***Blog Tour Interview & Giveaway*** Clare C. Marshall

First of all:

 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Sure! I’m a 24-year-old author-publisher in Canada. I write and publish science fiction, fantasy, and horror/thriller books for young adults. I’m also a freelance editor, designer, and web manager. I enjoy challenging myself and I don’t believe in waiting for good things or opportunities to arise—one must create their own opportunities in this day and age.

General let’s get to know you:

1.Do you write under your own name or with a pseudonym? If yes why did you choose that name? If no what would be your pseudonym?

I write under my own name, Clare C. Marshall. If I were to write under a pseudonym… if you had’ve asked me this 10 years ago, I would’ve chosen the name of one of my characters. Today, I’d probably choose a) something completely ridiculous and intriguing b) something sexless and short with my initials.

2.What do you do when you’re not writing?

Working! I have client work that keeps me quite busy. When I’m not working on books or writing my own, I enjoy playing computer games and surfing the internet about topics that interest me.

3.Do you have any pets/children (they’re pretty much the same right? :P)? And do you find that they can be distracting?

No children, no pets. I would not mind having a little kitty but I really do not have time to look after someone else (or something else) when I am trying to build my career!

4.What’s your favourite snack food?

I discovered a few months ago I’m gluten intolerant so that really changed what I snack on. I now enjoy Larabar Bars, rice cakes, popcorn (when popped from kernels), and Sesame Seed Snacks.

5.A lot of writers drink a lot of caffeine, do you? If yes in what form?

I try not to drink a lot of caffeine because I already have a lot of natural energy. So I only resort to energy drinks or coffee when I’m on deadline—personal or professional. I enjoy Xenergy energy drinks and flavoured coffees.

About Your Book:

1.What inspired you to write your book?

I wanted to write a story about a group of very different people coming together to fight a common foe. I also wanted to write a science fiction story, and I wanted to incorporate an overall mystery that would come together at the end of the series.

2.Who was your favourite and least favourite characters to write?

I enjoyed putting in small drops of Joseph G. Campbell, the mysterious alien who seems to want to help Ingrid, the protagonist, in her quest to save Sunni and Sparkstone University. He will return in future books, as he pulls more strings than we know.

Least favourite? I don’t really have a least favourite character, I have to like all of my characters else I wouldn’t like writing them, and they wouldn’t make it into the story.

3.Did you have a playlist while you wrote your book? If so can we have a sneak peek of it?

I’ve enjoyed listening to independent instrumental composers as of late, including Adrian Von Ziegler and BrunuhVille.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AdrianvonZiegler

http://www.youtube.com/user/BrunuhVille

For this series, as it incorporates a lot of references to Eastern Canadian folk music & Celtic fiddle music, I also enjoyed listening to Stan Rogers, Rita McNeil, the Rankins, the Barra MacNeils, Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIssac and others.

4.How long did it take you to write your book and what distracts you the most?

Stars In Her Eyes took a couple of months to get to a place where I was satisfied with it. It was originally written as a screenplay so that was really the “first draft” of the story.

I get distracted at about the 80-90% point in most projects. I don’t know why—I just need an extra kick in the bum to get things done sometimes!

5.Would you ever consider writing more stories featuring your character?

Yes, the Sparkstone series is a saga, so there will be plenty of books to come featuring the protagonists—and maybe even a prequel or two.

About books in general:

1.What is your favourite book(s)?

I have many different favourites, for different reasons. Maggie Stiefvater’s books are among my favourites however.

2.Is there a book/series that you wish you’d written?

I could say that I wish I would’ve written the Harry Potter series, but then I might not enjoy it as much as I do now, and things might have turned out a little differently at the end. Obviously writing the Harry Potter series worked out quite well to Ms. Rowling, and I hope that someday one of my books/series will be just as successful.

3.How do you like to read?

On my kindle or with a physical book, it doesn’t matter, as long as I’m curled up somewhere warm 

4.Which authors inspired you to write?

