The
midnight sun bakes Fairbanks, Alaska as residents gather for the annual summer
solstice baseball game. Amidst the revelry and raucous shouts of “Play ball,” a
spark alights and a jogger bursts into flames. Detective Danny Fitzpatrick,
still reeling from his near death at the hands of vampire Aleksei Nechayev,
watches in horror as the man burns alive.
Someone
is burning Fairbanks and its residents and leaving nothing but smoldering
embers behind. As the city sweats under a record-breaking heatwave and
unexplained fires claim more victims, Danny and his colleagues struggle to find
an arsonist who can conjure fire out of thin air.
To
Danny’s horror, the only one who may be able to help him stop the arsonist is
his nemesis Nechayev. Will the vampire help in the hunt for a witch?
Excerpt:
The
inquisitive Fairbanks detective Danny Fitzpatrick had ruined the peaceful home
Aleksei had maintained in the Arctic town of Coldfoot for decades. He enjoyed
checking in on the detective and, while he couldn’t help but feel a strange
fondness for the man he had chosen to let live, he always hoped to find him
struggling with some new problem. He was tickled to see that this time he got
his wish.
Aleksei
grinned from ear to ear as he read about the mysterious fires that were
plaguing Fairbanks while the city suffered through its worst heat wave in
history. How fascinating! And by all accounts, the police, including the dear
detective, had no idea who was starting the fires or even how they were doing
it.
Fire
was one of the few things Aleksei feared and hated as much as humans did. He
still remembered the time he had been nearly burned to death by a male witch
not long after he’d arrived in Alaska. He couldn’t help but wonder if a
supernatural force was responsible for these fires as well. Was there a witch
on the loose in Fairbanks?
Since
he was safe and sound on the other side of the world, Aleksei desperately hoped
so. How would his favorite detective deal with a situation like that? And what
of the fire starter? What was his, or her, motivation? What was the game?
His
lousy winter here in Australia had suddenly taken a surprisingly lovely turn.
Clearly, the summer in Fairbanks was turning out to be more horrific than
anyone there could have imagined. He couldn’t wait to see how it all unfolded.
It was going to be such fun.
Julie, thanks so much for
stopping by. So, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
Thank you for having me! I’m so glad to be here. I live in
Cincinnati, Ohio with my dog and my cat and I work as a librarian to pay my
bills while I indulge my passion for writing. I love animals and have written
some articles and features about animal rescue. One of my current goals is to
do more of that. I’m a tv addict and a sports fan but I also love walking my
dog and exploring parks and trails so I’m not a total couch potato. I graduated
from Ohio State University and I am a Buckeye fanatic.
How did you get started writing?
I got a very late start! I’d always enjoyed writing anything and
everything – letters, emails, school papers, etc. – but I never thought that I
could be creative or write fiction. I’ve been making up stories in my head for
as long as I can remember but I never wrote them down. Back in 2010 I started
volunteering as a writer for Best Friends Animal Society and the experience
changed my life. I loved writing articles for their website and crafting the
features to make them engaging and uplifting. I started a blog not long after
and now I can’t stop writing.
What was the inspiration for your book?
This book is a sequel to my first novel Polar Night, so I was
inspired by that. Polar Night is set during the dead of winter when parts of
Alaska experience nearly 24 hour darkness, so I wanted to explore the opposite
phenomenon in this book. Polar Day takes place in the summer when there is near
24 hour daylight. The thought of constant sun and heat inspired me make the
story about fire.
What’s the one genre you haven’t written
in yet that you’d like to?
I would love to write a children’s book. I loved to read as a kid
and I think it would be fun to try my hand at creating something kids would
enjoy.
Are there any genres you won’t read or
write in? Why?
There’s nothing that I won’t read but I don’t think I could ever
write a romance. I am terrible at writing love scenes! I also tend to be drawn
towards dark stories that don’t necessarily have happy endings, so I don’t
think that genre is for me.
So, what are you working on right now? Have
any other releases planned, or still writing?
I’m still writing and don’t know when my next release may be. I am
working on a ghost story that takes place in Cincinnati during World War I but
I still have a long way to go on it. I’m also working on a short story for an
anthology that my writing group Untethered Realms is putting together. We plan
to release that in the fall.
Alright, now for some totally random,
fun questions. Favorite color?
Red
Favorite movie?
The Shawshank Redemption
Alright, you have one superpower. What
is it?
Flying
You can have dinner with any 3 people,
dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?
My maternal grandfather and both of my grandmothers. My grandfather
died long before I was born so I never got to meet him and my grandmothers both
died when I was 9/10 years old so I feel like I didn’t know them well either.
Last question: Which of your characters
are you most like and how/why?
I am most like Danny because I am more than a little cynical and
also a bit of a loner. I’m not as jaded as Danny is but I can definitely relate
to him. I’m also not a murderer so fortunately I’m not at all like Jamie or
Aleksei. :D
Author Bio and Links:
Julie
Flanders is a librarian by day and a writer all the rest of the time. She is
also a television show addict with a particular fondness for Game of Thrones
and The Walking Dead and a slightly obsessive sports fan who cheers for the
Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cincinnati Reds. Julie is an animal lover and
animal rescue advocate who shares her home with her rescued dog and cat. She
has written about the joys of pets for outlets such as Cat Fancy, Thrive in
Life, and Best Friends Animal Society. Visit Julie at julieflanders.net.
Tamara is an Australian author
who grew up in an old mining town in country South Australia, where her love of
history was founded. So much so, she made her darling husband travel to the UK
for their honeymoon, where she dragged him from one historical monument and
castle to another.
