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It's Day 6 of the 31 Days, and for today, M.L. John is visiting The Fairytale Nerd for an author interview and a giveaway!

The first novel M. L. John ever read was Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, and she has had a love of fantasy ever since. As soon as her handwriting was good enough to write full sentences, she started writing stories about beautiful princesses who spent their time rescuing princes and slaying dragons. Very little has changed about her writing style since that time, with the possible exception of her handwriting. She lives in Colorado with her true love, their three children, an obnoxious baby brother who still won’t let her change the television channel, and a small menagerie of yippy little dogs. These days, she spends most of her time explaining different mythologies to her kids until their little eyes glaze and roll back in their heads.

Her first novel, Lady of the Veils, was published in ebook format by Gypsy Shadow Publishing in Dec 2010. She has contributed to the anthology Powers, which was voted top 10 best of 2010 by P&E, as well as winning Elfwood's coveted Mod's Choice award for her short story Heaven. Her short story The Holes in Her Shoes will be included in the magazine Aoife's Kiss in March 2012.

Stalk her on her Blog and Twitter.

And now, the interview!

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Welcome to The Fairytale Nerd! how are you today?
I’m great! Thanks for asking!

So for the first question, tell me about your book.
Lady of the Veils is a modern fantasy about a young girl named Karen with a mixed heritage. Her dad is an immigrant from Scotland, and her mother is a fairy princess who has been exiled from her home for marrying a mortal man. Karen lives with her parents in California, about thirty minutes from the magical border that stretches along the West Coast of North America. When war breaks out in Faerie she finds that her family is more important to her than she could have known, and learning about them could be the difference between life and death. There’s adventure, danger, and a little bit of romance too.

Why fairies?
I have always been fascinated by fairies because they are never exactly what you expect. We all grew up with Tinkerbelle, who was pretty and a little mischievous. We have all seen the pictures of the trooping flower fairies with their beautiful butterfly wings. So if fairies are like that, why are all the old stories about them so dark? Why did people in the old days ward their houses against fairies and tell each other warning stories about how to escape the fairy horde if they were caught? I’m interested in exploring the place where those cruel old fairies intersect with the ones we all know and love.

What is the message (from your books) that you want to convey to your readers?
I want to convey that a girl is what she makes of herself, not what society tries to force on her.

What is the best part about being a writer? The worst?
I think the best part of being a writer is that sometimes I have days where I sit down at the computer keyboard and become so immersed in my magical worlds that they seem almost real. On those days writing is easy because I am part of what’s happening on the page. The worst part is when I can’t seem to open that window and I just have to plug along with whatever dribbles I can scratch out.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I don’t know if this is interesting, but I have to play music while I write. If I don’t I have trouble staying focused.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Are we talking super powers here? Because that would be flight. Regular talent? I would love to learn to play the guitar. I’ve already done the piano and the trombone, so guitar seems like a good place to go from there. I know you already suspect it, but yes, I do play a lot of Rock Band.

Give me three of your favorite books.
Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks, Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, and Garth Nix’s Sabriel. You’re lucky you limited it to three because I could just keep going forever.

Who is your hero in real life? What about in books?
In real life my mom is my hero, because she managed to raise us by herself without losing touch with her inner child. Everyone says that these days. It is admirable because being a single mom is incredibly difficult, but she’s special because she never lost her tenderness or her sense of whimsy. Despite her hardships she still managed to teach me about fairy tales. In books my hero is Sabriel, because she has every reason to be afraid and yet she picks up her bells and does what she has to do. In my mind a girl like that is worthy of being called a hero.

The man who loves you or the man you love?
Both, and if there are any teen girls reading this, don’t you ever settle for less!

Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia?
Potter, all the way.

Super strength or super intelligence?
Eek, that’s a hard one. I’m going to go with super strength, because I think super intelligence would be a horrible burden. There’s a lot of stuff about this world I don’t need to know.

Viral epidemic or nuclear explosion?
If I’m living through it, nuclear explosion, because it’s quicker. If I’m writing about it, viral epidemic. That is a way more interesting way for the world to end.

Aragorn or Legolas?
Legolas, naturally.

Math or Science?
Science.

Baked or fried?
Fried!

Comedy or drama?
Comedy.

What's your next project?
I am actually working on two different books as we speak. The first is the sequel to Lady of the Veils, and the second is an urban fantasy about a young girl who runs away from an abusive home and finds herself living with a Selkie. I’m enjoying writing them both, but if writing one book is hard, writing two at once is torture.

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Buy

Lady of The Veils

by M.L. John

In a suburban town twenty minutes from the border of Faerie lives a young woman named Karen MacGregor. Though she is the daughter of an exiled Faerie princess, Karen leads an unremarkable life full of homework, punk rock and old science fiction movies. When bloody civil war breaks out in her mother’s homeland her life begins to change rapidly. Her brother is presumed dead after his fighter jet is shot down over the Enchanted Forest, and Faerie’s royal family, including her beloved godfather, has been executed. Accompanied by a Fey Prince with whom she shares a forbidden love and armed with magic she never knew existed, Karen must lead a rebel force against an ancient and powerful enemy.

And here's the trailer...