Runners release news

March 3, 2013 by sharonsant

After a long chat with the peeps at my wonderful publisher, Immanion Press, I’ve taken the decision to postpone the release of Runners. The official date is now 8th June 2013. I apologise to the readers who have been waiting patiently for the book’s release and hope that they’ll stick with me just a little longer. I’ll make it worth your while, I promise! For a start, it will avoid the rather messy business of my head exploding. Spring 2013 will belong to the Sky Song trilogy – the final book in the series, Not of Our Sky, coming out early May – and summer will be all about Elijah and his friends. The Runners cover is being designed by the team at Immanion as we speak, (after the humiliating failed attempt to get local kids to model for it) and as soon as I get a peek I’ll share it with you. For now, all I can do is keep everything crossed that I don’t have a total meltdown between now and June!

About Runners

Elijah is nothing special. He’s just a skinny kid doing his best to stay one step ahead of starvation and the people who would have him locked away in a labour camp – just another Runner. But what he stumbles upon in a forest in Hampshire shows him that the harsh world he knows will become an even more sinister place, unless he can stop it. As past and present and parallel dimensions collide, freedom becomes the last thing on his mind as he is suddenly faced with a battle to save his world from extinction. But before Elijah can find the courage to be the hero the world needs, he must banish his own demons and learn to trust his friends. And all the while, the sinister figure of Maxwell Braithwaite looms, his path inextricably bound to Elijah’s by a long dead physicist, and hell bent on stopping Elijah, whatever the cost.

Monica La Porta tells how a podcast inspired her novel, The Priest

March 2, 2013 by sharonsant

It’s time for another visiting author from the group of awesome indies involved in the Indie Author Giveaway. Today I’m hosting the beautiful and talented Monica La Porta to tell us more about what inspired her to write The Priest.

The Story Behind the Story

Sometimes, inspiration comes from the most unexpected sources.
A few years ago, during a flight back home, I was listening to a podcast of a famous Italian stand-up comedian blathering about men. She ended her hilarious piece with a few remarks about the possibility of creating life without male’s contribution. Once I stopped laughing, the idea of a Roman Empire a` la Amazon formed in my mind. I’ve always enjoyed what-if tales and my favorite classes back in college were Sociology and Anthropology. I started wondering of what would happen from an evolutionary point of view to a society that mirrors ours; similar but reversed. An alternate Earth where women have absolute power and love between opposite genders is considered the most heinous sin. The seed of an idea was planted and I started writing Pax in the Land of Women. Almost halfway through what should have been the first installation in the Ginecean Chronicles series, two characters, Mauricio and Rosie, came to life. The elderly couple’s love story was heartbreaking and demanded to be told. It was November 2010, I took a break from Pax in the Land of Women, and decided to join Nanowrimo to write The Priest. A month later, the first draft was done. I finished writing Pax, now the second book in the series, and then started looking for the right editor to work on both novels. It proved to be a long and tortuous path. In October 2011, the person I had hired for the last proofreading pass of The Priest told me the manuscript wasn’t ready and needed to be edited. I was bummed, I had already paid two different editors to polish it, but I wasn’t going to release anything I couldn’t be proud of. Fortunately, my search ended soon after, and one year ago, in February 2012, thanks to my current editor, my little book finally left the safety of my computer for good. Six months after, Pax in the land of Women followed, and soon Prince of War should be released. The rest… is still to be written.

Links:

Monica La Porta’s blog:
The Ginecean Chronicles’ Facebook page
Goodreads Author page:
Where to find my books:
The Ginecean Chronicles:
The Priest
Pax in the Land of Women
Children’s books and YA short stories:
The Prince’s Day Out
Linda of the Night

The Priest

Mauricio is a slave. Like any man born on Ginecea, he is but a number for the
pure breed women who rule over him with cruel hands. Imprisoned inside the
Temple since birth, Mauricio has never been outside, never felt the warmth of
the sun on his skin. He lives a life devoid of hopes and desires. Then one day,
he hears Rosie sing. He risks everything for one look at her and his life is
changed, forever. An impossible friendship blossoms into affection deemed sinful
and perverted in a society where the only rightful union is between women. Love
is born where only hate has roots and leads Mauricio to uncover a truth that
could destroy Ginecea.

Rayne Hall talks about Storm Dancer

February 28, 2013 by sharonsant

I’m pleased to welcome fellow author, Rayne Hall, on to the blog today to tease her novel, Storm Dancer. This book has had great reviews on Amazon and the artwork is gorgeous. It’s one of a fabulous list of books that you can win in the Indie Giveaway (see below for the link).

