Tell us about a favorite character from a book.
I would have to say Rose from the Vampire Academy series. I LOVE Rose! She’s strong, brave, and loyal to those she loves. And she’s a fighter! She also has confidence. She’s the ideal heroine for me in YA.
How do you describe your writing style?
Hmmm. This is hard for me to put into words. Some writers can write a scene of over 5,000-6,000 words long. This is hard for me to do. I’m a lot more concise in my writing style. I tend to write shorter scenes and shorter sentences. But it works nice when I’m trying to build tension or anxiety in the reader. ;)
Has someone helped or mentored you in your writing career?
Yep! Heather Hildenbrand and Jenn Sommersby. Also KC Neal. Heather has been there for me since the very beginning. We started trading our WIPs to give each other input and then we beta read and critiqued for each other. She has taught me so much about writing, and my strengths and weaknesses. Plus, she’s a very talented writer, so I feel extremely lucky to have her on my team. And she’s such a strong and powerful woman. She amazes me daily.
Jenn is a grammar wizard! No joke! She did the copy edits for me on Descended by Blood, but she was friend before that. She’s hilarious, sweet, down-to-earth, and brilliant. Plus, she’s a great friend and has always given me sound advice. I can’t imagine this journey without her part in it.
KC has been a great friend to me. She makes me laugh on a daily basis, and I’ve noticed my days aren’t nearly as happy when she’s not around. She was a HUGE moral support to me in the revision stages of Descended by Blood. I’m not sure I would have made it out of those revisions without her.
Do you hear from your readers? What kinds of questions do they ask?
Hahahaha! Mostly they ask me when Enemy Within is coming out. Or if they can have Mirko. I get that one a lot, too. lol I LOVE my readers. There’s nothing quite like the joy I feel when a reader reaches out to me and tells me they loved my book! I seriously get the biggest grin on my face and can’t even begin to express to them how much I appreciate them contacting me.
Tell us about the absolute BEST fan letter you have received.
Oh, man. I got an email from a reader last week that had me in tears. She contacted me to tell me how much she loved my book. She told me her husband was in the military and had been deployed for over 6 months. Then she thanked me for my book and told me that books like mine help to keep her sane. I’m almost in tears just relaying this to you. That seriously touched my heart. To know that my little book can give someone an escape from missing a loved one like that really made me glad with my decision to publish it. It makes all the bad reviews, the late nights, and days when I wanted to pull my hair out worth it. Man, I LOVE my readers! *wipes tear*
What are the most important attributes for remaining sane as a writer?
Hahahaha!! Some days I wonder if I really am sane. I think writers have to have a certain level of crazy to them to be able to write and publish. This experience has been the craziest, most frustrating thing I have ever done in my life. First it was the revisions and edits that were hard. Then it was the bad reviews. And man, those are TOUGH. Reviews were coming in so quickly for Descended by Blood, and no matter how many times you hear “you’ll get bad reviews because everyone gets them”, and “you can’t please everyone” you’re still not prepared for how hard it really is. Then there’s the marketing, and interviews, and guest posts, and tweeting, and watching your numbers, and trying to write the next book, and blog posts, and giveaways, and mailing the prizes from the giveaways. Man! It’s a LOT to keep up with!
But if I had to give advice for what a writer should do to keep their sanity, it would be to surround yourself with amazing people. People who get what you’re doing; the stresses and the triumphs. That has seriously helped me realize that some of the feelings, and the ups and downs are normal. And they also remind you that you’re not the worst writer in the world on those days you feel like you are. And they talk you down off the ledge from ideas you think will be BRILLIANT, but are probably just gonna make you look stupid. Basically, my advice is that you should keep those people close who MAKE YOU SANE. ;)
To learn more about Angeline's book, Descended by Blood or to find out when her sequel is being released, please follow her webpage http://www.descendedbyblood.com
A big THANK YOU to Angeline for allowing me to interview you and for the opportunity to showcase your exciting series! I wish you all the success and I'm looking forward to being able to read book two in the vampire saga!
Please read a short excerpt from Descended by Blood, Chapter one.
I heard a twig snap and jerked my head to the right. My eyes caught the glint from the eyes of a mountain lion creeping toward us; his ears pulled back, teeth bared. He rose from his crouch and started charging down the mountain straight for us.
Kaitlynn must have spotted it a second after I did because she shrieked. She grabbed my arm and tried pulling me as she ran back to the cars. There was no way we would both make it out of here alive. We had been hiking up the trail for the last ten minutes, and this lion looked fast. It even sped up at the site of Kaitlynn running away.
I planted my feet, and looked the mountain lion square into his charging eyes. Something clicked inside of me, and heat coursed through my veins. My vision intensified, and I could distinguish the areas of down between the lion's coarse fur as his muscles flexed and stretched.
