Roxy Matthews is the author of several self published novels, Misery’s Companion, Tools of Terror, From the Depths, McBride’s Gem, Numb, and Second Time Sam, with several others due out this year.

For over fifteen years at the keys, she worked to hone her skills. She wrote her own column for a local online newspaper, www.sootoday.com titled ‘Stepping Stones’ before moving onto higher ground with a stint in Suspense Magazine’s 2010 edition. Over the years, she continued a steady trek through this difficult industry as she dabbled in short stories, earning a kudos and first place win with ‘Watery Grave’ and ‘Euphoria’. Those wins would seal the deal for her, confirming what she always knew…she could make it, she just needed more time. She has since entered several more contests throughout the years, taking any and all advice she could to move forward.

Today, you can watch her on her quest to best seller status with her upcoming releases ‘Numb’ and ‘Second Time Sam’, both releasing this year.
“One day, I will make my way in this industry, however it may be, but I’ll never step off the stones I began treading on over a decade ago. Instead, I will find my way across the path to where I was always meant to be.”

Jann: Roxy Matthews is here with us today to talk about her Pale Bay series, so let’s get started! Did you know you wanted to write a series when you started working on the first book?

Roxy: Actually no, I planned Numb, McBride’s Gem, and Second Time Sam all as stand alones. My first book in this series, McBride’s Gem wasn’t even the first I wrote, Numb was. Once I finished Numb I started on McBride’s Gem right away. With some help from my editor and publisher at the time, it morphed into the first story in the series, and a secondary story line that would link all three books together was created. Even through it all, I still doubted Numb so much, for so long that I almost shelved it and forgot it ever even existed. It took me many years of going through the story line, revising, editing, chopping, editing, revising some more to finally have the perfect story break through.

Jann: Tell us about the world you have created for the Pale Bay series. 

Roxy: Pale Bay is a piece of my heart. I based it off a little town along Lake Superior called Haviland Bay. When I dreamed the town up in my head, I gave it the likeliness of the area I lived in including the sub streets and Main Drive, but I expanded it to be more of a town then the one street existence that was Haviland Bay. I made sure it cupped the Lake, it’s people down to Earth, each with their own lives, their own secrets, just as the town was. But Pale Bay is unique. Hidden in plain clothes, mingling amongst the townspeople are a select group of three women and one man sent down from Olympus on the tails of three Gems, the Virtues of Life. They have spent centuries protecting them from the vengeful hands of Cronos, Zeus’ father. His plan, to use the powers of Life, Love, and Happiness to destroy mankind. However, the Gems have their own mission, and that is to find their pure soul mortal protectors.

Jann: In McBrides Gem, book one, you introduce Hawk McBride and Randi Ronin. What can you tell us about these two characters and the story.

Roxy: Randi Ronin was the first person to come alive in McBride’s Gem. I sat at my desk one day and was like…what if I had a woman who was strong, independent, determined to make her way in the world, but she was soft, caring, loving, and wore polka dot panties under her business suit? Boom! Randi Ronin came alive. Her hair is cut like Cleopatra’s and just as dark, her strength in the face of adversity is unbound, yet her sensitivity, her past pains are too close to the skin.

Hawk McBride was always a force to be reckoned with in my mind. He was tall, built, and strong, yet sarcastic with a flair for being a jokester. He has a

big heart that was damaged once before and even though he’s instantly attracted to Randi, he fights the feelings as much as he can. But fate intervene’s as these two forces join against something much bigger then themselves or their pasts…and that is the fate of mankind.

Jann: Did you have book two, Numb, and the Johnny Tanzer in mind while you were working on McBride’s Gem, or did it come later?

Roxy: It was kinda the other way around. Lizzie and Johnny’s story was written first. But I struggled with how to portray Lizzie’s relationship with her brother without it seeming taboo. Their unique connection as twins was a tricky one to write, not to mention the abilities they have when it comes to each other. Because of that, Numb tortured me for some time. I think I rewrote Lizzie and her brother, Lucas’ scenes at least four times to get it right. Not to mention adding in the Godly element I incorporated in McBride’s Gem. If Numb was now going to be number two and carry that secondary story line with perfection, I had lots of work to do. That being said, Numb was the first story I wrote after a close to five year hiatus, so my skills were a tad rusty. It took a good amount of work to polish it up to what it is today but I am super pleased with the outcome.

Jann: In book three, Second Time Sam, was it easier or harder to write? Which character did you have in mine first–Sam Doucet or Gabriella D’Angelo?

Roxy: Oh Lordy, Second Time Sam was by far the hardest. I think the reason it was was because of the story line I had played out in my mind for Sam and Gabby. Second chances at love after the loss of a loved one. I envisioned them much older, in their 50’s, but just couldn’t wrap my mind around how to make them fall in love fast. How could someone be with someone for 20-30 years, lose them, and fall in love again so quickly, especially for the rest of the story line to work? Sure, it’s been known to happen, but I felt in my heart these characters wouldn’t. So, I adjusted their ages which morphed Sam and Gabby’s characters altogether. That was when the magic happened. Bing, bam, boom. Their love to loss to love story flowed through the keys. I then incorporated my Olympian Gods and some mayhem and the puzzle pieced itself together.

Jann: You’re currently working on book four, Drago’s Destiny. Can you give us any hints on this story?

Roxy: Ohhh, Drago’s Destiny really excites me because not only is it the fourth in the series but it could be the first or the last. This story is Sci-Fi/Fantasy and tells how the Gods of Olympus ended up in Pale Bay, protecting mystical Gems, searching for pure soul mortals to, once and for all, rid the evils of Cronos from mankind. You find out the Sheriff of Pale Bay’s wife’s lineage. Denise Doucet, in her mortal form, but Gaea, Great Mother Earth in her Olympian.
For this story, I created a whole new world on a planet in a different solar system, NAN. NAN is as unique as they come, with a select group of people meant to oversee the lands above ground and below, at the helm one chosen at birth as NAN’s warrior and protector, Drago Darkiel. But their world is like any, diseases have devastated their soils until finally eradicated from the planet by horrific means. When a hint of the disease shows up in one of Drago’s relatives DNA, he risks everything to find the cure and save his family lineage. But the task will not be without its own dangers, or a woman he loved yet pushed away hot on his trail. What neither Drago nor Raechel know is just how important they are not only to the people of NAN but a planet they have yet to touch feet on.
In the final book in this series, Destiny’s Warrior, we go back to Pale Bay, to a warrior now full grown, the gifts of the gods at her fingertips, and an army created by the Virtues of Life and all that is good in man.

Jann: Thanks Roxy for opening the door into your writing world. Looking forward to the Drago’s Destiny.