Describe your latest project.
For those who don't know the series, The Outlaw Demon Wails is a weird story about a modern-day witch solving crimes in a slightly skewed Cincinnati where humans openly rub shoulders with vampires, witches, werewolves, and pixies. For those already following Rachel's trials, it's when bad-boy Trent finally gets Rachel to do his dirty work and the pixy poo hits the fan. I've been working my way toward this book for four years, and I'm really excited to finally be sharing it.

What's the strangest or most interesting job you've ever had?
Hands down, the most interesting job I held before writing was the two summers I walked live-animal trap lines for a professor's research project, tagging and releasing chipmunks and mice. I never got bit, but I caught a weasel once. It scared the living daylights out of me, screaming when I picked up the trap. I had to pull the pins holding the trap together, then beat it with a stick to get it to fall apart. No weasels were harmed in the production of this comedy.

Writers are better liars than other people: true or false? Why, or not?
Are writers better liars than other people? Of course not, and if you believe that... Personally, I'm a lousy liar. I always give myself away. It's embarrassing, and I haven't done it since third grade. Lies of compassion I can manage, but the "I don't know who broke the glass" or "I swear, the manuscript was in the mail last week!" always make me start to laugh.

How do you relax?
I don't know how it happened, but somehow I turned into one of those people who relaxes with accomplishing something else. Like building a landscaping wall, or hanging curtains. Don't get me started on my closets. I have some beautiful shelving units now. I think it comes from my work being so long-term-goal oriented that I need the satisfaction of some quick-gratification. Shelves in a closet work admirably. Baking works, too. But to be honest, nothing works better than sitting on my back porch with a glass of something warm in my hands.

What is your astrological sign?
I'm a Leo. More of a laid-back, satisfied lioness, licking her lips and surveying the savanna. I'm a pretty happy kitty most times, but the claws come out when they need to, and the people who know me well have heard me roar, and the people who don't are occasionally surprised.

Describe the best breakfast of your life.
Uh, that would be cold toast, half eaten and forgotten because of an idea that pulled me from the breakfast table and to the keyboard. I still eat it occasionally.

Why do you write?
I write because I want to know what comes next. I write because I want to see how characters change from experience, and how they can remain exactly the same. I write because if I don't, I'll never remember it. I write because it makes me feel good. I write because it's a challenge to find the way get my idea across to the military guy, the mom juggling two jobs, and the person out on their own for the first time — using the exact same words. That's why I write.

Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin?
All three within my experience, but you can put me down as a Fahrenheit gal.

Talk about your vision of the ideal life.
Getting up, easing into work with a cup of caffeine, taking a break when the words falter, being absorbed so deeply that you don't remember the conversation you had thirty seconds ago, coming up for air when the sun goes down, easing back into real life with someone who will repeat the conversation you don't remember and still love you. Oh wait, I've got that already. ;-)

Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise.

Five distinctively different urban fantasy books that I've recently read and enjoyed.

1) Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson — Urban fantasy highlighting not witches or vamps, but superheroes.

2) Stray by Rachel Vincent — Urban fantasy focusing on werecats.

3) Seraphs by Faith Hunter — Urban fantasy after the apocalypse. Highly unique reading.

4) Blood Engines by T. A. Pratt — Urban fantasy with several intriguing magic systems.

5) Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake — I don't think this one is out yet, but I'd never seen a jet-setting vamp before, and I loved it.

÷ ÷ ÷

Born and raised in Tornado Alley, Kim Harrison now resides in more sultry climes. The New York Times-bestselling author of Dead Witch Walking, The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, Every Which Way but Dead, A Fistful of Charms, and For a Few Demons More, she haunts the stores for leather boots and good music, and is hard at work on the next novel of the Hollows.