2016 Debut Author Bash (Interview): Bridget Hodder, author of THE RAT PRINCE #giveaway @YaReads @BridgetsBooks @MacKidsBooks

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my third and final date of the fun 2016 Debut Author Bash! Today, I'll be featuring Bridget Hodder and her debut novel, The Rat Prince.



Title: The Rat Prince
Author: Bridget Hodder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)
Release Date: August 23, 2016
Cinderella thinks she must work alone to save her noble family from the ruin and disgrace her stepmother has brought to Lancastyr Manor. She has an ailing father, a sweet, innocent little stepsister and dependent servants to protect from the wicked Wilhemina–and no way to call attention to their plight unless she figures out how to attend the royal ball.

But Cinderella knows nothing of the ancient pact between the House of Lancastyr and the rats who live within the walls of her ancestral home.

Nor is she aware that the sleek black rat she thinks is her pet is actually the Rat Prince...

and she is not alone.

Author Interview

Kayla: What made you choose the Prince of the Rats as the hero in The Rat Prince?

Bridget Hodder: Because sometimes, being an outsider is an advantage--it allows you the freedom to think and act the way no one else dares. And no one's more of an outsider than an actual rat!

In my story, Cinderella has a real problem, and she's tried again and again to seek justice and aid through traditional channels. But it just isn't working. So the time has come to turn it all upside down. And Prince Char--The Rat Prince--is just the one to help her do it.

In Silicon Valley tech terms, the rat in this story is a "disruptive innovation". And by that I mean, once Prince Char shows up, the game changes forever in the Kingdom of Angland. (There's more to this metaphor, but you'll have to read the book to figure it out!) The Rat Prince's vision isn't bound by the ordinary human conventions; and once the fairy goddess makes him human for the night, Cinderella doesn't know where the evening will end up, but she knows things will never be the same!

Kayla: Who would you be in this fairy tale world that you've created?

Interview: Kristen-Paige Madonia, Author of INVISIBLE FAULT LINES #yalit #giveaway @KPMadonia @simonteen

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please to check out my interview with the very cool Kristen-Paige Madonia about her new book, Invisible Fault Lines!



Title: Invisible Fault Lines
Author: Kristen-Paige Madonia
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 3, 2016
From the author of Fingerprints of You, whom Judy Blume calls “a remarkable young novelist,” comes a compelling and lyrical novel that explores how one teen rebuilds her life after everything seems lost.

My father disappeared on a Tuesday that should’ve been like any Tuesday, but eventually became the Tuesday my father disappeared.

Tired of living in limbo, Callie finally decides to investigate her father’s disappearance for herself. Maybe there was an accident at the construction site that he oversaw? Maybe he doesn’t remember who he is and is lost wandering somewhere? But after seeing a familiar face in a photo from the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, she wonders if the answer is something else entirely.

Interview

Kayla: Hi, Kristen-Paige! Thank you so much for coming back to Bibliophilia, Please and talking to us again! What have you been up to since the last time you were here?

Kristen-Paige Madonia: I made a person! My husband and I welcomed our son into the world in 2013, and it really changed EVERYTHING. Every single cliché you hear about being a parent – about seeing the world through new eyes, about all the ways parenthood shifts your perspective and priorities, about the endless rewards and challenges… it’s all true. So I’ve been working hard at trying to be present and enjoying time with my son. I’ve also been teaching a variety of university and high school courses and workshops and, of course, I wrote another book.

Kayla: Invisible Fault Lines will be releasing next week. What was the most interesting piece of information you found while doing research for the novel?

Blog Tour (Interview): The Dirt on Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones #giveaway @darynda @StMartinsPress

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my stop of the The Dirt on Ninth Grave blog tour - which is out TOMORROW! Today, I'll be featuring an exclusive interview with Darynda Jones, and there's also a giveaway of the book!



Title: The Dirt on Ninth Grave (Charley Davidson #9)
Author: Darynda Jones
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (Macmillan)
Release Date: January 12, 2016
In a small village in New York Charley Davidson is living as Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her-even from her new and trusted friends-the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn't help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she's lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.

