Category Archives: Author Interviews

For We Are Many by William Becker #giveaway

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For We Are Many by William Becker ~ Genre: Dark Contemporary

The beauty of being able to finally let go is something that Robert has craved for a very long time. Just days after his birthday, he prepares to embrace nothing.

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William Becker is a young horror author with a mind for weirder sides of the universe. With an emphasis on complex and layered storylines that tug harshly on the reader to search for deeper meanings in the vein of Silent Hill and David Lynch, Becker is a force to be reckoned within the horror world. His works are constantly unfathomable, throwing terror into places never before seen, while also providing compelling storylines that transcend the predictable jump scares of the popular modern horror.

His first novel, WEEPING OF THE CAVERNS, was written when he was 14. After eight months of writing, editing, and revising, the story arrived soon after his 15th birthday. During the writing sessions for his debut novel, he also wrote an ultra-controversial short story known as THE WHITE SHADE that focused on the horrors of a shooting. Living in a modern climate, it was impossible for THE WHITE SHADE to see the light of day. Following a psychedelic stint that consisted of bingeing David Lynch movies, weird art, and considering the depth of the allegory of the cave wall, he returned to writing with a second story, THE BLACK BOX, and soon after, his second novel, GREY SKIES.

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Would you like a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Q: It’s not hard to figure out from reading the first few pages or even the description of your newest story, For We Are Many, that it’s a pretty heavy piece about mental health. How does mental health impact your art? How do you incorporate into your stories?

A: I’d be lying deeply if I said that ideas about mental health had nothing to do with my work. For We Are Many is a very blunt and personal piece about suicide, abandonment, and depression. I tried really hard to get this aimless and hopeless angle into the story. A lot of the feelings of being suicidal are captured pretty well, in my opinion. I’ve struggled to a large degree with depression and I’ve been in therapy before. For We Are Many is probably the most personal piece I’ve ever written. While I’ve never committed suicide (obviously,) there are a lot of things in there that are very real and true.

It goes beyond my honest attempts to capture mental health. Seventh Circle, which also came out this year and is available on my website, is about societal pressures to lose your virginity and something of an obsession with another person. It’s about using another person and their intoxicating presence to fill a hole within yourself.

The Egg, another free short story, was written about confusion about sexuality and my personal fear of becoming a father. It deals a lot with co-dependence and having your meaning stripped away.

While not all of my stories are as blunt as saying a main character has OCD, anxiety, or schizophrenia, I think I incorporate concepts about mental health quite heavily.

Q: Your work is considered fiction, but you’ve said before that you incorporate little pieces of the real world into your writing, like basing characters and their interactions off of things you’ve really seen. How does that work?

A: This is a hard question to answer. On a more surface level, I will use someone’s name who has helped me with writing. I have a habit of sending little pieces of writing to certain people and as a thank you, I’ll name a character after them. For example, I named May Elizabeth Dawes after my cousin’s girlfriend, Stephanie Dawes.

On a deeper level, there’s a large portion of For We Are Many that is written about infidelity. The protagonist’s girlfriend has a quite obvious sex addiction, and after cheating on him multiple times, she insists she’s going to try and “get better.” She turns herself into the victim, even though she is the one cheating on him. This was based off of a close friend in high school who cheated on his girlfriend in a similar way. He’s changed his life around for the better, of course, but it greatly disturbed me when it happened and slipped its way into this story. I also use a lot of conversations that I hear and turn them into elements of the story.

A lot of my other imagery is based on some of my weirder dreams. It’s probably not hard to determine how this manifests itself in my work.

Q: Do you implement your personal beliefs or philosophies in your books?

A: Yes! One hundred times, yes! I can’t talk a ton about it, but I have a concept floating around in my head right now for a story called “The Goat and The Whore.” It’s going to be about karma and reincarnation. I was raised catholic, which I think shows in some of my work, but as I grew older, I began to gravitate towards some Buddhist beliefs. I really love using the Four Noble Truths in my work.

I also believe that people have a duality of being inherently awful and inherently good. I rarely write a character that is 100 percent good. Sure, there are people I write who are more “good” than others, but most of my people are very human. I don’t like writing protagonists who don’t make tons of moral mistakes.

I’ve talked countless times about how much each story is based on a thought or fear I’ve had before, but the one I’ve neglected to mention is about symmetry and infinite loops. I believe that life is a series of circles and mirrors. We are never exactly in the same place twice, but many events in our lives mirror one another and echo one another. These “echoes” are most apparent in beginnings and endings. The first example I can think of is the Seventh Circle. The first chapter, where our main character falls in love, is called simply “Mia.” This is pretty straight forward in meaning. The final chapter is called “Persephone,” also known as the queen of hell. If you’ve read the story, then you most likely have a pretty darn good idea as to why.

Q: Do you use writing as an escape or as a form of expression?

A: Some people might read my stuff and flip either way, and I agree. I think that some of my work lies pretty deeply on the expression side of things, while also as a form of escape. I’m a bit fan of creating characters that resemble me or people I know, but also being very nuanced and quite different. My characters are all connected to one another and me in very specific ways, but they also exist in something of a vacuum. For example, I relate to some aspects of Roman Toguri from my second novel, Grey Skies, but I don’t personally find myself identifying as a broken psychopath.

New York Onions is based a lot on a family member who overdosed on heroin, but it’s obviously in this strange, dream-like place that resembles very little of the real world. I would say my work is not unlike very abstract paintings. It might represent or pull elements from reality, but it exists as something of a mix between expressionism and escapism.

Q: What drew you to writing horror?

A: I wouldn’t say I necessarily gravitate just towards horror, but darker work as a whole. Sure, things like Grey Skies or The Egg are obvious horror, but New York Onions doesn’t really count as a horror story in the traditional sense, and neither does For We Are Many. I would argue I mostly write work that is dark and features strange imagery, not necessarily “horror.” It gets exhausting hearing family members say, “oh, he writes spooky ghost stories.” I don’t think I’ve really ever written something that resembles a Hollywood horror film with lots of jump scares and demon possession. My work feels more ethereal and honest than that. Maybe I’m tooting my own horn and sound like a pretentious jerk with that, but…

There’s something I find easier about writing things that are dark. I love to challenge myself with different genres and I know for a fact that I’ll write something more positive and family friendly one day, but that being said, it’s easier to experiment in the darkness. I like to think of writing darker content as working in a really dark room. I’m not exactly sure where the limits are, how large the room is, or how much space I can actually work with. It’s easier for me to just feel my way through and make something that is very grotesque and strange, yet also very natural and drenched in feeling. Writing work that is more… Hallmark, for a lack of a better word, feels much more obvious and in your face. It’s like working in that same room and turning on the lights. Suddenly, you know what’s directly in front of you. You have limits when it comes to genre, mood, and content. I feel like it’s harder to write something true without being able to incorporate anything that exists. It’s the reason why dark and abrasive music like Swans is more experimental and interesting to me than Taylor Swift.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing about a four minute pop-country song about someone’s ex that I don’t love, but a very fluid composition that’s thirty minutes long and features a sixty year man shouting obscenities always has a lot more feeling. Once I have my plate more clear, I’m going to write something more normal and tame as a form of challenging myself, but for now, I find darker work to be the easiest way to express myself.

Q: You talk a ton about music and how it influences your work. What are some albums you’ve heard recently that have excited you?

