Our latest Writing Prompt winner was Frank Messina! Frank has participated in our prompt challenges many times and it was cool to see him pull in a win this time around. Thanks for playing and congrats Frank! You can read his story below.

View the original photo prompt here. The prompt reads: “What’s this?” she chirped. I panicked when I saw her kneeling beside the hole in the ground. I knew exactly what it was and I didn’t want her anywhere near it!

Frank Messina’s winning entry:

What’s this?” she chirped. I panicked when I saw her kneeling beside the hole in the ground. I knew exactly what it was and I didn’t want her anywhere near it!”

I watched her from behind the tree. To this day, I am still not sure how she got passed me. She looked into the hole, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to see what was down there, it was just too deep. Ellie was always the curious one or should I say the nosy one. She always was snooping in my room at home and would always tell Mom and Dad whenever I did something wrong. I had to be careful with her, if she discovered my secret, it would all be over. I was careless once again, but out here I thought I was safe. I should have never left the cover off the hole.

So far she knew nothing, but then I heard it. Faint but clear. “Is someone there?” said a voice from inside the hole. Ellie almost fell back. She peered harder into the hole, holding her lantern as far down as she could. “Hello? Is someone down there? HELLO?” Dammit, I had to do something. A piece of nearby vine was my worst enemy. Ellie grabbed the vine and tied it to the lantern handle. She lowered the lantern into the hole. She would see the girls I had deposited there, or what was left of them. I had no choice, I leapt from my hiding spot and ran toward Ellie. Without slowing I pushed and heard her scream as she fell. I turned and reached the hole and fell to my knees. I peered inside, the lantern illuminating the hole. I saw my sister and my other victims. Three total now. One dead, one alive, one my sister. They looked up at me, and I smiled. “Sorry sis.” I placed the cover over the hole.

Thank you so much, Mara, for taking part in the BOD author spotlight interview! Our BOD family is in for a treat to get to know you.

Thank you so much for having me! I’m thrilled to be part of BOD. It’s one of my favorite places to browse on Facebook!

What was the first book you read that made you know you wanted to be a writer?

Honestly, I didn’t always know that I wanted to be a writer. I first fell in love with reading with Romeo and Juliet in middle school, but at the time my love of the characters and the story fueled my passion for acting. It’s funny, because that drive led me to write stories on my own—the kinds I would want to see. But I never called myself a writer. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I sat down and wrote a book. That’s when I sat back and realized that I’ve kind of always been a writer, just never owned it until now. It was just something I did, something that was part of me.

Who have been your greatest inspirations for writing, and how have they helped you achieve your writing goals?

Jane Austen, as cliché as that sounds. Her story is just so amazing. A woman, in a time where women were meant to find a husband and take care of a household, who had so much passion for writing that she just had to do it, regardless of the consequences. And the stories she told still live on today, which just amazes me. On the fantasy end of things, I love Terry Goodkind and am way overdo for rereading the Sword of Truth series (and catching up now—there are more books! More Kahlan and Richard!!). His ability to build such a rich fantasy world with characters that are strong but also flawed and vulnerable just amazes me.

The Altar of Reality is the third book you’ve published and the first in a sci-fi dystopian series. Tell us a little bit about this book and where you came up with the idea.

Altar of Reality follows the story of sixteen year-old Madeline, whose epilepsy triggers an ability to slip between alternate realities. She doesn’t know she can do this, so she thinks she’s losing her mind as she flips back and forth between the life she’s always known and a reality where she finds herself in the aftermath of the Cold War turned hot.

Funnily enough, Neil Gaiman is tied to the inspiration for my book directly. A friend of mine took me to see his storytelling event when it was here in Columbia. The idea is that a group of people, along with Neil Gaiman, get up on stage and tell stories. Like sitting around a campfire. It was really amazing, but I digress. The emcee for the event told his story in bits and pieces in between the others. He spoke about his wife and their experience with her epilepsy. And at some point, he said, “What happens to her when she has a seizure? What does she see, even if she doesn’t remember it? Does she go somewhere else?” And the thought struck me: What if she went to another reality? Thus, Altar of Reality was born. I used some characters I had created when I was around 19 or so for a screenplay that I had been wanting to play with again. And then I wrote the book for NaNoWriMo, pitched it during the Twitter PitchMas event the next month, and got a contract with Curiosity Quills.

