Fallen Angel Reviews would like to welcome back multi published author, TD McKinney. Thanks for agreeing to talk with us again. I last spoke with you in July, and we talked about your new release Eight is Never Enough. You have quite a few things in the works and a few awards as well.

How did you feel winning the Preditors & Editors 2005 Best Horror Novel - 2nd Place, Best Mainstream Novel - 2nd Place for Dancing in the Dark?

It's a wonderful honor. Since P&E is a Readers' Poll, it really meant a lot to me. It's unbelievably gratifying and humbling to have enough of the readers out there like my book and take the time from their busy lives to vote it into second place. And to win in two categories -- well, I was overjoyed! My fans are great people. *Laughing* And they have excellent taste!

How did you find out and how did you celebrate?

I found out by accident. I Google myself periodically, checking for reviews and such, and found my name on the voting list. I kept an eye on it after that until the winners were posted. My husband, lovely creature that is he, took me to dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Kinichi's in Austin, Texas. It's a great place even if it is a three hour drive from Fort Worth and we have to get a hotel room. Now how's that for a man who loves and supports you? He'll drive six hours and stay overnight just for a good meal. The chef even comped us a Chambord and sake after the bill was paid. The only thing better than good liquor is good FREE liquor.

Now I see that My Secret Yankee is up for an Eppie. How exciting! Again, how did you find out and how did you feel when you found out?

It was announced on the authors' Yahoo list at Amber Quill Press, who published the novel. It's a great feeling. The Eppies are a judged award and it's an amazing feeling when your peers feel your work is worthy. I keep telling everyone this must be how actors feel when they are nominated for an Oscar. *Laughing* I won't look as good as Angelina Jolie on the red carpet but I am contemplating buying a new dress if I get to go to San Antonio for the awards dinner. Seriously, it's an amazing compliment. Civil War romances aren't exactly in vogue at the moment so that was a strike against us. And we weren't sure how the world at large would feel about the gay romance sub-theme. While Antoine and Séverin's romance isn't the focus of the book, it's integral to the plot and we couldn't guess how that might effect its reception. So far, we've had no complaints or negative comments! Considering that, we find some of the controversy about Brokeback Mountain really interesting.

It looks like you've got quite a few books in the works with co-writer Aimée Masion. Can you tell us about the French Historical you're working on?

Not working nearly enough, as it turns out. Aimée lost her apartment as a result of Hurricane Katrina and moved in with me. She just left last week to go back to New Orleans. We'd hoped to write a lot while she was here but we weren't really able to, what with one thing and another. But we did get some work done in December.

As often happens when you sit down and start world building and outlining the plot, the idea for the French historical changed from the original conception. In fact, it split into two unrelated books. One is a standard historical set just before 1700 about two brothers and a sister pushed into the privateer lifestyle and the English/French family they capture during a raid. We are exploring how the lust for revenge can ruin lives. There'll be swashbuckling, sea battles, and a lady pirate who dresses as a gentleman. The other is about a pair of centuries' old French vampires and an innocent young Creole lady they befriend. It ended up being set in the early days of the English Regency. We're looking into what is love and what does it really mean to be in love. Both are about half finished.

I'm really intrigued by the futuristic crime fighting team. Can you tell us what makes them unusual?

This story is basically Aimée's though I'm supplying some ideas and some writing. It's a great plot and I can hardly wait for her to get all the details settled. The male half of the team is Cajun FBI agent assigned to a new, covert government agency. He's a little on the rough and ready side and very irreverent. His new partner is a strait-laced lady psychic. They learn to work together despite their differences. And they learn there may be for to this new unit than first meets the eye. There's a lot in this one about the nature of loyalty and what it really means to serve your fellow man.

Your sequel to Dancing in the Dark sounds like a great follow up. Can you tell us about it?