A: I listen to an absurd amount of different genres and going through the discographies of full artists is one of the things I love to do in my free time. I’m currently working as a delivery driver, so I have a lot of time to listen to music. I suppose it’s easiest to list them out by genre.

Electronic: Maniac Meat by Tobacco

Country: Black Ribbons by Shooter Jennings

Metal: Pain is God by Pig

Rap: Anti-Icon by Ghostemane.

Q: What’s the worst part of writing in 2020?

A: Oversaturation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing to have access to such amazing artists who wouldn’t have had the same exposure thirty years ago, but it also makes it much harder to get random people to actually check your work out. In between all of my creative projects, it’s very difficult to dedicate a ton of time towards marketing. On top of that, knowing where to market yourself is very hard. Instagram hasn’t been great recently because hashtags have been blocked in response to election disinformation. Thanks to *whoever* is responsible for that, cough cough. Currently, I’ve been up close and personal with authors on Wattpad and that’s been giving me a decent amount of success. I tried for a while to send my stories out to blogs, but I found that I felt like something of an annoying person just shipping my work off to anyone who would read it. It was hard to develop meaningful connections with these people who are more than sick of dealing with indie authors.

Q: What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever written?

A: I’m just going to use this one. It’s unreleased right now and for that reason, unedited. It’s VERY NSFW. It just personally interests me.

“I dreamt again of my birth home that night. I was young again, only my mother wasn’t standing over me, watching me dig into the sand. I was completely alone in the middle of the desert. I glanced around me and saw that the place where we had lived was gone. For miles in each direction, I was surrounded by sand and nothing else. Digging in the vast ocean of sand seemed pointless. I felt

exhausted even in my dreams, but something about the desolation felt wrong. I was out of place. I didn’t belong here.

Suddenly, the sand seemed to slowly sink into the earth where my hands were, creating a miniature canyon that opened into a black abyss. The slit in the sand couldn’t have been wider than an inch, but it seemed to go down forever. I felt a shiver go down my body. The slit called for me. I needed to be inside of it. The blood flowed from my head, all the way down to my groin, filling me with a jittery sensation. The sand smelled of roses and other exotic scents. The hole in the sand

grew ridges along its edges, becoming more organic, more alive, yet still made of sand. My body throbbed with ecstasy, an ecstasy that was so intense that I lost all other sensations. My mouth was watering. I bit down on my tongue. It wasn’t right for me to be here, staring into the slit of the earth. I crawled over the ground, ignoring the grains digging into my palms.

My breathing became the beat of all life, heavy and rhythmic.. I needed to be  inside of her slit, to put my hands inside of her. My right hand grazed the ridges at first, but I wanted more, shoving my index finger into the hole. It was wet and sticky. My penis throbbed beneath my white robes.

Maggots. Neurosis. Rot. Filth. Decay. Circle. Beginning. Growth. Birth. Reclamation. End.

I tore my robes off with ease, as if I was gliding through the clouds. As if they were a weight on my ankles, I felt free once they were removed, as though I could fly off of the ground.

My naked body felt comfortable on the sand, as if the earth was a blanket that wanted to swallow me whole. I took my erect penis and slammed it into the wet, tight, slit. My eyes rolled back in my head with pleasure. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. My mind and body were overwhelmed by the sheer bliss.

I was panting in a pool on my own fluids, which seemed to be rejected by Mother Earth. The slit was gone and once again, I was alone. The sun had disappeared, leaving the desert vacant and black. My feelings of arousal had been replaced by a feeling of emptiness. I had satisfied her and she had rejected me. I shivered, rolling in the sticky pool of semen.

My eyes shot open as a cold breeze grazed my skin. It was still dark out, too early for us to start moving again. My face was wet with my own drool, which I wiped with a swipe of my hand. Beneath my blanket, there was another wet spot on the mat that was thankfully not visible. I adjusted my flaccid penis that had mysteriously been pulled from my pants. I sighed, taking my finger to the mat and whiffing the oceanic scent of my semen. Hopefully, no one would notice the smell. I began quietly rolling up my mat.”

Q: Who is your favorite author right now?

A: Aron Beauregard. No contest. Google him, he’s awesome. Also his covers are some of my favorites.

Q: Your imagery seems to be pretty important to you. What thought process goes into your covers and author photos?

A: Every single one is just a bit different. I can probably go through all of them individually.

Weeping of The Caverns- I was going for something like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the first Black Sabbath album. It’s a very grainy image of my neighbors house in Boone. I took that photo when I was twelve with a digital camera, then threw it through photoshop. It was really my first time editing an image like that. It ended up becoming the cover somewhat randomly. I did have the money or skill to create a cover that I absolutely loved, so it just ended up being represented by a photo of some house. I absolutely adore the back cover. For anyone who actually owns a copy, you can see it’s a photo of a man standing beneath a tree. It’s very subtle and a little spooky. I basically was out in a field beside an abandoned house and told a friend to stand underneath the tree. A little bit of editing later, and it turned into the back cover.

Grey Skies- This one was shot, I think, back in late 2014 with an iPhone. I wasn’t even a freshman in high school yet. It’s weird to think I’m twenty years old now and that feels like a decade ago. It was taken on a street near Blowing Rock Elementary school. A lot of the kids who went to the school wouldn’t take the bus, they’d just walk into downtown Blowing Rock and hang out at the park.

I had a close male friend who went out with some female friends a few days before the photo was taken. I’m not sure why, but one of these ladies sat on his lap. Being a pretty hormonal middle schooler, he got an erection and this got him a decent amount of bullying. That photo is a picture of him walking down the road, crying with headphones on. It ended up perfectly capturing the mood I was going for in Grey Skies.

Author images- It was very very hard for me to figure out how I was going to represent myself as an author. A few months before Grey Skies came out in 2019, I decided I needed to make myself some author pages on the internet. I texted a friend named Hope Rosenfeld, who you can see credited on my website, and asked her if she wanted to do a photoshoot. I wore a big leather sports coat, a cowboy hat, and a David Lynch shirt. I wanted to create photos that were eye-catching, but also very gothic and mysterious. Late stage Johnny Cash was a pretty huge influence. The problem that I still have with those photos is that I should have worn dress shoes or boots.

New York Onions- Can’t remember the building right now, but I took the photo on the roof of a skyscraper in New York.

Seventh Circle- Probably the only cover I have that has no text, and also the first of mine to be a GIF. This one was originally created by Aubrey Flowers. She wasn’t quite sure how to make it into a gif, so I took it my own hands and used a free online gif maker. It ended up becoming very trippy. I’m not completely sure how I made the effect, but I really could stare at it for hours.

The Egg- I bought some eggs from the supermarket, hung up a white sheet, then took a ton of different photos of it from different angles. I still have at least fifty different photos of that same egg. I tried my hand at editing using a variety of different applications, before I finally ended up with three different versions. I had a poll on my instagram asking which looked the best, before I finally decided to make a gif out of my favorites.

For We Are Many- Originally, this was made by Ashley Kincaid. It was a plain, white photo. We had originally planned on creating four different images, but she lost interest in the project. I took her original, plain images, then played a lot with the cover, border, and background. Then went from a black and white image of a gun and tissues with no text to a blue, yellow, and black piece of art that’s really grimey. It’s a shame because I absolutely adore Ashley as a person and her style is amazing. You can follow her on Instagram at @Type4me

A: Is it pronounced “Gif” as in gift, or “Jif” as in the pasture butter?

