Review: Shade Fright {Valerie Stevens, #1} by Sean Cummings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'I fell into this job quite by accident, when I discovered that I possessed the ability to see the preternatural world. There are a handful of people with similar abilities, and part of my job is to locate them, since Government Services and Infrastructure Canada like to keep track of these things. Don't ask me why'. There's a malevolent force in town, and it's quite literally Valerie Steven's job to determine who's behind it and why they want to destroy the world, starting with Calgary. She'll have help, in the form of her best friend (now more or less a zombie, unfortunately), a powerful dwarf troll, and the ghost of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (but he goes by 'Bill' these days). But that's not all - Valerie has some tricks up her sleeve and, she hopes, luck on her side. Oh, and her boyfriend, Dave. He drives a dump truck.

From Goodreads. 

• Publisher: Snowbooks

• Release Date: March 1st, 2010

• My Copy: eCopy Given to me by the Author.

• Pages: 416

• Series: Valerie Stevens

• Genre: Urban Fantasy

• Author's Website

• Buy This Book:

Shade Fright (Valerie Stevens 1)

 

Shade Fright is all about Valerie Stevens and her job of cataloguing all things supernatural, but when weird things start to happen and Valerie’s responsibilities seem to be much more than what she thought, her world turns inside out and it’s up to her to do something to save her city and everyone living in it.

Along with Valerie, we get to meet her Zombie friend Catherine, A ghost named Bill, her human boyfriend, Dave and more. People that are a part of her life and that help her deal with the craziness that is going on.

I have to say that it took me a while to get into this book. It’s fair to say that I wasn’t in the best of reading moods when I started it and I had to take a break of about a month before I could go back and actually finish it. I feel like the story took a while to pick up and for things to start to happen, so I got distracted a lot.

However, when I got back to reading Shade Fright, I quite enjoyed it. I did really like the characters, specially the cast of secondary ones that make up Valerie’s life. I did feel that some of the references went over my head, because I don’t know a lot about Canada, but the book was enjoyable nonetheless.

Valerie is a great Urban Fantasy heroine, if a bit different from the rest. I loved her quirky relationship with Dave and  I am definitely looking forward to reading more of her adventures!

 

 

Next on The Valerie Stevens Series:

 

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Author Interview & Giveaway w/ Sean Cummings!

 

 

Hey Everyone! Welcome to my blog! It’s Tuesday and time for another awesome interview and giveaway… Hope you enjoy it!

I have here with me today, Canadian Urban Fantasy Author Sean Cummings…

Giveaway details at the end of the post! Have fun!

 

When did you first start writing?

I first started writing in grade school and was fortunate enough to have a grade five teacher who encouraged me to keep at it. Over the years I’ve dabbled with different styles of writing, from newspaper opinion columns to poetry and I’ve always come back to writing about the things that go bump in the night.

Have you always enjoyed Fantasy?

Absolutely. I think that most people on some level, enjoy fantasy because so much of it is wrapped up in folklore. Every culture has its own stories that everyone was brought up with and certainly there are themes in fantasy that are consistent with the fundamentals of the human experience. Good versus evil, love, loss, sacrifice. They evoke powerful imagery that I think most people connect with on some level.
Why writing Urban Fantasy?
My first exposure to urban fantasy was through comic books. In the 1970’s, Marvel comics published “Werewolf by Night”, a series about Jack Russell, a modern guy with a terrible curse who lived in a modern world. From the very first issue, I was hooked.

Were there any Books, Movies or Writers that have inspired you?

I’m a huge Universal Studios fan. Karloff’s monster and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula are the universal benchmark for classic monsters. I own all those movies on DVD and I still watch them every year – usually around Halloween. I’m a fan of Jim Butcher (obviously) Simon R. Greene, Wayne Simmons (whose zombie novel FLU is just mind blowing). I love Nancy Holzner’s Deadtown. Of course I love Stephen King, Robert R. McCammon and host of others.

What is your favorite subject in the Urban Fantasy Realm?

Good versus evil and how evil manifests underneath the noses of a sleeping public. Classic elements that make for a great story.

Favorites:

Favorite Paranormal themed Movie?  Paranormal Activity scared the crap out of me.
Favorite Paranormal themed TV Show? Dark Shadows
Favorite Paranormal themed Book? Changes by Jim Butcher
Favorite Author? Pierre Berton
Favorite Urban Fantasy Author? Tossup between Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green.

Favorite Genre that is NOT your own? Murder mystery.

Favorite one of your Books? Funeral Pallor

Who is your favorite of your own characters?

Marshall Conrad. He’s the main character in my forthcoming superhero/urban fantasy, Unseen World. He’s cranky, curmudgeonly, heroic, self-deprecating and noble even though he’s a bit of a jerk.

Which was the hardest to write?

The hardest thing to write so far was Shade Fright because I was doing a ton of world building. I wanted to inject a lot of Canadiana in the novel and I had to do a ton of research to get it right.

What would you be if not a writer?

Well I have a day job. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d have loved to be an editorial cartoonist.

If you Could be a Paranormal Being, Who would you be?

I’d love to be John Taylor from Simon R Green’s Nightside series. He’s dark, a little bit doomed, I think, and immensely powerful.
If you could meet any Urban Fantasy Character out there, Who would you like to meet?
I’d want to hang with Harry Dresden and pick his brain about the nature of magic. Jim Butcher writes magic like nobody else and Harry is a hero for all time.

Quickies:

Coffee or Tea? Tim Horton’s double-single
Up or Down? Mushy middle
Virtual or Real? Virtual. We get too much real every time we turn on the news.
Right or Left? Straight ahead, no holds barred.
Day or Night? Early morning, like 4 am.
Here or There? There is nice but here is where I am so I make the best of it.
Sooner or Later?  Soon please. I’m not getting any younger.
Light or Dark?  Dusk.
Fast or Slow? Slow and steady.
Vampires or Werewolves? Werewolves along the lines of Thomas Emson’s Laura Greenacre in his fantastic novel, Maneater.
Angels or Demons? Angels with an agenda.
Reading or Writing? Writing. I read every day, mind you, but writing is what I love to do more than anything.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

 Collaborating with my agent and her team on how to make a good story a great one.

What is your least favorite part?

Proof reading. There’s only so much one person can catch in the way of missing words or typos.

 The Valerie Stevens Series in your own words?

 A uniquely Canadian urban fantasy series with great characters and a lot of unanswered questions.

Any plans for more Books in the series?

Yes. I’ve outlined a third novel, but I’m currently working on a spinoff book from Funeral Pallor – Tim Reaper.

What is coming up next for you?

Unseen World hits bookstores on January 1, 2011. Marshall Conrad is a great character and it’s jam packed with action.

What are you working on right now?

I’m doing revisions on Poltergeeks with my agent Jenny Savill.

Do you have any advice or tip to those like me that want to become a published Author someday?

Don’t be afraid to take risks and for heaven’s sake, don’t take rejection personally. Don’t over think your query, I see too many unpublished authors driving themselves nuts about a good query letter.

Anything you would like to say to your fans out there?

I hope you like what I’ve come up with so far. Tim Reaper is going to be a blast once it’s done and you get a nice introduction to him in Funeral Pallor. Thanks for all the emails and smiles you’ve sent me. I hope you continue to get a kick out of what I’m writing.

 

Find Sean Cummings Online:

Website | Twitter | Blog

Buy Sean’s Books:

| Amazon | Book Depo |

 

 

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