Blog Tour + #Giveaway: Perfect Pitch by Alex Hayes @AlexHayesAuthor @XpressoTours

Perfect Pitch
Alex Hayes
Publication date: August 6th 2019
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

All Dean wants is to escape…

But he can’t leave his younger brother, Ty, in the care of their alcoholic mother. And when their abusive father shows up, Dean has to get Ty out. Which means joining Shri — his best and only friend — in taking a job out of state and breaking the law by stealing his brother away.

Cadi’s life is almost back together after Dean blew it into a million pieces. She’s come to terms with her life as a shape-shifter — well, almost. She’s still trying to wrap her head around the fact that a vicious enemy is out to destroy the remnants of her people.

As if Cadi doesn’t have enough to deal with, Dean’s about to land on her front doorstep, forcing her to decide whether to let him into her secret world or slam the door in his face.

The Chameleon Effect series, starring shape-shifter teens with extraordinary superpowers, is sure to appeal to Young Adult and New Adult readers who enjoy romance with a paranormal twist.

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Interview with Alex Hayes

What inspired you to write Perfect Pitch?

The Chameleon Effect series started with my desire to write a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a twist, and I wanted to start with a main character who was sarcastic and funny. Thus, Idris, one of the series’ main characters, was born.

Music is another inspiration for the series. Funny, because I am so unmusical it’s pathetic. I took guitar lessons but didn’t have the patience to stick with them. I mean, how many times can you play “Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore” without going insane?

Perfect Pitch evolved out of the conclusion of Silken Scales. There was a crystal tree cutting to be planted, evil enemies to outwit, and a couple of loose ends by the names of Dean and Shri.

Dean and Shri weren’t meant to be anything more than secondary characters in the series, but they morphed into something more. I really wanted to develop their life stories, trials and the story of friendship and love that evolves between them.

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

Well, I started writing between the age of ten and twelve. I always wanted to write myself into fairy tales and epics like the Chronicles of Narnia. This desire became the springboard into writing my own stories and creating characters a lot more interesting than twelve-year-old me.

I wrote my first novel at eighteen, but that needed a lot of work and took ten years of trial and error to complete.

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

Aside from fairy tales, which I read over and over, the first book I read on my own was Shamus and the Green Cat. I think I was about eight years old.

What genre of books do you enjoy reading?

I love fairy tales, low fantasy, dystopian, science fiction and romance. Most stories with a strong romantic element work for me, but they have to be well developed and complex stories for me to really engage with.

What is your favorite book?

Ugh. I’m not sure I have a single favorite book. I’ve read many, most of which I’ve forgotten the titles and authors of. I have a terrible memory for names. Even my own characters’ names will fade with time and I have to revisit my stories to get them back.

But favorites? I discovered Pride and Prejudice in high school and loved it, but didn’t take to any other historical romances of that era. Mary Stewart’s beautifully descriptive adventures through Europe were a big hit for me and greatly influenced my first book, Ice Cracks. They spurred me to visit France, Italy and Greece.

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

I’m going to say Mary Stewart. She wrote wonderfully strong female protagonist and dropped them into such beautiful, exotic locations. I found her stories irresistible as a teenager.

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

Machu Picchu around 1450 AD, during the period the city was built. I’d love to see how they constructed those amazing stone walls. With the help of ancient aliens? I’d love to find out!

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

Hmm… Writing a book is a combination of difficult and easy. The important thing is to enjoy the process and not rush it.

Creating the story arcs, villain and hero attributes, working out the plot details and theme, those I’d say are the most difficult components. Writing the outline requires a longer period of time than writing the first draft, because ideas have to percolate and gestate.

The most important thing I’ve learned is that the process should not be rushed. That doesn’t mean I can’t turn an outline or a first draft around in a couple of weeks. In fact, I generally do. But my unconscious needs periods of rest between, to work through the details, usually a couple of weeks to a month. This is fine because I jump over to another project and work on that.

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

Yeah, at present I have four fuzzy cat companions. They all arrived on our doorstep and adopted us. My partner and I are really their slaves.

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

Ha-ha. Possibly to die for literally. I once said, as a teenager, that if I could only eat two things, they’d be Cheddar cheese and sourdough bread. I would add a good salad and an occasional bowl of vegan ice cream to that menu these days. Oh yeah, and Jackson Honest potato chips fried in coconut oil. I’m kind of addicted to those.

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

My advice to a first-time writer would be to learn plot structure and character development well. Reading other books in your genre of choice is important, too, but you have to learn the elements that make a well-balanced and satisfying story.

Also, join a critique group or an online community like Scribophile. Even the best writers need people to critique and beta read their work.

And also, critique other writers’ work. I cannot emphasize enough how much you can learn from reading other people’s stuff, both by their strengths and weaknesses.

Author Bio:

Alex Hayes wrote her first fiction story when she was twelve. Inspired by her mother’s storytelling, she began work on her first novel, Ice Cracks, at eighteen.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. In her twenties, she moved from Marin County, California to Boston, Massachusetts, where she built a career as an IT professional in database engineering. In 2004, she self-published Ice Cracks, which became a semi-finalist in the 2005 IPPY Awards.

Alex splits her time between Grand Junction, Colorado and Guanajuato, Mexico. When she isn’t writing, she’s helping her partner, Lee, renovate a 450 year old hacienda. She is mother to one beautiful daughter and many wonderful cats.

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