Promo Interview and Giveaway: Shadow in the Sea by Sheila A. Nielson

Book and Author Details:

Shadow in the Sea by Sheila A. Nielson
Publication date: July 15th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:
When sixteen-year-old Sadelyn Hanson washes up on the shores of Windwaithe Island, her beauty and the strange marks on her wrist make superstitious locals suspect she is a mermaid. Feigning amnesia, Sade hides a far worse secret: she was sailing to her own murder trial when she was thrown overboard by the real killer, the cunning and cruel Captain Westwood.

Sade’s quiet effort to rebuild her life on the island is threatened when she meets an actual young merman. Unable to speak his language, Sade still longs for the warm companionship he offers, despite the locals’ dire legends about merfolk and their dark magic. But her confused feelings for the impossible boy become the least of her problems when Captain Westwood’s ship docks at Windwaithe. With nowhere to escape, Sade must trust in the one person who doesn’t fear the merfolk. A woman who had dealings with them herself—years ago.

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AUTHOR BIO:

Sheila never did figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She graduated from college with a BFA in illustration, has worked as a children's librarian for over eighteen years, and would eventually like to be a full-time author. Why pick one career when you can have many? Sheila lives with her two pets, a goffin cockatoo and a tiny toy poodle. She was born and raised in California but has come to also love her adopted home in Utah where she currently resides.

Author links:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Author Interview:

1. What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start? Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)? If you plan it out, how do you do that? Outline, note cards, post­it notes, etc.?

Such good questions.

When I was younger, I used to write by the seat of my pants. This led to a lot of books that never got finished. I’d get half way and not know what to do next. All the work I’d done would be wasted.  I now have a policy that I’m not allowed to start writing a book until I have the whole thing outlined chapter by chapter ahead of time. This stopped the unfinished book problem.  As I’m working on an outline—sometimes ideas will come to me while I’m working at the library. You know those little scraps of paper that are available for patrons to write down the call number of books?  If I get an idea I scribble it down on one of those so I won’t forget. Some days I come home with my pockets stuffed full with paper scraps.

2. How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?

This is always such a difficult question to answer. Book ideas pretty much come from anywhere or anything. A line of music in a song, a hauntingly realistic dream, a photograph in a catalog, a stranger-than-fiction news article—these are just a few of the things that have inspired my stories in the past.

3. How long have you been writing?

The first book I ever wrote was in sixth grade.  It was a really badly written story about a girl who went on an adventure with a bunch of talking animals. The story ended with a climactic battle between Darth Vader and a unicorn.  The unicorn won.  There was no place to go but up from there, so I’ve been writing ever since.

4. What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

Write a lot of books. The first book you write will rarely be the one that gets you published—but you will never get published if you don’t write that first book. Write because you love it, not because you want to be published.  Publishers buy books where the author’s love of writing shows through.

5. How important are names in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?

I find myself choosing a lot of character names that look really cool on the page. I admit there are some names in my books that I don’t actually know how to pronounce.  I find a lot of my names on baby name websites. I’m a children’s librarian. We give out a lot of nametags to kids. Sometimes I’ll see a really cool name and write it down for later. On rare occasions I’ll take the front half of an amazing name and put it together with the back half of another.  I especially like to do this with the names of places.

Some fun questions

Favorites:

Mythological creature (other than mermaids)

I wish there were more books about centaurs. I’ve got a centaur story that I’ve begun work on—so maybe, someday . . .

Books/authors/genres

I lean toward reading fantasy more than any other genre, but I love all of them. It depends on the mood I’m in. Favorite authors include: Johnathan Stroud, Scott Westerfeld, Wendlin Van Draanen,  and Patrica C. Wrede

Movies/TV Shows

Favorite movies are the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Favorite TV show is Person of Interest.

Music

I’m all over the board. I like whatever music catches my fancy—I don’t limit myself to one genre.  I also think Christmas music should be played all year long. Yes, I’m one of those people.

Food/writing snack

Anything with lots of melted cheese on it.

Social Media Site
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheilaanielson/ 
Other sites listed in author bio above

Thank you Sheila for answering my questions about writing, glad to feature you on my blog today!

Giveaway:
Tour-wide giveaway (US/CAN)

• 1 grand prize package which includes: 1 twin sized mermaid bedspread, 1 pair of light-up earrings, 1 signed paperback copy of Shadow in the Sea, 1 signed hardback copy of Forbidden Sea
  

• 1 runner up prize package which includes: 1 mermaid in a cup figurine, 1 pair of light-up earrings, 1 signed paperback copy of Shadow in the Sea, 1 signed hardback copy of Forbidden Sea
  

• 3 combo prizes which includes: 1 pair of light-up earrings, 1 signed paperback copy of Shadow in the Sea, 1 signed hardback copy of Forbidden Sea

• 2 prize packages which include: 1 pair of light-up earrings, 1 signed paperback copy of Shadow in the Sea

• 8 signed paperback copies of Shadow in the Sea

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click HERE to check out the other stops in the tour. 

