Please join me in welcoming the multi-talented, award winning author, Denise Agnew, as she talks about her trilogy which take place in an asylum.
Denise is also giving away a paperback of one of her books. (Contest details below.)
Selena: Thank you for joining me, Denise. Let’s get right to the heart of this interview and your biggest quirk (okay, maybe not a quirk for you, but anyone who loves spooky movies is quirky to me).
I know you love scary movies. Is there a movie that makes your goosebumps sprout goosebumps?
Denise: Glad to be here, Selena, and isn’t your comment about quirks is a little bit of the pot calling the kettle? 🙂
Movies don’t generally scare me, but I will admit that the trailers for The Exorcist still make hairs on my body stand up. The two spooky movies I found the scariest weren’t horror movies. Seven and Silence of The Lambs were extremely disturbing in that scary way. Two of my favorite classic horror movies are The Exorcist and The Shining. Slasher flicks mostly bore me. Okay, exception to that would be the Scream franchise. I love the way those movies don’t take themselves too seriously.
Selena: You’re an eclectic writer; historical, suspense, paranormal, sexy stories with hot heroes and strong heroines, holiday themed stories and even sexily sweet stories. What makes the Asylum trilogy unique, compared to your other books?
Denise: These books are definitely romances, just as all my stories, but I threw in the kitchen sink with this trilogy. I was trying to do a lot of things in three books.
Paranormal elements are foremost. What if evil grew in a place and over the decades it became larger and no one understood it or where it originated? After that you have social the elements with regard to each era and the horrifying challenges each heroine encounters that have as much to do with the times they live in, and are as much a part of the stories as the paranormal elements.
The heroine in the first novel is overcoming odds that don’t seem possible to overcome, and in the second novel I wanted to build the sense of dread that must have existed at the time when World War I was raging and the Spanish flu was decimating the world.
In the third book I drew in some of the craziness I see infecting the world in the present day and the fear I see overwhelming people. I don’t mind bringing up ignorance, bullying, prejudice and the many ways people display it. In each book I’m illustrating that every era has its challenges, and that no one era has the be all or end all on difficulties. I loved putting the characters through these challenges while I watched them fall in love.
Selena: What is your go-to snack while in deep writing mode?
Denise: Yogurt. Easy to snarf down!
Selena: Another quirk that I know about you, is that you love Halloween. I know, I know, pot calling kettle…but seriously, why do people love Halloween? I’ll have to delve into that for another blog. So tell us, what is it about this holiday that intrigues you?
Denise: It’s steeped in the pagan and the mysterious and paranormal. It has always called to me on a deep level. I’m a paranormal investigator and that time of the year seems to be an excellent time to explore the unknown. It has always been my favorite holiday, and I have so many fond memories of it. Every October I spend a ton of time watching all my favorite spooky movies and sometimes even writing a spooky story. Fall is my favorite time of the year.
Selena: What I love most about your writing is that you are always creating outside the box, especially with this trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though you know I’m not a fan of spooky things, but this wasn’t spooky or eerie at all…okay, some parts were edge of the seat worthy, but they were so well done and I was totally immersed in the romances in each book.
During your research for the Asylum trilogy, was there anything interesting that happened during the research, or something you discovered that left you speechless.
Denise: Thank you, I know it’s not your type of reading, which makes the fact that you enjoyed them that much sweeter.
Researching the past always means I’ll learn something intriguing. I love history. When I researched World War I and the Spanish flu for the second book, it surprised me how deeply affected I was by the suffering people endured in that era. It makes a lot of what most people complain about today pale in comparison. It makes me tremendously grateful for all I have and how wonderful my life really is.
Selena: If you could go back in time and have lunch with Edgar Allan Poe, what one question are you burning to ask him?
Denise: I’d ask him if he every wanted to stop writing and just chuck it all into the garbage. I love his work, and I figure he was delightfully twisted, as so many writers are. 🙂
Selena: We are twisted, but in a good crazy way that makes sense to us and to our readers.
Tell us something nobody knows about you?
Denise: This is something that a few people know about me. I’m an empath but didn’t really figure that out and accept it until about ten years ago. It’s very helpful in some ways and a pain in the ass on other days. I learn more about being an empath every day.
Selena: If you had your own talk show, which three guests would you like to have on, and why?
Denise: Oooohhhh…very good question. I’d probably interview Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Linda Howard. Dean Koontz because he’s one of my favorite writers, he’s funny, and I like how he took control of his publishing career and didn’t allow the publishing world to take control of him. Stephen King because I loved his book On Writing. Linda Howard because I’ve enjoyed many of her books, and she’s also a very funny lady.
Selena: If you could assign a soundtrack to the Asylum trilogy what would it be?
Denise: I actually have a soundtrack made up which consists of a lot of different music that fits sections of the book. All of it is scary/gloomy/creepy or romantic, depending on the individual book. I assign certain songs as “love themes” or “love scene” type music as well. I used some music from Woman In Black for example, as well as Fernando Velazquez’s Shiver soundtrack. But I also used some James Newton Howard music, When A Stranger Calls soundtrack and a whole host of other stuff.
Selena: If you could assign a soundtrack to your life, what would it be?
Denise: That’s a super hard question. It would probably be a huge soundtrack made out of 70’s, 80’s music and a ton of classical music from different eras in time. I love music from a lot of different time periods, so it would be a mixed bag. Top Gun soundtrack, Elton John music, and even disco. Hey, I’m dating myself.
Denise A. Agnew is the author of over 57 novels. Romantic Times Book Reviews calls her romantic suspense novels “top-notch,” and she’s received their coveted TOP PICK rating. Denise has written paranormal, romantic comedy, contemporary, historical, erotic romance, and romantic suspense. Archaeology and archery have crept into her work, and travels through England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have added to a lifetime of story ideas. A paranormal investigator, Denise looks forward to exploring the unknown.
Amazon links for the Asylum Trilogy:
Contest:
Answer the following question in the comment section of this blog and your name will be entered into a draw to win a Paperback copy of one of Denise’s books.
“If you could assign a soundtrack to your life, what would it be?”
Selena Robins, Author 
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