I love that you tie sci-fi with the dystopian genre. How do you think this genre is affecting the young adult writing/reading scene?

Thank you! Dystopian seems to be all the craze right now with The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and so many other huge hits out there. I think as far as genres go, the scene kind of comes and goes, so I’m not all that surprised to see dystopians as popular now. Personally, I love it. Reading is such an escape, and sometimes it is really great to read about characters who overcome the worst situations and persevere. That’s not an uncommon theme in literature, of course, but throwing in the brink of an apocalypse does tend to put things in perspective. =)

What can you tell us about what is going to happen to Madeline in the next book in the Altar of Reality series, and can you tell us if there is going to be just one obvious love interest for her? (That’s the question I really want to know.)

I can tell you that Madeline is going to be very torn in the next book. Without giving too much away, obviously she finds herself in a very difficult situation and surrounded by faces that used to give her comfort and a sense of security that are now potential threats. She doesn’t know who to trust, or if she can even trust herself. And she might be seeing that the Lord Commander isn’t as evil as she thought. It isn’t always black and white in a war or a time of struggle, and she starts to see that, which is very difficult for her. That doesn’t mean she can forgive him, though, even if she might find herself in a situation where she has to choose between playing the good dutiful would-be daughter or getting tortured.

As for the love interest, I think I wrote myself into a love triangle on accident. Austin was supposed to be a minor character, but now he has a POV in book two. But then again, Brandon will have a POV in book three. I might be just as torn as Madeline on this one. 😉

Why don’t you tell us about the other books you’ve written and do you have any other writing projects you’re working on?

My other series is a new adult fantasy series called Heirs of War. It’s very much a family driven story. The Duillaine are the ruling body of all the worlds, the four most powerful women born into the same bloodline and each representing an element. They’ve been fighting against a brewing rebellion for generations, and things are getting really bad. When the fifth is born into the next generation, it causes a ripple effect due to a prophecy about the five uniting all worlds as one. The five girls are sent away, and four are sent to our world with the protectors blood-bound to them. They don’t remember anything of this magical world or their real families. When the rebels discover them, they are forced to come back early and thrust into the middle of a world and a war they know nothing about. Zelene and Ariana are the twins, the two youngest, and they drive a lot of the story. They’ve never met and have lived very different lives—Ariana growing up in a normal and loving household (and a bit spoiled) picked out for her, and Zelene bouncing around from foster home to foster home when our laws prevent their shared protector from adopting her. Zelene is very much a solo act, so all of this is a lot to take in for her when she finds herself surrounded by relatives and people clamoring for her attention. She wants nothing to do with any of it and basically tells them all to screw themselves. But when she finds out she has a twin that has been captured… her priorities shift. She’s deadest on saving Ariana, and isn’t content to wait around for the current generation of Duillaine to get off their royal butts and do something.

The second book in the series (Heirs of War, Crown of Flames) came out in October and I’m hoping to release the third book by the end of this year. I’m also already working on book two in the Shifted Realities series, which I might call Fractured Minds. The two series keep me busy, but I have been discussing a superhero serial with a good friend of mine, so we’ll see. 😉

Now on to some fun facts about yourself. I love the idea that there are alternate realities that we could exist in. If you lived in an alternate reality, what would it be and which reality would you choose to stay in?

Definitely not the one Madeline lands herself in! I don’t know… When you hit 30, you kind of look back on your life and wonder “What if?” so I think I’d just like to skip through all of those possibilities and answer that question. What if I had moved to New York when I was younger like I always wanted to? What if I had pursued a career in acting? What if I had pursued a career in writing earlier? What if I dyed my hair blue? Those kind of things.

If there is one author or time period you could travel to for a writing conference, who or what time would it be and why?

