The Blue Effect
by Rose
Shababy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Blue
Brennan is jaded and bitter despite her pinup girl looks and quick wit. Night
after night, she scours the Seattle club scene looking for someone or something
to fill the emptiness inside.
When
she meets the mysterious Kasey, her world stops… literally. He claims she has
the ability to control time and stuns her even further when he reveals his own
gifts.
Blue
is inexplicably drawn to Kasey and reluctantly enters his world filled with a
new breed of humanity. They’re misfits like her, blessed or cursed with
powerful abilities, struggling to hide their differences from the rest of
society.
Then
the group discovers a nameless, faceless sociopath with nightmarish powers; and
he’s coming for Blue. She’s left reeling when they discover her gifts are the
key to defeating his terrible evil and saving them all.
Now
she must race against the clock to harness her own powers and save her new
friends. Can she be more than a renegade? Can she be a hero too?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
He held out
his free hand and I reached for it without thinking. Taking the hand of this
stranger seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
Our fingers
touched and my skin came alive. I felt a surge of electricity as some sort of
energy shot from his hand into mine, running through my whole body and back to
his like an endless circuit. I couldn’t stifle the gasp that broke through my
lips. I stared at him, my vision narrowing until his face and eyes and smile
were the only things I could see.
The energy
between us exploded outward like a wave into the crowd, through the people and
everything around me stopped. The music ended like a switch had been flipped,
the people froze mid-step and even the air around me seemed to stop moving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's learn a little about Rose Shababy:
What is your writing environment?
It took some time and a kid growing up and moving out,
but I have my own office at home. Plenty of desk space, plenty of wall space to
pin up photos and character bios, etc.
It’s completely my space, it’s in the basement so it’s cool and quiet and I can
work with no distractions. Except for when I make the mistake of getting on the
internet.
What authors have caught your interest lately and why?
I’m not normally a YA reader, but I stumbled
across a series called In Your Dreams by Amy Martin. I’m on the 3rd
book so I don’t know how it ends yet, but it’s very sweet and the kids feel
genuine to me. I hope I love the ending! I also read a series recently that
really blew me away called The Station Series by Trish Marie Dawson. I don’t
usually cry when I read books, but the first one brought tears to my eyes and I
was hooked. The main character is so sad and flawed in the beginning and the
plot is so unique. It was a wonderful read.
What type of book have you always wanted to write?
I’ve always wanted to write a book that really
touches people when they read it. I want to know that I made you feel
something… Unless its disgust or disappointment because you thought my book
sucked. I don’t want to hear that. But I would love to hear that I made you
laugh out loud or that I made you cry. I can’t think of anything better as a
writer. I’ll continue to strive toward those goals and hopefully each book I
write will be better than the last one.
Top 3 things on your bucket list?
Travel, travel, travel… too many places to list but I
want to see the world and have new experiences. Oh, and working the Comicon
circuit as a sci-fi/fantasy writer. That would be wicked cool.
How did you get the idea for this particular novel?
It came to me in a dream! OK, so that’s a little bit true, but not the whole story. I did have a dream, which got me thinking about a book I read as a teenager called Harry and Hortense at Hormone High by Paul Zindel about a boy who believes he’s Icarus, which got me to wondering what if there was a boy who believed he was a superhero and no one else believed it? And what if it turned out that he really did have powers? Of course, The Blue Effect is nothing like that original idea, but that was the genesis of it.
What is your favorite scene in your new release?
I don’t know if I’m objective enough to pick a favorite scene. My main character, Blue, is so near and dear to me that I love every scene she’s in. Which is pretty much all of them. I will say that I love the dynamic between her and Kasey. When I first started writing this book, she was supposed to be with a different character but as it developed, the relationship between her and Kasey changed. She loves him and he loves her and it was so obvious.
What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be available?
I have several projects in the works but the main one is book two in the Renegade Heroes series. I mentioned Kasey in the last question, well, book two is his story. I don’t have a release date in mind at this time, although hopefully it will be out in the first part of 2015. I also have another book called Shadows of Night that I’ve been thinking about releasing soon. We’ll see! You know how writers are… we’re our own worse critics.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Read. Movies. I love campy sci-fi. I can’t wait for Sharknado 2. Comedies too. I love to laugh and both genres elicit the same effect. My children are grown for the most part now, my youngest just graduated high school this last spring, so I’m just now embarking on a new chapter of my life. No more parent groups, no more concerts, no more fundraisers. I’m still finding ways to fill my spare time. I work full time, write whenever I have a chance, so I’m still not sure if I really have spare time that needs filling!
What would you consider a perfect date?
Good food, good laughs, new experiences.
What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know?
I’m super OCD and all this
social media stuff kicks it into overdrive. Trying to get involved with people
I don’t know, networking, talking to folks I don’t know in “real life,” it all
scares the sh** out of me. I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m always afraid I’ll
say the wrong thing, I’m afraid people won’t like me or my perspective. Or they
won’t want to read anything I write. I mean, why would they? Who am I? Why
should they care about anything I have to say? I’m just a girl with a dream.
That said, I’m too OCD to give up on that dream, so I’ll just keep plugging
away despite all the scary social media outlets and interviews and new people. I
don’t really have a choice since I’m pretty sure this is what I was born to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Rose Shababy and her family reside in eastern Washington State.
Rose grew up in the Northwest but swears she’s going to move to warmer climates
someday. She’s claimed this for over 20 years, however, and has yet to move
more than 75 miles away from her mother.
Rose has a deep love of all things Star Trek and yearns to travel
the heavens, as well as an intense desire to be bitten by a radioactive spider.
Unfortunately she sucks at science and math so she hasn’t been able bring her
dreams to life, instead living vicariously through books, comics, television
and film. She hopes to someday make a million dollars so she can afford to buy
her way to the international space station, but she’d settle for being able to
fly around the world and leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Rose also loves to cook and worked for years in a gourmet Italian
grocery and deli where she learned to hone her skills. She prepares culinary
masterpieces for her family, but fervently wishes the dishes would wash
themselves. Especially now that her dishwashers/children are nearly grown and
only one still lives at home.
Rose likes to use her free time wisely. For instance, she likes to
daydream, will often read for hours until she falls asleep on the couch with an
electric blanket and a warm tabby cat curled up on her hip, as well as spending
cozy weekend days watching Syfy movies like Sharknado and Mega Piranha with her
husband.
If Rose were a cartoon animal, she’d prefer to be a wise old owl
or a sleek and sexy jaguar, but in reality she’d probably be a myopic mole with
coke-bottle glasses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giveaway:
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview - and I totally agree with you on the date thing...good food is always a great bonus for a date :).. thanks for sharing and for the giveaway
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say? I'm a foodie!
DeleteI like the excerpt
ReplyDeleteNice office
ReplyDeleteThanks for the excerpt, it was good.
ReplyDeletei enjoyed the excerpt
ReplyDeleteFab interview!
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone! I had a lot of fun with this interview. There were some interesting and unique questions.
ReplyDeleteGlad everyone's enjoying the excerpts as well!