This summer, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) is participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love.
This week, Chayse from The Book Reaper is here for a blogger interview. Read on to find out more about him, his blog, and his favorite books!
Interview with Chayse
Let’s start by introducing yourself and your blog!
My name is Chayse and I blog over at The Book Reaper. I am currently in grad school working towards my Masters in Library and Information Scientist, where one day I hope to become a youth librarian. When I am not reading I love to swim, play volleyball, walk the aisles in Target, and watch movies.
How long have you been blogging? What made you want to start?
I started blogging about 5 yrs ago. I was a part of my local library’s book club when someone came and talked about her blog and what she did. I became interested and contacted her and from there my blogging life took off.
What’s your favorite thing about blogging?
My favorite thing is being able to connect with so many people and also read books I may have never walked into a bookstore to pick up on my own.
Is there a specific book/series that was your gateway to being a reader?
As cheesy as this sounds...Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Fantasy
If you could live in any book world, which would it be?
Harry Potter
What characters would you want in your squad?
Hermione Granger, Feyre, Aiden
What are some books you highly recommend?
Zenith, The Mirror King, All American Boys, the list can go on and on...
What upcoming releases are you most looking forward to?
A Torch Against the Night, The Sun is Also a Star, Furthermore,
This summer, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) is participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love.
Today, Eli from The Silver Words and Kiersten are going to share some of their favorite dances, which is especially appropriate since National Dance Day was yesterday!
Eli's Picks
Hi everyone, and thanks to Kiersten for hosting me today! One of my non-reading/writing interests, dance has been something I’ve been interested in since I was little. I can’t dance myself, but I love watching it, especially hip hop and lyrical hip hop. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order. If you love any of these dances, or if you have your own to recommend me, don’t be shy and talk to me on Twitter at @thesilverwords :)
iKON - 6 Foot 7 Foot
iKON is one of my favorite kpop groups, and their performances have amazed me since they were trainees. This dance is from when they were competing in the show WIN: Who is Next as Team B, and I love the way that they perfectly synchronized with the music. They work together as a team brilliantly, and they always look like they’re having fun.
Dumbo & Lawrence from Poreotics - Silhouettes
Even though their concepts aren’t the most original or awe-inspiring, Poreotics still manages to wow me with their dances. This has been one of my favorite dances for a long time. It’s elegantly simple, and even though it’s pretty short, it captures the talent of both Lawrence and Dumbo.
Melanie & Marko - I Got You
This dance is from So You Think You Can Dance Season 8, and with it, Melanie and Marko were cemented as my two favorites from that season. They’re both incredibly talented, and I loved the stories that they were able to tell through their dances. This one especially meant a lot to me, and I was glad that they were able to perform it.
Cyrus - Holy Ghost
Admittedly, part of why I love Cyrus so much, as opposed to other amazing poppers, is because of his personality. I admired the way that he persevered and made it so far in So You Think You Can Dance Season 9, and his amazing attitude throughout it all. His Dance for Your Life performance was what brought it all together for me, and I was rooting for him throughout the entire competition. If you’re just as impressed as I am, allow me to recommend this one :)
I Am Me - S&M
Before I Am Me, I was completely partial to Quest Crew. Quest is flashy and fun, but I Am Me won me over with their heart and their incredible ability to work as a team. The illusions that they create are stunning, and their performances are always powerful. This one is one of the many great ones that they did while competing in America’s Best Dance Crew, and I was so proud of them when they won.
Kiersten's Picks
I'm not sure if I've talked about it on here before, but I started dancing when I was 6-years-old, started competing at 9, and even after graduating from high school and retiring from competitive dance, I still dance and choreograph for a dance organization at school. I've done many different styles including contemporary, ballet, pointe, modern, hip hop, jazz, tap, musical theater, and I even took a beginner ballroom class at school. Basically, I've always loved to dance and watch dance. I was supposed to pick five dances to round out this top ten, but I'm going to cheat because I DO WHAT I WANT.
Wade Robson - Ramalama (Bang Bang)
This dance happened in the first season of So You Think You Can Dance, and I'm still not over it. I'll never be over it. This is just one of those dances for me that I'll forever think is absolutely brilliant. It was so different from anything I'd seen before when I first saw it, and I still love it all these years later.
