Hi! Thanks for having me!
Welcome to GoodChoiceReading!
I'm very excited to be here. Love your blog. Cartoon characters are my fav.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My official bio really kinda says it all. I'm a mom of one teenager and a set of identical twin girls who will eventually be teens. Right now though, they still like me. Mostly. I've been married for forever and dated the guy I married for eternity before that. Ultimately ... a really long-long time. Obviously, my book is launching but what's not obvious is that this is my debut and it's a trilogy! Every time I get to say that, I *squee*. What else? Oh ... I have two cats and two guinea pigs, I have a real job that pays the bills, but writing is too much fun to just be a hobby, so here I am!
Describe AFTER DARK in six words.
Only six? Wow. That's a toughie.
Funny. Dangerous. Thought-provoking (at least for Mac). Romantic (we're only at the beginning of their relationship). Motivational. Magical.
Tell three things about your main character, Mac, that readers do not know.
Hmmm ... that might be a little hard without giving away spoilers for the future two books ... but let's see.
1) Mac has never worn a pair of sneakers. Ever.
2) Mac was actually a very happy-go-lucky child who loved going to the library.
3) The first supernatural form Mac ever changed into on her own was a demon. (Someone should have made note when that happened ;) ).
If you could jump into ONE scene in your book, which scene would you choose? And why?
Oooh ... one scene? The end. I'd love to be a fly on the wall, totally just sitting there watching all that happens as Mac goes through what happens. I realize that's totally vague because I can't spoil the end, but stuff happens that is totally cool and totally leads into book 2 and so much happens in that one moment that I'd get to see a whole story unfold in a matter of minutes. That would be too cool
Can you share a small teaser of AFTER DARK with our followers?
Here are the first 500 words ...
Endless screams. Maniacal laughter. The scent of prey.
Chills raced up my spine.
I wanted to run. To hide. To bury my head in the grave beneath me.
Instead, I balanced on top of Samuel L. Wilson, someone’s ‘beloved father and son resting in peace,’ craving solitude and stressing like a vampire on a blood fast.
Good ole ‘Sam’ decomposed underneath the largest oak in Primrose Cemetery—a spot no human would visit at night except on Halloween. A night that should have been mine.
Mine alone.
A gust of wind pushed my sketchpad to my knees, flung hair against my cheeks and sent my colored pencils tumbling. Wind, I could deal with. Humans? I’d rather not have had to. A swipe of my hand through the air brought the drawing tools back up. I yanked my hair into a tail, twisted the strands around a Cerulean blue pencil and stabbed random colors into the knot for safe keeping.
My frustration with human-kind had reached its pinnacle hours before but ratcheted even higher as someone rattled the gates, girls giggled and dares to enter the cemetery from crackly-voiced, chicken boys reached me.
I slapped my pencil to my papers, my forehead to my palm. “All I wanted was an hour of uninterrupted—”
The sharp end of something way larger than a pencil pierced my neck.
I straightened with one intake of breath, dropping the yellow, number-two from my fingertips. My hand reached toward the uninvited object as I seethed between clenched teeth.
“Hello, Mackenzie.” His deep bass resonated with the confidence of his kind: the not-human variety.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Whatever the tool, it pressed deeper into my flesh, and I itched to free myself from its penetrating hold.
“And once again, I have won the game before it began.”
“Only because you came up behind me.” A small orb of sunlight formed in the palm of my hand as I kept my neck as still as possible. With one toss, it zipped into the air above my head.
A pierced squeal emanated from behind me, and the point slid away.
Holy hell, that hurt! I jumped to the ground, somersaulted between Matilda Jane, Johann Rowe and the plastic flowers that lay between them. With another roll, James Peak’s extra large headstone concealed my entire form.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” The crunch of branches under footsteps gave his position away.
With a deep inhale, my body began its shift into a new form. My incisors elongated. Heart stopped. Eyes burned. On the exhale, strength, cunning and innate wit filled me, matching that of my attacker.
I stood with James as a shield. “Bring it on, old man.”
Chills raced up my spine.
I wanted to run. To hide. To bury my head in the grave beneath me.
Instead, I balanced on top of Samuel L. Wilson, someone’s ‘beloved father and son resting in peace,’ craving solitude and stressing like a vampire on a blood fast.
Good ole ‘Sam’ decomposed underneath the largest oak in Primrose Cemetery—a spot no human would visit at night except on Halloween. A night that should have been mine.
Mine alone.
A gust of wind pushed my sketchpad to my knees, flung hair against my cheeks and sent my colored pencils tumbling. Wind, I could deal with. Humans? I’d rather not have had to. A swipe of my hand through the air brought the drawing tools back up. I yanked my hair into a tail, twisted the strands around a Cerulean blue pencil and stabbed random colors into the knot for safe keeping.
My frustration with human-kind had reached its pinnacle hours before but ratcheted even higher as someone rattled the gates, girls giggled and dares to enter the cemetery from crackly-voiced, chicken boys reached me.
I slapped my pencil to my papers, my forehead to my palm. “All I wanted was an hour of uninterrupted—”
The sharp end of something way larger than a pencil pierced my neck.
I straightened with one intake of breath, dropping the yellow, number-two from my fingertips. My hand reached toward the uninvited object as I seethed between clenched teeth.
“Hello, Mackenzie.” His deep bass resonated with the confidence of his kind: the not-human variety.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Whatever the tool, it pressed deeper into my flesh, and I itched to free myself from its penetrating hold.
“And once again, I have won the game before it began.”
“Only because you came up behind me.” A small orb of sunlight formed in the palm of my hand as I kept my neck as still as possible. With one toss, it zipped into the air above my head.
A pierced squeal emanated from behind me, and the point slid away.
Holy hell, that hurt! I jumped to the ground, somersaulted between Matilda Jane, Johann Rowe and the plastic flowers that lay between them. With another roll, James Peak’s extra large headstone concealed my entire form.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” The crunch of branches under footsteps gave his position away.
With a deep inhale, my body began its shift into a new form. My incisors elongated. Heart stopped. Eyes burned. On the exhale, strength, cunning and innate wit filled me, matching that of my attacker.
I stood with James as a shield. “Bring it on, old man.”
[snip]
What are you working on now?
Well ... Book 2, called Day After, just went to my editor for final edits so I'm eagerly awaiting that back as I finish out the final draft of Darkest Day (book 3). Though I do plan on using November to write the first of a new trilogy - Perry Road. Can't wait to share that one but it'll be a long while. :)
Thank you again for having me!
Emi
Find me online : Web | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
What eighteen year old Mac Thorne doesn’t know will probably kill her.
In exactly eight months, five days, three hours and thirteen minutes, Mac has to choose what she’ll be for the rest of her life.
She has no choice but to pick. As a Changeling, it’s her birthright. To Mac, it’s a birthchore. Like going to school with humans, interacting with humans, and pretending to be human during the pesky daylight hours.
Once darkness descends, Mac can change into any supernatural form that exists—which makes her as happy as she can be. That is, until Winn Thomas, the biggest geek in her senior class figures out there’s more to what hides in the dark than most are willing to acknowledge.
In this first of the 19th Year Trilogy, Winn might know more about Mac than even she does, and that knowledge could end their lives, unless Mac ensures the powers-that-be have no choice but to keep him around.
Thank you so much for having me and being a part of my tour!
ReplyDeleteThis is very different from what I normally see out here to read. I like that she's a real changeling but feel for her having to give it up and become one. Thank you for the post.
ReplyDeleteThis trilogy sounds wonderful! <3
ReplyDelete