You know I'm always happy to talk about my own stuff! You shouldn't encourage me. It's titled Walking After Midnight and the rough draft is finished and I'm about halfway through the rewrite and polish stage. My FBI profiler is perfectly happy with is new life as a vampire queen's pet. He's looking forward to immortality and centuries of eternal youth. Then she up and goes off to Europe without him. So everything he thought he had is snatched out from under him. Just to make his life utterly suck, he starts getting notes demanding he go to the media and tell the world the truth about the secret underworld of vampires and demons. The problem is the notes are left on the murdered bodies of vampire pets just like him. So he's faced with how to find this killer before more humans die just because they've chosen to take vampire lovers in the midst of his own personal crisis. I have to say, I do love torturing the boy.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Everywhere! Music, news articles, conversations with friends, family, and my co-authors. Reading a book or seeing a movie may give me the urge to write one set in the same time period. I got an idea the other day watching a woman walk out of Starbucks! Music really is a major source of inspiration though.

What draws you to the paranormal?

I've always been attracted to it. My mama read Gothic novels and I used to come home from 1st grade and watch Dark Shadows with her. By the time I was a teen, I was collecting vampire novels. The local CBS station used to show old movies after school. Each week was a different theme - westerns, vampires, werewolves, monsters, mysteries. I watched them all. And I grew up in the deep, deep South. It's a magical area. All Spanish moss draped trees and history. I always said my life was somewhere between Faulkner and Williams! And very much the "haunted South." Our home was once a stagecoach stop and there were stories about the ghosts of highway men and Civil War soldiers and tragic lovers all around me. One uncle swore he lived in a haunted house -- the doors wouldn't stay closed. My great-great aunt lived next door to the local "most haunted" house. The cemeteries at home are wonderful. They date back hundreds of years. The plot just across from my family's is for victims of the yellow fever who died in the mid 1700's. Growing up like that, it's hard not to be drawn or at least interested in what might be.

Why do you think paranormals are so popular lately? It's not just in books, but in movies and television too.

Well, when I was a teenager, you were "weird" if you liked science fiction or the paranormal. Adults thought we were nuts. But we're the adults now. My generation and the ones after grew up with books and movies about vampires, werewolves, aliens, and monsters. A lot of the things that people said were impossible are now everyday. When I was in college, there was no such thing as a personal computer. Now I use a wireless laptop to write novels and communicate with my readers and publishers. In a world where miraculous technology is common place, people need something different as an escape. We can't amuse ourselves by imagining we're John Carter of Mars any more. Mars and the planets aren't as mysterious as they once were. So we've come back to what was always a mystery - the world of the paranormal. And whether is ancient icons like vampires or more modern ones like psychics, it sets our minds free. It's one of the places where we can be truly imaginative.

I don't see anything about a sword that brings together two people...lol Have you thought of continuing that train of thought? A geisha story would also be great.

Remind me of this in about a year! I need that much time to finish all the books I've started. I have an inkling of an idea for the sword thing. But you know me - I can't do just a geisha story. Maybe a geisha western or paranormal....there are possibilities! Maybe you should be my co-author on this one.

I do have to ask...why TD?

My name is Theresa Diana. I owe it partially to John Douglas. And yes, I'm still obsessed with the man, more so every day. After he read Dancing In the Dark he told me that as a profiler one of the things he consciously did while reading was to try and figure out the gender of the author just from the voice, word choices, and emotional responses. And he couldn't! Now, he already knew I was female but even with that prejudice, he wouldn't have been able to peg my sex from the book. I found this to be an amazing compliment, especially since the book is written from a male point of view. I figured if I could stump the greatest FBI profiler ever born, well, I had it going on! The fact that he thinks I understand exactly how a real profiler thinks and handles an investigation wasn't too shabby either. Any how, he suggested that it might be fun for me to use my initials and let the reader try to figure out what I was, too.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I'd like to thank you for inviting me to interview at FAR again. It's always a sincere pleasure. And I want to let my readers know how very much I appreciate them. I love hearing from them on my Yahoo list and via email. They make it all worthwhile.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy life to answer our questions. If you'd like to read more about Ms. McKinney, you can visit her website. You can also find a list of her books on her site.

Interviewed by: Serena