Kyle Hanagami - Iron
I'm working on a dance project in the fall for my friend's honors capstone project, and he's been sending us some of his research so we can start seeing the style for the piece. This is probably my favorite of the dances he's sent so far. The thing I love about this one is that it's so compelling - even when I don't plan on watching it all the way through, I just can't pull my eyes away until the end.
Tricia Miranda - Bitch Better Have My Money
This is one of my favorite hip hop combinations of all time. The great thing about this is how different each group looks doing the same choreography. While I love really precise dances (I'll have one lower that's really tight), there's something so great about looser dancing like this. Also, these people hit this choreography SO HARD. Goals.
Royal Family - FRONTROW
Ok, so I know this is a ten minute dance, but I promise that it's totally worth it. This one was choreographed by Parris Goebel, who you might recognize from Justin Bieber's Sorry music video (Aka the music video that actually made me like that song. Like, I'm so obsessed with the dance that it makes me like the song more. I learned a lot of the choreography from the video, so now I ALWAYS want the song to come on so I can wow all my friends by doing the dance). Anyway, this dance has so many different flavors of hip hop in it, and they're all executed so well. I can't imagine how it must have felt to be in the audience for this.
Since I mentioned watching dance in the audience, I just wanted to add a little bit of my two cents in on that because it is partially related to my next dance pick. I personally feel like there's something that's so much more magical about watching a dance live. When the recital at my dance school was coming up, all the dance classes that happened at the same time would usually come together and show their dances as practice for the performance. There was this one dance from another class that I really loved watching - the choreography was so great, and there was this feeling in the room when they did the dance. Of course, I've since then watched the dance on the recital DVD, but it's not the same. There was something about seeing that dance in person, in the rehearsal space, that added to it - something about watching it up close. From a distance, some of the magic was lost.
Kate Jablonski - In This Shirt
I could go on forever about this dance. This is honestly one of my favorite dances of all time. I think about it almost everyday (I'm not kidding). This is choreography goals to me. Contemporary has always been my favorite style, and I absolutely love this kind of choreography. The dancers are so committed and precise - they dance with such beautiful abandon. The video above is the one posted on the choreographer's YouTube channel, but I'm also going to link to a video of the dance at a competition because I feel like seeing it straight on like an audience would gives an entirely different perspective to the choreography. I'll never get sick of watching this. If I could go back in time and redo anything in my life, it would be making sure that I was in this dance.
So this was originally supposed to be the end of my picks (aka sticking to just five) but then THIS DANCE HAPPENED ON MONDAY NIGHT ON SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, AND I WOULD BE DOING A DISSERVICE TO YOU ALL IF I DIDN'T INCLUDE IT OK. I'm sorry for yelling.
Travis Wall - Send In The Clowns
I will admit that this one is a bit strange, but it's absolutely beautiful nonetheless. Travis Wall is always brilliant. This is definitely my most artistic pick on this list.
Now Let's Talk More About Me
Like I mentioned above, in the past two years of college I started choreographing for the dance organization that I'm in. I've decided that I'm going to share with you guys some dress rehearsal videos of the dances I choreographed! You can look for me in the videos - I'm the one with the dark hair with blonde underneath, if you can see it.
Atlas
This is the first thing I ever choreographed! It started out as a combination for a workshop, and then I decided to do a full dance with it.
The Fall
After choreographing Atlas my sophomore year, I choreographed two other workshop pieces before I did this one last year. This one was especially fun to work on because I decided to play with a lot of different things happening at the same time. Rehearsals were often confusing, but I think it ended up being pretty cool!
I'm going into my senior year, and I'm hoping to choreograph again this year! I also have this idea for a duet that I want to potentially collaborate on to make a properly filmed version, so hopefully I can make that happen.
If you want to check out some of the workshop combinations I choreographed, you can check out the first one here and the second one here (I sprained my ankle a few days before teaching this workshop, so it was a struggle).
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this dance post! While it is entirely unrelated to books, I know that Eli and I really enjoyed working on it!
This summer, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) is participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love.
Today, Tina from Tina The Bookworm is here with us!
Hi Everyone! I’m Tina from Tina The Bookworm and I’d like to thank Kiersten for having me on her blog today. We both tried to brainstorm ideas for a collaborative posts and Kiersten came up with a bookish scavenger hunt. She would give me 10 prompts and I would give her 10 prompts. We saw that we were both supposed to spotlight each other today so you can see the prompts she gave me here and the prompts I gave her on my blog today.
