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Friday, May 24, 2013

Guest post from Vincent Morrone

Today, I am thrilled to be able to welcome Entranced Publishing's only male author to the blog. Vince does an amazing job of putting up with all of the Entranced estrogen that comes from a gaggle of female authors, and he does it with a sense of humor.

His debut YA novel, Vision of Shadows, comes out in December. He's here with me today to talk about his journey as a writer and where it all began. Take it away, Vince!


          People often ask me how I became an author. After all, I’m no spring chicken. As of this writing, I’m two days away from celebrating my 42nd birthday with my wife and two teenage daughters. So when did I get the writing bug?
          The answer is, it’s always been there. When I was a little kid, it wasn’t enough to just tuck a blanket into the back of my shirt and run around like an idiot calling myself SuperVin. (Which isn’t to say that I didn’t do that.) I always had to have a story. A puzzle that needed to be figured out. A bad guy to battle. A cute little girl to rescue who would smile at me as I stood there with my hands on my hips, my white blankie flapping in the wind as I stood in front of the fan. Of course, the white blankie was real, but the puzzle, the bad guy and sadly the cute little girl were all imaginary.
          Eventually, I decided instead of play acting my adventures as a superhero, or Captain of the Enterprise, or a Jedi Knight, I should create my own adventures and put them on paper. One of my earlier endeavors was to become a comic book writer. Alas, I can’t draw a stick figure of a stick. I did have some cool stories about aliens anointing a pudgy kid to become an intergalactic super soldier. And yes, there was always a cute girl. Often times, not just as a damsel in distress, but a fellow hero who would fight by my side.
          Somewhere along the way, I realized that those things with pages called books didn’t all have to be of the school variety. They could be fun to read. But often times, I found that while I enjoyed them, why didn’t they do this, or that?
          So why not write my own? I started my first book when I was in the fourth grade. Humans were living on a world where aliens ruled. We never saw them, but they told us what to do, what to think and who we could love. Some kids ran away from their home to be free and… Well, that’s about as far as I got.
          In high school, short stories became my thing. I had about a dozen of them. They were read by quite a few people and I generally got good feedback. Since I was harboring delusions of being the next lead guitarist for KISS. Songs became a big part of my creative world. I even got into poetry. And not the roses are red, violets are blue kind of thing. I tried my hand at some poems that didn’t even rhyme.
          I still thought about being an author back then. In fact, I wrote 2 stories that I thought of as novels. No idea what the word count was, but they were probably in the novella range. Both MS are long gone. (And nobody will miss them.) I had a list a mile long of different book ideas. My earlier influences were Steven King and Dean Koontz, so they were more of the horror variety. Romance hadn’t gotten into there yet.
          Then college came. I had been told many times by my parents that making a living as a novelist was next to impossible. So I tried to find another career. My writing got put to the side. My guitar sat in a corner. I started to work with the NYC Housing Police Department in a cadet corps that would help pay for college. My plan was to turn around and become a police officer. That didn’t work out. I eventually started working as a customer service representative for a large company. Good pay, good benefits. And it let me invest in the other lifelong dream that I’ve always had. Family.
          I got married and my wife and I wanted children. That part wasn’t easy and probably could be a novel right there, but I’ll just go straight to the spoilers. We have two very beautiful twin girls that I am oh so proud of.
          So how did I become an author as opposed to a guy who says, I used to write? Sometimes, one dream can lead to another. One night, while bellyaching about how I had wanted to write books, my wife asked if I wanted to, what was stopping me? So with that kick in the butt, I began to write.
          I had a couple of false starts. I’d start a book without a clear picture of where I wanted to take it. Then I’d hit that wall and say, “Now what?” And the story would die. (May they RIP) Then I realized I couldn’t be Steven King who doesn’t know what he’s going to write until he writes it. I outlined. Then I wrote. My kids were old enough then to understand what I was writing and were huge fans of my first full length novel about a magical world with dragons. I was worried that what I wrote wouldn’t be long enough, so I made sure to give myself a long plot. Only to discover that while a normal Young Adult novel is around 70k, mine came in at 188k. Yeah, that wasn’t going to be trimmed down easily.
          So with the love and support of my family, I started over again. I had a thought. A girl with psychic abilities sees the person that she’s going to spend her life with. He’ll either be the love of her life, or the end of it. Pretty nifty, huh? And so Vision of Shadows was born, the first in a 5 part series.
          Even after it was done, it took me a long time to revise it. And it’s so hard to get anyone to even look at these things. Then one day, I got an offer. It’s not with the publishing company that will now release VoS in December of 2013, but they wanted to publish my book.
          My world changed that day. I got the official offer via email after I had begun my work day. I had to wait until I got home. Then I casually said I had an announcement to make. I got to tell my wife and daughters that I was going to be a published author. There was a moment of shock. My daughter Danielle gave me a hug. It was one of those perfect moments in time.
          So how did I, a pudgy little boy with a white blanket become an Author for Entranced Publishing? What’s the formula? First you take a dream. Then you mix in a lot of early attempts, which teach you along the way. Sprinkle on a lot of hard work. And don’t forget the kick in the butt from the cute little girl who believes in you.


