Interview: Maggie Mae Gallagher, author of 'Anointed'

Debut author Maggie Mae Gallagher (and one of my favorite people!) joins us today to chat about Anointed, book one of her Cantati Chronicles urban fantasy series; time travel books and movies; and her beer-loving cats. OK, exaggerating on the cats, but there's a story there. Keep reading.

Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Maggie Mae! Anointed is your debut novel (congratulations!) and book one in the Cantati Chronicles Series.

Maggie Mae: Hello, Joyce! Thank you so much for having me on HEA! I am super thrilled to be here and discuss my debut novel, Anointed.

Joyce: What can you tell us about the series?

Maggie Mae:Anointed is the first book in The Cantati Chronicles Series. The series begins 83 years in a post-apocalyptic future. My heroine, Alana, is a lieutenant in the Cantati Special Forces. Cantati are humans that the Mutari changed on a cellular level, bestowing them with magical powers, the strength of 10 men, and the ability to fight the demons swarming the globe. Alana's story begins when her world ends and her father, a general of the Cantati Forces, sends her back through time to our present day. Her mission is to try to stop the Mutari from ever happening.

Joyce: What is the Mutari?

Maggie Mae: The Mutari is actually the name given to the event which caused mankind's destruction. When the Mutari happened, it caused an evolution in some humans and created a new species named the Cantati.

Joyce: What can readers expect from book two, Ascended Chaos?

Maggie Mae: Without giving too much away about how Anointed ends, Alana finds herself going to war in Ascended Chaos. Characters you meet in the first book will definitely be back in book two with some newer additions as well. I'm already hard at work on Ascended Chaos and will keep readers informed once I have a firm release date.

Joyce: The Anointed playlist on your website has quite the range of music, from Kansas and Matchbox Twenty to Metallica and Muse. Can you share a little about some of the songs and what they represent in regard to Anointed and the series?

Maggie Mae: I was actually a music major in undergrad and heartily enjoy music. My tastes can vary between anything and everything from hard rock to pop to classic rock to classical to Broadway show tunes to rap. Granted, I'm on the lighter side of rap, like Will Smith Gettin' Jiggy With It. If you listen to the songs on the playlist, they tell a story that follows along with the plot for Anointed. And, actually, the initial idea for Anointed came from two songs on that playlist: Muse's Knights of Cydonia and The Killers' A Dustland Fairytale. It's ironic that music is where my muse starts talking because, I am one of those writers who needs dead silence to work. I can't even go to a coffee shop because there's too much noise. However, when I'm plotting, I need music. The playlist for Ascended Chaos will be quite different from the first, and, yes, the list has already begun.

Joyce: The series includes some time travel. Do you have favorite time travel books or movies?

Maggie Mae: Absolutely. As for books, I adore Karen Marie Moning's Kiss of the Highlander, and, no, I will not tell you how many times I have read that book, and probably my favorite Harry Potter novel, Prizoner of Azkaban, while I love them all, this one is special to me for quite a few reasons. My favorite time travel movies have to be the entire Terminator series, and come on, who doesn't love the adventures of Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy? I'm still waiting for Doc to show up at my door with a smoking DeLorean. One of the paradigms I find fascinating is the idea of time loops, what it takes to interrupt them, or destroy them completely, and how doing so changes everything else.

Joyce: You have two kitties, named Guinness and Isabella. Are there stories behind their names?

Maggie Mae: Actually, there is. When I was in middle school, I had a cat named Budweiser, aka Buddy. He was this huge tomcat who loved Italian food and powdered doughnuts. When he passed away my freshman year of high school, I made him an oath that I would always have at least one cat named after a beer throughout the rest of my lifetime. Since his passing, I have had a Michelob, aka Mickie, and now Guinness. Guinness is another huge boy whose favorite treat is bacon. When I adopted Isabella, we tried a few beer names, but none of them sounded right. She's a bit too much of a mischief maker and was thusly named Isabella.

Joyce: Is there anything you'd like to add?

Maggie Mae: I'm super excited for readers to meet Alana and Gaelen. For all the latest news and appearances, readers can visit my website at www.maggiemaegallagher.com.

Thank you so much for inviting me onto Happy Ever After!

Here's the blurb for Anointed:

My name is Alana Devereaux. I enjoy the simple things in life, walks in the park, sky gazing, and ripping a demon's heart out though its chest. I am a demon slayer, the last of my kind, and I have been sent back through time to save your world. How am I doing so far? My time travel went haywire, all the signs I needed to stop the prophecy have passed, and the only way I can save my world is by keeping yours from ending. Then there's Gaelen, most days I want to deck him. He hides his true motives and if it was not for the intel he had, I would be rid of him. Any day in my life without a demon attack is a good day; I haven't had a whole lot of those lately. The only problem is, if I don't stop the Mutari, this world will burn.

You can also connect with Maggie Mae on Facebook and Twitter (@magmaegallagher).

HEA curator and contributor Joyce Lamb has 25 years of journalism experience and eight published romantic suspense novels, three of which have been RITA finalists. You can reach her at jlamb@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter (@JoyceLamb). You can also follow HEA on Twitter (@HEAusatoday).