Author Interview: J.A. George

Today we're posting the interview of J.A. George, the author of the book Gifted. You can find all her links (and the link to Kailei's Gifted review) below! We hope you enjoy!

1. What should we call you?

J.A. George or Jess if you’d prefer the personal touch.

2. How many books have you written? What are the titles of some of your favorites from other authors?

I've only written one that is published - Gifted. My favourite book is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - I think he's a wonderful story-teller.

3. Where are you from?

I was born in London, England and that's where my family home is, but I'm currently studying in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

4. When did you start writing?

Late 2013

5. What/who is your biggest motivator?

The possibility of new opportunities and having a job that means I'll never have to work a day in my life.

6. What inspires you?

.People who embrace extra-ordinary talents, who persevere and who are different.

7. Do you have any pets (children included)? If so, what are their names?

No, but I plan to adopt a dog one day! I’d like to call him/her Fudge, but adopted dogs usually already come with a name.

8. What’s your favorite genre to read? Write?

I no longer have one! I used to stick to Young Adult, but I'm branching out more and discovering some fantastic books in the process!

9. What’s your favorite movie?

I love Marvel and DC movies, but I couldn’t pick a favourite. Perhaps Avengers Assemble? I really like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as well.

10. What’s the secret to juggling real life and writing?

Haha! There is no secret! Sometimes I can balance the two really well, and other times one overtakes the other. I just go with it and hope it all works out for the best, and it usually does!

11. What do you tend to snack on when you’re writing?

Snack? I gorge on chocolate!

12. What three words would those closest to you use to describe you?

Weird, kind and funny - although, they tend to laugh at me than with me...

13. When you walk into a bookstore, where is the first place that you go?

Whichever section catches my eye.

14. What is the most difficult part of being an author?

Trying to convince someone to read my novel. I'm not traditionally published, so I don't have a literary agent or a publishing house to market my book for me, and I don't like pushing people into anything. Luckily, I know a few kind book bloggers.

15. Besides being an author, what would your dream job be?

I honestly can't think of anything else I'd rather be.

16. What’s the funniest/oddest thing you’ve been asked in an interview?

Have you ever written naked? My answer was no, it's too cold in Sheffield and London to try!

17. When you have time to sit down and enjoy someone else's work, what/who do you find yourself reading?

Usually something recommended.

18. If you could be anyone, who would you be? Why?

I quite like being me. Inside my head can be quite a fun place to be. But if I could be anyone for a day, I'd pick Beyonce. I just want to know what she gets up to!

19. If you could look back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Write for yourself because you cannot write a book that will make everyone happy. That nugget of advice would have saved me an entire year, but you live and you learn.

20. What’s your biggest pet peeve?

That some people don't consider self-published authors as real/good authors because if we were really good, then why aren't we traditionally published? That's really frustrating

21. What do you do during your free time (when you’re not writing)?

I like to go to the cinema or out to eat with friends. I spend all of my writing time at home alone, so it's nice to go out and socialise.

22. Assuming you enjoy Starbucks, what do you usually order? (if you don’t enjoy Starbucks, how do you take your coffee/tea?)

I love the smell of coffee but hate the taste. I do like green tea though, especially accompanied by two croissants.

23. What is something your readers would be surprised to know about you?/What’s something you want your readers to know about you?

I hated my Creative Writing course at university. My teacher wasn't very good!

1. Are any of your characters based off of people in your life?Nope! I borrow a few traits from friends and pile them into one, but not one character isbased off of someone in my life.

2. What made you pick your setting? Did/do you live there? Did you visit and fall in love?

Both Huxton (in England) and Hayven are fictional settings, but I would love to visit if they

were real!

3. Where did the idea for the individual colors come from?

I cannot remember how or when I came up with that! However, it’s perhaps my favourite element in the story. I love the idea of individuality so I like to make that come through in the novel as much as I can.

