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Showing posts with label introductions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label introductions. Show all posts

Friday, August 11, 2017

Interview with Will

   My amazing sister is also releasing a book, which all of you people need to hustle over to Amazon and buy as soon as possible. I know you need this book in your lives.
   Regardless of my bias, she and two other lovely authors are releasing retellings of the famous fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. You can read my other posts about it here and here.

   
About the Book
“I, Calandra, of the Wingans, do bestow upon you, the Princess of Hanover, a gift. You have been given long life. I cannot interfere with that, but when you are sixteen years of age, you will prick your finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into an everlasting sleep.” She stepped closer so that she could be heard only by Liesel and her parents. “Then you will at last see the truth. Be wary. Be wise. Your fate rests upon yourself.”

On her sixteenth birthday, Princess Liesel Rosanna falls victim to a sleeping curse—but wakens in another world, a prisoner of war. As the bait in a trap for her fiancĂ©, the crown prince of Hanover, Liesel longs to escape back to the fairy tale world. The world where she is only wanting a true love’s kiss to set everything to rights.

As situations quickly grow dire, Liesel must choose which story to live, which life is real. The fate of her country rests on her decision.

Meet the author:

Morgan Elizabeth Huneke is a homeschool graduate who lives in Georgia. She has enjoyed creating characters and writing stories since early childhood. Books have always been a big part of her life, never more so than when working at the local library. Her other interests include reading, playing and teaching piano and violin, and politics. She is the author of Across the Stars and The Experiment as well as the Time Captives fantasy trilogy.


You can connect with Morgan on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.


   I was given the opportunity to sit down with one of the characters from Twisted Dreams and interview him. Check it out! I had a few interviews I needed to schedule this week, so I crammed them all into one day. The previous interview I refer to will be posted tomorrow.


   I settle in my comfortable armchair, place my notebook and pencil on my lap, and gaze around my interview room. My characters like to call it an interrogation room, but it's not my fault they don't like my mood lighting. I personally enjoy the bleak concrete walls, the sole light bulb in the middle of the ceiling, and the hard wooden chair. If my characters didn't want to experience it, then they should be more forthcoming to me. However, it's not my own characters I have to wrestle in here today.
   "Next!" I call out.
   The door opens and a tall young man wearing a dress military uniform steps inside and sits down in the interrogation chair.
   I smile at him and pick up my pencil. "Hello, Will, and welcome to my blog. Please excuse the cookie crumbs, they’re left over from my previous interview. I haven’t had a chance to sweep up yet."
   Will looks around at the cookie crumbs, but makes no comment on them. “Do you make a habit of pulling characters from their stories in order to ask them questions? If you would, please make it brief; I hate to be away from Liesel. She needs me.”
  "My personal habits are none of your concern. Just be glad this room is covered in cookie crumbs and not blood." Will frowns, but I speak before he has a chance to answer. "So, let’s move on to the questions, so we can get this done quickly. Heaven forbid we deprive Liesel of your company for fifteen minutes of the day." Will opens his mouth as if to answer, much offended, but I beat him to speaking. "We are all aware that you would give your life for Liesel, but would you give your life for your brother Matthew? What would you do if he were captured and threatened with death?"
   “Liesel is my fiancĂ©e, and therefore always my priority, but Matthew is my little brother. I could never leave him to die, nor would Liesel let me. Matt is as much a brother to her as he is to me. Naturally, I would have to discuss the details with Liesel before proceeding. I couldn’t leave Liesel alone in the world, however. It would all depend on the circumstances, how far I would go.”
   Amazing how his answer cycled back to Liesel almost immediately. "If you were banished from your kingdom, what would you seek to do to support yourself and your soon-to-be wife?"
   Will blinks in confusion. “Why would I be banished? I am the crown prince. If I was banished, who would be king when my father is gone? Matthew isn’t equipped to be king, nor has he ever wanted to be. Aside from that, none but my father has the authority to banish me, and he would never think to do so. It is a moot point.”
   "I think it is anything but a moot point, but since I doubt I'll ever be able to convince you otherwise, let's move on to your favorite subject, shall we? How far would you go to save the life of Liesel?"
   “I would do anything to save Liesel.” Will stares at me intensely, a solemn look in his eye. “Liesel is the light of my life. I love her better than my own self, better than anyone else I know. I can’t live without her.” He swallows hard. “I’d do anything for her.”
   Ugh, this was getting sickening. Time to move on to a different subject. "Do you like animals? If so, have you ever had any pets?"
   Will shrugs. “Matthew was always the one who liked animals. Our dog was mostly his, and he was always bringing in rabbits and mice and such things. I didn’t mind them, but I was more focused on learning the things necessary to lead and fight for Hanover.”
    "Wow, an answer that had nothing whatsoever to do with Liesel," I exclaim. "Well done, Wilhelm." I lean back in my chair and ready my pencil, though my notebook page contains nothing but doodles. "And last, but not least, have you ever been annoyed before by other couples’ public displays of affection?"
   Will eyes me suspiciously. “I feel as if that is a pointed question. When you are yet to be married and therefore must have chaperones, displays of affection are by default public. It isn’t ideal, and yes, most people are bothered by such things, but what else are you supposed to do? Besides, Liesel and I displaying affection towards one another in front of Matthew is hardly public.”
   "I admire your education. Obviously you were very well taught about how to be a politician and the art of never answering questions with a straight answer." I raise my eyebrows and try to keep a smile off my face.
   Will has a look on his face that I can only describe as exasperation.“When I was a child, perhaps, but now that I am an adult, I can understand why others do it, and it does not faze me.”
   I sit back and rest my chin on my hand. "You may go whenever you like."
   Will immediately rises and strides out of the room.