Feel free to join in on the scavenger hunt, and check out what Kiersten found here!
A Book With Over 500 Pages
The Book Thief has a total of 550 pages. I recently just started reading this one and it’s pretty good so far.
A Book With a Face On The Cover
Hannah Fielding always has the most beautiful covers and they mostly have faces on the cover.
A 2016 Release
Emery Lord has the prettiest covers ever. When We Collided was no expectation. I haven’t read this yet but it’s so pretty to look at.
A Book That’s Title Starts With The Same Letter As Your Name (Not Counting “The”)
I actually didn’t think I had any books that started with a C but I saw Catching Fire sitting on my shelf.
A Book With More Than 3 Colors On The Spine
The spine on The Inside of Out by Jenn Marie Throne is just gorgeous.
A Series Finale
I’ve only read The Raven Boys so far and I’ve loved it. I plan on finishing The Raven Cycle very soon.
A Debut (Can Be From Any Year, Just Has To Be The First Book Written By The Author)
This is one of my most anticipated releases of 2016 but I haven’t read it.
A Book With A Sweet Romance
Aristotle and Dante are the sweetest. If you haven’t read this yet, you should.
A Book With A Great Villain
I’ve only read Cinder so far and I have to say that I am loving Queen Levana. I’m curious to see how this series goes.
A Book With Five Words In The Title
This was the hardest prompt. It took me a while to find a book that fit the prompt. I won this one in a giveaway.
Thank you so much Kiersten for the wonderful idea of a Bookish Scavenger Hunt. I loved searching for them.
About Tina
Hey there! I'm Tina
I am a twenty something stay at home mommy of three.
Proud Ravenclaw and Bullet Journalist.
New Adult, Indie and Romance Junkie.
I'm a recovering sodaholic, and by recovering I mean I'm not even trying.
I blog about books, movies, TV shows, and my bullet journal.
This summer, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) is participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love.
Instinct: a book you picked up because of the cover Valor: a book with a kick-butt heroine
Bayram: TEAM VALOR, definitely Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Kiersten: TEAM MYSTIC!!! (It's ok, we don't let our team differences get between us) - Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins is such a fun book about a magical boarding school.
Bayram: I didn’t buy this book but the latest one I received was Reawakened by Colleen Houck
Kiersten: I feel like I never buy books anymore (I'm trying to read books I already own and use the elibrary), but I did receive an ARC of We Know it Was You by Maggie Thrash at Blogbound Con last weekend!
Pikachu A book that shocked you
Bayram: Riverkeep by Martin Stewart
Kiersten: I'm normally not a huge fan of contemporary romance, but I was shocked by how much I absolutely loved Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum.
Psyduck A book that you don't understand the hype about
Bayram: This is a bit of an old movie but definitely the Twilight movies
Kiersten: And I Darken by Kiersten White is a book I really wanted to love but I just couldn't get into it. It's not that it was bad, it just didn't work out for me.
Magikarp A book that was hard to get into but you ended up loving
Bayram: Illuminae was a bit confusing at the start but I ended up LOVING it
Kiersten: I'm going to cheat a little and do this one as a series. The concept for Cinder by Marissa Meyer put me off of reading it for a long time, but I ended up really loving the series!
Snorlax A slow paced book that was still great
Bayram: Its been a while since I read Passenger but it did seem to be slow throughout but still amazing
Kiersten: The Diviners by Libba Bray is definitely a slow paced book, but the way Libba Bray builds up all these layers in the story makes it so wonderful.
Gastly A book with ghosts
Bayram: I think The Archived by Victoria Schwab had ghosts in it but thats the only one I can think of
Kiersten: The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle is not only perfect for this category but is also one of my favorite books.
Prestige A book you'd consider a new classic (released in the 2000s)
Bayram: Any of the Harry Potter books
Kiersten: I feel like The Hunger Games are already starting to be taught in schools. I feel like it's definitely a staple of the YA genre and especially dystopian as a whole.
Revive A book that you had to recover from
Bayram: ACOMAF!!!!
Kiersten: Definitely A Court of Mist and Fury. All my feels, man. I also remember being a pathetic heap after Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare.
Bayram: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, everyone needs to read it
Kiersten: The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin is basically always my go to for things like this. It sounds like a strange book, but it's so good.
