Monday, September 16, 2013

Smoke, Wings and Stone by Marijon Bradon #TackleTBR #Giveaway #AuthorInterview


Another great giveaway on the #TackleTBR Giveaway!

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Smoke, Wings and StoneSmoke, Wings and Stone
by Marijon Braden
Kindle Edition, 252 pgs
Published May 10 2013 by Dee Ernst

Carrie and Sara Fleming are as different as two sisters can be. Both in high school, Carrie is an outgoing soccer jock, trying to navigate the minefield of Varsity sports –and dating. Sara is a talented musician, who wants to spend her senior year focusing on graduating and getting into a great music school. Both of their lives change forever when Sara inadvertently finds herself engaged to marry Lucien Gargouille, prince of an ancient race of gargoyles.

Sara has no interest in marrying anyone, but a vow spoken in the moonlight has bound her to Luc – forever. To make matters worse, there is a war brewing. For centuries, the gargoyles have protected mankind from all the dark forces in the world. But someone is making trouble, and trying to break the fragile treaty that has kept evil at bay, and Sara has become a target.

Carrie sees the danger around her sister, but can only watch and wait, hoping that Luc and his Family can keep Sara safe. After all, this is what they were born to do – protect the world from vampires, and all the other creatures, who would try to break out of their darkness. But when the enemy makes a daring move, it falls on Carrie to not only save her sister, but to keep the two worlds from crashing together.




Marijon Braden
Marijon Braden was born and raised in New Jersey, which may help to explain her attitude towards charlatans and idiots. She started writing stories at an early age, her first literary influences being Walter Farley, author of the ‘Black Stallion’ series, and Carolyn Keene, of ‘Nancy Drew’ fame. That’s probably why her earliest efforts involved a young girl detective who solved crime on horseback. 



She had a very happy childhood, did well in school, and was a fairly obedient daughter until she went away to college. The original plan was to major in journalism. She wrote for the college paper until she realized that wasn’t the kind of writing she wanted to do when she grew up. So she switched to education. That was not, perhaps, the smartest move.

Then, life happened. Jobs, rent, husband, baby, another husband, another baby, until she found herself a stay-at-home mom, about to chew her foot off if she had to watch one more episode of ‘Barney.’ So, she started to write again.

She still lives in New Jersey with her husband, daughter, two cats and a very spoiled cocker spaniel. Her older daughter is off in Oregon, fighting the good fight for the homeless. She loves to cook – and eat – and plays RPG games on her Xbox when she needs to decompress (Skyrim alone cost her months of her life). During the past few years, she has lost, and tragically found again, the same twenty pounds. Life is all about trying, failing, and trying harder. 

She writes in her downstairs office, surrounded by her growing collection of gargoyles. Smoke, Wings and Stone is her first YA novel.

Marijon Braden is the pen name for Dee Ernst, who writes adult romantic comedy, and has lived an almost identical life.


Marijon Bradon has kindly consented to visit Colorimetry during the readathon and offer a wonderful giveaway as well as talk about her book. Read about her Serial Reading Addictions over on her blog today... hey... it's the Tackle Your TBR Readathon!  Must replenish the TBR with more books!!

What is the inspiration behind Smoke, Wings and Stone?

I also write romantic comedy, and I had an idea for a story about an uptight 40-something businesswoman who gets drunk at a convention and spends the night with a charming stranger.  When she wakes up in the morning, she finds out that he’s a supernatural prince of the fae, and since they’ve had sex, she’s married to him.  I loved the idea, but could never get past the first few chapters.  When I started looking at the story from a teen’s point of view,it got interesting. I wanted to stay away from the usual teen/vampire/angst thing, so I made the vampires the bad guys and the teen girls tough and kick-ass. When looking for my supernatural being, I found too much about the fae, but nothing about gargoyles, which was great, because I got to make it all up!

Lol... what a crazy beginning! I love it! 

·       How did you find your title?

The gargoyles can walk around as human beings, but when they ‘Turn’, first you smell smoke.  Then, they grow in size, sprout their wings and turn into their gargoyle forms.  Then, if they wish, they can ‘Sleep’, that is, turn to stone.

ah... a useful title, then, that relates to the book! 

·       Do you have a favorite scene?

I like writing dialog best, so I really enjoy the funnier dialog scenes.  But I really enjoyed the action sequences.  I’d never written anything like them before, and they were a real challenge, but fun.  I love the scene when Luc is driving the car with Sara, Fabianne and Amelie, and they’re being chased by the vampires.  I can really see it in my mind, and I think it’s just great!

·       Share something personal!  Writing desk? Writing schedule? Writing now?

Right now I’m writing the second book of Smoke, Wings and Stone.  It’s hard because it’s summer, and shouldn’t I be on vacation????  I write in my office downstairs every morning, surrounded by my growing collection of gargoyle statues.  Which, by the way, are very hard to come across. I found my last one in Disney World, of all places!


Read more on Marijon's blog today!

Giveaway!

* Five winners for bookmarks. Int'l

* One winner for the paperback of Smoke, Wings and Stone. Int'l

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