Come join us as we explore the Frenchman Street novel….

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

F is for Faeries (in particular Florian, the Faerie Prince of Summer, who is determined to kick off a preternatural/human world war by taking over New Orleans’ Mardi Gras).

R is for Rene (a Cajun merman, or aquatic shapeshifter, who has taken on the dubious honor of being heroine DJ’s best friend, which means he gets shot and stabbed a lot—but he can shift into a dolphin).

E is for Elves (including Quince Randolph, the prettiest elf on the planet and the bane of heroine DJ’s existence, never mind their pseudo-marriage-in-name-only).

N is for naked (as in, why does DJ wake up naked in a bathtub filled with ice, and why does Quince Randolph get naked in the Orleans Parish Prison)?

C is for Corgis (as in Welsh Pembroke Corgis, who make up the Royal Canine Guard of Elfheim, which means they have some magic of their own).

H is for High (which is what DJ gets when the healer of Elfheim pays her a visit and offers up some special “medicine”).

M is for Mardi Gras (which is the biggest party on earth, and also the setting for the novel, as faeries infiltrate all the Mardi Gras parades).

A is for Aretha (the faery-glamoured version of Aretha Franklin who, unbeknownst to the real Aretha, is singing in the Krewe of Muses’ parade). 

N is for New Orleans (where all the good times roll throughout this series). 

Tell us a little about the series?

The Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series explores what happened when Hurricane Katrina broke the veil between the human and preternatural worlds and flooded the the city with Bigs, Bads, and Plain Old Weirds. It’s told from the point of view of a young wizard, DJ Jaco, who is a junior-level sentinel, or border guard. As the series progresses, the wizards, elves, vampires, shifters, faeries and historical undead figures like French pirate Jean Lafitte get into stickier relationships, with DJ (who is part elf, she learns) right in the middle. The series has a little romance, a lot of humor, and, well, a lot of explosions. 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

A half-dozen vampires stood in the churning surf of the Gulf of Mexico, moonlight reflecting off their bared fangs.

I blinked at them a hot second before yelling as loud as I could: “Vamps incoming!”

My voice didn’t carry well on this dark beach, but I was doing transport guard duty alone and I knew that, wherever they were on this godforsaken barrier island off the coast of Louisiana in the 1814 version of the otherworld, my shifter friends would hear me.

I pulled my elven fire staff from its holster, ready to incinerate the first vamp to come ashore.

Except none of them moved.

Please share a few FUN facts about this book:

In each of the previous books in the series, we learned a bit more about one of the major kinds of species (wizards, historical undead, vampires, elves, faeries) inhabiting the otherworld. In this book, we get to see them all interacting as they descend on Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which is kind of a madhouse anyway. 

• The undead pirate Jean Lafitte is a plant in the mayor’s tourism office to spy on the planning. 
• Faeries, who can glamour themselves to look like celebrities, are riding on parade floats (think of a faery prince disguised as George Clooney, riding a unicorn…a real one). 
• The elves have enlisted their fleet of dragons as part of parade security—and the dragons have their own unique skills. 
• There might be a couple of cases of spontaneous combustion….

 

Was there a scene in this book that was harder to write than others?

Definitely. To avoid spoilers, let me just say that a character important to the series dies in a way that was neither intentional nor quick. It was slow and brutal and had me in tears when I wrote it. Once it made me cry, I knew I had gotten it right. 

With Frenchman Street being the final book in the Sentinels of New Orleans series, what do you want people to take away from reading this book?

Maybe a sense of the fun and chaos and heart and soul that are New Orleans. I began this series as a New Orleanian myself not long after Katrina, and the whole series is a love letter to the city I’ll always consider my home no matter where I live. I want people to finish this series with a desire to experience NOLA for themselves! (And while this is the last book in the particular story arc, the characters live in a huge multiverse, so I do plan future books that will spin off the series. A Fae Hunters novella series has already begun.)

Last, what are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned? What is next for you?

I’m working on the first book of a new shifter series, Daughters of the Morrigan, that is set in the mountains of North Georgia. It’s a different take on shifters, and I’m really excited about it! I have a second Fae Hunters novella planned for later this year, and am beginning work on the third book in my Wilds of the Bayou suspense series (written under the name Susannah Sandlin). 

 

Frenchman Street
Sentinels of New Orleans 
Book Six
Suzanne Johnson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Suzanne Johnson
Date of Publication:  July 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9968220-4-6
Number of pages: 352
Word Count: approx. 99,250
Cover Artist: Robin Ludwig Design Inc.

Book Description:

The uneasy truce between the preternatural species of New Orleans has shattered, with wizards and elves, shifters and vampires—not to mention the historical undead—struggling for ultimate control of the city, including the humans who still think they’re atop the food chain.