A: Gif.

Q: Do you do any more photography or digital art?

A: Yes. I love doing a ton of photography and editing. I don’t consider myself all that good at it, but the end result is usually interesting.

Q: What other creative things do you do outside of photography and editing?

A: Right now, I host a podcast called First Degree Tea. You can hear me awkwardly talk about serial killers and criminals on that. I also created the theme song for that. I also compose a different score for each new episode. I also edit two other podcasts, one of which is called We Talk Too Much, the other is Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas.

I’ve done some music stuff with JaredMiller, I’ve directed two music videos for Bury Me In Black, and I’ve edited a few novels, most notably, The Night Made This Decision by Alexis Sundquist. One of the coolest projects I’ve got coming kind of soon is an audiobook that’s more of an audio experience. Most audiobooks are just some guy reading in a relaxed voice, which certainly has its time and place, but I want to make something more exciting. I want to make an audiobook where I do the narration, but I have a different voice actor for each character, ambience for each location, and lots of background music.

How do you stay motivated?

I’m not really sure. My cousin and I are roommates next to an Applebees. I set a goal to write 1600 words a day. A few days ago, I asked him to motivate me to keep writing. He said if I hit my goal that day, he would buy one free appetizer for me from Applebees. I think my motivation comes from strange places, haha.

I’m happy to be one of many tour hosts sharing For We Are Many by William Becker.

The Hush Sisters by Gerard Collins #giveaway

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As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. That means, when you purchase a book using an Amazon link on this site, I earn an affiliate commission. All commission earnings go back into funding my books; editing, cover design, etc.

GERARD COLLINS is a Newfoundland writer whose first novel,nbsp; Finton Moon , was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and won the Percy Janes First Novel Award. His short-story collection,nbsp; Moonlight Sketches , won the NL Book Award, and his stories have been published widely in journals and anthologies. He lives in southern New Brunswick.

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The Hush Sisters by Gerard Collins ~ Genre: Gothic Fiction

***49TH SHELF UTTERLY FANTASTIC BOOK FOR FALL***


Sissy and Ava Hush are estranged, middle-aged sisters with little in common beyond their upbringing in a peculiar manor in downtown St. John’s. With both parents now dead, the siblings must decide what to do with the old house they’ve inherited. Despite their individual loneliness, neither is willing to change or cede to the other’s intentions. As the sisters discover the house’s dark secrets, the spirits of the past awaken, and strange events envelop them. The Hush sisters must either face these sinister forces together or be forever ripped apart.

In The Hush Sisters, Gerard Collins weaves psychological suspense with elements of the fantastic to craft a contemporary urban gothic that will keep readers spellbound until the novel whispers its startling secrets.

Add to Goodreads * Amazon * Chapters Indigo * Breakwater Books

Would you like a chance to win a $15 Amazon giftcard, ebooks of Finton Moon, and Moonlight Sketches by Gerard Collins? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Where were you born/grew up at?

I was born at the cottage hospital in Placentia, Newfoundland. I grew up in Bond’s Path, just a five-minute drive from that hospital. Placentia, or Plaisance in French, was the original French capital of Newfoundland before the English triumphed in battle and moved the capital to St. John’s. I was the youngest of five boys, and my only sister was born five years after me. I attended a one-room schoolhouse for the first few years, and we didn’t have a telephone until I was in high school. To this day, I despise telephones. I can remember having to break the ice in the well a few yards from the house in order to haul water from the well for tea on winter mornings. In my high school years, and for a couple of years after, I hauled a lot of water and wood.

If you knew you’d die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?

There are at least fifteen different answers to this question, and they’d all be fine with me except for the fact that each one means my last day on earth. I’m a “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” sort of person, and I have always known I would kick at the darkness even when death was inevitable. It’s all a part of my underdog complex, I suppose, but it’s also a part of the fact that I love this life, this earth, and the people in it, for the most part, and I can’t imagine not savouring every last breath. That said, I’d probably like most of all to spend my last day at The Brazen Head pub in Dublin – it’s the oldest pub in the country, supposedly – having a few pleasant pints, a good supper, and writing all day long. Maybe a music session in the evening.

Who is your hero and why?

I don’t really have heroes, but there are lots of people I admire. The closest thing I have to a literary hero would be Stephen King who started out as a teacher, with not much money, and just followed his heart and did the one thing (writing) he knew he was good at, and made a great life for himself. Margaret Atwood is another one I admire greatly because it’s harder to be that successful as a Canadian writer, but also – and especially – because she speaks truth and wisdom. I could just listen to her talk about literature and life forever.

What kind of world ruler would you be?

I wouldn’t want to be world ruler because I know I would throw myself into the job every minute of every day and never have a moment’s inner peace. I’d be kind and as wise as I could manage to be, but I’d be a dictator when it came to doing the right thing. I can see all sides of an issue, but it would likely come down to doing the greatest good for the greatest number, with allowances for differences as long as those difference weren’t born out of ignorance or arrogance.

I do have this streak of letting my neighbour go to the devil in his own way. In other words, if someone is determined to self-destruct, and I know there’s not much I can do about it, I’ll just let him or her do that. But if I know there’s good to be done and that I can actually affect someone’s life for the better, I’ll usually take it upon myself to do that.

If there were one world ruler, then global warming might be easier to tackle, as would the economy, which might be a hybrid of socialism and capitalism. I think we could share with each other and not let money be the main factor in such decisions. World poverty would have to be tackled and would be easier under a single world ruler, and I think we could also do something about inequalities of all sorts, particularly regarding gender, race, and economic class.

Looking back on what I just wrote, it sounds like I’d be a boring ruler, but I do know that I have a keen sense of humour, though it can be a dark one. So, if the state had enemies – as I’m sure it would – I’d have patience, kindness, and tolerance up to the point where I couldn’t afford to anymore, and then I’d devise a scheme for doing away with those people, perhaps not literally, but at least in a funny way that was not without a touch of irony.

What are you passionate about these days?

Mostly about writing. I’m keenly aware that we only get so much time on this earth, and I’m determined to make the most of it. Writing isn’t just work to me – it’s also play. It’s me being at my very best, and so it can feel selfish to want to do it all the time, or to talk about it to other people all the time, but, really, I’m just trying to figure things out, which is what I was born to do, apparently, even if I never really figure anything out. It’s the process that matters, and it’s the process that I’m passionate about – that, and just living the best life possible. So, travel, good food, good company, and good beer are a necessary part of that for me – as long as there’s writing, which includes moments to stop and not think about anything. Maybe, ultimately, I’m passionate about peace of mind, which largely eludes me.

What do you do to unwind and relax?

I try and lie still for a few minutes, to not think about anything. That rarely works or, if it does, I fall asleep. Sometimes, the world can just be a bit too much for someone who suffers from post-concussion syndrome and just needs a respite in order to reset and move on. But I also love playing guitar and singing, which I don’t do nearly often enough, especially with my partner Jane, who is a lovely harpist, pianist, and singer, as well as writer. We enjoy the traveling, pubs, singing, and all that stuff together, so sitting by a crackling fire and playing music together is about as good as it gets. There’s TV sometimes, too, and for me it can be something like CNN or, more likely, something like Game of Thrones or The Crown – lots of underdogs in those shows. I love movies but can barely find time for them these days. Same with books – I love reading, but I don’t find nearly enough time for them unless I force myself to make time. I guess what I’m really saying is that I work most of the time but when I do relax, it’s with something mindless that doesn’t require anything of me.