Author Interview

Kayla: Hi, Darynda! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to interview you. You have a lot of fans here at Bibliophilia, Please. Do you mind telling us a little bit about your Charley Davidson series and newest book, The Dirt on Ninth Grave?

Darynda Jones: I’d love to! Charley Davidson is a female PI who was born the grim reaper. In every story, she solves a case for a living client and one for a departed, not to mention all the side cases thrown in for good measure. The books are packed with lots of mystery and lots of sexiness in the form of our love interest, Reyes Farrow. He has daddy issues (mostly because his father is public enemy number one in both the tangible realm and the supernatural one), but that’s another story.

In Ninth Grave, Charley has lost her memory due to a traumatic event (involving Reyes’s dad, no less), and we find her working at a diner in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where she has her whole brood looking out for her. She just doesn't know it’s HER brood. Trust is coming hard for her, especially since she can see into the supernatural realm but has no idea why. And when one of her regulars is cloaked in shadows and fire, she’s both scared and intrigued by him.

This book was so fun to write because it is almost like starting over. Charley gets to learn to trust her closest friends once again and fall in love with Reyes all over again, once she can get past his brooding darkness.

Kayla: You’ve been working on this series for quite a while. How have you changed as a writer since you wrote the first book in the series and debut novel, First Grave on the Right?

2015 Debut Author Bash (Interview): @MelodyMaysonet, author of A WORK OF ART @YaReads @Merit_Press #giveaway

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my stop of the 2015 Debut Author Bash! Today, I'll be featuring Melody Maysonet and her debut novel, A Work of Art, and there's also a giveaway for FIVE copies of the book!



Title: A Work of Art
Author: Melody Maysonet
Publisher: Merit Press
Release Date: March 18, 2015
Shy, artistic Tera can't wait to attend a prestigious art school in France to prove to her famous artist father that she can make something of herself.

But Tera's hopes for the future explode when the police arrest her dad for an unspeakable crime. Her father's arrest must be a mistake, so Tera goes into action, sacrificing her future at art school to pay for his defense. Meanwhile, she falls head over heels for Joey, a rebel musician who makes her feel wanted and asks no questions about her past.

Joey helps Tera forget her troubles, but he brings a whole new set of problems to Tera's already complicated life. Then, to make matters worse, as her relationship with Joey deepens and as her dad's hotshot lawyer builds a defense, fractures begin to appear in Tera's childhood memories--fractures that make her wonder: could her father be guilty? And whether he's guilty or innocent, can she find a way to step out of the shadows of her father's reputation and walk free? Can she stop him, guilty or innocent, from tainting the only future she ever wanted?

A Work of Art is a deeply felt story about self-image, self-deception, and the terrible moment that comes when we have to face the whole truth about the myths of our childhoods.

Author Interview

Kayla: Hi, Melody! Thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed for my stop on the Debut Author Bash! First, do you mind telling readers a little bit about yourself and your debut novel, A Work of Art?

Melody Maysonet: Sure. A Work of Art is about a 17-year-old girl named Tera who gives up her future at art school to pay for her dad’s legal defense after he’s accused of a horrible crime. Tera discovers too late that her dad might be guilty--and even worse, that she might be one of his victims. It’s a fast-paced coming-of-age story with a literary bent.

Maybe the best way to tell you about myself is to tell you why I wrote A Work of Art. It’s on the grittier side of gritty YA--meaning that it’s dark and sometimes painful to read--but that’s the kind of book I’ve always been drawn to. My teenage years were tough, but reading was one of the things that helped me get through and it was the books with dark themes and troubled characters that spoke to me. Today I have an incredible life. (I’m happily married with an 11-year-old son and two cats--and, hey, I just published my first novel!) But I know what it’s like to be unhappy, and I know what it’s like to read something and realize, “Wow, other people have felt like this too.” So those are the kinds of books I want to write--ones that touch people on a deep, emotional level.

