Guest blog and giveaway by award-winning author Patti O'Shea
I'm pleased to have a guest blog today by Patti O'Shea in honor of her latest paranormal romance, EDGE OF DAWN! Patti has won all kinds of awards, including the Booksellers Best, the Barclay Gold, the Laurel Leaf, the PEARL and the Golden Quill, among others. Some quotes for her Light Warriors series:
"Patti O'Shea is a voice and talent to be reckoned with. In the
Midnight Hour is gripping and wonderful, everything a paranormal should be."
-Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Non-stop action, magic-laced suspense and some sizzling sexual chemistry fuel "In Twilight's Shadow," Patti O'Shea's latest inventive paranormal romance." -Chicago Tribune
Comment below to win a copy of the first book in the series, IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR! Also, tomorrow is the last day to enter to win the VAMPED prize pack by commenting here.
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Before I get started, I wanted to announce that to celebrate the June 30th release of EDGE OF DAWN, I'm giving away a copy of IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, the first book in my Light Warriors series. To be eligible, leave a comment and one random winner will be chosen.
Authors get ideas everywhere. In fact, most of us have more ideas than we'll ever be able to write in our lifetimes. At least that's my take on it from my own experience and from what I've heard other writers say. So what makes an author choose one story idea over another?
For me, I usually end up writing the characters who are talking the loudest and most insistently. Yep, I hear voices. But even with this, I usually have a chorus in my head and have options. I had a few reasons for choosing EDGE OF DAWN over the others.
First was the characters. Shona Blackwood and Logan Andrews. Shona is completely in the dark about the existence of magic and Logan is a troubleshooter for the Gineal, a people who have magical abilities. And when he's assigned to protect her, his council tells him Shona must remain ignorant that those with power exist. Talk about conflict!
Logan is sworn to obey the council, but once his feelings grow for Shona how can he keep this secret? I nearly rubbed my hands together in glee at the thought of torturing Logan. Hey, he deserved it! My characters always torment me. Always. Does he defy his leaders, committing treason? Does he betray Shona's trust in him? Either way, there's guilt. Insert evil author laugh here.
Another facet of the story that drew me was that Shona was dealing with an artistic block. I'd just come through my own case of writer's block and hadn't worked for several months because of it.
Shona's struggles allowed me to explore my own issues. Her numbness about the loss of her work was the same numbness I'd experienced. Her distantly wondering why she isn't feeling grief or terror or some strong emotion about losing something so important to her are the same questions and distance that I dealt with. It didn't give me any answers, and Shona's block was caused by something drastically different from my own, but I think it was cathartic anyway.
The most intriguing thing for me in EDGE OF DAWN, though, was all the secrets. I didn't realize at the beginning of the story just how many there were going to be, but the few I did know about drew me in. Logan being ordered to keep secrets from Shona. Shona having a secret of her own, but not realizing it's a key piece of information that Logan needs. Then there were all the other secrets I discovered as I went along. Sometimes it amazed me that I was able to remember who knew what and when.
There are probably other intangibles involved with why I decided to write this story over the others, but these are the reasons I was conscious of when I started the book. If you're interested in finding out more about me or my books, please visit my website at: www.pattioshea.com. There's information on all my books and excerpts.
If you're a writer, what makes you choose to write a particular story over another? And if you're a reader, what draws you to a particular book over another?
"Patti O'Shea is a voice and talent to be reckoned with. In the
Midnight Hour is gripping and wonderful, everything a paranormal should be."
-Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Non-stop action, magic-laced suspense and some sizzling sexual chemistry fuel "In Twilight's Shadow," Patti O'Shea's latest inventive paranormal romance." -Chicago Tribune
Comment below to win a copy of the first book in the series, IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR! Also, tomorrow is the last day to enter to win the VAMPED prize pack by commenting here.
____________________
Before I get started, I wanted to announce that to celebrate the June 30th release of EDGE OF DAWN, I'm giving away a copy of IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, the first book in my Light Warriors series. To be eligible, leave a comment and one random winner will be chosen.
Authors get ideas everywhere. In fact, most of us have more ideas than we'll ever be able to write in our lifetimes. At least that's my take on it from my own experience and from what I've heard other writers say. So what makes an author choose one story idea over another?
For me, I usually end up writing the characters who are talking the loudest and most insistently. Yep, I hear voices. But even with this, I usually have a chorus in my head and have options. I had a few reasons for choosing EDGE OF DAWN over the others.
First was the characters. Shona Blackwood and Logan Andrews. Shona is completely in the dark about the existence of magic and Logan is a troubleshooter for the Gineal, a people who have magical abilities. And when he's assigned to protect her, his council tells him Shona must remain ignorant that those with power exist. Talk about conflict!
Logan is sworn to obey the council, but once his feelings grow for Shona how can he keep this secret? I nearly rubbed my hands together in glee at the thought of torturing Logan. Hey, he deserved it! My characters always torment me. Always. Does he defy his leaders, committing treason? Does he betray Shona's trust in him? Either way, there's guilt. Insert evil author laugh here.
Another facet of the story that drew me was that Shona was dealing with an artistic block. I'd just come through my own case of writer's block and hadn't worked for several months because of it.
Shona's struggles allowed me to explore my own issues. Her numbness about the loss of her work was the same numbness I'd experienced. Her distantly wondering why she isn't feeling grief or terror or some strong emotion about losing something so important to her are the same questions and distance that I dealt with. It didn't give me any answers, and Shona's block was caused by something drastically different from my own, but I think it was cathartic anyway.
The most intriguing thing for me in EDGE OF DAWN, though, was all the secrets. I didn't realize at the beginning of the story just how many there were going to be, but the few I did know about drew me in. Logan being ordered to keep secrets from Shona. Shona having a secret of her own, but not realizing it's a key piece of information that Logan needs. Then there were all the other secrets I discovered as I went along. Sometimes it amazed me that I was able to remember who knew what and when.
There are probably other intangibles involved with why I decided to write this story over the others, but these are the reasons I was conscious of when I started the book. If you're interested in finding out more about me or my books, please visit my website at: www.pattioshea.com. There's information on all my books and excerpts.
If you're a writer, what makes you choose to write a particular story over another? And if you're a reader, what draws you to a particular book over another?