Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for STATION FOSAAN by Dee Garreston! I have an interview with Dee to share with you today! And make sure to enter the giveaway below!
Haven't heard of STATION FOSAAN? Check it out!
Title: OF THE TREES
Author: E.M. Fitch
Pub. Date: February 28, 2017
Publisher: Month9Books
Format: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 345
Find it: Goodreads
| Amazon | B&N | TBD | iBooks | Kobo | Google
Play Books | Indiebound
Cassie and Laney fancy themselves amateur ghost hunters. When a carnival comes to town, Cassie embraces the chance to try something new.
Carnival workers watch the girls with a collective gaze that ignites in Laney a dark and dangerous fascination, leaving Cassie unnerved.
It's not just their age or the unsettling way they stare. There is something in the shifting of their skin and the way their features seem to change in the shadows.
Cassie can's shake this sickening feeling that there's more to the carnival than meets the eye.
When townspeople suddenly start dying and bloody warnings appear around town, Cassie is lured into a nightmare where trees whisper and strange, shape-shifting men haunt the backwoods she once hunted for ghosts with her best friend.
Then Laney goes missing, and only Cassie can get her back. But the creatures of the trees aren't simply going to hand Laney over to Cassie without getting something in return.
Now on to the interview!
Hey Erin!! First I want to say welcome to Two Chicks on Books I’m glad
you could stop by for a chat! OF THE TREES was freaking AWESOME and I can’t
wait for everyone to read it!
For the readers:
can you tell us a little info about OF THE TREES and the characters?
Of The Trees is the story of two best friends. Cassie Harris does not
believe in ghosts, but her best friend Laney is constantly dragging her along
on ghost hunts anyway. They do find something, something Cassie didn’t believe
was possible. It’s not a ghost, it’s something worse, something made of flesh
and blood and dark, dark magic. They find the creatures of the trees, and those
creatures want to steal the girls away forever.
Is this a series
or a standalone? And if it’s a series do you have a title for book 2? And if
it’s a standalone what are you working on now?
This was originally conceived as a three book series. The sequel is
written and hanging out in my computer currently. It’s entitled Darkness Cannot
Hide Her, and it picks up just a few months after the end of Of The Trees. I
left Cassie’s story for a bit of a break after I wrote the sequel, and I
finished a standalone novel that I’m quite proud of, entitled The Monsters It
Hides. I’m currently writing another YA novel that centers around a ghost
story. Oh, and I have a two short stories being featured in two separate
anthologies this year. A boogeyman short entitled The Creep will appear in the
Lurking in the Mind anthology from CHBB publishing, and later in the year my
short story entitled The Shadows Between will be featured in the Fragments of
Darkness anthology.
Were any of the
characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?
Yes, several of them.
But I’m not saying which ones!
Who was your
favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?
Laney was my
favorite to write in this novel. She is direct, snarky, selfish. Maybe it’s because
of all those things, but Laney is bluntly honest. Her viewpoint was a fun and
easy way for me to navigate through my created world. My most challenging
character was probably Ryan. He’s a toughie because I didn’t want him to be a
cookie-cutter boyfriend type, but at the same time we don’t get to be inside
his head in the way we’re allowed into Cassie and Laney’s. I wanted him to be
authentic, a character with a heartbeat, and so my struggle was showing this
through Cassie. This was especially difficult because, for a large part of this
book, poor Cassie doesn’t quite understand what Ryan’s thinking.
What is your
favorite passage/scene in OF THE TREES?
Laney’s transformation scene is my overall favorite scene. It’s hard to
explain without going into detail here, but this particular scene – I just couldn’t wait to write it! In fact, it’s one of the first
scenes I wrote when drafting this novel. This scene doesn’t happen until the
last half of the book, so I had written my first couple chapters and then just
knew I wanted to add this element in. I jumped way ahead, wrote it out in one
sitting, and barely touched it in the edits because I loved it so much.
What kind of
research did you have to do for the story?
Tons of research! I started with Irish fairytales and folklore, which
led me to W.B. Yeats and a collection of his stories and poems. One poem in
particular stuck out to me, The Stolen Child, and that helped to influence and
shape Of The Trees. And while old tales of the Fae are the dark undercurrents
that run throughout this novel, the story begins with a ghost story. So there
was a lot of research put into one of the old, local legends that skulks around
a cemetery quite close to where I live. It was a ghost story I remembered from
my own time in high school, and I went searching through archives for the
details. I also looked into everything from tree varieties, to high school
floorplans, to… oh! This was a big one: The Appalachian Trail. So
much research went into the conditions on the trail, what you’d have to pack for a thru-hike, how long something like that would
take, what the particular sections of the trail looked like. On and on! I just
adore researching, which comes in handy because every novel I write requires
often very bizarre research.
