Get to Know: Karina Fabian & Live and Let Fly

A Big PP Welcome to Karina Fabian as she kicks off her Live and Let Fly Tour!

Karina Fabian

After being a straight-A student, Karina now cultivates Fs: Family, Faith, Fiction and Fun. From an order of nuns working in space to a down-and-out faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, her stories surprise with their twists of clichés and incorporation of modern day foibles in an otherworld setting. Her quirky twists and crazy characters have won awards, including the INDIE book award for best fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), an EPPIE award for best sci-fi (Infinite Space, Infinite God) and a Mensa Owl for best fiction (World Gathering), and top placer in the Preditor and Editor polls. In May 2010, her writing took a right turn with a devotional, Why God Matters, which she co-wrote with her father. Mrs. Fabian is former President of the Catholic Writer’s Guild and also teaches writing and book marketing seminars online.

            It’s super-spy spoofing at its best with exotic locations (Idaho--exotic? Well, Idaho’s exotic to them), maniacal middle-managers, secret agent men, teen rock stars in trouble, man-eating animatronics, evil overlords, and more!

      For a dragon detective with a magic-slinging nun as a partner, saving the worlds gets routine. So, when the U.S. government hires Vern and Sister Grace to recover stolen secrets for creating a new Interdimensional Gap—secrets the U.S. would like to keep, thank you—Vern sees a chance to play Dragon-Oh-Seven.

            No human spy, however, ever went up against a Norse goddess determined to rescue her husband. Sigyn will move heaven and earth to get Loki—and use the best and worst of our world against anyone who tries to stop her.

What are your three favorite books of all time? Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle; Any of the Valdemar Magic books by Mercedes Lackey; Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Music--with or without? What kind?  Depends on the book.  Sometimes, I need silence.  Sometimes, I listened to Bond-style music.  I have a husband who loves to put together CDs for me.

First or third POV?  For DragonEye novels, first.  Vern is just too much fun as a narrator.  I love writing cynical dragon with a superiority complex.

How's tricks? Do you juggle multiple projects?  I write one novel at a time, but I’m always editing another, writing workshops, writing short stories, writing blogs, articles, advice via e-mail…  I need to stop listing before my brain explodes.

What's harder: beginning, middle, or the end?  None.  Writing visual scenes as opposed to dialogue or action is hardest.  I have to concentrate because I’m not a visual person.  I spend a lot of time staring at Google Earth.

Revisions: Love 'em or hate 'em?  Love.  It’s so exciting to discover a way to make a book better.

How did you come up with that title?  I was in a James Bond mood, and my MC is a dragon.  Live and Let Fly seemed a logical choice.  All the chapters are adaptations of spy novels or thrillers (except Naked Came I, but it was too perfect to pass up.)

Best advice anybody every gave you?  Be ready to submit to the next place.  It makes rejection a little easier to handle.  My best advice to an author:  Rejection is not personal, so don’t take it that way.

Fill in this blank: My ideal fictional hero would think me gorgeous no matter…   I can’t answer that.  My real-life man already thinks me gorgeous no matter what.  I hit the jackpot with Rob.

What's your favorite dessert? Black Forrest Cake

Do you write at home or someplace else?  At home. In the car. In restaurants. In waiting rooms.  That’s what smart phones are made for, IMHO.

What's your favorite type of hero/heroine and why? Flawed.  They’re much more interesting that way.

And here's a super-cool excerpt:

Charlie started to close the door behind us, his other hand gripping the handle of his dagger so tightly I could hear the leather wrap on the handle strain, as we listened to the footsteps coming our way, slow, bored. My predator's instincts rose; then I had a great idea. I shook my head at Charlie and winked, and he shuffled out of my way, leaving the door ajar. I settled myself with my back to the door, just inside the shadows and let the script play itself out:

CLUELESS MINION enters Stage Left. He pauses, hearing a noise, but does not report it. Instead, he fondles the stars on his nametag and moves toward the empty hallway, his mind on adding another. (Probably saying, "I was proactive today!")

CLUELESS pauses at door, hesitating. He stands and, back to the door, reaches for his walkie-talkie.

Suddenly, a well-muscled and gorgeously scaled tail whips out from the crack in the door and wraps itself around his neck. He only has time to grab ineffectively at the tail before he's drawn into the darkness. The door shuts behind him.

Pan shot of the empty hallway.

FADE TO BLACK

I slammed my victim on the floor and pinned him with my forelegs, then I leaned my face in nice and slow, making sure he got a good look at my fangs before he saw my eyes. "Where's the girl?" I growled low and menacingly.

"Wh-What g-g-girl?"

Charlie crouched down by Stutterboy and glanced at his nametag. "Look, Philip, we're in a bit of a hurry. We know Rhoda Dakota's being held captive somewhere nearby. Now you can be a good survivor and tell us where…or you can be dinner."

"I-I don't—"                 

"Phil A. Minion." I mused and drooled a bit for effect. I live for these moments, I really do. I licked his cheek and asked Charlie, "Can I have fries with that?"

"Why not? This is Idaho."

Find Live and Let Fly at: http://tinyurl.com/LiveAndLetFly

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTH3bEUZ-bY&feature=youtu.be