NBTM + #Giveaway: The Keeper’s Vow by Francina Simone @FrancinaSimone @GoddessFish

The Keeper’s Vow

by Francina Simone

GENRE: YA Epic Urban Fantasy

BLURB:

All Katie Watts wants is to pass her junior-year, at Hamilton Private, with as little effort as possible—devoting time to knitting hats, breeding gerbils, becoming a movie critic, or even just sleeping. No wonder she isn’t ready for a world with vampires, werewolves, and nightmares.

Her life is shattered to pieces when Tristan gets stabbed in her front yard. She has no idea where he came from and worse, he hears her thoughts—and when she can’t take anymore, she starts to hear his. No one is who she thought they were. Her father is keeping secrets and when she searches for the truth, she ends up homeless.

As the truth claws its way to the surface, Katie and Tristan grow closer together and they find themselves connected in more ways than she can believe. But is honesty worth more than the peace blissful, ignorance brings? Especially if it sparks a chain of events that will end the lives of millions? Can she live with the truth that begins with her dead mother and ends with The Keeper’s Vow?

Excerpt:

Training Day

In one move, Tristan kicked Katie’s legs out from under her and she hit the ground. “Shut up already. Be more focused on what you’re doing, not me. Do you think the werewolf or vampire who’s trying to kill you will compliment you on how you stabbed him in an artery? Get over yourself. I’m sick of listening to your crap. You never shut up.”

“Tristan!” Lucinda scolded.

Katie scrambled to her feet. Covered in dust and dirt. “Then get out of my head!” How dare he complain about invading her privacy.

“You think I enjoy this? Do you realize I spend my entire day trying to shut you out!” Tristan yelled back.

Lucinda, Allison, and Brian were staring at them, but Katie didn’t care if all of Boise was staring at them. She was tired of him. Sick of not knowing whether she was right to hate him or not. She clenched her fist and growled. “I can’t stand you.” 

Tristan scowled. “Funny, you didn’t say that yesterday.”

“I never asked you to do anything. I didn’t show up at your school. I didn’t mess up your life!” she screamed. 

“Katie,” Lucinda warned, taking a step towards them.

Maybe it wasn’t fair that she was taking out all of her anger on him, but he asked for it.

Tristan glared at her, his eyes unwavering as the sun beam down on them. “I didn’t ask for you. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t have a choice.” He  balled up his fist and walked off.

Author Interview:

1. What inspired you to write The Keeper’s Vow?

So the Keeper’s Vow came about because I was reading a paranormal young adult book that I thought was just super…not…great. I’ll never reveal the title of that series (no it’s not Twilight) but I just pulled up my sleeves and decided that if I wanted to read a specific book with vampires I’d just have to write it instead of waiting for an author to read my mind.

2. When or at what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I was seventeen and I kept hearing this boy in my mind. Isaac. He was on his way to a world full of magic and under dire circumstances he and his best friend were separated from their parents. Isaac’s voice was slamming around my head during class one day and I went home and wrote four or five chapters of his story.

3. What is the earliest age you remember reading your first book?

I’m going to pick the first book I read and loved because I’m way too old to think back all those years…I think that was Perloo the Bold by Avi I was in the 8^th grade and it was my first real introduction to fantasy.

4. What genre of books do you enjoy reading?

I love fantasy. I pretend that I love everything but Fantasy is my home. I just like other genres to visit every now and again.

5. What is your favorite book?

Is it fair to ask any book loving person this? I’ll tell you my current favorite. Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I love moral ambiguity and her characters and the world is full of it. I’m also a huge fan of a diverse cast or and her books just satisfy a lot of my “love” checklist.

6. You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

J.K. Rowling, Jacklyn Moriarty, DJ MacHale, Polly Horvath. These are authors that mean a lot to me for one reason or another, but that list is always growing these days.

7. If you could travel back in time here on earth to any place or time. Where would you go and why?

Maybe I’d got back to 1780 ish (for like a week if it’s only promised I don’t end up dead or deathly sick) To chit chat with Hamilton and have a torrid love affair while he’s writing like he’s running out of time…But I fear Lin Manuel’s Hamilton might be a bit more suave than the real one…

8. When writing a book do you find that writing comes easy for you or is it a difficult task?

This really depends. Conceptualizing is difficult. But once I’m in the world and writing—it all comes like a giants wave and I just try to type fast enough to stay afloat.

9. Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?

I have a Catahoula puppy and a cat. My cat is 8 and he’s been all over the world and is really low maintenance…he’s more dog than cat I think. My puppy is currently chasing my screaming child around the house with a hula hoop….so there is that. LOL we love him but he’s a handful.

10. What is your "to die for", favorite food/foods to eat?

Worst question for me because I’m fickle. On minute it’s key lime pie, the next I will cut you if you ask if I want a slice *gag*. Right now, I’m pretty bit on soup and gingerbread cookies.

11. Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to be an author?

Write. Once you have your first draft, this is the time to soak in everything you can about story telling and writing as a craft. You’ll get there. It takes a lot of research and time but you’ll get it and you’ll have an amazing story. But what I want you to do now is start a blog, vlog, instagram, twitter, whatever works for you, go out there and connect with the people who will most likely love your story. Get out there now because you’ll make some of the best friends and you’ll be surrounded by people who love books and writing and on the bad days, this will help you get through them.

AUTHOR BIO:

Francina Simone is a writer of Epic Urban Fantasies brimming with Magic and Moral Ambiguity.

From the time Francina Simone entered kindergarten, she loved to read and share words with her friends. When she was in the fifth-grade, she was scared to read aloud and so the teacher concluded she wasn’t very good at reading—Francina read anyway.

Francina left her middle school book club behind for the daunting and exciting life as a high school freshmen. She was quickly told Young Adult books were childish and she should concern herself with finer literature—Francina read them anyway. 

Francina waved good-bye to her high school life and strutted into University with her YA books and graphic paper to take notes. She witnessed the birth of a YA trend where publishers flocked to sell their stories to teens…stories that were underdeveloped and glaring with structural issues. The message she heard as a consumer was simple—common belief is YA readers aren’t good enough readers to discern quality stories or they are too childish to tell the difference. 

Francina dropped her degree in chemistry and decided enough was enough—and set out to write the quality* stories her fellow readers deserved. 

After her formative years she moved to Japan, with her best-friend and husband, land of some of the worlds best story-tellers and creators of unique manga. There she worked on her stories and the quest to understand what authenticity* in story means. 

Now she lives in Boise with her husband, son, cat, and Catahoula. She spends most of her time battling the terrible-twos and puppy-dom. But when things are quiet—you can hear frantically typing away; her mind far away with her characters in their quest to make the right decisions in a world brimming with magic and moral ambiguity.

Links:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Youtube ~ Facebook ~ Mailing List

Buy Link:

Amazon

Giveaway:

$25 Amazon/BN GC
 

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