Interview: Thea Harrison, author of 'Lord's Fall'

When USA TODAY and New York Times best-selling author Thea Harrison started writing romance at age 19, no one could have imagined it would become a literary genre that was home to dragons, wyr, elves, vampires and all manner of paranormal and extraterrestrial creatures. But these are exactly the kind of creatures that populate Harrison's imagination, which has been fed and watered with the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, Isaac Asimov. It's no surprise then that this author is rising to the top now when the time is right for her to unleash the characters that she couldn't write three decades ago. We caught up with Harrison to talk about her Elder Races series, what drives her to write paranormal romance and how some writing dreams really do come true.

Pamela: You wrote your first romance at the tender age of 19, and have 16 books published through Harlequin and Mills & Boon under the pen name Amanda Carpenter. How has the world of romantic fiction changed since then? How have you changed as a writer?

Thea: Romantic fiction has gone through immense changes. The sensuality has deepened, and it is a tremendously competitive genre with so many talented writing voices. In many ways, right now, I feel like romantic fiction is a wide-open territory, limited only by the imaginations of the people who write in it.

As far as my changes as a writer go, as you mention, I started writing when I was 19 and now I am 50, so I have gone through immense changes as well. My writing voice has matured, and I feel like I too am limited only by my own imagination. I'm constantly working on ways to challenge my own assumptions and to keep my writing as fresh and inventive as I possibly can.

Pamela: You're fresh off winning a RITA for best paranormal with Dragon Bound, the first book in your Elder Races series and making the "big lists" with Serpent's Kiss. How did it feel to be able to say you're a RITA winner and a USA TODAY and New York Times best-selling author?

Thea: I have a strong sense of "who, me?" Of course now that these tremendously amazing and wonderful things have happened, I want to work very hard in order to see if I can make them happen again.

Pamela: Did you know when you wrote Dragon Bound that you were working on something special or that the series would take off the way it has? All five full-length novels in the Elder Races series have won Top Picks from RT Book Reviews. That's quite an accomplishment.

Thea: I really didn't know. I was just hoping that somebody would buy Dragon Bound, and they might be interested in a sequel some day. I was pretty flabbergasted (and over the moon, of course) when I received my first three-book contract offer. I had also known for some time of Berkley Executive Editor Cindy Hwang and, as I have already told Cindy, the offer to work with her was a dream come true.

Pamela: What was your inspiration for the Elder Races series?

Thea: This is a big question, and my answer has to be pretty big, too. I really think my inspiration has come from a lifelong love of science-fiction and fantasy, and romance. I remember in grade school, several of the books I read from the school library were on Greek mythology. As a young reader and a teen, I read Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, and as a new adult, I read the giants in fantasy and science-fiction at that time: Stephen Donaldson, Guy Gavriel Kay. Isaac Asimov and John Varley. Patricia McKillip, C.J. Cherryh and so many others. In romance, I gobbled up Mary Stewart, LaVyrle Spencer and Kathleen Woodiwiss, and so many others. I've spent years reading in these genres. When paranormal romance became big, I was like a kid a candy store.

Then, as a writer, I played with creating characters and building worlds. In college, I took science-fiction and mythology classes as my electives. So when people ask me about my inspiration for the Elder Races series, I have to say, "Everything. Just everything."

Pamela: In a way this series seems to synthesize a lot of interests and passions of yours. No wonder readers love it! What are some of your favorite aspects of that world, the elements of it that make it enjoyable to write? What makes it stand out among other paranormal romances?

Thea: I love mingling the extraordinary with the ordinary, and bringing suspense, sensuality and humor to the stories. I hope these are the things that readers resonate with as well.

Pamela: One of the fun aspects of your website is the Fan Page, where fans share videos, wallpaper and other images they've created that were inspired by this series. What is it like to your fictional world come alive through your readers' eyes?

Thea: I adore it! I am so glad that readers are taking this world and making it their own. I love to see what they create with their own vision.

If you are a reader and you have Elder Races-inspired art that you would like to share — for free, this is just for fun — with other readers, please do e-mail: info@theaharrison.com. We'd love to add your creativity to the mix.

Pamela: Tell us about Lord's Fall, the latest book in your Elder Races series, which was just released on Nov. 6.

Thea:Lord's Fall, to me, felt like a natural progression of events in the Elder Races universe. It all started with Dragon Bound, and the hero and heroine of that story, Pia and Dragos. Throughout the successive books, while each hero and heroine got their own story, the pressures continued to mount on Pia and Dragos. They have so many issues to deal with — border tensions with the Elves, too few sentinels for Dragos, the challenge of Pia's full identity, and how to actually develop a relationship together — that the thought of writing their next story wouldn't leave me alone. So I pitched it to my editor, who happily agreed with the idea. I was excited at the chance to return to Pia and Dragos, and I hope readers love it as much as I did!

Pamela: What else can we expect from you over the next several months?

Thea: I am writing the answers to this interview on the release day for Lord's Fall, Nov. 6. Tomorrow I plunge into revisions for Rising Darkness and Fallen Light, a duology called the Game of Shadows novels. You can read the official cover copy for Rising Darknesshere, which releases April 2. We'll also be planning a big reveal for the gorgeous cover art soon!

Readers can keep up with these events by signing up for my new newsletter. The simple signup form can be found on my blog at TheaHarrison.com. I also post updates on my blog, on Twitter (@TheaHarrison) and on my author Facebook page.

Pamela: Thanks for spending time with us today!

Thea: Thanks so much for having me! It's been a pleasure to visit with you.

Pamela Clare is an award-winning journalist and nationally best-selling author of both historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense. She loves coffee, the Colorado mountains, and her two grown sons. Her website is PamelaClare.com.