by Isabella Jordan Marie Treanor Meet even more of the super talented authors at Changeling Press starting with this super talented Scottish import...

IJ: Marie, thanks for taking the time to talk to us about you and your super fabulous books. First, let's talk about your latest release, the start of a new series, Rogue Warriors 1: Rebel.

MT: No problem - thanks for asking me! I love talking about my books, especially when you call them super fabulous

Rogue Warriors is set in the future, in a post-apocalyptic world beginning to recover from nuclear holocaust – only humanity has begun another war. The series will be about those who fight – or have fought – but in some way have turned “rogue”. The rebel of the first book has realized that the war is wrong and believes that the Dragul – a mysterious but powerful race who live in both warring parts of the world.- are promoting it to exterminate humanity. He leads a group of urban rebels in the Dome City, aiming to change the government and reject the Dragul. To force the issue, he takes the opportunity of a rare Dragul visit to kidnap the beautiful Crina. Who turns out to be more than he bargained for in every way!

IJ: This series has ties to your Dragul Rising series. Can you tell us how they are related and what gave you the idea to do that?

MT: Yes, the Dragul in Rogue Warriors are the next generation, the children of the couples who met in Dragul Rising. (Crina is the daughter of Beth and Aurel from Dragul Dawn). So they are all partly human, which causes all sorts of issues. For example, Dragul normally reach sexual maturity around 50 years old and are outraged when Crina wants to have sex when she’s only thirty J I suppose I got the idea because I’d already done it with City of the Damned and Dragul Rising which, of course, features the children of the couples who met in the City of the Damned trilogy. And when the final book of Dragul Rising came out, several readers asked for more Dragul

It’s good fun, actually, because although all three series are related, they are set in different locations around the same world, and have a completely different feel from each other.

IJ: What do you like best about Jake Lindow?

MT: Ooh everything! I like hat he’s not afraid to think for himself, and that when he’s decided something’s right, he puts everything into achieving it. And I like that he’s open-minded too. And although he’s so serious about his aims and responsibilities, he still keeps his sense of humour. And of course I like the way he looks I’m biased, of course, but I think he’s sexy as hell

IJ: What can you tell us about the coming books in the Rogue Warriors series?

MT: Well, on the understanding that I haven’t actually written them yet... The second one will be Soldier, about an enemy soldier captured by the Dome whose brain has been somehow tampered with. Only when they send in a Dragul (Michael and Dana’s son Sorin) to investigate, is it clear that she’s been programmed and altered to kill Dragul! Queen will be the third story – about the daughter of Vasil and Eve, who will one day be Queen of the Dragul – and who goes on a last-ditch hunt for sexual excitement among humans before taking up the responsibilities of marriage to the leader of the western Dragul.

IJ: I have to ask how you got that super beautiful cover.

MT: AZuri

Isn’t she wonderful? I love it. It’s got a sort of glamorous, comic-book look about it and Jake is just spot-on!

IJ: We also recently saw the release of your story Christmas of the Damned as part of the wonderful Christmas Cookies stories released in December. What can you tell us about that story?

MT: I loved doing that one! I got to revisit the City of the Damned, which is a wonderfully dark, ruined sort of place, ideal for the beginnings of new hope that are associated with Christmas. I liked the idea of people remembering they should celebrate at this time, but not why. And I loved my hero, the brutal bouncer from the nightclub that featured in all the City of the Damned stories, who has more gifts than anybody knows. And my heroine, a lupi (werewolf) so traumatized in her childhood that she’s lived as a wolf ever since.

IJ: What can you tell us about the City of the Damned series?

MT: The City of the Damned is a weird place, an isolated, ruined city avoided by travellers and home to several strange mutants including lupi (werewolves) and vampires who are hated and feared by the ordinary humans who live there. Will, a lupi, begins the changes that make things better and gradually everyone – including the mutants themselves – realize that the mutants are vital in rebuilding the world and bringing back the sun. Naturally, they all need a bit of love and sex to inspire them

IJ: What can you tell us about the Dragul Rising series?

