Blog Tour: The Midnight Spell by Rhiannon Frater and Kody Boye @KodyBoye @RhiannonFrater

The Midnight Spell by Kody Boye and Rhiannon Frater 

Published by: Permuted Press
Publication date: February 28th 2013
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Best friends since kindergarten, Adam and Christy have always been the perpetual outsiders in their small town in Texas. The other kids call Adam gay and Christy a witch.

On both counts the bullies are right.

Their junior year in high school seems destined to be the same old same old until Christy decides to cast a love spell for Adam at the midnight hour. The next day an alluring and mysterious boy enrolls at school and sets hearts aflutter, including Adam’s. Meanwhile, Christy’s mad crush on the handsome football player Ian seems to be going nowhere fast and her witch puberty is making her life miserable.

When a great evil arrives in town that threatens everything they hold dear, the best friends realize that finding a boyfriend is the least of their worries. Soon Adam and Christy will have to battle a force of darkness that has killed in their town before, and will again.

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-midnight-spell-rhiannon-frater/1114701520?ean=2940149594924

Today I welcome Rhiannon and Kody for an interview.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer or did you want to be something else? 

Rhiannon: I’ve known I was supposed to be a writer all the way back to when I would stare at books and dream about one day being able to read them. Books completely fascinated me and I was a storyteller from the moment I started to talk. Being a writer was in my blood.

Kody: I was obsessed with dinosaurs at a young age, so naturally my interests led me to wanting to be an archaeologist. The urge to actually ‘be’ a writer didn’t come until my teens, and it wasn’t until I turned sixteen that I found I wanted to make it into a career.

How long does it take you to write a book from start to finish?

Rhiannon: It really depends on the book. And if you mean the first draft, that can take anywhere from two weeks (I pretty much collapsed when I was done) to three months. Then comes the revision process. Some books are born faster than others.

Kody: For me, it depends on a few factors: the scope (of the story, not so much the length,) the amount of research or thought needed to be put into it, and my health. The fastest I’ve ever written a book was in 2 weeks (70,000 words) as a teenager. The longest it took me was about 8 months with a 250,000-word fantasy novel.

How do you come up with themes for your stories?

Rhiannon:  I dream my stories. I have epic, 3D, full color dreams of my novels. I wake up, write the ideas down, and let those seeds germinate into a full novel. I have never had to “look” for an idea.

Kody: They usually come to me based on simple concepts. What if an Autistic child entered a paranormal world? What if strangling obsession was seen as love? What if a glass animal entered your life just after your wife had a heart attack? From there, I build around them and allow the story to take a life of its own.

 Do you have a schedule of when you write? 

Rhiannon: I mostly write in the middle of the night when the world is much quieter.

Kody: I’ve since stopped trying to have a schedule. Depending on my chemistry, I will either write very late at night or extremely early in the morning. Or I’ll write in the afternoon. Schedules don’t work well for me, I’ve found, because they add unnecessary pressure. Inspiration is key. You can’t force it.

How are you able to balance other aspects of your life with your writing?

Rhiannon: I’m not sure I am able to yet. LOL. Ask my friends. I tend to disappear a lot. But my husband and I have been together a very long time, so we’ve developed a rhythm to our life that works for us. 

Kody: Given my illness(es), I work at home and write full time, so I’m extremely flexible in terms of how I’m able to work. Other than my freelance copyediting and formatting, I don’t have much else to focus on unless I choose to do so.

What elements do you think make a great story line? 

Rhiannon: At the heart of any story is the characters. If the readers don’t care about your characters, they’re not going to enjoy the story. Also, readers need to be able to see those characters developing over the course of the book or series, or the story doesn’t feel authentic.

Kody:  The setting and the characters within them.

What was the hardest thing about writing a book?

Rhiannon: Finishing it.

Kody: Making sure my vision stays as true as it is when it appears in the written word. 

How many books have you written so far? Do you have a favorite? 

Rhiannon: I honestly don’t know how many I have written. Every once in a while I’ll discover something I wrote and forgot about. I have been writing since I was ten. I have nineteen published so far (both indie and traditionally published). The Mesmerized comes out in the late summer from Permuted Press and Dead Spots will be published by Tor in early 2015. And I have more books I’ll be writing this year, so I’ll just answer “a lot.”

As for my favorite, it’s The Tale of the Vampire Bride. I love gothic horror.

Kody: That’ve been published? 9. Since I started writing? Don’t ask. I’d have to go into my writing folder and sort through junked stuff to count them all.

Do you have a favorite character?

Rhiannon: Lady Glynis Wright from The Tale of the Vampire Bride. I adore her. She’s so much fun to write.

Kody: One of my favorite characters that I’ve seen portrayed in fiction has been Katniss Everdeen from Suzane Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. The portrayal of a young girl suffering extremely PTSD (a condition I personally suffer from) is so unbearable in its realism that it’s hard to read at times.

Where do you write?  

Rhiannon: I have a home office that I share with my husband.