4. Were you always planning on Theo/his girlfriend (I’m terrible at names, sorry!) situation...was it always in the plot?

I was. Summer was there from the very beginning, and I like what she brought to the table. People get frustrated or annoyed with her being in the story, but if it weren’t for her, Ava and Baleigh wouldn’t have gotten so close, and Ava wouldn’t have been able to understand or put into words how she feels about Theo, thus she wouldn’t have realised what’s been secretly bothering her for so long. Because of Summer, Ava got Theo as a friend for life rather than a

boyfriend and that’s always better. Ava actually owes a lot to Summer! Now isn’t that an

interesting thought?!

5. Were you expecting Avery’s ‘old’ friends to turn on her, or were you as surprised as I was?

Oddly enough it was a surprise to me too! But when I was writing it, it just made sense to me.

Some readers think it was a bit sudden, but from the outside, how Ava treated Alfie can be seen as a little crappy of her for people who don’t know about Theo or her internal struggle concerning him. And, they haven’t broken up forever. There is always the possibility of reconciliation.

6. Do you watch YouTube or Netflix? If so, who/what is you favorite to watch?

I’m really into Game of Thrones, but I don’t think that is on Netflix. I have never anxiously awaited a series to start up again. When a good show ends for the season I think about it for the next day or two and then forget until I randomly discover that the next season is out. But I think I’ll be tracking the timeline for the next season of Game of Thrones.

7. What is one book waiting on your bookshelves for you? Why haven’t you picked it up yet?

Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. I haven’t picked it up yet because I just know I’m expecting some kind of Harry Potter type magic even though I know this book has nothing to

do with that. So I’m just a little hesitant to find out what lurks beneath the pages.

8. What’s a book you would recommend we read (Indie or other)?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I can’t explain why but this book really did something for me. I read it at the lowest point of my author life, where doubt was all my mind had to offer, and this book really lifted me out of it. And I’ve never felt as low as I did before that book since.

9. What’s the last book you read? How long did it take you? What did you think?

The last book I read was Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic to the Rescue. I really like the Shopaholic series and it’s a wonderful book to read when you want something light and funny and you just need to give your brain a rest. I think I read it in either two or three days and I enjoyed it! It was just what I needed.

10. Would you consider a three-star review good?

It depends what they say. I’ve had a three star review where the person pointed out a lot of things they liked about it and it was one of the nicest reviews I’ve read! But the missing two stars all came down to preference. My book isn’t going to be for everyone who reads it. It’s all about taste and what people enjoy reading.

11. Who was the first person to read Gifted?

Can I say myself?? I gave my book out to multiple beta-readers at the same time so I’m not sure who read it first!

12. What’s one fear you have (or hope to) overcome?

The fear of failing. That’s a scary one. The fear of falling brings along so much doubt and for a self-published author, doubt is the last thing you need! But I’m learning to feel the fear and do it anyway.

13. Can you give us a little sneak-peak into what you have planned for the next book?

Ooooh! I wouldn’t know where to start! Things get very serious. In book one, it was all about Ava coming to terms with her gift, her new friends, Hayven and the threat of Madrina. Now…well, things get very interesting and I CANNOT wait to get it out there.

A Little About The Author:

J.A. George is the author of the four part series, GIFTED - THE HAYVEN SERIES. She spent years of her life reading book after book before sitting on her bed one morning, opening her laptop and typing Chapter One into a Word document. Now, not only does she read book after book, she writes book after book too. Usually with a large bar of chocolate by her side. Want to know more about the upcoming sequel? Follow her blog and twitter for updates.

Feel free to contact her in the following ways:

Email: jess.george@hotmail.co.uk

Twitter: @JGeorgie_

Blog: www.thejourneyofgifted.co.uk

She loves hearing from readers!

Character Interview: Dan from 'The Flood'

Below you will find our very first Character Interview! We are posting several things today for the HUGE Lad Lit Blog tour, which we are very excited to be a part of. The author is allowing us to giveaway a signed copy of The Flood (which he will be mailing out once we've chosen a winner)! You can enter our Rafflecopter and find all of the book-related links after Dan's interview!