About Bayram
I am a senior in high school who LOVES to read, especially YA and sci-fi genre books. I started my blog more than two years ago and regularly post reviews of books I have enjoyed and received to review. I have had a passion for reading ever since I was in kindergarten and have only strengthened it ever since. I love talking to the book community and discussing various books with them.
As I mentioned in the last Previously post, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) will be participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love. I hope you enjoy all the fun content we come up with!
This week, we're hosting Emily from Emily Reads Everything, and she's talking about baking!
I’m a person with many interests. I bounce from one hobby to another. Book Blogging is really the only thing I’ve ever done consistently for any period of time. I’ve had periods of time when I focused on crochet, sewing, knitting (never got the hang of this), biking, geocaching, playing ingress, roleplaying games and cosplay. I start a hobby, buy a bunch of materials for that hobby, begin a big project, then lose interest or get distracted. Maybe you can relate?
So not too long ago, my baking caught my interest. I started small, using boxed mixes and canned frosting. Even with all the ingredients in front of you, it can be a daunting task. Cakes can be difficult. They are prone to falling and can be a mess. I had a few big disasters.
Then I started researching recipes to bake cakes from scratch. There are so many food and cooking blogs online with fantastic recipes. Getting your recipes online though also can mean that they haven’t been sufficiently tested. Just recently I found a delicious looking recipe for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate peanut butter frosting. However, after following it exactly and refrigerating the frosting for 8 hours, it was still frosting soup. I ending up using the first frosting recipe (the soup) as a filling and I made a tried and true peanut butter frosting as the actual topping.
The recipe I’m proudest of perfecting is my butterbeer cupcakes!
These cupcakes require a from scratch cake base, a filling and a frosting, so they aren’t for the faint of heart. Still, they are worth every bit of the effort. They are sweet and buttery and delicious. After having butterbeer for the first time this week, I can tell you that these are a fairly good representation of the real thing!
If you want to try to make them yourself, check out the recipe from Erica’s Sweet Tooth. I’d love to see pictures when you are done! Good luck!
Earlier this summer at UtopYA (recap here), Kiersten met Christina Benjamin and found out about her series, The Geneva Project. Today, Christina is here with an awesome guest post - it's especially great for aspiring authors! We hope you enjoy Christina's post and check out her series below!
Writing for a Series
By Christina Benjamin
Hi all you amazing book lovelies! I’m so excited to be writing a guest post to share with you today on We Live and Breathe Books.
I write a YA fantasy fiction series called The Geneva Project. It’s about a young girl who learns the shocking truth about her secret identity, which happens to land her right in the middle of an ancient legend that gifts her magic powers, but requires her to save her civilization. It’s a great read for fans of books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson or Divergent.
Writing for The Geneva Project has been a dream come true! I started it in 2012 with 5 little words on my lunch break, “My name is Geneva Sommers…” and they’ve transformed my life. I’m now set to publish the 3rd book in the series, The Geneva Project –Lies, on September 1st.
I never imagined the wild ride that writing a series would take me on when I first started it. Heck, I didn’t even know I was writing a book that anyone else would read. I just wanted to do something fun for myself. I’d always had this crazy imagination and when I sat down to write, it all poured out in Geneva’s voice.
What I’ve learned is that the first book in a series is a gift. It’s where you get to have complete freedom. You create a whole new world, people to live it and fun little back stories, and in my case myths, magic and legends. I even created new species and a whole new language. What fun, right?
Well that was before I knew what I was getting into. When people started to read the book and actually enjoy it, they all wanted to know more. The Geneva Project – Truth ended on a major cliffhanger, so I couldn’t really blame them. So, I sat back down to start on book 2, The Geneva Project – Secrets. That’s when I realized I’d made my life as a writer pretty difficult. I created a world and characters, but now I had to figure out how they could continue to live in it. What would be their goal in the next book? How could I pepper in fun, after everything the characters had been put through in Truth. Plus, they’re older now, so how should they change? Can I add in new characters? Will that change the dynamic? Oh, and I better remember all the crazy details that I thought were so fun to pepper around in the first book, because everything needs to make sense. I don’t want to have holes in my back story! Yikes! Suddenly I realized I was writing a series and that’s a whole different beast to tame. Especially for someone like me, who’s a total pants-er.