Over to Rayne…

MEET DAHOUD. HE’S DANGEROUS.

Dahoud is a warrior, brave, honourable and kind. He loves horses, wrestling, music and dance, and he seeks a strong woman to cherish and respect for the rest of his life.

But he harbours a dark secret: demonic possession.

The djinn inside him urges Dahoud to hurt women and to subdue them with force.

Dahoud fights these evil desires with all his strength. But he has succumbed to them before, and it is only a matter of time before the djinn strikes again.

What woman is strong enough to partner Dahoud and face the danger of the djinn?

Storm Dancer is a dark-epic fantasy novel. It deals with dark issues and may not be suitable for young readers.

Dahoud. Art by Paul Davies and Erica Syverson, copyright Rayne Hall STORM DANCER cover reduced 300 pixels

You can follow on Twitter @RayneHall or check out the Goodreads page

If you’d like to purchase from the Amazon store, click here…

Find Rayne and other awesome indies in the great indie giveaway here…

Five Victorian Flavoured Books

February 25, 2013 by sharonsant

After reading the delightful Tethers (a book that has gone on my ‘read more than once pile’) by Jack Croxall (see his author interview here) I got to thinking about other contemporary books influenced by or set in the Victorian period. And then, as I’m nice like that, I thought I’d share five of them with you. Actually, the maths spods amongst you will see that there are six entries, but the last one I haven’t actually read. See what I did there?

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas

I have to start this with a warning. Actually, two warnings. No three… nobody expects the Spanish inquisition (eh, digress, me?).

This book is rude. Very rude. So all you YAs out there steer clear *sounds of stampede to bookshop*. But I have to include it because it’s so awesome. And it has black edged pages – you don’t get more awesome than that. Warning two: It’s not actually set in the Victorian era either. But sort of. The action is split between present day and an imagined Victorian landscape and features a crazy Victorian scientist. It’s a kind of steampunk sci-fi with a smattering of erotica ‘…a thrilling adventure of sex, death and time-travel.’ It’s indescribable. Go read. As long as you are of consenting age, that is.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I think many people are reading this right now. This book contains such beautiful, lush prose that I find myself almost weeping at every page. The story takes place over sixteen years, some of them actually after Victoria (cheating again, I know). I have read reviews of this that say nothing happens, or that what does happen is pointless or the reviewer didn’t understand it. What I think they’re missing is the magic, both in the story and in the writing itself, and the magic that comes from the love affair between the two central characters. I agree that some of the peripheral characters seem surplus to requirements at times and there is rather a huge cast, which might put some off but didn’t worry me. The book evokes that aspect of Victorian society that was fascinated with new things, new discoveries and spectacle and invention, while still being wholly readable for a contemporary audience. If you like magic and love and beautiful words, you’ll be in for a treat

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

The first of the Sally Lockhart mysteries, it’s been a while since I read this – shamefully, the first YA on this list! Sally Lockhart might just be one of the coolest heroines in literature. And the first paragraph… Everything I learned about writing first paragraphs can be traced back to Mr Pullman. How’s this for a line?

‘Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man.’

Pullman doesn’t baulk from the blossoming sexuality of a young woman, nor the constraints and expectations of the age that she finds herself rebelling against. The action is breath-taking and fast paced and dangerous enough to match any adult thriller.

Affinity by Sarah Waters

This is a slow burner but gradually gets spookier as the book progresses. We see Miss Prior’s mind begin to unravel and feel as though we are unravelling with her as she struggles to make sense of what is fantasy and what is real. In the second narrative thread we are shown a history of Selina Dawes, celebrated medium, and the road that sent her to prison. The two women are thrown together and what follows keeps you guessing the motives of any of it right until the end. Set partly in a women’s prison and partly in the world of spiritualism and table-tapping, Affinity is incredibly atmospheric and evocative of the simultaneous fascination and repulsion of death and sexuality that characterised the age.

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G W Dahlquist

Warning! Another saucy, bodice-ripping adventure with the best named heroine ever – Celestial Temple. A bizarre, steampunk Victorian sci-fi adventure with a healthy dollop of fetishism and spy shenanigans, topped off by the odd murder. An unlikely trio of heroes make their way through the gruesome underbelly of nineteenth century society in a car-crash book – you don’t want to look sometimes but you just have to!

