Guest Post: B.D. Bruns (Author of In the House of Leviathan)

I'm ecstatic to introduce to you B.D. Bruns as he shares his experiences and how it shaped his writing. Thanks for stopping by!

Adventurer B. D. Bruns has traveled to over 50 countries to gather material for his bestselling books. He's won 19 national and international book awards, including three national Book of the Year awards. Bruns' first fiction book, The Gothic Shift (2014) won the International Book Awards Best Short Story Collection. He also contributes to Yahoo Travel, BBC, CNN, The Daily Beast, and The Travel Channel. 

Bruns' travel adventures span from entering the Pyramids of Giza and swimming in the Panama Canal to climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and touring Torture Museums in Estonia. He has attended ceremonies from the descendants of cannibals in the South Pacific and has been consulted by a ghost tour in Malta. After residing in Dracula's hometown for several years, Bruns moved to Las Vegas with his Romanian wife, where they live with two cats, Julius and Caesar.

The Love of Old Things

Having begun my writing career as a travel writer in narrative nonfiction, sharing where I’ve been and what I’ve done was the whole point. Luckily I’ve been to fifty-plus nations and done a lot of wild things, so writing about them was easy (assuming people believed me, which sometimes they didn't!). When I recently switched to fiction I had to figure out how my experiences could benefit this new genre. Making the exercise even more interesting is that I switched from humor to horror!

Ultimately, the best kind of horror is equally dependent upon an author’s experiences and imagination. Guillermo del Toro, who brought us the scary movies Pan’s Labyrinth and The Orphanage, was an orphan himself. Stephen King famously wrote Misery because crazy fans were overwhelming him and his poor secretary. But one need not be abducted by aliens to write a convincing horror thriller. After all, have you ever asked someone if they’ve ever seen a ghost? When researching for a book I wrote years ago (Comstock Phantoms) I interviewed dozens of people who had ghostly encounters and each story could be accurately summed up as, “I was doing whatever… AND I SAW A GHOST!” Please note that this is neither a scary statement nor even a scary premise. Of course, most people are not born storytellers, thus it circles back to imagination. 

So, really, how does personal experience fit in? Allow me to indulge in a review of mine from Midwest Book Reviews: “In the House of Leviathan neatly demonstrates the fact that the best kind of horror/thriller combination is spiced with an author's experiences: in fact, the idea for this book came to B.D. Bruns as he was sailing off the coast of Italy, and is based on his love of museums and old things.”

Indeed, I visited a thousand year old paper mill. Obviously making paper isn’t interesting enough to normal human beings to be the driving force of a thriller. But some of the things I saw in that deep, dark cellar certainly were. The area was inherently fascinating, with complex chutes and canals of stone that looked like an M.C. Escher nightmare. In the darkest corners were huge, violent shredding machines with nail-tipped wooden mallets. Rotting rag heaps had kept the air dismal and and dangerous. These interesting and surprising things hidden in the stone below ground were used to make paper for the Vatican—itself a dramatic location. 

That museum showed me a unique setting with a hundred ways to die horribly. Drowning, infection, mauling. Why choose one when I can have them all? But what would be the odds of all the worst ways to die happening at once? Well, why not stack the odds by having a conscious, negative force making worst case scenarios all the more likely? Thus was my first thriller novel born of a personal experience and a bit of imagination. 

If you want to know more about Brian and his books please visit his sites below.
Website: http://www.bdbruns.com/
Twitter: @LoveBruns
Facebook: BDBruns

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IN THE HOUSE OF LEVIATHAN by B.D. BRUNS
Pub. Date: February 11, 2015
Publisher: World Waters

"An absorbing story that sacrifices light predictability for depth and solid development, making In the House of Leviathan a standout." - Midwest Book Review

From 3X Book of the Year winner comes an edge of the seat paranormal thriller in the exotic Amalfi coast. An exorcism was the first thought but last desire of Giuseppe. His contentment working with his sister at their ancient paper mill in 1860s Italy is shattered when he witnesses Old Man Grapaldi summoning the Devil. Omens from the sea threaten the village and bizarre, violent happenings at their mill threaten his family. With their church rocked by inner turmoil and so many good men succumbing to dark secrets, Giuseppe himself must overcome his fears and his physical handicap to save his beloved sister.