I muddled my way through Secrets, which ended up being so long due to the new characters and continuation of story, that my neat little trilogy turned into a quadrilogy! (if that’s even a word?) Secrets was hard work, compared to the gift that Truth was. But I was determined to make it great for my loyal readers and I think all the extra work that I put in elevated my writing and my characters. I realized I could set up things in Secrets that wouldn’t take place until the next book. Once I started to embrace the endless possibilities before me, I started to have fun writing again. The dedication that I gave Secrets really allowed me to put a lot of my heart into that book and I was sure it would be my favorite of the series.
So when it came time to start on book 3, The Geneva Project – Lies, I was feeling pretty good. I was no longer a one hit wonder - I’d written two books in a series. But, that feeling of accomplishment vanished quickly when I found myself completely stuck in the middle of Lies. Again, there were new characters, even crazier plot twists (because you have to keep stepping it up, right?), the vanishing element of childhood innocence, and then, just to make my life more difficult, due to a plot twist, I put a cap on the magic that often made it easier to write my way out of difficult situations.
So at that point I thought maybe I’d give plot outlines a try. Maybe writing by the seat of my pants wasn’t the best choice when crafting a series. After all, I was setting up a long epic adventure, so maybe some organization would help. For most writers, I would say it’s probably a great idea to outline when you know you’re going to be writing a series. But for me, I found it stifling. I spent a week, writing out beautifully color coded notecards that organized Lies into chapters and broke the book up into a beginning, middle, and end. Genius, right? Well not for me. I tend to let my characters lead me to where they’re meant to go and trying to change my writing style in the middle of a series where I already had an established voice was not only a bad idea, it was impossible. I’d look up after an hour of furiously typing and realize I’d gone completely off course according to my pretty little outline. So after a month of yelling and stomping around my house, I packed up my notecards and kissed them goodbye.
After I did that I felt like I’d gotten my freedom back. I knew loosely where I wanted to end up, thanks to my outline, but I liked keeping my options open about how the characters were going to get there. So moral of the story? Writing a series for your first book is difficult, but not impossible. I’d recommend some light outlining, but ultimately listen to your heart and the voices in your head that feed your characters. That’s what I’ve been doing and I’m having a blast, and isn’t that the most important thing?
Thanks so much to We Live and Breathe Books for hosting me! I’m looking forward to all the fun events I have in store leading up to the launch of The Geneva Project – Lies on September 1st. I’m celebrating with a Giveaway for a $50 Amazon giftcard and a Facebook Release Party on August 31st featuring 20 amazing YA authors and tons of giveaways every thirty minutes!
You still have time to catch up on the first two books in the series and the eBooks are on sale for $.99! Follow me on Facebook to see what’s next and you can join our fan club HERE to become a BeliEVA and stay on top of the latest news.
Trapped on a flood ravaged island full of orphans, natives and wealthy citizens of the prosperous city Lux, a young girl named Geneva finds herself enslaved at an orphanage with no future and a past she can’t remember. That all changes when she meets someone who promises her that there’s more in store for her than she ever could have imagined. Her once dull life rapidly spirals out of control as she starts to acquire new magical powers that may be the key to unlocking an ancient legend along with her true identity. But first she must master these powers, all while trying to keep them secret from her friends and the evil head mistress at the orphanage. Before she knows it, Geneva is in over her head and has inadvertently wrapped her friends into her web of magic and lies and now all of their lives hang in the balance once the head mistress finds out her plan to prove that the legend of Lux may not be a legend at all! Who will Geneva trust and how far will she go to save her friends and find out her true identity?
What if you were part of a secret so powerful it could change everything? Would you pursue it? Could you survive it?
Geneva finally knows the truth about her identity. The Book of Secrets gave her a name, a family and a destiny to fulfill, but it also revealed many more secrets she must uncover. Some are dark and mysterious and beyond her wildest dreams. Now she has to decide who she can trust with her secrets and which of them she must keep to herself.
Can you keep a secret? What if you life depended on it?
That’s exactly what Geneva finds herself doing to protect everyone she loves. While Geneva and her friends embark on a dangerous mission to fulfill her destiny, the dark forces that seek her powers are closing in, putting everyone she cares about at risk. Geneva must lie about who she is, what she knows and her true feelings. Are all these lies worth it or will she go too far and lose everything she’s been fighting for?
Young adult author Christina Benjamin grew up in the small town of La Plume, PA, where at an early age her playful imagination lent itself to love the art of story telling. She began to write short stories in grade school and continued practicing her craft all the way through college where she attended the University of Central Florida to complete her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Technical Writing.