All this makes me sound way too serious, so I’d also like to mention that I’m a self-proclaimed geek, a former Dungeons & Dragons & Magic: The Gathering junkie who was lucky enough to work for a gaming company called Wizards of the Coast. Working there back in the day was the best job I could imagine until I officially became an author with the publication of A Work of Art. I mentioned that I’m drawn to dark, troubling books, but I’m a big fantasy reader, too, and I love thrillers and literary books as well.

Kayla: I know many things can contribute to an author’s inspiration when writing a book. What had the greatest influence or provided the most inspiration for A Work of Art?

Review and Interview: The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst @sarahbethdurst @HMHKids

Title: The Girl Who Could Not Dream
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Release Date: November 3, 2015
Sophie's favorite place in the world is the hidden shop beneath her parent's bookstore where dreams are bought and sold to select and secretive strangers. Sophie is fascinated by dreams -- weird, scary, or magical -- in part because she has never had a single dream of her own.

When the shop's dreams are stolen and her mother and father go mysteriously missing, Sophie must unravel the truth to save her parents. Together with her best friend -- a wisecracking and fanatically loyal monster named Monster -- she must decide who to trust with her family's carefully-guarded secrets. Who will help them, and who will betray them?

Interview

Amber: Thank you so much for stopping by Bibliophilia, Please again for your newest book! Please tell us what has been going on since your last stop?

Sarah Beth Durst: Lots of writing!

I've pretty much pared down my life these days to (1) writing and (2) spending time with my family. Also eating. And sleeping. And last weekend I watched too many episodes of Tiny House Hunters because I simply cannot imagine my book collection ever fitting in a house like that and I was fascinated. But I'm counting that as "spending time with my family" because I didn't watch alone.

Amber: What should we know about your new book, The Girl Who Could Not Dream?

Cover Reveal: Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan #Giveaway @SourcebooksFire @kurtdinan

Title: Don't Get Caught
Author: Kurt Dinan
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: April 1, 2016
17-year-old Max Cobb is sick of being “Just Max”—the kind of guy whose resume boasts a measly 2.5 GPA and a deep love of heist films. So when an invitation appears in his locker to join the anonymous, untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, Max jumps at the opportunity to leave “Just Max” in the dust.

Except that the invite is really a set-up, and Max—plus the 4 other kids who received similar invitations—are apprehended by school security for defacing the water tower. This time, Max has had enough. Time for Heist Rule #6:

Always Get Payback.

Let the prank war begin...

Interview

Describe your book in 140 characters or less?

A high school nobody recruits a crew of misfits for heists and pranks to get revenge on the mysterious Chaos Club. #DontGetCaught

How did you come up with the idea for Don’t Get Caught?

Spotlight (Interview): The Power of 10 by Rugger Burke #selfhelp @powerof10 @jkslitpublicity @angellebarbazon

Title: The Power of 10: A practice for engaging your voice of wisdom
Author: Rugger Burke
Publisher: Mill City Press, Inc.
Release Date: June 30, 2015
How do we become our greatest selves?

The Power of 10 is a practice for engaging your voice of wisdom through a process of inquiry and advocacy. Inquiry increases awareness of what is through questions that invite us to examine our current state of being. Advocacy advances what is possible by encouraging us to live into that greater way of being in every thought, word, and action.

Together, inquiry and advocacy evoke the voice of wisdom—that quiet, still voice inside us, the confluence of knowledge, experience, and insight flowing through all living beings that speaks to us through our bodies, hearts, and minds.

We know more than we think we do. As we learn to listen closely to our voice of wisdom, it reveals our true nature and purpose, calls upon us to commit to something greater than ourselves, and guides us toward choices that help us reach our highest potential. When we live in harmony with our voice of wisdom, what is and what is possible align, and wholeness and happiness become our way of being.

Put simply, the Power of 10 is a practice for engaging your voice of wisdom to become the greatest you—the you who is meant to be.

Author Interview

Why did you write this book?
It’s the book I wish someone had given me…years ago. At its heart the book is about making good choices. Looking back, I made lots of poor choices—and the worst ones affected people I love. Many of those decisions were largely avoidable. Realizing this made clear the importance of learning how to make good choices. Knowing this now, I would have benefited from such a resource both as a leader and in my personal life.

