Sticky Note - 23.2.18

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Showing posts with label dusty crabtree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dusty crabtree. Show all posts

6 March 2013

Blog Tour: Shadow Eyes Guest Post + Giveaway!

Hi everyone! Today I'll be sharing with you guys the inspiration behind Shadow Eyes, a young adult fantasy novel by Dusty Crabtree. The blog tour is for this book's one-year anniversary! Make sure you enter the giveaway below. Thanks for having me as a part of this fantastic tour, Dusty!!

About Shadow Eyes 
 Shadow Eyes
by Dusty Crabtree
Publisher: Musa Publishing
Release Date: February 3, 2012
Synopsis:

Iris Kohl lives in a world populated by murky shadows that surround, harass, and entice unsuspecting individuals toward evil.  But she is the only one who can see them.  She’s had this ability to see the shadows, as well as brilliantly glowing light figures, ever since an obscure, tragic incident on her fourteenth birthday three years earlier.
 Although she’s learned to cope, the view of her world begins to shift upon the arrival of three mysterious characters.  First, a handsome new teacher whose presence scares away shadows; second, a new friend with an awe-inspiring aura; and third, a mysterious and alluring new student whom Iris has a hard time resisting despite already having a boyfriend. As the shadows invade and terrorize her own life and family, she must ultimately revisit the most horrific event of her life in order to learn her true identity and become the hero she was meant to be.

The Inspiration behind Shadow Eyes
Thank you for hosting me, ladies!  I’m honored to be here and to share with you my unique inspiration for my YA urban fantasy, Shadow Eyes!

(Everyone, don’t forget to enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win a print copy of Shadow Eyes, your full name in the sequel, and a KINDLE FIRE!)

Obviously, stories don’t just magically materialize out of thin air, and, poof, you have a story.  It would be nice if it happened that way, but generally writers have sources of inspiration that then morph – several times – into an actual idea for a story. Some things that inspire us may be so small we don’t even realize it, but others are fairly elaborate – like the basis of inspiration for my novel.

The idea for Shadow Eyes actually first came to me as a screenplay for a Christian horror movie.  I know.  That’s not really a genre.  But it should be.  Anyway, the movie would have been about a cast of intertwined characters going about their lives and making mistakes with dark, creepy shadows (demons) hovering around them, whispering to them, and influencing them to do evil things.  Only the audience would see the shadows.  The characters would be completely oblivious.  The ultimate dramatic irony!  (Sorry, I’m an English teacher.)  I could see it all in my head, and it was awesome!  But I had no idea how to write a screenplay.

A few years after I’d had that idea, my friend suggested I should write a novel like the paranormal angel books we’d been reading and loving.  I’d always loved the concept of angels and demons in stories and immediately thought back to that screenplay idea.  After a lot of thought on how to make the story work for a novel, I decided on a 17-year-old narrator, Iris, who had a special ability to see the shadows, as well as light figures (angels), but nobody else could. 

The more the story developed in my mind, the crazier I was about it.  All the mysterious characters, the twists and turns, the big mystery about what happened to Iris when she was 14 that first gave her the ability, her making mistakes and discovering who these characters were and, more importantly, who she was – all of it just fell into place on an outline out of my crazy, overly-creative, overly-stimulated mind.  Shadow Eyes, my pride and joy, my baby, is the result.




Giveaway Time!! 
EPIC GIVEAWAY TIME. Make sure you all go enter to win a print copy of Shadow Eyes, your full name in the sequel, and a KINDLE FIRE.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy reading,
Jen xx
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