I would want to bring Jane Austen here, really. I wouldn’t necessarily want to be a writer in her time, but I’d love to get a one on one with her. I’d love to one day attend BEA, or attend a conference with Susan Kaye Quinn. She’s such an inspiration, and always has an abundance of knowledge and experience to drop on you at any given second. (Can you tell that I Facebook stalk her from time to time? Hehe)

It’s been a pleasure to get to know your writing and getting to share your awesome talent with the members of BOD. Thank you so much for being a part of the BOD family!

Thank you ALL for being so amazing!

ALTAR OF REALITY

by Mara Valderran
Genre: young-adult, dystopian, science-fiction romance
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Date of Publication: January 22, 2015
Cover Artist: Alexandria Thompson at Gothic Fate

Sixteen year-old Madeline has struggled with epilepsy for most of her adolescent life, leaving her something of a social pariah. Things go from bad to worse when she wakes up from her first grand mal seizure in an extremely unfamiliar world but surrounded but familiar faces. Her hometown is in ruins, the aftermath of a Cold War turned hot.

Madeline isn’t sure what to believe. The brothers insist her memories must be of a dream life she created while in her coma. But when she returns to the reality she knows, they insist this war-torn world must be the dream. She doesn’t know if she’s truly caught in the middle of a brewing rebellion or teetering on the brink of insanity. As she finds herself flipping between the two lives, her heart becomes torn between two versions of the same boy and the lines between her realities begin to blur.

Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK

ABOUT MARA

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Mara Valderran is an author of young adult and new adult books, but she’s more than just a madwoman with a writing box. She is an avid reader and fan of all things sci-fi and fantasy. She loves roller skating and movies, though typically not together. She hopes to one day meet Daniel Jackson from SG1, or at least the actor who played him. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, playing video games, or counting down the days until DragonCon.

Her debut novel, HEIRS OF WAR, has been met with great reviews and was featured on Wattpad in 2013, raking in over 600k reads. The series continues with the second book, HEIRS OF WAR, CROWN OF FLAMES, released in Summer 2014. Her short story “The Austenation” will is included in the Borderlands Anthology and she is looking forward to publishing her young adult dystopian ALTAR OF REALITY with Curiosity Quills Spring 2015.

Our Writing Prompt contest from January 9th was one of our most popular prompts yet. The image was downright creepy and certainly caught a lot of attention and pulled in quite a few entries. In the end, we chose Lee Ryder as the winner! Read her story below.

View the original (and super creepy cool) photo prompt here. The prompt reads:
I looked up from my breakfast and saw them. With my heart drumming in my chest, I managed to say, “We’ve got company.”

Lee Ryder’s winning entry:

I looked up from my breakfast and saw them. With my heart drumming in my chest, I managed to say, “We’ve got company.” I told my wife to take the children to the secret room as I stood to meet our ‘visitors’ at the door. I knew why they were here.

I heard my wife let out a small yelp as three loud raps were heard at the door, shaking the whole house. I walked slowly to the door giving my wife time to secure the wall in place before opening the door.

Simeon Shackleroot, and Dartangnan Ravenwood were standing there dressed in their official Council’s clothing.

“Good morning,” I said. “What brings you to our neck of the woods?”

“You know why we’re here.” Simeon said snidely. “We’re here for the boy.”

“You mean Thomas?” I asked. “You’ve just missed him, he’s gone to school.”

“You’re lying.” Dartagnan said. “We already waited there. We’ve been watching him every day.”

“So you were going to take my son out from under my nose.” I spat. “So the Council has lowered himself to kidnapping?”

“We wouldn’t have to, if you would just follow the mandates.” Simeon retorted.

“What and sacrifice my only son to be a magical battery for the Chancellor? I think not. You’ll have to kill me first.” I shot back at them.

“This is how it has been done for thousands of years, the first born are sacrificed to t the council to grant them the protection they need from the outside world.” Dartagnan said angrily. “I had to give my daughter this year!”

“There are other means of protection.” I replied coldly. “Just as effective if not moreso. If the Chancellor wants my son he can stick it up his…..” I began. “You get my drift.”

“You could be brought up on charges.” Simeon threatened.

“Let them try, I’ll bring fifty other families with me and they’ll bring fifty more. The Chancellor is doing this to stay in power and rule our kind with fear. The time for change has come.” I threatened.

