Blog Tour: The Weight of Souls by Bryony Pearce

Hello lovelies, 

Today I have a special treat for you. Take an inside look at the way of Ms Bryony Pearce's The Weight of Souls!

Road map to The Weight of Souls by Bryony Pearce

In a group of people I am the go-to person for a pen or piece of paper, because everyone knows I’m a writer, but as my friends are starting to learn, I’ll be the last person to have something.  

 

I often feel like a bit of a failure; as if I am letting the artistic image down.  I feel as if I should always have a pencil poked into my curly hair, a notebook stuffed in my knickers, a bic in my bra.  But I am perhaps a slightly unusual writer in that when I am in the process of percolating a story I take no notes.  I just my brain get on with it, putting the pieces together, until finally I get a bit of a Eureka moment and I know I have something cohesive.

 

When I get that moment, that’s when you’ll find me frantically scrambling for a notebook.

 

The way my story-telling brain works is that I will develop a character first.  They often appear in my head pretty much fully formed.  I know what they look like and what their ‘problem’ is:  I knew that Cassie from Angel’s Fury had been reincarnated, I knew that Taylor from The Weight of Souls saw ghosts, I knew that Kane (from my new work in progress) was able to jump between worlds.  Then these characters live in my brain, occasionally yelling at me, until I can work out the story that needs to be told about them.  That is what I am always seeking inspiration for – the puzzle pieces that form my character’s complete story.

 

When I have the outline of a story ready to go in my head I write down a one page synopsis, then I sit down and complete a chapter by chapter outline.  That’s when you’ll find me doing research and taking notes.  

 

For the Weight of Souls I did several strands of research:

 

1.

Background – A refresher course on Egyptian Mythology

2.

Setting – I had to revisit London to make sure that my memory of the city matched with its current incarnation.  

3.

Genetics – how Taylor’s family genes could have been altered and the mechanics of passing the curse on from parent to child.

4.

Crowd Behaviour Theory and the theory of Deindividuation – how the V-club could have such control over its members.

5.

Chinese gods, ancient religion and naming conventions (much of that did not end up in the final book as I had to remove the prologue which was all about Taylor’s Chinese ancestor, but some of it remains – Oh-Fa mentions the I-Ching and calls Anubis the ‘greatest of the lords of death’ and the name of Taylor’s mother, Emma-Oh, reflects the name of the wrathful Chinese god Yama who, in Japan, became known as Emma (for a more on my naming conventions please go to Sons of Corax -http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/ - on the 5thAugust where I have a whole blog post on how I chose the names of my characters in The Weight of Souls).  

 

I then had to spend time making up some of my own ‘world rules’

 

1.  The ‘rules’ of the ghost’s interactions with the world (for more on that visit Death Books and Tea -http://deathbooksandtea.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-us.html - on 27th July)

2.

The ‘rules’ of Taylor’s own curse?

3.

The ‘rules’ and history of the V-club (for more on that, visit Reading Under the Stars -  http://readingunderthestars.blogspot.co.uk/ -, also on 27th July)

4.

A bit of extra mythology – how did Anubis end up in the tomb, how can he escape etc.

 

Once I have the whole book plotted out, that’s when I sit down and start writing.  I need to plot properly because I have very little time in the day to write (I have two children) and when I do get some spare time I need to know exactly what has to happen in that chapter and where it needs to go so that I can just get on with it), I also like to do lots of foreshadowing and literary allusion so it is important to me to know what is going to happen later in the book.

 

I don’t know how I compare to other writers in that regard.  Occasionally I am shocked when I speak to my literary friends and discover quite how different we all are.  Steve Feasey (author of the Changeling series) for example, does not plot at all and cannot comprehend the way that I write: it is as mystifying to him as not plotting is to me.  Jon Mayhew (author of The Bonehill Curse and Demon Collector) does plot, but he prefers to write his favourite scenes first, then go back and fill in the parts he is less excited about.  He recently told me that he literally has gaps in his works in progress that say ‘They travel.  Stuff happens.’  I could never do that.  I have to write in a linear way.  

 

So I hope you enjoy The Weight of Souls and this piece of insight into how I write.  

 

If you would like to know more about me or my work, please visit my website www.bryonypearce.co.uk, join the conversation onTwitter @BryonyPearce or like myfacebook page BryonyPearceAuthor.

