I love good books, like...

Remember the book I teased you about last week? The one that I loved? Well... here it is!

Dragons exist. They’re ferocious. And they’re smart: Before they were killed off by slayer-knights, they rendered a select group of eggs dormant, so their offspring would survive. Only a handful of people know about this, let alone believe it – these “Slayers” are descended from the original knights, and are now a diverse group of teens that includes Tori, a smart but spoiled senator’s daughter who didn’t sign up to save the world.

The dragon eggs have fallen into the wrong hands. The Slayers must work together to stop the eggs from hatching. They will fight; they will fall in love. But will they survive?

And the author graciously agreed to do an interview with me! C.J. Hill happens to be a friend of mine (and in a not so well guarded secret, is actually a pen name of a well known YA author). Do you know how she really is?


1. How did you come up with the idea for SLAYERS (for those who don't know yet)?

The idea for Slayers came from the various things. One of those things is my own clumsiness. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and find I have new scratches or bruises. I have no idea of where I got them. My husband is understandably perplexed by this phenomenon. He has often asked me, "Were you with your body all yesterday?" I got tired of trying to make excuses for my own clumsiness, so I told him that while he sleeps I live a double life and secretly fights dragons. And then, because I'm a writer, I began to wonder what it would be like to fight dragons. Who would fight dragons and why?

Another thing that contributed to the plot of Slayers, is cicadas. Some cicadas have a 17 year life cycle. They live dormant underneath the ground for most of those years, and only come out once every 17 years. This way, predators can't depend on them as a food source. I lived in Maryland during one of those years and thoughts the rise of the cicadas from the underworld was especially creepy. I wondered what other creatures might be lurking unknown in the ground, just waiting for the right time to emerge. I grew up on Godzilla movies so dinosaurs were high on that worry list.

Slayers doesn't have any dinosaurs, but dragons are even worse. Dragons not only breathe fire, they fly. My dragons also emit electromagnetic pulses which fry electronic components. Let's just say these aren't Eargon's dragons.

She's not kidding! No friendly dragons to be found here, but I loved the world she created. Isn't it crazy where our ideas for books can come from?

2. Who was your favorite character to write in the book, and why?

There were lots of fun characters to write about in Slayers. I loved Bess's sense of humor, and I loved Dirk's internal conflicts, but Tori was the funnest character to write. She is so out of place with the rest of the slayers that it makes for some funny scenes.

I was curious what your answer would be because there are so many great characters in this book.

3. When does the sequel come out?

Not soon enough for the fans that keep e-mailing me asking me when the next book is due. Let's just say I'm still working on the manuscript. I will say though, that we'll see a lot more of Ryker and Willow in the next story.

I can't wait! What do I need to do to bribe an advanced copy from you?? (I'm actually not kidding about that part...)

4. What's your favorite dessert?

I'm not picky when it comes to dessert. I love them all. Of course, I love desserts with chocolate the most. Suddenly I'm thinking of Almond Joys. Mmmm. My happy place.

Those are SHH's favorite, too!

5. How did you get to be so funny?

I think my inner child never grew up. I don't take a lot of things seriously. Sometimes in life you've got to either laugh or cry. I think it's better to laugh.

That's so true, and great advice, too.

Thanks so much for the interview! It was fun to find out some new things about SLAYERS and you!

If you haven't picked this book up yet, hurry and get a copy. You won't be disappointed!

P.S. Sarah Allen never claimed her prize (bummer)... but that means a new person is my lucky winner. This time the Random Number Generator picked:

Linda: Book Ninja!!

Congratulations! Please comment or email me your email address so I can get your ecopy of BECOME gifted to you! (sarablarson21 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Friday Four or Five

1. Ben and Jerry's Fro-yo Phish Food is just as good as the ice-cream version IMO. And I am so tired that when I was posting about it on FB and Twitter last night, I didn't even spell it right. Whoops. So, in case any of you were wondering I was not eating fish food. I'll continue to just give that to Cougar (our beta fish [who happens to be blue, for all you local college football fans]) and Goldie (the goldfish) (names courtesy of SonA). But when it comes to PHISH food, I will gladly ingest as much of that as possible. Now, whether or not it was a good idea to eat half a pint of it the night before running 8 or 9 miles remains to be seen.


2. It's been a long week, as evidenced by #1. I'm not one to eat ice cream (or frozen yogurt as the case may be) straight out of the container. Ever. But I did last night.


3. I just had the opportunity to read a friend's manuscript (that is being published), and let me tell you guys -- it was AH-MAZ-ING. I can't wait for everyone to get to read her book. Love. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell anyone I read it, so that's why I'm being mysterious about who it was. But trust me, when the time comes, I will be shouting from the rooftops about this one.


4. You know how you write a book, and revise it, and revise it, and then revise it some more? And then you revise it with your agent, and then again, and again. And you think it's as clean and tight and awesome as it can be? And then you wait a year and go back to it... and find out there's always more you can do to make it better? Yeah. That.


How about you? What's on your mind today? Hope you all have a great weekend!

EVERNEATH blog tour!

I am SO excited that I got to be a part of the EVERNEATH blog tour. I adore Brodi, she is so genuine, funny, talented, funny, nice... well, basically she rocks. She has worked so hard to get to this point, and I am so so happy for her. I first met her when she was requerying agents after deciding things weren't working out with her first agent. Talk about a hard decision. But obviously it was the right one, because now her book is almost here! If don't already follow her blog, you are missing out. So go rectify that RIGHT NOW. I'll wait.


....



Okay, done? Good. Now, on to her book.

First of all. OH MY HECK, am I the only one drooling over that cover? I just want to stare at it. Can't wait until it's on my shelf!

Here's the synopsis (from goodreads):

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen. As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

So, what did I think of it? Well, here's what I wrote on Goodreads (I gave it 5 stars btw):

"I don't give stars anymore, but I absolutely had to on this one because HOLY CRIMINY it deserved it! BRODI!! I LOVED it. If this isn't on your TBR list yet, you'd better add it. Now. Couldn't put it down (which is saying a lot with a 3 week old). Dark, beautiful, hopeful, devastating, fabulous, refreshing and new. I won't say more so you can experience it for yourself in January. Way to go, Bro."

Can you get any higher of a recommendation than the fact that I had a 3 week old baby, and I stayed up until 2 am trying to finish it?? Yeah, I don't think so either. I have a total book-crush on Jack. My only complaint is that I have to wait so long to read the sequel! :)

Be sure to check back to Brodi's blog for more links as the blog tour continues, and mark your calendars for January 3rd when you can get your hot little hands on this gem.