Interview and Giveaway! Bree Despain

So when I was reading my ARC of THE SAVAGE GRACE I knew I had to do an interview with Bree for all of you. I was just loving this book so much and wanted to ask her some questions about her whole experience with it. So, here's the interview, and at the end a FABULOUS giveaway!

1) How was it writing the end of Grace and Daniel's story? How was it different from writing the other books?

I was surprised at how hard it was to write the end of the story. In fact, I kept turning in the manuscript without the last two chapters--because I couldn't bring myself to write "the end." I have to admit that I teared up a bit when I did, but it also feels really good to have brought the story full circle. Third books in a trilogy are challenging to write because there is SO MUCH going on that needs to finally be pulled together in a satisfactory way. I didn't want to drop the ball on the third book and leave a bad taste in readers mouths about the series as a whole. That's pressure!


2) The end of the book is complete, but of course the characters will go on with their lives. Are there any plans for another book or short story in the future?

I heard a famous author say once that the end of the book should feel like "just the beginning" for your readers to imagine in their own heads what happens to the characters after that. I really wanted to capture that feeling with the ending of this series. Right now, I have no plans for more books in the TDD world--but I'm not going to say "never." I do see myself possibly doing a couple of short stories just for fun.


3) The Savage Grace is my favorite book in the series. Do you have a favorite?

I love all the books for different reasons, but I think the first one, THE DARK DIVINE, will always have a very special place in my heart. It's the one that I wrote for myself and poured so much my heart into--without knowing if it would ever be published or if anyone other than my family would ever read it. However, I think TSG is probably the most fun for me to read--it really pushed my plotting and action-writing skills to the limit.


4) Is there anything about your writing process that is an absolute must for you? A quiet location? A certain snack?

Chocolate! I always have a little bowl of dark chocolate chips at my side while I write. Over the summer, I went on a really strict diet that didn't allow me any sugar (or chocolate!) for about a month. I was surprised that my writing productivity went way up during that month. But when I got my revisions back from my editor, I ended up having to rewrite almost every single sentence I'd written during my choclate-free-month. It may not be a very scientific conclusion, but that was enough for me to never try writing without chocolate again!


5) What is your favorite read lately?

My three favorite reads as of late: WHITE CAT by Holly Back, EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton, and UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi.


6) What are you working on now?

I'm working on a new book that is slated for publication in Fall 2013. I don't know what I'm allowed to say about it yet, but I can tell you that it's a story I started before THE DARK DIVINE was published, and I am so excited to be working on it again!

and for my own knowledge... 7) How do you pronounce Sirhan?

I pronounce it Sir-han. Like "Sir" (as in, "Yes, Sir!") and "Han" (as in, "Han Solo" or "rhymes with "on"). But really, any way you want to pronounce it is fine by me.

Totally random tidbit about how I came up with that name: I found an old Life Magazine from 1969 in my Grandmother's house. The cover story was about a man named "Sirhan Sirhan" who had just been convicted for assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The article said that "Sirhan" means "wolf" and I decided to use it for the name of the formidable leader of the largest werewolf pack. The character's full name "Sirhan Etlu" means "Wolf Warrior."


Thanks so much Bree! It was a blast as always! NOW it's giveaway time! I am so ridiculously excited about this! The publisher has offered to give not just ONE but TWO of you the ENTIRE Dark Divine Trilogy!!!!!!

Just comment about Bree's interview, and fill out the form below! It's that easy!

Contest will be open just until Wed, March 21, 11:59 pm EST. So get on it!

Oh and P.S. Happy St. Patrick's day!

**The contest is USA mailing addresses only. Sorry for the inconvenience. I should have specified earlier.

Book Signing Report: Bree Despain!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to the launch party and book signing at The King's English in Salt Lake City for THE SAVAGE GRACE, book 3 in the Dark Divine Trilogy.

It was so great to see Bree again and celebrate this awesome book! Here's some pics and highlights from her presentation entitled "The End".

