Josie Jaffrey, author of Silververse Universe Is Here To Answer Your Questions!

One of my favorite Indie authors, Josie Jaffree is about to release Judgement Day, the second book in the Sovereign series following May Day. You can find my review of May Day here. To celebrate the cover reveal of Judgement Day, Josie agreed to an interview and answered some questions about the upcoming series. Find everything below!

About Judgement Day:

Vampires don't get happily ever afters.

Jack Valentine finally has her shit together. She has a great job, great friends (well, one at least), and a girlfriend whom she loves, even if she can't work up the courage to tell her that yet. Unfortunately, she also has an archnemesis who's about to punish her crimes in the worst possible way: by making her spend time with him.

Which she could cope with, maybe, if she didn't have problems at work as well. When the body of a human judge is found in a locked library, there's no denying that she was murdered by one of the Silver – by a vampire – and the evidence points worryingly close to home. If that wasn't bad enough, some of Jack's least favorite people are opening a new blood bar in Oxford with questionable motives. For Jack and her team, it's becoming increasingly hard to separate allies from enemies.

With conspiracies on every side, the simmering tensions in Silver society are about to come to a head. As usual, Jack intends to be right in the middle of it. She does like it when things get messy.

Judgement Day is the second book in Josie Jaffrey’s Seekers series, an urban fantasy series set in Oxford, England.

Draft chapters of Judgement Day are available now and exclusively to Josie's Patreon supporters. Sign up today to get your copy.

Interview With Josie

Q1. How do you come up with your characters?

I usually start with relationships and work backward from there. That is to say, I rarely come up with one character at a time. Instead, I think of a relationship dynamic I’d really like to include in the novel (whether a friendship, a rivalry, or a romance), then work out how I need to form the characters on either side of it in order to make that dynamic as crunchy and satisfying as possible.

Q2. Do you have a favorite character in the Sovereign series?

Definitely Cam. He’s just the best friend anyone could ever wish for. I feel for him so much at this point in his life. He’s broken at the start of this series, no longer the bouncing labrador puppy I have come to love, but the story is all about how he puts himself back together again, with a little help. He gets to be the hero for once, which is what he always deserved.

Q3. Do you find it draining when writing different types of scenes? How do you deal with this?

I find action scenes draining because they’re boring and hard to write, so I often end up leaving them until last. I will literally write the entire book, then come back and fill in the action sequences.

I also find sex scenes draining because they’re important. There’s so much that can go wrong with them. You have to get not only the action and emotion of them right, but you have to hit exactly the right tone. Because they’re often the culmination of a long romance thread in the types of multi-book series I write, if you mess up the sex scenes, you’ve lost your reader right there. I deal with that through many multiple redrafts, which is the draining bit!

Q4. How do the Seekers short stories fit into the chronology of the books?

There are three Seekers short stories so far: Killian’s Dead, Blood Brothers, and Blood Work. Killian’s Dead is about how Jack turned Silver, Blood Brothers is the story of how Alistair and Adewale met, and Blood Work is about Ed and Cam’s arrival in Oxford. They all take place before the start of May Day and can be read at any point, but I recommend reading Killian’s Dead first and Blood Brothers after Judgement Day. I have a full reading order on my website here: https://www.josiejaffrey.com/reading-order

Q5. What are some must-read titles in your genres?

There are so many books I love in my genres! Definitely Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer for fantasy, Kerrelyn Sparks’s Vamps and the City for paranormal romance, and Jodi Taylor’s St Mary’s series for historical. In the weird genre mishmash that is the Silverse (romance and fantasy with vampires and zombies), I would particularly recommend Gail Carriger’s Soulless and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies.