Monday, December 30, 2013

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): SALT by Danielle Ellison


SALT Tour Schedule

Welcome to my stop on the SALT Blog Tour, brought to you by Rockstar Book Tours. Today I will be featuring an guest post from the author, Danielle Ellison about the main character, Penelope, and there will be a tour-wide giveaway at the end of the post!



Title: SALT
Author:
Danielle Ellison
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Tour Organizer: Rockstar Book Tours
Release Date: January 7, 2014

Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then, she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.

When she’s finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon. To take back what was stolen.

Then she meets Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her secret—but he also has one of his own.

Suddenly, Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her.


Guest Post

Writing Penelope Gray
Danielle Ellison

Penelope Grey came to me with an unbridled ferocity. The first line I ever heard from her was the very opening of the book. (“Gran always told us never to leave home without salt.”) And from then on she was a force to be reckoned with. Within two hours of the first line, I had a whole story and wrote the first chapter. I knew Penelope’s name, her family, her non-magical dilemma, and her quest to get it back.

Her journey through SALT has remained the same—a quest to get her power—but the situations surrounding her changed a lot. In the very first draft of the book, Penelope was assigned to be Bonded, which was when her leaders randomly selected teens to be in an arranged marriage that based on social status, personality, etc. Throughout that first bit, I tried to have Penelope try to get about get out of the Bonding by becoming an Enforcer instead, but none of it came together or felt right. She kept telling me she was smarter than that, that she knew more about her world and so I let her lead me. Then, the whole premise of how the world worked and what her role in the world was changed. Now, it’s the one readers get to experience.

Honestly, Penelope and I had an immediate understanding — more than I have with any character. Penelope knew what she wanted. She knew her role, had her people, had her hobbies. I let her take the lead in using those moments and pieces in the story. When I’m writing, I try to stay very true to the characters as they come to me, especially when they know where and how they are. I find that working with them to create the world and their stories always makes for a more engaging story.

I think the biggest thing I had to figure out with Penelope was just how much she felt her magic defined her. (Spoiler: A lot.) Even though she always knew she wanted to get her magic back, I had to figure out how to best do that in the context of her world. What would Penelope do? How far would she go? What would she give up to achieve that goal? If she didn’t achieve it, what would that mean for her? What consequences would she face to get her goal? Some of those answers surprised me. In figuring those answers for the story, I realized that Penelope didn’t really know who she was without magic, or what she wanted. In some weird way, her entire motivation and world is set-up for this whole question. When you are completely defined by one thing your whole life and tying to work toward one goal, and you get it (or don’t get it) then what do you do? Most of SALT is building the foundation for that journey.

Penelope was surprising for me, but I enjoy her immensely. She likes lame jokes, hides behind sarcasm, is a bit of a nerd, loves fiercely, fights for what she knows is right, doesn’t like being told she can’t, and will risk anything. She definitely took over any and all ideas I had of who I thought she was and became who she was always trying to be. Her journey to getting there isn’t over just yet; I know where she ends up when the series is over will not be where she expected, but will be exactly where she was meant to end up. And I feel like that’s pretty true to her character, since she’s always adjusting and changing and discovering.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes



About the Author

Danielle Ellison is from a small town in West Virginia. She spent her childhood pretending to fly and talking to imaginary friends. When she grew up, she finally flew away (in an airplane) and started traveling the world. She hasn’t stopped yet, but someday she may decide to settle in one place. Her real life friends would definitely like that; they would probably also like if she stopped talking to her characters out loud.

SALT comes out in January 2014, and then its sequel. In October 2014, Follow Me Through Darkness (book one of the Boundless trilogy) comes out. She's got a busy few years!

Links
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads



Follow the Tour

Week One

Dec. 30th - Bibliophilia, Please - Guest Post
Dec. 30th - Lost in Ever After - Review
Dec. 31st - Shortie Says - Interview
Dec. 31st - Dizneeee's World of Books - Review
Jan. 1st - Whimsically Yours - Guest Post
Jan. 1st - Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews - Review
Jan. 2nd - Chasm of Books - Review
Jan. 2nd - The Demon Librarian - Review
Jan. 3rd - Jenuine Cupcakes - Interview
Jan. 3rd - Such a Novel Idea - Review

Week Two

Jan. 6th- Page Turners - Guest Post
Jan. 6th- Musings of a Blogder - Review
Jan. 7th - Icey Books - Guest Post
Jan. 7th - Donnie Darko Girl - Review
Jan. 8th - Reading Teen - Guest Post
Jan. 8th - In the Best Worlds - Review
Jan. 9th - Allodoxophobia - Playlist
Jan. 9th - Pieces of Whimsy - Review
Jan. 10th - A Book and a Latte - Interview
Jan. 10th - The Busy Bibliophile - Review

Blog Tour Giveaway

There is a tourwide giveaway for one (1) SALT Necklace (US Only) and three (3) eBooks of SALT (International).

Ends at 12:01am EST on January 4, 2014

a Rafflecopter giveaway

10 comments:

  1. I just added this book yesterday to my want list! I love your stop!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Didn't Danielle write a great post? Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  2. I really want to read this book, it seems amazing<33.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm reading it right now, and it's a lot of fun!

      Delete
  3. Can't wait to read this book! Loved hearing about how Penelope came to you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats to Danielle on the new release! Looks and sounds fantastic :) Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations Danielle on the new release. This books sounds amazing. I love any book that has witches in it and the demons are just a bonus. I am definitely adding it to my wish list on Amazon!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. Thanks, Ann! I hope you enjoy the book as well. :-)

      Delete

You are going to put words in my box?! *squeezes you* Now I shall stalk YOUR blog!