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Lisa Hendrix fell in love for the first time at age 10 (with both of the Men from U.N.C.L.E., for those of you who remember that far back) and has been fascinated by the whole concept of love ever since. That interest led her naturally enough to reading romance novels, and then to writing them–-which, coincidentally, put her in a hotel elevator with Robert Vaughn at an RWA conference. Still waiting for that equally serendipitous encounter with David McCallum, she is now working on an extended series about a crew of cursed Viking raiders. The first book of The Immortal Brotherhood, Immortal Warrior, was published by Berkley in November 2008, and the second, Immortal Outlaw was just released this month.

In past lives, Lisa has been a soda jerk, an executive secretary, the rear chainman on a survey crew, an ESL teacher in Japan, a loan officer, a research assistant on a boat in the Bering Sea, a night school instructor, and a medical transcriptionist, not necessarily in that order. Today she takes time out of her busy writing schedule to chat with Book Addict Editor Angela Wilson.

When you sit down to write, do you plan, or type from the hip?

I take a middle path. I write a fairly thorough synopsis and I story-board some sections. But at the same time, I’m writing the first three chapters, so that I’m going back and forth to finish the proposal for my editor.

Once that’s done and out the door, though, I try to allow for serendipity and the surprises that bring extra life to the process.  However, if I get jammed up, I go back to the working synopsis (the original version, which is longer and more detailed than what I finally send to the editor), or I story board the part I’m having trouble with.

If all that doesn’t work, I call my critique partner and whine, and then get help working out where I went wrong. If there are writers out there who have never tried bouncing ideas off someone else, I suggest you try it. That extra set of eyes and brain cells can make a huge difference.

You have a fascinating career background. You were an ESL teacher in Japan, a loan officer and a research assistant on a boat - in the Bering Sea. When did you create your first story - the one that got your blood pumping to be an author full-time? How did these jobs cultivate you as a person and as a writer?

You left out a few. I’m not sure that there’s anything like a career in that list. More like a series of jobs.

James Michener once said, “I think young people ought to seek that experience that is going to knock them off center.” I hope that’s what some of those jobs did—knock me off-center. I know I use bits of each and every one—the characters I met, the experiences I had, the amazing places I saw—every time I open my work in progress.

The first time I actually sat down to write a romance (as opposed to the Star Trek fanfic I wrote as a kid) was in between the survey crew and the research assistant jobs. I had about four weeks free before university classes started up again, and I sat down with a portable electric typewriter and some burst computer paper and started. I got about 60 pages in, and then had a chance to canoe partway down the Yukon, so I put the book aside and packed. I never went back to the story because college started and the story was worse than awful, but I learned a lot making that bad start. The next time I had a book idea, I got 70,000 words done. There were weaknesses, but not the same ones in that first effort, and I learned even more on that one.

Eventually, I sold from a partial manuscript that was just over half done. That’s pretty unusual, selling a first book on a partial, but I hit the right editor with the right idea at precisely the right time. Serendipity. The editor took care of some of the weaknesses by having me revise the partial right off the bat, and then she whacked more of them in the final editing. There are those extra eyes and brain cells again.

You have a cross-genre series that is paranormal historical romance. What draws you to these genres individually? Is it difficult to combine them to create unique stories for genre fans?

The first romance I ever read was The Wolf and the Dove by Katheen Woodiwiss, and the first book I ever seriously worked on (that one that I got to 70,000 words on) was one based on some of the same material Dan Brown used for The Davinci Code. It had the Priory of Sion, lost bloodlines, Knights Templar, and all, except it was set in 1186 at the castle at Gisors, France. So the historical part of the series is a natural fit.

As to the paranormal, I really didn’t have much choice. I woke up one morning with this hunky thousand-year old man in my head who became a bear every day. Apparently my subconscious was ready to write his story, even though the rest of my brain didn’t know it. I started figuring out who he was and how he’d gotten to be an immortal were-bear. It took me a while, but once I finally figured it out, I realized his whole crew had been cursed with him, and that the form each one took was that of the amulet he wore representing his fylgja or spirit companion (kind of like a totem).

To combine the historical and paranormal aspects, I took the position that these were/are real men in the real world—they just happen to have been cursed. I don’t do world building, I do research. Lots and lots of research, both traditional and via the internet.  I include real physical locations and historical characters wherever I can. And then I overlay the whole thing with mythology and legend.

Tell us about your latest, Immortal Outlaw.

Immortal Outlaw is about Steinarr the Proud, a man who turns into a lion at sunset every night. Because the lion is so dangerous, he stays as far from other people as he can, so he’s been especially isolated and lonely. Then he finds himself saddled with a pair of naive travelers, Marian and Robin, and he is torn between wanting their company (hers, in particular) and wanting them far away so they’re safe. And then she asks him to help her with a quest she’s on, and offers herself in payment. He just can’t resist.

And as you can tell from the names Marian and Robin, the legend of Robin Hood weaves through the story—although not in the way you might expect. It’s purely my suppositions about how such a legend might have come into being. And it was a ball to write.

You can read an excerpt from IMMORTAL OUTLAW at my website.

Where does this volume fall in the series?