After spending some time writing for blogs and websites, she was inspired to get back to her true love of telling stories, and dove head first into The Geneva Project, her first novel.
Christina now lives in Florida with her husband, dog and cats and spends her free time writing The Geneva Project series.
Phantom's Dance Lesa Howard Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Retelling Goodreads
About the book:
Christine Dadey’s family uprooted their lives and moved to Houston for her to attend the prestigious Rousseau Academy of Dance. Now, two years later, Christine struggles to compete among the Academy’s finest dancers, her parents are on the brink of divorce, and she’s told no one about her debilitating performance anxiety and what she’s willing to do to cope with it.
Erik was a ballet prodigy, a savant, destined to be a star on the world’s stage, but a suspicious fire left Erik’s face horribly disfigured. Now, a lonely phantom forced to keep his scars hidden, he spends his nights haunting the theater halls, mourning all he’s lost. Then, from behind the curtain he sees the lovely Christine. The moldable, malleable Christine.
Drawn in by Erik’s unwavering confidence, Christine allows herself to believe Erik’s declarations that he can transform her into the dancer she longs to be. But Christine’s hope of achieving her dreams may be her undoing when she learns Erik is not everything he claims. And before long, Erik’s shadowy past jeopardizes Christine’s unstable present as his obsession with her becomes hopelessly entangled with his plans for revenge.
Lesa Howard lives in the greater Houston area where she works as writer-in-residence for the nonprofit organization Writers in the Schools. But her students know her as Lesa Boutin. Her latest YA novel is PHANTOM'S DANCE, a modern retelling of Gaston Leroux's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. She has two books written under the name Lesa Boutin: AMANDA NOBLE, ZOOKEEPER EXTRAORDINAIRE, and AMANDA NOBLE, SPECIAL AGENT. Visit Lesa at www.lesahowardboutin.com or contact her at lesaboutin@gmail.com
When I was a teenager I wanted to read adult novels. Then when I became an adult all I wanted to read or write were teen novels. Go figure. But whether as a teen or as an adult, my favorite kinds of books have always been of the epic, sweeping saga variety—with a dash of tragic romance, of course. So it should come as no surprise to people who know me that I would undertake a reimagining of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. But the finished product is what has been surprising.
I knew I wanted to set Phantom's Dance in real-time Houston. In the beginning, my Phantom, Erik, was to be a young homeless man whose face had been disfigured in a gang fight. And rather than wear a mask, I dressed him in an over-sized hoodie that he kept pulled low on his head to cover his scars, and I wanted him to live in the labyrinth of tunnels running beneath the streets of Houston. But early on, I scrapped the idea of the tunnels. It just didn't work. I needed him beneath the theater. Then there was the hoodie. I really wanted to hang onto that hoodie. Nothing says 21st century like a worn-out old hoodie. But again, no matter what I did it simply didn't work. So, yeah, my phantom got a mask.
The setting and clothing weren't the only things that changed. Christine became a ballet dancer instead of an opera singer like that of Leroux's original protagonist. I don't remember how I settled on that, but I met a ballerina with the Houston Ballet who was an enormous help, and I toured the Ben Stevenson Academy where I learned a lot about the lives of ballerinas and the pursuit of their art.
These were the jumping off points for Phantom's Dance, along with the addition of current technology and the phantom's use of it. And without giving anything away, I will say that my Erik is like, yet different, from the original. He's like Leroux' s Erik in that he's a gifted genius in not only dance but as an all-around artist. I think he's different because of the view we get into his life by reading the story from Christine's first person point-of-view. There were things about the original's overall character, whether in books, movies, and plays, that I think were overlooked, and these were things it turned out I couldn't ignore. So whether you're a fan or have never given the Phantom a second thought, I hope you enjoy my version, Phantom's Dance.
- Lesa Howard
Giveaway:
Lesa Howard would like to share a signed copy of Phantom's Dance and a $10 Amazon Gift Card with one lucky winner!
Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter! The giveaway is open to US and Canada only and runs through August 14th. The winner will be contacted shortly after the giveaway ends and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. We Live and Breathe Books is not responsible for any prizes that are lost in the mail. Good luck! :)
A while back, Amrutha reviewed Of Stardust for a blog tour (review here). Today, we bring to you the sequel, In Starlight, with a guest post from its author, February Grace, and a giveaway! Look forward to a review of In Starlight from Amrutha early next month.
