Mia Hoddell Answers Eight questions with Amy

I’m happy to be talking with Mia Hoddell, author of The Sheol and The Flawless, books 1 and 2 of The Wanderer Trilogy. Both books are paranormal novels with an element of romance and are available on Kindle, Lulu, and Smashwords.

Book blurb for The Sheol - the first book in The Wanderer Trilogy:
Being a trained killer, Kala can handle most things the world throws at her. However, when she murders her fiancé, Kala's life is thrown into chaos. Forced to leave everything behind, she runs from city to city, in fear of her psychotic boss who is seeking her death. If that wasn't enough, she also has to cope with the re-appearance of her dead fiancé who is struggling to keep a hold on his sanity as he strives for revenge.

Book blurb for The Flawless – the second book in The Wanderer Trilogy:
A battle is going to arise soon; The Sheol and The Flawless will come together, but only one can survive to continue their manipulation of humankind. The Wanderers have to decide whether to summon the courage to fight so they can save themselves from eternal unrest or whether they like being lost, immortal souls. Nachtmahr is upgrading his Sturmmen to create more ruthless and efficient killers due to interference from The Sheol, while Kala is becoming darker; her rage consuming her as she strives to fulfill her own personal mission...kill Nachtmahr.




Watch the book trailer for The Sheol:

Now we know about Mia’s books. So...let’s talk with Mia.

Hello, Mia. Thanks for being here on A Blue Million Books with us today. Tell me how you created this trilogy.

For The Sheol, I was listening to a song that I found on YouTube, and the lyrics created the image of a woman standing on the edge of a cliff at sunset, so I just began writing what was in my head. I had already written a short story about lost souls in WW1 and have always been interested in the paranormal genre, so I kind of developed the idea of soldiers coming back to life and created The Wanderers, (souls that can not move on to the next life.) From there I spent time planning where the story was going, and it snowballed until I ended up planning the trilogy.

Follow up question--not part of the eight! I have to ask--what was the song on YouTube?

It was SomewhereNowhere by Cinephile.

How do you name your characters? You have some interesting names.

Because The Wanderer Trilogy books are dark paranormal romances, I wanted names that had a dark meaning. I started searching for names with the meaning of ‘dark’ or ‘evil’ and came across the name Kala, which meant “darkness is one country.” I don’t know why, but then Chris just seemed to fit. I had more trouble looking for names for the bad guy though. I wrote the whole book with him just being a blank line, then regretted it when I had to go back and edit it all. My German GCSE came in handy for once though, as I was flicking through an old textbook when I came across Nachtmahr (meaning nightmare), which seemed perfect. I am very picky with character names, and if I have any doubts, no matter how small, I won’t use that name, I get sort of a hunch when the name fits.

I'm a firm believer that some characters name themselves. I’m always interested to know what other authors are reading. Who are your favorite authors?

Wow, that’s hard! I read too many books to pick just one, I can read one to two books a day when in the right mood, so it’s needless to say I own a lot of books. If you forced me to pick one I would probably have to say Julia Golding, as if I hadn’t found her book I probably wouldn’t have started reading or writing as neither interested me up until that point. I also love Derek Landy’s work, as he is a humorous author. I’ll stop there, before I get carried away…

Reviews go with the territory of publishing a book. How do you handle criticism of your work?

Obviously it’s not nice to read negative comments about something I spent so many months working on, but as long as it’s constructive it can only help right? Criticism makes me want to improve my work even more, as I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and so as long as it’s constructive I don’t mind. If it’s not, then oh well, that person is entitled to their opinion. I don’t dwell on negative reviews; it just comes with the job. 

Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

My routine varies as I have to fit my writing around boring things like college work. I mean, who wants to do that when the worlds I create in my head are so much more interesting to live in? When I don’t have college or any other work to do, I prefer to write early in the morning and late at night when it is most peaceful. Luckily, I have an iPod so I am constantly writing on the go through a notepad app, which helps a lot with my changing schedule.

I love that app! I think it’s a must for writers. Do you ever get writer’s block?

