- To create the character Connell Kurēn did you have a chance to interview any paparazzi?
I confess, I didn’t interview any press photographers or paparazzi. Instead, I searched for articles about the paparazzi and about the challenges they face and their reputation. I’ve only run into a paparazzo once, in New York City, when I was meeting a friend who is a retired actor. It was a bit of a spooky experience because I wasn’t expecting this guy with a camera to appear out of nowhere!
- Connell Kurēn is an unusual name. How did you come up with it? Where is he from? How old is he? What led him to such an unpopular profession?
It’s fun planting meaning in names. I chose Rowan and Connell because they are both Celtic names and they appealed to me. As with Idris and Cadi/Catrin (which are Welsh), I’ve pair the names of bond mates to a nationality. Kurēn means crane in Korean, and as Connell transforms into a birdlike creature, I thought that would be a very appropriate name for him.
- Your character Rowan Bren suffers from PTSD, I love when a book opens awareness through fiction in a way that can help readers be aware. How and why did you choose PTSD?
Post Traumatic Stress is something that’s in the news and our social awareness a lot these days and it seemed an appropriate disorder for Rowan to suffer, considering the trauma she deals with in Perfect Pitch.
- Los Angeles is like New York one of those cities that we all love to visit and feel as part of the experience, Did you use a map of L.A. to help the characters navigate the city ?
Yes, I did use a map, but also relied on my memories of the L.A. area and California in general. I spent my teenage in Northern California and I have many fond memories. It’s always a treat to go back there.
- Siren Song is the third in Chameleon effects. Can they be read as stand-alone or do we need to get to know the characters from one book to another?
I’ve tried to provide enough backstory that each book can be read independently, but to get the most enjoyment out of the stories, they should be read in order.
- I see that you live in Guanajuato. Have the Mummies there inspired any of your stories?
The Mummies haven’t inspired me, yet, but you never know, there might be such a book in my future!
There are some beautiful old buildings in this area of Mexico, including the ex-hacienda where I live. In this hacienda, there are underground passages connecting the ex-hacienda with the church, granary and mill. The passages still exist, but as far as we can tell, they’re blocked. We have not attempted to explore them, other than to look down a hole where the first arch is visible. Also, in a town close by, stands a convent that is magnificent (built by the same Catholic priests who built our hacienda). It’s constructed like a fortress with amazing flying buttresses and beautiful inner courtyards. Definitely a place to get inspired and would make an amazing setting for a Gothic novel.
On the topic of setting books in Mexico, I do have a planned trilogy that is partly set in an old hacienda with underground passageways. (You can probably guess where that idea came from!) The hacienda in the story is actually a hybrid of two different haciendas, as I needed aspects of both in the plot. It was great fun creating this imaginary place, and I can’t wait to spend more time there.
Siren Song
Alex Hayes
(The Chameleon Effect #3)
Publication date: October 15th 2019
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult
Connell Kurēn doesn’t love being a paparazzo…
He’s a member of the most scorned profession in Hollywood, but he’s good at it, and a hard-ass to boot.
He might also be called an ambulance chaser, though not for the disreputable reason he chases celebrities. Connell has the ability to heal, and at the sound of a siren, he is drawn to those in need.
Life is just fine until his pushy paparazzi nature almost gets someone killed.
Rowan Bren suffers post-traumatic stress and a permanent headache following a near-death experience at the hands of her mortal enemy. After months, she still isn’t right, but she won’t be held back from seeking her bond mate, Con, any longer.
She travels to Los Angeles motivated to help her friend, Idris, with his brilliant plan to locate their missing people. But Rowan’s top priority in the City of Angels is to find Con. She doesn’t know where he lives, but she’s not worried, because her crystal will lead her straight to him.
When she trips into his world, she finds a man so different from the person she expects, she fears he might not be Con at all. That he might be possessed by an evil force like the one that almost killed her.
Siren Song is the third novel of the Chameleon Effect series.
Author Bio:
Alex Hayes wrote her first fiction story when she was twelve. Inspired by her mother’s storytelling, she began work on her first novel, Ice Cracks, at eighteen.
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. In her twenties, she moved from Marin County, California to Boston, Massachusetts, where she built a career as an IT professional in database engineering. In 2004, she self-published Ice Cracks, which became a semi-finalist in the 2005 IPPY Awards.
Alex splits her time between Grand Junction, Colorado and Guanajuato, Mexico. When she isn’t writing, she’s helping her partner, Lee, renovate a 450 year old hacienda. She is mother to one beautiful daughter and many wonderful cats.
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