Young Sherlock Holmes (series) by Andrew Lane

I’m cheating a bit with this series as I haven’t actually read them yet. But I have it on good authority from an impeccable source that they’re amazing. I loved Sherlock Holmes as a kid and still do to this day. There are five books so far in the series: Death Cloud, Red Leech, Black Ice, Firestorm, Snakebite and my impeccable source has devoured them all as soon as they have been released. As you can imagine, it’s Sherlock Holmes so there’s oodles of mystery and action.

Indie book giveaway!

February 21, 2013 by sharonsant

Welcome to the Indie Giveaway! Eleven talented indie authors (or ten and me) have banded together to offer you the chance of two great prizes. The first haul is 11 ebooks. The second is three signed paperbacks and a $20 Amazon gift voucher. Fantastic prizes? I think so! The giveaway is open from midnight GMT on the 25th February until 11:59pm GMT on the 11th March and there’s loads of ways to gain entries.

First, check out the authors and their books below:

Sky Song, by Sharon Sant: An unknown past. An unwanted destiny. A fight for survival.

Dominant Race, by Elisa Nuckle: Lilia, a genetically altered human called a modified, and her allies must choose: help a tyrannical government in the business of killing their kind, or defend someone in the business of killing everyone else?

Earth Angel, by Ruth Ellen Parlour: Earth Angels of Eardecia, fighting against their chosen destiny, discover a secret the God’s never told and use it against their sworn enemy.

Graveyard Shift, by Angela Roquet: Lana Harvey is a reaper, and a lousy one at that, but when Grim promotes her to a high risk assignment, all hell breaks loose…

Blood Roses, by Jason Graves: Madeline and Marissa Owen are identical twins who, with their paper-white skin, look a lot like vampires… well, sometimes, looks can be not at all deceiving.

Sciron, by David Rashleigh: History, mystery, ghosts and a touch of romance in a Lancashire town.

Storm Dancer, by Rayne Hall: Dahoud saves to fight the woman he loves from the evil inside him.

The Priest, by Monica La Porta: Love doesn’t look at skin color/social status/gender. Society can’t restrain our hearts.

T he Violet Fox, by Clare Marshall: The Violet Fox is Cinderella meets Robin Hood with a dash of The Little Mermaid.

Torched, by Andrea Lynn Colt: When cheerleader Rose Whitfield is framed for arson, she sets out to clear her name and take prime suspect Paxton down hard–not necessarily in that order.

Trinity, by Clare Davidson: Three unlikely companions set out to do the impossible–restore a trinity of gods, which was destroyed a thousand years earlier.

For a chance to win this haul of brilliant books, simply fill in the details below and you’ll be entered into the draw. Don’t worry, your details will never be used for anything but this.

ebook giveaway
paperback giveaway

Location, location, inspiration.

February 18, 2013 by sharonsant

This weekend I’ve been splashing around in cold seas, scoffing ice-cream and scrambling over rocks. There might have been some shopping involved too but that’s a different story…

There has been a purpose to all this frivolity, however. I’ve been researching locations for the last book in the Sky Song trilogy, Not of Our Sky. More accurately, one very important location that’s integral to the climax. Every writer has a slightly different approach to using locations in their stories according to their needs. As a fantasy writer, my sense of place (a bit like my writing in general) lies somewhere in between real and made up. Quite often I’ll take an actual place and modify it. Sometimes I just won’t tell you where that place is. There is quite a lot of that in Sky Song, for example, I don’t tell you where the boating lake is, but it is a real location.

*As an aside, the only clue you’ll get from the entire three books of the park’s location in the physical world is this line from The Young Moon:

Jacob was hit by a rush of conflicting emotions as he entered the dolphin-embossed gates and the glittering waters of the lake stretched out before him, beyond which the hazy blue rim of the sea cut across the horizon.

Anyone recognise it now?*

The reason I don’t always tell you the name of the real place is that the story needs me to alter it in some way, and I don’t want everyone shouting at me that the details aren’t right. The boating lake is in a real park, but I take details of an annual event in another, nearby park and add them to my boating lake park, then I chuck in some buildings that don’t exist in the real park either because they have a vital part to play in the final confrontation of the book. In my upcoming standalone novel Runners, I do tell you the real name of every location, but the action is set in the future so that you can accept that the landscape or buildings may have changed. The climax of Not of Our Sky, however, needs a real place and it needs to be accurate because the whole book has been foreshadowing the events there in such a way that it has to be named. The action takes place in a contemporary time too so it has to look in the book how the real place looks now. And despite the fact that I have researched the location extensively from afar, actually visiting it this weekend has revealed just how little of the details I actually got right! Physically seeing the landscape has also suggested new ideas to weave into that final scene that would never have occurred to me had I not been there, ideas that I’m sure will improve it.

