It's a real pleasure to be able to welcome Echo Shea to the Flight Deck once more. Congratulations on your new release, Echo. What a stunning cover! Help yourself to something sparkling while you ponder on this question, if you would - Tell us, what is your personal definition of success?
Echo: Writing a good story. To know that I wrote the best story I could at the time, edited, revised and gave my best. If I know in my heart I did that, then I feel successful.
HL When did you start writing?
Answer: When I was eight, I learned that writing felt special to me. It wasn't until I was twelve that I knew I wanted to be an author and I haven't looked back since.
HL What comes first: the plot or the characters?
Echo: Answer: For the most part my characters lead the plot. Their actions affect what comes next in the story.
HL: We're kindred spirits! My stories are always character led too, In fact they sometimes narrate the plot to me! LOL Is there any advice, as a new writer, that you were either given, or wish you had been given?
Echo : I've read a lot of books and blogs but only one stands out to me at the moment. My favorite advice didn't even apply to writing. It was a magazine doing an intereview with an actress, and I don't remember the question, but I remember her answer: "I don't want to be a great actress, I want to be a good one."
I don't write with hopes for movie deals or because I'm convinced it'll be on the bestseller list. I do it because I love writing and it makes me feel myself. It gives me something that nothing else could, and to share it with a reader and have them enjoy it--this makes me happy, this is what I aspire to, this is what I love. I don't have to be a great writer, I just want very badly to always be a good one.
It's the best advice, because when you can admit you love writing this much, it sets you free--free to do the work you need to make your craft better, free to be rejected or accepted because at the end of the day you get to go back to doing the only thing that feels worth doing, the thing you most love. Only others and fate can say you're a great writer, but your persistence and hardwork? That makes you a good one.
HL Do you have a support system? Do you have a writing community? What valuable lessons have you learned from them?
Echo: I have a wonderful writers' group that cheers me on when I do well and commiserates when I have set backs, and I get the chance to do so in turn and that makes me feel good. I also have a wonderful family and beta readers/crit partners that make me better than I could ever be alone. My beta readers/crit partners are second to none--I respect their writing and their notes and consider myself lucky to have them in my life.
HL: What is your latest release and what was your favourite part of writing this book/series?ECHO: My two most recent releases are a short story released by Spooktacular Seductions called If This Be Madness" which came out October 31st, and a stand alone short story called Light a Candle for the Beast which was released yesterday, November 26th. An earlier release though is free and is called Manor of Sweet Souls: Gladys Celebrates. My favorite part about this? I fell in love with the character. I had so much fun and loved writing it so much that I didn't want to let it go. And to be honest I haven't. With any luck, you'll be seeing a lot more of Gladys. I hope you enjoy her as much as I do.
Oh, I love her already! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today, and I wish you much success with this, and all your books!
Light a Candle for the Beast
by Echo Shea
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Keywords: Romance, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Fairy Tale, Beauty and the Beast
Release Date: November 26, 2014
If you’ve ever been caught in a riptide, pulled down into the water, then you know me. Or, more accurately, what I’m like when I’m angry.
Delia was beautiful, smart, and kind. He wasn’t. He said he loved her, but he didn’t know what love was. He was manipulative and cruel—more than a thief. A beast.
All she wanted was a rose…
These are the words on my sister’s grave. Her sadness, her obsession, forever a reminder I didn’t--couldn’t save her.
I’m not vindictive or cruel. I’m simply as the river--my memory is winding and my reach is long. I watched him steal her beauty, her essence. Watched him become a beast. He thought he'd get away with it, thought he'd go free.
I lay a rose upon my sister's grave.
Light a candle for the beast.
PURCHASE LINKS
Roane Publishing
Amazon
Amazon (UK)
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
Kobo Books
Bookstrand
About Echo Shea
Who says there’s not something more hiding in these Maryland woods?
Website: http://echoshea.weebly.com/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/echo.shea
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EchoShea
Facbook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Echo-Shea/381105905253574?ref=hl
Pinterest:http://www.pinterest.com/echoshea/
Smashwords Page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/echoshea1
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/26276450-echo-shea
Book Blitz & tour-wide giveaway: ecopy of Light a Candle for the Beast and a $10 Amazon gift card!