   So there you have it! Hopefully that was intriguing enough to induce you to buy the book immediately. And add it to your Goodreads. And explore the rest of the blog tour.

   I'll see you once you're done reading the book.

   Don't forget to join the giveaway!

Monday, August 7, 2017

Interview with Kendra E. Ardnek

On this very day, not one, not two, but three Sleeping Beauty short stories have been released by their caring authors into the wild to survive on their own. To celebrate this very momentous occasion, I have been given the opportunity to interview one of these brave, caring authors: Kendra E. Ardnek! So now, without further ado, I present to you the illustrious cover of the small little book Kendra is now releasing.





About the Book
Everyone knows that Sleeping Beauty's curse is triggered when she pricks her finger on a spindle and that she is awakened by true love's kiss...but what happens when the wicked fairy decides to switch things up?

Edmund didn't mean to put Auralea to sleep, but now it's up to him and the famous Puss in Boots to figure out how, exactly, a spinning wheel is supposed to awaken her.






Let me introduce you to Kendra:

About the Author
Kendra E. Ardnek is a homeschool graduate who picked up a pen at an early age and never put it down. The eldest of four, she makes her home in the Piney Woods of East Texas with her parents, younger siblings, giant herd of giraffes, and honor guard of nutcrackers. 

You can connect with Kendra on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.



Now, I invite you to sit down with me as I ply questions to this intriguing author.

Hello, Kendra, and welcome to my blog! Go ahead and introduce yourself to the readers.

Hello, readers! It is so, so nice to meet all of you. I love readers – they’re, like, my favorite sort of people. Able to look at these little black lines that I put onto paper and somehow translate it into words, and somehow they can interpret those words into stories, and it’s just plain amazing.
Stay awesome, readers, stay awesome.

What draws you to fairy tale retellings?

The ability to revisit my favorite stories over and over, yet they be different every time. I read Ella Enchanted, and Ella’s an independent young lady cursed with obedience. I read Cinder, and Cinder’s a cyborg. In Secret of the Hazel Tree, Cynthia’s going to the ball to solve a murder mystery (And, Kiri, if you read this, I NEEEEEEED you to publish this so I can shout my love for it from the rooftops). In CinderEddy, it’s an adventure to save a princess from a tower. MoM (Sorry, title not revealed yet), the prince doesn’t even know how to dance, and they meet because she just happens to find the curtain he was hiding behind.
But it’s Cinderella every time. There’s still the theme of hard work, honesty, overcoming oppression, and finding a better future.

How did you get obsessed with MBTI personality types?

I’m not obsessed – it’s my sister who’s obsessed. I will absorb the obsessions of anyone I’m close to, though. I find them fascinating, though, learning how people’s minds work.

What are your future authorial plans?

World domination.
I’m in the process of revising all of my published books, giving them a bit of a spit and a polish, adding a bit of content to some of them. And I’m giving all six of my novels brand-new, 1000 times more gorgeous covers. You can go here for more information. https://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/2017/07/1000th-post.html?
I’m currently writing Worth of a King, which I hope to have ready to release in the fall of next year. I just finished The Seven Drawers, a retelling of Snow White for the Rooglewood contest, and am currently considering writing two more retellings of the tale – Red as Snow and Snowella White. So, yeah, lots on my plate.

Who are your favorite authors and how have they influenced you?

C.S. Lewis – my first serious work of any length was a script for a play based on LWW, a play that was never produced but eventually morphed into what is now Lady Dragon, Tela Du.
J.R.R. Tolkien – Before I was rewriting Narnia, I was kidnapping hobbits.
Gail Carson Levine – she reawakened my love for fairy tale retellings.
Laura Ingalls Wilder – It was thanks to her that I realized that books were written by people, and thus a viable career option for me.