Order In the House of Leviathan

Chameleon Blog Tour - Guest Post by Kelly Oram

I'm today's Blog Tour Stop for Kelly Oram's CHAMELEON. I'm so excited she agreed to share with readers why she loves urban fantasy.

Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen–a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which family and friends still tease her. She's obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and loves to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and four children.

Why I love urban fantasy.

Why do I love urban fantasy? Well, for one, I am married to a huge geek. Over the years my husband has slowly corrupted me to the point where I now love a good dungeon crawl, and own my own set of 10-sided dice that no one else is allowed to roll but me. (And yes, I spent a good long time at the game store rolling all the different pairs of dice until I found my dice.) I’m not saying you have to be a geek to love fantasy, but when you spend a lot of time playing fantasy board games or learning how to role-play a good D&D campaign, you just grow a love for the genre.

I think I’d be a huge fantasy nerd even without my husband though. I have a crazy imagination. I love to be transported to different worlds. I love to hear new lore, and love to see how things play out when you have a different, magical set of rules to live by. I spend every second of my real life in a contemporary world. Reading, writing, watching movies, playing games—all of those activities are my escape. When I do those things, I want to get as far away from normal as I can.

From a writing standpoint, I think I love urban fantasy because I get to be a lot more creative. When you’re dealing with contemporary stories, you’re restricted to what a normal human can do, and you’re restricted to dealing with everyday life problems. I do love a good contemporary story. Books that can draw emotion from a reader, or stories that a reader can relate to on a personal level are sometimes the most powerful books out there. But sometimes you just want to pull out your seraph blade, get a little bloody, and send some evil creatures back to the underworld. Know what I mean? Who doesn’t enjoy saving the world with a good fight every now and then?

CHAMELEON by Kelly Oram

Publisher: Bluefields

Publication date: 6/22/2013

Series: Supernaturals

For small-town rebel Dani Webber magic and monsters are no more real than the Easter Bunny… until the day she accidentally stops time. Dani quickly discovers that not only do supernaturals exist, but she herself is one of them. This is great news for her life-long best friend Russ, who can finally come clean about his own supernatural status and his undying love for her. Before the two can start to enjoy the long overdue relationship, Dani is taken by a powerful council of supernaturals who believe she is the Chosen One destined to save them from extinction.

As if being kidnapped and expected to save the world isn’t bad enough, an ancient prophecy warns of the Chosen One’s dark nature: “Only the truest love will keep her an agent for good.” The council believes they know who this “true love” is and, unfortunately, that person isn’t Russ. The mysterious, powerful and devastatingly handsome Seer is the last person Dani wants in her life, but when she starts having visions of a horrific future, she has no one else to turn to for help.

Soon Dani finds herself torn between two very different boys with two very different opinions of whom she can trust. With the visions getting worse and time running out, Dani is forced to put aside her feelings and work with both the Seer and Russ before an ancient evil is unleashed upon the earth.

Check out a sneak peak of CHAMELEON here!

Kelly is giving away a $50 amazon card here! Go enter the contest!

Other Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyoram
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelly-Oram/167476866620455?ref=hl 

Blog Tour: Guest Post by Elise Allen (Author of Populazzi)

I'm today's stop on Elise Allen's Blog Tour for Populazzi. Please welcome Elise as she shares with readers the Popularity Tower levels in her book

Elise Allen has among the most random television-writing resumes ever, with credits that run the gamut from Cosby to Dinosaur Train. She recently fulfilled one of her many life’s ambitions by writing for the Muppets. Another ambition, anytime-access to Disneyland’s Club 33, is for the moment still a pipe dream. Elise has a sick penchant for running marathons, and can’t seem to stop even though fifteen really should be enough already. She lives in L.A. with her husband, daughter, and insatiable food-hound of a dog, Riley. For more, visit http://www.eliseallen.com/ or follow Elise on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EliseLAllen

Hi, Tina! Thanks for having me on the blog! Today I’m offering up a Quiz based on the Popularity Tower levels in my book, Populazzi.

