Dazzled by Books

After her mysterious disappearance, everyone thought that the six years old, Anne Marie Bordoleau, was one of the victims of the “animal” attacks that were terrorizing New Orleans. Only her big sister, Rose, thought otherwise, because of the terrible visions she had at night where Anne called her for help. Looking for Anne does not prove to be easy. There are secrets revealed, ancient prophecies, and legends.

It’s a dark world, where even angels can fall.

How can Rose save her sister from the evil, if her sister is the evil itself?

The Demon Child
By: Anila Hoxha
Series: The Cursed Necklace Series #1
Publisher: Self - Published
Release Date: February 17, 2013
Reviewed: eCopy




Today I am excited to welcome Anila Hoxha to my blog. Hoxha approached me about conducting an interview for her blog tour and I was excited to conduct my first blog tour interview. Little did Hoxha know that I had some interesting questions to ask, thankfully Hoxha attempted every questions with great answers. Without further ado here is Anila Hoxha.


Ali: Tell us a little bit about yourself in 50 words.

Anila Hoxha: I am Anila, and I come from Albania. I have passed my childhood there watching horror movies, creating tales and waiting for the Hogwarts acceptance letter. Now I am currently in Rome, Italy, and because of my health problems, I don’t go to school, but instead I write horror books.

A: What is your favorite part about writing?

AH: My favorite part is writing my characters thoughts. Especially my evil characters. That’s because writing the point of view of an evil character is very difficult, but tempting too. In my first book, “The Demon Child”, there are only two- three scenes where I write about what these characters think, and it makes you understand that they aren’t as evil as you thought. It’s just their fate. While in my second book, which I am currently working on, there are more scenes with evil characters and their thoughts.

A: What is your favorite writing snack?

AH: That’s a very interesting question. Usually I eat strawberries while writing. But my favorite snack ever is popcorn! 

A: How did you come up with the plot of “The Demon Child?”

AH: Well, I know it may sound weird, but I imagined my book as a film. I didn’t even thought to write it. I had just begun the chemotherapy, and because I didn’t feel very well, I couldn’t read or write. So instead, I stayed all day on the bed, imagining films. When my body started accepting the chemotherapy, and therefore I started having less disturbs, I began to write the story.

A: What was it like writing about sister characters? Did you pull from any experience?

AH: The sister characters were so fun to write. I have only a sister, who is older than me. And she studies in America, therefore I see her only during the summer. I knew perfectly how Rose felt when Anne wasn’t there. I think that the sister relationship was the most realistic thing I have ever written.

A: Tell us a little bit about Anne and Rose?

AH: Well Rose and Anne are half-sisters. Rose’s dad killed himself and unfortunately Rose saw the whole scene. Her mother had ran away with a French man long time ago, leaving Rose alone. Rose had always lived with her aunt, who later died with cancer. Rose is very closed, but she is very strong too. She is responsible and for Anne she is a guardian angel. Anne is the child of Rose’s mother and the French man. Anne and her mother had a car accident. Her mother died, but Anne was saved and she went to live with Rose. Anne is sweet little girl, very nice and funny. She is like a ray of sunshine.

A: What is the hardest part about being an author?

AH: Well, the hardest part for me is having a social life. Haha, but I am talking seriously. The fact is when I start a book, I am so excited. I start gathering information about legends and stuff. Anywhere I go, I have to talk about the book, go to library to find books of the same genre, search the Internet to find info about the cities where the story revolves. My excitement has gone so far, that I even look for streets where my characters house are, in Google Map. I also read the history, and I make connections between the past and the present. Sure ,this thing is fun for me, but not for the others. I talk non-stop about my book, and people are annoyed. My hardest part about being an author, is letting the book sometimes and focus on my life. I live in the world of my books, and I forget about people around me. Remember, family comes first!
A: Are you working on anything new besides the sequel to “The Demon Child?”

AH: I am very glad you asked this question. Besides the sequel, I am working on a trilogy. This time it doesn’t have vampires or demons, but it has witches and ghosts. The story takes place in England. This trilogy is pure horror with macabre, and is a lot more scarier than “The Cursed Necklace Series”. The first book’s title is “When the night falls”.

A: What can we expect from “The Cursed Necklace Series?”

AH: “The Cursed Necklace Series” are more than just horror, paranormal romance mixed with mythology stories. They will teach you something, show you something that makes you reflect about the life, the evil and the good. It shows you that everyone deserves a second chance to live, that we should never give up on something we care about. But of course, you can’t understand all these things with only the first book. I want to develop my writing style, making it better, but be careful, because the volumes will get darker and they will fit more and more in horror genre. But don’t worry, I don’t tend to write macabre just to scare you and then my job is done. I think horror is something more than just scaring people.

A: How did you come up with the idea that the necklace would be cursed?

AH: I don’t know why I have this addiction with necklaces. When I was little, I wanted to be the Scorpion Princess. Don’t even ask why I tend to push my weirdness in higher levels, but I think it was because of the film “The Scorpion King” I saw, and because of the fact my horoscope sign is scorpion. But whatever it was, I thought scorpions were cool. ( remembering that again, I don’t know how my parents could cope with my fantasy. But I was smart enough to never talk about that with them)

Anyway my alias used to have a necklace, where she had all her power. A necklace with power inside. Then I started to think, what if the necklace doesn’t have only power inside? What if it has even something else? A spirit, a demon, a vampire. Then I created my vampire like demon spirit.

A: Do you have any writing advice for potential writers?

AH: Dear writers, first of all I have to say that you are so cool, since you choose this career J . My advice would be “Don’t care about what people think, write what you want! And do it now! Don’t wait for people to change their opinion about you, because they never will! Believe me, I did! I was so ashamed to publish horror stories, I had to be diagnosed with cancer and to risk my life several times, to understand that I wanted to be a horror writer. Nobody can stop you, if you believe, and most importantly if you write and write! Writing is a passion, not a job. Even if it is your career, writing is still a passion. It is your way to escape sometimes from the monotony of your life. For me it was a way to escape from the fact I was a cancer patient. And when I finished my book, and I took a look around, I understood that I was curing the cancer, and that these twelve chemo-therapies had passed so fast, and so are going to pass the others.”



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