How to find time to write as a parent?

For most of my life, I wasn’t a parent, but finding time for writing has never been easy. I often teach university English – on campus in St. John’s for two decades and by distance these past few years – and during the semesters, I focus almost exclusively on that. Nowadays, I offer writing retreats and workshops, mentoring, and all sorts of things related to writing. But only writing is writing. Somehow, despite all that and a few medical setbacks (not “health,” per se, since I’m completely fine now) from which I had to recover, plus major changes in my life in every single way (which includes separation, divorce, moving away from Newfoundland and my job, friends, and just about everything I’d known for so long, then settling into a new place where I lived for six years in a cottage by a lake in the woods, learning how to be an effective teacher by distance – somehow, I still have managed to write three books of which The Hush Sisters is one, and there are two others waiting for publication. This past August, I moved into a huge farmhouse with my partner, and she already had two kids, one in university and another now in his last year of high school. But they’re pretty self-sufficient. I like to eat meals together and watch some shows together, and that sort of thing. Teenagers take up a lot of space and tend to make some noise – which is all fine and natural – but I have an office space upstairs and far away from everything so I can focus on my writing and other work there. I’m pretty lucky in that way.

As for finding time to write, I will say that it is definitely harder for female parents to find time. But I also have to say that it’s never easy for anyone and harder for some. The world doesn’t want you to be a writer. It’ll throw things at you, give you things, set traps of distraction everywhere. Children, I’m sure, demand your attention in an urgent and necessary way that’s not like anything else. But there are all kinds of emergencies – though I also say only the end of the world is the end of the world, and the only things that are matters of life and death are a) life and b) death – just as there are jobs, social gatherings, weddings, funerals, dishes, vacuuming, TV shows to watch, and all sorts of things, and most of them wonderful. But only writing is writing, and if you are really going to make a go of it, you have to make time for it.

If you don’t make time for writing, then writing isn’t as important to you as some of these other things or, more to the point, writing isn’t as important to you as not writing. If there’s a choice to be made, sometimes, at least, you have to choose writing. Even children, after a certain age, are able to take care of themselves to a degree. But then it’s a matter of what you do with your time – and not just writing when you have the time, but writing when you actually feel up to it, when you can muster the creative energy to do a decent job of it and give yourself something to revise later.

I am happy to be one of many tour hosts sharing information on The Hush Sisters by Gerard Collins.

Georgina Cross ~ Author Interview

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Today I am excited to have had the opportunity to interview Georgia Cross, author of The Stepdaughter.

Georgina Cross is the suspense author of The Stepdaughter (September 2020) and Book 2 (January 2021) with Bookouture. And Book 3 with Ballantine, Penguin Random House (late 2021).

She is represented by Rachel Beck with Liza Dawson Associates with her suspense fiction appealing to readers of The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle, The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth, and Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.

Check out Georgina’s bookS below!

(Click on the image to order your copy)

(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. That means, when you purchase a book using an Amazon link on this site, I earn an affiliate commission. All commission earnings go back into funding my books; editing, cover design, etc.)

https://amzn.to/3nmOHBb
https://amzn.to/2Iy6pCN

Check out our interview on YouTube:

Follow her on Social Media here:

https://www.facebook.com/GeorginaCrossAuthor
https://www.twitter.com/GCrossAuthor

The Fall of Polite by Sam Kench #giveaway

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The Fall of Polite by Sam Kench ~ Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

In a freshly lawless New England in the dead of winter…

A bloodied and barefoot 17-year-old, grieving the loss of her father, trudges around a smoldering pileup on the road out of town. She’s endeavoring the 120 mile trek to her only living family member through blizzard conditions…

A once kind-hearted lumberjack splits a teenager’s nose in half with the rim of a metal gas can. Since the day his family was slaughtered before his eyes, he’s been consumed with an undying fury that can only be quelled through acts of violence…

A two-time college-dropout, trying to do good, howls in agony as her face is slashed with a razor-blade. The crackhead who did the deed is taking back her five-year-old child who the drop-out was trying to protect after finding him abandoned in a dumpster…

Anyone wishing to live must harden and adapt to the new rules of a world post-fall of polite. This dangerous new world will make you into a survivor… or a corpse.

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Would you like a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Sam Kench is a 23-year-old writer and independent filmmaker. His screenplays and short films have been awarded by festivals and competitions around the world. Click here to check out work on BrickwallPictures.com

In 2014 he was named one of the top defenders of free speech by the National Coalition Against Censorship.

He grew up in New England and spent years exploring many of the locations that found their way into the novel. He now resides in Los Angeles. ‘The Fall of Polite’ is his debut novel.

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I’m happy to be one of the many tour hosts sharing The Fall of Polite by Sam Kench.

Hunted by Sarah Biglow and Molly Zenk #giveaway

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Sarah Biglow is a USA Today Bestselling author of cozy mysteries, urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and son. She is a licensed attorney and spends her days combating employment discrimination as an Investigator with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

She is a self-professed TV junkie and in her spare time (what’s that?), she runs a TV recap blog with her best friend (and sorority sister), Jen. Sarah currently enjoys an array of TV shows including (but definitely not limited to) This Is Us, The Good Doctor, Doctor Who, Lucifer and any show with Chicago in the title by Dick Wolf.

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USA Today Bestselling Author MOLLY ZENK was born in Minnesota, grew up in Florida, lived briefly in Tennessee before finally settling in Colorado. She graduated from Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL with degrees in Secondary Education, English, and Creative Writing. She write across genres but primarily YA, romance, historical, and urban fantasy/paranormal. She is married to a Mathematician/Software Engineer who complains about there not being enough “math” or info about him in her author bio. They live in Arvada, CO with their daughters.

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Hunted by Sarah Biglow and Molly Zenk ~ Genre: Paranormal Romance, Alt-History

On the hundredth anniversary of being turned into a vampire, Edith Dorset joins her adopted daughters and their friends at the Heartsong Clan’s annual Live Action Role Play recruitment event where she meets an eager young man named Dan Paxton. His older brother and Hunter, Darren, thinks Dan’s merely chaperoning a trip to a nerd convention, but has no idea he’s partnered with vampires for the weekend.

When Darren discovers Dan missing, he follows the only lead he has to the Heartsong Clan’s residence on Tombstone Row. Edith and Darren’s first meeting is uneasy because he lies his way into the Clan’s house, claiming to be there to play on the side of humans. He’s determined to keep his Hunter instincts in check, rescue his brother, and get it out of there.

An impromptu late-night encounter leads Darren and Edith to come clean with each other about who and what they are. Edith longs to keep Darren and his brother close, although it goes against Clan rules, and Darren is finding it harder than he thought to snuff out Edith and her family. Darren and Edith grow closer as they seek out the truth from her Sire, Mr. Heartsong.

While Darren uses all his Hunter skills to free his brother and be the hero, Mr. Heartsong banishes Edith from the Clan for her behavior towards Darren. No longer having Clan protection, Edith is faced with a terrible choice. Just as Darren returns with Hunter reinforcements, Heartsong and his Clan have vanished, along with Edith and her family. All that remains is a note from Edith, begging Darren to find them. And so, the hunt begins.

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Would you like a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

An Interview with Author Sarah Biglow

Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?

