FROM SKY TO SKY - Amanda G Stevens - One Free Book

Welcome, Amanda. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

For whatever reason, my story brain is wired for the unusual but not the epic. My stories all take place in a contemporary story world yet involve some kind of twist on reality. (In the case of the No Less Days series, that would be the twist of characters who stopped aging a century ago and aren’t killed by injuries.) Also I love the mystery and Western genres, and flavors of each of those show up in this series as well as the fantasy flavor.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

I don’t hold on to one single pinnacle of happiness that shines brighter than any other day. There are so many varieties of happiness. Happiness to me is all these things and more: hearing the first robin’s song when winter is vanquished by spring; experiencing beauty in art at a museum or a concert or live theatre; holding the children of my creativity in my hands for the first time when a book’s author copies arrive on my porch; visiting a dear friend who lives far away, spotting them in the airport and knowing we have days to chat face-to-face; getting away “Up North” and trekking over dunes, wandering little lake towns, poking my head into indie art galleries.

How has being published changed your life?

I’ve known since I was in first grade that writing is my greatest earthly love, so for me being published is a great gift from God. I love working with savvy people who make my stories the best they can be, who believe God has a plan for each one of my books, and who help those books get into the hands of readers.

What are you reading right now?

I am about to finish Alexander Hamilton, a biography by Ron Chernow; I’m making my leisurely way through Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle; and I’m devouring (nearly through!) the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers.

What is your current work in progress?

The third book in the No Less Days series.

What would be your dream vacation?

A cabin in a warm sunny forest. The cabin would be full of skylights, have a library and a writer’s nook, and GrubHub would be delivered every day, and I could just write and write and write! Alternately somewhere warm (near a beach to walk in the evenings, maybe) where I could check out art museums and used-book stores with my best friends. I’d love to round them all up for a vacation someday!

How do you choose your settings for each book?

The setting for the No Less Days series is a fictional tourist town based on Glen Arbor, Michigan. I chose it out of utility; I’m not a strong visualizer of places, so I write about somewhere I’ve been whenever possible. By this point the setting has become intrinsic to the story, and some of the characters to whom it was only a “place to visit” are sticking around longer than they expected to.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

I’m tempted to say “friends who live far away,” but if you’re asking about prominent personalities, that would probably be Jim Butcher, the author of my favorite currently-running series, the Dresden Files.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I love the Golden Era of Hollywood. I love music, especially folk, and I play piano. I’m always up for a good concert or a day wandering art museums, antique stores, or used-book stores.

I like to visit used-book stores when we’re out of town. I’ve found some of my best research materials for settings that way. What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

My full-time day job is definitely the biggest obstacle to my writing, but it’s a necessary obstacle that pays my bills! I overcome it mostly with evening/night writing to the point of chronic sleep deprivation.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Read as many different authors as you can. Read outside your genre. Read current books and classic books. Study how they do what they do. The more you study a variety of fiction, the sharper your eye will become toward the construction of stories. There’s really no better way to learn to write well.

Tell us about the featured book.

From Sky to Sky is a contemporary fantasy, the second book in the No Less Days series.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Zac Wilson can’t die.

Daredevil Zac Wilson isn’t the first celebrity to keep a secret from the world, but his might be the most marvelous in history: Zac doesn’t age and injuries can’t kill him. What’s more, he’s part of a close-knit group of others just like him.

Holed up in Harbor Vale, Michigan, Zac meets two more of his kind who claim others in their circle have died. Are their lifetimes finally ending naturally, or is someone targeting them—a predator who knows what they are?

The answers Zac unearths present impossible dilemmas: who to protect, how to seek justice, how to bring peace to turmoil. His next action could fracture forever the family he longs to unite. Now might be the time to ask for help. . .from God Himself. But Zac’s greatest fear is facing the God he has run from for more than a century.

Sounds very interesting. Please give us the first page of the book.

Nobody knew, as he strode through the propped-open doors of Harbor Vale Bible Church, that Zac had not entered a sanctuary like this one in more than a hundred years. Nobody knew his legs were trying to turn him around and bolt. After all, he was Zac Wilson, and nobody knew a thing about him he didn’t want them to know.

           

He lagged behind a few others who dispersed with clear direction. The foyer was open, the west wall composed of windows from the floor up that faced a side parking lot and a row of elderly pine trees. Nothing about the space justified Zac’s reluctance to step into it. Behind a desk stacked with programs and papers stood a blond guy maybe twenty years old. He looked bored, but his smile was real enough as he saw Zac hesitate.