There are many new books published each day. Why this one?

Review & Interview: Auld Lang Secrets by April Patterson Clemens #Giveaway #BibPleaseReview @KHeniadis

Title: Auld Lang Secrets (A Saffron Ellis Mystery #1)
Author: April Patterson Clemens
Publisher: Clementime Press
Release Date: September 7, 2015
Acquired Via: Author
After Saffron Ellis returns to Ville de Bois, Wallace Hadley just knows his life is about to get more exciting. When a girl ends up dead at a New Year's party, Saffron and Wallace decide to solve the murder themselves, and Green Scarab Investigations is born!

In Auld Lang Secrets, book one of the Saffron Ellis mystery series, you'll be introduced to Saffron's eccentric family, peer into the souls of the residents of Ville de Bois, and discover Wallace's deep love for food. Come along for the cozy, clue-filled ride!

Author Interview

Kim (Bibliophilia, Please): Being a book lover, your second name stood out to me. Any relation to Richard North or James Patterson?

April Patterson Clemens: Not that I’m aware of. My great grandfather, Jessie Patterson, was an Irish cowboy, so not unless either are some relation to him.

Kim: This is your third novel (The Tale of Lord Zancrist and Bartholomew Trinket, being the first two), which all centralize around a mystery. Do you read a lot of mysteries?

Interview: Nova by Margaret Fortune @mara_fortune @dawbooks #yalit #scifi

Title: Nova (Nova #1)
Author: Margaret Fortune
Publisher: DAW (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: June 2, 2015
*36:00:00*

The clock activates so suddenly in my mind, my head involuntarily jerks a bit to the side. The fog vanishes, dissipated in an instant as though it never was. Memories come slotting into place, their edges sharp enough to leave furrows, and suddenly I know. I know exactly who I am.

My name is Lia Johansen, and I was named for a prisoner of war. She lived in the Tiersten Internment Colony for two years, and when they negotiated the return of the prisoners, I was given her memories and sent back in her place.

And I am a genetically engineered human bomb.

Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. Her life gets even more complicated when she meets Michael Sorenson, the real Lia’s childhood best friend.

Drawn to Michael and his family against her better judgment, Lia starts learning what it means to live and love, and to be human. It is only when her countdown clock begins sporadically losing time that she realizes even duds can still blow up. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there’s far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye. With the fate of not just a space station but an entire empire hanging in the balance, Lia races to find the truth before her time—literally—runs out.

Author Interview

Kayla: Hi Margaret, thank you so much for your time and willingness to answer a few questions about Nova and yourself for the readers at Bibliophilia, Please. To start things off – how did the idea for Nova come to you?

Margaret Fortune: Oftentimes, my stories start with a setting, and the same is true of Nova. This story started with a random thought along the lines of, “I want to write a story that takes place on a space station!” As I was brainstorming ideas for the story, the line “My name is Lia, and I’m a genetically engineered human bomb,” popped into my head. I knew at once I’d struck gold.

Kayla: Can you tell us a little bit about the two factions taking part in the war mentioned in the description of the novel?

Blog Tour (Interview): The Shadow Revolution by Clay and Susan Griffith @emilyisayeff @penguinrandom @clayandsusan

Title: The Shadow Revolution (Crown & Key #1)
Authors: Clay and Susan Griffith
Publisher: Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: June 2, 2015
They are the realm’s last, best defense against supernatural evil. But they’re going to need a lot more silver.

As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield.

After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined.

Interview

Amber: How does the writing process go for your writing duo - do you each take a scene, chapter or character or is it a complete collaboration?

Clay and Susan: We start with a very thorough outline, detailing the plot down to the chapters. From there we each take a couple of chapters and start writing, making sure we don’t ever write too far ahead of the other, because sometimes inspiration occurs and we may need to make changes to the plot we’ve already drafted. Throughout the process, we hand the written chapters back and forth to be edited by the other so our two distinct voices become something new.

Amber: What draws you to the steampunk genre?