Music and Magic: The Soundtrack for In Starlight
By February Grace
Music and Magic: The Soundtrack for In Starlight by February Grace
Writing and music have always gone hand in hand for me. Short stories, even whole characters have had their beginnings in music, and Gus (the main character in In Starlight) and even the novel itself are no exception.
I found that it really helped me to shift focus from Till, the female lead in the first book Of Stardust, to create a new playlist to listen to while working on this book. Of Stardust was written from Till’s perspective, so it was only right that to tell the story from Gus’s for the second novel that I would need entirely new musical inspiration, with just a few songs crossing over lists to help me tie the books together in my mind.
While Gus also has two separate playlists all his own (containing many, many maaaanyyyy songs) the playlist I ended up with for In Starlight throughout the writing and editing process evolved and grew to a total of 39 songs. I won’t list them all here, but I will give you some of my favorites, those that I felt really helped shape the story (or fit it well all on their own.) I will always associate these songs with Gus, Till, and In Starlight.
Auld Lang Syne (Royal Philharmonic version)
Now We Are Free (Celtic Thunder)
Auld Lang Syne (yes, again LOL) (Courrier version)
Between (Courrier)
That’s How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart (Aimee Mann)
Run (Smash Cast Version, Katherine McPhee)
Where I Stood (Missy Higgins)
Just Give Me a Reason (Pink)
Time and Again (a-ha)
Up In Flames (Coldplay)
Pie Jesu (Sarah Brightman)
Awake (Josh Groban)
Wonderland (Paul Young)
What If (Coldplay)
Try Again (Keane)
Be Still (The Fray)
Us Against the World (Coldplay)
Look After You (The Fray)
Don’t Look Down (One Republic)
Day One (Audiomachine)
Somewhere Only We Know (Lily Allen version)
…yes, believe it or not, those are not all the songs that I listened to while fine tuning the story, but the ones I feel are perhaps best representative of it.
I hope that you enjoyed this little look behind the scenes (or under my headphones, as it were) and that you will enjoy reading In Starlight.
Thank you so much to all the readers who asked for more about Gus and Till, and thank you to We Live and Breathe Books for hosting me today!
In Starlight February Grace Genre: Fantasy, Romance Publication Date: April 30, 2014 On Goodreads
About the book: "IN STARLIGHT -- the eagerly anticipated sequel to OF STARDUST!" Their wish was sealed…was their fate? Young Fairy Godfather Gus Duncan is living his clan’s unfortunate family motto— Learn to Suffer — to a greater degree than he ever dreamed. The woman he loves is withering away beneath the burden of memory, of one perfect night with him she was supposed to forget. Facing a reality he never imagined, he must make the decision of his life: shatter the most sacred rule in the fairy code, or lose his beloved Till forever. Can true love save her when even magic fails?
Excerpt:
Chapter Two
Hide and Seek
April 2, 2013
“Catch me if ye can, little girl…” Gus taunted under his breath. He watched as Till wandered aimlessly about twenty feet from his current position.
Their strength as a team continued to grow steadily day by day, but Gus saw no reason why they shouldn’t have a bit of fun tonight, and hone her skills while they were at it. They had no other pressing business to attend to, so he’d suggested a round of the Fairy Godparent equivalent of an old children’s game: he’d hide and she’d seek.
Only to complicate things, he wasn’t just hiding in the house, or even in the same state. The options for where to go this time were open world-wide, and he planned to make it a very interesting exercise.
Till was beginning to get frustrated, and he found it absolutely adorable though he’d never admit it to her. Even if he were allowed to share such feelings with her, he knew her well enough by now to understand that the idea of being cute when annoyed would only make her more upset.
“Where are you…?” she mumbled. He read her lips through the glass and fought the urge to laugh. She was so close now, but he’d shielded himself from her thoughts just enough that she couldn’t easily see him mixed in among the mannequins in the display. Or so he thought.
A second later she was standing next to him, tapping a pink-shoed foot. “Window at Harrods? Really? This is the beginner level of the game?”
Gus did laugh now; a low, soft rumble.
“Mum, look!” a child cried, knocking on the glass and pointing wildly at Till and Gus as his mother focused on her phone. “The mannequins are alive! They’re moving!”