*Once again I am just going to type my notes as I wrote them as Bree said them...so this is paraphrased Bree. ;)

• Sequels are hard. The Lost Saint, I affectionately refer to as the book that ate my soul. But the third book has to be easier to write, right? Heh. heh. Yeah right.
• You spend your writing career learning how to write a first book, that took me 10 years. No one teaches you how to write a second or third book
• At times this book had beasty claws, fangs and got very bloodthirsty around the full moon
• One obstacle was there are so many strings that need to be tied up in the final book, things you have to complete
• Also third books have a lot more climax, 2/3rds of the book is climax
• All the characters you've introduced, not just the main ones, have to have their stories come full circle. Some will fail at thier goals, some will succeed, some will even die.

• The hardest obstacle to overcome in writing this book was saying goodbye. When I typed the last words from book 3 I would be saying goodbye to charcters that had been talking to me since a dark cold night in January so long ago.
• I put off writing the end. I kept turning in drafts without the last few chapters
• Well I finally turned a draft in, still without the last few chapters and my Editor said "I love the ending!" But that freaked me out, that's not the end! I said. He told me they were already doing copy edits and were going to print in 2 days.
• So i had one night to write that perfect ending, to say goodbye
• what I finally had to do was force myself to stop thinking about what the perfect ending would be, and just write what felt true for the characters.
  

• When I finished
  my husband bought me not just one kitten, but two! We call them the kittens Divine. Merlin is black and Avalon is grey.
  

Then Bree read from the book a little, and did some giveaways thanks to winners from a fairly hard trivia! I was shooting myself for not remembering a few of them since I had JUST read TSG not that long ago. She gave away some of the awesome Dark Divine Jewelry and some of the nailpolish with pedicure supplies, and then one person got her food of choice for writing, chocolate covered cinnamon bears.



It was so wonderful to see Bree again! I just love her smiling face, I love how much she cares about her readers, and especially I love her books. She's such an inspiration!

Alright, so that being said, come back tomorrow to see what Bree had to say for my interview with her! And there just might be something super super awesome posted along with that interview. ;)

Review: THE SAVAGE GRACE by Bree Despain

THE SAVAGE GRACE
by Bree Despain
Hardcover 496 pages
Published March 13th 2012 by EgmontUSA (Yes folks, that's TODAY!)

Placement in the Pile: Top Picks!

Summary:
A troubled soul. An impossible choice. A final battle.

Wrestling with the werewolf curse pulsing deep inside of her, Grace Divine was finally able to find her brother, but it nearly cost her everything.

With her boyfriend, Daniel, stuck in wolf form and Sirhan's death approaching, time is running out for Grace to stop Caleb Kalbi and his gang of demons. If she fails, her family and hometown will perish. Everything rests on Grace's shoulders.

The final installment in The Dark Divine trilogy brings Daniel and Grace's love story to a breathtaking conclusion.

Review:
I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. It was the perfect conclusion to the series. It is a long book yes, but it never feels that way. The action just keeps building and building and building. Unlike another very popular book series, you will not feel like the final "battle" scenes are a let down. No, this book was everything it should have been, and more.

There is not a lot I can or want to say about content because I don't want to spoil it. But I will say that the romantics won't be disappointed, the action fans won't be disappointed. I laughed, I literally cried. I was surprised by some twists, not as surprised by others, but that was okay. I loved and hated characters in a way that made me really care about the book. I was worried a bit about the title and what it would mean (which you don't get till the very end!) In the end I was 100% satisfied with the story, but it still left room for me to think of the characters in the future.

Bree Despain, you recaptured my heart! Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into this one, cause it was my favorite of the series!


**Be SURE to come back often this week! I am having a "Divine" week here on the blog! We will be having an interview with Bree, a report of her book launch party tonight, and an AWESOME giveaway you won't want to miss!

Book Signing Report: Bree Despain!