Where would you place on the popularity tower? Read on and find out!

1. As you read this, you are surrounded by:

A. A crowd of friends and wanna-bes.

B. No idea – you’re too lost in your own deep thoughts to pay attention to what or who is around you.

C. One to three BFF’s, all laughing with you at inside jokes Star Wars Marathon!

D. A herd of life-sized Thestrals you built with Legos.


2. Your greatest fear is…

A. Waking up unpopular.

B. Probably going to happen. It’s a bleak world, and the worst thing you can imagine will most likely smack you in the face.

C. Your best friends moving away and leaving you with no one.

D. “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” {You say this, of course, in a Yoda voice.}

3. The perfect boyfriend/girlfriend….

A. …will make everyone else seethe with jealousy.

B. …won’t want to talk much – would rather think deep thoughts and hook up.

C. …will totally fit in with my friends.

D. …can speak Klingon.


4. Your idea of a perfect Saturday night is:

A. Dancing at the hottest club in town.

B. Sitting outside and pondering the meaninglessness of it all.

C. Watching goofy movies and eating pizza with your closest friends

D. “Star Wars Marathon! All six movies, no stopping – who’s with me?”


5. What do you love most about high school?

A. Hello! You own the place.

B. Unfair question. You can’t love something you don’t think about, and you don’t think about high school. You have deeper things on your mind.

C. You love your group of friends, but the whole popularity thing is pretty awful.

D. High school sucks, but it’s a blip. You get to have real life -- in twenty years, your graduating class will wish they were you.

And now… THE RESULTS!

If you answered mostly A’s, you are a POPULAZZI, the highest level on the Popularity Tower. You are the social scene, and you’re adored and feared in equal parts by everyone else at school. Your status is your top priority, and you calculate every move to maintain it.

If you answered mostly B’s, you are a DANGER ZONE. You’re too deep, dark, and brooding to pay attention to the social scene, but it pays attention to you. You exude cool, even though you wouldn’t be caught dead actively trying to do so.

If you answered mostly C’s, you are a CUBBY CREW. These small groups of close friends are held together by common interests (i.e. Theater Geeks) or long-term BFF-ships. Together, a Cubby Crew’s members shine; without their group, each member struggles, lost in the wider social scene.

If you answered mostly D’s, you are a HAPPY HOPELESS. If you’re into something, you go 100% fanboy/fangirl, no matter how dorky it makes you look. Are you at the bottom of the popularity tower? Sure. Would you trade your life for the Populazzi’s? Never in a million years.

Where did you end up? Shoot me an email and let me know – I’d love to hear!

Want to know more about the Popularity Tower levels, and how one girl climbs her way through them? Check out Populazzi and give it a read!

Thanks for stopping by Elise!

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POPULAZZI by Elise Allen

Pub. Date: August 2011

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Format: Hardcover , 400pp

Age Range: Young Adult

What would you do if you had the chance to erase your past and reinvent yourself as the person you’ve always wanted to be? Would you grab it? Would you stick with it, no matter what the consequences?

Cara Leonard always wished she could be one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and never at a loss for the perfect thing to say. One of the Populazzi.

It always seemed impossible… but now could be her chance.

When Cara moves to a new school just before junior year, her best friend urges her to seize the opportunity and change her life… with the help of The Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms herself into the perfect girlfriend for guys higher and higher on the Popularity Tower, she can reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi, the most popular girl in school.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment — a straight climb up — but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.

Blog Tour: Guest post with Alyxandra Harvey (Author of Haunting Violet)

I'm today's stop on the Haunting Violet Blog Tour. Please welcome Alyxandra Harvey as she shares with readers about her favorite setting to write and how it influenced her writing.

Alyxandra Harvey lives in a stone Victorian house in Ontario, Canada with a few resident ghosts who are allowed to stay as they keep company manners. She loves medieval dresses, used to be able to recite all of The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, and has been accused, more than once, of being born in the wrong century. She believes this to be mostly true except for the fact that she really likes running water, women’s rights, and ice cream.