Character being interviewed: Dan

1. Describe your best physical feature.

Hmmmm, let me see. Well, it’s definitely not my mouth as that seems to get me into nothing but trouble! I once had a girl tell me I had a cute nose. I’ll go with that.

2. What three words would those closest to you use to describe your character?

Unlucky in love.

3. If your life were to be turned into a film what would it be called?

Who would play you?

Funnily enough, this is something that has already been blogged about previously. It was decided that Alex Carter (aka Lee Hunter from Hollyoaks) would play me. I’m not too sure how much I agree with that. I think someone like Bradley Cooper would be way much better!

4. Did you REALLY think that “the Flood” would have a happy ending?

I don’t know what I was thinking when I made that bet! I just wanted my mates to lay-off me, but like most guys, I got a bit caught up in the heat of the moment and before you knew it, I’d made a bet to date multiple women all at once. I’m not sure how I get myself into these situations.

5. Do men really constantly seek the approval of their friends? Won’t your friends still be your friends no matter what?

Of course, but when you’re a guy you’re always trying to get to the top of the food chain. It’s our primal instinct to want to prove ourselves to our friends, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. Gaining their approval is a bit like a badge of honour, and the higher that approval, the higher the status within that group. Hit rock bottom and you’ll be the butt of the jokes.

6. Looking back, was it REALLY worth it? Would you change things? If so, how?

Maybe not, but it made for some great stories, and by the end of The Flood, we ended up with a new adventure on our hands. None of that would have been possible without the bet, even if I did have to suffer somewhat along the way! The one thing I’d probably change though is my choice in women. In hindsight, choosing to date my stalker, my crazy ex-girlfriend, the office ice queen and the one that got away didn’t exactly make things very easy for me.

7. How has your view on women chanced throughout The Flood?

Well, I certainly won’t be attempting to juggle multiple girls any time soon, that’s for sure! I wouldn’t say my opinion has changed, because I never had a negative opinion about women in the first place. If anything, this whole experience has consolidated one opinion and that is that I’ll never understand women, no matter how hard I try.

8. Are you still in contact with Ronnie and Denise?

No, after Ronnie threatened to kill me, I thought it might be best to keep clear of him. And keeping in contact with your stalker (Denise) is generally not recommended.

9. How’s Grace?

She’s great. I don’t want to give too much away to anyone who is yet to read the book, but put it this way - she’s still very happy with the choice she made!

10. How’s Tuna these days?

That crazy fool is still babbling on about different breeds of dogs and wearing that cruddy black fleece dressing gown of his. Not much changes with Tuna really.

11. Do you still have Bruce? What was your first thought when you saw him on your bed?

Yep, I still have Bruce. When I first saw him it was a huge shock, but I have to admit - the little fella has grown on me.

12. One would think that you learned your lesson after the flood...WTF were you thinking when you came up with ‘The Pact’?

Hey, The Pact is a good thing, just wait and see. I have a good feeling about that. For all the mickey taking and teasing a group of lads can put each other through, I think that pact proved that our friendship is as strong as ever. I’m not saying it was a good idea, but things that me and my friends get up too rarely are a good idea, so no change there then.

13. Want to give us a hint, as to what we can expect next from Dan’s crazy antics?

Well, next up we’re travelling to Latvia in search of a girl that my best friend, Rob, dated. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to share more details before the end of the year, but what I can reveal is that we get mixed up with a Russian mafia don, two Wham loving corrupt cops, a pimp who is stuck in the 70s, a sleazy hotel boss and his strange wife, and a notorious henchman called Ray The Local.

14. (Totally unrelated question:) How did you react when you learned of Prince’s death?

Like everyone else, I was very sad to see another musical legend have to leave us, but I just hope he is up there forming the best super double act in the world with  David Bowie.

