Advance Booking

I would like to welcome Chloe Neill, author of the popular Chicagoland Vampire series, starring Merit, a powerful vampire who is initiated into the controversial Cadogan House. Thanks Chloe, for taking the time to answer my questions!


Hazra: Can you tell us about Firespell, the first book in the Dark Elite series?

Chloe: Absolutely! FIRESPELL introduces us to sixteen-year-old Lily Parker, who's thrown into a world of magic and evil that lurks in the secret underground tunnels of Chicago.

Hazra: How did the idea for Firespell come to you?

Chloe: I actually got the idea over lunch one day! I thought it would be interesting to explore a world in which a person's magic is only temporary, which is true for the Dark Elite.

Hazra: That seems like a really unique take! Who is your favorite character among all the books you have written?

Chloe: I really love Merit, since she's my first published heroine, but Scout from my Dark Elite series is also a favorite.

Hazra: How do you incorporate writing in your daily schedule?

Chloe: I have a day job, so I try to follow a daily word-count requirement. More writing on the weekends, less if I'm editing other projects.

Hazra: You are quite a voracious reader. What are the best books you have read in the past year?

Chloe: I'd say I used to be a voracious reader, but I haven't had much time lately. I always read the new J.D. Robb In Death book. I also read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer was outstanding.

Hazra: The Road has been on my wishlist for so long! Which authors have you been inspired by?

Chloe: I love the attention to detail in Stephanie Laurens' Cynster novels, especially Devil's Bride. They're one of my favorite romance series.

Hazra: What is the best thing about being an author?

Chloe: Having a reader tell you that they for the few hours they were reading your novel, they weren't thinking about work or the dishes or the bills.

Hazra: That is truly the best thing an author can hear! Tell us something about your upcoming projects.

Chloe: I'm currently finishing up the edits for TWICE BITTEN, the third book in my Chicagoland Vampires series, and writing HEXBOUND, the second book in my Dark Elite series. I have two additional series in mind, but no time to work on them. :)

Hazra: Finally, if you could organize a dinner with five of your favorite fictional characters, who would they be?

Chloe: Hmmm. How about Claire Fraser, Eve Dallas, Merit, Mallory and Buffy. All strong, brilliant women. :)

Thanks Chloe, for your wonderful replies. You can learn more about Chloe by visiting her website.

When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.
The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster. Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet...

Firespell is the first book in Chloe Neill's Dark Elite series.