Check out the new book by Maria DeBlassie, Hungry Business. Don't forget to enter the tour wide contest to win a Maria DeBlassie will be awarding a free ecopy of Hungry Business to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. The tour is sponsored by Goddess Fish Promotions and you can find all the tour stops HERE.
Talking with the author
Thanks
for stopping by to talk a little about your writing! Let's jump right in. When
did you begin writing and why?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can
remember, but it wasn’t
until I was in high school that I decided it wanted to be a Serious Writer.
Reading was always a huge part of my life, so I think I just fell in love with
the idea of telling stories. I wrote
every morning before school for twenty minutes a day, and longer in the summer—a
habit I continue to this day! I turned
to blogging after finishing graduate school, and my first book, Everyday Enchantments, was born out of my daily musings on the things that made
me happy from my blog. Now, I’m excited to be moving into fiction, my first writing love,
with Hungry Business, a Gothic short story about searching for soul in a world
that’s forgotten the power of everyday magic.
Do you have a favorite genre? Is it
the same genre you prefer to write?
I
love writing inspirational non-fiction, offering witchy tips and insights for
people in search of a little more magic in their lives. I also write cozy Gothic stories, urban
fantasy, and romance. I find they all
nourish one another. My non-fiction
books on everyday magic help me craft the enchanting worlds in my fiction and
my genre stories guide me deeper into everyday conjuring
in my life beyond the written word.
Do certain themes and ideas tend to
capture your writer’s imagination and fascinate you?
Absolutely! I love writing about everyday magic and
ordinary Gothic, those day in, day out happenings that remind us that the
unseen world is just as real, just as important, as mundane life. They are, in
fact, intricately connected.
How do you balance long-term thinking
vs. being nimble in today's market?
It’s
important to be business savvy and read up on what’s going on the book world,
both in indie and traditional markets.
But then you kind of have to throw it all out the window and write the
story that needs to be written. I find
if I start trying to write to accommodate the market, the inspiration dries
up. My creative energy is mercurial like
that. It has its own way of doing things
and wants to tell the stories that need telling in its own way and in its own
time. Long term, that means developing a
body of work that will reach thoughtful readers who appreciate soulful
stories.
How do you find readers in today's
market?
I’m
a big believer in book magic. Stories are magic and your words will find the
right audience. Those who need your
medicine will always find you. Sure, I
promote my books via blog tours, interviews, marketing and an active social
media life and all that. But it’s also
important to remember that your stories know where they belong and who they
want to speak to. It’s a little woo-woo,
I know, but writing is part of my magical practice as a bruja, and, as as such, follows
its own path.
Do you come up with the hook first, or
do you create characters first and then dig through until you find a hook?
Depends
on the story! Sometimes the hook finds
me first, other times, I get to know characters and wonder what their struggles
might be. In the case of Hungry Business, I was struck by the hook—that dating is the zombie
apocalypse of the soul. Then the
characters followed.
How do you create your characters?
Sometimes
they come to me in dreams, other times, they are parts of myself I want to
explore more. Or they’re sewn together
from experiences, imaginings, and stray bits of thread and ink.
What's on the top of your TBR pile
right now?
So
many books! I’m looking forward to
reading Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall, a
queer occult detective novel; The Chocolate Kiss
by Laura Florand, a romance about a Parisian kitchen witch; and Tarot: No Questions
Asked: Mastering the Art of Intuitive Reading by Theresa Reed, to deepen my own tarot practice…I could go on, but that’s
a pretty decent look at the range of books I’m reading at any given time.
The
main protagonist in Hungry Business (which I am only just now realizing remains nameless in
the short story—she’s certainly never revealed her name to me!), is searching
love in all the wrong places. She’s got
a lot of heart and a lot of hope, but she’s struggling to stay true to herself
in a world that wants her numb and soulless.
Of course, her struggles are unfolding against the backdrop of a
supernatural pandemic, which complicates things. But where there’s hope, there’s magic,
something my protagonist learns by the end of the story.
Where’s the story set? How much influence did the setting have on
the atmosphere/characters/development of the story?