Kody: I write in my bedroom, which also serves as my office. At varying times I can find my cat on the bed behind me, the little dresser I refinished to the side, or behind my computer monitor creeping over at me.

When deciding on how to publish, what directed you to the route you took? 

Rhiannon: That’s a very long story. I’ll try and make it short. I wrote a serial online called As The World Dies. I had a lot of fans. They wanted physical copies. I self-published it in three installments (The First Days, Fighting To Survive, Siege). It was optioned by Hollywood. I got an agent. The agent sold it to Tor. Meanwhile, I was still self-publishing and continue to do so. Though I have eight books with publishers, I sometimes feel a book is better served by being self-published.

Kody: I used to be part of what you’d consider the ‘old guard’—which, back in the early 2000s, meant that you did it what was considered ‘the right way’: no self-publishing, submit stories or novels, get them rejected, revise them after critique group suggestion, then repeat. I eventually broke free of this mold when I realized the atmosphere was creating a very elitist environment. I used to just practice the ‘right way.’ Now I don’t even submit novels for publication. I let my agent do that.

 Have you gotten feedback from family about your book(s)? What do they think?

Rhiannon: My mother is my biggest fan. She’s also a retired English teacher, so she’s had a big impact on my writing. Though my husband isn’t really into horror, he has read my books and has been impressed with them. He’s very proud of me. For a long time my brothers avoided reading my work out of fear that I might be a terrible writer. They’ve now read my work and really liked it. The nieces and nephews are just now reaching the age where they are reading my books. I get their seal of approval, too.

Kody: My grandmother (before she passed) was one of my most ardent supporters. My family in general is supportive, but they’re not big readers, so what feedback I do get from them is rare.

What kinds of things do you like to do outside of writing?

Rhiannon: Gaming, watching movies, binge-watching television shows with my husband, shopping, hanging out with friends, and traveling.

Kody: I am a huge PC gamer. I also enjoy thrift shopping, occasionally reworking furniture, and pestering my cat.

 What kinds of advice would you give to someone who wants to start writing? 

Rhiannon: Read a lot. Write a lot.

Kody: Write, write, write, write, write. Remember that one person’s interpretation does not mean your book is good/bad/neutral. Don’t read reviews once you start putting work out there (it’s a bad idea,) and don’t respond to them in the slightest.

What is your favorite book? favorite author? Do you have an author that inspired/inspires you to write? 

Rhiannon: My favorite book is Jane Eyre. I don’t really have a favorite author, though Neil Gaiman sometimes pops into that spot. And all the authors I read inspire me to write. Creative energy begets creative energy.

Kody: I don’t necessarily have a favorite book or author. The author that really got me into reading as a child was Kenneth Thomasmas’ Native American novels.

1Do you have any go to people when writing a book that help you with your story lines as well as editing, beta reading and such? 

Rhiannon: I have a group of beta readers that help me refine my manuscripts before I turn them into my editors. I don’t really discuss my books in progress too much with anyone until it’s done. I want fresh eyes on the words. If I tell my beta readers too much, I fear they’ll have my vision in mind when they read. I need for them to be able to see any holes in the plot and dropped threads, etc.

Kody: Honestly, it depends on the project. But, given the choice, I love to work with Felicia Tiller-Sullivan for editing. Claudia McKinney of Phatpuppy Creations is an amazing cover artist and overall wonderful woman.

Are you working on anything now?  

Rhiannon: I’m always working on something. As soon as I finish one thing, it’s on to the next. Right now I’m working on my supernatural serial In Darkness We Must Abide. I have about three other books to write this year, too. It’s a busy time!

Kody: Something I can’t speak too much about.

Thanks so much for being here today Rhiannon and Kody! It was so great to have you! Good luck on your future works!

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including the As the World Dies zombie trilogy (Tor), as well as independent works such as The Last Bastion of the Living (declared the #1 Zombie Release of 2012 by Explorations Fantasy Blog and the #1 Zombie Novel of the Decade by B&N Book Blog), and other horror novels. In 2014, her newest horror novel, The Mesmerized, will be released by Permuted Press. Dead Spots will be published in 2015 by Tor. She was born and raised a Texan and presently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and furry children (a.k.a pets).  She loves scary movies, sci-fi and horror shows, playing video games, cooking, dyeing her hair weird colors, and shopping for Betsey Johnson purses and shoes.  

You can find her online at:Website: rhiannonfrater.com 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/astheworlddies
Twitter:  twitter.com/rhiannonfrater
Blog:  rhianonfrater.blogspot.com
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/rhiannonfrater/
Email: rhiannonfrater at gmail.com

Born and raised in Southeastern Idaho, Kody Boye began his writing career with the publication of his story [A] Prom Queen’s Revenge at the age of fourteen. Published nearly three-dozen times before going independent at eighteen, Boye has authored numerous works—including the short story collection Amorous Things, the novella The Diary of Dakota Hammell, the zombie novel Sunrise and the epic fantasy series The Brotherhood Saga. He is represented by Hannah Brown Gordon of the Foundry Literary + Media Agency.

You can visit him online at kodyboye.com

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