Hi, I’m Sarah Biglow and I’m a USA Today Bestselling author. I write primarily urban fantasy and cozy mystery. I dabble in paranormal romance, although admittedly most of my romance tends to be on the lighter side (as in it’s there but it’s not always the focal point). I have been publishing since 2015 and am so grateful to be on this journey with my amazing co-author Molly Zenk. We’ve been friends for over a decade and have been writing together for the last two years.

In terms of how I became an author, I was originally published by a small press in 2012 but when the publisher shut its doors, I made the decision to self-publish and have been on that journey ever since. I will say I’ve learned a lot in the last two years when I really started to take my career seriously. I’ve had to adjust my goals and expectations over time, but I think I’m really starting to get the hang of this author thing! I hope you’ll think about coming on this wild ride with me by following me on social media and diving into some of my books.

How do you find time to write as a parent?

Have I found time to write as a parent? It’s still a work in progress with an almost eighteen-month-old. I do my best to get up early and write before I have to start work (I have a full-time day job, too) and when he goes to bed sometimes I’ll try to write then. On weekends, I do my best to take advantage of nap time, but let’s be real, that doesn’t always happen either. Sometimes, mama just needs a nap herself! But it really has become much more of a balancing act/spinning plate scenario since the little guy came along.

Which of your novels can you imagine being made into a movie?

I can absolutely see my Seasons of Magic (urban fantasy) series being made into a movie. I’ve actually talked about my dream cast on the series Facebook fan page. I think in particular it would be fascinating to see how the visual effects department would adapt and show the way magic is used in that universe. But I could also see Hunted being made into a trilogy of shorter films (there are two more books coming soon). It’s got action, romance, mystery, drama and a unique premise that I think would lend itself to a visual medium. I could also see both of my current cozy mystery series being maybe short-run special event miniseries for TV. Like the Hallmark channel or something fun and light like that.

Can you tell us a little about the characters in Hunted?

Hunted follows Darren and Edith, two people on opposing sides of a centuries-long conflict who are more connected than they realize when they first meet. Edith has been a vampire for 100 years after the death of her fiancé during World War I. And Darren is driven by revenge against all vampires because vampires killed his parents. There are other supporting characters like Edith’s adopted daughters and Darren’s younger brother who round out the cast and provide a lot of innocence and some much-needed comic relief. But they are also people dealing with grief and loss as well as identity, position in society and what it means to love your fellow man.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I loved building the world and the backstory for this series with my co-author Molly Zenk. It was our first foray into co-writing and we just had a blast coming up wit the rules for our vampires (they can only turn seven people with that person’s verbal consent before they turn to dust). I really enjoyed the social justice aspect of the story as well. Our vampires exist out in the open, but they are treated as second class citizens after losing the Civil War. They’ve been subjugated to government land (similar to the Native tribes in reality) and forced to take government benefits. So, it was really ripe for something big to kick off and I think we did a good job of showing that despite surface differences, they are all people.

I’m happy to be one of many tour hosts sharing information about Hunted by Sarah Biglow and Molly Zenk.

Shannon Work ~ Author Interview

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Today I am excited to have had the opportunity to interview Shannon Work, author of Now I See You. Now I See You is Shannon’s first novel. She is currently busy writing the second. Book 2 in the Mountain Resort Mystery Series is a murder mystery set in Vail, Colorado.

Check out Shannon’s book below!

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(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. That means, when you purchase a book using an Amazon link on this site, I earn an affiliate commission. All commission earnings go back into funding my books; editing, cover design, etc.)

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The Magic in Fire Anthology #giveaway

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The Magic in Fire ~ Genre: Fantasy Anthology ~ with stories by Victoria Young, Dragonness Wyverna, A. H. Serrano, L. R. Huseboe, Kieran McKiel, A. A. Warne, R. A. Darlinge, Aörali Eden, B. R. Storm, Ilona Krueger, Serena Dawson, Michelle Crow, and J. T. Moriarty

*** 12 MAGICAL TALES IN ONE MASSIVE FANTASY COLLECTION ***

Twelve stories – Thirteen authors.
One theme – The Magic in Fire.

FEATURING IN THIS ANTHOLOGY:

Victoria Young – The Doll Boutique
There’s nothing healthy about a tan – Melinda had heard the warnings and frankly, being stuck in a cramped white coffin was not her idea of fun. But when she wakes from the solarium bed in a dusty prison cell, Melinda realises she’s gotten herself into a tighter spot than she expected.

Dragonness Wyverna – Fire Under Water
Humans have come to the desert, and with them comes death. The oasis has been an indestructible black rock and shelter for the Desharihn fire sprites for generations. But when a band of humans arrive to mine the rock, it is up to Fia, the last Rahar sprite, to save the tribe from the humans’ immutable greed.

A. H. Serrano – Conviction by Fire
Blessed with the power of fire, Lhii Fuéra’s duty is to protect, but in the aftermath of a murder, she’s the one placed on trial. As the daughter of a great general, Lhii soon realizes that justice matters little among the powerful, and she’s faced with a choice: Become the victim or blame the victim.

L. R. Huseboe – Flames of Green
Jaer and his Knight Commander Kae, wander the thick forest in search of information about their missing spy. What they found was a battle against their century-long enemy, the Shaedyn. Will they prevail or face the same unknown fate?

Kieran McKiel – Hummingbird
Far from home and missing his love, Marco is fighting a war to end all wars. When hope seems lost, a strange entity appears with an offer to help him survive.

A. A. Warne – The Masters of Fire
The Masters of Fire were once a powerful brotherhood, but now only two of their brothers remain in the free world. Will they be strong enough to liberate their kin from the clutches of the Mad King? Or will an uncomfortable truth unravel their master plan?

B. R. Storm – The Harbinger
Since the beginning of Earth, Watcher has been tethered to immortality, waiting for the final soul to depart. The day finally comes and Watcher prepares for rest, but he’s confronted by the bringer of apocalyptic carnage.

Ilona Krueger – Song of my Soul
Always the realist, Felicity does not entertain anything that is unscientifically based. Her clinical assertions leave no room for magic and imagination. It is said, however, that Pride goes before a fall. And fall, she does. Is there salvation from the pit? Does she rise from the ashes? Is there hope for a new understanding?

Serena Dawson – A Spark of Courage
Prince Zabriel’s fire magic is weak, but Princess Maniela’s will to defy their cruel father is strong. Zabriel agrees to help his sister, and she leads them into a battle that will determine the fate and future of their kingdom.

Michelle Crow – The Flame
When Momma Courtney shows up on Prudence’s doorstep and draws magical wards to protect the house from an impending attack; Prudence’s reality is thrown into chaos as she discovers she’s the last Flame Keeper. Now with the entire village’s lives in her hands, can she save them from the body-snatching Ifrits with her untrained powers?

J. T. Moriarty – Petals of Autumn
As the legendary dragon, Flallemin, sets its sights on Goblin Birchwoods, Wedina has an impossible challenge: train the entire tribe. While there are plenty of shields, there’s only one sword and Wedina knows it’ll take more than might to deal with the hungry dragon.

ALSO FEATURING:

R. A. Darlinge & Aörali Eden – Fated Shadows

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Would you like a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?

