LAURIE FOREST GUEST POST AND THE BLACK WITCH GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday, Everyone! Today I'm excited to have debut author Laurie Forest here to share about her YA fantasy THE BLACK WITCH. I've always been intrigued by apothecaries.

Here's a blurb from Goodreads:

Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother's legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people—including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians—is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits…if only she can find the courage to trust those she's been taught to hate and fear.

Now here's Laurie!

WRITING THE BLACK WITCH

About eight years ago, the last thing you would have found me reading is fantasy fiction. I’d never sought out the genre, and preferred to read non-fiction almost exclusively. I was finishing up a series of non-fiction books about Afghanistan when my then pre-teen daughters started putting HARRY POTTER in front of me.

            “No thank you,” I told them, humoring their dogged efforts. “Those are kids’ books, but I’m glad you’re enjoying them.”

            They refused to give up.

            Finally, after watching them devour the books, dress up like characters in the books, style birthday parties around the books and get so excited about the movies, I broke down and cracked open the first book.

            I read through the entire series in a less than two months.

            I was instantly hooked. And stunned that J.K. Rowling was able to tackle so many serious

issues so effectively (and inspiringly) in a metaphorical/fantasy way. I started to read every YA fantasy book my kids handed me, and then some.

            During this time, as I was immersing myself in vivid stories of dragons and werewolves and witches and wizards, a dramatic, real-life story was going on around us here in Vermont – the fight for marriage equality. My husband and I were involved in supporting marriage equality, which was a surprisingly hard battle. Prejudice I never knew existed came out of the woodwork against LGBTQ friends, completely blindsiding me.

This real-life story did have a happy ending - Vermont legalized marriage equality in 2009. But the darkness I had witnessed reverberated in my mind. It set me mulling over prejudice in more general terms (religion-based, gender-based, etc.) as I was reading THE GOLDEN COMPASS series. The spark of a story lit inside me - a fantasy story where people with wings are rejected by pretty much every religion/culture for no sound reason save tradition. On a lark, I started writing that first scene down and found myself as instantly hooked by writing as I had been by fantasy fiction (it felt like magic). My fledgling story rapidly found its own trajectory and rapidly veered off into pure fantasy territory.

That first year of writing was a fertile, breathtakingly exciting one. I wrote almost every day and at the end of the year I had a 1,200 page book (which was later to become Book One and Book Two of the upcoming BLACK WITCH CHRONICLES). I joined a writing group. They loved my hot mess of a rough draft and pushed me to consider publication (which, at the time, I thought was pie-in-the-sky ridiculous). About a year later I landed my wonderful agent, Carrie Hannigan at Hannigan, Salky & Getzler. And the rewriting began.

Over the span of about eight years I re-wrote the manuscript well over thirty times with countless revisions of sections. About 400 pages of material were thrown out and about an equal amount was added. And there were rejections from prospective publishers - a lot of them (and it was a good thing as the story wasn’t ready and I had a lot to learn about writing). I joined a second group of writers/beta readers. I joined the Burlington Writers’ Workshop.

Advice for new writers? Try to write every day. My favorite writing quote is “the muse can’t resist a working writer” and I think that’s very true. If you show up, your muse will show up. Read as much as you can. And do the things that inspire you – movies, museums, listening to conversations in coffee shops, going to plays, meandering in the forest – whatever those things are that set your imagination firing. And after that – join a writing group. You’ll have as much fun watching other people’s novels take shape as you will seeing your own book come to life.

It’s a magical journey – and you’ll come up with a story you could have never predicted. The thrill of discovery is half the fun of it. Enjoy!

You can find Laurie at:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009503414837

http://laurieannforest.com/

https://www.pinterest.com/forestlaurieann/

https://www.instagram.com/laurieannforest/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/laurieannforest?lang=en

Laurie has generously offered an ARC of THE BLACK WITCH for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through May 20th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This is for U.S. and Canada.

Here's what's coming up:

Wednesday, May 10th I've got an agent spotlight interview with Lorin Oberweger and a query critique giveaway

Monday, May 15th I've got a guest post by debut author Erin Beaty and her agent Valerie Noble with a query critique giveaway by Valerie and a giveaway of Erin's YA fantasy THE TRAITOR'S KISS

Monday, May 22nd I've got an interview with Kat Zhang and a giveaway of her new MG THE EMPEROR'S RIDDLE

Wednesday, May 24th I've got an agent spotlight interview with Alyssa Jennette and a query critique giveaway

Monday, May 31st I'll be off for Memorial day

Hope to see you on Wednesday!