Claire Davon is another of my sisters at Broad Universe, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror and other speculative genres.

Claire can’t remember a time when writing wasn’t part of her life. A native of Massachusetts and cold weather, she left all that behind to move to the sun and fun of California, but has always lived no more than twenty miles from the ocean. Claire has many book-irons in the fire, most notably her urban fantasy series, The Elementals’ Challenge series, but writes contemporary and shifter romances. In addition to writing, she enjoys animal rescue, reading, and movies. You can follow her work at http://clairedavon.com/blog/.

We sat down to chat about her novel, Shifting Auras.

Maya Wingfield was raised to trust no one—least of all the dueling U.S. and Russian paranormal agencies, Universe and Night Stars, who’d love to harness her mind-reading gift.

She thought Richmond a safe place to escape their influence and hide from a rising psychic malevolence that drove her out of San Diego. But when she gets yet another call to retrieve her drunken roommate, her mind shows her an amber-eyed Universe operative with an impenetrable net around his deepest secret—and a voice that sends shock waves of awareness down her nerve endings.

Maya’s curves and aquamarine eyes aren’t the only things that jolt Ian Sanderson’s mental shields, bringing sexual tension thrumming back to life. It’s a power his Universe-trained mind knows he shouldn’t trust. And a vulnerability that makes his telekinetic power burn in his palms to protect her.

But to Universe, she is just one of too many unanswered questions. A target for Whisper, a shadowy new group of paranormals with powers beyond anything Universe has ever seen. Once before, Ian failed to protect a sensitive from a brain-scrambling attack. He will not fail again… if it means using his talent—or his body—to stop a bullet.

Did something in the real world inspire Shifting Auras?

I describe my book as X-men meets paranormal romance, so there wasn’t anything real world that inspired it. It evolved in part from a dream I’d had a long time ago, but took on a mind of its own as soon as I started writing it. I didn’t expect it to evolve the way it did, but I’m quite happy about that!

What is your favorite scene in the book?

There’s a fight scene toward the end where all of my characters have to use their various talents against their enemy, who has the power to dazzle all of them and bend them to his will. I had to write about psychic ability, invisibility, telekinesis, and weather powers—all within the same scene—while they fought against the dazzler. The challenge about writing a story/series like this is finding new and interesting powers for my characters while staying within the familiar. It was also an opportunity to show how much my heroine, the psychic/sensitive, has grown. She is instrumental in stopping the bad guy, something she couldn’t have imagined at the beginning of the book.

What was your writing process like as you wrote Shifting Auras?

My writing process is the same for most anything I write — that is to say, I slog through. I have a set number of words I write every day and I do that no matter what. In addition, I often edit and/or have another project I am working on at the same time, but I always get my words every day. I’m very much a pantser, so often times the story will take a left turn as I’m going. In the case of Shifting Auras, I actually added a major element to it after I finished it, because the feedback I’d gotten suggested that my world-building wasn’t strong enough. Turns out, that new element took the entire series to a different level.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Soul Mate Publishing, my publisher, is very supportive of their writers, so I would have to say the community around the publisher and the various ways that the writers and staff give you unexpected opportunities to promote your book.

What do you have planned next?

I have a few irons in the fire. Right now, the second book in the Universe Chronicles series—following a different set of characters than Shifting Auras, but also showing the prior couple—is at the publisher for consideration. I also have a different series that I am self-publishing (Elementals’ Challenge) and am working on edits for the fourth book. In addition, I have some short stories being released by Weird Reader, Transmundane Press, and Fantasia Divinity in the next month or so.

Get a copy of Shifting Auras for yourself from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LcMsyB.

You can see all of Claire’s book on her Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2UwSRsi.