BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR ANGIE FOX

Our Book Club Friday guest author today is Angie Fox. Angie is the New York Times bestselling author of several books about vampires, werewolves and things that go bump in the night. She claims that researching her stories can be just as much fun as writing them. In the name of fact-finding, Angie has ridden with Harley biker gangs, explored the tunnels underneath Hoover Dam and found an interesting recipe for Mamma Coalpot’s Southern Skunk Surprise (she’s still trying to get her courage up to try it). Angie earned a Journalism degree from the University of Missouri. She worked in television news and then in advertising before beginning her career as an author. Visit Angie at www.angiefox.com.

Angie is giving away a copy of The Accidental Demon to one lucky reader. To enter you have to take the What's Your Biker Witch Name? quiz at http://quiz.angiefox.com/ and post your answer in a comment to the blog. My Biker Witch Name is Hog Wild Harriet Wheelie-Gig. I’d tell you author Lois Winston’s Biker Witch Name, but she’d probably kill me. Oh, what the heck! She can’t kill me. I’m her protagonist. So ready for this (drum roll, please.) It’s Easy Edna Windy Pants. Now what’s yours? -- AP

Riding with the Harley Dogs: One Author’s Adventure

I’d always known writing would be an adventure, but I never predicted my writing would put me on the back of a coal black Harley Davidson, with an Irish Setter in tow. I’d set out to write a paranormal about a straight-laced preschool teacher turned demon slayer who has to run off with a gang of geriatric biker witches. But my heroine has a smart-mouthed dog that, thanks to her new powers, can talk…and talk…and talk. And I really loved that dog. What’s a writer to do? Well, I went online and learned that there is a nationwide club of Harley bikers who ride with their dogs. So my heroine could have her pink Harley, and her Jack Russell Terrier, too.

And of course I had to meet these Harley riding dog lovers. I called up a few of the members of a Biker Dogs Motorcycle Club and the adventure began. They invited me into their homes, introduced me to their dogs and, like my heroine, the bikers hoisted me up on the back of a Harley, with a dog in tow. 

Things I learned right off the bat:

• After an hour on a Harley, you’ll walk like John Wayne for a week
• Helmets hurt when they are worn backwards
• Dogs love riding motorcycles

Stone, the biker who spent the most time making sure I didn’t fall off his hog, showed me how to ride, invited me to some biker rallies (note to self: don’t wear pink next time), and helped make The Accidental Demon Slayer as real as it can be (for a book about a somewhat sheltered preschool teacher turned demon slayer).

So just when I thought I was writing fiction, it seemed my made-up characters from The Accidental Demon Slayer weren’t so imaginary after all. One of the bikers I met even has a wife who is a biker witch. I’m wondering if she, like my heroine’s biker witch grandma, wears a “kiss my asphalt” t-shirt and carries Smuckers jars filled with magic. Maybe I’ll find out on my next adventure.

Want to win a copy of The Accidental Demon Slayer? Just take the What’s Your Biker Witch Name? quiz. Post your results below and you’re entered to win. Good luck!

Thanks, Angie! I can’t wait to see all the Biker Witch names that will be posted. Come on, readers. Don’t be shy. If I can do it, so can you. -- AP