One bet, four girls, eight weeks, multiple dates. What could possibly go wrong? 

Following his traumatic eight month dry spell, Dan Hilles is back in the driving seat and ready to put his dating disasters behind him.

But if only it were that simple.

After a drunken afternoon in the pub, fueled by the confidence of alcohol, Dan makes a bet with his three best pals that will complicate his love-life more than ever when he brazenly declares that he could juggle multiple women all at the same time.

With just eight weeks to prove his point, Dan is about to find out how hard it is to date a flood of women without them all finding out about each other, especially when they come in the shape of an ex-girlfriend, a stalker, the office ice queen and the one that got away.

The Flood is the hilarious follow-up to The Drought by lad lit author Steven Scaffardi, chronicling the adventures of unlucky-in-love Dan Hilles. 

A little about the author:

Steven Scaffardi is the author of the Sex, Love and Dating Disaster series. His first novel, The Drought, is the laugh-out- loud tale of one man's quest to overcome the throes of a sexual drought. After the stormy break-up with his girlfriend of three years, Dan Hilles is faced with the daunting task of
throwing himself back into the life of a single man. With the help of his three best pals, Dan is desperate and determined to get his leg-over with hilarious consequences! The Drought and his new novel The Flood – a comedy about one man trying to juggle four women at the same time – are both available for just 99c on the Kindle at Amazon. Follow all of the fun on his blog tour by following him on Twitter @SteveScaffardi or by using the hashtag #LadLitBlogTour. More information about Steven and his books can be found on his blog.

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Author Interview: Ed Ryder

We were very excited to interview Ed Ryder, the author of In Vitro Lottery. Shell read his book in March, so she put together some questions (along with our standard questions) for him. The links to everything will be at the end of this post! ~ Kailei

I’m a 40-something bloke from the UK and I live in a small village with my wife and two cats. I’m a scientist by trade and I currently work for a genetics research institute, investigating how genes work and interact with each other. Most of my spare time when I’m not at work is spent out with my horse, which is a great way to relax.

I write stories in my head when I’m bored or travelling to work, and one day I decided to see if I could write a novel out of one of them. It’s been a very steep learning curve, but lots of fun!

I’m not the most photogenic person in the world, so here’s a picture of me riding my horse Molly instead!

1. What should we call you?

Ed

2. How many books have you written?

Just one so far; In Vitro Lottery

3. Where are you from?

I was born and currently live in the UK

4. When did you start writing?

About two years ago - I started late!

5. What/who is your biggest motivator?

Wanting to tell a story, and to get characters and scenes 

out of my head. Writing things down seems to do the 

trick in that regard.

6. What inspires you?

Looking at what's possible now and pushing it beyond its limits, both practically and ethically, to see what could happen in the future

7. Do you have any pets (children included)? If so, what are their names?

My wife and I have two cats and two horses between us.

8. What’s your favorite genre to read? Write?

I like to read dark fantasy and science fiction, and write science fiction

9. What’s your favorite line from a movie?

“I’ll be back” (or pretty much anything Arnie said in 80s action movies)

10. What’s the secret to juggling real life and writing?

You have to give up doing anything superfluous. When I'm writing, I stop watching any TV shows that I have to pay attention to, and stop playing computer games (although I fall off the wagon occasionally!). The animals, however, always demand attention! If writing starts to feel like a chore or I'm not inspired, I'll take a break for a while.

11. What do you tend to snack on when you’re writing?

Chocolate cake and crisps. Anything unhealthy!

12. What three words would those closest to you use to describe you?

Self-contained, OCD-prone and probably stubborn!

13. When you walk into a bookstore, where is the first place that you go?

Either the sci-fi section, or the reference section.

14. What is the most difficult part of being an author?

Finding the  time to write when it’s not your main job.

15. Besides being an author, what would your dream job be?

I love being a scientist, but my dream job would to be to write and direct movies.

