“This tour highlights a main character from your WIP (work in progress), recently published work, or soon to be published work. The person who invites you will have a set day to post. You will post one (or two) weeks after that, the authors you tag will post one/two week(s) after you, and so on.”
Sounds like fun, right? I thought so, too. I was tagged by the inimitable Ren Cummins. Here’s his bio, as posted on his site:
I write. I’m a writer, perhaps much the way my act of breathing makes me a breather. Wait, that’s a poor example.
I began with sketching, but my love of music and math turned me into a musician, and from there prose and poetry fashioned me into a writer. My first series, the young adult (steampunk) fantasy series “CHRONICLES OF AESIRIUM” about a young girl who becomes an angel of death, marked my work as a light hearted and optimistic look into death and darkness, but I’m sure that’s just the lip of the rabbit hole.
I also helped found Talaria Press, a loosely affiliated gang of misfits whose work can be found at http://www.talariapress.com – come join the parade, there’s space enough for all.
And here are my answers!
1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historical person?
The main character of my WIP (Book 3 in the Flicker series) is Lee Capren.
2) When and where is the story set?
The story is set in present-day Washington State. I took creative license with some of the locations, such as Siren Island, a fictional island in the otherwise-real San Juans, where mermaids swim in the coves and curses occasionally befall the residents. But you’ll also find a number of real Washington locales, including Deception Pass and the Seattle Underground.
3) What should we know about him/her?
Lee’s a pretty ordinary girl, right up until she’s spirited away by faeries to serve as a portrait artist. Now she’s a girl with a little magic and a lot of determination.
4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
Lee’s a pretty ordinary girl, right up until she’s spirited away by faeries to serve as a portrait artist. When she finally escapes (with the help of Nasser, a boy whose magic has always been more of a curse than a gift), she discovers that what felt like a few nights in Faerie spanned years in the human world, and her entire life has crumbled away. Lee soon finds herself living above a shop that caters to the city’s beguiling magical crowd and struggling to cope with her new life, all while dodging the denizens of Faerie who will do anything to get her back.
5) What is the personal goal of the character?
At this point in her life, Lee would settle for living peacefully—no evil faeries, no curses, no brushes with death. She’s coming to terms with all the magic and weirdness that have become part of her life. The constant threats her and the safety of her friends that come with it? Not so much.
6) Is there a working title for this novel if it is a WIP, and can we read more about it? Or: What is the title of this novel and where can it be found?
The title of this novel is Lights. The first two installments in the series, Flicker and Brightly, are available now, as both ebooks and paperbacks—and Flicker is free to download on Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords!
7) If a WIP, when can we expect the book to be published?
I hope to publish Lights in late 2014 or early 2015. Check back on my blog or my Facebook page for updates on the book’s progress!
Now, I’ve been challenged to tag a few more authors. I’ve picked two of my favorite dynamic duos. First up: Allana Kephart & Melissa Simmons, authors of the Dolan Prophecies.
Allana Kephart has been making things up and bending people to her will from a very young age. She loves animals and reading and spends a large amount of time thinking up ways to torment her characters.
Melissa Simmons is an avid reader who married her soul mate and is the proud mother of a spoiled cat. She spends her days helping promote independent authors and doing what the voices in her head tell her to.
They share a love of coffee and the color purple, as well as a brain.
My second tag is Frog and Esther Jones, the minds behind the Gift of Grace series:
Frog was born at a very young age in a small town in Eastern Washington, where he still managed to grow up nerdy despite all social pressure to the contrary. Oh, sure; he bucked hay and rode truck with the good ol’ boys, but he also played a fair amount of D&D when he could. An Eagle Scout and a jazz saxophone amateur, Frog came out of his childhood a little twisted, just perfect for an artist.
At Eastern Washington University, whilst wearing a fedora and a trench coat and carrying a cane, he met Esther, fell in love, and graduated with a couple of worthless degrees. Frog then went on to the grand University of Idaho Law School, wherein he passed with honors.
Frog now practices in Washington, and writes from his home in the Olympic Peninsula. He has hand-constructed a Roman onager, which sits in his garage.
Because it is Frog drafting this website, Esther is the most wonderful lady to have lived ever. Of all time. Born and raised in Renton, Washington, Esther began her stay at Eastern Washington University aiming for a degree in creative writing. She missed, and ended up with a degree in technical writing instead.
Almost a decade later, Esther once again began writing creatively. In order to prove to herself that she could still write a short story, she set herself a goal of entering the SpoCon League of Extraordinary Writer’s competition. To do so, Esther consulted with Frog, and began generating the world that would eventually envelop The Gift of Grace trilogy. The short story produced as a result not only entered, but won that competition.
Following that, Esther has collaborated with Frog on The Gift of Grace, as well as more short stories. Her interest in writing has driven the team of Frog and Esther to heights that neither could have reached alone.
Kaye Thornbrugh 