Wake (Watersong #1) by Amanda Hocking

As always I'd like to thank the people who made it possible for me to read an advanced copy of this.  I was fortunate enough to walk into work at Barnes and Noble and see this sitting on the break room table.  As I had fallen in love with the Trylle series by Amanda Hocking, I immediately grabbed it and stuffed it into my locker to take home.  Thank you to St. Martin's Press for sending a copy to my store for me to get!
Okay, first I have to say that this is my first foray into the "mermaid" genre.  Although, technically, they aren't mermaids per se, but sirens.  I do have to say that I was not disappointed in the story though.  Again I can see that Hocking has really built her own mythological story with all the details to make the story work.  And even though we don't know quite everything, I mean, if we did, why would we read on, you can see that there is thought behind what all is happening, and a reason for it.
The main character is Gemma, she's 16 years old, and loves swimming, in fact she's so good, that she's working towards the next Olympics.  And she's starting to notice the boy next door.  And he's noticing her right back.  She lives with her father and her older sister Harper.  Their mother was in a car accident a while back, and hasn't quite been right since then.  So she had to go live in a  home where there would be people to keep an eye on her.  It doesn't sound like a nursing home type of place, though, so not bad.  So since that, Harper has felt that she must fill in for Gemma as her mother.  Something that Gemma sometimes feels is a bit annoying, as any teenager would for an older sister acting that way.  Recently there have been 4 new girls in town, although one has not been around as much.  These girls are Penn, Thea, and Lexi.  Harper gets an uneasy feeling around them.  They're beautiful and popular, but there is something dangerous or menacing about them.  Gemma likes to go each night to the sea and swim when no one is around, even though she notices the 3 girls in one of the coves each night, but she stays away, because she wants to swim in solitude.  One night, the girls call to her, and it's like she can't resist, even though she wants to, and so she goes up and hangs out with them in the cove.  They give her a drink, after which she gets really out of it, and wakes up on the beach the next morning, unable to remember what happened the night before.  But now she's grounded for staying out all night when her father and sister wake up to find her missing.  The truth is that Gemma can now really swim, and she feels even more beautiful.  In fact she seems to have a bit more of a mesmerizing effect on the boy next door, Alex.  But as you would assume, there is a price to her new powers.  And the mysterious girls are the reason, and hold all the answers.
As I said before, the story did not disappoint.  My only issues, first, I don't like that the parents are called by their first names.  It confuses me.  I don't remember what other book I read that in recently, but it just is weird to me.  Second, when I first talked about how much I liked the Trylle books, someone commented that they'd heard Hocking's e-books had lots of grammar mistakes.  I didn't notice any in the Trylle books, but I do have to say that I did in this one.  Yes, it is an ARC, so I'm sure they'll all be fixed before it is published.  I hope.  And when I say grammar mistakes, just really things that probably came from writing quickly to get the story out, thinking ahead of the line she was one, etc.  I do that too sometimes.  Thank goodness for editors and friends who check things!
To wrap up, I am eager to read on in the story.  One funny thing, as I was reading this, I watched the Animal Planet's show about "real" mermaids.  It was funny to me that I just happened to watch that as I was reading a book about the topic.  And this gives me a bit of a nudge to go ahead and maybe dive into some other mermaid types of stories.

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 2.9

Only two books this time. Even though I've worked 2 different times since my last post, the 2nd time I worked I was at the cash register the whole time, so only saw what other customers brought up, and nothing new was brought up. Okay, here are the two I saw that I think I'd like to read.

First is Lost Voices by Sarah Porter. It seems that mermaids are the new "it" fantasy stories to go to if you go by the number of them now popping up. Not sure if I will enjoy them, as I have yet to read any, but the last few I've seen have intrigued me by their description. This one is about a 14 year old girl named Luce who is attached outside her Alaskan fishing village and left to die. She falls into the water thinking that she is about to die. Instead she becomes a mermaid and joins a large group of mermaids. All these mermaids are like Luce in that they gave up their humanity when they were at the darkest moments in their life. This seems to be the perfect life until she finds out that they must lure sailors to their death. Luce is a great singer, so she is revered, but she doesn't want to become a murderer, so must decide what she will do.

The 2nd books is called Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruin Zafon. It is set in Calcutta in the 1960's, an English soldier fights to save two twin babies from weather and danger, losing his life in the process. It flashes forward to 16 years later, and the twins Ben and Sheere are once again confronted with this unthinkable threat. With their friends they must fight this monster, one more horrifying and unimaginable than any other. Sounds like a fun mystery, and one that teens would like, with a boy protagonist, it's possible it would be a good rec for boys.

And that's all for now! I work the next 3 days, so expect another post like this soon.

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 2.4 Part One

I'm thinking to do this volume in three parts, as I have compiled a list from the last 3 times I worked of 9 books. And I hate to put 9 books in as I always have trouble messing with the pictures and getting them lined up with the info about them. So, here we go with the first 3.

Tighter by Adele Griffin. This is a ghost story I think. The main character is Jamie, and she has moved to a small island. There was an accident there recently where a couple died, and supposedly Jamie looks like the girl. And she can somehow communicate with the spirits. So basically she will have to figure out what the spirits want from her, and what actually happened to the couple. I also have to say, just look at this cover, what a great way to grab someone's attention and get them to pick up the book to see what it is about.

Five 4ths of July by Pat Raccio Hughes. This is a historical fiction, and a boy main character. As the title suggests, we follow our main character, Jake Mallory, over 5 years, beginning with July 4th 1777. Jake is 14 at the time, and celebrating the country's new independence. He wants to get out, away from his overbearing father, and see some adventure, and he does over these years.

Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs. Again, a really cool cover made me pick it up. Even though I haven't really been able to get into any of the mermaid books that are out there. But this sounds like it might be cool. Our main character has the cool name of Tempest, and she is half mermaid. She must decide by her 17th birthday if she wants to continue living on land, or go back to the sea. She has a boyfriend named Mark, and she loves to surf. But surfing she meets a guy named Kai who is very intriguing, and she possibly thinks there is something otherworldly about him as well.

Okay, stay tuned for part 2 of this!