HAUNTING VIOLET is her latest novel. You can find it in a bookstore near you!

Victorian Britain, and the 1870’s especially, are such an integral part of Haunting Violet that they may as well be a character in their own right. I have a very developed soft spot for the 19th century, from the waltzes and fireworks at Vauxhall to the Great Exhibition, to the later interest in the paranormal. There could be no other setting for my novel, I knew that as soon as Violet spoke to me. But since I knew more about the social mores of the Regency than the later Victorian years, I had to broaden my scope.

Since research is another love of mine, this was hardly a chore.

Proper historical research was mostly done through books. I used recent forays into Victorian society and séances and also the irreplaceable “Mrs. Beetons”. We invited a medium to have a sitting for us. A friend let me play with her set of Victorian camisoles, corset, gloves and parasol. I was able to admire tiny stitches and the thin white cotton and ribbon details. And having never been to Highgate Cemetery myself, I found YouTube videos surprisingly helpful!

For flavour and atmosphere, I watched movies . Let me underscore that one doesn’t watch movies for historical accuracy! Regardless, I especially love “Little Women” and “Possession”. And I apparently have a thing for striped Victorian dresses. Violet gets to wear one mostly because I love the carriage dress at the end of Legend of Sleepy Hollow—which isn’t remotely Victorian but it reminds me of another lovely striped dress from the end of “‘North and South”, which is definitely Victorian.

You just never know where you’ll find your inspiration and I’ve learned not to argue with the Muse. She likes poetry, Mary Oliver, the Bronte sisters, history, bustles, swords and striped dresses.

And Irish pickpockets of course!

 

Thanks for stopping by Alyx!

For more information about Alyxandra Harvey and her books, please visit her website here.

Blog Tour: Guest Post by Jennifer Jabaley (Author of Crush Control)

Please welcome Jennifer Jabaley as she shares with readers about Crush Do's & Don'ts.

Born in New York and raised in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Jennifer Jabaley is a graduate of James Madison University and Southern College of Optometry. She began writing in 2006 and tries to manage optometry, writing and motherhood. She lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia with her husband and two children.

CRUSH CONTROL is her latest novel. You can find it in a bookstore near you!

Do's and Don'ts around your Crush

What if the gorgeous guy in your history class doesn't even know you exist? How do you get his attention? If you were Willow Grey, you'd lower your voice and lull your crush into a trance then hypnotize him to think you were the one for him. Oh, if only we all had the ability to control our circumstances! But what to do if you don't possess such unique abilities? What should you do to get inside your crush's head?

Be sweet.Sure the antics of the mean girl may attract people's attention, but ultimately, the good guys want to date nice girls.

Be the one to start the conversation. Don't wait around for him to say 'hi!' If the idea of saying hi makes you squirm, then ask a question - that guarantees a response!

Be confident. Don't slump! How will he notice you if you're hiding in the corner? The way you feel about yourself has a huge impact on how others view you! If you're confident, people will view you as having it all together and under control.

Be fun to be around. Keep the tone light. Anyone wearing a smile is more approachable than one who is not. Create an inside joke with your crush. And don't forget to flirt!

Sure, maybe you don't have a swinging watch and an ability to hypnotize your crush, but with some simple do's and don'ts, your crush will notice you in no time!

Thanks for stopping by Jennifer!

For more information about Jennifer Jabaley and her books, please visit her website here.

Check out more Blog Stops @ The Story Siren - today & The Electrical Book Café - June 12

Guest Post: Myra McEntire (Author of Hourglass)

Please welcome Myra McEntire as she shares with readers about the local legends from the town Ivy Springs is based on.

Myra McEntire knows the words to every R and B hit of the last decade, but since she lives in the country music capital of America where her lyrical talents go sadly unappreciated, she chose to channel her mad word skills into creating sultry Southern timeslip novels. 

But if you catch her at a signing, she can probably be convinced to rap with you anyway.