“You are looking for a war you cannot win.” Dartangan replied acidly. “You will destroy us all over a child.”

“Yes, I would kill a thousand men for my son. Any parent who says they wouldn’t, is lying.” I said stepping back into my house. “My doors are warded to prevent you from coming in without my invitation. So if you don’t mind my breakfast is getting cold.” I slammed the door in their faces and walked back into the kitchen trying to calm my shattered resolve. A war was coming, and I just became the commander in chief of the rebellion.

December 19th’s Writing Prompt was a neat one with a fun Sci-Fi twist, like many of the ones we’ve done. We saw some new faces jumping in and our winner from that week was a first-time participant, Andrea Tino! Great job, Andrea! (You can read her story below).

The original photo prompt is here. The prompt reads: “There it is,” he whispered, “the safest city on earth.” I took a step toward it and said, “Do you wanna knock or should I?”

Andrea Tino’s winning entry:

A mix of emotions flooded over me. Relief, exhaustion, and anxiety to name a few as I looked up at the city in the clouds. We had been traveling for weeks now, my brother and I, to reach the rumored last safe haven. I was exhausted, filthy and damn near starved to death.

After our parents were taken in the last Collection we had been going from one camp of survivors to the next, collecting pieces of rumors about this place. Now we were finally here and I wasn’t sure if we should go in. Something wasn’t right.

“Ethan, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Look, what could be worse than this. I mean look at us Janelle. We’re filthy, starving and so damn tired we can’t see straight. Go back if you want to but I made it this far. I’m going in.”

“No I’m serious. I’m getting a reall bad vibe from this place. If we turn and go back now we can go back to camp and be there before nightfall.”

“I love you Janelle.”

I watched as Ethan turned and walked to a group of guards, hands up, showing that he meant no harm. I crouched down in the thick grass and watched. Little did I know that the next time I saw Ethan, we’d be behind opposite ends of a gun.

This prompt from December 11th was one of the creepier ones we’ve done and the image inspired such neat stories! Our winner was Katy Walker! Read her story below.

View the original photo and prompt here. The prompt reads, “It was the spookiest scene I’d ever stumbled upon. I wondered three things: how long had they been here, who had put them here, and was it too late to turn back?”

Katy Walker’s winning entry:

When I was diagnosed with Cancer, I felt the breath rush out of me. I couldn’t breathe. Of course, it was the cancer in my lungs, but it felt like hearing the ‘C’ word automatically made them function at a lower level. As I grew weaker, the dreams began. I couldn’t remember them at first, but upon awakening each time I felt as if I was destined for something different than my now familiar hospital bed. One day, my family surrounded me, eyes moist. I was dying. I closed my eyes to block out their tears. Another dream began. I was walking down a black pebbled beach towards the sound of a harp. It was the spookiest scene I’d ever stumbled upon. I wondered three things: how long had they been here, who had put them here, and was it too late to turn back? But I couldn’t stop. And I didn’t want to. Two pale figures’ appearance echoed my condition with bald heads and too-thin bodies. But they were the most beautiful people I had ever seen. One conducted the other playing the harp and both smiled at me as I took a seat. I picked up the violin laying at my feet and began to play with a smile. In the back of my mind I heard my family…”She looks so happy. Goodbye.”

One of our very favorite features on Band of Dystopian is the Writing Prompt, and many of our members love it as well! We’re a bit behind on posting winners, so we’re going to get caught up over the next few days.

This prompt was back on December 5th and we actually ruled it as a tie! Here is the original photo and prompt. The intro to the prompt read, “I couldn’t believe my eyes. And worse, no one else reacted at all. They all still saw the beautiful brunette I saw moments ago.”

Caroline Gill’s winning entry:

“Edna!” I couldn’t believe my eyes. And worse, no one else reacted at all. They all still saw the beautiful brunette I saw moments ago. “Edna!” I whispered, raising my second eyebrow.

Flustered, she quickly adjusted the force field. “We don’t have time for sloppiness!” I grumped.”Target spotted. Ahead. By the side door.” Turning her compound eyes around the restaurant, Edna focused. Then she jumped across three tables.