Blog Tour (Interview): All the Rage by Courtney Summers #ToTheGirls

Title: All the Rage
Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan)
Release Date: April 14, 2015
The sheriff's son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything-friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy's only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn't speak up. Nobody believed her the first time-and they certainly won't now-but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women in a culture that refuses to protect them.

Author Interview

Kayla: First off, thank you so much, Courtney for answering a few questions about All the Rage. I guess I’m curious about this – what was the hardest part about writing a book about rape for teenagers?

Courtney Summers: Thank you so much for having me on your blog! I appreciate it. All of my books explore heavier themes like depression, girl-bullying and suicide. I’m committed to doing the best I can by those topics and so I’m very conscious of my approach. You have to be aware of the larger conversation surrounding these subjects and you have to be aware of what your work is adding to that conversation. Exploring sexual violence and rape culture in All the Rage was no exception. There’s a lot of pressure and it can be hard to write under that kind of pressure—but it’s also very necessary, no matter what audience you’re writing for.

Kayla: What was the most shocking thing that you discovered while doing research for your novel?

Blog Tour (Interview & #Giveaway): Guardians by Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan

Thank you so much for stopping by my stop of the Guardians official blog tour here on Bibliophilia, Please! Today, I'll be featuring my interview with Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan.



Title: Guardians (Wasteland #3)
Author: Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Release Date: March 24, 2015
The Emmy Award-nominated and Edgar Award-winning duo of Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan deliver a heart-pounding finale to the postapocalyptic teen world of the Wasteland, filled with dramatic twists and turns. Bestselling author of Criminal, Karin Slaughter, called Wasteland "a Lord of the Flies for future generations. An irresistible page-turner."

No one dares to leave the District—the towering structure of glass and steel that is their protection against the unruly bands of Outsiders that roam Mundreel and the deadly rain that carries the disease that kills all over the age of nineteen.

This skyscraper stands amid the urban devastation, the city rumored to have once been called "Montreal." Esther and her allies have created a haven on the rooftop, a garden that flourishes, and a home for her new baby, hidden from all but the very few who know her secret. But as Gideon's power grows and factions form, the ultimate darkness is born from greed, and Esther must find a way to save the citizens from themselves.

Interview

Kayla: Hi Susan and Laurence, and thank you so much for allowing me to interview you. Do you mind telling us a little bit about the Wasteland series?

Laurence: The Wasteland trilogy takes place about thirty years from now. Climate change has thawed the Arctic ice in which the bodies of 20th century Spanish Flu victims had been preserved. The freed virus destroys nearly the entire world population; and the mutating disease—spread by water droplets, even rain— kills off all survivors by the age of nineteen.

Kayla: What can you tell us about Guardians if we haven’t read the first two books?

Blog Tour (Interview, Excerpt & #Giveaway): All Mascara is Not Created Equal by Jessica Landmon #WomenGetRealBlogTour @AshleyLitPub @JessicaLandmon

Title: All Mascara is Not Created Equal
Author: Jessica Landmon
Publisher: Women Get Real
Release Date: February 2015
All Mascara is Not Equal takes spirituality to the modern woman. Tackling issues such as body image, fear, depression and many others, Landmon has tips that are practical, spiritual and apply to any struggle in between.

Originally written to help her daughter counter the social media haze of today’s pop culture, Landmon has now expanded the book to all women readers. With God’s faith leading her, she hopes to be a “life changer” for every woman that reads or hears her words.

Interview

Can you give us a brief summary of your book, All Mascara is Not Created Equal?

All Mascara is Not Equal is intended to present lighthearted, witty, and spiritually sound advice to young women and girls in “tweet-like” form to help them live a life God would approve of.

Where did you get the idea to write this book?

Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory

Harrison Squared Tour Schedule
Welcome to my stop on the Harrison Squared Blog Tour, brought to you by Rockstar Book Tours. Today I will be featuring an interview with Daryl Gregory, and there will be a tour-wide giveaway at the end of the post!



Title: Harrison Squared
Author: Daryl Gregory
Publisher: Tor Books (Macmillan)
Tour Organizer: Rockstar Book Tours
Release Date: March 24, 2015
From award winning author Daryl Gregory comes a thrilling and colorful Lovecraftian adventure of a teenage boy searching for his mother, and the macabre creatures he encounters.

