Hello everyone! I want to give a very sincere thank you to the wonderful Goddess, Sylvia Day, for allowing me to take over her blog every Tuesday and Thursday from now until November 15th as I introduce and interview our ten American Title IV finalists. And believe me, she IS a Goddess. She’s offered to give away a prize to one lucky reader for every interview I do. To qualify to win, all you have to do is post a comment. A winner will be picked by yours truly by process of random selection (or depending on who’s comment I like best *grin*).

Before I begin, what is the American Title?

In a nutshell, the American Title Contest is the annual contest held by Romantic Times Magazine to discover the next great romance writer. Ten finalists are selected from the sea of entries by editors at Dorchester Publishing. Excerpts of their work are then posted online at www.romantictimes.com for five rounds of voting by readers, with two finalists eliminated at the end of each round. The winner will be announced at the annual RT Convention in April and will receive a publishing contract from Dorchester Publishing for the winning manuscript. This year, the theme for the contest is paranormal.

To kick this off (and because I get first pick for doing the interviews), I’ll start by interviewing myself as the first American Title IV finalist.

MAI: Today we have MAI CHRISTY THAO with us. Mai, what is the title of your book?

MAI: Prince of Darkness

MAI: Give us the blurb of your book.

MAI: A blind princess who sees a man the world has forsaken is determined to fight for him. Yet, this prince cursed to hide in shadows harbors a terrible secret that could be her salvation, or her destruction.

MAI: How long have you been writing?

MAI: 6 years

MAI: Tell us a little about how this book came about.

MAI: Never in my wildest imagination had I thought I’d write this book. PRINCE OF DARKNESS had never been intended. It is the second book in my Zenith fantasy series. The hero, Prince Kym’rin, was the antagonist in the first book under the alias of Lord Mortimir. When I’d written the first book, I made Lord Mortimir out to be this great evil-of-all-evils guy. I had every intention of killing him off. I even gave him these glowing red eyes. But somewhere near the end of the first book when I delved deeper into the secretive Lord Mortimir’s past I began to humanize him. When my heroine in the first book asked Lord Mortimir what he wanted from them and he replied simply, “To live,” I hit my head against the wall. Literally. There was no way I could bring myself to kill him off now, and so Kym’rin’s story was born.

MAI: What makes this book special?

MAI: This book is very dear to my heart. My two characters are tortured souls. I was emotionally drained writing this story. I recall bawling until my eyes were red while writing certain parts of the story because of the intensity of emotions in the scene. It paid off. My critique partners have commented at how the emotions rise from the pages of this particular story to grip them. You know the phrase every author uses to describe their book as their “blood, sweat and tears”? Well, there was no blood shed (thankfully), but I sure cried enough to go through my entire box of Kleenex and sweated when the tension in the story escalated.

MAI: What was your expectation when you first entered the contest?

MAI: I was confident I’d final. Okay, so maybe not confident, but very hopeful. And I did lots of praying!

MAI: What was your reaction when you learned you were a finalist?

MAI: I thought they’d made a mistake and emailed the wrong person. I wanted to email back and say, “Are you sure?” but I was afraid to. I waited 2 days without saying a word, expecting to see a second email retracting the first.

MAI: What has been the most rewarding part of this experience so far?

MAI: Knowing without a doubt I have not only the support of all my friends, family, and fellow writers, but the support of my fellow finalists as well.

MAI: What has been the worst part of this experience so far?

MAI: The waiting. The voting process, praying I don’t get voted off. The marketing process. Not wanting to be like, “Vote for me!” but secretly wishing everyone would. Oh, and getting shredded by the judges. Yikes!

MAI: In one word, how would you describe this experience?

MAI: Nerve-wracking.

MAI: What kind of advice do you have for other American Title hopefuls and/or aspiring writers?

MAI: Anything is possible. Write the best book you can, continue to learn and build your writer’s toolbox, and dream big. Oh, and never give up.

MAI: Any last words?

MAI: Umm… Vote for me! =)

Phew! Talk about seeing double! If you got tired of me talking to myself about myself, fear not! Thursday we introduce our second American Title IV finalist.

But don’t wait to vote. Voting has already started. Go to http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle.php now to meet the all the finalists and cast your vote! Voting will only stay open for two weeks. This first round of voting will close on October 28th. So go and vote for your favorite finalist! Every vote counts!

And don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a cool prize from Sylvia Day! The winner will be notified by me with further instructions, so please make sure you leave an email address.

See everyone Thursday!

Mai Christy Thao
PRINCE OF DARKNESS
www.maichristythao.com

Aside from Sylvia:

Enjoy the interviews, enter for prizes, then please go to the Romantic Times site to cast your vote for one of these talented authors (direct link here: Vote on the Best First Line!)

You can read all the first lines and find voting instructions through the link above.

Thank you!

Tags: american title, dorchester, paranormal, romantic times