“That’s lovely, darling,” the mother said, totally oblivious.
Gus gave the boy a small wave and winked at Till. “Level two…” he said, and then he was gone; leaving the child with his mouth hanging open and a mind full of questions.
Gus next popped up inside the Louvre; followed by a quick stop at the Arc de Triomphe after deciding the Eiffel Tower would be entirely too obvious a choice.
“Ah, Paris in springtime,” Till grinned as she touched him on the shoulder. “How about it’s my turn now?”
Gus raised an eyebrow. “Go on, then, Tilda Mae. Show me what ye’ve got.”
Till giggled as she vanished, and Gus took a moment to catch his breath and refocus his energy on shielding parts of his mind from her that would be dangerous for her to go near. “I shouldn’t have brought her here,” he whispered to himself, leaning back against the nearest wall. “She outshines the City of Light.”
As beautiful as his surroundings were, their impact was lost on him.Winter had felt eternal, now spring was hollow — a grayed-out shadow of expected splendor. How else could it seem without her love?
He closed his eyes a moment and tuned in as best he could on the signature trail that Till had left. She was good, but not so good yet that he couldn’t find her with relative speed.
He strode up to her, grinning, as she stood on an Old Town Edinburgh street, trying to catch her breath.
“Drat it, you found me.”
“Maybe ye should’ve taken the low road.”
Till scoffed. “Brat. Okay, here we go. I hope you’re in the mood for a walk.” She made sure the coast was clear and then, she vanished.
He next found her behind a stand of poplar trees on a rolling Irish hill. For a moment the sight caught Gus off guard. He had not been back to Ireland since New Year’s Day.
“All right, ye have proved y’er learnin’,” he said, also starting to tire. “Enough for tonight.”
“Awww, c’mon,” Till nudged him gently with her elbow. “Just a couple more?”
He sighed. He couldn’t say no to her, at least not when it wasn’t absolutely necessary. “Very well. One more, then the last one is mine.”
Till squealed and then disappeared.
Gus followed the breadcrumb trail through her thoughts, and the next time he looked up, he was amazed by what he saw.
He was standing in a theme park before a life-sized castle, with fireworks soaring overhead. Families with small children were everywhere. He turned around and gazed upon Till, her face alight in the glow of the nighttime spectacular with the same wonder he saw in the faces of the children.
He approached her and shook his head. Only she would bring them here.
“A magical place, indeed,” Gus said, the edge of his lip curling slightly as he considered how little the Hollywood version of Fairy Godparents matched the reality. Till surprised him by reaching over and looping her arm around his.
“It is so beautiful.”
She was standing closer to him than he was comfortable with now, and memories he had to hide from her flooded his mind. He was overwhelmed by the thought of her hands moving over his shoulders…her arms wrapped around him. Her passionate kiss, her gentle caress. Everything that made his One Wish so perfect, and would keep it as fresh in his memory in a hundred years as it was the night it had all taken place.
“We… better go,” Gus said, gently withdrawing his arm. “Last one’s mine.” Then he was gone.
Till obediently followed, though when she located him again she didn’t look happy, she looked unsettled.
He’d decided to hide last of all in a secluded place behind the Music building at Dreams Come True University; a lovely little spot skirted by trees and flowers.
“What’s the matter then?” he asked, concerned as all the color drained from her face.
“Game over…” Till’s voice faded along with the blush in her cheek, and her thoughts grew faint as well.
He was alarmed; he could not recall her mind ever becoming so unreadable, so quickly, in the
past. Sure, a deeper thought might be replaced by one a bit more trivial and he’d know that she wished to change the subject, but never all of her thoughts completely dying away as they just had. He stopped short of placing a hand on her shoulder. “Are ye all right, Till?”
“Yeah.” She ran her hands up and down her arms as if to warm them, though it was as comfortable a temperature as ever on campus. “Can we just call it a night?”
“Sure thing.” Gus wondered at the change in her mood. He had no idea why being in this particular place should cause her to shut down so completely. “Let’s go on home.”
An instant later they were standing in the driveway of the house on Finch Street.
“Good night,” she said, hurrying up the steps and through the doorway before he had a chance to say — or ask — anything more.
About the author: February Grace is a writer, artist, and poet who lives in Southeastern Michigan. She sings on key, plays by ear, and is more than mildly obsessed with colors, clocks, and meteor showers.
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