Harrison Harrison—H2 to his mom—is a lonely teenager who’s been terrified of the water ever since he was a toddler in California, when a huge sea creature capsized their boat, and his father vanished. One of the “sensitives” who are attuned to the supernatural world, Harrison and his mother have just moved to the worst possible place for a boy like him: Dunnsmouth, a Lovecraftian town perched on rocks above the Atlantic, where strange things go on by night, monsters lurk under the waves, and creepy teachers run the local high school.

On Harrison’s first day at school, his mother, a marine biologist, disappears at sea. Harrison must attempt to solve the mystery of her accident, which puts him in conflict with a strange church, a knife-wielding killer, and the Deep Ones, fish¬-human hybrids that live in the bay. It will take all his resources—and an unusual host of allies—to defeat the danger and find his mother.

Author Interview

Kayla: Hi Daryl, thank you so much for allowing me to ask you a few questions. To start us off, I have to ask after reading the Harrison Squared description – are you afraid of water or its inhabitants? I personally refuse to swim in anything that doesn’t have concrete on the bottom.

Daryl Gregory: Right? What if is something comes out of the sand and grabs you?

I’ve always been a bit freaked out by large creatures moving under water. It’s not been a debilitating fear -- I have managed to swim in the ocean, and I like it -- but a shadow in the water can still get my heart racing. I was snorkeling near Honolulu a couple years ago, and this sea turtle came up beside me. When you’re on the beach, turtles are these cute, slow creatures. But when you’re in the water with them, it’s like being naked in Jurassic Park.

Kayla: I'm right there with you: a stingray killed any joy of the ocean for me. *shudders* Can you tell us a little bit about the Dwellers? (If it’s too spoilery, please tell us about what inspired them.)

Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): The Crimson Gate by Whitney A. Miller

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my stop of The Crimson Gate blog tour! Today, I'll be talking with Whitney Miller! If you haven't read The Violet Hour, you may want to skip down straight to the interview.



Title: The Violet Hour
Author: Whitney A. Miller
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: March 8, 2015
Harlow must stop her evil counterpart in this thrilling sequel to The Violet Hour.

Harlow Wintergreen has just been named the new Matriarch of VisionCrest, the powerful religious organization previously led by her father. But there's one big problem. The real Harlow is trapped inside a Cambodian temple, and her double, the evil Isiris, has escaped confinement and is masquerading as her.

Now initiated as their leader, Isiris intends to unleash a killer super virus aimed at cleansing the planet of VisionCrest. In order to stop her, Harlow must find a way out of the temple and locate the Resistance...or the world will be destroyed.

Interview

Kayla: Hi Whitney, thank you so much for stopping back by Bibliophilia, Please allowing me to ask you a few questions. To start us off, I would like to congratulate you on being nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for The Violet Hour. How did you find out about your nomination?

Whitney A. Miller: Thank you! It was really exciting to be on the long list for the Bram Stoker. I’m an active member of the Horror Writers Association so I knew the list was coming out, but didn’t know I’d been nominated until I saw some congratulatory tweets! Twitter is how I found out most of my exciting book info, and this was no exception. :-)

Kayla: Can you tell us a little bit about The Violet Hour? Should we read it before The Crimson Gate?

Spotlight (Interview &Giveaway): Awoken by Sarah Noffke

Title: Awoken (The Lucidites #1)
Author: Sarah Noffke
Publisher: One-Twenty-Six Press
Release Date: November 24, 2014
Around the world humans are hallucinating after sleepless nights.

In a sterile, underground institute the forecasters keep reporting the same events.

And in the backwoods of Texas, a sixteen-year-old girl is about to be caught up in a fierce, ethereal battle.

Meet Roya Stark. She drowns every night in her dreams, spends her hours reading classic literature to avoid her family’s ridicule, and is prone to premonitions—which are becoming more frequent. And now her dreams are filled with strangers offering to reveal what she has always wanted to know: Who is she? That’s the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. But will Roya live to regret learning the truth?

