Featured Author: MJ O'Shea

MJ O’Shea Mj O’Shea grew up, and still lives, in sunny Washington state. She loves to visit other places but can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. She spent her childhood writing stories. Most of those were about her, her friends, and of course Leonardo DiCaprio. She hopes she's come a long way since then...

When she's not writing, she love to play the piano and cook and paint pictures…and of course read. She like sparkly things, owns at least twenty different colored headbands, and has a little white and black dog who sits with her when she writes. Sometimes he comes up with ideas too…when he’s not napping.

Connect with MJ O’Shea on Twitter @MjOsheaSeattle or visit her website: http://mjoshea.com.

Q&A with Author MJ O’Shea:

1. Tell us about your cover design. Is there any symbolism from the story reflected in the cover?
   
   I'll start with this question since I drew the covers:) I named the books after actual names of full moons that take place during different seasons, so having the moons on the cover seemed very appropriate. Also, each book has a tree in it, the first one the boys meet under a tree on a dock at night to talk, the second one features a huge tree tattoo, and the third one a character who lives in a tree, so there were my main elements.
   
   For the first one of course I thought a blood red moon would be cool. For the second and third books, we wanted to keep the look the same, but I changed it to an orange moon since Hunter's Moons are autum/harvest moons. I also added the wolf as a very clear symbol since one of the main characters is a lycan. For the third one, I went blue since it's a winter moon and added a sword with a vine for my warrior dryad character (who I kept picturing as legolas even when I tried to fight it lol)


2. What part of the story was the most fun to write? The most challenging?
   
   There were a lot of fun parts. I always like making up twists to traditional lore when it comes to paranormal creatures. That will always be the most fun for me in any paranormal or sci-fi book. I like to make things just a bit different than they've been before. My vampires have different rules for what blood they like and don't like, my lycan comes with a full royal court of pain in the butt elders and vampire friends, and my forest world in the third book might not be totally unique, but I haven't come across something exactly like it anywhere else. I loved working on that.
   
   The most challenging part of writing a book like this, where there's a romantic plot and an adventure plot is to keep both going and developing at once. It takes a lot of hashing out and thinking ahead!


3. Do you believe in ghosts?
   
   My answer to that kind of stuff is never say never!! I think out of all of them, ghosts are the easiest for me to believe in but I think the world is a lot bigger and more complex than we know, and the human mind is capable of things that we can't even imagine so who knows what's out there that we haven't gotten proof of yet?


4. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
   
   Oh, I'd love to be able to fly! And well, that's exactly what I'd do. Fly:) I have dreams where I can fly all the time, and they're amazing.


5. Is there one genre of YA that you would love to write but haven’t?
   
   Of course! I'd love to write a big urban fantasy, or a full treasure hunt adventure, which I hopefully will be doing soon, more ghosts, creepier vampires (mine are awfully fuzzy and sweet). There are a ton of things I'd love to do that I haven't had a chance yet!


6. What would you like young readers to take away from your novels?
   
   First of all I want them to have fun reading! If they were entertained and had a good time and maybe fell a little in love with my characters then I'm happy. Other than that, every book has a different message, maybe about acceptance or adventure, or finding happiness within themselves and others. It really depends!

Now Available from MJ O’Shea:

Blood Moon Zack met his best friend, Noah, at Harper Lake when they were five years old. Summer after summer, his feelings grew, but he assumed Noah didn’t feel the same. But one night when they were seventeen, Zack kissed Noah… and Noah kissed him back. Zack was sure he did. But the next morning, Noah put an end to their friendship and walked away, leaving Zack with a broken heart.

A year has passed, and Zack goes back to the lake—where every leaf, rock, and turn in the road remind him of the biggest mistake he ever made. He hates thinking about what he lost, and more than anything he wants his best friend back. He figures it’ll be the longest summer ever. But then Noah shows up out of the blue, apologetic and more gorgeous than ever. Noah is sweet and attentive, and Zack can almost believe nothing had ever gone wrong. But there’s something different about his old friend, something not quite right. Zack doesn’t want to ruin the fragile new bond between them, but he has to know… What secret is Noah hiding?

Hunter’s Moon New York City has been calling Miles Hunter for as long as he can remember, but he’s sure the imaginary monsters in his stories are all the adventure he’ll experience—until a mugging and daring rescue leave him wondering what else is out there that he had never believed in before.

PC has spent eighteen years doing the opposite of what everyone expects. He hunts supernatural troublemakers, hangs out with vampires, and refuses to settle down—to the disapproval of his respectable parents and the stuffy lycan council. Then one confusing night, his instincts turn him to wolf form to save a stranger.

Miles and PC must learn to live together, because even minutes of separation mean extreme pain. Miles falls for the unpredictable PC, the wolf’s strange friends, and their nightly adventures, but his reluctant lover is determined to break their bond. As they are drawn into a mystery involving werewolves, rogue vampires, and a lot of dead humans, finding the truth might mean the hunt of PC’s life—especially if he wants to keep Miles alive.

Cold Moon Charlie Fitzgerald is sick of being the kid nobody takes seriously. His older brother Colin is fighting vampires and other troublemakers in New York City, and Charlie wants in on the action—but no one will listen. Then he overhears the lycan council is looking for a human emissary to take a message of peace to a werewolf in the forests of Romania, and Charlie decides he’s the man for the job.

Xan is furious: his best friend, Charlie, one of the Fitzgeralds he’s vowed to protect, is walking into danger, and Xan chases him all the way to the freezing Romanian forest to save his stubborn butt. When Charlie is almost killed, Xan realizes he feels much more than friendship for his charge, and emotions that have been bubbling under the surface of his calm façade threaten to boil over and flood them both.

They end up in the middle of a political mess involving lycans, werewolves, and nosy vampires, and if they make it out alive, the friendship between the headstrong hunter and his bullheaded protector might turn into a love neither can live without.