Adryanna – I wrote and illustrated my first story when I was seven. It was called “Panda’s Hat,” and one of the main characters died. If that doesn’t say something about how I write now… Anyway! I continued writing slice-of-life stories until I discovered a love for reading fantasy. That’s when I shifted gears and began writing more fantasy stories. I was fifteen when I wrote the novel I swore would be the first one I published. And I published that novel in October.

Amanda – I love everything about fantasy. In fact, I live more inside my head then I do in real life, so it was natural that I’d end up becoming a writer. That way I can harness the weird part about me. As a child I was always creating art but when I became a mother, I felt that my art practice was just too much, so I fell into writing. It’s clean, easy to put aside when I need to attend to my children, and then jump back in when I could. So I’ve been writing for over ten years now.

Brandon – I discovered I wanted to write stories since the fifth grade. I started this endeavor by stepping a toe over copyright infringement with small blurbs about The Legend of Zelda franchise. No project was entirely completed and no money was made, so perhaps maybe not. I didn’t get my inspiration to seek more original material until two years later. I was wholeheartedly enthralled by the imaginative brain of Stephen King. The Stand truly lit the match for me. By seventeen, I’d written two-and-three-quarters books and already moved back from Canada to the United States after discovering my father. I grew displeased with my immature work and discarded them to the depths of a portable harddrive during my last year of high school. Life distracted me from then until October 2017. Drunk on anger and gin, I found myself in need of cathartic self-therapy. Lo and behold, the need to write reemerged, and The Infinity Series was born.

Brittany – I recently discovered that I’ve been writing stories since I learned to put pencil to paper…I suppose I let life take over for several years and forgot about a childhood passion. In 2015, out of curiosity and desperation, I started tossing my hat into the freelance ghostwriting ring. After I landed my first contract, a 50k bad boy romance that had a three-week turnaround (oh, the story was bad!), I was hooked! Since then, I’ve co-written a novel, had three—soon to be four—-short stories published, ghostwritten countless novellas for clients, and am working on an absurd number of stories and ideas.

Debi – I wrote (and illustrated) a story when I was eight years old, and when I showed it to my mom, she told me I should be an author when I grow up. It hadn’t yet occured to me that people actually wrote books for a living, and my mind was blown by the revelation. I wrote another little story, illustrated it, and entered it in the State Fair. It got champion in its division. That was my “sign” that I was meant to be an author. I didn’t stop writing after that; I wrote “books” to commemorate my friends moving out of state, I wrote “books” to give my friends super powers, and I wrote “books” to prove my sister’s boyfriend didn’t deserve her. Finally, I started writing for myself, telling the stories I wanted to tell, and I just couldn’t stop.

Ilona – Words are fascinating. Stories are fascinating. I have always been thrilled with reading about other people and places and times. Pens, pencils and paper always held a fascination for me. And what does one do with these?  The natural follow on is writing, another way to explore and create. It’s wonderful to be able to project one’s imagination into other worlds and life circumstances. I had penfriends from an early age, dabbled with poetry and enjoyed writing compositions.  School was never a punishment for me: it was opportunity to learn, to research and to think.

Jay – Hi, I’m that excitable little geek who loved scifi and fantasy as a kid, but always knew a better way the story could have ended. To that end I became an author, because I wanted to show everyone what my ideas were! In year 2 I wrote my first story about pirates. In year 10 computers I was so thoroughly bored my stories would write themselves and entertain me. I’ve always got plenty of ideas bubbling around, and luckily can remember a great deal of them, so eventually enough ideas coagulate into a story length something-or-other, which is exactly how The Full Life of a Robot came to be. The “Leaves of Autumn” story came to me as a way to use magic and fire in a unique way. Magic means fantasy means Goblins, and not nasty ones but good ones. And fire means dragons, so we had our goodies and baddies, but we needed a way for the wimp to beat the giant, for David to beat Goliath. Coming up with that story element, and finally having my Eureka! moment really makes writing worthwhile for me, and it’s what I look for in every story I write. If a piece doesn’t have at least one “this will make or break the story” moment, I don’t feel like I’m doing my job.

Kieran – I’ve just always had an active imagination and a love for storytelling, so the spark has always been there. Initially it was just writing generic fantasy for the fun of it, but now that I’m getting a bit older, it’s become a form of catharsis, as well, a really helpful form of escapism. Sometimes you just need to leave reality for a while and empty yourself out on a page.

Laura – I’ve been writing since I was 13, since I was always a bit bored in school and needed something to do to pass the time. I grew to love writing at such a young age as it let me explore the worlds in my head. It wasn’t until last year that I was given the chance to be a part of the Anotholy with Amanda and a few of the others here. I am so honored and excited to be a part of this again.

Serena –

The funny thing is, I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I do remember reading a career advice column in a magazine, it was listing ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ but all the ‘cons’ of being an author looked positive to me, like “lots of time spent alone.” Lol. So I was like, what part of this is negative?

I have a distinct memory of narrating what I was doing in third person, like; “Serena strode across the room to the door, opening it with a forceful jerk.” I realised what I was doing, laughed at myself and then decided it was a sign I had a writer’s brain!

I was homeschooled and grew up rurally so my childhood was quite different to most people’s.

When not working raising calves, my sister and I would explore the countryside on our ponies. I also spent a lot of time at the beach as a child or playing in our stream. Water always fascinated me. Exploring up streams and rivers is something I still love.

Although I loved some aspects of that life, such as the freedom to explore and go horse riding, it could sometimes be lonely and boring, despite having four siblings. However, the isolation helped develop my imagination, something I’m very thankful for.

Reading fiction was an important part of my childhood. It taught me things no one else could, and helped me through difficult times. I learnt to be brave, despite being a generally fearful and anxious kid, thanks to living through the stories of so many protagonists. I learnt a lot about relationships and taking responsibility for my emotions through the writing of Jane Austen. Her mix of emotional intelligence and stoicism is something I still turn to for comfort and wisdom.

Sometime too far back for me to pinpoint, I decided, ‘if books can be all this for me, then my stories can be “this” for someone else.’ To entertain is an achievement, but to go beyond that; to inspire, to transform, to give hope to the hopeless, is my dream.

I started writing my main WIP, a fantasy trilogy, when I was desperately bored while breastfeeding. I picked up a pen and some paper, started writing longhand, and out walked the first characters into the forest that is one of the main settings of my book. it was almost like all I had to do was open the door and there they were…

Vicky – I am drawn to stories the way I am to music. They both share an infinite potential for evoking emotion, hijacking the imagination and uncovering universal truths. There’s nothing more powerful and I am an absolute sucker for a crescendo. To me, the potential to have that kind of an impact, even upon one single reader, in the whole of my life, makes storytelling the most rewarding and exciting venture. I’ve been brewing my ideas and writing for myself all of my life, though it has always played a side role. My literature-based undergrad was more for writing than it was my teaching degree. I’ve done well in a number of writing competitions but never taken it further. Well, I guess I will now. Let’s see where the future takes me. Plus, you know, I’ve had Amanda – AA Warne – poking and prodding me for a good decade now. It’s time.

I am happy to be one of many tour hosts sharing information on The Magic In Fire!

Becoming Human by Amy Michelle Carpenter #giveaway

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Amy Michelle Carpenter is a developmental editor with Eschler Editing and a professional blogger. She’s written hundreds of blogs and news articles for local and national companies. She also has a children’s story in an anthology.