Interview

Amber: Hi Sarah, thank you so much for stopping by Bibliophilia, Please! What was your inspiration or muse in creating a time/dream travel book?

Sarah Noffke: I’ve always been fascinated by dreams and sleep. Not just sleeping, but dreaming, is vital to our survival. If we don’t dream then the human brain deteriorates. REM sleep deprivation in rats has shown to cause a loss of survival behaviors, decrease of pain threshold and depression. In humans, sleep deprivation causes hallucinations because it is so crucial to brain function. All this kept me thinking about the power stored in dreams and dreaming abilities. I spun these ideas around in my head until I concocted a villain (Zhuang) who stole human’s abilities to achieve REM rendering them hallucinating zombies. And maybe also I was inspired by my own sleep deprivation at the time. My daughter was six months old and not sleeping through the night. I’m fairly certain I shouldn’t have been operating a motor vehicle.

I also had to include time travel in my books. This was a must. Time travel makes the plot really difficult, but for that reason it also adds great complexity. I LOVE Doctor Who for this reason.

Amber: Do you write full-time or do you have a day-job? If you have a day-job, what is it?

Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): Sweet Muse by Ava Cummings

Title: Sweet Muse
Author: Ava Cummings
Publisher: Merrimack Media
Tour Organizer: Lady Reader's Bookstuff Blog Tours
Release Date: January 22, 2015
Determined to overcome her difficult past, Anna Starr lands a coveted job at the nation's biggest celebrity magazine in the center of the New York City power scene. She learns early on to make it on her own, and through sheer force of will she does. But frustration sets in when the dark side of tabloid journalism starts to poke through, and she gets duped while dating slicker-than-thou city boys.

Amidst a sea of cocktail parties, Anna meets rising art star Damien Wolfe. Their connection is dangerous, intense, and passionate beyond her imagination. He sees her in a way that she has never seen herself, setting her on a journey toward self-discovery—understanding what it means to be truly loved for the first time in her life. But she may lose it all when her blind ambition and his dark past lead to a crisis that changes everything.

Interview

Let us start with the Basics of Ava...

Who are you?

I’m Ava Cummings.

Tell us about yourself.

I spent more than 10 years as a magazine editor at some of the biggest and best-known magazines in the world. She began my career at ELLE, where I fetched coffee, fell in love with fashion, and, eventually, became a full-fledged editor, covering Hollywood and bringing in stories about bold, complicated women that were making a difference in the world.

Soon enough, though, the rise of celebrity culture in the early 2000s lured my to Us Weekly and then In Touch, where I helped create the raging celebrity news category that exists today. I saw a parallel between soap operas and celebrity magazines and built storylines that drew readers back each week to get the next installment in the lives of the stars that they loved and idolized. A knack and a passion for dramatic storytelling had been solidified.

I’ve always been a storyteller, whether weaving celebrity tales together or crafting complex, emotional plotlines for her characters. Inspired by the sweep-you-off-your-feet happy endings of fairy tales, the unbelievable headlines she reads in the news, and the quirky personalities that I’ve encountered in both the real world and on reality TV, I use it all to create fast moving, entertaining, passionate stories. It has been my dream to become a romance novelist since my early days editing love advice columns in women’s magazines.

To balance the frenetic pace of weekly magazines, I found Yoga and became a trained instructor. I’ve always been committed to health and wellness. I still practice daily and revel in its centering and balancing effects, as I juggle a career as a marketing director, raising two children, and my role as a budding romance novelist. I live with my family in the suburbs of Boston. Sweet Muse is my first novel.

A bit about what you have written...

Blog Tour (Review, Interview, & Giveaway): The Tree of Water by Elizabeth Haydon

Title: The Tree of Water (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme #4)
Author: Elizabeth Haydon
Publisher: Starscape (Macmillan)
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Acquired Via: PR by the Book
The epic voyages continue in The Tree of Water, the fourth adventure in bestselling author Elizabeth Haydon’s acclaimed fantasy series for young readers, The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme.

