It's my pleasure to introduce to you, Shiela Stewart
Janice: Shiela, please tell us about yourself?
Shiela: I’ve been married to the same wonderful man for nearly 25 years. Together we have three children ages, 22, 18 and15. I am an animal lover, which shows in the three cats, one dog, five fish and three turtles invading my house. I grew up on a farm with cows, chickens, pigs, horses, dogs and cats so that might explain my love of animals. If I could take in every stray I saw on the street or in the local Shelters I damn well would. LOL
Aside from my love for animals, I love to draw, paint, crotchet, and knit. I’ve painted several murals on walls of my house including a huge dragon for my husband. I love to take long walks with my husband, and watch scary ghost stories with my daughter.
Janice:You sound very creative. Kudos on the 25 years of marriage, that's saying a lot for this day and age.
When did you start writing?
Shiela:I started writing at a very young age. I’ve always had a vivid imagination and loved to regale my cousins and friends with stories I created in my mind. In my teens I wrote love poems, and mixed witches, ghosts, demons and killers with love stories, not realizing there were actually books written by authors in the same caliber. It wasn't until I picked up a Nora Roberts book that I realized what I wrote wasn't so farfetched after all.
After years of compiling story after story, my husband encouraged me to try and get them published. Dozens of rejection letters and a year later my first book, Kidnapped, was published.
Janice: Who was the biggest influence on your writing?
Shiela:I would have to say one person who started it would be my sister Nancy, who first introduced me to V.C. Andrews and Stephen King novels. Another person who was a big influence in me and still is would be my husband. Without his faith and belief in me, I wouldn’t be here today.
Janice: Your hubby sounds like a wonderful man.
How do you go about your writing? Do your prefer pencils to pens or is it all straight computer work?
Shiela:When I first got started, I worked with pencil and paper. My hands would cramp up from writing which I did practically ten hours every day. I had so many thoughts and ideas running through my head that I could barely keep up. I have a box of manuscripts yet to me typed out on my computer, sitting in my basement. Now, well, everything I do is on the computer. I don’t know what I ever did without my laptop. LOL
Janice: I'm with you there. I know I love my laptop.
What influences you in your writing? Music, movies, reading, or straight research?
Shiela:Music is definitely a big influence. I have to have music going while I write and it has to have a good hard thumping beat. I mainly listen to dance, hard rock and electronic music when I work.
Janice: When do you write morning or evening, or are you a late into the wee hours of the morning person?
Shiela:Whenever inspiration strikes I’ll write, but mostly I write during the day when the house is all mine and everyone is at work or school. My best time to write though is late at night. For some reason, my brain is more creative at night and its then that I come up with a lot of my horror and mystery themes.
Janice: I imagine late at night its nice and spooky, and it helps you set the mood for your stories.
Who in charge you or your muse?
Shiela:I am. No one, not even my muse, tells me what I can and can’t do. LOL
Janice: Good for you.
Use only one word to describe your writing style? Or at least what you want your readers to take away from your writing.
Stimulating.
Janice: Ooh, good one.
What influenced your recent book, the one you are promoting here today?
Shiela: Consuming the Darkness came into creation by the title. While working on the previous book in my Darkness series, my editor sent the file back to me, titled, Consuming the Darkness, when it should have been, Charming the Darkness. The instant I saw that title the story flew into my head. I had three other books to complete before I could get Consuming rolling and those were the longest days of my life.LOL
Consuming is the eighth book in the series and takes place after the sunlight has returned to Jacobs Cove. Where the first six books deal with vampires taking over the city of Jacobs Cove after a spell is cast to blot out the sun, Consuming deals with life after the sun returns and not entirely about vampires.
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Consuming the Darkness: Bk 7 in the Darkness series by Shiela Stewart
Blurb:
He needs your heart to live.
In Jacob’s Cove, where death is as common as apple pie, a serial murderer is a first. Lieutenant Sienna Storm, the town’s newly minted homicide detective, is eager to prove she’s up to the job of tracking down the demon who rips out his victims’ still-beating hearts. Even if it means using her innate ability to connect with him through his blood.
Detective Nathan Powers lost his partner to the aptly named Heartless Killer, and the trail of bodies leads him straight to Jacob’s Cove. However, this is no typical small town. It’s a strange world populated with bloodthirsty demons and run by a vampire. Still, the leggy blonde Sienna is a pleasant distraction. Until he discovers she’s after the same killer—and she’s not sharing.
Minds clash as the hunt intensifies, but the more they run into each other, the harder it is to stay apart. Together they discover not only clues, but a searing need that rises higher by the day.
That need may be their downfall when Nathan becomes the killer’s next target, and Sienna must risk everything to get him back.
