The Morning Star by Tania Penn Blog Tour Stop With Guest Post and Giveaway

Publication Date: January 10th, 2013

Publisher: self-pub

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Being the daughter of Lucifer keeps seventeen year old Dawn Belial busy. For almost her entire lifetime, she has been trying to think of a way to free her Archangel mother, Michaela, whom her father has held captive for centuries. She's also attending high school - balancing trigonometry, history, and recruiting souls for her father along with her wicked half-sister, Venus.

There has been no time for love until she meets mysterious Gabriel, a British exchange student. As they fall in love against their will, she discovers a startling secret about him, and a shocking connection to her mother that changes everything.

THE AUTHOR:

Author of debut young adult novel, The Morning Star. Currently working on the sequel, Equinox, as well as a chick-lit, rom-com, slightly sleazy and funny story with a twist, Catching Frogs. And, because I'm loco in the roco, I've got about 12 more on the back burner. When I'm not writing I can be found kayaking, hiking, ninja-training, traveling, and taking a ferry over to the San Juan Islands to search for the elusive creature known as the "Orca." I also am constantly adding ridiculous wants, needs, must-see's and do's to my ever expanding bucket book. 

I covet a delicious malbec with a rare steak and make a killer salsa.

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Guest Post: Writing Inspiration

Inspiration for me can come from the most inopportune and random time, a bizarre dream (that's what I get for mixing a lemon drop martini and wine before bed!), or just one word, one stinkin' solitary word and that will set off a chain reaction in my brain of "holy hell, I need to turn that into a novel!” One time, when I had a band while living in California, we were having a rehearsal at my house. My friend and guitarist BJ played a quick lick on his guitar while our friend and drummer, Bret, took a bathroom break. In 2 minutes, I had written a complete song from that 2 chord lick, we rehearsed it for about 5 minutes, then quickly recorded it right then and there on my handheld recorder so we wouldn’t forget, then recorded it in the studio a few days later. I remember Bret saying, “I just went to the bathroom, and you guys wrote a song?!” That’s still my favorite song and recording we had done. But that kind of on the spot inspiration for me usually proves to be the sweetest.

It's the random, “hey that just came to me” ideas that are inspiring and fun to write. The ability to think up, mold, create and play with (in my head at least) with my imaginary friends is greatly rewarding, and sometimes headache inducing. (Cue more wine...) I have about 18 stories on the back burner right now, including the sequel to The Morning Star, that I’ve been working on. Which is great, because if I get stuck on one, then I’ll mosey on over to one of my other stories, and they are all different. Horror, thriller, dystopian, horror-comedy, horrotica, middle grade, sci-fi. All completely different beasts, but somehow, if I get stuck on one, inspiration will rear it’s beautiful head for another one. I try on any given day to write out at least 1000 words. My thoughts are constantly in motion, even when I’m trying to sleep. If I get stuck on a chapter, I’ll go to bed imagining those characters on pause at where I can’t continue to write, and try to figure out what they would do or say next. That usually helps me.

Events that have occurred at various times in my life have served as inspiration as well. I usually travel around with a small notepad to write down occurrences that may prove to be useful down the line, from funny little quips that come out of my or my friend’s mouths (Thank you Stephanie for your many contributions to my upcoming novel, Catching Frogs!), to something that catches my eye.

With The Morning Star, I wanted to write a Romeo and Juliet type of story, but with biblical characters and expanding on that, being mindful to be respectful, and that there would be those who would find it blasphemous. (A few of my friends did, actually.) There are a few embellished events and/or characters that served as inspiration.
That’s another thing about inspiration, sometimes pain and heartache will bleed out of the pen, or keyboard in my case!

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