Monday, June 22, 2015

Author of the month Jovee Winters Interview

Welcome all. 

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Jovee Winters author of the latest book The Sea Queen, the first in her Dark Queen series. 

Hi Jovee, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Tell us a little about yourself ?
Jovee: I’m a military wife and mom. I’ve been writing for close to 20 years now, and love what I do.

 What are your ambitions for your writing career? 
Jovee: I’d like to become the next Nora Roberts, barring that, I’ll settle for becoming the next Stephen King.

Which writers inspire you?
Jovee: Classic fairy tale authors. Love ‘em all. 

So, what have you written, and where can we buy or see them?
Jovee: I write fairy tales, right now I only have the one book out and it’s a mashup of fairy tales and Greek mythology. It’s mostly set in a world I call Kingdom, but also takes place on Mt. Olympus now and again. I had way too much fun writing this book. The first book of my series deals with Calypso the Sea Goddess and Hades her Dark, Sexy, and Mysterious Lover. 

What draws you to write in this genre?
Jovee: I write books I’ve always wanted to read but couldn’t find. My love of fairy tales and mythology pretty much bled through every page of this book. 

How much research do you do?
Jovee: Not a lot because I’m a fairy tale and Greek mythos nerd. I’ve been “studying” them ever since I was a very little girl. Many of the stories I twist into fractured fairy tales are stories that I know intimately in some form or another. 

What made you decide to sit down and start writing something?
Jovee: I was looking for a book to read and just couldn’t find it. So I wrote it. 

Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
Jovee: I try to write about 2000 words a day Monday through Friday, but really I just write when the muse hits me.

How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
Jovee: My sense of timing in a scene has really evolved. I understand now that you don’t always need to show the character getting out of their car, locking it up, unlocking their apartment door, and turning on the lights. Sometimes you just need to say you parked, got out, and once you got in the house you started thinking about Mr. Sexy Mc. Sexy pants.

What is the hardest thing about writing?
Jovee: Forcing yourself to do it, even when the muse isn’t providing inspiration. Some books are so easy to write, because it’s literally like transcribing a movie in my head into words, other books I have to pluck each word out of nothingness and craft it into something that tells a story. Those books are always the hardest to write, but usually the most rewarding when I finish them.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Jovee: It can take me anywhere between one week (if the muse is just pumping me full of information) to 5 months (if she’s not cooperating). 

Do you ever get writer’s Block?
Jovee: Often I do, yes.

Any tips on how to get through the dreaded writer’s block?
Jovee: Go out and take a walk around the block. Watch a movie. Read a book. Do something to take your mind off the project. I usually find that when I’m not actively thinking about the story or obsessing suddenly I’ll get struck by inspiration.

 Your current book The Sea Queen is part of a series, tell us a little about it?
Jovee: It’s a series of books based on the dark Queens of fairy tales. The Evil Queen, Ursula (who Calypso is based off of), Maleficent, Baba Yaga, The Red Queen, the Ice Queen. Because of copy right I can’t write about Ursula, or Maleficent exactly, so what I do is I twist them and turn them into something you’ve never heard of before.


Do you read much and if so who are your favorite authors.
Jovee: Karen Marie Moning and Kresley Cole are my authors who I’ll read just about whatever they put out.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Jovee: Write a lot. Just don’t think about it. Write to learn your craft, write because you love it, write, write, write. But don’t publish any of it until about your 5th or 6th book, your pride will cringe if you read your first few books years later and realize just how awful they really are. The first few books are really just a way to learn your craft and figure out what your writing voice is.

What is the Sea Queen about?
Jovee: The Sea Queen is the story of Calypso and her romance with the god of the Underworld Hades. All the stories you thought you knew of Persephone and Hades are dead wrong. Calypso is a wild, tempestuous creature who’s both ancient and yet in many ways very young and naive. She’s lived most of her life as her elemental water form, only recently deciding to take on human form. The book focuses mainly on her adventures as she tries to figure out, not only how to be human, but how to love someone else. The book is light-hearted, sexy, and was a lot of fun to write.


Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.

If you are interested in The Sea Queen check it out on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25739661-the-sea-queen

 Barns and Nobel: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sea-queen-jovee-winters/1122136638?ean=2940151249218

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZRRNTW2/ref=gi_dp_gtfa



 

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Book OF The Month: The Sea Queen







 Synopsis:

Calypso, Queen of the Seas, is mad. Spitting mad. Ghosts of the dead are fouling her waters. She wants this problem fixed, and she wants it fixed now. Rushing off in search of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, to demand answers, she’s soon shocked to discover him bound and standing trial before a jury of his peers—for nothing less than murder.

Calypso normally despises the beastly gods, all of them, but there’s something about seeing Hades bound as he is that gives her an evilly clever idea. Tired of being a virgin queen, she wishes to shed that boring image once and for all, and no one seems quite as fit for the task as the gorgeous and brooding Hades. Of course, there is the minor problem of murder to deal with, but Calypso is bound and determined to have her way.

And when a dark queen gets an idea, nothing and no one can stand in her way… 


 REVIEW:

This is not your daughters fairy tale, it is twisted, sexy, and funny. If you have never read a book set in the world of kingdom, you can still read this book without problem. The sea queen is the first in a new series called "The Dark Queens" set in the same world as two other amazing series.  Everything about this book was interesting and made for a great read, but the best were the characters. Hades was a very multi-layered character that you just could not help but love by the end of the book.(yep, he's my new book boyfriend, for now) Calypso was chaotic and hilarious all the way through. If you are looking for a book that you wont want to put down until the end, then this is the book you are looking for. Fast paced, great characters, funny, and sexy. Sometimes the bad guys really are just misunderstood. 

About the author: Jovee Winters loves fairy tales. But she especially loves twisting up the fairy tales you thought you knew. You can visit her on the web at https://www.facebook.com/joveewintersauthor

If you are interested in more of these twisted faerie tales I will leave the links below to a page on goodreads with the others series.

Kingdom Series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/88804-kingdom

Dark Princesses: https://www.goodreads.com/series/123457-dark-princess-kingdom