            

“Hey, dude, are you here for the pack-a-backpack thing?”

            

“Yep,” Zac said.

            

“Okay, see the hallway to the right? All the way at the end, they’re in room 38.”

            

Thanks.”

           

His legs quit fighting him as he fast-walked that direction. He hadn’t expected a lightning strike, but the wrongness of his presence here was permeating. God saw he wasn’t here to worship or repent, knew the lost cause Zac saw in the mirror.

            

“Zac?”

            

He pivoted toward the voice. Tiana Burton stood, hands on hips, at the mouth of the hallway he’d just entered. Her smile was one of the kindest Zac had known in all his years. He stepped toward her to absorb more of its warmth. They stood eye to eye, she was tall for a woman and wearing heeled boots, he five-eight-and-a-half in his shoes.

            

“Well, fancy meeting you— Wait a minute.” He cocked an eyebrow. “This is your church, isn’t it? Yours and David’s.”

           

“It is. Welcome.”

            

“What are you doing here on a Friday night?”

            

“Service event. Somebody brought in a ministry for foster kids and matched donations, so we’re. . . Oh my word. Was it you?”

            

He spread his hands in a gesture of cluelessness.

            

Tiana laughed. “Does your fan base know about this?”


            

“I started it online. I wanted to do something local, and then the foster organization told me the backpack event was being hosted here.”

           

She sobered. “You wouldn’t have chosen a church for the venue.”

            

“Feels hypocritical.” The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, as if bridled electricity did indeed hover over him.

            

“I respect that. But I’m glad you came.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmandaGStevens/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8409136.Amanda_G_Stevens

Thank you, Amanda, for sharing this book on my blog. I’m so glad a copy is sitting on my table. I must read it soon.

Readers, here are links to the book.

From Sky to Sky - Christianbook.com
From Sky to Sky (No Less Days) - Amazon Paperback
From Sky to Sky (No Less Days) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

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Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

SEEK AND HIDE - Amanda G Stevens - One Free Ebook

Welcome, Amanda. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

My characters are never deliberately based on myself or people I know. For example, Aubrey (Seek and Hide’s female lead) values books and literacy. Marcus (male lead) has no use for books. I’m with Aubrey on this one, but I didn’t give her that trait because I agree with her. It just fit who she is and didn’t fit who Marcus is. Or for example, Marcus is a ridiculously stubborn person. I know stubborn people and pliable people and people in between (we all do, right?). But that doesn’t mean Marcus is supposed to resemble the stubborn people I know. Stephen King describes writing a story as “unearthing” it, and I feel that way about my characters. All I’m doing is discovering who they already are.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

I’ve been accused of paperback-related OCD. I don’t purchase hardcovers (they’re not as friendly, you know? and they don’t fit in my purse). I won’t buy a used book if the spine is creased or the corners are too worn. I love a well designed, genre-appropriate cover, and I enjoy comparing past and current versions. Recently, I paid four dollars more for the 2006 edition of a book rather than the in-print edition, because it has since become a TV show and I dislike tie-in covers.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

In first grade, I wrote my first story. I don’t remember a time I didn’t consider myself a writer.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I avoid romance and gravitate toward crime/noir, but if the voice grabs me, I’ll read any genre from historical to speculative. Voice and characterization matter more to me than anything else. I’m a character-first reader and a character-first writer. I want characters to have individualizing details, not broad types. I want to believe and love them enough to worry for them. And I want to experience the story from inside the character—not first person necessarily, just deep point of view.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

I don’t operate at a high stress level, really. Part of this is probably personality, but I’m sure part of it is the fact that I’m not a wife or a mother. My life is full, and I’m never bored or idle—I work full time in addition to writing on deadlines in addition to cultivating a life with family and friends—but there’s a whole new level of “run, run, run” when you add kids to that mix. I have great respect for the authors I know who are also parents.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Often my characters seem to do the choosing. I can’t use a name because I think it’s pretty or because I like the meaning behind it. I’ve tried that, and it doesn’t work. Usually, my creative process “pings” on a name when I least expect it. I might read it in a book, or hear someone talking about a friend with that name, or it might just come into my head randomly as if the character’s actually aware and claiming the name for himself. The more prominent the character is, the more instinctive the naming process seems to be. I don’t know, this all sounds strange when I try to describe it.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Publishing my series. Nothing else compares. But I can’t take the credit. God gave me whatever writing skill I might have, and He placed people into my path who I never would have found on my own—one of them being my agent.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

Two people (who don’t know each other) have told me I remind them of a raccoon because of the way I use my hands when I talk. Something about refined and/or precise movement? And … that’s the best answer I’ve got for this question. Lol.

