Amie Gibbons is a modern fantasy author. She’s written multiple novels in the “Evie Jones” and “SDF Paranormal Mysteries” series. She’s continued both of these fictional paranormal universes and just started a third.

Tamara Wilhite: I previously read and reviewed your novel “The Gods Defense”. What led you to publish several novellas in the Laws of Magic series instead of a full length follow-up novel?

Amie Gibbons: I actually haven’t done a lot of shorts in that series, I just have 2, but the reason I haven’t finished book 2 and gone on with the series is because I ran into a plot problem with the second and wasn’t able to fix it easily. So I have it mostly written, but I am not sure how to fix it and it’ll probably need a large chunk rewritten. I will get back to that one eventually, I swear.

Tamara Wilhite: You’ve got half a dozen books in the SDF paranormal mysteries series. Can you tell me about it?

Amie Gibbons: Yeah, that series is a fun paranormal romance, cozy mystery series around a young psychic named Ariana Ryder, her team, magical friends, and sidekick flying carpet. She’s an agent with the FBI who got the job because she’s psychic, but is determined to learn and prove she’s more than just a pretty face and helpful visions. She’s growing up through the series, becoming more capable and mature, learning about her powers, and learning about herself. The first book in the series is Psychic Undercover (with the Undead), and it’s where her and her team at the FBI really start diving into the magical world around them when they have to catch a serial killer going after women at a vampire club.

Tamara Wilhite: Your stories almost always feature a strong magical female heroine, though she may not be aware of her abilities at the beginning. How are your main characters different from each other?

Amie Gibbons: That’s a good question.

Cassandra Berry (The Laws of Magic Urban Fantasies) is a prosecutor whose personality is very firmly grounded in her faith and sense of right and wrong, a little too serious and practical at times, is afraid of what she’ll do if she allows herself to bend the rules, and looks out for those around her.

Ariana Ryder (SDF Paranormal Mysteries) is a perky, blonde ex-cheerleader who is annoyingly optimistic (no, really, she annoys me sometimes) and wants everyone around her to be happy, but can be kind of a self-centered brat, so she has to work on that, and she has some history of manic depression that comes out during the series.

Sarah Blakely (The Elemental Demons Urban Fantasies) is an ambitious young woman who has always lived her life by a plan, and doesn’t adjust easily when her plans are wiped out, so she’s pretty lost. She’s stubborn and fights for her friends, is always questioning and curious, loves completely and purely, and has serious self esteem issues she is constantly fighting against.

Sandry Green (The Order of the Sphinx Urban Fantasies) so far this series just has some shorts out because the books need serious rewrites, and she was the first character I created. She started out a lot like I was at 19, the stereotype of basing a character on oneself, like most writers. She is stubborn, smart, defensive, sarcastic, can’t read people and doesn’t bother trying, and has no clue how to handle emotions, so when they come up, she shoves them down and tries to bury them in logic.

Evie Jones (the Evie Jones Mysteries) these are a series of shorts and star fiery, fierce, defiant witch Evie Jones, who thinks it’s her job to buck the rules of the authoritarian underground witch government and enjoys doing it.

Tamara Wilhite: Congratulations on the new book, “Scorpions of the Deep”. It is subtitled “The Elemental Demons urban fantasies book 1.” What is it about?

Amie Gibbons: It’s about demons on earth, trying to take humanity down one sin at a time to use them to turn the tide in the war against God.

It started out with me talking to a Catholic friend, and he had stories about demons and ghosts, how Catholics believe in them and how they go after people, so I wrote the book with the idea that I would freak out my Catholic friends. 🙂 The first book is about a demon trying to possess Sarah, along with all the hallucinations, fears come to life, and her thinking she’s going nuts that comes with a demon trying to wear down a person’s mental defenses so he can take over. I freaked myself out a little writing it at times. I was going for an early seasons of Supernatural feel. So it’s a lot more realistic and less magical than my other series, and ended up being more on the horror side of Urban Fantasy.

Tamara Wilhite: What do you consider the greatest influences on your work?

Amie Gibbons: Mostly stuff that happens in the real world, like in my life or the lives of my friends. Like Scorpions coming from my Catholic friend’s stories. Something will happen in real life and my imagination will take off on what would happen if there was magic. So my depression from my breakup from my long term relationship turned into, what if my Catholic friend’s beliefs were real and demons used depression to get into humans. Me seeing something on the news about a murder, or what’s going on politically turns into, what if there was magic under the world we know and that causes or explains some of the insanity. Since I’ve been making up stories since I was little, there’ll be things that happened when I was a kid that got changed into magical stories over the years and inserted into books now.

Tamara Wilhite: And what do you like to read for pleasure?

Amie Gibbons: Mostly the same type of stuff I write, urban fantasies, paranormal romances, and mysteries. I tend to like light and fluffy more than dark, but I can do darker more if it’s funny. I’m “rereading” the Dresden Files on audiobooks now, and don’t get me wrong, they get dark, but they are so fun because of Dresden’s personality and humor.

 

Tamara Wilhite: What are you currently working on?

Amie Gibbons: Wellllll, I am in the middle of the 7th Ariana book, but it’s been sitting for about a year now. So I could get back to that, but I already have ideas for the second book in the Elemental Demons series, so I’m considering starting that one. Right now, I’m not actively working on something because I just finished a book, but I’m really not sure which one to get going on.

Tamara Wilhite: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Amie Gibbons: Just to check me out on Amazon.   If you like fun, spunky mysteries with a lot of romance, then check out the SDF series, starting with Psychic Undercover. If you think something darker and a little closer to possibly real, then check out Scorpions of the Deep.

Tamara Wilhite: Thank you for speaking with me.