J.K. Coi

GUEST AUTHOR: Moira Rogers

Mood Music

Thanks, JK, for having us here today. For the readers who are unfamiliar with us, I'm Donna, and my writing partner is Bree. Together, we publish under the pen name Moira Rogers, mostly paranormal romance and urban fantasy, some erotic and some more mainstream.

I love music. My big dark secret is that I would love love LOVE to be making it. Unfortunately, though I come from a fairly musically talented family, I can't play anything. And, uh, the only time anyone ever wants to hear me sing is when we're playing Rock Band. But that's okay; I believe in using what you're given, and I was given words.

I love writing. It's something I would do even if no one contracted my work, and Bree's the same way. I know this because we both wrote for years before we ever even thought of submitting to any publishers. Of course, there's nothing more exciting than having someone pay you to do the one thing you love more than anything else.

When Bree and I start a new project, one of the first things I do is make a playlist. Whether the songs are for one character, one book, or an entire series, I need those songs. They go on my iPod. I listen to them while I plot, develop, and write. I burn them to CD and listen to them in the car. I drive everyone around me nuts.

So of course I have a Southern Arcana playlist. Some of the songs are for particular characters (while Magic Man is our first hero's song, Read My Mind is the theme song for someone who won't show up until the third book) or events (Change is on there because of something that happens in the second book, the one we're writing now). Others are just for mood. Taken all together, I think they do a respectable job of giving an overview of the universe--the way things feel.

Read My Mind - The Killers
No Myth - Michael Penn
Irish Drinking Song - Dropkick Murphys
Lil' Red Riding Hood - Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
Magic Man - Heart
Blue - The Jayhawks
When It Don't Come Easy - Patty Griffin
Hush - Deep Purple
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Marilyn Manson
Dracula Moon - Joan Osborne
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Beast of Burden - Rolling Stones
Change - Deftones
Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
Supernatural Thing - Ben E. King
Secondhand Heart - Will Hoge
Days Like These - Janis Ian

The first book in the Southern Arcana series, Crux, is now available from Samhain Publishing.

To find her destiny, she must trust him with her life…and her heart.

Southern Arcana, Book 1

Jackson Holt makes a decent living as a private investigator in New Orleans, home of one of the largest underground supernatural populations in the United States. He and his partners have never met a case they couldn’t crack…until a local bar owner asks him to do a little digging on her newest hire.

New Orleans is the fourth destination in as many months for Mackenzie Brooks, a woman on the run from a deranged stalker. After all, any man who shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her destined lover has more than a few screws loose. But crazy doesn’t explain why he always finds her no matter how far she runs.

When her well-meaning boss puts a PI on her case, Mackenzie comes face to face with the incredible truth: magic is real, and whatever spell has kept her hidden and separate from the paranormal world is rapidly deteriorating.

With time running out, she has no choice but to trust Jackson as he struggles to uncover the truth of her past—and her destiny.

Product Warnings: This book contains devious schemes, epic battles, forbidden love between a shapeshifter and a spellcaster, nosy secondary characters, furniture-endangering sex and a woman fighting to choose her own destiny.