Several interviews have come in and one of the most asked question is:  What do I love about Midnight Hour?

So, I thought I would answer that for all you guys who stop by my blog.

Midnight Hour is special to me for several reasons.

1. I relate to Miranda so much because like myself, she is dyslexic. I know what it is to hate the word stupid.  When I was young, I heard it a lot from people who thought because I had some learning disabilities I wasn’t intelligent.  I’ve learned it isn’t true.  And I love seeing Miranda come to the conclusion that her dyslexia might result in some hurdles, but it also brings with it some very interesting gifts. For me it’s a imagination and the ability to read people and characters.
2. I loved adding the male point of view to And in Midnight Hour, you get not only one male point of view, but two. You are going to get to slip inside both Perry and Shawn’s heads.
3. I love how we see more of Burnett, the super- hot husband of Holiday. Most of you know that Perry lived in the same foster home with Burnett before he aged out. For the first time we really get to see the relationship between these two. I loved showing the softer side of the relationship between two guys who consider each other brothers.
4. I got great pleasure seeing my amazing trio together again.  Call them the Three Musketeers or Charlie’s Angels, but Kylie, Della and Miranda are so good together.  Those three have the most amazing friendship.  There isn’t anything they won’t do for each other.
5. Every book in the Shadow Falls series seems to have its own level of nail-biting suspense and a mystery you just can’t wait to solve. Well, something about Miranda’s book seemed to have an extra dose of page-turning drama.   Of course, when you start a book with an explosion, it pretty much tells you the pace isn’t going to slow down.
6. Midnight Hour is the finale. In this book you see all our Shadow Falls students graduate.  I cried so hard when it came to the end of this book.  These characters feel so real to me.  They are even more than friends, they are my family.  I’m going to miss them, and I know many of you will, too.

Okay, now I’ll give away an ARC of Midnight Hour to one person who leaves a posts telling me which scene you still think about from any of my books.(Sorry, this giveaway is for US residents only. If you’re reading this on Goodreads, you must leave a comment on my blog page to be entered.)

Appearances

October 1st: Texas Teen Book Festival

Guess what? You’ll be able to buy Midnight Hour before the release date if you come to the Texas Teen Book Festival on Oct. 1st! Yup, that’s right, there will be copies of Midnight Hour for purchase–and I’ll sign them for you. So be sure to come to the festival at St. Edward’s University in Austin.

October 8th: Barbara Bush Library

Want to win a copy of Midnight Hour? Join me at the Barbara Bush Library in Spring, TX on Oct. 8th, 10:30-noon. I’ll be teaching a teen writing class, answering your questions and selling & signing my books. I ‘ll also be giving away 2 FREE copies of Midnight Hour! Come by and you could be a winner!

October 21st & 22nd: Herlufsholm Fantasy Bogmesse

I’ll be in Denmark a book fair called Herlufsholm Fantasy Bogmesse and it will be at the Herlufsholm School near the city of Naestved on October 21st and 22nd. I’ll be there with fellow YA authors Eva Oakenshield, Brian P. Orbol, Kenneth Bogh Anderson, Nanna Foss and Haidi Wigger Klaris.

November 12th: Murder By The Book

Nov. 12th catch me at Murder by the Book in Houston, TX at 4:30 PM. If you buy a copy of Midnight Hour at the signing, I’ll still give you a FREE copy of Fighting Back, Kylie and Lucas’ last story..

Fans of mine, both as C.C. Hunter and Christie Craig, might have noticed that most of my books have an underlying theme:  What defines us?  Are we products of our DNA?  How much of who we are stems from the learned behavior we get from our parents?  Midnight Hour showcases Perry seeking answers from his parents who abandoned him when he was three, and Perry, like me, is left to wonder about what defines him.

When I was young, I used to really think I might have been adopted, swapped at birth, or picked up on a street corner.  I know I write about a lot of dysfunctional families.  Mine wasn’t that dysfunctional.  I was just different.

I was dyslexic.  I really think that if I hadn’t been dyslexic, I would have been a blatant book geek.  And frankly, no one in my family is a reader with exception of my maternal grandmother.   Whom, yes, I think I did get a lot from her.

I struggled more in school than my brothers.  However, I also internalized everything.  While I didn’t read, I was already creating stories in my head, yet not once did I consider growing up and writing.  It just didn’t seem like something someone like me would do.  Both my parents and my two brothers did things with their hands.  Dad was a contractor and plumber, my mom was a housewife and worked a little as a nurse’s aid.  My older brother loved music and played numerous instruments, while my younger brother was totally into sports.