I don’t so much get writer’s block, it’s more of a feeling of whether I really want to write that day. Sometimes I find I’m just not in the mood to think, so I’ll either go for a run to clear my head or do photography for a bit. Even when I’m in that mood I will always work on something to do with my writing, whether that is my blog, marketing or designing though.

You’re from the UK. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

After living in England and having to put up with the bad weather all my life, I will go anywhere there is sun, heat and a beach. I would love to go back to the Bahamas one day, as when I visited on holiday I just fell in love with the place.

And now for question number eight. What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on the third book in The Wanderer Trilogy called The Hunted, and it should hopefully be out early next year. I’m also planning a special edition of the trilogy with an added prequel about Kala and Chris’s previous life. As well as this, I have also started a new series called ‘The Elementals,’ and I’m about halfway through writing the first book Summer Demon. The books are romance novels with paranormal aspects, and I have already planned the sequel Winter Angel. More of my future projects can be found on my blog, as I have about five ideas I wish to develop at the moment.  

You are a busy girl! Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Best of luck to you with all of your projects. Please come back and talk to us when The Hunted is published. 

About Mia:
Mia is a new author from the UK. She is currently writing The Wanderer Trilogy. Besides writing, her interests are reading, sports, reviewing, listening to music, and the Arts.

You can find Mia at:

Her website/blog

Her Facebook page  

Her Goodreads author page 

Amazon

Print Books available at Lulu

Smashwords

Her books are also available on ibooks and coming soon to Barnes & Nobel, Kobo, Sony, etc.

Meet Thad Mattson

I’d like to welcome Thad Mattson, the President of SdK Corporation, to A Blue Million Books. Thad appears in J. Naomi Ay’s The Two Moons of Rehnor series in books 2 – 6.

Hello, Thad. May I call you Thad? Tell me, how did you first meet your writer? 

Who are you talking about? What are you talking about?  I thought this interview was going to be on our quarterly financials and the scheduled product releases for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately, I have to announce a delay in the neural-vascular guidewire release, as there has been a problem upgrading the software in the existing controller hardware. Everyone at SdK Corporation, including Dr. SdK himself, is committed to resolving this issue as quickly as possible. 

Guidewire? Neural-vascular? Let's talk English. Did you ever think that your life would end up being in a book? 

Oh! You want to talk about me?  Personally? That's cool I guess.  I'm in a book?  Is it a comic book? If it is, I want a green body suit and some kind of super power like heat vision. Yeah, I like that. I want to be able to point at something and make it heat like toast. You want toast, just show me some bread, and zowie, we've got toast. 

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book. 

My wife would want me to say that it would be the scene where we met, so that's my story, and I'm sticking to it, even though I don't think that scene's even in there, but I still have to live with her, so yeah. 

Smart man. What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere or nagged by your wife? 

Well, the guys and I tend to go out for drinks and wings and that kind of s**t. Our favorite place to hang is the Cowboy Corral. You can get a whole pitcher for like 4 credits. The burgers aren't too bad either. The fries are way greasy though. Berk loves their hot wings with ranch sauce, so I always take him there whenever he's in town. Did I ever tell you about the time that we went there with Ron and Katie and Ron had one of those, you know, episodes? Oh. I better keep my mouth shut in case one of you guys out there wants to read it. 

Episodes? Hmmm…I’m going to need to look into that. If you could rewrite anything in your book, what would it be? 

I'd eliminate all references to my ex-wife.  

 Oooh, sounds interesting. Now I want to know more about your ex-wife. Maybe Naomi will dish later. Next question: What is your least favorite characteristic your writer has given you?

 None. I'm totally perfect in every way. 
  
Mmm hmmm. I’ll just bet you are. Do you have any secret aspirations that your author doesn’t know about? 

I wish I could do that finger thing that Ron does.
 
I thought anybody could do that. What's the worst thing that's happened in your life? Not being able to do the finger thing?

Marrying my first wife. 

And what did you learn from that?  
Be more careful choosing the second.

Sound advice. Tell us about your best friend—is it your wife? 

My best friend (outside of my lovely wife, of course) would have to be Ron, and I can't really tell you too much about him, because then you'd know everything, and there'd be no point in reading the book.

