Michelle Griep's "Undercurrent"

Title: Undercurrent
Publisher: Risen Books


Cover blurb: People go missing every day. Many meet with foul play, some leave the social grid by choice, but others are never accounted for. Such is the fate of successful linguistics professor Cassie Larson. She leads a life her undergrad students hope to attain, until she tumbles into the North Sea and is sucked into a swirling vortex…and a different century.
     Alarik, son of a Viking chieftain, is blamed for a murder he didn’t commit—or did he? He can’t remember. On the run, saving a half-drowned foreign woman wasn’t in his plans.
     Ragnar is a converted pagan shunned by many but determined to prove his Cousin Alarik’s innocence. He didn’t count on falling in love with Cassie or the deadly presence of evil that threatens his village in Alarik’s absence.

1) How did this story come to you?
There’s an old family story my mom told me about her mom, Clara Brekke. Sometime back in the early 1900’s, Clara’s father took her two-year-old sister and walked out the front door. Just like that. No bags packed. Not a word about where they were going or when they’d return. Nothing. No one ever heard from them again. As a result, I’ve always been curious about missing people. Assuming they’ve not met with foul play, where exactly do they go?

2) Tell us about the journey to getting this book published.
This book started out with an agent, who pitched it to 3 or 4 CBA houses, all of which turned it down. Vikings don’t fit too neatly into the sweet and/or fluffy category and were a little too raw for most. So I pitched it myself to indie publishers and was picked up.

3) Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.
I can dance a mean polka. I hate fruit. I’m a recovering Trekkie.

4) What are you working on now and what's next for you?
I started a Viking sequel but what might very well be next is a historical that I recently finished. It’s a pre-Regency (Georgian for history buffs) about an opium addict and a fella who’s going insane.

5) Parting comments?
Go for the dark chocolate. It’s healthier.

6) Where can fans find you on the internet?
http://www.mmgriep.com/