Vincent Morrone can be reached at Vinent@VincentMorrone.com or visit his web site VincentMorrone.com

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Tour Schedule!

20 May
Release Day Danny!
Guest post and Review

21 May
Review and Author Interview

22 May
Review and Excerpt

23 May
Author Interview and Review

24 May
Guest Post and Excerpt

25 May
Excerpt

Loverly's Book Blog
Excerpt

26 May
Review and Author Interview

27 May
Excerpt

28 May
Review and Excerpt

1 June
Review and Excerpt

2 June
Spotlight

Review and Excerpt

3 June
Excerpt

4 June
Author Interview and guest post

5 June
Guest Post

6 June
Character Interview with Danny and Excerpt

7 June
Excerpt

8 June
Author Interview and Review

9 June
Guest Post

10 June
 Review and excerpt

12 June
Review  and excerpt

16 June
 Margo Anne Rhea
Announcement winner tour wide giveaway

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Syttende Mai with a sexy Norse god.

Today, I'm excited to have NA author ST Bende on the blog. She's brought along the main character from her debut novel ELSKER, Kristia Tostenson, and they'll be talking about how Kristia spent the Norwegian holiday, Syttende Mai.

Allow me to introduce, ST Bende and Kristia Tostenson!


ST: Hi Margo -- thanks for letting me visit your blog!  I’m so excited -- this weekend is Syttende Mai, Norway’s Constitution Day.  And since my debut novel, ELSKER, is all over the Scandinavian mythology, I brought ELSKER’s Kristia to tell us how she celebrated Syttende Mai with her beau, Ull -- the Norse God of Winter.  Hey, Kristia.

Kristia: Hi, ST.

ST: How’s it going?

Kristia: I can’t complain.

ST: I’ll bet you can’t.  *raises an eyebrow* How’s our favorite Norse god?

Kristia: Ull’s great.  He’s sleeping off a bit of a sugar coma today.

ST: Naturally.  Tell everyone why Ull’s in a sugar coma.

Kristia: Well, yesterday was Syttende Mai - it’s a big Norwegian holiday that celebrates the day they signed their constitution.

ST: Sort of like Fourth of July?  If y’all don’t know, Kristia’s from Oregon.

Kristia: Yes.  Sort of.  But Syttende Mai isn’t celebrated with hot dogs and sparklers like we celebrate the Fourth. 

ST: How did you celebrate?

Kristia: Ull took me to a garden party at the Norwegian Seaman’s Church by our college, in Cardiff.

ST: Ah, the famous Cardiff University, in Wales.

Kristia: You’ve heart of it? *smiles*

ST: Once or twice.  So what did you do at the church?

Kristia: They put on a little program about the history of Norway.  Then we all sang Ja Vi Elsker, the national anthem, and we marched around the church waving flags.

ST: Like a parade?

Kristia: *laughs* Like a parade.  Only there were no spectators, everyone was in the parade.

ST: So the whole congregation marched around the church waving flags. Did Ull wave one?

Kristia: Zealously.

ST: I’d have loved to see that.

Kristia: It was pretty funny.  He’s not a small guy -- I believe he’s, how did we put it, a 6’5” Nordic Adonis?

ST: Those were your words, not mine.

Kristia: Ha ha, ST.

ST: And what did you and the Nordic Adonis do after the parade?