Who is your
ultimate book boyfriend?
Jamie Fraser. Oh, I’m sorry, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser.
What inspired you
to write YA?
So back before I was even writing, I was reading. But being a young
mother, who had just gotten out of college having completed a nursing and a
psychology degree, I had no time to keep up with what books were out there. I
hadn’t really read for pleasure in years, and I had no idea where to start. I
looked online and found this website where you could put in the books you read
and loved, and they would recommend titles. That seemed so wonderful to me,
like Netflix but for books! So I jotted down a few titles that looked
promising, walked to my local library, and looked them up. Every title, every
single one, had me going to the children’s section! I was surprised, and a
little embarrassed. I didn’t even know YA was a thing, couldn’t have told you that
that was where my tastes lay; but I went to the kid’s section, quickly pulled
the books I wanted off the shelf, and scurried out of there. The first title I
grabbed was A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I loved it! So I kept
marching back to the children’s section, kept pulling titles. When I finally
decided to take my writing seriously, it felt completely natural to gravitate
towards YA literature. I write what I love, YA books that usually feature a
dystopian/horror/supernatural element.
So I fell into writing YA, but I make the choice to stay here. I love
working with teens, and I love writing teenage protagonists. There’s just
something about those years in which people are this amazing combination of
intelligent and naïve, resourceful and vulnerable. Teens can see the world in a
whole new way, and also exhibit flashes of ancient wisdom, grace, and
sensitivity. I love the struggles of identity formation, finding who you are.
These make for great literary devices, and are such wonderful things to explore
in the characters you create. There’s also a massive amount of growth – intellectual,
emotional, physical – when you’re a teenager, and
that’s another element of great fiction, character growth.
Whatever drew me to YA fiction, I’m forever grateful
that I’m here.
Lightening Round
Questions
What are you
reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?
I’m currently reading Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
by Bruce Rosenblum
and Fred Kuttner. (Yes, I realize how dry it sounds; but it’s fascinating! One
of my short stories coming out in 2017 was inspired by the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.)
I’m
dying to read the next book in the Outlander series! But it’s not out yet! Darn
it.
What Hogwarts
House would the Sorting Hat place you in?
Gryffindor, so says Pottermore (and yes, I’m aware that that rhymes).
Twitter or
Facebook?
Facebook!
Favorite
Superhero?
Superman! My dad and I watch every Superman movie together.
Favorite TV show?
Currently? I’d say The Walking Dead.
Sweet or Salty?
Always both together.
Any Phobias?
No, not really. I could do without bugs though.
Song you can’t get
enough of right now?
Lost Boy by Ruth B.
2017 Movie you’re
most looking forward to?
A Monster Calls.
Thanks so much Erin for answering my questions! I can’t wait for
everyone to read OF THE TREES!
About E.M:
E.M. Fitch is an author who loves scary stories, chocolate, and tall
trees. When not dreaming up new ways to torture characters, she is usually
corralling her four children or thinking of ways to tire them out so she can
get an hour of peace at night. She lives in Connecticut, surrounded by chaos,
which she manages (somewhat successfully) with her husband, Marc.
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a $25 Fandango Gift Card, US Only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
2/27/2017- Lisa's
Loves(Books of Course)- Interview
2/27/2017- Never Too Many
To Read- Review
2/27/2017- Julie Reece- Excerpt
2/28/2017- Tales of the
Ravenous Reader- Guest Post
2/28/2017- Book Review Becca- Review
3/1/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Interview
3/1/2017- Omg Books
and More Books- Review
3/2/2017- Always
& Forever Fangirling- Excerpt
3/2/2017- Bookaholic Banter- Review
3/3/2017- Rockin' Book Reviews- Guest
Post
3/3/2017- Quantum- Review
Week Two:
3/6/2017- LILbooKlovers- Interview
3/6/2017- Don't Judge, Read- Review
3/7/2017- The Book
Adventures of Annelise Lestrange- Excerpt
3/7/2017- Book Lovers Life- Review
3/8/2017- Hidden Worlds
Books- Guest Post
3/8/2017- Book-Keeping- Review
3/9/2017- Bibliobibuli YA- Interview
3/9/2017- StephanieCassidyBlog- Review
3/10/2017- So Few Books- Interview
3/10/2017- I am not a
bookworm!- Review
Thanks so much for hosting!! It was a pleasure talking with you!
ReplyDeleteOf the Trees is a great spooky read. Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDelete