Interview with Margay Leah Justice

Interview with: Margay Leah Justice, author of Nora’s Soul
Questions by: Lauren
Her Website!

Guest Post will be up tomorrow! Please read and leave your thoughts for Margay!

1. Your debut novel, Nora’s Soul, is about the fight between a dark and light angel for one woman’s soul. Will you summarize the book a little more for our readers?

Sure, here is a blurb:

When angels of light and dark collide on earth…
Once he held a favored position in the heavens. But one moment of weakness casts Dante out and now he is cursed to walk the earth, collecting the souls of vulnerable women to buy his way into hell.
All hell breaks loose…

But standing in his way is Peter, an angel of light. Peter is everything Dante is not. Pure, above reproach. And determined to prevent Dante from achieving his goals. Peter will stop at nothing to protect the souls in his charge, even if it means achieving the impossible – leading Dante back onto the right path.
And no one is safe from the fall-out.

Nora Kendall believed in angels. Once. But then she lost her brother to cancer despite all of her prayers – and she lost her faith in all things angelic. Now, she is a lost soul who wanders through life like a sleepwalker, playing it safe and leaving the risk-taking to others.

Kyle Cameron is one of those risks. Burned by a bad marriage, his only concern now is providing a stable life for his children, who are left motherless by the unexpected death of his wife. This means working overtime to grow his architectural firm into a viable business – and leaving the care of his children to the care of someone he trusts. Despite his past connection with Nora, Kyle isn’t certain that she’s the right person for the job. He also doesn’t want to reconnect with her and repeat history.

But fate – and the machinations of two angels – has other ideas.

2. The cover is very fitting, with white wings on one side and black wings on the other. Who designed it and how did the idea come about?

The absolutely amazing Stacy Castanedo (who writes for Second Wind Publishing, LLC under the name of Suzette Vaughn) designed the cover. I don’t know how she pulled this amazing cover out of the chaos of my brain, but she did and the result is stunning. At first, I was thinking of having three people on the cover – Nora, Peter and Dante – as they are the three most integral characters in the story, but it was too difficult trying to set just the right tone using people. So I told Stacy that if it was easier to use symbolism on the cover rather than people, she should go for it, which she did and the result was this fantastic cover. (Can you tell I like it?)

3. Are you currently working on anything else at the moment?

Too much, too much! Nora’s Soul is actually the first in a series of books called The Dante Chronicles, so I’m immersed in the details of that, plus I have another series in the works about shamanistic shapeshifters and psychic empaths, and a few contemporaries that deal with issues close to me, such as bipolar disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome.

4. What would you like people to know about you as a writer?

I love everything about books and writing, from a reader’s perspective as well as a writer’s, and I try to write the type of books I love to read or would want to read. As such a lover of the written word, I am interested in sharing that with others, whether it’s in my books, blog posts, or advice on writing. I love to hear from people on their impressions of writing as well, though not limited to mine, but the art of writing in general. I think it’s fascinating to read about the journey of others on the path to publication and beyond.

5. If you had to pick one song to go along with Nora’s Soul, what would it be and why?

That is a hard choice because several come to mind. But if I had to choose just one, the song that would best suit Nora’s Soul would be Wake Me Up Inside by Evanescence. If you really listen to the lyrics (or read them, as I tend to do), it’s about the numbness that can overtake you when you lose your way or your faith or even your belief in yourself, and about (the singer’s) plea for someone to save her.

In a nutshell, that is what Nora’s Soul is about; Nora is numb inside and silently begging for someone to wake her up. It just takes the interference of two angels for her to get the message! Great question – that has to rank among my favorite questions asked thus far as it is the only one that I had to take more than a few minutes to answer. No easy answer there, but very thought-provoking.

“Wake Me Up Inside” by Evanescence