I’m excited to have author Cathy Yardley visit us today to talk about her new paranormal romance release, Temping is Hell (available this month from Entangled Publishing). Cathy is introducing her fun and fearless heroine, Kate O’Hara and is also giving away an ecopy of Temping is Hell to one lucky winner.
“Meet Kate O’Hara, and the world of Temping Is Hell”
by Cathy Yardley
Kate O’Hara is the heroine of my latest novel, Temping is Hell. She’s a twenty-nine year old office worker – a “temp” at Fiendish Enterprises.
I spent about ten years of my life temping and working as an admin assistant, before I started writing full time. I pitched this book as “Buffy meets The Office,” because it has a woman who starts off as ordinary, not kick-ass in the slightest, and then we get to watch her step into her own (with plenty of funny quips and adventures along the way.)
What I love about Kate is that she has no filter. She works in the corporate world, but she’s not corporate at all. She says whatever is on her mind – generally stuff I would’ve loved to have said when I was punching the clock over in Cubeville! – and she does whatever she thinks is best to get the job done. She’d probably say “I’m not evil: I’m just an aggressive problem solver.”
Kate is also a very loyal friend. Her best friend, Prue, is a barista and Tarot reader at a metaphysical bookstore/café. Prue is also the granddaughter of a voodoo priestess, and the daughter of an onimyoji, or Japanese “demon-wrangler.” Prue and Kate have some hiccups as Kate gets in over her head at her new job, but at the end of the day, Kate trusts that Prue will have her back.
Kate believes in doing what’s right. Unfortunately, a lot of what happens to her is a direct result of her trying to “do the right thing.” Her brother Tim often uses the analogy that if her family was locked out of a building, Kate’s solution is usually more like “driving through the front door.” (He’s exaggerating – barely.)
That said, Kate believes in second chances, and she believes in people. I found this great quote when I was writing this book: “Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.” Kate’s got a past – and I think watching her find her future is going to be a lot of fun.
A few random facts about Cathy Yardley:
She is a fiction addict.
She loves J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Jim Butcher, J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, Stephen King, Jennifer Crusie, Marian Keyes, J.K. Rowling, and a slew of other authors.
She has been known to stay up all night to finish a new novel. She doesn’t so much read as devour.
She is an out of the closet foodie.
People who follow her on Facebook can attest: She is a foodie-blog whore. Love Smitten Kitchen. Adore Pioneer Woman Cooks. Bakes her own bread on a weekly basis (because the recipe is so frickin’ easy, a chimp could do it — and it tastes phenomenal. She is a walking infomercial for this bread. ) Total Top Chef freak.
She is a geekgirl.
She loves the San Diego Comic-con, or “The Con” as they call it.
She was part of the SCA — The Society for Creative Anachronism — and briefly sponsored her own mini army. She learned to speak some Japanese from anime.
She has a near encyclopedic knowledge of character actors and obscure movies. I have been called to settle bar bets.
She has a more-flirtatious-than-appropriate relationship with Excel spreadsheets. When she used to work at a day job, if she wore lipstick they assumed she was going on an interview. To this day, an entire marketing department lives in fear of her memory.
She loves being an author.
Love writing. Love promoting. Love everything about it. And she loves hearing from readers. Email her, anytime, and she’ll get back to you as soon as she can.
WORST. JOB. EVER.
Kate O’Hara can’t wait until this temp assignment is over. The woman who hired her is a psychotic pageant queen, her coworkers are convicts-turned-clerks, and it’s so boringly corporate it makes her skin crawl. Even her sexy-as-sin boss, famed billionaire Thomas Kestrel, isn’t enticement enough to keep her there. Once she makes enough to pay off her bills, she’s out. Or so she thinks…
WHAT THE HELL?
Next thing she knows, she’s accidentally signed over her soul. Literally. And she’s discovered Thomas’s real mission: to kill thirteen bad guys in one year, in order to get his—now his and Kate’s—souls back.
IT’S NOT JUST A JOB. IT’S A MISADVENTURE.
From learning to boost the morale of some paper-pushing demons to navigating her way through blood-red tape, Kate has to work closely with her super-hot supervisor and get her flaky act together, before somebody clocks her out—p permanently!
thanks for the fantastic post and giveaway! I’ve read such great buzz for this book, I’m dying to read it!!! But I can’t find it anywhere!!! Hopefully it comes up soon to order 🙂 Ummm… my nightmare job is anything that deals with customer service like a department store clerk. People are so rude and feel so entitled, there’s no working with them!
My nightmare job would be a housekeeper. I have five sons and a hubby and lets say I hate cleaning pee off the floor. Since I do this dailey I wouldn’t want to do it professionally.
My nightmare job is being a security guard.
My nightmare job would be working in a funeral home. It would be so depressing and I couldnt do that. Thanks for the giveaway.
My nightmare job would be a housekeeper. Thanks for the giveaway.
Thanks for sharing!! My nightmare job would be to have to work where there is dead people or stuffed animals. That is two things that really freak me out.
I think the worst job I ever had was working returns at a major chain store warehouse. You would not believe the things people want to return (including a church returning a lawn mower at the end of summer because it was “un-needed”.
This book sounds great. Can’t wait to read it!
Anything involving blood.
My nightmare job would be cleaning up at murder scenes.
Kate is so easy to relate to! Who hasn’t dreamed of chucking the “corporate-correct filter” out a window? 😀
surgeon, cant stand the idea of seeing everything inside someone.
A nightmare job that I’ve actually done? Working in a junior college for a woman who was scared to approach the rest of the staff, so she gave EVERYTHING TO ME while the rest talked all shift. I complained, they gave me a 10 cent raise so I quit.
Nightmare job, self employeed cause I had to dealt with one that I was sexual harassed by (sorry no go… )
Thanks for sharing the great interview and post