HOURGLASS is her first novel. It will be released June 14, 2011!

Ivy Springs is based on Franklin, Tennessee. It is rich in Civil War history and Victorian architecture.

Franklin is very walkable, much like Ivy Springs.

Windows like these play very prominently into the first chapter of HOURGLASS...

Puckett's Grocery is a landmark business, and I chose to model Murphy's Law Coffee after it!

I can just see Lily and Em at one of these cafe tables!

Here's another great site about Franklin:

http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/southern-region/franklin-tn.html

Thanks for stopping by Myra!

For more information about Myra McEntire and her books, please visit her website here.

Blog Tour: Guest Post by Dawn Metcalf (Author of Luminous)

Flowing from Electrifying Reviews, the next stop on the MundiMoms' LUMINOUS Blog Tour is Fantastic Book Review.

Dawn Metcalf has no good excuse for the way she writes. She lived in a normal, loving, suburban home, studied hard, went to college, went to graduate school, got married, had babies, and settled down in northern Connecticut. Despite this wholesome lifestyle, she has clearly been corrupted by fairy tales, puppet visionaries, British humour, and graphic novels. As a result, she writes dark, quirky, and sometimes humorous speculative fiction.

LUMINOUS is her debut novel. It will be released June 30, 2011.

Shape-shifting in LUMINOUS

When I think of shape-shifting, I think of werewolves. Or werecats, werearmadillos, or werepandas, depending on your bent. Of course, every time I read the word "were[anything]" I immediately think of the Young Frankenstein bit: "Werewolf!" "There, wolf! There, castle!" "Why are you talking like that?" "...I thought you wanted me to." so there you go.

While Consuela does create skins that allow her the ability to become one with fire and water and change forms into things like a flock of butterflies, I'd never considered that shape-shifting as much as camouflaging to blend into the surroundings, specifically those surroundings that, at a given moment, were present and convenient to save someone's life. Yes, Consuela rode the winds in a skin of air, but as Tender asks her in the story, is it that she's become air or is she wearing air? Is Consuela the air or has the air become her? It's a fine line, but I think of it as more the case of her borrowing what's around her to cloak herself in the environment rather than her actually becoming something else entirely. She doesn't get that distinction, she feels the power, the rush, but as the author sitting firmly in the comfy chair in my office, I can make these boring, analytical calls. (Not born of envy in the slightest. Nope nope nope.)

On the other hand, there's Joseph Crow. He can shape-shift and while it's not as loup-garou, I did borrow from a lot of actual Native American totems and one particular type of vision quest ritual in order to make his power feel real. Joseph Crow is a character born out of my love and study of the Plains Indian tribes of North America, another lingering memory from college, and my work with the Native American Art Gallery during the birth of the White Buffalo in nearby Wisconsin (a pretty wild time to be connected to the community, let me tell you!), add my lifelong love of mythology and cultural myths, and--oddly enough--a research project I was doing with a professor at Northwestern University examining self- and body-image. I'd been doing many interviews in niche populations and I'd met this one man who had scars on his chest and he explained that it was from an old ritual (one that I recognized from books) that he used to have out-of-body experiences; essentially, he got high through pain. It was a striking concept and the idea obviously stuck with me. I borrowed this as the trigger for Joseph Crow, extending it to include why he has so many body piercings, and linked it to his transformation into one of the totemic animals in the directional sphere (north, south, east, west, upper, lower, and within). Much like I had with Dia de los Muertos and Consuela, I borrowed heavily from the colors and iconic imagery associated with the Native American Plains' traditions so that I could anchor Joseph Crow in resonance and history, so that his power in the Flow was something that was, in some sense, real. Joseph Crow can transform into these animals as well as become a sort of amalgam of all of them: a terrifying specter of all the protective animals. So while I credit the origins of both characters with the traditions of calaveras or carvings that have existed previously, my aim was to create "modern myths" of a sort of guardian Lady of the Dead and an awesomely powerful totemic knight.

Those came from between my ears.

Thanks for stopping by Dawn!