Yes, I was definitely the odd one in the bunch.  I wanted go to my room or find a spot in the woods and lose myself in my stories.  Now, I do see some personality traits I’ve inherited from my parents.  My dad loves to laugh and tease and I’m right there with him.  My mom is a bit zany and can laugh at her own mistakes.  I certainly got that from her.  But other than that, I’m still the odd one out.

Seriously, neither of my parents read my books, but they are very proud of me.  And they expect copies of every book I write. They just aren’t readers.  And not only am I a writer, but I’ve overcome a lot of hurdles and now I love to read as well.

So, like Perry, I ask myself: Are we defined by our DNA?  Did I get all of this from my grandmother?  Why am different from my family?

What do you think?  How are you like your parents and siblings?  Do you ever feel like an odd man out?

Buy Midnight Hour Early!

You can purchase Midnight Hour before it even goes on sale! No, I’m not even talking about preordering it. October 1st, I’ll be at the Texas Teen Book Festival at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. It’s a great event with book signings, games, parties, workshops, a costume contest and a chance to meet many of your favorite authors. And they also sell books–and they will be selling copies of Midnight Hour, so you can purchase them and have me sign them for you before it’s even officially released.

But if you can’t make it to the book festival, you can still preorder Midnight Hour and submit your receipt to St. Martin’s Press HERE. Then, on Oct. 25th, you get a FREE copy of Fighting Back, Kylie & Lucas’s novella. Now, several of you have contacted me saying you’re having trouble submitting your receipt to that page. So, if you have a problem, please try sending it to romance@stmartins.com. Just remember, to get Fighting Back, you have to submit your receipt BEFORE Oct. 24th!

I’m counting down the days till the release of my CC Hunter YA novel, Midnight Hour, on October 25th. It’s the last book from my Shadow Falls series, and I’m having trouble saying goodbye to my characters. But it’s kind of like having kids, you have to let them go and fly on their own one day (and when it comes to many of my characters, I mean actually fly).

So, I’m lining up lots of book signings once Midnight Hour is released, and I’ll soon be posting a complete list of my upcoming appearances here on my blog. You never know, I may be coming to your town or city. Right now, however, I’m getting ready to head off to the Herlufsholm Fantasy Bogmesse, a book fair in Denmark. It will be at the Herlufsholm School near the city of Naestved on October 21st and 22nd. I’ve never been to Denmark, but I’m told it’s amazing. I can’t wait!

Since you still have over one month till Midnight Hour comes out, I thought I’d give you a preview by debuting the Midnight Hour book trailer. I LOVE it, and I hope you will, too.

Midnight Hour Preorder Offer!

Don’t forget, I’ve written one final Shadow Falls novella about Kylie and Lucas. It’s called Fighting Back. But you can’t just buy this novella, you can actually get it for FREE! All you have to do is preorder Midnight Hour and submit your e-receipt HERE (before Oct. 24th),and on October 25^th, you’ll receive a FREE copy of Fighting Back, the novella that will take you back to the first Shadow Falls romance that grabbed your heart. That’s right. All you have to do is buy a book that you were going to buy anyway, but just preorder it before it’s released. Midnight Hour is available now for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

I originally wrote this for a July 2016 post for Heroes and Heartbreakers, but I thought you would enjoy this, too. So, I’m posting here. If you have any other lessons you believe you can learn from romance novels, I’d love to hear them.

1. Love isn’t always sex, grins and red roses. You have to fight to make it right.

My readers often say they want a romance like they read in my novels. They want their relationships to be as smooth and rewarding. Yes, romances add a layer of fantasy to the everyday love stories. However, the happy ending and awesome sex found in ninety-nine percent of all romance books can keep the reader from remembering the conflict, miscommunications, and sacrifices those characters endured for love’s sake. They forget that in these heart-tugging books feelings are going to be hurt and pain is going to be felt.  There’s even a whole section set aside in our books for the black moment, the part when the shit really hits the fan and the happy ending seems impossible. Oh, and in my books, the black moment usually comes after those same characters have been shot at, found a dead body in their trunks, survived a terminal illness or have been changed into a vampire. Life as a romance heroine isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Point being: real relationships, like in romance novels, require two people willing tocompromise, fight and walk through fire to get and keep their happy endings.

