Today I am MORE than happy to introduce Sonya Loveday for you. Her Expanded version of Casted is now live, and if you want to know my thoughts - stop by my previous post. Right now, let me show you what happens in Sonya's life:
Hi Sonya, and welcome (back) to my blog. There’s
been some changes since you were here last, hope you like them!! :-D
Thanks, Sabina *looks around* LOVE what
you’ve done with the place!
Why, thank you!! Sit down, Girl!! We need a seriously long
girl talk about Casted!! It’s a bit overdue, don’t you think?! *laughs*
Anything to drink? Cookies?
Mmmmm cookies!
The original Casted landed a 5 star review
last year AND made it to my top 10 for 2013. For a damn good reason. When you
asked me to beta read the Expanded version I squealed and did cartwheels all
over the living room floor, gracefully accepted. I NEVER expected to
respond the way I did, to get floored all over again. Some of the extra scenes
are still lingering in the back of my mind today. Care to tell us why you
decided to do an Expanded version?
A
moment of insanity..? I joke, I joke! Honestly, I had no intentions on going
back to the beginning; I mean this was my first book. What would it look like
if I jumped right back into it and added more? I would have never done it, had
it not been brought to my attention that the book itself could be split into
two books to give the reader *more*. I
wrestled with the decision from September to November as I worked on the
expansion. Did I really want to pull the original book and split it? As you can
tell, I made the choice to expand it instead. I didn’t want to change
everything. I only wanted to enhance what was there. So there ya go, that’s
what I’ve been doing these last few months.
There are SOOO many things I want to ask
you, but let’s get to the bottom first, shall we? I want a visual of Edge!!!
And how come you wanted to put Edge and Jade together? The most obvious choice
would have been Dagger.
Think a mix of Ian Somerhalder’s sexiness
and Jared Leto’s edginess (he he he) and BAM! I actually have a cast of
characters on my Pinterest board if you wanna go pop in for a look!
As far as putting Jade and Edge together….I
had no say, when he introduced himself it was outta my hands. Originally, in
the first book it seemed that way – unfortunately, I didn’t express the
relationship between Jade and Dagger very well. In the expansion however, the
reader will be more inside Jade’s head to understand what Dagger is to her.
Edge and Jade are what you call
Preordained. For those unknown to this phenomenon could you explain what it is?
When the Original Coven began they wanted
to preserve the magic bloodline. They feared that spell casters would look
outside the Coven to marry and have children. In doing so the bloodline would
weaken and magic would be lost. To ensure that didn’t happen they created a
spell, cast upon the Original Coven to ensure that would never happen. The
spell itself draws like to like, there’s no ‘pairing’ of families per say, only
a pairing of magic. It’s kind of like a magic spell carried out by the Fates.
Of course, this won’t stop people from falling in love with someone that’s not
their preordained, but it would make it very complicated if the spell caster
came across their preordained while in a relationship.
When reading Casted, I was blown away with
how detailed you are with the magic and the history behind the magic, and how
the Triad came to and how the Covens work today. How much research did you do
before starting?
I’ve always been drawn to the thought of
magic, the use of elements and the fantasy side of what you can do with such
things. I guess you can say that I have
a very active imagination when it comes to what magic is to me. As far as
research…um, well…I’m going to make myself sound like a complete jackass with
this, but I didn’t really research much. Besides looking at maps of both Ireland and Scotland
How do you keep track of everything?
Notepads? Whiteboard? A magical book with a person trapped inside? *grins*
*Gasp* Do you think they sell such a book
on ebay? The truth is, I had a notebook that I wrote random stuff in and then
had to hunt for it when I needed it. As
of September, I’ve been using the Scrivener program which gives me character
sheets and places to keep notes right where I’m working from. It’s been a
pretty awesome program to work with and it keeps me organized.
Where did your inspiration for Casted come
from?
I’m one of those people who get blips of
images that pop in my head before I go to sleep and a story is born from that
image and or scene. In this case, I’d finished another book (which is total
garbage and needs a lot of work if it’s to ever see the light of day) and
Jade’s character came to me before I was even done with the other book. All of
my stuff has come to me that way. I build the world/story around that small
blip. Sounds weird, right? I know, believe me, I totally understand. You try
living inside my mind for a day and then we’ll talk…lol
Has anything changed for you since you
published the Original Casted? Any words of wisdom you’d like to share?
Nothings changed besides the fact that I’ve
finished the second book and am waiting until I get back from Indie Girl Con to
publish it. With the Casted expansion re-released, I needed to have a little
time in-between them to gain some hype for the second book. As far as advice?
The best thing I can tell you, especially if you’re a new author, or soon to be
author is: Thick skin – open mind.
People will love or hate your work and that’s okay. Constructive criticism is good, so long as
you allow it to help you grow. Don’t
dwell on the negative, keep focused on the things that matter or you’ll be your
own worst enemy.
I KNOW you’re going through the last read
on Spelled, the sequel to Casted. Want to share anything from it? *PLEEEAAASE?*
Sure! Here’s a snippet from the beginning
after they fell through the floor in the Triad compound. Just remember this is
unedited and subject to change:
My
breath hitched as my eyes darted around the room for a moment. I was safe,
tucked inside his home in the South of France. Pulled from the clutches of
death that Edge had been forced to watch play out. “I’m sorry. I had to release
her. It was the only thing I could do to save us. And when we fell through the
floor in the cave I tried to hold on to you. I just…everything went dark and
you were gone. I was gone. I’m so sorry, Edge, but I’m here now. Everything is
okay.”
Thank you SOOO much for coming by on your
busy Release Day Sonya!!! I hope you will have a fabulous day!
Thanks for having me! Please feel free to
stop in at anytime on my author Facebook page to say hi! I love hearing from
everyone and fingers crossed now that I’m almost finished with Spelled I’ll
have more time to be on Facebook. And
I’ll leave you with this. It’s how editing gets done at my house…he he he
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