This week on
Reading Away The Days feature is YA author
K.A.Tucker, author of
Anathema, book one in the
Causal Enchantment series! Please show Kathleen some love by commenting and by checking out her novel,
Anathema!
Title of book: Anathema (Causal Enchantment, #1)
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance/Fantasy
Release date: June 1st, 2011
Description of Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)
Here is the official description because I poured my heart and soul into it and can't possibly do the book justice any other way than to quote this :-)
"Evangeline has spent her teenage years in obscurity. Her foster parents have the emotional aptitude of robots and her classmates barely acknowledge her existence. About to turn eighteen and feeling like a social pariah, she is desperate to connect with someone. Anyone.
When Evangeline meets Sofie after literally stumbling upon her café, she believes she’s found that connection. Willing to do anything to keep it, she accepts a job as Sofie’s assistant and drops everything to fly to Manhattan, where she is thrust into a luxurious world of Prada, diamonds, and limitless cash.
With such generosity and kindness, it’s easy for Evangeline to dismiss certain oddities . . . like Sofie’s erratic and sometimes violent behavior, and the monstrous guard dogs. She’s even willing to dismiss her vivid dreams of mob-style murders, beautiful homeless people living in caves, and white-eyed demons that haunt her each night as figments of her imagination—especially when one of those figments is the gorgeous Caden. When she wakes up with bite marks on her neck, the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. She slowly unravels the mystery surrounding Sofie and friends, and the reality of the bites and the “dreams.” What she discovers is far more mysterious and terrible than anything she could have imagined.
In a world where everyone has motive to lie for personal gain, Evangeline must decide which deception is least likely to get her killed."
Kathleen's writing journey so far:
It all started way back.... not even two years ago. Seriously. I've always loved reading - I adore getting lost in stories - but I never aspired to be an author. It wasn't 'practical' :-) Then I found myself in need of a mental escape while on maternity leave with my 2nd child. I decided to start writing. Just because. One thing led to another and I can say that I've found my true passion. I would live, breathe, and sleep writing fiction novels if I could. I'm constantly telling my husband about the latest plot hole I've figured out. He's become very good at nodding and smiling at his delusional wife.
Where did you get the idea for Anathema?
With a random question, "What would happen if vampires killed all the humans in the world?"
*The cover of Anathema is beautiful! Who designed it and did you have much say in the process?
I used Carl Graves from Extended Imagery for my cover art and he is fantabulous! I provided him with a creative brief to outline the feel I was going for, types of covers I liked, and a brief synopsis of Anathema. He took that and worked his magic to come up with the cover. It was nothing like I imagined and everything that I wanted. I had full say in the process (another huge benefit of being indie!). If I had wanted glowing unicorns and lace doilies, Carl would have created a cover with glowing unicorns and lace doilies. He'd probably refuse to work with me again though...
Why should we read Anathema?
Because it's a fun, unique story full of everything that is awesome about YA- Paranormal romance, dystopian, urban, action, mystery, suspense - but with a different take. It's full of the usual creatures and some new ones, it has your token hot guy and, best of all in my opinion, it's the start of a series. I LOVE a series. But... don't take my word for it (in case you forgot, I'm slightly biased). Take a read of the glowing reviews on Goodreads :-)
Are you working on any projects at the minute?
The second in the Causal Enchantment series, Asylum. Due out December 2011 or I'll be lynched by some very lovely but persistent bloggers.
Some quickfire questions:
*Summer or Winter? Summer, summer, summer! Boo, winter
*Night or day? In reality, day, though I'd love to be a night person. It sounds way more cool.
*Movies or Music? Movies
*Fiction or Non- Fiction? Fiction. Who wants reality when you have to live it every day?
*Favourite colour? Pepto Bismol Pink. It never used to be but now that I've had 2 little girls, it's all about the pink.
*Favourite destination? Prague. The city is magical.
*Favourite book? Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin, if I had to choose, but there are so many fabulous books out there.
*Favourite place to write? Hidden in my room, sans kids :-)
If you where stranded on a desert island what three things would you miss?
I'm assuming my husband and kids would be stranded with me so I wouldn't need to miss them...
1) Plumbing -- I say this because I just came back from my cottage and I truly did miss a good shower and flushable toilet
2) Internet -- I begin to twitch when my iphone isn't picking up a signal
3) Coffee -- no coffee + no internet = grumpy, twitchy writer, stuck with 2 kids and husband on a deserted island. Bad scene.
Thank you to Kathleen for the interview!
Check out Kathleen:
