Q & A with E. Chris Garrison
Tell us about yourself and your writing career?
Hello! I'm E. Chris Garrison, I'm an indie author from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. I write speculative fiction of many sorts. Blue Spirit is in good company with my other urban / paranormal fantasy books (The Road Ghosts Trilogy), as I enjoy bringing fantastic elements into our world. I also write science fiction (Reality Check) and steampunk (Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears). My short stories range even further from weird tales to suspenseful horror. I've always been a writer, ever since my first story, “The Bionic Turkey”, got published in my elementary school newsletter in the '70s, but I strayed away from that love sometime in college; I became a problem-solving computer systems engineer, but it beat a lot of creativity out of me, and my creative writing expressed itself mostly in the form of creating tabletop roleplaying game adventures and characters I played online. I resumed writing in the early days of blogging, on LiveJournal, and with the far-too-early death of my writerly uncle, I picked up the metaphorical pen again and wrote my first novel in 2007 (Four 'til Late). Rather than just checking off a bucket list item, that book re-awoke my lifelong passion for fiction writing, and now I've got the 6 books I mentioned out, with a work in progress and at least a couple more planned for the next year.
Tell us a little about the creation of Blue Spirit?
It was kind of an accident. I was writing book 2 of the Road Ghosts Trilogy, Sinking Down, in a brewpub, using my Alphasmart Neo word processor. Admittedly, it does look a bit like a toy, and people sometimes ask me about it as I'm trying to write. I'd taken the day off, and this tall girl, who introduced herself as Skye, sat down with me to ask questions and chit chat. She'd evidently had a beer or two before that (and so had I), and it was a fun conversation. Before I knew it though, I'd lost 2 hours of writing time while under a self-imposed deadline. So I made her a character, sort of comic relief, to help me get more words done in less time. A couple of years later, after I'd completed the first versions of the Road Ghosts Trilogy, I thought about what I wanted to do next. I wanted a new series, one that didn't focus on ghosts and demons and so on. I thought it might be nice to have the new series related in some way to the Trilogy, so I thought about secondary characters who might be fun to write about. Maybe something involving fairies instead. Skye came instantly to mind. I thought she would be fun to be for awhile, so I wrote the new book, from her first person point of view. And the world filtered through Skye's perceptions turned out to be pretty funny, even when things got grim, so Blue Spirit was born. The second Tipsy Fairy Tale, Restless Spirit, has been written and will soon be in process toward publication by Seventh Star Press.
Describe Skye in 140 characters or less.
"Tall, willowy, brave, but impulsive, gamer girl Skye MacLeod is somehow a natural born leader. Skye experiences the fairy world when tipsy.” @ecgarrison
Why should we pick up Blue Spirit?
If you'd enjoy funny, fast-paced adventure starring a flawed but well-meaning young woman, I'd highly recommend you pick up Blue Spirit. It's full of Skye's mishaps and victories, her friendships and rivalries, her lost love and exciting new romantic possibilities. Even as her world falls down around her, Skye holds together with her sense of humor and headlong bravery, all with a little help from her friends, mundane and magical. However, if you hate fun, then by all means, give Blue Spirit a pass, because this is a fun book.
Website / Facebook /@ecgarrison
Synopsis
Gamer girl Skye MacLeod can see fairies, but only when she's tipsy. More Grimm than enchanting, some of these fairies are out to ruin her life, wreaking havoc with her job, her home, and her relationships.
With the help of her tiny fairy friend Minnie, Skye has to protect her vampire wannabe gamer friends from all-too-real supernatural threats only she can see. Can she keep it together and hold fast against a wicked fairy Queen's plot?
Blue Spirit is the first book of A Tipsy Fairy Tale series!
Amazon Paperback / Kindle / B & N
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