Blog Tour, Guest Post, & Giveaway: Sins of The Lost (Linda Poitevin)

From the author of Sins of the Angels and Sins of the Son comes the newest novel in the “electric, thrilling and extremely intelligent” (Ex Libris) Grigori Legacy series.
Heaven and Hell are on the brink of war as Lucifer builds his Nephilim army and waits for his new agenda to become a reality — that of having a Nephilimchild of his own bloodline to lead his forces to cataclysmic victory.
With rumors of the pending war rampant on Earth, Alex fights to save humanity from its own panic –­ leaving little time for her fledglingrelationship with Seth, the man with heavenly origins who has captured her heart. But when Nephilim children begin to disappear, along with Alex’s own vulnerable niece, the inevitable war between Heaven and Hell becomes as personal as sin.
Heaven has its own plans to fight the coming apocalypse, but first it needs Seth back. Asked to betray the man she loves, Alex must turn for help to the soulmate she thought she’d given up — the Archangel Aramael, who may be her last chance to save her family and humanity from the ashes of Lucifer’s Armageddon.

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Linda Poitevin was born and raised in B.C., Canada’s westernmost province. Growing up in an era when writing was “a nice hobby, dear, but what are you going to do for a living?”, Linda worked at a variety of secretarial jobs before applying to be a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Due to an error in measurement, however, she was turned down when she didn’t meet the height requirement of that time. Undeterred, Linda became a civilian member in the force and was a dispatcher for two and a half years, during which time she met her husband, a police officer.
Following their transfer to Ottawa, Linda went on to become a real estate agent and then a human resources consultant before starting a family. She remained a stay-at-home mom, homeschooled her youngest daughter for nine years and, now that she has realized writing can be more than a nice hobby, she continues to live her dream of being a cop vicariously through her characters.
Linda currently lives near Ottawa with her husband, youngest of three daughters, one very large husky/shepherd/Great Dane-cross dog, two cats, a rabbit, and a bearded dragon lizard. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found in her garden or walking her dog along the river or through the woods.

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Which Came First: the Title or the Novel?

I don’t know if this is true of other writers (I’m sure it must be for at least some!), but I cannot begin writing a story if I don’t have a title for it. A title gives me a place to start, almost as if it provides the initial framework...or at least a foundation. It keeps me focused, too, encompassing the heart of a story in a few strong, enduring words.

And then you have to change it.

Sigh.

That’s exactly what happened with the first book in the Grigori Legacy series. I’d entitled it The Tenth Choir, which in my mind, encompassed the underlying mythology of the book...in particular, the choir of angels known as the Grigori. My agent, however, disagreed. She found the title too generic and bland, pointing out (rightfully so, in retrospect) that it really didn’t give any indication of what the book might be about—and she wanted a new title for it before we submitted. So...back to the drawing board I went.

Much muttering and gnashing of teeth later, I came up with Sins of an Angel. This survived until the book sold to Penguin, when my editor felt the title was a little too romance-y and asked me for other ideas. Cue return to muttering and gnashing. I spent hours trying to come up with something entirely different, but I didn’t like anything...and I really, really liked the name, damn it! Finally, the proverbial lightbulb went off...by pluralizing Angels, we removed the emphasis from the story’s hero and placed it back on angels in general, putting the title squarely back into urban fantasy waters. As a bonus, I figured we could continue the Sins theme across the books that followed. I pitched the idea of Sins of the Angels to my editor, followed by Sins of the Son... and (hallelujah!) she agreed.

And then we moved on to series title. Argh.

I’m sure I must have come up with (and discarded) a hundred different ideas before I hit on the Grigori Legacy (and yes, it required more muttering, etc....are you beginning to see a common theme here?). I wanted something that spoke to the angel theme, but it also had to be original...and given the number of series out there these days, that was not an easy task. My editor and agent both loved the Grigori idea, however, and my teeth were saved.

And then I started work on book 3.

The working title for that was Sins of the Righteous, which I frankly thought was a perfectly good title...or at least, I wanted to believe so, because I was getting really, really tired of muttering and teeth-gnashing. In my heart of hearts, however, I doubted...and my agent confirmed my doubts when we began contract negotiations. “Too religious,” she said—and if I remember correctly, she may have added “pompous.” Ouch.

I resorted to sitting down with a thesaurus and combing through every possible noun that might relate to the story and—long story short-ish—eventually came up with Sins of the Lost, which is the latest release (yay!) in the Grigori Legacy series.

I’m working on the fourth and final book now. It seems I still need that foundation provided by a title, and so this one is called Sins of the Warrior. For now, anyway. Although I really, really like that one...and I’d really, really like to have it survive. I’ve just learned not to hold my breath. And to take care of what’s left of my teeth. ;-)

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