No one author inspired me to start writing—I’ve always wanted to be a writer since I was very little. However I enjoy Maggie Stiefvater, George R.R. Martin, and Beth Revis.

5.How has your taste in books evolved over the years?

I’m more selective about what I read now because I don’t set as much time aside for reading as I used to. I’ve actually come to prefer audiobooks as a format in the past few months because I can listen to them while I work.

 Quick fire:

1.Morning or night person?

Morning or late at night, but definitely not afternoon, that is when I am most sleepy!

2.Tv or books?

 Both?

3.British or American accent?

Irish accents 

4.Cats or dogs?

Kitties!

5.Writing on paper or laptop?

 I write on my desktop 

Purchasing and getting in touch:

1.In a sentence why should people buy your book?

If you have ever wanted to wield impossible power, if you have ever wanted to become immersed in a galactic mystery, if you have ever been stuck in a place and longed for home—you should read Stars In Her Eyes, and every other forthcoming book in the Sparkstone series.

2.What formats is your book available in?

Stars In Her Eyes is available in print, in ePub format, in mobi (Kindle) format and in PDF!

3.Where can we buy your book?

You can buy Stars In Her Eyes:

-Direct from Faery Ink Press: http://www.faeryinkpress.com/books/stars-in-her-eyes

-Amazon (print and Kindle)

-Smashwords

-in select bookstores in Canada, including McNally Robinson http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/home

4.Where can we follow you on Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook: http://facebook.com/faeryinkpress

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ClareMarshall13

http://twitter.com/faeryinkpress

5.Do you have a website?

Yes! Faery Ink Press – http://faeryinkpress.com

Thanks for taking the time to answer!!!

Thank you for having me!

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***Blog Tour Review & Giveaway*** Stars in Her Eyes (Sparkstone Saga #1) by Clare C. Marshall

Burn hot and cold.

Read minds.

Disappear at will.

Dream your own death.

Welcome to Sparkstone University, where some students are more gifted than others.

When Ingrid learns she’s been accepted at the hyper-secretive Sparkstone University, she is sceptical. It’s an honour to attend, apparently, and yet barely anyone has ever heard of the place.

And everyone seems a little too happy that she’s there: especially when she meets Sunni and her group of friends. They seem to already know Ingrid. As if she was expected. Expected to save Earth from an imminent alien invasion. Like she has superpowers or something.

As if magic and mutations exist. As if aliens are really planning to attack.

That just sounds ridiculous. There’s no such thing.

…right?

Wrong.

I'm Choosing This Because:

If you all remember back a bit I took part in the cover reveal for Stars in Her Eyes where I just happily fangirled the cover. A lot. So when I got an email about the blog tour I was all "WOO HOO!" and signed up for it. So here I am now, about to read it and I have to say that I'm excited. I love discovering new authors and when they're good I have a little party. So this is definitely a story I'm excited to read.

Judging a Book By Its Cover:

YAY!! Another chance to fangirl this cover!! It's all shades of blue and purple prettiness. Once you've got beyond the sheer beauty of the colours you can move on and marvel the talent of the artist. The girl on the cover is stunningly drawn and I have to say that I very much admire great artists. I can barely draw a stick man. The space ship type things at the bottom of the cover are a nice addition that it took me ages to notice but appreciate greatly now that I know they're there. The font is a great example of how a font doesn't always have to be elaborate to be pretty and eye-catching. Definitely got me a case In Love With Cover-Itis here.

Pricing the (Possible) Awesomeness:

Okay, so I checked on Amazon for you, (as always) and I've come up with prices for you all. There's a paperback edition available for £8.97 but the Kindle edition is only 77p!!!! Bargain!!! So if you've not read Clare's stuff before I'd definitely encourage you to buy the eBook edition and if you want it on your shelf go get the paperback then. As you've probably guessed, I got a free version in exchange for an honest review for blog tour purposes.