Well we can’t have that. One last question: what do you like best about Ron?

He's the coolest dude in the galaxy, but he also scares the s**t out of me. Now that I've learned to duck and cover and, if possible, clear the area when he gets mad, I'm okay with it.

Alrighty then, Thad. Thanks for stopping in. You’ve convinced me. I’m going to have to read your book. Good luck with your second wife and with learning that finger thing of Ron’s. By the way, I was just kidding you. I can’t do it either.

About Thad’s author, J Naomi Ay:

Naomi lives in the north Olympic Peninsula and is mom to three kids and a Pomeranian. Naomi has always been a fan of historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. When not dreaming of space adventures, Naomi works in the renewable energy business and spends time out on the water.

Find Naomi:
Facebook 
Goodreads 
Twitter

Website 
Blog

J Naomi Ay Answers Eight Questions With Amy

">Escaping the nuclear destruction they had caused on the mother planet Rozari, the Mishnese and Karupatani both chose to resettle on the same planet and continue their fighting. Thus the planet Rehnor has been plagued by wars for more than 1,000 years. The two new young kings have decided enough is enough though and wed their children, the Karupta Crown Prince to the Mishnese Princess Royal, removing both from the throne and declaring their unborn son as the heir to the planet. Unfortunately, the Princess dies in childbirth and the boy is secreted away by the Mishnese, hidden from his father's family in a decrepit inner city orphanage. But, the boy is not a normal child, he has telekinetic and telepathic powers, strange silver eyes and an astonishing, other-worldly beauty. It is clear he is more than just a prince. He is in fact, the MaKennah, the savior whose birth was foretold in the writings of his ancestors. But will he save the planet from the wars or will he be killed before he even gets a chance?

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Tricia Drammeh Answers Eight Questions with Amy

I’m so happy to welcome Author Tricia Drammeh as my first guest. Tricia’s debut novel, The Claiming Words, will launch on October 6th by Iconic Publishing.

About The Claiming Words:
 
The Alexanders have always kept their secrets hidden…

When sixteen-year-old Jace Alexander moves to the small town of Oaktree, Georgia, he attracts the attention of every girl in school. Shy, introverted Alisa Cole immediately casts Jace in the leading role of her latest fantasy, but she assumes he’ll never return her interest. After she saves Jace from a Hunter, everything changes. Her accidental discovery of Jace’s secret propels her into a world of magic and danger. Alisa’s newfound courage is put to the test when Jace introduces her to his intimidating older brother, Bryce, and she decides she would rather battle a Hunter than endure another moment under Bryce’s intense scrutiny.

Jace and Bryce aren’t the only ones with secrets…

Rachel Stevens is the girl who has it all. She’s beautiful, popular, and in possession of an ancient power which endangers not only her, but those sent to protect her. Jace is drawn to Rachel—and he isn’t the only one. The Demon Re’Vel will do anything to claim her—even if it means waging a war with the entire Alexander family. As layers of secrets are peeled away, revealing the truth of her heritage and her family’s betrayal, Rachel struggles to resist an immortal suitor who stalks her in her dreams. With the Alexanders fighting to protect her, can Rachel escape the power of the Demon and his Claiming Words?

 
And now for Eight Questions with Amy:
Hello, Tricia! How long have you been writing, and how did you start?
I began writing The Claiming Words about two years ago. It was my first full-length novel. Prior to that, I wrote some poetry during my teenage years, and even tried to write a novel a few years ago, but it was really bad, and I never finished it. How did I start? It was a totally spontaneous thing. I didn’t even expect to finish, so I was as surprised as anyone when I completed The Claiming Words.

Okay, I’m going to want to know how you got the idea for The Claiming Words, but we’ll save that for another interrogation. I mean interview. How would you describe your book in a tweet? (140 characters or less.)When Rachel and Alisa fall for the same guy, the girls form an enduring friendship that surprises them both.