Loudly, I stood up and yelled, “Drinks all around!” in the most jovial manner. Commotion surrounded the bar as everyone demanded refills. Swiping one cocktail off the corner, I slurped at the sugar water with the strange cherry taste. I preferred the honest scent of latrines. Lifting my glass high, I toasted the bar, the bar owner, the patrons and the American way of life. Everyone was jovial. Everyone was laughing.

In the backcorner, Edna and the scientist grappled. Her eyes saw everything. And she had strength on her side. But the scientist was clever, far more so. From his pocket, the crazed man drew pepper spray. Full in the face, he unloaded the poison directly at Edna’s eyes.

She was down. “What a waste,” I muttered. Shouting out “Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne?”

Gathering all the tipsy people together, we proudly sang the chorus. I thanked the Gods we were hunting in Chicago. Quietly, I pushed my way to the back. Crept up on the asshole scientist and knocked him hard with my beer bottle on the back of his head. He went down. I stomped repeatedly on his neck. His brains started to stick to my boots. I guess I should have cared. He did create us.

But Edna and I, we had plans.

Author John Gregory Hancock’s winning entry: 

I couldn’t believe my eyes. And worse, no one else reacted at all. They all still saw the beautiful brunette I saw moments ago. But of course they would. It’s the way this thing works. The way it’s always worked. The way it’s always worked against me.

I’m not saying God hates me, though he very well might. I’m saying he is amused by the outrageous things that happen to me. He might even cause them directly.

At the very least, he is amused my suffering. This is my conclusion because my suffering keeps happening. If not him, then who?

So there I am, in the Electroclub that so hip no one can get in, unless they’re like me and work there, or they’re not like me and are somebody important. I work the lights. They’re in the floor and the walls, every square inch, and it requires constant maintenance. Everyone else was watching my light show in pulsing in patterns around the dance floor.

I was the only one looking directly at her when she shifted.

From a person to a thing. Alien, I think. Or maybe demonic. That would be about right. God sending a demon after me.

I waved at her, and she shyly waved back, apparently believing she still appeared human to me, like she did to everyone else.

“Hi,” she said, as if she were innocent.

“Got no time for demons,” I said. I looked up at the ceiling. “You hear me, God? I got no time!”

She started to look worried. She looked at me as if I were crazy. She was right to. God made me this crazy.

Luckily a silver knife will kill a demon. At the base of the neck.

As she died, with the techno music drowning out her words, I heard her say, “I’m your sister.”

Post by Angie Taylor

Happy New Year to all our BOD members! What a fantastic year we’ve had. I’m sure the next year will prove to be even better.

As a way to celebrate this awesome group, I thought it would be fun to let everyone get to know how it all started. So please welcome Author ER Arroyo and Cheer Papworth!

Thank you so much ER and Cheer for bringing us all together. We so appreciate all you do.

Will you two tell us how your friendship started, and where you came up with the amazing idea to start BOD? What did you have to do to make it all work?

ER: Well, this might be a long answer! Cheer came across my debut novel, Sovereign, in a Goodreads giveaway and she ended up picking up the e-book and reviewing it. I can’t really remember who initiated contact with whom. At some point, she had reached out to me to let me know I had been nominated in a monthly book club which got a dialogue going between us. Her passion for getting the word out about my books was kind of magnetic so I asked her to help me start a street team. A couple months after that, I approached her about starting Band of Dystopian.

The idea for Band of Dystopian actually came about when I was promoting my second novel, The Offering. A good friend of mine (a book publicist) had told me to find a dystopian Facebook group. At the time, I couldn’t find a single one. I knew there had to be other authors like me, because I KNEW there were plenty of dystopian books out there waiting to be discovered and talked about. I needed to find my tribe, a home for authors and fans of the kinds of books that I love. Since it didn’t exist yet, Cheer and I created it.

Cheer: I feel like I have known ER for a long time, but in reality we have never met in person or even so much as had a conversation over the phone (gasp). But as ER said, we did in fact meet on Goodreads. This may be shocking to some of you, but I am always on the lookout for a great dystopian read and when I stumbled upon Sovereign I was intrigued by the blurb and immediately purchased the book and read it in one sitting.