2. The “Just you and Me Babe” can be a good motto. . . but only for a while.

It happens in romance novels and in real life. We meet a guy who sweeps us off our feet and he becomes our focus, our only desire, our everything.  So much so that just going to pee causes separation anxiety.  It’s okay to enjoy that only-you stage in relationships. However, in most romance novels and in real life, the secondary characters serve a purpose.  In fact, the friends and family scenes are often my favorite ones to write.  My family, even those who are lock-in-the-attic worthy, still ground me.  My friends? We share laughter, wine, whines, and all the juicy little details that you can’t share with your new man. Secondary characters kick our asses when we need them kicked.  They force us to open our eyes when we’re blindsided.  They are the people who will come to our pity parties when we throw them. Yes, in books and in our lives, we love our heroes, but we need secondary characters to make our worlds complete.

3. Own your emotional baggage, then kill it.

As a romance writer, I love characters with emotional baggage (EB). It may stem from a bad breakup, past drama or because their mamas dressed them funny.  Whatever the reason, EB adds layers of conflict, and readers enjoy cheering characters on as they let go of the past and embrace their future. And as in fiction, we can overcome it and even use the lessons we learn from it.  My own Texas-sized, divorce-related emotional baggage is what inspired my Divorced, Desperate series and helped motivate my YA series, Shadow Falls.  Most of us have a secret stash of issues we’ve collected along life’s path.  If your ex cheated, you may be overly jealous, if someone in your past was too critical, you may mistake anything your new man says to be offensive.  It’s wise to remember that the new person in your life shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes others have done to you along life’s journey. So do as our romance characters do, own the baggage that is holding you back and preventing you from being the partner your significant other deserves, learn from it, then kill that sucker.

4. There are more than cute butts, hard abs, and bedroom eyes to real heroes. Use your instincts.

We love our sexy heroes, and I write them in my books to make them hard not to love. Yet, every hero I’ve written is more than just a hottie. They have substance and moral integrity.  Sure they love sex, but they also love puppies, old people and babies. And while at first it might be that body that lures my heroines (and me too) to a hero, my female leads have a male meter reader (MMR) that eventually kicks into action.  The MMR is that internal meter which every woman has buried inside her gut. It tells us if a guy is dateable or non-datable, dangerous or non-dangerous, a drop-dead darling or a dud.  Problem is, the hotter his body and sexier his smile, the harder it is for our MMR to kick in. Personally, my MMR, and some of my heroines’ meters, didn’t start working until after we said I do.  But learn from a romance author and romance heroines, use your MMR. Most of the time, it’s right on target.

5. Talking Sex: Pay attention to your most important erogenous zone.

Some would say it’s their breasts, below the waist or their feet.  I’m a neck gal.  Yet, when I’m writing romance novels, I know the zone my heroine needs to focus on the most is her mind.  Admit it. If we aren’t in the mood, a guy is flat out of luck and not getting lucky—unless he’s a master of seduction.  (Yum.) Heroines in my romance novels spend time fantasizing about the hero, thinking about his body, thinking about him touching theirs.  Point is, they think about it. Women, in fiction and out, need to spend time getting in the mood.  Finding ways to shed the stress of life’s daily grind and connecting to our sexy side is important to a great sensual experience.  So before it happens, make sure you work on your most erogenous zone: your mind.

Winner!

Last week I asked you to search for a song you thought would be a good fit for Miranda. I got some really great suggestions. I haven’t selected one yet, and I may put it to a vote later, so keep looking for me, okay? I did select a winner who will receive a bag of Midnight Hour swag. SonJa Amsden, you’re my winner! Please email me at christie@christie-craig.com with your postal address. Congratulations!

Midnight Hour Preorder

Don’t forget, Midnight Hour releases October 25th. If you preorder Midnight Hour and submit your e-receipt HERE, on October 25^th, you’ll receive a FREE copy of Fighting Back, the novella that will take you back to the first Shadow Falls romance that grabbed your heart. That’s right. All you have to do is buy a book that you were going to buy anyway, but just preorder it before it’s released. Midnight Hour is available now for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

Okay, I promised you something special. Everyone asks me for more Kylie and Lucas. You’ve all been hungry for a little more of the couple who started it all. Well, I listened. So, I’ve written one final Shadow Falls novella about Kylie and Lucas. It’s called Fighting Back. But you can’t just buy this novella. No, this time it’s a bit different. You can actually get it for FREE!

All you have to do is preorder Midnight Hour and submit your e-receipt HERE, and on October 25^th, you’ll receive a FREE copy of Fighting Back, the novella that will take you back to the first Shadow Falls romance that grabbed your heart. That’s right. All you have to do is buy a book that you were going to buy anyway, but just preorder it before it’s released. Midnight Hour is available now for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

For a special preview of Fighting Back click HERE.

In Fighting Back Kylie and Lucas face their biggest challenge yet.

Will their love survive?