Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?
CAMBION’S BLOOD is the second in the series I began with CAMBION’S LAW. It follows the adventures and misadventures of Lily Knight, a half-succubus (or “cambion”) attorney in modern-day San Francisco. In CAMBION’S LAW, Lily raced to stop a murderer who targeted other succubi like herself and became entangled with the defendant accused of those murders, whom she believed to be innocent. In CAMBION’S BLOOD, she’s asked to hunt down a new supernatural threat—and this time, humans are the victims. She finds herself in a position of responsibility over a demon teenager who reminds her of her younger self and faces down a force determined to enact vengeance where the justice system has failed. Meanwhile, she must juggle her fraught relationships with the humans she cares about and the consequences of the choices she made in book 1.
Do you have a favorite character?
Lily’s friend Daniela is probably my favorite character, although a new character in this book is a close second. I really enjoy the characters that challenge my heroine or push her to step out of her comfort zone. It’s always good to have a foil, especially one who brings good jokes along with life lessons. Danny and Lily also have an undercurrent of sexual tension between them that I enjoy, though Lily has a male love interest as well.
How long before you got your offer of representation/your first contract? Was it for your first novel?
I got my first contract before I got my offer of representation! It was for Cambion’s Law and it was my first finished, polished novel. I had queried it with agents and small presses at the same time (which I later learned was not the best strategy), but agents weren’t biting while several small presses expressed interest. Someone explained to me that big publishing houses weren’t buying a lot of urban fantasy debuts these days, so when my editor, Heather McCorkle of City Owl Press, liked one of my pitches in a Twitter event, I decided to try my luck with her. Heather offered the same week I got into Pitch Wars, and then the following year, my agent offered on another project the same week I released my first book! I’m on submission to editors now with that manuscript so hoping the trend continues and I get an offer this week. Just kidding! (Or am I?)
What is your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?
I write most nights after dinner until 9 or 10 pm. Like most writers, I still have my day job, so evenings are really the only time I have for drafting. I thought I preferred absolute silence, but recently I got noise cancelling headphones and they are the BOMB. I can’t listen to any music with lyrics as it’s too distracting for my ADHD brain but listening to super chill instrumentals while writing is perfect. I also sometimes use focus assist apps on my browser if I’m having trouble pulling myself away from social media. I hate that it works but it does. If things are going well, I write an average of 1k words a day, but I don’t force myself to write every day because sometimes it just isn’t possible.
Do you outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?
I usually try to outline, but I’m a pantser by heart so I almost always veer away from it in practice. At minimum, I do know how the story begins, what happens around the midpoint, and generally what happens at the end, but I improvise a lot in between. I made a detailed outline for my most recent project, but the reality is that I often find what I planned is not the most interesting way for the story to go. I update my outline as I write and it changes a lot from what it was at the start.
Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?
Yes! My books go to wide release which means you can order them through other retailers including Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, direct from the City Owl website, and at your favorite indie bookstore. In fact, requesting from your local indie is the best way to buy! You can also request it in ebook or print format at your local library. Online retailers for Cambion’s Law are here and retailers for Cambion’s Blood are here.
Do you find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing your next book?
It can be challenging, yes. I basically have two full-time jobs at the moment: writing and my other job. Obviously, the other one is the main moneymaker so I can’t exactly quit, even if I wanted to. But with social media posts, designing promos, doing author takeovers, guest blogs, worrying over sales rankings, and all the rest that comes along with trying to stand out in a crowded market, it is hard to find time to write. Not to mention maintaining my own blog and my mentoring efforts, both of which are labors of love. I often wish for more time or the kind of sales that would justify quitting the other job. I truly do love my second job, the writing gig, and dream of doing it full-time. I even love doing the promo when I get to be creative with it. But times like now, when I’m ramping up promo, I’m not getting a lot of writing done.
Besides writing, do you have any other passions?
Too many, to be honest. I’m passionate about JUSTICE. I’m making fun of myself there, but the truth is that activism and advocacy is a big part of my life. That’s another reason I will probably never quit the day job, where I push governments to adopt anti-poverty policies and work on impact cases to improve life for people in need.
This inevitably comes out in my online presence as a writer, too. I passionately believe our society should value creative work more highly—people are hungry for art, entertainment, books, content, but the creative economy depends so much on artists’ unpaid labor while most profits go to big corporations. I’m passionate about the urgent need to support diverse books and voices in publishing, about writers knowing their rights, and about fighting back against book banning campaigns.
I’m also a huge nerd who loves science, space, weather, technology, and all the weird, wonderful variety of life on Earth. I follow a lot of citizen scientists, animal rescuers, and sci comms folks on Twitter. I’m obsessed with birds and trees and sharing our world sustainably with other living things.
Also, naps. I love a good nap.
Some fun facts about you, which do you prefer – dogs or cats? Chocolate or vanilla? Coffee or Tea? Talk or Text? Day or Night?
I have two cats I raised from tiny bottle babies, so I have to say cats though I also think dog love is one of the purest things in this world. I’m partial to both chocolate and vanilla depending on mood, but coffee is life. I prefer text to talking as I’m much more articulate with the written word and tend to lose my train of thought when speaking out loud. And I’m a night owl, although my very favorite times are the twilight spaces between night and day.
What’s next for you?
More books! At least, that’s the plan. I am just about finished drafting the third book in my Cambion series. After that, I’m probably going to take a break from writing urban fantasy and do something different. I like to jump between genres so I’m thinking of working on another science fiction project next. We’ll see what happens!
Cambion’s Blood
Erin Fulmer
(Cambion, #2)
Publication date: June 7th 2022
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Half-succubus attorney Lily Knight has blood on her hands.
Haunted by guilt, behind on her rent, and facing professional disgrace, Lily must figure out how to survive in the wreckage of her former life. To make ends meet, she accepts a contract job she never wanted but can’t seem to avoid—hunting another demon murderer. This time, the victims are human, and a shadowy government agency will reward Lily with a way out of her dire financial straits.
If Lily doesn’t solve the case before the news gets out, fear and hatred will put all demonkind at risk from the proverbial torch-carrying mob. But when a young succubus on the run from the authorities begs for her help, Lily faces a new conflict of interest—especially after the suspect, Eve, reveals her father is Lily’s old frenemy.
Now Lily must juggle the pressures of a high-stakes murder case, her complicated relationship with her “not-boyfriend” Sebastian, and responsibility for a wayward teenager as she races to find the real killer. Worse, the culprit isn’t just a demon, but a self-proclaimed goddess who will stop at nothing to carry out her bloody quest for justice. To stop the killings, Lily must confront that which she most fears: the truth about what went down with Eve’s father in the desert—and its consequences.
That is, if the goddess doesn’t get to her first…
Sequel to:
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Author Bio:
Erin Fulmer (she/her) is a public benefits attorney by day, author of urban fantasy and science fiction by night. She lives in sunny Northern California with her husband and two spoiled cats. When she’s not writing or working, she enjoys yoga, taking pictures of the sky, playing board games with friends, and napping like it’s an Olympic sport.
CAMBION’S BLOOD, the second book in her Cambion series and sequel to her debut urban fantasy CAMBION’S LAW, is out June 7 from City Owl Books.
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