The lion and I connected on an intellectual level: predator versus predator. Only I knew, and I deemed the lion knew as well, that I outranked him as the more fearsome predator. How I recognized this, or how I discerned the lion realized this, I couldn't fathom. I had never been hunting before, so this instinct didn't come from a belief that man ruled supreme on the food chain. And this moment felt different somehow. It wasn't man versus beast; it was beast versus beast.
"Stop!" I commanded.
The lion skid to a halt five feet in front of me. He stared into my eyes, his ears perked back, fangs exposed in a snarl and hackles raised, but he didn't move a centimeter closer.
I towered over him, my pulse pounding at the sides of my neck, my shoulders rising and falling with my deep breathes. My gaze pierced him, welding his toes and the pads of his feet into the ground. Somehow, I had been able to force my command over him, and when I told him to stop, I never considered that he would deny my order.
The nerves along my scalp tingled with the sensation that the lion yearned to attack me, but he couldn't. The only thing holding him back was my decree that he shouldn't. My beast had prevailed as the most dominant among us.
As soon as fear clawed up my spine at the realization of looking at myself as a beast, I yelled, "Leave!" before he could translate my hesitance and continue his attack.
He hissed, spun around, and ran up the side of the hill, tail flogging behind him. I studied him, ensuring that he wouldn't change his mind and come back.
Kaitlynn rushed up behind me. "Brooke, let's go!" she pleaded, voice shaking. I stood there, just to make absolutely sure. We had some distance to run before we'd get back to our vehicles, and I wasn't going to take any chances on being stuck in that lion's jaws.
The creature was almost out of the small clearing and about to enter into the thick forest when a man stepped out from between two spruce trees. The lion rubbed his fawn pelt against the man's leg like a house cat and purred. My hypersensitive hearing digested the happy rumble cascading down the hill.
The man loomed, just outside the shadows, in a dark trench coat, smiling. His malignant stare reached my eyes, and his smirk grew by spades.
Kaitlynn yanked on my sleeve. "Brooke, please," she begged, "can we just get out of here now?"
I loitered, eyes locked on this man who I was sure had just sicced that mountain lion on us. The way he pulled the corner of his lip up in a sneer suggested that he found pleasure in the way things ended with the lion. And it wasn't because we were safe, either; it had to do with something else about the situation.
"Brooke! Now. It's gone. I'm leaving." Kaitlynn released me. Her sneakers thumped along the trail away from me—indicating she really had left—and I jerked out of my trance. The man and the lion turned; his long jacket snapped with his movement, and they fell away into the shadows.
I trembled as I recalled the leer on his face. My blood began to cool, and I spun around to follow after Kaitlynn.
"Kaitlynn! Wait." I reached her quickly, considering she left before me.
"Let's just get out of here," she said, refusing to slow down.
"That guy sent the mountain lion after us."
"What guy?" Kaitlynn's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"You didn't see that guy standing by the tree line at the top of the hill? The lion stroked up against his leg like a house cat."
"I didn't see any guy. As soon as that mountain lion was gone, I was ready to get out of there," Kaitlynn said without slowing down. "It could explain why there was a mountain lion in Virginia, though."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We don't have mountain lions in Virginia. It must have been his pet or something. Maybe he called it back, and that's why it ran off."
"No," I said, puzzled. "It was a wild mountain lion. It was definitely feral, and he sent it after us. But why?"
Kaitlynn released a nervous laugh. "Yeah, that sure explains why a wild cat stopped mid-attack. My explanation makes more sense."
We neared the trailhead, and Kaitlynn pulled her keys out of her pocket and hit the disarm button, causing her Jeep to chirp up ahead.
When the cars were in sight, Kaitlynn slowed and came toward me with her arms out for a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'll call you later tonight." She turned toward her Jeep.
"Me too. Talk to you later."
Kaitlynn threw the Jeep in reverse. When she put it in drive and hit the gas, rocks and debris flew up from the tires.
I sat down in the driver's seat of my car, but before I closed the door, I heard a guttural growl from the distance. It sounded similar to the mountain lion.
A shiver ran up my spine, causing my shoulders to spasm and my head to jerk. I escaped as fast as my old Mazda's four-cylinder engine could carry me.
To learn more about Angeline's book, Descended by Blood or to find out when her sequel is being released, please follow her webpage http://www.descendedbyblood.com
A big THANK YOU to Angeline for allowing me to interview you and for the opportunity to showcase your exciting series! I wish you all the success and I'm looking forward to being able to read book two in the vampire saga!
Please read a short excerpt from Descended by Blood, Chapter one.
___________________________________________________
I heard a twig snap and jerked my head to the right. My eyes caught the glint from the eyes of a mountain lion creeping toward us; his ears pulled back, teeth bared. He rose from his crouch and started charging down the mountain straight for us.
