Welcome to my tour stop for The Intergalactic Adventures of Queen Bea by Jeanne Gransee Barker. This is a young adult sci-fi. The tour runs February 16-27 with reviews, author interviews, guest posts and excerpts. Check out the tour page for more information.
About the Book:
Everything she’d ever known was a lie. Now Bea must find the courage to trust her own voice to save not only herself — but an entire planet.
At almost 15, late-bloomer Bea Parker has just discovered that her aunt, uncle and cousins—the only family she’s ever known—aren’t actually related to her and don’t know anything about her birth parents. Then a strange, high-tech device shows up in her room in the middle of the night with a note promising answers about her shadowed past. This alien technology takes her on a journey that forces her to leave behind Earth, and everything she knows, to meet her destiny.
On sale for only .99 cents on Amazon for a limited time!
About the Author:
I discovered science fiction when I was four. My father loved Star Trek, the original series. Every Friday night he’d make a big deal of getting the house quiet so he could hear the TV. The importance of it drew me in. And then I was hooked on other worlds, molecules being scrambled and reformed, and meeting totally logical aliens. As I grew older and continued to watch, I loved the idea that a story could explore our contemporary dilemmas couched in two-tone faces or hidden with green skin. Science fiction was the “gateway genre” that led me to fantasy and paranormal fiction.
I began my first novel at age 12. I still have the ring binder with the hand-written pages of OOTG-1 (that stands for Out of the Galaxy)—the story of the first manned expedition to venture forth beyond our galaxy. Alas, after about thirty pages my hand got tired and the crew never left the Milky Way. But that experience sparked a lifelong love of writing which has continued through my school days to the present.
When I'm not enjoying the alternate universes of my written creations, I live, work, and play Seattle, Washington.
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***Author Interview***
What inspired you to write your first book?
As a teenager, I loved a book series called “Nine Princes in
Amber” by Roger Zelazny. I always wanted to write something — and pay homage to
that idea. I don’t think it’s remotely discernable in the end product, but the
seed was there.
How did you come up with the title?
Aaah!!! Titles! They kill me. I have a long list of titles that
I think sound wonderful: “The Taste of Thunder,” The Valentine of Salomé,”
“Ashes in the Mouth of God.” Just a whole bunch. But no stories to go with
them. And all the stories that I come up with, the worlds I create, the
characters I love—can’t name them. Ugh!
The really long title, “The Intergalactic Adventures of Queen
Bea” was the title that came to me with the story. And nothing else I came up
with seemed to work.
What are your current projects?
I am working on “IAoQB 2: Asunder” out into the world. It takes
Bea (Calvin, Vaslow, and Islook too) on another wild ride—this time with some
romance. It’s so much fun for me.
I’m also working on another series called “Shadow Gems.” I’ve
got the first draft of the first book in that series finished. It’s a
paranormal thriller about the fight to control Gems—those born with a variety
of special abilities. Kind of a fast-paced, X-Men-meets-The-Stand novel.
Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family
members.
Finding a writers group! It took me three tries to find the
right one, but once I did it was like finding home. It was where I first claim
the title “author.” I found kindred spirits. The gentle accountability (and
they explained to me that’s what it was) they gave me was invaluable to my
commitment to, not just this one book, but living as writer.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
The most important thing I learned was outlining! At the
beginning of a new novel, I now work with my editor to make sure I am hitting
my plot points before I write 70,000 words. Such a time saver. At first I was
worried that it cramp my creativity, that my characters would have less room to
roam. What I found was that the outline became a skeleton and my characters
could play quite a great deal as they fleshed out the rest of the story.
While you were writing, did you ever feel as if you were one
of the characters?
I never feel like I am one of the characters, but I definitely
feel like they are real. I often want them to say a particular line and they
won’t. They definitely have their own voice, there own way in the world. I love
following them around. Especially when they get snarky!
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Website | Facebook | Twitter @BarkerJeanne
Giveaway:
Five (5) $10 Amazon gift cards (5 winners)
Open Internationally
Ends March 3, 2015
This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.
I love this interview, it's so much fun! Thank you so much for hosting a tour stop!
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