FIRST LOVE BLOG HOP – Fantasy Australian Author Gillian Joy

Gillian Joy, Author
GUARDIAN and FOREVER

A love of supernatural literature led Australian author Gillian Joy to write about Hannah, “the keeper and the protector of all supernatural.” Her first novel GUARDIAN “contains all the supernatural you could possibly want and more. There are vampires, witches, werewolves and more!!” according to a reviewer. But even more important are “the depth of the characters and Gillian Joy's ability to draw you into her story.”

When she's not writing, Gillian designs houses. She is possibly the only person I know who would list the movie “Calamity Jane” as one of her favorites. For those of you who don’t remember, it’s a Doris Day movie that features the song “Secret Love” and I, too, am a fan. However, above all, she appreciates Hugh Jackman *sighs*.

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Q: Why did you choose to write about the supernatural?

Gillian Joy: I love the supernatural. I read The Vampire Lestat when I was a teenager and I fell in love with Lestat and have been crazy about vampires ever since. It was just a natural progression towards werewolves, fairies and angels as well, just to name a few that pop up in the book.

Q: How do you help readers believe and accept the world and characters you create?

Gillian Joy: Well it's fantasy, so technically I don't really expect them to believe in the world I created, but I do want them to believe in the personalities of the characters I've created. If the reader can relate to the characters, then hopefully they can place themselves in their positions and that in turn will let them get totally lost in the world they live in, and that's my main aim when I'm writing. To create a world that reader will lose themselves in.

Q:  One of the reviewers of GUARDIAN said, “The character development of Hannah and Bernard is especially endearing.” How do you make us care about your characters? Why do we like your heroes? Why do we hate your villains?

Gillian Joy: I like to think I write characters that are realistic and approachable. Everyday people with everyday problems, they all have their strengths and their flaws.  

Except perhaps for Gabriel, I have been told he is perfection personified although personally I think he sometimes tries to be a bit too controlling. Hannah can be too damn stubborn for her own good far too often but she's just an independent woman who has learnt to cope on her own, but she definitely learns and grows throughout the series. I love her relationship with Bernard, and I think that's why my readers do too, but without giving away spoilers, I find it amusing when readers comment that they guessed their history in the beginning because I didn't even know their history in the beginning. I was over half way through the book before Hannah shared that little snippet of information with me.

I don't really know if the readers hate my villains though. They are still people when it comes down to it, with feelings and emotions and they're not always all bad, sometimes even I feel sorry for them. 

Q: Is GUARDIAN really a romance set in a supernatural setting? How important is the setting to the story?

Gillian Joy: The setting isn't vital to the story. It's more of a character driven romance. If you took the characters out of the supernatural setting and placed them in everyday life the story would still work. It wouldn't be anywhere near as exciting but it could still work.

Q: Do you write purely for entertainment? Or do you incorporate messages to your readers?

 Gillian Joy: Purely for entertainment, there are no intentional messages at all so if readers see them in my current writing then they are only projecting their own beliefs and opinions. Not that I have issues with that, I want the reader to get what they want out of my stories.

Q: Why are you a writer?  When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

Gillian Joy: I used to think about being a writer when I was a kid, but seriously, back then, being a writer was like being an artist or an actor. It was fine to dream about but not something you seriously considered as a career for the average person.

Things have changed a lot since then, but it was only a few years ago that my husband convinced me to write something. Books are one of my biggest vices, and I was reading a lot of fan fiction and telling my husband how good some of it was when he suggested I should write some. Problem was I already had Hannah flitting around in my head making cameos in all the paranormal books I was reading, so I decided to tell her story instead of one that had already been written. I wrote the first four chapters and gave them to a friend to read and she begged me for more. Six months later the first draft of GUARDIAN was finished and the hard work really began.

Q:  Tell us something about yourself, e.g., do you like to exercise? Eat? Go to plays? What’s your favorite holiday, book, author, character, play, movie, celebrity?  What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have a muse?

Gillian Joy: Something about me? Ok! I'm Australian. I want to be fitter than I am so, yes, I exercise but nowhere near as much as I want to. I love food, too much and all sorts; I have a savory tooth and a sweet tooth. I can't tell you my favorite book because there are far too many. I really enjoyed the Hunger Games though, and I love a huge range of genres. YA, paranormal, crime, horror. I am a bit of a Steven King fan and I love Anne Rice, but even they have books I've hated. I don't think I will ever finish Stephen King's Liseys story and Anne Rice's Violin was one of the worst books I ever read.