Of course, it’s not always possible to visit your locations. In the second book of the trilogy, The Young Moon, there is an equally important, really existing location. Sadly, however, that place is one I travelled to many years ago and as I don’t have the money to go back there, I’ve had to rely on my ageing memory and let Google fill in the gaps!

But why not simply set the books in the place I live? Wouldn’t that be easier?

Having been born in Dorset but brought up in Stoke-on-Trent, I do actually use both places frequently as a source of inspiration. The story dictates the setting. And the stories I’m working on now need the Dorset and Hampshire landscapes to work. There is something epic about the terrain there, something quite mystical. Hardy saw it and wove it into the fabric of his novels like a character. But there are other stories I write that Stoke is a perfect backdrop for. Most of my short stories are set there, particularly the ones with more of a realist feel. For me, Stoke, as a city, is incredibly real; the people have a natural grounding and no-nonsense self-deprecation that seems to suit those stories better.

I know some writers who can set a story in a place they’ve never visited by simply researching it for a sense of location and some who only ever set things in the place they live. Some spend pages describing intimately their locations and some throw in titbits to give you only a flavour. And, obviously, there are some whose places don’t exist anywhere except in their books. Their methods work for them as writers and their stories. It’s a fascinating process and one that, for me, is almost as important as characters and plot. Location can do so much to shape a story.

Jacob’s back…

February 15, 2013 by sharonsant

I’m happy to tell you that with The Young Moon almost ready for release, I may be allowed out from solitary confinement soon. Just for a short walk around the garden, mind, and ten minutes to wash the dishes before I’m shackled back at the laptop for Not of Our Sky.

Here’s a sneak preview…

It is a prophecy, Watcher. And it foretells your destruction.

So comes the stark warning from Astrae. But what does the prophecy that tells of the young moon actually mean?

Two years have passed and Jacob’s search for the second Successor brings him back to Earth. But his Watcher powers seem to be useless as the other Successor remains shrouded in mystery… And he soon discovers that his bitter uncle, Makash, is also hot on the trail.

Jacob’s quest takes him and Luca halfway across the globe in a race to get to the other Successor first. As they get closer to their goal the body count starts to rise and Jacob and Luca are dragged deeper into Makash’s deadly game as the net closes around them.

All Jacob has to do is cheat death, yet again, find another like him amongst the seven billion people that swarm over the face of the planet before Makash does, and thwart the prophecy that spells his doom. No pressure then…

The Young Moon is the second book of the Sky Song Trilogy.

Author of The Star Child series, Stephanie Keyes, talks YA fantasy, magic and surprising plot journeys

February 14, 2013 by sharonsant

I’m thriled that Stephanie Keyes can join me today on the blog to talk about what first got her reading and writing YA. She must have the prettiest website in publishing right now and she’s kindly agreed to sprinkle some of her magic over mine! So, Stephanie, take it away…

Hello everyone and a big thank you to Sharon for having me as a guest today! One of the questions Sharon asked me was how I got into writing in the YA genre.

Growing up, read a ton of YA books growing up, like, prepare to cringe “Sweet Valley High” (I know I just totally dated myself). Those didn’t really do it for me either. I think the turnoff came in the form of romance and high school politics being the only focus of the book. Being a teenager myself at the time, I wanted an escape from the real world, not a reminder of it.

I’d already read some fantasy books growing up, like TH White’s “The Once and Future King”. Though I truly enjoyed them, I had a hard time latching onto high fantasy.

Then I left both behind and spent years reading Women’s Fiction, Chick Lit, Popular fiction, Romance. Most of what I read ended up being from the Mass Market Paperback section.

Then I got pulled back into YA and Fantasy simultaneously. It was the combining of the two that changed what I read and opened up an entirely new genre of this YA/Fantasy/Paranormal realm. That happened for me with The Harry Potter series. Although I don’t know if much of JK Rowling’s famed series could be termed YA, it was introduced to me at the right time. I loved the idea of magic simply being introduced into our daily lives when we least expected it. For me, the series provided a new breed of palatable fantasy for those of us that couldn’t quite get into Tolkien.