What advice would you give to new or aspiring authors?

1 – Write, write, write. Aspiring doesn’t get you anywhere if you don’t create content.
2 -  Edit, edit, edit. Content doesn’t get you anywhere if it stinks.

3 – Market, market, market. Build your platform even before you’re ready to publish. Perfect content doesn’t get you anywhere if no one knows about it.


Ah, and I'm sure if more authors were to heed that advice, the flocks of stories continuously released into the wild would be more ready to face this frightening world alone, would they not? Alas, for the many stories who do not survive... But hurrah for the few who do, of which I am certain Poison Kiss will be one. Let me introduce you further to it before we move on:

Illustrious Snippet:
“Ah, now you’ve done it, boy,” came a silky, unfamiliar voice, and the princess’s large, blue-gray cat bounded onto the arm of the couch.
“You – did you just talk?” asked Edmund. First a sleeping princess, and now a talking cat?
“I did,” said the cat, licking his paw. “My vow of silence is at its end.”
“Are – are you a shapeshifter?”
“Oh, dear me, no!” The cat started preening its whiskers. “I am the Great Puss of the Boots. Perhaps you’ve heard of me? I eat shapeshifters for breakfast.”
“Um, yes,” said Edmund. He nodded towards the sleeping princess. “Do you have any idea…”
“She’s cursed, that’s the long and short of it,” Puss explained. “And you, dear boy, were the implement of bringing it about. The dear girl shall sleep for a hundred years until she is awakened by a spinning wheel.”
“A hundred years...”
“She’s Sleeping Beauty, and such is her curse. Although, now that you mention it, Geneva didn’t actually specify the hundred years, so maybe you’re in luck. Quick now, there’s a spinning wheel in the closet for just this sort of emergency.”
“A…” Edmund stared in confusion.
“Quick boy! I’d do it myself, but I don’t have hands.”

Such an intriguing snippet cannot help but implore you to purchase this book. Please, show it some love and take it into your hearts. 

I have also been informed you are also able to view this book on the Goodreads and add it to your lists. You may do so here.

Now that we have properly celebrated the momentous occasion on this my blog, I invite you to participate even more in the festivities by exploring the Blog Tour Schedule. Auf wiedersehen!


Don't forget to join the giveaway!

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Introducing Peter Oglethorpe

Name: Peter James Oglethorpe, Jr. (He was named after his paternal grandfather.)
Physical appearance: Golden brown hair which he wears longish-short (think Luke Skywalker), brown eyes, medium build, 6’ tall.
Personality type: INFP.
This picture isn't exact (his hair needs to be more golden and his eyes need to be brown), but it's close enough.
Via Pinterest



Peter's had to fight pain all his life, from his condition as well as from constant fights, so he has a super-high pain tolerance, however, he often has trouble walking and speaking, with occasional muscle convulsions and asthma attacks. Sometimes his neurons are overwhelmed and he passes out for no reason.
He is shy but snarky, and disdainful of all government officials, especially federal ones. He has somewhat mastered his terror of strangers when at or near his hometown, but can have trouble taming it in new or stressful situations. However, he is a people watcher.
He's a strong Christian, but he suffers from depression and chronic nightmares and sometimes can find it hard to keep his mind together. He deals with his emotional attacks and depression by playing the violin and reading the Scriptures they saved from when they lost their last Bible.
His best friends are Jen, his twin sister, and Katie, one of his neighbors. He really loves Katie and has always planned on marrying her. He was also really close to two of his brothers who he lost in tragic accidents. He blames himself for the death of one of his brothers.  He feels an almost painful need to protect his family, and can overextend himself trying to meet their emotional needs. Losing the rest of his family terrifies him and he does his best not to think about it.
He doesn't like needles or doctors or scientists or science experiments. He abhors them, but is not afraid of them beyond getting trapped.  He doesn't like NYC, but can handle it. He can't, however, handle parades usually. He often passes out and doesn't like to sleep, as nightmares and restlessness usually plague him. He usually writes or reads instead, when not in severe pain.
His sense of humor keeps him from breaking and growing crazy under the pressure and emotional and physical instability. His sense of humor can be super morbid, but Jonathan, his brother, and Jen and sometimes Katie play along, because the only alternative is to scream.
He really loves America and is very independence-minded. Saving his country is one of his biggest goals.

So, what do you think of Peter?


Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Introducing the Condemned Patriot Series

Four years ago, my family and I were on vacation on St. George Island in Florida. We had rented a house and brought our Wii so we could watch Netflix. While we were there, we watched a popular movie Glenn Beck had talked about on the radio. This movie was The Hunger Games. We really liked it, and when we got home, my sister checked out the books from the library and we read all of them.

