Interview + Giveaway: Jennifer Estep and Spider's Revenge

I'm hugely excited (as always) to welcome author Jennifer Estep back to the blog today to talk a little about her latest urban fantasy release Spider's Revenge. Anyone that reads the blog with some frequency knows I harbor an intense amount of love for Gin and company, and this latest book is my favorite of the series thus far (you can read my review HERE). If you like damaged and flawed characters who draw you in with the dark beauty of their imperfections, then look no further than the Elemental Assassin books!

Warning: This interview does allude to certain events that take place in Spider's Revenge, so if you've yet to pick this one up, read with some caution.

In Spider’s Revenge we finally get the epic showdown between Mab Monroe and Gin. What made you decide to have it take place in book five as opposed to the final book in the series?

Well, I think I still have a lot of Gin stories left to tell, and I didn’t want readers to have to wait until the very end of the series (whenever that may be) to see Gin and Mab finally go toe-to-toe.

Besides, Gin and Mab have been circling around each other for five books now, including Spider’s Revenge. It just made sense to end their story arc here. Hopefully, readers will think that I delivered a truly epic battle between the two of them. Fingers crossed anyway.

Now that Gin is starting to find true happiness with Owen, do you think she would look back on her time with Donovan and change anything? Perhaps say something when she previously kept silent or let him really see how much his poor opinion hurt her?

I don’t know that Gin would change anything that happened between her and Donovan since Donovan leaving is what let her find Owen in the first place. But I do think there are some unresolved issues between Gin and Donovan, and I hope to explore those in a future book.

The Finn/Bria physical relationship progresses a bit in this tale though we don’t get to read too much about it. Is there any chance there might be a Finn/Bria short story in the works with a few more, um, details about their new dynamic?

A couple of folks have asked me about that. Everyone seems to love Finn, which I’m sure he would appreciate. LOL. I think it would be a fun story to write, and I may get to it someday, but I don’t have any plans to write it anytime soon. Right now, I’m pretty busy writing the Elemental Assassin books, along with my Mythos Academy young adult series. But I’ll never say never.

Some of my favorite aspects of Gin’s character are her flaws which are beautifully blended with her strengths to make her feel real and layered. If you asked Gin what she considered her greatest flaw, what might she say?

I think Gin would say that she’s not quite cold-hearted enough. Gin can be ruthless anytime she needs to be, but she just can’t turn away from someone who needs her help – no matter how much trouble it’s going to cause her or how much danger it puts her in.

We know what the runes for Gin, Mab, Owen, JoJo, Bria, and Gin’s late mother and older sister look like, but Finn is currently rune-less. What do you imagine his to be?

Well, Finn is rather shameless about his greedy nature, so it would probably involve money. Finn has a key ring shaped like a dollar sign, and he is very vocal in the books about how much he loves money and the finer things in life. So I think a dollar sign would be as good a rune as any for him. LOL.

Did you go through a lot of different scenarios and outcomes for the Gin/Mab battle, or did you know how things were going to play out all along?

I knew that I wanted Gin and Mab to have a huge battle, and as I’ve been writing the series, I thought about how things might play out and how Gin would pit her magic and wits against Mab’s. A couple of things have cropped up as I’ve been writing, things that I think make the battle even better, so I’ve added those in. I just hope that readers like Spider’s Revenge and think that I’ve done justice to the Gin-Mab story arc.

If Gin were to go on vacation, how many days (or hours) do you think it would take before she found trouble or trouble found her?

Funny you should ask that since that’s pretty much the theme/plot of By a Thread, the sixth book in the Elemental Assassin series that will be out in March 2012. In fact, I’ve been calling that one my Gin on vacation book. But the answer is not long at all. Trouble has a way of finding Gin, and she definitely has a way of dealing with it.

What are you most excited about moving forward with this series now that Gin and Mab have finally battled out their long-standing history?

I wanted to give readers a complete story arc with the first five books in the series, and I hope I’ve done that. But I am excited about moving forward because it gives me a chance to reboot the series a little and focus on some villains besides Mab. I think there are a lot of bad guys for Gin to battle, and I’m having a lot of fun coming up with them and their magic/powers.

Also, I like a happily ever after ending, but I’ve always wondered what really happens after the end of the story. What are the consequences of the heroine killing the villain or slaying the dragon or saving her kingdom? What happens next? What sort of new problems crop up because of the heroine saving the day the first time around?

So that’s definitely something that I’ll be exploring in By a Thread and the seventh Elemental Assassin book (untitled) which will be out in August 2012. Hopefully, folks will want to see what’s next for Gin.

Happy reading, everyone!

Thanks so much for stopping by Jennifer! For more on Jennifer, her Elemental Assassin series, and her fantastic young adult Mythos Academy series you can find additional information here:

Website
Blog
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Amazon

GIVEAWAY

Jennifer is generously offering up a copy of Spider's Revenge to give away on the blog today, yay! To enter, please just leave a comment with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is open to US residents only and will run through midnight EST on Tuesday, October 11th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

SPIDER'S REVENGE

Old habits die hard. And I plan on murdering someone before the night is through.

Killing used to be my regular gig, after all. Gin Blanco, aka the Spider, assassin-for-hire. And I was very good at it. Now, I’m ready to make the one hit that truly matters: Mab Monroe, the dangerous Fire elemental who murdered my family when I was thirteen. Oh, I don’t think the mission will be easy, but turns out it’s a bit more problematic than expected. The bitch knows I’m coming for her. So now I’m up against the army of lethal bounty hunters she hired to track me down. She also put a price on my baby sister’s head. Keeping Bria safe is my first priority. Taking Mab out is a close second. Good thing I’ve got my powerful Stone and Ice magic — and my irresistible lover Owen Grayson — to watch my back. This battle has been years in the making, and there’s a chance I won’t survive. But if I’m going down, then Mab’s coming with me … no matter what I have to do to make that happen.