As the daughter of an Army officer, she grew up traveling the country and has lived by sandy beaches, southern woods, towering cities, and the rocky mountains. Now, she resides in the countryside of Tooele, UT with her husband and baby girls. She enjoys seeing what wildlife and farm animals dare venture into her yard only to be chased by her toddlers. Wherever family is is home.

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Becoming Human by Amy Michelle Carpenter ~ Genre: YA Science Fiction

A redneck boy. An Earth-obsessed alien. And a robotic girl… Three wildly different teenagers must work together, and accept one another, to conserve humanity.

A breathtaking debut with Southern charm, whimsical worlds, and meet-cuteness, for fans of Marie Lu and Lois Lowry.

Carter doesn’t believe in aliens. And he certainly doesn’t defend his dad’s claims that they exist, even if they aired on national television. But then, the girl he’s falling for starts doing strange things, magical things, things that seem a bit out of this world.

Kokab hungers to be a Perfect in a world where her emotions are her greatest flaw. But when her planet faces extinction, her sympathy makes her the best ambassador to persuade humans to accept her people. Failure means invasion, but success means she will never become a Perfect. Ags dreams of graduating from the Academy and becoming a guardian of Earth.

Obsessed with all things human, she’s eager to spend time on the unique planet. But when she uncovers an impending invasion, she’s willing to lose everything, including herself, to stop it.

“Human and alien, complex and sweetly personal, Carpenter’s thoughtful world blends sci-fi with coming of age as three unique worlds collide. This book will make you laugh, make you fall in love, and then make you re-evaluate what it means to be human.” McKelle George, HarperCollins author of Speak Easy Speak Love

Goodreads * Amazon

Would you like a chance to win an ebook copy of Midnight Sun or a $15 Amazon gift card? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?

It all started with an assignment I got in sixth grade to create a book about myself. In it, I announced that in ten years I’d be a published author. Right around my 22nd birthday, I found that book. Had I become an author? Nope. So, I decided that it was totally feasible to accomplish my kid dreams, and I went for it.

I checked out a guidebook on how to be published for dummies (this isn’t a joke). Then, I followed its advice. I joined a writing group, started going to conferences, honed my craft by taking on an internship with an editing company (because I thought there was no better way to learn to write than to learn how to tell others how to write), and built connections. A friend of mine got a publishing contract with a company, and she recommended me. And that’s how I broke into to the wild business of publishing!

What is something unique/quirky about you?

Before having all my little babies, I lived in a school bus with my husband. My husband tore out all the seats, and we got to work remaking the inside of it into a little home.We had a bedroom, a little kitchenette, a bathroom, and a living room. We even had a giant tub in the bathroom that fit the two of us and a full-sized couch.

While living in a school bus may sound like luxury (haha), I wasn’t the biggest fan, so I highly recommend not jumping on that bandwagon. I won’t get into the gritty details, but let’s just say that a lot of basic like electricity and heating struggled to work, and, even though we were renting a piece of land, we looked sketchy sitting there. The cops may have showed up at our house a few times in the middle of the night. But, it ended up well enough because when we moved into a real house it felt like a luxury!

Where were you born/grew up at?

My dad was military, so I basically grew up all around the USA. That was a good time. My dad was stationed in Georgia for a year, so I pulled some of my distant memories of the place to write this book.

How to find time to write as a parent?

 I have three babies under three, so finding time to write is basically impossible these days. It’s a good thing I wrote this novel when I only had one newborn who slept all day.

Describe yourself in 5 words or less!

Redneck Intellect.

How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?

The two female protagonists are me, which is weird to say because they’re foils of each other, but it’s true. I’m a crazy perfectionist like Kokab. There have been times in my life when I’ve been so obsessed with being a good person that I couldn’t really function. There’s a part of me that really feels that rigidity and confusion about customs, and I definitely sometimes feel like social things can take a second to click. But then, there’s this other side of me that is all Ags, super excited and exuberant about things, with high energy and happiness.

The male protagonist Carter, is kind of just a mesh up of my husband and also what I think the ideal guy is.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I think I most enjoyed the process of working on it with others. I have an amazing critique group, and it was so fun to brainstorm with them and then steal their ideas that they had for my book and look like a total genius. Looking like a genius is great fun.

How did you come up with the title of your first novel?

Becoming Human is the whole theme of the book. Theme is really important to me, and the book is all about what makes us human and what the point of the human experience is.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

Of course. I’m one of those people that could keep picking at something forever and ever. But I won’t since it’s now been through all the beta reading stages and three stages with Immortal Works’ editor. I’m pretty sure I’d make a lot of people annoyed if I went in and tried to change things now.

Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?

Ags is really obsessed with the humanities, so it was really fun to go out and learn about a plethora of different paintings, and stories, and ballet, and such.

If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?

Yes, I did theater in high school, so that’d be a blast. My favorite character to play would be Anna though. Anna is really overdramatic and wild and does whatever she wants, and that’d be an exciting character to play.

What is your favorite part of this book and why?

One of my favorite parts of the book is Kokab and Carter’s first date (spoiler, sorry..not sorry). It’s just so cute and awkward and real. I feel like it’s how a real first date goes with two teenagers who are crushing on each other.

What did you edit out of this book?

Well, this book was originally a completely different story so half of the ensemble of characters, most of the scenes, and the overall storyline. The theme stayed the same though, so that’s good.

Do you see writing as a career?

Of course.

What do you think about the current publishing market?

I’m a big fan of Indie publishers. I like them because they have more wiggle room for originality and wholesomeness.

Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?

I love YA books. Maybe I’m immature; I don’t know. I most especially love sci-fi with female protagonists.

Advice they would give new writers?

Join a really good writing group. They will teach you how to write. Go to conferences. Use the conferences to learn but also to meet people. Making friends with people who are authors will help you break in yourself.

What makes a good story?

To me, it’s what I come out with. A good story is one that inspires or uplifts me or makes me question things. I only have so many hours in a day, so I want to come out better than I went in before I read it.

I’m happy to be one of many tour hosts sharing information about Becoming Human by Amy Michelle Carpenter!

Jeff Pollak ~ Author Interview

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Jeff Pollak, author of First Second Coming, first had the idea for his debut novel on 9/11 as he watched the World Trade Center collapse. In this interview find out all about Jeff’s writing process and get a glimpse into the world of First Second Coming!

Check out Jeff’s book, First Second Coming, below!

(Click on the image to order your copy)

(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. That means, when you purchase a book using an Amazon link on this site, I earn an affiliate commission. All commission earnings go back into funding my books; editing, cover design, etc.)

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Born at Dawn by Christina Davis (giveaway)

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As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. That means, when you purchase a book using an Amazon link on this site, I earn an affiliate commission. All commission earnings go back into funding my books; editing, cover design, etc.

Born at Dawn Cover by Ruxandra Tudorica

Born At Dawn (Da’Valia Trilogy Book 1) by Christina Davis ~ Genre: YA Fantasy Adventure

When a heist goes terribly wrong and the binding spell holding 17-year-old Neva’s powers at bay is shattered, the half-human thief knows she’s in trouble.

Neva has always hidden her Da’Valian heritage while working risky jobs to make a name for herself and serving at her family’s tavern, but she won’t be able to hide much longer. She can either risk the safety of those she cares about or seek out her mother’s people to gain control over her emerging powers.

The Da’Valia are beautiful, brutal creatures created by the god of war, and the austere Da’Valian soldier Astiand reluctantly agrees to take Neva to his clan under his protection. She makes unexpected friends, including the handsome fighter Emiliand, and a new enemy in the clan’s ruthless leader.