What is your favorite food?

In some parallel universe where I’m cosmopolitan and sophisticated, I’m definitely a foodie. In this universe, I just enjoy food. There’s no way I can choose a single favorite. But if we define “favorite” as “the thing you buy on a limited basis because once the bag is open, it’s going to be consumed in twenty minutes,” I’d have to choose white cheddar popcorn.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

I haven’t overcome it yet, exactly, though I’m better at it now: networking. I’m an introvert. Not to say I have no use for people (not at all), but interaction with strangers takes effort. For me, mingling at writers’ conferences is hard. Approaching strangers is really hard. I work toward overcoming this by praying for help, faking it well (or so I’m told), and reserving some alone time in my hotel room to read or just lie on my bed and unwind.

Tell us about the featured book.

Seek and Hide is the first in a four-book series in which the government has taken control of the church. Only re-translated Bibles are legal, and a specialized agency called the Constabulary enforces this and other regulations. Marcus Brenner, a new Christian, will do anything to protect his church family from imprisonment—including risk his own freedom to gain the trust of a government agent.

Aubrey Weston recanted her faith when the Constabulary threatened her baby. Now released, she just wants to provide for her son and avoid government notice. But she’s targeted again, and this time, her baby is taken into custody. If only she’d never denied Him, maybe God would hear her pleas for help.

When Aubrey and Marcus’s lives collide, they are forced to confront the lies they believe about themselves. And God is about to grab hold of Marcus’s life in a way he’d never expect, turning a loner into a leader.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Booze behind the wheel could turn a sports car into a … well, wreck. No other word for the blue Honda that had rammed halfway through Keith’s garage door before lodging there like a dud missile. Marcus pushed a shoulder to the door. It swayed a little, but the hole’s jagged edges stayed wedged against the car. Trying to back out might take the whole door down. Not that Marcus would trust the driver to try it.

Murmuring party guests lined the garage wall. Nobody was doing anything about this mess, other than gaping at it. If the driver had kept his foot on the gas a second longer, the car doors might have cleared the crater. Then again, he might also have run somebody over.

“Brenner, man, you can fix it, right?” Keith hovered over Marcus’s shoulder, and his beer breath wafted too close. “You can get Jason out of there, right?”

The driver hammered a fist against his door. “Keith, when I get out of this car, I’m going to kick your face in, you hear me? I’m going to—”

Marcus tapped on the car window. “Hey. Don’t. We’ll get you out.”

“You shut up. You get out of my face, you—”

“That’s no way to talk to the linebacker.” Across the hood of the car, a woman wearing less than a tank top blinked at Marcus. She leaned forward and stretched a bottle toward him, spilling cleavage and beer. He tried to stare at her blue eyes.

“You’re new. Best stuff that’s left, right here in this bottle.”

He could taste it. Yes. “No. Thanks.”

The woman pouted and splashed the car hood with the rest of her beer. She sidled closer to Marcus. “You’re so big.”

And you’re so drunk.

“Your eyes are like the sky.”

Well, not unless the sky had turned brown lately. Marcus gently pushed her away.

Keith rocked from one foot to the other, his gaze shifting from Marcus to the trapped, cussing driver and back again. “See why I called you, Brenner? You build stuff and fix stuff. And I thought you could fix this. Or build it. Or yeah.”

The garage door was beyond fixing. Marcus needed something to free the car. He let his eyes roam the four-car garage without resting too long on various available drinks. The half-finished side held a workbench in one corner. Garden tools hung from a dusty pegboard: rake and trowel and yeah, that was a pitchfork. But nothing helpful.

“Keith, got an axe?”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Website: http://amandagstevensbooks.com

Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/AmandaGStevens

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AmandaGStevens

Twitter: http://twitter.com/AmandaGStevens

Thank you, Amanda, for sharing your new book with us.

Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.

Seek and Hide: A Novel (Haven Seekers Book 1)

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com