I was SO happy that Bree decided to have another local signing, as I wasn't in town for her book launch party at another local indie bookstore. So I got to go to my local B&N to see her and get my copy of THE LOST SAINT signed!

I really loved one of the things read in her bio intro (the whole thing can be found on her website HERE):

"As a kid, Bree would staple folded papers to make her own "novels." As a teen, she wrote stories in notebooks while her friends waited for the next page to be finished. Her teachers told her she should be a writer. But Bree thought only special people could be writers, so as the years past, she settled into the idea of becoming a lawyer or something else just as ordinary."

I just wanted to tell Bree something. You are VERY special Bree! You are one of the most genuine people I have met, and I am so glad that I have. Your determination and talent inspires me.

Then Bree spoke a little about her journey to creating Grace and Daniel and how THE LOST SAINT came about. Here is where I will use bullets -- please note none of these are direct direct quotes as I was writing as fast as I could, but they are pretty close!

• I thought THE DARK DIVINE was a tradgedy and a stand alone book. It wasn't until a mentor of mine pulled me aside and said, "You can't leave it like that, there is more!" Then I figured out TDD was a romance, and re-wrote the ending.
  
• When I sold TDD I sold that and one other book that was to be determined...no one would tell me what that book was supposed to be until finally they said "We need a sequel and we need it in 4 months"
• I freaked. I was paralyzed. It took me 4 years to write TDD.
  

• Writing THE LOST SAINT was really hard. I started it over and over again.
  
• So I went to a class and the teacher asked such a simple question "What does your character want?" Well I knew what Grace wanted in the first book, and I thought she got it. But I realized that she only got half of what she wanted, there is still something she desperately wanted, and then she started talking to me again.
• I sound like a crazy person when I talk about my characters talking to me...but they do

• When I started TLS was when lots of reviews were starting to come out for TDD and they were so positive. A lot of people would just be happy with that, but for me it was pressure. Pressure to live up to their expectations, to write that second book that is just as good if not better.
• Sara Zarr, a local author friend understood when I said this. Then she gave me this advice (again this is me paraphrasing) "There are lots of kinds of authors out there. There are those that write one book and go away. There are authors that work for it, keep going, and write more. The trick is to write that second book."
  

• Bree decided she could do it. She wrote a good book once, she could do it again, and TLS came into being!
• Then she went on to Grace more, and how developing her character was different in this book. She said: "Grace is grace. She always has been. But in the first book, grace was forgiveness and mercy. In the second book grace is help -- she wants to help people, to be a hero with her new developing superpowers.
• The frustrations I felt while writing TLS really bled into Grace's reactions and conversations, some of them are word for word almost conversations that I had with people while I was venting my frustrations about writing the book.
  
• My frustration was because I knew I had the potential to write a good book, but it wasn't happening fast enough. Grace's frustrations were that she has the potential to be a hero but the abilities aren't coming fast enough.
  

Then Bree read us a bit from the book, and signed books and I had a chance to talk to her a little more. She said she is working on TDD3, no title approved yet. In fact she is working on finishing that AND moving at the same time. She is seriously super woman.

So everyone go out and check out this amazing author's books if you haven't yet! She is just great!

Book Signing with Bree Despain!

I was lucky enough to go to a book signing for Bree Despain at my local Barnes and Noble on January 16th! It was so so much fun!

Beforehand I went over to my friend SpeedReader (of My Favorite Author)'s house and we painted our nails with the official Dark Divine nail polish which she got with her ARC!

Barnes and Noble was packed! They had 75 books in stock at the beginning of the signing, and only 5-6 were left at the end! THE DARK DIVINE is just flying off of shelves! (I'm in the second row there, furiously taking notes!)

This is me and my friend waiting for Bree to show up! I was beyond excited, can you tell? We were joined in our excitement with lots of other bloggers (hooray for getting buisness cards and sharing blog urls!) and fans.




Before the signing Bree talked a little about herself, the book, her path to publication, etc. Here are the highlights:

• Bree didn't play when she was little, she directed play.
  