I eventually became a moderator for the Goodreads group YA Apocalyptic and Dystopian Fiction, my primary responsibility being Book of the Month. Sovereign was nominated for BOTM and I desperately wanted it to win, so I sent her a message to make sure she was aware of the nomination and that was the beginning of an ongoing dialogue that led to friendship. When ER asked me to join her in creating BOD, I was thrilled. We jumped in with both feet and we are having a fantastic time.

BOD has grown so much over the last six months. Did you guys know this group could become what it is? What kind of goals or vision do you have for BOD, and are those goals being met?

ER: My goals, expectations, hopes – whatever – have been far exceeded. This whole endeavor has been one of those where you cross your fingers, squint your eyes at the screen, and just hope something happens. And fortunately for us, something did. The most important thing to me is that people LOVE this group. They have a good time, they feel safe talking about the stuff they love (with no one judging them), they have made friends, and they have discovered books and authors they really love.

Cheer: I know this sounds crazy, but within a few days of ER asking me to help her start BOD, we were up and running. Our only goal was to help connect fans and authors of dystopian fiction, as well as create a friendly place for people like us to interact and share. We didn’t really have a clear vision or goals; we were just flying by the seat of our pants. We sort of faked it and figured it out as we went along. With that being said, ER is the consummate professional and I have some marketing experience. So we aren’t total amateurs, but the truth is we somehow muddled through it and managed to get it right.

Since this groups is all about authors finding readers, and readers finding authors can you tell us how you fit into either category?

ER: Well, I’m an author of young adult fiction. So far I have released the majority of my Dystopian series, The Sovereign Series. The two novels that compose Sovereign Series proper are Sovereign and The Offering. There are a total of three short stories that are technically prequels to the series, but are best enjoyed after the novels. The first of the three has already been released; it’s called Transgression. I do also read books, so I fit into both categories. 🙂

Cheer: I’m an avid reader and I’ll pretty much read anything and everything. As a child, my grandmother had a beautiful set of the classics, bound in leather and untouchable. I would sneak those books off of her shelf and stay up all night reading and then return them during the early morning hours. I discovered Treasure Island, The Odyssey, and my favorite, Pride and Prejudice. I eventually got caught and was handed a box of The Bobbsey Twin Mysteries and Nancy Drew, which I enjoyed, but I longed for the big girl books. Lucky for me, the library kept me well supplied and happy.

ER, I have read all of your books. I love the world you have created in the Sovereign Series. When did you start writing these books? What did you do before you wrote, and how have your other responsibilities helped you with your creative process?

ER: I was actually in cosmetology school when I began writing Sovereign. I never intended on it becoming a novel, much less a series. I was trying to pawn it off as a short story. I’ve always been writing one thing or another. Sovereign was just my first attempt at prose. Before that I wrote scripts, before that I wrote songs, before that I wrote poetry. Always something. How have other things helped my creative process? No idea, but I can tell you motherhood has been an incredible attempt at thwarting my creativity altogether. (lol)

Are you currently writing something, and if so, can you give us a snippet of what we can expect?

ER: So the motherhood thing… yeah that’s for real. I am about a hundred times slower at churning out material. BUT like I said earlier, I am working on two short stories to complete the Sovereign Series. One is from the perspective of a Book 1 fan favorite, Titus. The middle story is from the POV of someone who might know a little something about another fan favorite, who will remain nameless for now. A snippet? Here’s a little excerpt from my WIP (not the Titus one).

Today feels special somehow. That’s how I know I need to make sure and bring my gun. When I get a funny feeling, that little uneasiness in my belly, that’s how I know – danger’s coming. While I’ve learned to expect it, I haven’t yet figured out how to avoid it, and this is no different. So I pluck a loaded clip from my suitcase before I lock the case and stash it in the top of the closet.

See, it’s never really what you think when you first get into a serious situation. Any situation really. You find yourself standing on the outside looking in and you figure, if that were me I’d do it different – do it better. Then you get involved and before you know it, you’re in too deep and you can’t go back.