So, for me this is a great addition to the books I've read this year. It's another story that feels very different to what I normally read but yet again it hasn't made me enjoy the story any less. It’s one of those stories where you end up thinking “Why don’t I normally read this genre?” and curse your stupidity. Did I think this was a perfect story? No, but I rarely do. However I know a good idea when I see one and this story is a good idea. In fact I would go so far as to say it could be the start of a new exciting series filled with science geekiness and believe me, that’s cool.

Length - I like that this isn't a massive story that takes about a century for me to read. I know that I could've read this faster than I did, I’ll confess that I’ve not been well and that makes reading hard. Now back to the actual book, it's a story that pulls you in from the very beginning. The opening to this had me going "OOOOOOH!" and reading much more than I'd originally intended to. Some of the chapters are a bit long for my personal tastes but overall the length is something that worked well with my short attention span.

Time frame - This was a negative aspect for me and a complete contradiction because I loved the length of the story. The story happens over a very short period of time and I really find it hard to believe. If I'm 100% honest I would've happily taken more pages if it meant that there was more time for plot development rather than everything just falling into place in the most random ways. I know that this could just be me overthinking but HELLO?! Aliens and superheroes! We could definitely get away with some more plot development here! Also more character development would be good. I’m having difficulty of thinking of things to say that aren’t “Nice character.” and that’s not good.

Editing - Now I have to say that overall this is incredibly well edited. I barely found any errors at all, the main one for me being "you've" instead of "you're" at one point, but these things happen, especially when you’re an indie, you just don’t have the funding that traditional authors get. Something else about the editing that intrigued and pleased me is the fact that the spelling was British. It's not common for me to see British spelling so when I do I always get a bit excited about it. Mainly because I genuinely can't get to grips with US spelling. It always looks slightly alien.

Ingrid - Our main character. I did like her but I didn't think that she was remarkable in any way and this makes it hard for me to tell you about her. I'm sure that we'll get to find out more about her in the upcoming books (because this is the first of a series) and just what it is that makes her special. However, I would’ve liked to find that out in the first instalment. While I greatly appreciate mystery sometimes you have to let the reader know what they’re dealing with.

Wil - Now the main thing I think about Wil is "OMG! His name only has one "l", just like Wil Wheaton!" I'm not sure that reveals anything about the book or anything, unless you count me pretty much admitting I'm a total geek. He's an interesting character, I think him and Jia (who I might talk about at some point) are going to be the glue of the group. Especially him, he has that peacemaker feel about him. He’s also the character I’m most looking forward to seeing develop. I’m not sure why this is, call it me sensing potential.

Ethan - The British love interest for Ingrid but very forgettable (seriously, I forgot his name. I just had to go look it up.) I think the word to describe him is nice. I hope we get to see more of him in future stories because I think that's the only way I'll be able to decide exactly how I feel about him.  I say nice but the conspiracy theorist in me is imagining a twist, actually I want that twist. Hopefully it’ll happen. It’d add a great new layer to the overall story arc.

Overall this is  a fun, quick read that's individual and something I think everyone should read. The  length of the story holds it back as things aren't as well explained as I'd like them to be but as this is the first in a new series this means the plot development has more to give and it’s always fun seeing that happen. The writing was something I really liked and the nice characters made me happy. Hating fictional people is so exhausting. So while it has its flaws it knows how to make imaginations work and my brain thoroughly enjoyed the ride. 

 

My little geeky heart loves aliens and this has aliens. It also has superhero types. I swear it's like the greatest combination ever. There's also David Tennant love. I'm sorry but if the characters like him then that's good enough for me to enjoy a book. I'm a fickle geek. I definitely recommend this to YA sci-fi fans because it's just a really good story that deserves to be read.   

I'd like to thank Clare for letting me take part in this tour! I'm so grateful and reading the book was a total blast! I'd also like to point out that while I received this book for free it hasn't changed how I feel about this. All my reviews are honest and from the heart.

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