A HAWT Interview with Brodi Ashton & Giveaway

So guys I have a very special treat for you Tots today!!! I know I'm a bit late with this, but I spent the weekend dying and coughing up my lungs! Damn colds! But last week I went to another NYMBC event (I can't tell you all how amazing these really are!! They get better and better every time). This one was A Very Steamy Evening with Bree Despain, Cynthia Hand and Brodi Ashton!!! I was given the amazing pleasure of interviewing Brodi for NYMBC and all my lovely Tots and to say I was excited was an understatement!!! I was nervous because I had only done one other interview and that was through email. Hehe so I was going to have to control my fangirl (which didn’t work) and what not! But Brodi was AMAZING! And a super big sweetheart! I even got a big ol hug! (DAY MADE!) So without further a due, here is my epicness with Brodi!

TT: Is me
BA: Is Brodi

TT: Hi Brodi, How are you today?

BA: Doing good! I'm glad I get to meet you!

TT: (FANGIRL MOMENT) Hhehehe THANKS! I'm excited for tonight! Been waiting all month! So let's get started!

Thehehehe, So um, yea, I photo bombed Nancy's photo!!
heheeh this is still making me giggle!

TT: What inspired you to write? 

BA: I was never a writer when I was younger. I wasn’t a person that wanted to do that. But I majored in journalism. And then my grandmother passed away and I started to write stories about my memories with my grandma and then that lead to short stores about women having kids (which is what I was going though at the time) and eventually I wrote my first book in 2008. 

TT: How do you get into the mind to be someone else, like your characters? Do they talk to you like an interview to get to know them or do you just become another person? 

BA: Haha neither! I get really involved in the scene that I'm working on. And what’s funny is I’ll have a conversation within that scene with my character but it’s totally one sided. I’ll pick one character to be and then have the conversation. I talk out loud but it will only be part of it. 

TT: Can you tell us what to expect with the rest of the series? 

BA: Well I just got approved to go a Novella. So that is going to come out before book two. And it’s going to be from Cole’s POV right after book one ended.

YES!!! I so did this!

TT: Oh excuse me, I'm having a moment 

BA: Haha and from how book one ended, we know where Nikki has to go so she will go there. 

And Cole dies. 

BA: Haha JK. 

TT: Oooo Brodi the jokester! 

TT: And here are a couple teasers from her EVER-novella that she posted on FB and her blog!!!

Before EVERBOUND comes out (in January), HarperCollins will release an e-book set in the EVERNEATH world. Written by me. (Not sure I needed to specify my authorship, but just in case...)

Here are three things about the e-book:

1. It will be novella length. (About a third to a half of the length of a full novel).

2. It will be told from Cole's point of view.

3. It doesn't have a title yet.

4. It will start immediately when EVERNEATH ends. Kind of like a bridge book. 

5. You do NOT have to read it to understand EVERBOUND. 

I'll share some of my favorite quotes from EVER-Novella so far:

Quote #1 "It's not worth it. You think you're bartering with your fingers, but you'll end up losing an arm."

Quote #2 Meredith: "He gave up his philandering ways to be with her."Cole: "He's in high school. Teenagers don't have 'philandering ways'."

Quote #3 "There's no such thing as 'epic love'. But there is such a thing as 'epically bad decisions based on something believed to be love, but is most likely lust'."

Thanks Nancy, for catching my fangirl moments.
I didn't even know she was taking photos!

TT: If you had to describe Cole and Nikki in one word, what would it be? 

BA: Ahh oh crap, can I come back!?!?! 

TT: If you could describe Jake and Nikki in one word, what would it be? 

BA: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww 

(Seriously people, she got all sappy love song on me!) 

TT: What is your favorite place to write? 

BA: My study 

TT: No not where you write, you favorite place? 

BA: Well it was Borders (sad moment) but I go to Bree Despain's house a lot and it’s great. I also need music or TV on while I'm writing. 

TT:What kind of music? 

BA: Alternative mostly 

TT: Have you ever tried to listen to movie scores while writing? When I was studying for nursing, I need something besides total silence. But because I was reading, I couldn't have music with people singing because I have ADD so bad. So picked up listening to movie scores! I love them so much!

BA: You know, I haven't but I might try it.

TT: It's great because you also get to see the movie again! Some of my fav are the Harry Potter ones!

TT: Tell me a secret… 

BA: I play the organ 

And almost daily, at least weekly I have a dream about the Tennis star Rafa Nadal and we are totally BFF and everything. It’s totally out of left field! 

TT: Hahaha I had a dream about zombies last night (I'm so not kidding here people!!! Total zombie apocalypse thing going on. I went on to tell her about my dream, which was CRAZY detailed)

Brodi Ashton and I

BA: You know I have crazy detailed dreams also! My husband is like I had a dream (pardon my Tangled moment here) and that’s it. For me its all super detailed and I pick up on super tiny things. 

TT: What do you hope your readers take away after reading your books? 

BA: I never think about that. Honestly. I don’t put some message in my books or hope that my readers get a specific message. That’s what’s so great about reading and literature is that everyone that reads the same book can have a different experience. I usually like to ask my readers this question. 

BONUS QUESTION 

So I took this question out of the Q&A during the event because it was pretty cool! 

TT: What is your inspiration for Cole and his band? 

BA: Haha I have no idea! While I was writing, I was kind of obsessed with an Elvis Costello song and it kind of just went from there. Elvis Costello turned into a zombie and then it turned into Elvis Presley as a zombie. And I had a buddy of mine do the drawing (UM WHICH IS AMAZING) for it and there you have it, the Dead Elvises.

The Amazing Bay Area Bloggers!
Top Row: Tara (ME), Nancy, Mindy, Patricia, Jaime, Debbie, Jean
Bottom Row: Bree Depain, Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton 

ALSO! My other home girls, Jaime and Patrica from Two Chicks On Books got to interview Cynthaia and Mindy from Magical Urban Fantasy Reads got to interview Bree!!! So please check them both out because its great! And also, Follow NYMBC on FB and Twitter and tell them that you love that they include bloggers so much with their events and give them such great opportunities with these events! Seriously!!! They are Fantastic!

Check out all my photos from the event, they are quite funny!

So what is totally amazing, aside from getting to interview and hang with Brodi, you Tots get a treat also!!! I did manage to pick up a signed copy of Everneath to share with one of my lovely Tots!!!

So here is the deal:

Open US only (sorry guys, gotta ship it myself. If you are international and want to pay for shipping I'm all for it!)

I’ll leave this open for a while! Ends June 30^th

Must be 13 years or older
Must fill out form below
Winner will get 1 signed copy of Everneath by Brodi Ashton.

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