The Harry Potter series was following by OR Melling’s “The Chronicles of Faerie”. Why do all Fantasy writers use initials, btw? These books were marvelous and pulled a great deal of Irish culture and history into the story, which I identified with, having a similar heritage.

By the time books like The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer… ah, there’s a full first name…came along, I started to think…Mmmh. I can write one of those. Writing wasn’t a new past time of mine – I’d wanted to be a journalist when I was younger. When I sat down with intentions to write “The Star Child” in 2008, I had no idea what it would become. When I finished the novel nine months later, no one was more surprised than I!

About Stephanie Keyes

Stephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. Today, she’s still doing the same thing, except now she gets to share those ideas with readers!

When she’s not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she’s best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years.

Mrs. Keyes holds an undergraduate degree in Business and Management Information Systems from Robert Morris University and a M.Ed. from Duquesne University. She is a member of the Society For Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), as well as a featured author in the global group of writers, Love a Happy Ending.com.

Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child (September 2012) and The Fallen Stars (April 12, 2013), both released by Inkspell Publishing. She is currently editing the third book in the trilogy, The Star Catcher.

Stephanie’s website

Amazon

Goodreads

18 Things author, Jamie Ayres, talks about not growing up, vampire action and writing YA

February 10, 2013 by sharonsant

It’s guest author time again. The lovely Jamie Ayres has agreed to be my guest on the blog today to tell us about her debut novel, 18 Things and her take on writing YA fiction. So, grab yourself a coffee (or, in my caffeine-phobe case, green tea) and read on…

Hi, ya’ll *waves* Big shout out to Sharon for hosting me! Let’s get this party started . . .

I made the transition from Wannabe YA Writer to Bona Fide Published Author just last month. I didn’t set out to write YA love stories, but I guess that’s what I enjoy reading the most, so that’s what flowed out of me. Specifically, I love coming-of-age stories . . . that time in our lives when we’re figuring out who we are and often falling in love for the first time and kinda getting away from the watchful eye of the parentals and the vulnerability that stems from all of that. Makes for great writing material!

It’s when I was a young adult in high school that I really discovered I wanted to be a writer. Teaching was tugging on my heartstrings too, so that’s what I majored in, with the intent to write in my ‘spare’ time. Back then I was naïve enough to think I’d have spare time when I grew-up (metaphorically speaking of course, because on the inside, I’m still a sixteen-year-old girl who still weighs one hundred twenty pounds, lol).

About the time kid #2 was entering kindergarten, I felt more free to read books for fun again, and it was perfect timing since my good friend started a book club. We were all moms in our thirties, but we got to talking about Twilight (I know, I know . . . we’re sooo original, hahaha). I wasn’t into vampire stories at all, but when I finally caved and picked it up, I couldn’t get enough. I loved how fast the story got under way. The pacing was so much quicker than what I was used to. Like most young adults (or wannabe YA), I have a short attention span, but everything in that book immediately grabbed me. Too many books I was reading before that left me with a “why should I give a crap?” feeling for far too long. They all gave me a nice character sketch for several chapters, but nothing to make me worry, to make me feel concerened, to make me feel like I wanted to be part of their world. Then, all of a sudden, I was living inside Bella’s head. LIVING each moment as she experienced it. The action was ACTIVE.

I was hooked on YA love stories after that, and I’ve never looked back.

About Jamie

Jamie Ayres writes young adult love stories with a paranormal twist by night and teaches young adults as a public school teacher by day. When not at home on her laptop or at school, she can often be found at a local book store grabbing random children and reading to them. So far, she has not been arrested for this. She lives in southwest Florida with her prince charming, two children (sometimes three based on how Mr. Ayres is acting), and a basset hound. She spent her youthful summers in Grand Haven, Michigan and this setting provided the inspiration for her debut novel, 18 Things. She really does have grandmothers named Olga and Gay but unlike her heroine, she’s thankfully not named after either one of them. She loves lazy pajama days, the first page of a good book, stupid funny movies, and sharing stories with fantastic people like you. Visit her website at http://www.jamieayres.com/ or find her on these social media sites:

The Next Big Thing

February 9, 2013 by sharonsant

The Next Big Thing

I’ve been tagged in the next big thing blog hop by the surreally hilarious Laurence Donaghy. I have the same list of questions that I have to provide entertaining answers to and then I tag two writerly friends. Oh well, here goes internet oblivion….

