GUEST AUTHOR POST & GIVEAWAY- Dakota Banks

PNA welcomes Author Dakota Banks! 

Thank you for stopping by and to get this started, here is a clip of her new release, Deliverance scheduled for release on March 27th!

  

I want to thank Chelsea for inviting me to Paranormal Addicts to chat with all of her fabulous followers. Much appreciated, Chelsea, and I thought I’d mention that every time I visit your blog, I have trouble pulling my eyes away from the shiny hottie in your banner. Where on Earth did you find him?

I write urban fantasy, a sub-genre that barely existed twenty-five years ago. The most common and highly used definition of it is found in John Clute and John Grant’s Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997): “Texts where fantasy and the mundane world interact, intersect, and interweave throughout a tale which is significantly about a real city.”

 In the late 1980s, some fantasy authors began to set their stories of magic and supernatural beings in big cities in contemporary times. Mercedes Lackey (Witchworld and Diana Tregarde Investigations series) and Charles de Lint (Jack, the Giant Killer, Drink Down the Moon) were pioneers of this type of fiction, where fairies and magic interacted with the real world, like fairytales being told for a modern audience.

A decade later, a new, grittier type of urban fantasy began to show up, not based on fairy tales as much as on horror or mystery stories. What happened then? Buffy happened! Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on TV showing that strong women and the supernatural are a great mix. In books, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels took readers where they wanted to go. Urban fantasy has exploded in popularity since then—TV and movies are feeding the frenzy, and vice versa. Then, as bright as a solar flare, YA urban fantasy lit up the sky, and is now extremely popular with teens.

Why? What’s so addictive about urban fantasy? Here are a dozen ideas.

1. The feeling that the characters in the books could be walking around among us, unrecognized. Our imaginations love this one. That man who moved into 4C—who’s to say he’s not a werewolf? I've had some bosses I suspected were witches. Really. More than other types of fantasy, urban fantasy lets us generalize the world in the book to the world around us—because it is our world, just with a twist or two. 
2. Sex. 
3. Good and evil loom large. The good characters may have faults and the bad characters may have some redeeming qualities, but generally the contrast between good and evil is stronger than we see in real life. That means things can be less confusing than all the moral question marks that swirl around us daily. 
4. Many of the lead characters are alpha females, doing things aggressively and physically, options that may not be available to us in our real lives. It’s nice to see someone carrying the baton, if only between the pages of a book. 
5. Sex. 
6. A mystery or problem to be solved on a large scale, something that affects the whole world or a good part of it. This is one of the things that puts the thrill in thrillers, and urban fantasy has it. 
7. In YA stories, the lead character usually discovers she can find romance and friends along with her supernatural power. What’s more enticing to teens? 
8. Romance, perhaps a forbidden romance with someone who isn't human. 
9. Many urban fantasies are written in first person, giving the reader an eye-to-eye view of the good, the bad, and the ugly—no arm’s length between the reader and all the good stuff. 
10. In UF, a character can be part human, part supernatural. It’s exciting for the reader to think he or she might have a supernatural part that hasn't revealed itself yet. 
11. Sex. 
12. In some cases, the main character’s love interest is what we’d call a “bad boy,” who is walking the line between good and evil. This is a safe way to walk on the wild side and have a dangerous bad boy in your life without the down side that comes in reality. 

What are some reasons that you think UF is popular? 

Thank you Dakota for sharing this post.  Please take a few moments and check out her site, friend her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.  She has a blog, a newsletter, great mythology information and looks like additional contests from time to time.  We all LOVE contests.  So check her out today.





Website 
Blog 
Goodreads 

Here is what some people had to say about Mortal Path:

"As a heroine, Maliha is one of the best. She is intelligent and talented, has a great sense of humor, and knows how to take care of herself. Maliha is easy to sympathize with... To top it all off, Maliha faces the challenge of opening her heart to a man for the first time since her husband turned his back on her in the 17th century. Grade A."
- ECLECTIC BOOK LOVER 

"Dark Time ... is an inventive and engaging novel. The idea behind the book is clever and original."
- THE NOVEL BOOKWORM 

"Dark Time is an explosive combination of Dark Angel (James Cameron) and Xena, the Warrior Princess. I would recommend this book to sci-fi, paranormal, urban, or any other type of fan. Dark Time is a must read! ... Dakota Banks can bank on the fact that her books are going to go all the way to number one."
- CHERYLS BOOK NOOK

Growing up in a 19th-century funeral home might have set the tone for Dakota Banks's life. In her debut fiction, she proves the point by conjuring up an infernal tale about a burned-at-the-stake witch who refuses to let bygones be bygones. Two hundred years of savage carnage later, the demonically inclined Susannah Layton, now known as Maliha, decides that she wants to retire, but unless she can perform some good deeds quickly, she will be consigned to the very hottest parts of hell.













A demon's enslaved executioner—a ravager of lives and souls—Maliha Crayne has been reborn, willing to sacrifice her immortality for a chance at freedom . . . and salvation. Now she has an opportunity to prevent the death of thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—to make up for the countless lives she has obliterated over the centuries. To do so, she must locate and destroy an evil cabal of madmen in possession of a weapon of unspeakable power—and survive the immortal assassins who are now after her blood. But it means reverting to the old ways and surrendering once more to the darkness. And if Maliha dies before the mission is accomplished, the hell she once knew will seem like a picnic compared to the eternal torments awaiting her.

RELEASE DATE:  March 27th

A demon's assassin for centuries, Maliha Crayne has gone rogue, determined to save a life for every one she's destroyed in order to free herself from an eternity of enslavement, damnation, and excruciating torment. But as the powers that sustained her in the past fade, she is wary of trusting those closest to her-especially her lover, Jake. Should Maliha listen to her heart or the alarms going off in her head? Then her closest friends begin to disappear, one by one. Amid her anger, suspicion, and sorrow, she feels her life spiraling out of control.


Worse still, a beautiful, Renaissance murderess is recruiting Maliha as her new assassin. Maliha is turning into a lethal puppet with an evil Immortal pulling the strings, forced to kill innocents or see her missing friends die horribly. Suddenly trapped in a moral no-man's land, Maliha is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't…and time is rapidly running out.

Paranormal Addicts would like to thank Dakota again for stopping by.  She is most graciously offering a wonderful giveaway package.

The giveaway is a Mortal Path Swag Bag (shown below) containing a tote bag, 3 signed books, pens, bookmarks, magnets, and a calculator.

It’s open internationally.  Yes, you read that right.  The whole world can enter, MWAHAHAHA!!

WOW!!!

A few easy steps and this amazing package might be yours!

It sure would be spectacular if you checked out her website, liked her Facebook page, etc.  Since we can't really track them, it won't be required.  From the reviews alone this woman is HAWT!!  You may want to keep track of what she has going on!

To enter:  Answer Dakota's question she asked:  What are some reasons that you think UF is popular?

To earn additional entries:  These are not mandatory, but do increase your odds of winning.

• Become a Fan on Dakota's Goodread page
• Follow Paranormal Addicts Facebook Page
• Follow Paranormal Addicts on Twitter
• "Like" this blog post
• Twitter about this contest daily

Now how can you beat that!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck and Happy Reading!!