I'm excited today to have Shawna Romkey as my guest on my blog! Her new book is a cool YA tale of angels and redemption, just released this month from Crescent Moon Press. (LOVE that cover!)
She's on a whole giant blog tour all month long (including this stop to chat with me! *yea*) and she's doing a great giveaway - she's hidden "Easter eggs" along her tour. You need to find them and decipher the pass code for a chance to win a signed copy of her book, a super-cool swag pack and a $25 Amazon gift card!
To enter, read through today's post and look for the "Easter egg" (a letter that stands out.) Find her other blog entries for the tour (HINTS: the list is posted on her website at www.shawnaromkey.com and the letters are in order...) There are Easter eggs in all the starred blog posts. Once you've found the eggs in each post, put them together to find the secret code. Tweet the code including @sromkey #speakofthedevil
One winner will be chosen from all entries at the end of the month, on Easter, March 31! Good luck!
(Oh, and check back right here tomorrow to hunt for the next "egg"!)
Okay, so let's meet our guest! Hi, Shawna! Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to read and write.
Let’s
see. I’m going to give you something other than the bio blurb I have on my web
site. My day job is to teach marketing and communications at a community
college. I also run a small Kobo eBook promotions site and do some private
marketing consulting. I’ve been married
10 years and have lived in Canada for 11. I have a 6 year old son and 14 year
old step-son. I love dogs. I have two rescue dogs of my own and try to help out
local animal rescue groups when I can.
I
like to read classics, YA, fantasy and paranormal. I like most everything
Crescent Moon Press publishes. I was thrilled to
sign with them.
What's
your favorite part of being an author?
I
got my creative writing degree in university twenty-ish years ago. I started
writing when I was 5. I’ve wanted to get published for a very long time, so I
think finally getting signed has to be my favorite part. I finally feel a sort
of validation for my work and all of the writing I’ve done in the past. It is
really a dream come true for me. Being able to feel like I can really say that
I’m a writer now and have it mean something is important to me. I know there
are other routes I could have explored with self-publishing, but I felt like
for my first one I need to get signed to make sure it was real.
What’s
your approach to writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?
I
make a general outline of where I think the story will go. Where it begins and
ends and some of the major plot points along the way, and then I write. Often
times the characters have a different outline in mind for me and end up going a
different direction. I love when that happens. I think the outlining is my left
brain organizing the story, but when the characters or the stories change as I
go, I feel like that’s the right brain getting creative. When writers write,
they are sort of in a light trance, like when you watch TV. So my subconscious
takes over and does some cool things I couldn’t have imagined. I think that’s
the best part of it. It’s like a creative magic fairy dust or something. Love
when that happens.
If
you could have one superpower, what would it be?
I
think it would be teleportation. I have family spread out between the US and
Canada that I’d love to be able to visit more. And I’d love to travel, but I
hate the transportation part. I hate flying. I hate lugging luggage. I hate
waiting for planes and trains. I’d love to just blip wherever I wanted to go.
That
or super fast metabolism.
Tell
us about your new release, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
Speak
of the Devil is the story of a high school girl who gets in an accident with
her two best friends who die. This causes her to question her faith in God and
her faith in herself. She runs away to her dad’s to get away from the reminders
all around her and meets a group of friends who are way too interested in her,
leaving her to wonder why.
Okay,
if you’re casting the movie of your book, who gets to play the main characters?
Chord
Overstreet from Glee is my Luc and I just recently came across some pics of
Candice Accola from Vampire Diaries with red hair which totally looks like Lily
in my head!
Where
can readers find your books and where can you be found on the web?
My
books will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. (no links yet)
And
everyone can come visit me on these fun sites!
Thanks for coming to visit today, Shawna! And readers, can you tell which letter was today's Easter Egg? (Hint: a rainbow of color to make it stand out, but you only need one letter from today!)
Thanks for having me, Katie!
ReplyDeleteThe book is available on Amazon and B & N now, so people can check it out if they wish.
Great post!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great, that after so many years of your creative writing masters you are now a published author?! Talk about a dream come true. With more books on the way I hope...!
I'm still reading my copy but love every minute of it.
Tara