Spying on her guardian, the sly heroine quickly discovers just how deep she has stumbled into a dangerous, developing clan feud.

Will she be able to embrace who she is in time to keep her loved ones safe?

⚠ This book is about a race of warriors and contains violent scenes, which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Here’s what early readers of BORN AT DAWN had to say…

• “It’s so good!!! I’m slightly obsessed ♥ …I need more Astiand and Neva moments” ★★★★★

• “I always wanted to read more and struggled to put the book down” ★★★★★

• “I adored the book. It’s unique, and the characters are incredible.” ★★★★★

• “The pacing of the plot was one of the things that impressed me when reading this book: from the high-tension beginning, to the way world-building details were strung seamlessly … every chapter left me eager to read more without making me feel as if I was being constantly strung along by cliffhangers.” ★★★★

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Christina Davis was raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and she spent much of her childhood in and out of hospitals, embracing reading as an escape. After being home-schooled through high school, she graduated summa cum laude from San Jose State University and attended NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute before embarking on a decade-long career in journalism. She enjoys chocolate, cosplay, coffee, and board games, but not necessarily in that order. She now lives in beautiful Monterey County with her husband and daughter.

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Would you like a chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card? Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

What inspired you to write this book?

The main thing that inspired me to write this book was Lilith Saintcrow’s Dante Valentine series. I know it’s strange to say an commercial urban fantasy series inspired you to write an epic fantasy series for new adult readers, but it did. Her story, the romance, and the imagery made me fall in love with an idea, which would be a spoiler for the third book of the trilogy, so I won’t go into that here. But, basically, reading good books is really inspirational for me.

What can we expect from you in the future?

Well, I have the second and third books in the Da’Valia Trilogy drafted, and I am working on editing them with the intent to publish the second book, Blood, Fire & Mercy, in 2021 and the third book by 2022. Beyond that, I have so many ideas floating around in my mind… choosing one will be hard.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in BORN AT DAWN?

Yes! Neva Roberts is the main character of Born at Dawn. She’s 17 and working three jobs to help support her family. She’s super closed off, even from those closest to her, because she’s a half-blood and her mother raised her to hide the non-human side. But Neva is also pretty kick-ass. She moonlights as a thief, she enjoys competing in knife-throwing tournaments, and she operates in a moral gray area. Her biggest struggle in the first book is self-acceptance. The secondary characters are her human family and gang of thieves, and then as the book progresses, the Da’Valia, who are essentially battle demons that were created by the god of war.

There’s a couple of love interests, and each is really a reflection of some part of Neva. There’s her thieving friend, Adam, who she grew up with; her Da’Valian guardian, Astiand, who is your typical alpha male; and a Da’Valian soldier, Emiliand, who is your “gray shirt” guy. I don’t want to say too much about him because I know I’ll give something away, but he speaks to Neva in a way different from the other guys.

How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?

OK, tell me if you’ve heard this one before – I started by pulling pieces of paper out of a hat. Seriously. When I finished college, I knew I wanted to write a book, and I needed some direction. I pulled out an occupation (thief) and a race (demon). Only I didn’t really want to write about a demon, so I decided to put my own spin on it. I wanted to create a people who complemented each other in a sort of yin and yang way. I also wanted them to be super honorable, courageous, valiant… And so the Da’Valia were born.

The hilans, the males of the race, have dark skin, hair, and horns. Their power is a night-sky black. But then on the other hand, the majilas, the females of the race, have white hair, skin and horns. Their power is sun-white and bright. They can use their powers together after a holy rite. I wanted the Da’Valia to be naturally fierce and brutal and purposefully proper and honorable.

Most of the Da’Valia characters were born out of these concepts. I didn’t even necessarily plan that Neva would operate in such a moral gray area, but I love that it worked out this way. She’s a half-breed, so it would only make sense that she does things a little differently.

Where did you come up with the names in the story?

This question makes me laugh because I only recently realized what a name nerd I am. I have four different baby name books that I reference, and I owned them all long before I ever even thought about becoming a mom. The human names in the book were chosen to evoke a certain feel, one of high fantasy in a northern ice city. For the Da’Valian names, I built my own simple naming convention – guys have “and” on the end of their names and girls have “zhi” on the ends of their names. Surnames among the Da’Valia include a clan marker and a word derived from Spanish that often might hint at what type of person the character is.

How did you come up with the title of your first novel?

Oh my. Titles are hard for writers, and I ran through so many options before I settled on BORN AT DAWN. Eventually, I asked myself, “what is the theme of the book?” and then I looked for a phrase that embodied the theme. Since majilas, female Da’Valia, were created by the god of war at dawn and Neva’s journey is one of self-acceptance, Born at Dawn became the title.

Who designed your book covers?

Ruxandra Tudorica of Methyss Art. She’s an artistic goddess. Her process is super interesting, beginning with a stock image of a model, progressing with 3D stock images of clothing, hair, weapons, etc. Then, she digitally paints over it to turn it into an illustration and she adds the background elements. I can’t recommend her highly enough. When I look at the cover of Born of Dawn, I feel like this character who I’ve gotten to know so intimately over the years, has truly come to life.

Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?

I learned a lot in the process of writing this book and this trilogy. I read so many books about plotting, took classes, challenged myself, asked other people to challenge me… My beta readers who tore into the first several chapters were perhaps the most helpful. I was able to learn from their constructive criticism and apply it throughout the book.

My husband also works in quality assurance and is one of the most critical people I know, so I asked him to be my consistency editor. During his paternity leave, we’d sit down at night or during nap time and go over his comments to troubleshoot them. In the process, I realized I couldn’t fake things or explain them away with magic. I needed to make sure every decision could be backed up if it was challenged. Rest assured, every decision in Born at Dawn can be defended! Haha. Anyway, now I feel as if my brain is wired differently, because as I write, I think to myself, could I defend this choice to my husband? And if the answer is no, I try again.

Anything specific you want to tell your readers?

Just, thank you so much for trusting a new indie author to take you on an adventure. I hope you love the book as much as I do!

What is your favorite part of this book and why?

So there are two scenes that I ADORE, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that the Da’Valia are a passionate race and Neva’s relationship with a certain hilan (a male Da’Valia) gives me all the good feels.

Disclaimer: The book is mild steamy – no actual smut takes place (and sorry if the word “smut” offended anyone. I think you either love the term or hate it, and I prefer to embrace it!).

If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day?

It would absolutely be Neva. We’d hang out, throw knives, and maybe get into trouble with her invisibility glamour.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

I have one character in Book 3 who was largely inspired by a friend of my parents growing up, but everyone else is from my imagination.

Have you written any other books that are not published?

Oh, yes, and they will never see the light of day! Haha. I wrote them when I was a teenager, so while I look back on them fondly, they really were the stepping stones to becoming the writer I am today.

If your book had a candle, what scent would it be?

Mmm… Something wintery or minty.

What did you edit out of this book?

I edited out two different beginnings to get things going right on Page 1. In one deleted beginning, Neva was meeting up with the crime lord who gave her a job, and in the another, she was on the job infiltrating a tower. The opening I went with, where she’s interrupted mid-job, seemed like a lot more fun.

I am excited to be one of many tour hosts sharing information about Born at Dawn by Christina Davis.