Every day I wonder if I’ve done it – if I’ve crossed the line that’ll end my life. If today I’ll get somebody killed. Or if I can somehow make a difference in someone’s life before whatever it’ll be that does me in finally comes up and says, “Hello. I’m here to take you.” If I can touch just one person’s life in a profound way, then I can go quietly saying, “Yes sir, Mr. Death, hold my coat while I say goodbye to my friends.”

Cheer: Where the heck is the Titus story?

ER: **blushes**

Cheer: Wait, can I ask ER a question?

Angie: Sure…

Cheer: ER, do you have an idea for a new series after the Sovereign Series is complete? Will you continue to write dystopia or possibly try another genre? Do you have any literary goals for this year?

ER: I have a couple of unfinished manuscripts I’m eager to get back to, both in different genres. I haven’t decided yet which one I’ll get to first! One’s a YA contemporary, and the other is more along the lines of speculative fiction, there just isn’t any sci-fi like there is in Sovereign. My goals for this year are pretty much to get those short stories out and then decide which book to get back to. The content is a passion project (it’s about music) but the other is more like my current work. Tough call! I think I am done with dystopian, but probably not done with post-apocalypse.

Cheer, you and I met through Goodreads as well. We both love books. Can you tell us where your love for books and authors comes from, and how this has helped you with BOD? What are some of your additional goals as a reader? As a writer?

Cheer: I think some people are born to be readers, while others grow into it. Me? Genetically predisposed to become a reader, I’m sure of it. If someone has a question about a book, I often have the answer. I love to give book recommendations and help other book lovers find the perfect book tailored to their interests, but I also really enjoy helping talented authors promote their work.

As far as writing goes, I’m not a writer and I’m not sure I am meant to be. What I can tell you is that I have been making up characters and stories in my head since childhood and I still do it today, but isn’t that just daydreaming? A few years ago my kids begged me to write down a story I made up and I did. Yes, it is dystopian and 60k words later, I’m still at it. My kids love it, I hate it. Enough said.

Along with all the hard work you both put into BOD, what other responsibilities do you hold, and how do you balance getting everything done?

ER: I have an 18-month-old who keeps me pretty busy. I am a hairdresser but I haven’t gotten back into a salon since moving to Tennessee, so I’m not really working (in that field) for the time being. What takes up most of my time involves music. It’s a position that enables me to use my experience as a singer and musician (guitar). That’s kind of vague but I’m pretty private, so I’ll just hold on to the mystery there. 😉

Balance getting everything done? Well, I have to bounce around a lot between the tasks that are most pressing. I go to bed every night with an unfinished to-do list that I estimate will never be empty. It’s a constant effort of re-prioritizing each day or each week. Cheer and I, along with yourself (Angie), are usually able to help each other with any BOD activities or needs that could become burdensome. Yay team work!

Cheer: Life is busy as a wife, mother of three teenagers, full-time dental hygienist and an active member of my church and community. I love my life and I love BOD. I try to keep a healthy balance, but there is not enough time in the day to do everything. Angie, you are a lifesaver, ER keeps me organized, and my family encourages me in all that I do. Oh and one more thing, I don’t require a lot of sleep.

ER: #jealous — My life would be so much easier if I didn’t require much sleep!! I often think about pulling all nighters but I tucker out before too much progress has been made.

Thank you for all your hard work. We love you and so appreciate what you guys do for all the authors and fans. What can we do to help BOD this next year be the best it can be?

ER: You’re welcome! Just keep participating and making BOD such a fun place!

Cheer: I really believe that BOD will continue to grow because of the support of amazing authors and kind, enthusiastic fans, so keep it up! I see great things in BOD’s future.

ER: P.s. These ladies are amazing. I could never have done ANY of this without Cheer, and Angie brings such an incredible energy and joy to our team. Thank you both!

THE SOVEREIGN SERIES

Sovereign (Book 1) FREE – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – iBooks – more links…
The Offering (Book 2) – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – iBooks – more links…
Transgression (Short Story) – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – iBooks – more links…