of Arthur and it was those questions that led me to a short story that led to the entire idea for the series.

At its heart, it deals with the classic tale of good versus evil. The evil Morgen now controls Camelot and the good guys are trying to win it back and save mankind from the darkness Morgen would subject them to.

What can we look forward to seeing from you this year?

I have Sin's book out August 7th, and it's followed by a Dream-Hunter Christmas story Upon the Midnight Clear and the Dark-Hunter Companion which details the Hunterverse and has unique insights. We'll also have the first Lords of Avalon comic book out this fall and The Warrior (Lochlan's long awaited book) will hit the stands in December.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

Only to say thank you for thinking of me and thank you to the readers. God bless and keep you all. Hugs!

Thank you so much for allowing us to pick your brain. I know that many people are familiar with your gorgeous websites, for those who aren't, www.dark-hunter.com is a fanastic voyage into the different Dark Hunter books that Ms. Kenyon has penned. You can also check out her site for her historicals at www.kinleymacgregor.com.

Interviewed by: Serena