• After a really bad car accident she said there are two things she would have regretted most if she had died; never finishing a novel, and not being with her family - this is when she got serious about writing full time.
• Her inspirations for TDD were having read SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson (she called it "heartwrenching and beautiful"), an experience she had with a sudden encounter with a friend she had as a child who came back and she didn't recognize him anymore, and an experience when a conversation between Grace and her brother came into her head while driving one night.

• When she first wrote TDD it was contemporary
• She got sucked into the Buffy-verse (Yay for Buffy the Vampire Slayer!) and finally embraced the paranormal aspect of the book.
• The paranormal element allowed the book to be about redemption without being too didactic.
  

Then Bree read to us a conversation between Grace and Daniel on page 103. This made me even more excited to make room for this book at the top of my pile!

Having teased all of us with the magnificent Daniel Bree took questions. Here are some of the cooler Q's and A's. (these are not direct quotes most of the time...these are just from my notes.)

Q: Were there any other working titles?
A: Tons. But one that it had for a long time was Daniel Divine. However, that connotated Grace and Daniel were actually brother and sister, and that was just creepy. Her writer's group voted on a list and chose The Dark Divine...which was Bree's fave anyway.

Q: How was the cover created? (It's so pretty!)
A: My publisher asked me if I had any thoughts on the cover. This is very kind of them to ask because the author usually has little to NO say on the cover. Bree wrote back a 2 page letter with ideas of what covers she likes, what concepts she doesn't like etc.

ARCs were going to print in a few days and they finally sent her a cover that she HATED. It was everything she said she didn't like. It ends up that they had gone through so many covers they had just settled. She called her editor in tears and said she would not have picked up that book, he agreed he didn't like it and he went through thousands of images online until he found this one. They added the purple color scheme and voila!

She loved it! However, at the time there was no purple in the book! So She added purple in -- because it would have drove Bree nuts if the cover didn't make sense! And there it is! (The ARCs did not have the purple in them!)

So then Bree signed our books! (And handed out official TDD nail polish! How cool is that???)

She was so much fun to talk to and I'm so glad I got to go and support this wonderful book! So many more fun things happened, like cardboard cut outs, talk of the Trophy Husband etc. There was just so much that I just gave you the highlights!

I hope you all take the time to check author blogs and bookstore websites to see when signings are coming near you! They are SO worth it!

I am looking forward to much more from Bree in the future! And hey, maybe we can get her over here when she's not too busy for an interview and/or guest blog! ;)

Happy Reading everyone!

Review THE DARK DIVINE by Bree Despain

THE DARK DIVINE
by Bree Despain
Published December 22nd 2009 by EgmontUSA
Hardcover, 372 pages
http://www.breedespain.com/

Placement in the Pile: Top of the Stack

Summary:
A prodigal son
A dangerous love
A deadly secret...

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.

The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul. (GoodReads)

Review:
The Dark Divine is a very gripping read that combines the paranormal, religion, romance and redemption.

I really connected with Grace as a character. She lives life in a religious family as I did and it is what guides many of her actions. However when Daniel arrives, secrets also come flooding back into her life and she is forced to question her beliefs - in a very positive way.

Daniel is the perfect cad. Or so it would seem. Truly the prodigal son (except for the part about being a flesh and blood son of the Divine family) of the story, yet with a twist. Even he can't seem to hope to find redemption and forgiveness for his actions.

Thoroughly enjoyable, a tad predictable at times (but I think that just stems from me reading so much paranormal romance) and with the last 75 pages being completely enthralling, I had to give this book top marks. With the predictability there were moments that truly and utterly shocked me, pulled me into this dark story, and made me long for more. I cannot wait for the next installment.

If you at all like paranormal novels this one is for you. It is highly romantic, but not so openly nauseating as some, so if romance is not your thing, you will still love the story. Truly there is universal messages here that Despain intertwines beautifully.

I am VERY glad I own this one for my shelf!