Welcome to Duck Chat!

Shiloh Walker is a busy woman, and though she’s working right this moment on her next project, she’s taken a few moments to chat with us today.

Married to her high school sweetheart, Shiloh and her family live in the mid-west. She quit her nursing job in 2004 to begin writing full time. I’m sure her fans are more than thankful for that. If you haven’t read one of her books yet, Shiloh has an impressive backlist in a number of genres, from suspense to erotic to paranormal and then some, so there’s something there for everyone. Take your pick, you’ll enjoy every last word.

But first spend a few minutes with Shiloh to get know her a little better. Be sure to leave her a comment or question and we’ll put you  in the running for an autographed copy of the winner’s choice from Shiloh’s backlist! Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Shiloh, let’s jump right in and talk about your upcoming release, Hunter’s Need, along with the Hunters series. First, would you tell our readers about the series as a whole? Has it evolved as you originally envisioned it?

SHILOH WALKER: Well, asking if it evolved from an original vision kind of implies I had some planned-out mental image of the world. And I didn’t. The series started with just one character—Tori from the first book, Hunters: Declan and Tori. I didn’t have any thoughts about making an ongoing series at the time. I just wanted to tell her story. Once I finished, I realized there were a lot of stories in that world.

The Hunters are basically paranormal cops—the world they live in has plenty of paranormal creatures and not all of them are the good guys. The Hunters work to keep those people in line.

DC: If you could retire any question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

SW: Oh, that’s easy…. So, do you write your books from personal experiences?

I once had this very, very weird guy ask me that at a signing and trust me, he wasn’t asking about whether or not my nursing background plays into my writing, or whether I write about romance because I’m living a happy-ever-after with my high school sweetheart, either.

*G* I did answer him. I smiled sweetly and said, “Well, no. I mean, after all, I haven’t killed anybody yet.”

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

SW: My characters frequently surprise me, but I’m not a plotter by nature. I’ve got a vague idea of where I want the story to end and as I write the book, things happen to push me toward that goal. Very frequently, events happen that are nothing like what I’d thought was going to happen.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

Oh, I frequently argue with my characters. And who wins depends on what the argument was over. But a lot of the time, the characters win. 

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

SW: Laundry. Email. Twitter. Phone calls. Website junk. Blog stuff. Clutter. An empty stomach. Facebook. 😉 I’m easily distracted—staying on task requires me to frequently kick myself in the tail.

DC: Do you have the next Hunters book in the works yet? How many more books will be in the series?

SW: I just finished the next in the series…Hunter’s Fall, which will be out in either late 2010 or early 2011. I don’t have any idea how many more Hunter’s books I’ll write, though. It might be just be one or two, or it might be a lot more. I just don’t know.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

SW: The cover for the romantic suspense that came out earlier this year, Fragile. I just love and adore that cover. It’s shiny. It’s pretty. What’s not to love? 

DC: How about your least favorite cover? Why?

SW: That one is harder to answer—some of the earlier covers from Ellora’s Cave I haven’t liked as much because they were the computer-generated images and I’m just not as big a fan of the CGI stuff.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

SW: Well, I try to make the characters deeper, more complex. I think that’s just natural for a writer to do, though.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

SW: Well, sooner or later, I’m going to try more traditional fantasy stuff, I think. Possibly urban fantasy, without as much romance. Maybe some thrillers. And horror-I have one idea for a horror story that I’ve wanted to write forever…I just haven’t managed to do it, yet.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

SW: Hmmmm. Nothing. Choices I made when I was younger led me here and I love my life—wouldn’t want to do anything that might change it.

DC: Next March Broken will be released. Can you give us a sneak peek into Quinn and Sarah?

SW: Quinn is a complicated bastard and he gave me ten kinds of hell writing his book. Sarah is equally complicated. I fought the two of them tooth and nail.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

SW: Oh, I’m a lousy person to ask about blurbs… I hate and abhor blurbs. Writing a blurb about me? I’d just suggest you skim the first few pages instead…

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

SW: Smartass…

DC: One of my favorite books of yours is The Missing. Where did the story idea for Cullen and Taige come from? Can you tell everyone a little bit about it?

SW: The story for The Missing stemmed from the little girl, Jillian. She was the first character I ‘met’ from that story, so to speak. Cullen and Taige emerged later. I woke up one morning with this mental image of a girl sitting in an airport, drawing. She showed the drawing to her dad. There were three kids in the drawing, one in each corner of the page. He asks who they are and she tells him, “They are the missing.” Then she tells him that each of them had disappeared.

That’s was the bare bones of the book, as it first came to me.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

SW: Nursing. That’s what I did before I focused on writing full-time. I keep my license current and still work on occasion. Just in case.

DC: For a reader who may not have picked up one of your books yet, where would you recommend them to start to get the full effect of Shiloh Walker?

SW: The full effect…LMAO. Well, one of my personal favorites is Fragile. Or Candy Houses, an urban fantasy/paranormal erotic romance that came out from Samhain Publishing in October. [LOL, okay, so it was really early morning when getting Shi’s interview together, the brain apparently was having fun at my expense! – SM]

DC: What’s on the horizon for Shiloh Walker?

SW: Right now, I’m working on a romantic suspense trilogy for a new publisher. My current plan is to write paranormal for Berkley and romantic suspense for Ballantine.

Lightning Round:

– dark or milk chocolate?     -Dark
– smooth or chunky peanut butter?     -Not a peanut butter person…unless it’s with chocolate.
– heels or flats?     – Bare feet. 
– coffee or tea?     – Both, depends on my mood.
– summer or winter?     – Fall. (It’s my favorite season)
– mountains or beach?     – Mountains, absolutely.
– mustard or mayonnaise?    – Mustard.
– flowers or candy?     – Why do I have to choose?
– pockets or purse?     – Purse.
– Pepsi or Coke?   – Coke.
– ebook or print?   – Both.

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?    -Love.
2. What is your least favorite word?     -Cunt
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     -Sunsets. Kids laughing. Hugs.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     -Cruelty. Neglect.
5. What sound or noise do you love?   – The sound of my kids laughing.
6. What sound or noise do you hate?     – Fingernails on a chalkboard.
7. What is your favorite curse word?     – Don’t have one.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?     –  None…I’m doing what I always wanted.
9. What profession would you not like to do?     – Teacher. I lack the patience.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    – Oh, I absolutely believe heaven exists…and I expect to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

DC: Thanks for spending the day with us, Shiloh!