For more information about Dawn Metcalf and her books, please visit her website here.

This guest post on the MundiMoms' LUMINOUS Blog Tour was brought to you by the letter: U.

Collect all the letters along the blog tour, unscramble the puzzle, and win a secret surprise as well as an extra entry in the LUMINOUS Grand Prize Giveaway, June 30th! Details at http://www.dawnmetcalf.com/.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Augusta Blythe (Author of Winterborne)

Please welcome Augusta today as she shares with readers her favorite scenes to write and a juicy snippet from her current novel Winterborne.

Augusta Blythe is the author of Winterborne, the first book in the Universe Unbound series.  She is also a lawyer on two continents and currently lives in England with her husband, two children, a fish, a shrimp and a mine urchin.  To learn a whole lot about nothing in particular, visit her blog at http://augustablythe.blogspot.com/.

A big thanks to Tina for letting a debut author loose on her blog today – I really appreciate the opportunity. 

Tina suggested that I discuss my favorite type of scenes to write.  It’s a tough choice because they’re all good fun, even the ones that involve death-by-leprechaun or breaking someone’s heart (masochist that I am).  In this story, though, I particularly enjoyed capturing Loie’s reactions to the strange events happening around her. 

Loie is a typical teen in a small town whose best friend is, according to family legend, on the verge of developing supernatural powers.  Loie has always been content to let Mia be the shining star.  She’s the vanilla scoop to Mia’s Blizzard with supernatural sprinkles.  (As a South Jersey native I know I’m supposed to say jimmies, but alliteration trumps colloquialism.)  As Mia’s birthday draws nearer and the weirdness dial gets turned up, Loie is reluctantly sucked straight into the action.  While Loie is smart and reasonable, she isn’t naturally brave or heroic.  She has to dig deep for that.  She’s primarily driven by fear and wanting to help her best friend (and these two motives are bound to conflict).  I think that makes her a more relatable character than someone who inexplicably runs headlong into danger or seems to be born sword in hand.  Over the course of the story, we watch her gain confidence and perspective with each unbelievable encounter.

In the following snippet, it’s a dark and stormy night (naturally), Mia’s mom is away, and the power has gone out so the girls decide to go to bed.  Big mistake.  Huge. 

I snake my way along the hallway and into my bedroom.  I wish I could set up my iPod and play soothing tunes.  I don’t have many soothing tunes, though.  Mostly dance music or something to sing along to when no one is listening.  Classical is my go-to miserable mood music.  I hide my head under the covers and work on my relaxation breaths.  I picture heroic Aragorn astride his horse and try to incorporate Viggo Mortensen into my dream.  He would be a big improvement over boiling babies.  A tree branch taps against the glass of the window.  Crap, that’s both creepy and annoying.  Darkness surrounds me except for the occasional flash of lightning.  The thunder and lightning grow more frequent as the storm approaches.  I roll over to the other side of the bed.  Another flash of light from the window illuminates the hallway and I swear I see a tiny figure run past the doorway.  I sit up in a panic.  I could tell myself it was Calico, but I know better.  A mouse?  Oh God, I hate mice.  I hear Mia’s shrill scream and, in that horrifying moment, realize that the tiny figure was no mouse, either.     

There’s no time to be afraid.  I rush into her room and can discern only shadows.  Multiple ones.  They are small and agile.  Lightning flashes again, the power kicks back on, and now the indecipherable shadows are jaw-droppingly clear.  Half a dozen small figures clamber over her bed, dragging a length of thread-like rope.  Garden gnomes come to life.  They wear brown pointy hats and most of them sport pointy white beards.  A few of them wear boots and the others are barefoot.  Their feet are narrow and covered in tufts of white hair.  They drip with rain.

One looks at me and bares tiny, sharp teeth.  His pallid, wrinkled face is ugly and incredibly frightening.  I notice others drawing tiny daggers from their sleeves.  Daggers don’t need to be big to inflict pain.  They go about their business in silence, ignoring my presence.  Mia squirms and flails as they pull their thin rope around her.  She manages to kick one of them clear across the room and he lands beside me with a dainty thud.  I am too stunned to move.  He glares at me from under his sallow brow before rejoining his friends.  Mia was wrong to rely on me; I am not handy in a crisis.  The only thing I can think to do is copy her.  I open my mouth to scream.