Before I read Mockingjay, my sister told me about Peeta's hijacking. Even though I was prepared for it, I didn't like how he was treating Katniss, so I quickly set up a fanfic in my head to yell at him. (It was a weird habit I had at the time. I'd set up my own characters and situations to provoke characters in books and movies that were annoying me.) In order to provoke Peeta (as the true writer I was) I gave the girl yelling at Peeta a brainwashed friend that she had grown up with (because I really liked childhood friends that wound up falling in love). I named her friend Peter since it was close to Peeta, and I named her Katherine since it was close to Katniss (but decided to call her Katie since I didn't like the name Katherine).

I quickly took my new characters away from their task of yelling at Peeta Mellark and threw them into my own story. I had been wanting some childhood best friends that fell in love that had actual conflict around them, and jumped on them as my chance. In order to escape cliches, I made brainwashed Peter an idiot, not evil. Partially because I had just read The Hunger Games and partially because I just liked the concept, I made Peter and Katie young teenagers fighting to free a declining America. Then I started making up stories about them in my head. (The first one involved Peter getting un-brainwashed and then getting injured in a plane crash.)

I never intended to write about Peter and Katie. I just made up stories about them to amuse myself. But as I developed their story and their world more and more, I just couldn't keep it in anymore and had to write it down so I could share them with my family. The very first time I tried to write about them, I quickly realized Peter had replaced Katie as the protagonist, a realization that was made easier by the fact that my sister had just written an entire draft following the wrong protagonist. So I erased the paragraph I had written and started anew.

I wrote the beginning of their story several times and gave up. Then I wrote some short stories about later in Peter's life and the war which tricked me into first being longer than I thought, and then turning into a series. Through the process of the several drafts I half-finished, I expanded Peter's family from two siblings to ten (all of whom I ended up killing), developed many side characters (only a few of which have lasted), took Peter on many adventures which revealed a lot of his personality, developed his romance with Katie, gave him a future, and learned a lot about writing. I also named the potential book series: Condemned Patriot. Then I got involved in other things and let the Condemned Patriot series simmer in my mind for a while. I removed many of the Hunger Games elements, scrapped childish and cliche plot lines, and decided I needed to rewrite the series from the beginning so it would make sense.

I started the first book on January 1, 2016, fresh with a new name and everything: Awakened. I got to the First Major Plot Point (after Peter's dad revealed that he wasn't as great a guy as I thought he was) and...got stuck. Majorly stuck. I had no idea where I needed to go with the story. So I put the draft away for a while and shoved the story into the back of my mind.

In June, I read this post on K. M. Weiland's blog about plotting your book by starting with the antagonist. I realized that my protagonist was driving the plot instead of my antagonist, who should have been the catalyst. So one day I sat down at the piano and brainstormed the plot (and had many, many characters refuse to die on me). Elated, I sat down again and started a new draft of Awakened, this time starting with the First Major Plot Point. I liked how it went until I hit halfway, where I...had no plan. I wound up taking rabbit trails, some of which I liked, but most of which I hated. Then I got stuck in the climax. I tried filling in the beginning, but that also failed to help. I scrapped the second half of the story and rethought what I did and didn't like about my second draft. I drew on the feedback my mom and sister had given me when they had read my unfinished draft. I took my mom's suggestion to make Peter fifteen instead of twelve, and then aged him even more to eighteen when I realized I didn't like writing about him as a kid. I also took my sister's suggestion of giving Peter's twin sister, a very new addition, her own subplot. I scrapped the elements I didn't like (the trial, the mental hospital, Peter's extraneous little sister, and the absence of Katie for most of the story) and sat down and rethought the entire plot...again. This time it took me two months to rethink what had taken me the second half of 2016 to accomplish.

Finally, in February, I had a breakthrough. I plotted the entire story and realized I would have to rewrite it...again. So, in February/March I started draft three of Awakened. So far, I really like the way this draft is going. It bears almost no resemblance to the story it was in 2013, and hardly any resemblance to even the second draft. I've had to scrap the outlines I had for the future books and have changed the number of books in the series from 6 to "we'll see." It's been a long journey with these characters which I will be on for a while, but I'm excited to share Awakened with the world when it's ready.

I'm currently participating in Camp NaNo in an effort to make myself sit down and actually write. Hopefully soon I'll be done with this draft and start with editing. Until then, here's a short description:

In an America torn by revolution, a desperate freedom-fighter is forced to choose between keeping his family safe and struggling to lift the oppression of his people.

And if you want to learn more, you can browse my Pinterest boards for the series and the first book.