1. What is the working title of your next book?

It’s called ‘the one where Sharon’s writing fairy locks away her Merlin DVDs and uninstalls the youtube app from her phone and ties her to a chair until some words come out’. Maybe that’s a bit longwinded, though. We’ll go for The Young Moon instead. It’s the second of the Sky Song trilogy.

2. Where did the idea for the book come from?

As it’s a sequel, I suppose I have to say that the idea came from the first book! At the end of Sky Song, we left Jacob **Sound of a truck roaring past** so, The Young Moon picks up two years on from there. There was always going to be three books and each one continues the overall story arc. Sky Song was as much about Jacob’s dilemma over his life choices as it was about his battle with the bad guy. In The Young Moon there’s a whole bunch of different dilemmas around loyalties and who gets to choose who lives and who dies. Jacob gets faced with some really tough decisions and quite often has to deal with the consequences of making the wrong ones.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

If you wanted to be pedantic you could call it Young Adult fantasy. But there is a feel of realism about it, and I’m very influenced by magical realist works, so I suppose, in that sense, it’s not fantasy in the way most would think of that genre. There are actually a couple of my favourite TV shows that you could probably point to and say ‘like that.’ If you look at something like Life on Mars or Misfits, outwardly, the setting is very ordinary and mundane, but something extraordinary is happening just beneath the surface. I think that Jacob’s story is like that.

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

This is where I come undone. Colin Morgan’s face just pops up every time – not because he looks remotely like any of the characters, but just because I’d make sure I was on set every day! This is a tricky question, though, because the main characters are all teenagers so the actors young enough to play them would probably be fairly unknown. I think for Jacob’s best friend, Luca, Jonathan Bailey (from CBBC’s Leonardo) would be pretty cool. For Jacob, I could really see Jeremy Sumpter looking right, although he may be a little old now as I’m still remembering him like he was in Peter Pan. Maybe someone similar. But if Colin Morgan would dye his hair blonde then he’d be a definite Jacob! Actually, for Ellen, someone who looks sort of like Katie McGrath would be good, only she’d have to look seventeen (sorry Katie!). Luckily I’m not a casting executive – my requirements would be pretty vague!

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

It’s bad enough writing an ordinary synopsis! One sentence? Ok. I’m totally rebelling with one and a half…

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?

Sky Song is self-published so The Young Moon will follow suit. Unless some miracle occurs between now and March and an agent takes me on. What’s that you say? More chance of hitching a lift in the Tardis? To be honest, though, I’m quite enjoying self-publishing at the moment – it can offer a lot of freedom to a jobbing writer like me in terms of deadlines and creative decisions.

7. How long did it take to write the first draft of your manuscript?

If I have a good run at it, a first draft can take maybe 5 or 6 weeks. I don’t exactly remember how long The Young Moon took but I’d say it was around that. It’s the editing and fine tuning that takes a lot more time than that.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within the genre?

I genuinely can’t think of anything like it. That’s not me showing off my originality, it’s me showing off how woefully unread I am lately! There are lots of books that tackle ‘chosen ones’ with great destinies, but I don’t know any of them that do it in such a domestic setting with so much emphasis on the emotional impact of that. The only one I can think of that deals with it any similar way is Harry Potter, but Jacob’s story is nothing like Harry’s other than he does have a destiny that he can’t escape.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Oh dear. I have to say, again, that the first book inspired this book! Sky Song came to me as a vague idea about a little girl whose father watched the skies every night. She wondered why and it took her a few years to figure out that he was watching for someone, rather than something. The little girl turned into a teenage boy and the thing that came from the stars was his destiny. Then I started to think that if someone just pitched up at my door when I thought I had my life worked out and landed me with a destiny I hadn’t asked for, how would I react? That’s pretty much the heart of Jacob’s dilemma.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

It features hot teenage boys. Am I allowed to say that? Oh… erm, then it has a very important message about friendship and… oh hell, who am I kidding, hot teenage boys is my USP!

Next it’s the turn of Emma and Jack…

Emma Adams is 21-year-old author of THE PUPPET SPELL, a quirky YA fantasy published by Rowanvale Books. She is currently studying English Literature with Creative Writing at LancasterUniversity whilst writing the sequel and also working on the creepy paranormal Darkworld series. Check out her blog about her writing journey, where she posts weekly updates and writing tips, and also regular book reviews and features.

Jack Croxall is a YA fiction author and science writer living in Nottinghamshire. He tweets via @JackCroxall, and you can find out more about his novel, Tethers, by visiting www.jackcroxall.co.uk

Look out for their Next Big Thing Q&As next week.