As Royal Reporter of the land of Serendair, it is the duty of young Charles Magnus "Ven" Polypheme to travel the world and seek out magic hiding in plain sight. But Ven needs to escape the clutches of the nefarious Thief Queen, ruler of the Gated City, whose minions are hunting for him. His friend, the merrow Amariel, has the perfect solution to his dilemma: Ven and Char will join her to explore the world beneath the sea.

As they journey through the sea, Ven finds himself surrounded by wonders greater than he could have ever imagined. But the beauty of the ocean is more than matched by the dangers lurking within its depths, and Ven and his friends soon realize that in order to save thousands of innocent lives, they may have to sacrifice their own. For everything in the ocean needs to eat...

My Review

First off, I'm going kick myself for not doing my homework. When The Tree of Water was offered to me to review, my brain shut down, and I immediately responded, "YES! YES! YES!!!!!" (or something like that). If I would have been thinking clearly, I would have checked out the book on the publisher's page or Goodreads and seen that it was the fourth book in a series. *sigh*

Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): Resisting Ruby Rose by Jessie Humphries

Title: Resisting Ruby Rose (Ruby Rose #2)
Author: Jessie Humphries
Publisher: Skyscape
Blog Tour Organizer: Blog Tours By Elana
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Still reeling from the heartbreaking events that unfolded on Grissom Island, Ruby Rose is trying to come to terms with the fact that she’s gone from a vigilante in killer shoes to a stone-cold killer. Everyone from her therapist to her smoking-hot boyfriend keeps trying to convince her that she hasn’t crossed over to the dark side, but Ruby isn’t so sure. It doesn’t help that her nemesis, Detective “Mastermind” Martinez, is still out there, waiting for another chance to take her down.

When an alleged CIA agent named Skryker shows up and asks for a meeting, Ruby figures it just means more questions about her case. But he has information of an entirely different nature and a job offer: join an elite force of young assassins, including Skryker’s right-hand guy, Quinn Donovan. Quinn is distractingly charming, handsome—and deadly. Ruby resists becoming a killer again, but as she becomes more ensnared in a web of deceit, no one around her is safe.

Author Interview

Kayla: Hi Jessie, thank you so much for stopping by Bibliophilia, Please! Please tell us a little bit about Resisting Ruby Rose in your own words but with a Twitter twist – 140 characters or less.

Jessie Humphries: Thanks for having me! Okay, here’s some tweetage:

Ruby Rose’s turn as a teen vigilante ended in carnage and betrayal. But with her nemesis at large and the CIA looking to recruit her, how long can she resist her killer instincts?

Kayla: Ooooh! Sounds dire! What was your writing process like for Resisting Ruby Rose versus the first book, Killing Ruby Rose?

Author Interview: Sarah Beth Durst, Chasing Power

Title: Chasing Power
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: October 14, 2014
Sixteen-year-old Kayla was born with the ability to move things with her mind-things like credit cards and buttons on cash registers-and she has become a master shoplifter. She steals to build up enough money for her and her mom to be able to flee if her dad finds them again . . . which would mean grave danger for them both.

When she's caught stealing by a boy named Daniel-a boy with the ability to teleport-he needs her help and is willing to blackmail her to get it. Together, they embark on a quest to find and steal an ancient incantation, written on three indestructible stones and hidden millennia ago, all to rescue Daniel's kidnapped mother. But Kayla has no idea that this rescue mission will lead back to her own family-and to betrayals that she may not be able to forgive . . . or survive.

Interview

Amber: Hi Sarah, thank you so much for stopping by Bibliophilia, Please! Please tell us a little bit about your new book, Chasing Power.

Sarah Beth Durst: Thanks for having me here! My new book is about Kayla, a sixteen-year-old girl who can move things with her mind, and Daniel, a boy who can teleport across continents and who lies as easily as he travels. Together, they embark on an Indiana-Jones-style adventure to find and steal an ancient incantation, written on three indestructible stones and hidden millenia ago, all to rescue Daniel's kidnapped mother. But Kayla has no idea that this rescue mission will lead back to her own family, and to betrayals that she may not be able to forgive... or survive.

Amber: Where did you get the idea for Chasing Power?