Excellent. You did that in 108 characters, by my count. I’m impressed. Do you outline or write by the seat of your pants?
Oh, I’m a total pantser. My stories usually begin with an imaginary friend who whispers in my ear until I agree to tell his or her story. I meander along, letting my plot form haphazardly until my inner accountant kicks in and forces me to outline the story on a spreadsheet. Needless to say, there’s a lot of rewriting involved in order to whip the first draft into something readable.

How many imaginary friends do you have? When do they talk to you?  
I have tons of imaginary friends, or at least I used to. Lately, they’ve become imaginary acquaintances or imaginary grudge-holders. They used to talk to me all the time, but they’ve been strangely silent the last few months. I think it’s because I haven’t spent enough time with them and they’re making me work to rebuild our relationship. One of my imaginary friends has been speaking to me lately, so I might see if he can talk to the others and put in a good word for me.

I think your imaginary friends know my imaginary friends. Maybe they’re partying without us. While they’re away, we can talk about them. Which character did you most enjoy writing?
The character I enjoyed writing the most was Mordecai. He doesn’t have a huge part in The Claiming Words, but we see more from him later on. He’s got a sarcastic sense of humor and is deliciously evil. I love all my bad guys.

Bad guys are fun to write. I know you’re not a bad guy, but are you like any of your characters? How so?
Out of all my characters, I’m most like Alisa. In high school, I was always shy and afraid to draw attention to myself. I was never the smartest, or the best at anything, and like Alisa, I longed to possess some amazing talent or quality that made me special. I think that’s why readers really connect with Alisa, because we’ve all felt like an outsider. We’ve all wished we could be someone else.

I hear you, sister. Alisas of the world unite! If you could be one of your characters, which one would you choose?My other main character, Rachel, is the girl I always wished I could be. She’s smart, popular, athletic—everything Alisa wishes she could be.

Isn’t that one of the best things about writing? I like what F. Scott Fitzgerald said: “Writers aren't people exactly. Or, if they're any good, they're a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.” He would have been a fun person with whom to have a conversation. Which author would you most like to invite to dinner and what would you fix me? I mean, him. Or her.
I would definitely invite the brilliant author, Amy Metz to dinner. Don’t worry, Amy. I’m taking you out to a nice restaurant on Main Street in St Charles. I would never, ever subject you to my cooking. After all, you have sequels to finish, and if you eat my cooking, you might not survive to finish your series. Or I might treat you to a fine meal at Slick & Junebug’s Diner in Goose Pimple Junction. I heard their pie is to die for.

Aw shucks, ma’am. I’d love to go to dinner with you anywhere you pick, but besides me, what author would you take to dinner? And yes, I realize this violates my eight questions rule.  

I'd like to take Rick Riordan out to dinner too. I owe him a great big thank-you because his Percy Jackson books transformed my son from 'the boy who won't read' to 'the boy who won't put his book down.' Now, that's magic!

Sounds great. Maybe we could all go out together…And I owe you a great big thank you, Tricia, for being my first interviewee. I wish you great success on your novel.

Readers, please check out Tricia’s blog and website, and of course, her book, The Claiming Words. I highly recommend anything by Tricia Drammeh. Stop back by this blog during the first week of October for a week-long Tricia-fest to celebrate her launch.


About Tricia:
Tricia Drammeh is a wife and a mother of four children. Although she currently lives in Missouri, she has called many places home, including Georgia, Ohio, and California. She’s worked in retail, customer service, sales, and accounting, but writing has always been her dream career. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, drinking vast amounts of coffee, and spending time with her family and the multitude of animals who have taken over her home. Tricia is currently working on her sixth novel.


Tricia's Website
Blog
Facebook page
Goodreads author page
Twitter
Amazon

Contact at: tricia@theclaimingwords.com

 

Hello!

Hello, and welcome to my blog. It's day one of A Blue Million Books. In case you're wondering--in the south, a blue million means A LOT. I'm looking forward to discovering a lot of good books. If you're an author and would like to be interviewed or featured on this blog, please contact me at: amy@amymetz.com. If you're a reader and are looking for good books, check back often. I plan to feature a blue million great authors and great books. Stop in, say hello, leave a suggestion or a comment. I'd love to hear from you.