MT: HThe Dragul are a mysterious, powerful race of immortal shapeshifters, as old as the Earth. For centuries, they’ve lived underground to avoid humanity which once persecuted them. When nuclear war plunged the world into darkness and emptied large chunks of the Earth, a rebel group of Dragul began to re-emerge to set up their own secret kingdom in the deserted Highlands. But it doesn’t remain secret very long, because as life returns to normal, humans begin to recolonize the empty areas and have to deal with a reclusive race whose very existence is a shock! But the Dragul are beautiful and wise and extremely good in bed, so it’s inevitable that various humans fall in love with them

IJ: Will there be future books in either series?

MT: I don’t know. I love this world, so it just keeps growing in my head I think those trilogies are complete in themselves, but I certainly wouldn’t rule out revising them in other stories...

IJ: Since we're such impatient souls, can we ask when the next Rogue Warriors series story will be released?

MT: Not till June, I’m afraid =( BUT the good news is, in April comes the start of another new series! A multi-author one this time called Big, Beautiful and Wild! (as if you didn’t know, Isy!) all about alien tree shifters and the fluffy humans who love them. Anyway, my contribution will be among the first of those – Willow the Wisp, set in rural Romania. My fluffy willow tree has to stop her big lover from cutting down her brothers in the wood to make way for luxury holiday cottages

IJ: How could I forget! LOL Sounds wonderful! Do you have a favorite among your Changeling Press stories? If so, can you tell us why?

MT: Oh dear, they’re all my favourites while I’m writing them – and then I hate them all till edits are finished . At the moment, I suppose my favourite is Rebel, because of Jake and because it’s closest in time! Although I do have a soft spot too for Dragul in Daylight – probably because it was nominated in the Love Romances Café Best of 2007 Awards And I do rather like the troubled relationships in that one.

IJ: Which of your heroes would you most likely want to be stuck in an avalanche with? You can have more than one. LOL

MT: Jake J Although I suppose a superior Dragul would be more able to dig us out – would that be good or bad?

Isy: If you were ever in any danger, which of your characters would you want to have your back?

MT: Mmm – Aurel, the Law Keeper from Dragul Dawn.

IJ: Which of your heroines is most like you?

MT: None of them! Trust me, I’m a wimp

IJ: Is anything you write close to events in your life or purely spun from the genius of your mind?

MT: No, the events are pure genius Seriously, I may use various physical and character traits of people I’ve met, or draw on my own emotions, but I can’t recall ever using actual events.

IJ: Did you, ahem, practice any of your sex scenes before you wrote them? LOL Of course we'll want to know which ones.

MT: Well...! You remember the flying sex scene in Dragul Dawn? You should have seen my husband and me suspended from the ceiling by all those complicated wires and pulleys... The fire-brigade didn’t know where to look when they came to cut us down.

IJ: What is your favorite guilty pleasure? MT: Eating. I love food, especially chocolate and cream and all those other things that are bad for you

IJ: What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

MT: I think it was just after my daughter was born. The hospital had kindly given me a huge pack of free condoms to take home (Why? Does any new mother leave a maternity hospital with any intention of ever letting a man near her again?) Anyway, my father in law came to stay the following week to see the new baby, and being lazy we ordered an Indian take-away for dinner. It duly arrived with free popadoms (those huge, scrummy crisps for eating with pickles and other nibbles). And I hospitably invited my father-in-law to help himself to the complimentary condoms...aargh!

IJ: That's a good one! LOL What do you enjoy about being a Changeling Press author?

MT: Everything The opportunity to write those off-the-wall stories that come into my head... My patient and all-seeing editor (hi Crystal J)... The other authors I meet here...The response I’ve had from Changeling readers...And the fact that the whole company seems to run with an amazing combination of efficiency and fun!

Thank you, Marie! Check out all of Marie's Changeling Press titles at http://changelingpress.com/author.php?uid=80.

Isy Jordan