Blog tour Fractured Soul by Rachel McClellan

I'm participating in Rachel McClellan's blog tour for her novel, Fractured Soul. I have not read this book, so I cannot recommend it personally. But there is plenty of information here for you to decide for yourself if you would love it. Like an excerpt:

Excerpt

As soon as the Vyken appeared in the doorway, I tossed a ball hard. He dodged it by jumping up along the side of the wall, his nails and bare toes somehow finding a hold in the thin cracks of the wall. I threw another one, but he was already moving, scrambling alongside the stones like a spider. He was grinning.

I rolled away from the wall until I was in the middle of the room. I lost sight of him for just a fraction of a second, but that was enough. The Vyken was gone, or, I should say, hiding. He was still here. I could feel him. I looked up toward the rafters of the tower roof. It was pitch black.
At the bottom of the tower, I heard Christian begin to ascend the stairs. “I’m coming, Llona!” he yelled.

Still staring up, I created Light again in the palm of my hand and willed it to rise. The closer it got to the rafters the faster my heart beat. Sweat rolled down the small of my back.

Light began to fill dark spaces, exposing that which wished to remain hidden. My Vyken was there, but he wasn’t alone. Another sat crouched on a beam. Where his left eye should’ve been there was an empty hole.

I screamed when my Vyken dropped from the ceiling, extinguishing the light. He fell onto my stomach, pushing my shoulders into the floor. I tried to create Light, but it was as if he knew what I was going to do because his hands slipped up and pinned my wrists together. He bent forward and inhaled my skin. The warmth of his breath steamed my ear when he said, “I’m going to eat every part of you.”

Here's what it's about:

Llona will do whatever it takes to protect her new found friends and home, but the dark plot threatening Lucent Academy, a school that’s supposed to be a safe place for Auras, may be too powerful for even Llona to defeat. This fast-paced tale of love, loyalty, and overcoming the darkness will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page!

What others are saying:

“I love these books! A kick-butt heroine and a hottie love interest, with a refreshingly original concept. Be prepared—once you start, these are hard to put down.”

—Paula Cotton, book reviewer at ReadingLark.blogspot.com

“Fractured Soul is a brilliant sequel, exceeding even the remarkable first book in the series. It will haunt your every waking moment between the times you’re reading it, and it will stay with you long after you’ve finished. It’s an amazingly well written and engrossing story that I highly recommend—after you’ve read the first one, of course.”

—Cindy Bennett, bestselling author of Geek Girl and Rapunzel Untangled

Author Bio

Rachel McClellan was born and raised in Idaho, a place secretly known for its supernatural creatures. When she's not in her writing lair, she's partying with her husband and four crazy, yet lovable, children. Rachel's love for storytelling began as a child when the moon first possessed the night. For when the lights went out, her imagination painted a whole new world. And what a scary world it was...

Find Rachel

Facebook  |   Blog   |   Website   |   Twitter   |   Goodreads  |  Book Trailer

Buy Fractured Light

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble

Buy Fractured Soul

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble 

Interview with author Julie Berry

Julie Berry, author

I'm thrilled to have Julie Berry here on the site today. Julie is the author of many books for young adults and children, including The Amaranth Enchantment, The Secondhand Charm, and the Splurch Academy series. I recently read and reviewed The Secondhand Charm, and loved it! 

Christy:  Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Julie:  I think so, but for much of my life I wanted to be many things, of which “writer” was one. Only recently have I resigned myself to the idea that it’s probably too late for me to become an Olympic gymnast, pop singer, or professional dancer if I really, really try.

Christy:  What inspires you to write about magic and fantasy?

Julie:  I don’t think I start out wanting to write a fantasy, per se. I start with a story I want to tell, a character I want to follow, and as I do so, often I discover established reality is too confining for what I want to do. And life continues to suggest established reality is not quite so well established as we think. My upcoming novel, All the Truth that’s In Me (September 2013 Viking), is set in what I call an alternate colonial reality, but aside from the non-specific place, there’s nothing impossible about the story. I don’t always write about magic and fantasy.

Christy:  What do you hope readers will learn or take with them after reading your books?

Julie:  I hope readers will be engrossed, absorbed, swept away, pulled in to my stories – whatever complete possession feels like to them. It’s greedy of me, I suppose, but that’s my number one job as a storyteller. I need to spin a good yarn. I don’t have much more of a conscious objective in mind, but if I had to identify one hope, it would be that young readers, and young women in particular, come to more deeply appreciate their worth, potential, and dignity, and that they find the courage (and the joy) it takes to expect the world to treat them as they deserve to be treated.

Christy:  I notice that you also write books for young readers ( a difficult market to get into). Can you give advice to others who are seeking to be published for the younger crowd?

Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry 

Julie:  My advice is the same for anyone wishing to be published in any market. It sounds simplistic, but it’s the gold standard. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Until that has become a regular rhythm, no other advice about agents, blogs, publishers, or marketing, etc., has much to offer. Aspiring authors need to be entirely focused on craft and on finding their voice. Critique groups and writing programs can be very helpful there. I chose to pursue a master’s degree from Vermont College of the Fine Arts, which was a transformative experience for me. As hopeful writers grow a body of publication-worthy work, thoughts about the marketplace and agents begin to make sense, and organizations like SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) are an invaluable resource for the transition from apprentice to published writer. It takes patience, resiliency, and humor to navigate the path to authorship. I also suggest adopting a good cat or two.

Christy:  Are you working on any books or projects right now? Can you tell us about it?

Julie:  I’m very excited about All the Truth that’s In Me. I just finished two picture book manuscripts and sent them to my sister, Sally Faye Gardner, to consider illustrating. We worked as a sister act on our comic novel series, Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys, and that was tons of fun. I’m also finishing up a middle grade fantasy adventure story, and musing on some YA project thoughts.

Christy:  What do you eat while you are reading/writing?

Julie:  I love anything that fits on a cracker. I think if I lived alone, I would never cook meals. All my meals would be dippable, spreadable, and utensil-free. Sometimes I get together with writer friends to write for the day, and I’ll prepare a little spread of cheese slices, apple slices, celery, hummus, peanut butter, maybe some other kind of yummy dip, and together we nibble and scribble. My current obsession is Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Yogurt Dip on rice crackers. For those of you who don’t have a Trader Joe’s store nearby, my heart bleeds for you.

Thanks Julie, and good luck on future projects!

Sending my novel out into the world

So today I finished my first big round of edits on Displaced, my YA mythic fantasy. Really, it was more like a re-write. This is my first novel, and the learning curve on this one is steep. Over the last few years I have learned so much about the craft of writing, and I've changed so many things over time, that I practically had to write it from scratch. I had to switch from third person to first person, change the POV of certain scenes, and introduce things I hadn't thought of in the beginning. Phew. I sure hope my next novel will be easier to edit.

Are you laughing? Please tell me the next one is easier.

So I just sent my baby to a fantastic editor at Eschler Editing for some content and copy edit polishing. Then I will push it out into the world. I've signed up for a pitch session at LTUE, and another one at LDStorymakers, both excellent writing conferences that I highly recommend. In fact, if you can make it, you should come too. Note that if you can't attend the entire conference dates, you can go to one or more days (In fact, this year at Storymakers, there is an option for a keynote only admission to hear international best-selling author Anne Perry).

And don't forget to enter the Show Your Love Contest going on right now to spread the word!

It's a strange feeling, to be so close to the end of such a long process. To know that professionals will be scrutinizing my work to see if it's original, and marketable. But for now, it's a great feeling. I've pulled that story out of my imagination, and it's all right there, on the screen. Ahhh.

Giveaway BLÜD AND MAGICK by Preston Norton

I'm excited to tell you about a new novel by Preston Norton.  I have not read this one, so I cannot give you a review, but the premise sounds great and Preston agreed to do an interview with me. Thanks Preston!

And you can enter to win a copy of BLÜD AND MAGICK for yourself!

BLÜD AND MAGICK is the story about a girl named Darla who was born from the ashes of the dead Shadow Lord, Remmus Alrad. As she comes to terms with her dark heritage, she not only has to prove to the world and to herself that she is not evil, but she has to avoid the threat of Remmus Alrad's followers, the Shadow Risers, who believe they can resurrect their master from her soul.

Christy:  Have you always wanted to be an author?

Preston:  Ever since I was eleven. I loved stories with talking animals like Bunnicula and Hank the Cowdog, so I wanted to write a similar story about a talking cat and a dog who get lost in Australia and meet a dingo who acts as their guide. I had illustrations and everything!

Christy:  Where did the ideas for Darla's story come from?

Preston:  The idea of the story actually hit me while I was at work. I was a landscaper at the time doing mindless manual labor, and this idea almost pitched itself in my head as the "anti-Harry-Potter". Whereas Harry inadvertantly defeats Voldemort before he can even make a conscious decision and becomes an instant celebrity, Darla Summer is born from from the ashes of the dead Shadow Lord, Remmus Alrad, and she becomes and automatic outcast. I wrote the entire first chapter immediately after work.

Christy:  What do you want readers to take away with them when they finish reading?

Preston:  The dedication to my book reads: "If you feel like the world is against you, then you're probably doing something right. I dedicate this book to you." I feel like there is a little bit of Darla in all of us. People judge us based on preconceived notions that are out of our control. There is so much irrational hate in the world. I believe Darla stands as an example that there is good and beauty in all of us, and that goodness can overcome all else.

Christy:  Are you working on other books? Can you tell us about your current work?

Preston:  I am currently working on the sequel to BLÜD AND MAGICK. I always thought that writing a sequel would be easier considering that you have a foundation to build on, but this is infinitely harder than anything else I've written. I'm also about 20,000 words into another project that I plan to continues after the sequel and about a half a dozen other story ideas that I really want to work on. It's a dilemma.

Christy:  What do you eat while reading/writing?

Preston:  I can't eat while I read or write. It's a curse.

Good luck Preston!

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