One of my secret pleasures is the old time musicals, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Fiddler on the Roof, Calamity Jane just to name a few and I can't wait to go and see Les Miserable. I listen to the score all the time and know it by heart. I don't really have a favorite celebrity but I do have a couple of celebrity crushes. I love Supernatural and am a big Dean fan and I'm also a huge Hugh Jackman fan, ah that hot Aussie body *sighs*.

If I'm not writing I'm usually working. I actually design houses for a living. Or preferably I'm just enjoying time with my family, my husband and two kids, camping or 4wding.

I wouldn't really say I have a muse but Hannah is definitely a very vocal presence in my head so I'm not sure what's going to happen when I finish the GUARDIAN series. It'll be interesting to see if she continues to feed me ideas or if someone else steps in and takes over. Does that sound crazy? Oh well.

Author Profile

I'm a 41-year-old mother of two who designs houses for a living and lives to write.

I grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney Australia the eldest of five children. I had two younger brothers and two much younger sisters. I say had because one of my brothers died when I was only nineteen. 

I once had a boss who told me I had had a hard life but I never actually saw it that way. Life is what it is, and I had food, clothes, a roof over my head and a family who loved me. What's so hard about that?

These days I live on the Mornington Peninsula, south east of Melbourne Australia where I spend as much spare time as I can either with my nose in a book or writing away on my phone. I love it here, there aren't too many places in the world that with less that a ten minute drive you can watch the sun rise over the water, or you can watch the sun set over the water, and there's just something extra special about watching the sunset over the beach, something dreamy and romantic. I live with my husband, two beautiful but willful kids a few fish and a very spoilt English Staffie named Cleo.

I'm sure you don't want my whole life story so that's about it in a nutshell. I suppose though I should add that I really am a proud Australian. I love bbq's, thongs and vegimite sandwiches and I even call my friends "mate". Oh and in winter I can't live without my "ugg" boots.

GUARDIAN

Headstrong and determined, Hannah always knew that she would become the Guardian. She was the keeper and the protector of all supernatural. What she didn't expect was that it would mean she would have to endure the agonizing death of her mother first hand as their supernatural connection brings her to her knees, or that it would mean that she could never be with the man she loved.

Blond haired, blue eyed Gabriel was her handsome childhood friend, but would circumstances prevent her from ever being able to explore her true feelings for him?

Jesse, the dark alluring but incorrigible vampire would give anything to be with her, but as the guardian Hannah is forbidden to fall in love with the supernatural.

With her life in turmoil over her conflicting emotions about Gabriel and Jesse and her frustration at being unable to exact revenge for her mother’s horrific death, Hannah flees her life in an attempt to start over. But can we ever really escape from ourselves?

There is no escaping destiny no matter how hard she might try and Hannah must learn to reconcile her commitment to her family with her responsibility as the Guardian and her duty to her heart.

FOREVER

Hannah’s life has never been easy, despite her strong willed determination and her extra “gifts”, it's still always been hard work keeping an entire world full of the supernatural under control, but having achieved a small semblance of control over most of the custas, Hannah was hoping to be able to slip back into her life of normalcy. Wishful thinking when you're the guardian of all supernatural.

With all the issues she’d had to endure in her past, she'd never had to worry about the mermaids before, so why would they choose now to suddenly start haunting her dreams and her life. Then there are the fairies to contend with as well, just when she manages to get one aspect of the crudelitas under control, the others decide it’s time to start causing problems.
 All Hannah wants is some quiet family time and a chance to reflect on her feelings for Gabriel but instead she's thrown back into the thick of the supernatural world, and this time it threatens to invade the quiet family life she has worked so hard to establish. There's no running away this time, she has to front the challenges head on, but forever can be a long time if you can't be with the one you love.

COMING SOON…

REVENGE

Hannah finally has everything she wants out of life, devoted friends, a loving family, and the man of her dreams. Or does she? Life is never easy when you are the “Guardian” of all the supernatural beings, but surely this much heartache is more than one person was ever meant to have to contend with?

The Nephilim are on the hunt again but this time it’s not only the vampires they are hunting; and knowing that Hannah is still on the lookout for a new Custas, why would the witches be willing to work in conjunction with them? Then there’s Gabriel; after waiting for centuries to be with Hannah, what could possibly ever entice him to want to kill her. With all the supernatural issues she has to contend with how is it even possible a human could be any sort of a threat to the family life Hannah has built.

For over three centuries, one thing has been Hannah’s main driving force, but is it even possible for her to ever track Phelip down and get the final Revenge, and the final peace she has been hunting for.

Links

Amazon – Author site 

Amazon Kindle GUARDIAN 

Amazon Kindle FOREVER (GUARDIAN)

Web Page 

Blog

Smashwords 

Lulu

https://twitter.com/Gillianjoy2801

Facebook

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