Born
in Idaho during the height of disco, Elle Hill now chicken-pecks at the
keyboard while rocking out to Donna Summer and KC and the Sunshine Band. She
worked in Idaho for several years as a secretary and journalist before moving
to California and selling her soul to academia. After receiving her PhD in
Sociology, Elle Hill became a not-so-mild-mannered college instructor by night
and a community activist during the remainder of her waking hours. Always a
journalist and writer at heart, one of her favorite pastimes includes
publishing commentary on the political and social states of the world; some of
her thoughts are posted on her blog at ellehillauthor.blogspot.com.
Elle
welcomes visitors to her website at www.ellehill.com. She also urges everyone
to become a superhero and adopt their next non-human companion from a local
animal shelter.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
The plot of Hunted Dreams is very
intriguing. What inspired the plot?
Thanks!
My family, particularly my oldest sister, likes to tease
me because I always lock my fictional characters in some kind of confined room.
I always patiently explain to her that shutting out distractions helps my
characters delve right in to the interpersonal tension and character development.
After one of these conversations, I started thinking, “What if I stranded one
of my characters not in a physical prison but a mental one? What if we could
jump right into her mind?” Thus began my cruel torture of Katana, Hunted Dreams’ main character.
There is a strong dream element in the book. Do you
have vivid dreams?
One of my sisters (I have
three, all of whom profess to be my biggest fans) jokes that my dreams are
especially surrealistic. Hers, apparently, tend to unwind like a TV drama. I
admit I was intrigued by the idea of having a playground where my creativity –
and my weirdness – could swing and slide and engage in all sorts of bizarre games.
A couple of the dreams in Hunted Dreams I plucked directly from my
own sleeping noggin, but most of them I had way-too-much fun constructing on my
own.
Tell us about the Broschi - who they are and what
they're like.
Ooh! You bet. I like talking
about them.
In my prior two books, Hunted and Hunted Past, the Broschi (called “Leeches” in these stories) played
villains without much back story. The Broschi are a race of superhuman, super
strong genetic mutants who have been around for several centuries but who
continue to live in secrecy. They’ve developed a unique method of sustaining themselves:
in addition to consuming food as we know it, they also eat painful human
feelings. In fact, they have a talent for evoking it in average humans. As far
as they know, it doesn’t hurt humans to eat their “life force”; however, when
they’re hungry, which is most of the time, some of them have been known to
inflict harm on humans in order to nosh on their misery.
The Clan (made up of Hunters,
or female warriors, and male Psychics) exist to oppose the Broschi and save
humanity. As a result, a centuries-long war has raged between the two groups,
all under humans’ noses. Because I’m not so keen on war, I hoped I portrayed
the one-sidedness of the Clan’s perspective in my previous novels, but I know it
was subtle. In Hunted Dreams, the
pointlessness of the war, the arbitrariness of labeling one side “heroes” and
the other “villains,” emerged onto center stage.
What are you working on next?
I just
finished writing my latest novel, The
Tithe. I’m in the middle of revising it a second time before submitting it
to my editor. I’m enormously excited about this novel and look forward to
chatting with you about it in a year or so.
Thanks so
much for featuring me on your site. I spent a couple of weeks in North Carolina
this summer and found it stunningly beautiful.
I wish you
much happiness and chocolate!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Her history, her whereabouts, her name: She knows nothing. Nothing
but her current reality: a constant stream of horrific, surrealistic scenarios
in which she fights not only monsters and unseen attackers but also her own
pain and despair.
Reed Jayvyn is an ex-Army vet, penniless and living in his truck.
After saving a young man from attackers, he finds himself embroiled in a
superhuman drama between the Broschi and the Clan, two groups engaged in a centuries-long
war. Worse, he finds he is one of them—a Broschi, a psychic vampire that feeds
off the pain of humans. But Reed’s greatest surprise comes each night, when he
finds himself dreaming of a fierce, nameless woman.
She is dreaming. So says the handsome man who uses his heretofore
latent psychic ability to flicker in and out of her dreamscape. With Reed’s
help, she slowly learns more about who she is, why she is here, what trauma in
her past keeps her locked inside her mind. Meanwhile, Reed explores his own
heritage, discovering enemies and allies in unexpected places.
But most important to Reed is freeing this woman
caught in an endless loop of nightmares, someone he considers in every way to
be the woman of his dreams.
AN EXCERPT
“I know you’re not bad,” she
reassured him, smiling.
“You don’t know anything of the
sort,” he said.
“Don’t you dare invade my dream and
then question my judgment!” She meant to snap it but couldn’t manage anything
beyond a biting edge to her tone. “We’ve been in some, um, challenging
environments, and I think I know you pretty well.”
“Says the woman who only recently started
thinking of me as real,” he said.
Katana felt the cold of the rock
under her behind wind upward into her head. “Recently for you,” she said
quietly, all teasing gone. “You have no idea how long it feels in here. I’ve
spun from dream to dream, always fighting, always endangered, always waiting
for the pain and the terror. I haven’t had a lot of time to think, but I’ve
done what I can when I have a moment or two. I feel I’ve known you for months
and get to see you every few weeks, even though I know it’s once per day for
you.”
Reed exhaled once, slowly. Then,
gently, he placed his hand against her cheek and helped guide her face upward.
Knowing what to expect, Katana
closed her eyes and stretched upward. Reed wrapped both arms around her, and
she flowed against him.
After a moment, Reed pulled away
very slightly and kissed her nose. “You feel warm and . . . good,” he murmured
against her lips. She felt his moist breath against her face and inhaled the
mintiness of his toothpaste.
“You feel real,” she whispered.
LINKS
Elle will be
awarding a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate to a randomly drawn commenter during the
tour.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/08/virtual-book-tour-hunted-dreams-by-elle.html
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/08/virtual-book-tour-hunted-dreams-by-elle.html
Website:
http://www.ellehill.com
Purchasing
the book: http://www.amazon.com/Hunted-Dreams-ebook/dp/B00CHUEIIG