They aren’t, however—and the Summer Prince of Faerie wants them to know it.

Stuck in the middle? One unemployed wizard sentinel. For DJ Jaco, war makes for strange bedfellows as she finally embraces her wizard-elven heritage and strikes a deal with the devil so she and her ragtag band of allies can return to defend her hometown. After all, when the undead French pirate Jean Lafitte is the mayor’s newest consultant, things could go horribly wrong.

War is coming to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras, with the elves and wizards lined up on opposite sides, the shifters with a new leader, the vampires promising loyalty to the highest bidder, and the soul of the Crescent City resting on the outcome of the civil war going on in Faerie between the rival princes of summer and winter.

Mardi Gras Day is approaching fast, and the line between friends and enemies grows thin as DJ tries to stave off open warfare on the St. Charles Avenue parade route.

Laissez les bons temps rouler…but be careful, or the good times might roll too close for comfort.

Amazon

 

[su_note note_color=”#f6e7f1″ text_color=”#000000″]I turned to glare at the unicorn. It was hanging around for some reason.

“Can you talk? If not, what are you waiting for?” I made a shooing motion. “Go home to your whack-job master.”

Because we needed to find out how it got to our remote beach in the Beyond.

“I’ll find a rope—maybe we can make a halter,” Rene said, walking toward the house.

Jean also seemed to have had his fill of unicorn wrangling. “Bah. I shall depart for Old Orleans, Drusilla. There are people with whom I must discuss matters of import, and perhaps I might discover the truth about Christof.”

Fine. Leave me with the merman and the unicorn.

He turned and walked into the transport, disappearing in seconds. He hadn’t removed his boots, but he had held his pistol out of the water. The pirate had his priorities straight.

“Here is my message.”

I whirled to look at the unicorn, who was now doing his best Mr. Ed impression.

“I knew it.” That freaking unicorn could talk; he’d been waiting to get me alone.

I held up the elven staff, and the unicorn had the good sense to back up a couple of steps. I slipped my left hand into my jeans pocket, fingering a couple of potions I’d cooked up in this rustic paradise using a generator-powered hot plate and my own blood. My physical magic wouldn’t work outside the human world, but my potions and charms were fine. The staff worked everywhere.

“Okay, start talking, horse.”

The unicorn managed to look offended. “Here is my message,” he repeated. “His Royal Majesty Florian will be crowned King of Faerie and of All Species of Earth and Beyond in two weeks. You are—”

“Wait.” I shook the staff at him, and sparks flew out its tip. “What do you mean, ‘King of Faerie and of All Species of Earth and Beyond’?”

What in the name of Merlin was that madman up to?

The unicorn tossed his head and looked even grumpier. “Here is my message,” he repeated for the third time. “His Royal Majesty Florian will be crowned King of Faerie and of All Species of Earth and Beyond in two weeks. You are invited to attend and pledge fealty at his coronation in New Orleans at the apex of the celebration the humans call Mardi Gras. Should you die before the appointed time, this invitation may be considered null and void.”

And with that, the unicorn turned, took a big, steaming dump on the sand near my feet, and made to trot back down the beach from whence he came. I flipped the lid off one of the charms in my pocket, chased him down the beach, and tossed it on him. I only hit his tail, which, considering it was a freezing charm, only made said tail freeze at a ninety-degree angle.

“Stop, unicorn, or I’ll toast your rump like a potroast!” I yelled, aiming the staff. I sent a warning zap of fire onto his rump. My aim had improved a lot in months since I’d blown up my own SUV and burned down half of Six Flags New Orleans. I’d had lots of time to practice.

Unfortunately, the shot only made the unicorn fly into a gallop. I had no choice but to run after him and hope I could keep him in sight by moonlight.[/su_note]

 

[su_note note_color=”#e2e9eb” text_color=”#000000″]On Aug. 28, 2005, Suzanne Johnson loaded two dogs, a cat, a friend, and her mom into a car and fled New Orleans in the hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Four years later, she began weaving her experiences and love for her city into the  Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, beginning with Royal Street (2012), of which Frenchman Street is the sixth and final book in the story arc. She also has written Pirateship Down and The Consort, both set in the Sentinels world, and the standalone Christmas in Dogtown.

She grew up in rural Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’ birthplace, and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years, which means she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.

She can be found online at her website or her blog.

As Susannah Sandlin, she writes multiple award-winning paranormal romance and romantic suspense, including The Penton Vampire Legacy paranormal romance, suspense duology The Collectors, romantic suspense series, the Wilds of the Bayou romantic suspense series, and the standalones Storm Force and Chenoire.

Suzanne currently lives in Auburn, Alabama, where she works as a full-time author and copyeditor.

Website – Blog – Twitter – Facebook – Goodreads [/su_note]

 

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