Kaitlynn must have spotted it a second after I did because she shrieked. She grabbed my arm and tried pulling me as she ran back to the cars. There was no way we would both make it out of here alive. We had been hiking up the trail for the last ten minutes, and this lion looked fast. It even sped up at the site of Kaitlynn running away.
I planted my feet, and looked the mountain lion square into his charging eyes. Something clicked inside of me, and heat coursed through my veins. My vision intensified, and I could distinguish the areas of down between the lion's coarse fur as his muscles flexed and stretched.
The lion and I connected on an intellectual level: predator versus predator. Only I knew, and I deemed the lion knew as well, that I outranked him as the more fearsome predator. How I recognized this, or how I discerned the lion realized this, I couldn't fathom. I had never been hunting before, so this instinct didn't come from a belief that man ruled supreme on the food chain. And this moment felt different somehow. It wasn't man versus beast; it was beast versus beast.
"Stop!" I commanded.
The lion skid to a halt five feet in front of me. He stared into my eyes, his ears perked back, fangs exposed in a snarl and hackles raised, but he didn't move a centimeter closer.
I towered over him, my pulse pounding at the sides of my neck, my shoulders rising and falling with my deep breathes. My gaze pierced him, welding his toes and the pads of his feet into the ground. Somehow, I had been able to force my command over him, and when I told him to stop, I never considered that he would deny my order.
The nerves along my scalp tingled with the sensation that the lion yearned to attack me, but he couldn't. The only thing holding him back was my decree that he shouldn't. My beast had prevailed as the most dominant among us.
As soon as fear clawed up my spine at the realization of looking at myself as a beast, I yelled, "Leave!" before he could translate my hesitance and continue his attack.
He hissed, spun around, and ran up the side of the hill, tail flogging behind him. I studied him, ensuring that he wouldn't change his mind and come back.
Kaitlynn rushed up behind me. "Brooke, let's go!" she pleaded, voice shaking. I stood there, just to make absolutely sure. We had some distance to run before we'd get back to our vehicles, and I wasn't going to take any chances on being stuck in that lion's jaws.
The creature was almost out of the small clearing and about to enter into the thick forest when a man stepped out from between two spruce trees. The lion rubbed his fawn pelt against the man's leg like a house cat and purred. My hypersensitive hearing digested the happy rumble cascading down the hill.
The man loomed, just outside the shadows, in a dark trench coat, smiling. His malignant stare reached my eyes, and his smirk grew by spades.
Kaitlynn yanked on my sleeve. "Brooke, please," she begged, "can we just get out of here now?"
I loitered, eyes locked on this man who I was sure had just sicced that mountain lion on us. The way he pulled the corner of his lip up in a sneer suggested that he found pleasure in the way things ended with the lion. And it wasn't because we were safe, either; it had to do with something else about the situation.
"Brooke! Now. It's gone. I'm leaving." Kaitlynn released me. Her sneakers thumped along the trail away from me—indicating she really had left—and I jerked out of my trance. The man and the lion turned; his long jacket snapped with his movement, and they fell away into the shadows.
I trembled as I recalled the leer on his face. My blood began to cool, and I spun around to follow after Kaitlynn.
"Kaitlynn! Wait." I reached her quickly, considering she left before me.
"Let's just get out of here," she said, refusing to slow down.
"That guy sent the mountain lion after us."
"What guy?" Kaitlynn's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"You didn't see that guy standing by the tree line at the top of the hill? The lion stroked up against his leg like a house cat."
"I didn't see any guy. As soon as that mountain lion was gone, I was ready to get out of there," Kaitlynn said without slowing down. "It could explain why there was a mountain lion in Virginia, though."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We don't have mountain lions in Virginia. It must have been his pet or something. Maybe he called it back, and that's why it ran off."
"No," I said, puzzled. "It was a wild mountain lion. It was definitely feral, and he sent it after us. But why?"
Kaitlynn released a nervous laugh. "Yeah, that sure explains why a wild cat stopped mid-attack. My explanation makes more sense."
We neared the trailhead, and Kaitlynn pulled her keys out of her pocket and hit the disarm button, causing her Jeep to chirp up ahead.
When the cars were in sight, Kaitlynn slowed and came toward me with her arms out for a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'll call you later tonight." She turned toward her Jeep.
"Me too. Talk to you later."
Kaitlynn threw the Jeep in reverse. When she put it in drive and hit the gas, rocks and debris flew up from the tires.
I sat down in the driver's seat of my car, but before I closed the door, I heard a guttural growl from the distance. It sounded similar to the mountain lion.
A shiver ran up my spine, causing my shoulders to spasm and my head to jerk. I escaped as fast as my old Mazda's four-cylinder engine could carry me.
___________________________________________________
Thank you co much for having me, Kate! It's my pleasure! :)
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