It’s the second in what I intend to be a nine book series, one for each of my men. There are nine because that’s a number that turns up time and time again in the Norse mythology. Their gods were obsessed with the number nine, which explains the Valknut, or knot of the dead, whose nine points represent the nine worlds of the Norse cosmos. J.R.R. Tolkein played with the whole nine thing, too: nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring, nine rings of power, etc.

For those who are interested, there’s an interesting list of all the nines in Norse mythology on Wikipedia.

Each man’s story takes place in a different century, working up to present time for the last two. And yes, their nemesis, the evil Cwen, stays around the whole time, to savor their torture and contribute to it where she can.

However, each book stands on it’s own. There is a story that arches over the whole series, but each book has it’s own main characters and complete storyline, and I’m working hard to make sure you can jump in anyplace and understand what’s going on, then go back to earlier books to catch up on some of the secondary characters.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing Immortal Outlaw?

Just the usual — getting my butt in the chair and then getting the story out of my head in an intelligible form. Those are always the most difficult parts of writing.

What type of research do you do on Vikings for the series?

I talked about some of that above, but of course I do much, much more. I’ve found lists of Norse names, I keep an Old Norse/English dictionary on my computer, I refer frequently to a wide variety of books and, of course, I have probably 200 reliable websites bookmarked.

I’ve been working on transferring my bookmarks to delicious, but haven’t gotten very far yet. Once I have them up and at least partly flagged, I’ll post a link on my Extras page. Then readers can fact check me. ;-)

You have Reader Group questions on your Web site for your books. How do you use these questions to engage your readers? Have you heard back from book groups that got something different out of your stories after they discussed it?

I have on past books, and they really seemed to appreciate the ease of pulling the questions off the website—especially the group leaders, who would have to create questions on their own. And of course I can track through my website stats which pages have been viewed and downloaded so I know that the Reader Group questions are popular.

I love reader groups, and not just because they’re the hardcore romance readers who influence book sales. They’re just plan fun and are made up of some of the nicest women you’ll ever meet.  l live in an isolated area, but I still visit as many groups as I can in person, including one extra special one that I’ll have to drive 9 hours each way. And let me tell you, the are totally worth 18 hours in the car.

Can fans chat with you virtually while you are on tour for Immortal Outlaw?

As a matter of fact, yes they can. Several ways:

Reader groups that I can’t visit in person can arrange for me to visit virtually simply by asking. I’ll phone or Skype to the group at the appointed time and chat for 30 minutes, plus I’ll send them a doorprize and a box of goodies to share around. The form to arrange a visit is on my website on the Readers Groups page—where they’ll also find the printable discussion questions mentioned above.

For individuals: I’m doing a chat at Writerspace on Wednesday, June 24, at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific.  Just go to the Writerspace Chat Rooms and find my name in the listings; click there, sign in, and we’ll talk. And of course, you can always leave comments on my blog or reach me through the contact page on my website.

But I’m going way beyond virtual chats and holding a Virtual Booksigning.

Any reader who has purchased either Immortal Warrior or Immortal Outlaw can send me an SASE and get back a personalized & autographed bookplate to stick in the front of their book (all archival, so it won’t hurt the book) along with a couple of the bookmarks I had done for bookstores. There’s a link in the sidebar of my website to full info, including my address.

I’ve also been adding other freebies and features to my website, including downloadable printable bookmarks, interactive maps of where the books take place, site badges, etc. I want readers to come back over and over, and to have a good time when they do, so I add more all the time.

No matter which way you choose to contact me, I answer all my mail personally. I love to hear from fans!

Give us the scoop on your Bookspotters Contest.

I do this with every book.  Since the books don’t have restricted On Sale dates, they trickle out early in some locales and late in others. To help me know where they are appearing, I ask readers to report where they find the book (even after the pub date).  If they want, they can also snap a picture of Steinarr “in the wild” and send it to share with everyone.  On June 20, I’ll draw a random entry to win a canvas tote full of goodies. This time, I’m offering extra entries to anyone who sends me reports from unusual locales like Tristan da Cunha. Info on how to enter is linked in the sidebar of my site, as well as on the Contests page.

I also have a regular monthly contest. For June, it’s a chance to win a reproduction Viking lion amulet, just like the one Steinarr wears in Immortal Outlaw. Again, info is on the Contests page at my site.

When is your next title due out?

I don’t have a pub date yet, but the tentative title is Immortal Champion. I expect it to come out in 2010 sometime.

Readers can sign up for my mailing list and/or my RSS feed to get news, and then they’ll know as soon as I do.

Where can we find you on the Web?

All over!

Website: http://lisahendrix.com
Facebook Page:  http://facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Hendrix/18625590885
MySpace:  http://www.myspace.com/lisa_hendrix
Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/lisahendrix
BJ Author Forums: http://berkleyjoveauthors.com/forums/
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/LisaHendrix

While we’re on this subject: I’m curious about reader habits. If those reading today would be so kind, I’d appreciate some help in the form of a few answers (just leave them in Comments).

Where do you most often discover authors new to you?
Do you visit authors pages on social networking sites? Which ones?
What features on a website or social network page are most useful? Which are annoying? Which are most likely to make you come back to a site or recommend it to a friend?
Any other comments or suggestions?

Thank you so much for your help.

And extra special thanks to Angela for hosting me.  I had a wonderful time.