Today is my day to participate in this fab blog chain called The Next Big thing, where we target our favourite authors and people whom we believe will be the next big thing (okay, self explanatory, I’ll stop now).  I was lucky enough to be selected Sarah Jansen as someone to watch…part of agreeing to her nomination means that I now have to tell you all about my current works and work in progress by answering ten specific questions.  So, here we go!

[image error]1) What is the working title of your next book? My next book is the last in my ‘Travellers Fate’ series.  It’s title is Soul Survivor.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
 All the books in the ‘Travellers Fate’ series concern Roxy Hart, my time travelling gypsy.  Roxy was gifted to me by my friend Ashlyn Chase, who is a romance writer.  She wrote to me and told me she had this great character with who had a tremendous gift but she couldn’t write the book because there was no sex.

As with the other books in the series, Soul Survivor lands Roxy in the midst of a time that was pivotal to the Rroma people.  In this case, the beginning of the second world war.

Also in accordance with the other books, I gave Roxy a twist, [image error]a history, a mystery, a tribe of relatives and a romance. YA readers love a good romance too, especially a paranormal one J

3) What genre does your book fall under?
 It’s a YA paranormal romance (It’s a mouthful, right? But if you put Twilight, The Protector Of The Small and the Luxe novels in a blender, you get my ‘Travellers Fate’ series)

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
 Roxy would be played by someone who looks like a young Catherine Zeta Jones. [image error] Having seen Johnny Depp play Roux in Chocolat…well…it has to be him, doesn’t it? (Johnny Depp in chocolate…Santa, are you reading?)[image error]

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? (So I can just take all the full stops out of my blurb right? No? Oh…) ‘Save one to save them all’, that was the mission but will Roxy Hart save her people only to lose ‘the one’ for whom she has waited, the one who waited throughout time for   her?

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? This particular trilogy is my first ever effort at being completely self published.  I’ve enjoyed the process of turning something abstract like a story into something concrete like a book (no the book isn’t literally concrete, it’s paper, stone tablets are for others…).

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? It took about three months to write Soul Survivor (with stops for coffee, child rearing and…um…a party or two)

8)
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? So, I mentioned the blender, right? Well let’s take that adventure, romance, paranormal slushy and give it a shot of smart aleck Juno and some chocolate (because Johnny Depp is distracting me).

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book? Well obviously it started with my friend Ash giving me a character.  Then I found out about the Rroma woman lost somewhere in my family tree (I’m as close to being Rroma as McDonalds is to being food…there are probably some similar components but in the end, they’re nothing alike).

After that I started researching.  The history of the Rroma people is horrifying to the extent you can’t stop reading (I believe it’s called a morbid fascination).  The events, stories, people and culture I found in my research were truly inspiring.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest? If you love a strong heroine, a cheeky (but humble) hero and an intense story, you’ll love this whole series.  Please check them out for yourselves at either Kindle, Amazon or Smashwords.  You can also order them through Barnes & Noble and many other bookstores.

Now for the share to care part of this blog post.  My five fellow authors selected to be part of this Next Big Thing chain come from both parts of my writing career, the romance portion and the YA portion.  They are (in no particular order, not age, not beauty, not distance from my home town) as follows:

[image error] Maggie Nash (romance)   [image error]

Josh Donellan (YA)

[image error] Candice Lemon-Scott (YA and not-so YA)

Ashlyn Chase (romance) [image error]

[image error] Cynthia Cypriano Bullard (YA)