A personal friend and no stranger to my blog, it came as a surprise that I had never pinned Emma down in the twenty questions hotseat. So, before she upped sticks and abandoned me to move 250 miles away - sob - I rectified the situation...
ACT ONE – all about you…
Emma is one of the new wave of successful indie authors. Her first YA novel, ‘Witchblood’, has been nominated for the CYBILS (Children & Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards) and has also been in the Top Ten Kindle Download Charts for its genre. Since January 2012 she has gone on to publish ‘WitchCraft’ and ‘WitchLove’ which have respectively hit the top ten charts and have sold 20,000 copies in their first year. She is currently relocating her family from Manchester to Somerset, is a stay-at-home mum to her two children, and about to publish the fourth and final book in the series, ‘WitchHunt’. In October 2013 she was a guest speaker at the IOW Literary Festival.
Nope! Apart from assignments at University and failed attempts at writing along the way, The WitchBlood Series is my first stab at writing, which is why I think my books are getting better each time. I always fancied being a writer and I have always been a bookworm, but I never thought I could actually do it!
2) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?
I have a feeling I am the exact opposite of you Aurelia. I am no plotter! I definitely fall into the pantzer bracket! I fly in by the seat of my pants, with nothing more than a general idea of where I want it to go and hope for the best! The characters do the rest!
3) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing?
Yes, it was reading the Twilight Saga that gave me the idea for WitchBlood and made me want to write something paranormal for teenagers that was set in the UK instead of the US.
4) Is there one piece of writing (or life?) advice that has stuck with you, or that you would like to share?
I have read various things, some helpful, some not; but the one piece of advice that has stuck and which I try my best to follow is from Stephen King’s book, ‘On Writing’. In it he says that a writer needs to make time to write everyday. It’s important so you don’t lose your flow. I know because I have stopped, and I have lost my flow lol! I try to write Mon to Fri a minimum of 1500 words.
5) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know?
Hmm I have recently conquered some personal demons and done a talk at the IOW Literary Festival about my books and my writing; in front of eighty teenagers! I hate public speaking with a passion, so for me this was monumental! I also have a tattoo on my foot!
6) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?
I only got it last Christmas, but I honestly don’t know how I would live without my ipad (terrible I know, but… true!) I actually would prefer to be without my phone to my ipad! I have a kindle app on it and all my books, I have Minecraft (Geeky I know!), I can watch TV, blog, Facebook, listen to music, surf the net and spend all my spare time on Pinterest. What more do I need?!
ACT TWO – all about your new release…
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‘I know it’s selfish, but I don’t want you to go,’ Daniel said, a couple of minutes later.
I looked at him and smiled.
‘I’ll be fine, I will.’
‘You’d better be. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Those months I stupidly spent apart from you… they were torment for me,’ he said.
‘They were torment for me too.’
As the Christmas season is ripped apart by the news that Jess’ old friend Alex has been turned into a vicious killer, festivities are dropped, Jess returns to England and the hunt begins. But Alex isn’t the only one being hunted, for Mary has found a way to extinguish the entire bloodline of Malden witches, and it is Jess’s book of shadows that’s the key. As things hot up, Jess finds she must leave Daniel and the safety of Manchester in a final hunt for her nemesis, Mary. In a fight-off that only one of them can survive, loved ones will fall… daemons will rise… but who will survive?7) Congratulations on your recent release of WitchHunt, what was your inspiration for this story?
As the final book in the WitchBlood series, WitchHunt is really a culmination of everything that has gone before. So the hot/cold relationship between Daniel and Jess is resolved, the mystery behind the book of shadows is revealed and there is a fight-off between Jess and Mary. In some ways it was easy to write because I knew what had to be tied up, but in some ways it was the hardest because I have a whole FB page full of fans who regularly write to me with expectations for how the story should end!
8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling?
I find the dialogue flows nicely. I can write pages of dialogue all in one morning as I let the characters take over and their voices flow through my fingers. However inevitably there are the slower scenes which do initially take a bit of cajoling!
9)
[Umm... where did question 9 go? OK, er... moving on! ABR]
10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with?
‘If you don’t put some clothes on, I may just drag you back to bed,’ Daniel whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arms round me, so I could lean against his chest.
‘Shall we go out? It seems a shame to be here and not explore,’ I asked.
‘Hmm, well it’ll be easier and more comfortable to explore now, than it will be tomorrow daytime. I think seeing as it’s Christmas day tomorrow we shall just stay in bed until dusk. I don’t want any presents… just you!’
11) Over to you, what can you tell us about WitchHunt, to make us rush out and buy it?
WitchHunt is the end, so if you’ve read the first three and you’re still here then I don’t need to say much, especially if you’ve read the epilogue at the end of WitchLove! If however you haven’t read my books, and you are a fan of Twilight, but you would like to read something British, where the vampires don’t sparkle then go and download WitchBlood which is Book one!
12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now?
By the time this is published I should have just moved house, 250miles away; so with the WitchBlood Series finished I am intending on taking a few months off to settle into my new area. I do however have two completely new ideas for my writing in 2014.
QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…
13) Plotter or pantser?
Pantzer
14) Secret Seven or Famous Five? (please tell me you know them!?)
How about The Faraway Tree? I always preferred magic to treasure!
15) Digital books or print books?
Both!
16) Tea or coffee?
Tea
17) Cats or dogs?
Cats (& I own both!)
18) Extrovert or introvert?
Introvert
19) Save or spend?
Both… Save up, then spend it!
20) Facebook or Twitter?
And that’s a wrap!
Thank you so much for taking part, Emma, I wish you every success with your new release and much happiness in your new home.
Having devoured all of the other WitchBlood books, it's driving me crazy not being able to read this final one. WitchHunt is now my reward - my dangling carrot - to get me across the finishing line with my deadline sooner rather than later.
To discover even more about Emma Mills, and to keep an eye on those upcoming projects, you can visit her at:
Facebook Blog Twitter Goodreads
Buy it now…
Amazon UK / Amazon
Nook
iTunes
Smashwords
Follow the Tour...
Emma is currently on tour with WitchHunt, and you can find all the links here:
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