Monday, May 20, 2013

Interview and Giveaway - Mertianna Georgia - Angel fo Syn





Please describe your novel twitter style 140 characters or less.
Cara Augustine discovers being an über-witch is like being a walking lightening rod for trouble and sexy dangerous supernatural men.

What is the one thing you wish you knew before you tried to get published?
Everyone knows about the rejections, the thanks-but-no-thanks we get along the way.  But I think my biggest wish is that I knew about the work that begins after your book is published.  Readers have to somehow discover you as an author or discover one of your books.  There are lots of choices for readers these days with traditional and indie-publishing going head-to-head.  Choices are wonderful, confusing, frustrating, and exhilarating – much like having multiple love interests. Who to choose?  Who to take a chance on?  Who to curl up with on a rainy afternoon?  Every writer wants it to be her or him.  It’s getting the word out there, like the book is saying “Hey, yes you gorgeous. Try me.  It might be love.”

What to you is the best part of being a writer and what is the part you wouldn’t mind giving up?
The best part is having the freedom to create worlds where anything is possible, fantasies come true, and new adventures are always lurking around the corner.  I wouldn’t mind giving up the pre-writing panic when I think I couldn’t possibly get my heroine out of the trouble she just gotten herself into.

What city would you love to set a story in but the right one hasn’t come along yet?
Almost any city I haven’t set a story in yet.  I’m sure even the tiniest rural town or village could be an exciting location.  On the other hand, this question has me thinking I really should personally visit some exotic foreign settings– just to make sure I get the details right.  Totally work related.  For the sake of my readers.  Willing to make the sacrifice. Really.

Vampires, Shifters, Zombies, Angels - who wins the final ultimate battle?
Humans. Or maybe ants.  Not the kind who give you a dollar bill in a card on your birthday, but the insect variety. No, I’ll have to go with humans. We have to win in the end.  A world of Vamps would eventually be forced to turn vegetarian, shifters couldn’t space travel because of all the moons, zombies would disintegrate into dirt and angels would be bored without us. I think humans or some form of next-generation human will out-live them all.

If you could witness any historical event past, present or future what would it be and why?
Instant transportation of a person from one location to another.  Like Star Trek.  None of this duplication stuff where you’d have to kill the original so there wouldn’t be dozens of you running around making trouble.  The real person going from one location to another, anywhere in the world in a micro-second with no side-effects, weird dreams, or existential angst.  I’m actually not a good traveler.  Long car rides rival using a wire brush instead of a washcloth in the shower as my least favorite thing.

If you were going to co-write a new book, who would you want to write it with?
Too.  Many.  Choices.  Head.  Exploding.  Can’t.  Choose.

What books are currently on your nightstand?
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  My Bookclub made me do it. 
I want to read Charlaine Harris’s last Sookie Stakehouse book, Dead Ever After.  I’m wiping away a tear as I type this.

What is the best thing you have done in the name of research?
Watched all the episodes of Hemlock Grove from Netflix in one sitting.  I was not paid to confess this.

When writing what is your favorite part of the story?
Writing “The End.”

Anything else you would like to share today?
Angel of Syn is the second in a planned trilogy. I’m working on the third novel, tentatively titled Dark Syns.  Cara is in for some very exciting trouble, uh, I mean adventures and will have to make some hard decisions in the end.




Angel of Syn
by Mertianna Georgia

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BLURB:

Contemporary witch Cara Augustine goes international and inter-dimensional, from San Francisco to France to an alternate Eden-like dimension, in this second book of the Synemancer series.

Cara is a fugitive, pursued by the Portalkind police for breaking a major covenant. When she accidently made a werewolf her witch’s familiar, it amounted to enslaving a human. And the punishment is death. On the run for her life, she and her companions stumble into a strange paradise dimension. But they quickly find the dangerous world is filled with strange creatures, deadly and beautiful. And, because she’s quickly learning a Synemancer’s life is never simple.  Cara has to deal with an amorous Nephilim (half-angel half-witch), a dangerously deranged French werewolf, and the darkly handsome Nightkind she just might love. Each powerful supernatural man has his own reasons for wanting to possess Cara, body and soul. But if the Portalkind police catch her, she’ll be in a fight for her life.
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EXCERPT

The nape of my neck tingled with the familiar sensation of being stalked. I glanced over my shoulder to see my bodyguard, Azrael. He was named after the angel of death, but he was no angel—in any sense of the word. I used to think it was a nickname. It wasn’t. We were both witches, but he came with specialized security training.  He watched me from his favorite indoor spot halfway up the stairs to the second story of our Berkeley hills house. His sky blue eyes stared at me hungrily.That stare reminded me of a hawk watching a tasty mouse.  Irritated, I took a last bite from my nearly finished apple, turned, and threw the core at him with deadly precision. I’d been practicing using non-magical self-defense skills. My magic skills were unreliable to say the least.The apple core flew between the wooden posts directly at his beautiful face. He deftly caught it in a blur of motion, put it up to his nose, inhaled deeply, and slowly licked the apple. His eyes never left me.



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AUTHOR Bio and Links:


Mertianna currently lives with her husband, son, and three dogs in Northern California. At a young age, while traveling the globe with her military family, she discovered the joys of reading. Armed with a fascination for science fiction, the paranormal, and fantasy, she amused, shocked, and impressed her teachers with her imaginative stories.

As an adult, reality reared its boring head, and she joined the business workforce. After many years working as a professional manager while secretly wishing she was a writer, she took a detour from the corporate world to immerse herself in the fictional worlds of her own making.

Mertianna has accumulated multiple graduate degrees in business and survived years of doctoral studies in psychology, all of which undoubtedly has influenced how her characters behave or don’t behave as the case may be.

Buy Links:



ImaJinn Books:


GIVEAWAY


Mertianna will be awarding a canvas tote bag printed with the book cover on one side and a saying on the other("Are you a syn-er?"), and filled with goodies plus a $20 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US ONLY).

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

10 comments:

  1. This sounds like a unique and different story. It really sounds great.

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  2. Great questions and answers! I liked your response to the question about what you wish you'd known before publishing. I love your writing.

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  3. you know, no one ever talks about how hard it is to get your book out there even when you've been published. Thanks for bringing it to light!

    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

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  4. Great interview and excerpt, thank you.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

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  5. Great interview with some good questions. I use these book blog tours to help me find new-to-me authors that I wouldn't otherwise have discovered. What other methods of self-promotion do you use to get your name and your work out in front of the reading public?

    kareninnc at gmail dot com

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  6. Thanks for making the "sacrifice" of traveling for new story locations for us =)

    fencingromein at hotmail dot com

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  7. What a great interview! Mertianna has a wonderfully quirky sense of humor!

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  8. Love the way your imagination roams far outside any boxes, Mertianna, and takes readers like me into impossibly delicious quandaries! All that globe trotting as a kid looks like it truly put super springs in your writing--got to get book #2 now *:)

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  9. Thanks for this wonderful interview! I love hearing about authors and LOVE reading book!! A Lot! lol

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