Dead Girls Are Easy!

by Beth Andrews

I'm thrilled to introduce debut Avon author Terri Garey to the Romance Bandits!

In Terri's newly released book, Dead Girls Are Easy, Nicki Styx just wanted to earn a living with her vintage clothing store in Little Five Points, Georgia and maybe have a little fun on the side. One near death experience later, and Nicki’s life is changed forever by the ability to see and hear spirits.

Dead Girls Are Easy is dark humor with a Southern slant - the angst of a young woman on the edge,a healthy dash of sex and voodoo, a sprinkling of spookiness.

Terri, welcome to the Lair and congratulations on the great reviews Dead Girls Are Easy is getting! Can you tell us a little bit about about your road to publication?

Ah… the long and winding road. *g* I’ve always been a writer—I still have the short story I wrote in the fourth grade about how my teacher turned into a fearsome, purple beast with green polka-dots! But I really got serious about my writing back in 2001. I had about 65 pages of an unfinished manuscript, my kids were growing up, and my husband challenged me to "go for it"! So I got online, found Romance Writers of America, saw they were having a big convention in New Orleans that year, and signed up. (Thank goodness it was New Orleans, if it had been anywhere else, Southern girl that I am, I might not have gone!) Anyway, I went not knowing a soul, not knowing the difference between category and mainstream, or my HEA from my POV. But I went, and I soaked it up like a sponge. I even went to my first agent appointment, and was deeply embarrassed to find out that what I thought was a Regency was actually set in the wrong time period (Georgian). But I went because I wanted to learn, and learn I did!

For the next four years, I "learned" my way through four more manuscripts. My original manuscript (which shall never see the light of day!), two historical paranormals set in early Britain and ancient Rome (which did very well in contests and got plenty of requests but—as I "learned"—don’t do as well with editors), and a paranormal contemporary. And then I thought, "Okay. I know what the basics are. Time to write something I can really throw myself into and have fun with." I knew I liked the paranormal aspect of my writing (which is why I went to the New Orleans conference to begin with… I played hookey from the workshops one day to take a cemetery tour and visit the Garden District where Anne Rice had written her novels), and the idea for Dead Girls Are Easy blossomed and grew to the point where I knew I had to write it.


I’d already queried my dream agent, and been rejected :p, but I queried her again with the new story, and she loved it. I told her which house was my dream house, and she sent it to them. And they bought it!

And now I’m writing the stories I always wanted to write, with the publisher I always wanted to write for. Dead Girls Are Easy is the first in a series, with a separate novella included (part of a paranormal anthology with Maggie Shayne, coming spring 2008, entitled Weddings From Hell). The second novel in the series is called A Match Made In Hell (August 2008). And if you’ve managed to make it through reading all that, I’m thrilled to announce the sale of the third stand-alone novel in the series, called If You Got It, Haunt It, to be released the summer of 2009.

Good Lord. Didn’t know I was so long-winded, did you? *g*

Your website is wonderful! Did you design it yourself?

I did. I was a computer geek in my past life *g*, and I find it hard to delegate that sort of thing. Glad you like it! It’s at http://www.tgarey.com/, and I’d like to invite everybody to stop by and enter the contest I’m having to celebrate the release of Dead Girls Are Easy. It’s a "winner’s choice" contest—you can choose a delightfully morbid "Blood-red Roses and Skull wreath" to get you in the mood for some hauntingly Halloween decorating, or if you prefer simply "delightful" to "delightfully morbid", you can choose a charming Book Fairy ornament who proudly proclaims Louisa May Alcott’s sentiment, "She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain." *g* I can relate to that one all too well.

You’ve certainly done a great job branding yourself. Care to share any branding tips?

Branding used to be a total mystery to me, other than the obvious (like McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.) Then I had a bit of a revelation, and it all fell into place. I just did a branding workshop this past weekend with the Tampa Area Romance Writers (great bunch of ladies, btw!), and I decided to post the workshop in three parts on my blog at http://www.tgarey.blogspot.com/.

The publicity you’ve garnered thus far has been amazing. Tell us about your recent television appearance.

I’ve been lucky. I put together some press kits (which is another workshop in itself), and sent them out to the local media. I got some great responses; the book editor at our local newspaper wrote a local interest piece and offered to do a review, one of the DJ’s at a popular radio station asked for an on-air interview, and I got a phone call from a reporter at one of the big local TV stations. She called at 4:30 pm on a Wednesday, and asked to come over the very next morning to tape an interview. It was a good thing in a way, because I didn’t have time to freak out! (or buy a new outfit, or get a manicure, or anything! LOL) I barely had time to clean up my office so it didn’t look like a hurricane hit! If you’d like to see the interview, here’s the link: http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=62313 . Just click on the words "Video Story" beneath my picture.

Any quirky habits or real life spooky tales you wish to share?

Besides being a total Halloween fiend who turns her backyard into "Madame Zelda’s Haunted Graveyard" (http://www.tgarey.com/haunts.html ) every year? Besides living in a haunted house that was discovered to be the scene of a lover’s triangle murder/suicide? Um, no.

Seriously, I’ve gone on long enough. If anybody else has some spooky tales they’d like to share, I’d love to hear them!

Thanks, Terri! One Lucky commenter will receive a signed copy of Dead Girls Are Easy so let's hear about those real life spooky tales!