A terrible mistake haunts college student Olivia Spencer. To escape the past, she travels to the Mediterranean island of Crete, hoping for the courage to start anew.
By the sea, she meets sexy and enigmatic Kai. But there’s more to Kai than meets the eye – and nobody wants to talk about it. The locals shun him, accusing him of magic. Kai, apparently, belongs to the sea, no matter how crazy that sounds.
Kai isn’t free to be with her or live his own life, and this is how he will stay, unless Olivia can break his curse and save him – in doing so atoning for those she wasn’t able to save in the past.
As mentioned on Sunday, today I’d like to welcome to Inkfever Chrystalla Thoma, YA and NA fantasy/paranormal author, and author of the fabulous Rex series. A round of applause, if you please!
Today, Chrys is going to answer two questions for us: How do you create stories that you absolutely LOVE as an author? And what do you love most about Azure?
I think we can all agree that writers are first and foremost readers, and stories are supposed to be lovable 😉 😀 So, over to Chrys for her reply!
I started writing the stories I wanted to read but couldn’t find. I bet many authors do that. Like, I want a book about elves and portals with a mystery story? Then I go and write that one. I want a book about crazy parasites giving my heroes supernatural powers? Done.
But that’s not all, of course, that’s just the spark. Next come the characters, and I need to create characters I can fall in love with, with flaws and issues but also kind and courageous. And when I have found my characters, I need to create a world that excites me, that is different from ours and yet not too different. A world readers can imagine but can still feel that touch of awe I also get when I read about something unusual and beautiful.
Now, when I started writing Azure, I was already in love with the setting. Crete is an amazing place, an island made of steep mountains and green valleys, then white cliffs over the blue mediterranean sea. There is magic in every crevice, underneath every rock, ancient ruins everywhere, legends and tales of fantastic creatures. For instance, while researching Cretan folklore, I came across the legend that in some parts water sleeps. It can fall asleep and won’t move, and if you wake it up, it can hurt you. Of course the idea was included in the story, along with many others. 🙂
But that’s not the only reason I love Azure. I love it for the characters, major and minor. I love Olivia’s strength and relentless strive for answers, Kai’s concern for her and his attempts to make her smile, I love Olivia’s German friends and their poetry-related banter, Kai’s Greek cousin and his half-concealed worry about Kai… I also loved, as a writer, finding Shakespearean quotes that fit the story and counterbalancing them with the invented poet Myra Crow. Loved writing her poetry. Maybe I should publish a poetry collection under her name…
Now what I love MOST. Tough one.
Me being me, I think what I love most is the paranormal element of the story – the sea magic and how it affects Kai’s life – as well as the constant back and forth on whether the magic is real or not. As promised in the book description, there is a “smidge” of paranormal, and by that I mean that one could dismiss the magic and still have a believable realistic story. However, if you believe in magic, like Kai does, then it’s all the more interesting…
Thank you, Chrys, for your wonderful answer! I can’t wait to read Azure 🙂 And I think a volume of poetry by Myra Crow would be amazing! 😀
If Azure sounds like something that might interest you, make sure you enter the giveaway below! And if you don’t win, you could always grab a copy from Amazon 😀