Kristia: There was a luncheon in the garden.  Amazing food, and of course waffles for dessert.

ST: *nodding* It’s not Syttende Mai without Norsk waffles.

Kristia: Exactly.  But then we all went back to Ull’s place --

ST: Kristia, this is a family-friendly interview.

Kristia: Please.  It’s not like that, you perv.  I meant Ull and Inga and Gunnar and I went back to their flat to hang out.

ST: Inga and Gunnar are Ull’s roommates.  

Kristia: And his best friends.  They’re gods too, and they followed him here from Asgard.

ST: So what did you do back at their flat?

Kristia: Well, Inga had these amazing little cupcakes she’d baked the night before, so we had cupcakes and played Rumikub and then I went home.

ST: Rumikub?

Kristia: It’s this matching game like dominos--

ST: I know what Rumikub is.  But seriously?  That’s what you did when you went back to Ull’s flat?

Kristia: Yeah.

ST: Jeez, this is a family friendly interview.

Kristia: Very funny.

ST: Did Ull at least kiss you goodnight?

Kristia: *blushes* What do you think?

ST: That’s a yes.

Kristia: I’m not talking about this.

ST: Fine. *grins* We’ll just write about it later.

Kristia: There’s no privacy with you.

ST: Nope.  Well, tell Ull I’m sorry he isn’t feeling so great.

Kristia: Deal.  I’m headed over there right now to take care of him.

ST: Of course you are. *waggles eyebrows* Have fun, missy.

Kristia: *waggles eyebrows back* Oh, I will.


THE ELSKER SAGA is available from Entranced Publishing. 

TUR, the prequel, can be downloaded for free HERE.

ELSKER, Book 1, is available from Entranced, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Find ST Bende on Twitter (@stbende), Goodreads, or her website


Book Title: Elsker

Author Name: ST Bende

Series Title (if applicable): The Elsker Saga

Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance

Length of Book in pages or word count: 61,000 words  

Publisher: Entranced Publishing, Blush

Blurb: Kristia Tostenson prefers Earl Grey to Grey Goose and book clubs to nightclubs, but when she transfers from her one-stoplight town to Cardiff University in Wales she falls in love with Ull Myhr. Her new boyfriend isn’t exactly what she was expecting. He’s an honest-to-goodness Norse God — an immortal assassin fated to die at Ragnarok, the battle destined to destroy Asgard and Earth. Kristia’s crazy visions are the only thing that can save their realms.
 Her orderly life just got very messy.


Author Bio:
Before finding domestic bliss in suburbia, ST Bende lived in Manhattan Beach (became overly fond of Peet’s Coffee) and Europe… where she became overly fond of the musical Cats.  Her love of Scandinavian culture and a very patient Norwegian teacher inspired The Elsker Saga.  She hopes her characters make you smile and that one day pastries will be considered a health food.

You can follow ST Bende on Twitter @stbende, or send an e-mail to stbende(at)gmail(dot)com.  

Author social media links
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stbende or @stbende


Excerpt:  

ELSKER - Book 1, THE ELSKER SAGA
At eight o’clock, a firm knock interrupted my reading.  I picked my way through the flower shop that our living room had become and opened the door.
“Oh good, you kept my peace offerings.”  Ull treated me to a rakish grin.
“Just a few of them,” I muttered.  “Come on in.”
“Oh, no.  You must come with me.”
“Why?”  I challenged.  Ull sighed.
“Are you going to fight me at every turn?”
“Probably.” 
“Please come.”  He looked so adorable standing on my stoop, his scarf casually thrown across the grey sweater under his coat.  I gave in quicker than I meant to. 
“Fine.”  I grabbed my coat from the closet by the door and shoved my keys and wallet into the pocket.  “Where are we off to?”  I closed the door behind me and followed Ull into the brisk night, waiting for his promised explanation. 
But he didn’t say anything.  Instead, he put his hand on the small of my back and guided me away from campus.  I shivered and noticed that Ull wore his jacket open, at ease in the chill.  As we rounded the corner, Ull dropped his hand to clasp mine.  It was so warm, so strong, and for a moment I forgot to be mad at him.  We walked in silence as he led me down the main road.  After two right turns, I found myself standing in a quiet garden.  
Ull had brought me to a church.