Winterborne is currently available as an ebook for $2.99 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iBookstore.       

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WINTERBORNE (Universe Unbound, #1) by Augusta Blythe

Pub. Date: April 2011

Publisher: Augusta Blythe; 1 edition

Format: Kindle Edition , 442 KB

Age Range: Young Adult

Sixteen-year old Mia Winterborne is destined to be special. Details are sketchy, though, as her dad disappeared with all the answers when she was five. Mia only knows that she’ll inherit her kickass superpowers on her seventeenth birthday. Helping Mia prepare for her anticipated ascendancy is Loie Bryce, her best friend and eternal sidekick extraordinaire. The girls’ intense friendship has never wavered until now, when Andreas arrives in Salcey Ridge. They both fall hard for the British hottie, who quickly becomes a fixture in their lives. When they discover that Andreas is not who he appears to be, the frightening reality of Mia’s powers finally hits home. The nearer Mia’s birthday draws, the more the danger escalates and long-buried lies are exposed, putting the girls on a path that they never expected.

**Contest Closed**

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Guest Post: Heather Dixon (Author of Entwined)

Heather Dixon grew up in a large family with four brothers and six sisters. She is a storyboard artist as well as a writer, and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Viennese waltz is her dance of choice. She is the author of the novel Entwined.

ENTWINED will be in stores March 29, 2011!

Wow! I feel pretty honored to be a guest on Fantastic Book Review. Tina had the suggestion to write about the setting of Entwined, to explain why the silver forest and the pavilion feel so magical and alluring to the sisters.

Awesome! This is story meat stuff. I think it can be summed up in one universal design principle: contrast.

At the beginning of Entwined, the girls’ mother dies. According to Victorian tradition, the royal family must all wear black, drape the windows, stop the clocks, and keep inside the palace for a year. The palace changes from a place dappled with sunlight and bright windows to “muffled with drapery, turning day into pitch-black.” Bramble refers to it as their “boot-blackened palace”. Worse, the girls are kept from dancing as well, made to wear heavy boots instead of light dancing slippers.

Pretty stifling.

More so, spiritually, Mourning is a symbol of their broken family. (I use the word spiritual here not so much as a religious term, but in place of the usual word emotional, as I think it better describes story narrative.) All the darkness constantly reminds the girls of how their mother is gone, and that their father, the King, has distanced himself even more from them.

So! Settings are bound by both the physical and emotional/spiritual threads in the overarching story structure. Contrast the darkness of the palace with the whiteness of the silver forest Azalea and her sisters discover, magic hidden beneath the palace:

“The scene washed over Azalea like a crystal symphony…Every bough, branch, leaf, and ivied tendril looked as though it had been frosted in silver. It shimmered in the soft, misty light…Everything sparkled in bits, catching highlights in glisters as she moved.”

Light doesn’t just shine there, it glimmers. When it rains (as an echo of the leaky palace), the drops are pearls. The princesses, used to their dark and run-down household, are fascinated. It even smells different. Sparkles are for rich people!

And there’s a huge contrast emotionally. While the girls are forced to follow the rules of Mourning in the palace, here in the silver forest they’re breaking the rules. They thrill at defying the King. They feel alive and comforted for the first time since mourning began. Silver forest = freedom.

Or does it?

As beautiful and exciting as the silver forest is, something is not quite right. It feels muffled, like a snowfall, even more muffled than the palace. There’s no sunlight. There’s something haunting and unnatural about the Pavilion and its Keeper. Although they contrast starkly, physically and spiritually, neither the palace or the silver forest is ideal. In fact, emotionally/spiritually, the silver forest is worse. And because of that, it isn’t long before Azalea finds herself entwined in nightmare.

Thanks for stopping by Heather!

For more information about Heather Dixon and her books, please visit her website here.

Check out my review of Entwined here!