Author Interview & Giveaway: The Dark Divine series by Bree Despain

As part of The Savage Grace blog tour I’m excited to host author Bree Despain for an interview about The Dark Divine series. Make sure to read through to the end to enter a giveaway to win all three books in the series.

I asked Bree some questions about the Dark Divine series as a whole and to find out what’s coming up next. Congrats to Bree on The Savage Grace that is out in stores today!

Thanks for stopping by on your launch day, Bree! To start off, I was wondering which book of the trilogy was the hardest to write and why?

The third book in the trilogy, THE SAVAGE GRACE, was the hardest to write because there were so many things that needed to come together, and so many characters that needed their stories brought full circle. It was really important to me to find a way to wrap up the story in a way that would leave readers satisfied. While this was the hardest book to write, I think it is also the most exciting.  The main characters really have a chance to grow into the people they are meant to be–plus, there’s a lot of action in this book.

I absolutely agree that The Savage Grace is the most exciting! It is gratifying to see the character growth in the book as well. Will you continue to write about these characters? Which character deserves their own book?

Right now, I have no plans to write any more books in the Dark Divine world–but I’m not going to say that I never will.  I do have a couple of short stories in mind.

Once I was brainstorming ideas for a spinoff book and came up with idea that I thought was pretty funny.  Just for fun, I wrote up a short synopsis of a book about “Baby” James as a16 year old.  James is sick and tired of all the paranormal craziness his family has to deal with all the time, and he just longs to be normal. All he wants in life is to earn enough money to buy his own car so he can drive as far away from Rose Crest and the Divines as he can get. So when a job comes along that will get him enough money to facilitate his great escape, he jumps at it–only to find himself thrown into the middle of turf-war between rival werewolf packs. In order to stop the packs from destroying his town and family in the wake of their battle, James must save the life of a kidnapped werewolf-mafia-princess whom he can’t stand–at least not at first . . .

I sent the synopsis to a critique partner and my agent, meaning it to just be a funny joke–but they both wrote back saying that they liked the idea and thought it would make a fun book. I don’t know if I’ll ever write it, but it still amuses me to think about from time to time.

That is a fun idea, actually. I did get the feeling that baby James could be important in TSG. And after reading the book I definitely could get on board with a spin-off. Maybe about a certain werewolf? Speaking of which, when you are not writing, what are your favorite werewolf or other paranormal books to read?

I love Holly Black’s Curse Worker series.  I also enjoy books by Becca Fitzpatrick and Rachel Hawkins.  I think EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton, HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire, and UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi are three of the best books I’ve read recently.  I purposely chose not to read any other werewolf books while I was writing the Dark Divine trilogy, but I have several like SISTERS RED, RAISED BY WOLVES, CLAIRE DE LUNE, and 13 TO LIFE waiting for me on my bookshelves. I am happy that I get to delve into them now.

I love that you have all these great werewolf books ready to read. I enjoyed SISTERS RED a lot and I’ll have to check out the Curse Worker series sometime.

Changing topics a bit, religion plays a role in the series and sets it apart from other paranormal books. Does the spiritual aspect reflect your own faith?

Yes.  While Grace and I do not share the exact same religious background, I really wanted to write a book from the point of view of a character who deals with questions of faith, religion, and living up to expectations in her everyday life because that reflected my own personal teenage experience.

I think the spiritual theme ties in very well to Grace’s story, and it actually reminded me in a way that the series LOST referenced religious themes in the storytelling.

Switching gears again, what were your musical inspirations when writing this book or the series as a whole? What would you say is the theme song of the series?

I have a soundtrack/playlist for each book.  I listened to a TON of Florence + The Machine while writing TSG.  It felt like almost every single song in their Lungs album was pertinent to this book.  I pretty much had it on repeat while writing.  I don’t know if I have a theme song for the entire series, but I do have one for each book.  THE DARK DIVINE is “Such Great Heights” by the Postal Service, THE LOST SAINT is “Giving Up The Gun” by Vampire Weekend, and THE SAVAGE GRACE is “Orange Sky” by Alexi Murdoch. Hmm, perhaps that last song is the theme song for the entire series.

I will have to dig out some Florence + The Machine to listen to now that I’ve read TSG. I love The Postal Service and Vampire Weekend.

All three book covers of the series are so gorgeous. The Savage Grace cover is a little bit of a departure in that we see more of the models upper body as opposed to waist down only. Any significance to the change?

I didn’t have any say about the changes.  I don’t know what were the designer’s intentions, but I personally like to think that the strong image with the strong typeface is a reflection of the growth in strength that main character experiences in the book.

That sounds like a good explanation to me! I like that the covers are pretty and mysterious, and actually you’d never guess they are about werewolves.

Do you have anything exciting in the works that you can tell us about?

I have a new book I am working on that is slated for publication in Fall 2013.  i don’t know how much I am allowed to say about it, but I can tell you that it is a story I started working on before THE DARK DIVINE was published and I am excited to be working on it again.

Can’t wait to hear more about it! Thanks so much for stopping by to share some behind the scenes info on your series, Bree. Congrats again on today’s release of The Savage Grace.

You can connect with Bree on Twitter or her blog. And check out the Dark Divine Facebook page for more updates. The Savage Grace is out today and you can read my review here.

In support of the release of The Savage Grace the e-books for the first two books in the trilogy and the novella (The Dark Divine, The Lost Saint, The Lost Letters of Brother Gabriel) are $1.79 each. The sale ends March 19th.

GIVEAWAY has ended:

The winners of the Dark Divine trilogy are: Dawn, Lauren, and Cleo. Congrats!

 

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