 

Thank you

Blog Tour: This is W.A.R. by Lisa and Laura Roecker & Giveaway

 

Hello lovelies, 

Today I have a special treat for you. Here's a little inside look at Lisa and Laura and their own, most famous W.A.R...

It is no secret that as sisters, we waged many wars growing up. We used to place large, plastic spiders on our younger sister Stacey's cheek while she slept. We'd snap a photo and surprise her after developing the film. "Oh my gosh! Look what was on your cheek!" Niiiice. There were torn shirts in high school hallways, diary pages read aloud to the neighborhood, bras and underwear thrown out second story windows. It was all sorts of fun. 

But the most famous sister-wars were the ones where we banded together. In the aftermath, of course. Most memorable was when Lisa and I were fighting over one very large, very heavy cordless phone. Think the length of your forearm, the weight of a small baby, with a long, dangerous antenna that pulled from the top. Well, the phone was thrown at my head and most definitely left a mark. Both on me and the phone. It broke. No dial tone, no charge, no chance of resuscitation. We knew immediately that we were screwed. Cordless phones were expensive! They didn't grow on trees! We were careless and insensitive and ungrateful.  

So instead of playing dumb, lying or being honest, we found the nearest shoe box, said goodby and headed out to the railroad tracks that ran through our neighborhood. And we buried the phone in shallow grave. Our mom would page the phone with a wrinkled forehead, frustrated that no matter how hard we cleaned and searched, we could not unearth the stupid thing. That is, unless you headed out to the railroad tracks with a shovel.  

Lisa and Laura Roecker are sisters-turned-writing-partners with a love of all things Young Adult. Some call it arrested development, but the sisters claim it keeps them young. Plus, its cheaper than Botox. Lisa and Laura live in Cleveland, Ohio in separate residences. Their husbands wouldn't agree to a duplex. THE LIAR SOCIETY is their first novel.

 
This is W.A.R. begins with a victim who can no longer speak for herself, and whose murder blossoms into a call-to-arms. Enter four very different girls, four very different motives to avenge Willa Ames-Rowan, and only one rule to start: Destroy James Gregory and his family at any cost. Willa's initials spell the secret rallying cry that spurs the foursome to pool their considerable resources and deliver their particular brand of vigilante justice. Innocence is lost, battles are won—and the pursuit of the truth ultimately threatens to destroy them all.

To enter the giveaway just click on the banner! 

What do you guys think? Will you be checking out This Is W.A.R.? 

Happy reading, 

Valia 

It's Camp NaNoWriMo & other frivolous undertakings of summer.

Hello lovelies, 

So today is brought to you by hectic list making, non stop outfit rearranging, and trying to stuff a bunch of clothes into one suitcase. Does anyone else out there dislike packing? 
Ok good. It's not just me. 
But the pains of packing do bring with them one awesome truth: it's VACATION TIME!!!!! 

If you follow me on twitter, you know how much I need a vacation. I think my tweets have become complain-y (sorry about that). Anyway, in the midst of all the chaos (because seriously, chaos is the most accurate word describing my room right now) I realized it's July 2nd. Where in the world did June go? 
The main reason why I slightly panicked at the fact that its day two of July is because I'm supposed to be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. My goal is 50,000 words before the end of the month. Which means I'm supposed to be writing almost 1700 words a day. Oops and double oops. Did I mention the fact that I forgot it was July? 
Seriously though, I'm determined to get this done. The book I'm writing right now is fun and different and I love it to pieces. But with a week long vacation, and all the hectic-ness that comes with summer, how am I going to find time to write? (I'm asked this question way too often). So let me tell you how. 
By writing. 
Amazing concept right? 
I think sometimes we forget that everyone has the same amount of hours in the day. It's all about the way you prioritize. Writing is what I do. It's what I love. So it's a natural extension of my day. 
Makes sense. 
On the other hand, I've read some awesome books lately that I fully recommend adding to your TBR. 

 

Hmm, not exactly sure how I ended up reading cooking books back to back, but now I've got myself a whole list of recipes to try out. I'll be posting full reviews for these books in the next few weeks, but for now all you need to know is that they are amazing and you need to read them. I said so.

Well, I'm off to try and make sense of this mess that currently occupies my bedroom. 

Any exciting plans for July? 

Much love, 

Valia