16. What’s the funniest/oddest thing you’ve been asked in an interview?

This is my first interview!

17. When you have time to sit down and enjoy someone else's work, what do you find yourself reading?

I’m a huge Clive Barker fan; his stories and the worlds he conjures up are fantastic, I’ve also recently been reviewing books by other self-published authors on the BooksGoSocial Facebook group.

18. If you could be anyone, who would you be? Why?

Jenson Button (F1 Driver). That, or Homer Simpson.

19. If you could look back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Take more chances in life. (or “hire a proper copy editor before releasing your book, instead of trying to do it yourself”)

20. What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Passive aggressive people

21. What do you do during your free time (when you’re not writing)?

I try to fit in horse riding, photography, watching genre TV

and playing computer games.  My favourite TV show of all 

time is Babylon 5, and like most people these days I’m a big 

Game of Thrones fan too.

I love playing games with a strong narrative and great characters 

(The Last of Us is one of the best recent examples of this).

I’m currently about 80+ hrs into The Witcher 3, which has an

epic story and a whole world to explore.

22. Assuming you enjoy starbucks, what do you usually order? (if you don’t enjoy starbucks, how do you take your coffee/tea?)

English Breakfast Tea

23. What is something your readers would be surprised to know about you?/What’s something you want your readers to know about you?

I enjoy riding in dressage competitions

In Vitro Lottery's Blurb:  "We are the last natural generation Kate. What happens next will be in the hands of others."

Decades after the Norwegian Death killed over half the world's population, the children of the survivors can only reproduce via complex fertility treatment. Some can afford it, but for everyone else in a vigilant and isolated Great Britain, there is the In Vitro Lottery.   Kate is happy with her own small existence working in a coastal power station, but when her numbers come up and tragedy strikes she is sent on a collision course with the clinic head Victor Pearson, the political pressure group IVFree and the Government to answer two simple questions: who really controls the future and how far will they go to protect it?                                                                             A dark and dystopian tale, In Vitro Lottery explores the consequences of when desire and grief turn to obsession, and asks at which point do scientific ethics end and pragmatic necessity begin?

1. Where did the idea for In Vitro Lottery come from?

    To be honest I have no idea! I work in a genetics research lab for my day job, so I think much of the science aspect of the story formed as a result of that.

2. Where were you when it (the idea for In Vitro Lottery) come to you?

    I had scattered random scenes in my head for quite a while, but I think the bigger picture came when I was driving to work one day. I tend to do most of my writing in my head while commuting, so when I have a chance to sit down with Scrivener I already have a good idea of what to write.

3. Did you have any prior knowledge of traditional In Vitro Fertilization?

    I knew a bit about it from general education and work, but I had to do a lot of research on the internet and a few science papers to get the details nailed down.

4. About how long did you spend writing In Vitro Lottery?

    From planning to final draft (which turns out wasn’t actually that final, as I’m editing it again now along with someone else!) was about 20 months in the evenings and bits of weekends. That included, however, learning how to structure plots and character arcs in fiction to start with. Luckily I watch a lot of TV shows and films which were a good primer.

I’m used to writing scientific papers but stories are a completely different kettle of fish! Hopefully future novels won’t take quite that long.

5. What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing In Vitro Lottery?

    How characters take a life of their own in your head and do unexpected things. Rowena was a classic example of that. She was only in it originally because I wanted to try and avoid an info-dump on some of the science. But then she wouldn’t go away, and eventually became a nexus for many of the major scenes in the book.

6. Did anything that you really wanted to keep in the book get cut out during editing?

    I originally had a prologue about Bjart Lorentzen, who was originally responsible for spreading the plague. I then read a book on plot structuring by K M Weiland which has a very good section on why prologues are often a bad idea. I agreed as mine wasn’t really directly connected to the story I was telling, and so it got cut out. It now lives on my blog if anyone’s interested! (You can find the deleted scene here)

7. What’s next? Can we have just a LITTLE sneak peak?

     I’m currently planning two new books; a young adult story about predestination called ‘The Ledger’, and a sequel to In Vitro Lottery, which is provisionally entitled ‘Morula’. Not sure which one I’ll do first though!

