Fast 5 w/Gena Showalter
1. Describe your favorite writing scenes (location, smells, drinks, etc.):
GS: I usually write in one of two places: my office or my bed. Either way, I always have a bottle of water with me. In my office, I’m enveloped by the delicious scent that wafts from my favorite candle in the whole world (a cupcake candle courtesy of Naomi from French –n- Books) In bed, I’m usually enveloped by the horrendous scent of dog fart. My menagerie of dogs prefers to nap in my bed with me in it, and they will pester me until I give in.
2. How old were you when you got the writing bug?
GS: I started writing in junior high, slowed down a bit in high school, stopped to get married and have a family, then started again after dropping out of college...for the second time. At that point, it took five years and seven manuscripts to become a published author.
3. Book you’re most looking forward to in 2016?
GS: There are certain authors who could write a phone book, and I would wait giddily to receive my copy. Some of my favorite young adult and new adult authors are Kresley Cole, Katie McGarry, PC and Kristin Cast, Roxanne St. Claire, Wendy Higgins, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Sophie Jordan, Christina Lauren, Kady Cross, Amy Lukavics, Jeaniene Frost, Katy Evans, and Sarah J. Maas. Plus many more!
4. Favorite book you read in 2015?
GS: Making me pick a single book is like trying to make me pick between my kids LOL I loved works from all of the above authors plus Jill Monroe, Karen Marie Moning, JR Ward, Nalini Singh, Carly Phillips, Kelli Ireland, Samantha Young, and many more! But I also reread favorites from Linda Howard, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and Jennifer Cruise.
5. Favorite scene from FIRSTLIFE?
GS: I adored the heroine, Ten, who is obsessed with numbers and also writes poems at her best and worst times. Her first poem means one thing when read from top to bottom but means an entirely different thing when read from bottom to top. Two sides to every story, which feeds her love of numbers.
The grave is the end
And I will never accept that
I have been set free from the chains that bind me.
I know
“Death has lost its victory”
Is a lie, because there is no greater truth than this:
“Life is hopeless”
But I also love her first meeting with Killian:
New Guy shoves someone aside to take the spot next to me. That someone—a boy named Hank—protests until New Guy gives him a hard thump to the throat. While Hank gasps for air, New Guy gifts me with that slow predator’s grin.
I breathe him in: peat smoke and heather. Exotic, with a hint of musk, and I swear it’s like I’ve just been transported to the British Isles after a rainstorm.
His eyes...they’re as bright as the sun I haven’t seen in over a year, and they are the most mesmerizing shade of gold with flecks of crystalline blue.
In one, there are five flecks. In the other, three.
Five. The number of our senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
Three. A trinity. We have a spirit, soul and body.
In an octave, the fifth and third notes create the basic foundation of all chords. How appropriate. Those eyes have somehow made my blood sing. Or I’m simply malnourished and on edge, and my brain is overcompensating.
Yeah. That.
This close, I can almost count New Guy’s individual lashes. They are long, spiky and jet-black...and I’m staring at him, I realize.
“That wasn’t a very nice thing to do,” I say.
“And knocking over my chair was?” His voice is low and husky with a slight Irish lilt, and it’s almost as smoky as his scent. “Let’s do the introduction thing so my heartbeat will finally calm down. I’m Killian. And you are stunningly beautiful.”
Before he’s finished delivering the (clearly) practiced line, I’m already building walls. “I think you mean I’m attitudinal.”
“Definitely not. But now I’m certain you’re irresistible.”
“I think you mean unsuitable.”
“Or adorable.”
Oh, crap. Are we flirting? “All right. Enough.”
The corners of his lips twitch. “Are you playing hard to get, lass? It’s never happened to me before, so I need clarification.”
“I’m not playing anything. And I’m impossible to get.”
He rubs his hands together with something akin to glee. “Well, then. Challenge accepted.”
ABOUT FIRSTLIFE:
ONE CHOICE.TWO REALMS.
NO SECOND CHANCE.
Tenley “Ten” Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.
There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and reallife begins after death.
In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she’s drawn to isn’t home to the boy she’s falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository
ABOUT GENA SHOWALTER:
Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty books in paranormal and contemporary romances, as well as young adult novels. Her series include White Rabbit Chronicles, Angels of the Dark, Otherworld Assassins, Lords of the Underworld, Alien Huntress and Intertwined.
Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Seventeen Magazine, and have been translated all over the world. The critics have called her books "sizzling page-turners" and "utterly spellbinding stories", while Showalter herself has been called “a star on the rise”.
Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
2/15: Fiction Fare - Review
2/17: The Book Cellar - Review
Week 2:
2/22: Jenuine Cupcakes - Q&A
2/23: Read-Love-Blog - Review
2/25: Reading w/ABC - Review
Giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of Firstlife (US Only)a Rafflecopter giveaway
My niece wants to read this book so badly. I'd love to win this for her. (The HarlequinTeen to follow on twitter is coming up as page not found)
ReplyDeleteFixed! Thanks for letting me know!!!
DeleteI love the cover of this book. I'm also really enjoying that Ten is obsessed with numbers like me. The two realms battling for her sounds like an interesting concept and I can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteI'm obsessed with the cover! Ten is a seriously cool character; I think you'll like her!
DeleteI've got an ARC of this one at home, can't wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteGet on it!
DeleteI love the dystopian genre, but it can get a little repetitive sometimes. I hope that I enjoy this one, despite my reservations.
ReplyDeleteGive it a go! It may surprise you!
DeleteI love that the poem from the book can be read either way! I've seen this before and find it fascinating and so creative. I love that the author has dogs and her sense of humor is similar to mine.
ReplyDeleteGena is fantastic!
DeleteGreat fast 5, love the authors books she is looking forward too. I am also anticipating books from most of those authors as well. I love the excerpts she shared.
ReplyDelete