The
story is set in a city that is in the midst of a supernatural pandemic. Zombies are real, only nobody knows what’s
causing people to turn. It’s something that starts on the inside and spreads
outward, so it’s not contagious in the typical sense, but people can’t figure
out what makes one person turn and not another.
Much like what we’re experiencing in our own real-life pandemic, this
story shows that when the world seems dark and dreary, the only solution is to
turn inward, back to soul, to our inner life.
Then the magic happens.
If you had to write your memoir in
five words, what would you write?
How
about six words? Fictional character
trapped in writer’s body.
How often does your muse distract you
from day to day minutiae?
The
minutiae is my muse! I love everyday life, corny as it sounds. The magic of a Monday, the quiet bliss of an afternoon cup of tea, the illicit joy of
reading late into the night…these are the simple pleasures that make life
wonderful. It’s easy to overlook them, get swept up in our to-do lists,
but when we pause and take in the beauty around us, we remember to be more than
that to-do list. We glean wisdom in the whispering trees and the synchronous
happenings that punctuate our day. We
remember to dream. And that kind of ordinary joy is pure magic
that inspires my writing.
What do readers have to look forward
to in the future from you?
Readers
can enjoy more cozy Gothic short stories in the coming year, plus my second
book, Practically Pagan ~ An Alternative Guide to Everyday Magic, which will be release September 24, 2021. The title says
it all: it’s a practical guide to conjuring a more magical life!
GENRE: Gothic, Horror (Cozy)
The book is $0.99 during the
tour
Amazon buy
link: https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Business-Short-Maria-DeBlassie-ebook/dp/B08L48MVHD
From the multi-award-winning author of Everyday Enchantments: Musings
on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings comes a cozy Gothic short story about
searching for connection in a world that's forgotten the power of everyday
magic.
Looking for love can be deadly...
You know how it goes. You go
out, hoping to meet someone. You wade
through your fair share of brainless automatons, lifeless bodies, and ravenous
undead good at passing as human.
The more you go out, the less hope you feel and the colder your body
gets. But you keep at it. All you need is one beating heart to match
your own before yours stops pumping altogether.
How hard can it be to find one living, breathing human in a city full of
bodies?
Dating.
It's hungry business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
Two:
This one looks a little better, you think optimistically.
You sit across from each other at the dinner table. The white tablecloth is as smooth and
unblemished as his collared shirt. He
has dressed for the occasion, taking care to hide the evidence of his
affliction as best he can (though truly there is only so much he can do with a
missing ear and half a brain). Still,
the tuxedo and carefully applied makeup are enough to create the illusion of
pumping blood beneath his pallid, blush-stained cheeks—in the right light.
Which is another reason why you chose this place. Candlelight can hide a multitude of sins.
His manners are studied and smooth, as if he has spent a lot
of time practicing more human-like movements and behavior. You admire a man who
makes that kind of effort. He watches
you as much as you do him, as if he is trying to remember what it was like to
be alive. When you reach for your wine glass, so does he—only his thick
decaying fingers almost crush the stem, whereas your nimble live ones carefully
bring the dark red liquid to your mouth. You try not to notice how he stares at
your lips—stained now from the wine—wondering, perhaps, how you taste.
GIVEAWAY: Maria DeBlassie will be awarding a free
ecopy of Hungry Business to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the
tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Maria
DeBlassie, Ph.D. is a native New Mexican mestiza blogger, award-winning writer,
and award-winning educator living in the Land of Enchantment. Her first book,
Everyday Enchantments: Musings on Ordinary Magic & Daily Conjurings (Moon
Books 2018), and her ongoing blog, Enchantment Learning & Living are about
everyday magic, ordinary gothic, and the life of a kitchen witch. When she is
not practicing her own brand of brujeria, she’s reading, teaching, and writing
about bodice rippers and things that go bump in the night. She is forever looking for magic in her life
and somehow always finding more than she thought was there. Find out more about
Maria and conjuring everyday magic at www.mariadeblassie.com.
Social Media
Links:
https://linktr.ee/mdeblassie
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7rY-gLkSH-w8uuVyrhVALA
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17535853.Maria_DeBlassie
https://www.facebook.com/EnchantmentLL
https://twitter.com/EnchantmentLL
https://www.pinterest.com/mdeblassieell
2 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Thank you for interviewing me!
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