    Here’s a potential quote from Morula as a taster...

“I told you, sacrifices had to be made.”

“And what exactly did you sacrifice, Kate? Apart from other people, I mean.”

“Everything I had, and everything I was.”

8. Did you base any of your characters on anyone you know?

    There’s a fair amount of me in Kate (although her political views are much more right wing than mine), especially in how our brains try and work things out or get stuck on details.. Also, the woman Charlie, who gives Kate a lift to the farm, is directly based on someone I know and like.

    Victor Pearson was loosely inspired by the scientist Craig Venter, who famously tried to patent various genes during the sequencing of the human genome.

    Luckily, I don’t know anyone similar to Rowena or Caden!

9. In your opinion, how likely is the basis of In Vitro Lottery becoming our future?

    The story of In Vitro Lottery is really a paradigm for what happens when the few have control of a limited resource over the many. Today, it’s oil and energy, but in the future that may change. Many environmental factors and chemicals can affect fertility, and nature does like to spring unpleasant surprises on us when we least expect it (we were so busy trying to fight malaria, for example, that Zika has blindsided us completely).

    I think you’d need a certain set of circumstances to see the future described in my book become reality, but in Western Europe there is an ageing population and birth rates are already very low compared to the past, so who knows!

10. Did the “Death” need to be so brutal? 30 million deaths…

    

And that was just in the UK! The plague wiped out about half the the population of the world overall.

    The Death mainly came into the story as I wanted to describe a world where the economy and balance of power between nations was very different. I also wanted to explore a future where technology is much harder to come by and the standard of living is much lower (nearer post-WW2 levels). There are also various plot-related reasons for the breadth of the outbreak I can’t say without getting into spoiler territory...

   Global disease outbreaks are thankfully rare but can be devastating. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, for example, reportedly killed over 50 million people, far more than who’d died in World War 1 just before it.

    On a similar note, there is one point in the story where Kate recalls her father talking about the disposal of bodies in large pyres in the countryside. For me, and many people around the UK, those types of images are very real and recent. During the 2001 foot and mouth crisis, over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed and burned in a similar way to stop the disease spreading. Luckily I didn’t see it first-hand; the images on TV were awful enough.

11. The most memorable excerpt from the book (for me) was “The world was dying you see. It probably seems incredible to your generation living in these half-empty cities, but when I was your age girl the human race was crumbling under its own weight.”  Did that excerpt come easy to you?

Interesting choice!

    When I was growing up in the 1980s, our Grandparents’ generation were full of stories of their experiences during WW2. As children, we knew something huge had occurred and changed the world forever, but we could never truly grasp the enormity of it. For us, we couldn’t imagine the world being different from what it currently was, even though we were often told how lucky we were.

The passage above came out of those memories and feelings.

12. How do you feel about “designer babies”?

    There are two types of designer babies I think; those where their genetic makeup had been altered to fix a life-threatening disease, and those who have traits altered for lifestyle reasons. I don’t think anyone (including me) really agrees that the second is a good idea, but the first is more tricky from an ethical standpoint. I’ve not made my mind up about that yet to be honest.

    The topic of designer babies has come up again recently in the press and ethical debates, mainly because of the new CRISPR gene editing system that has revolutionized genetics research. Where altering a gene’s function in cells or model organisms took a year or more and lots of very complex work, we can now do the same thing in a matter of weeks at a fraction of the cost and effort.

One of the main problems though is that the technology has to be 100% safe for use in humans, and we are not there yet, by a long stretch. There’s no point in fixing a faulty gene if the patient then develops cancer due to off-target effects.

   For preventing disease, however, there are current  
methods which are much more efficient, such as embryo 
screening and proper genetic counselling.


As promised;

Shell's review

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