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

Publication Date: January 10th, 2013

Publisher: self-pub

Purchase HERE

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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The Birth of My Other Baby

Today is Day Six of the 28-Day Blog Challenge for Authors and we're sharing the story behind the birth of our novel. If you're interested in participating, check out this link.

Describe how the idea for your book first came to you. Where were you? Who was the first person you told? How did they respond?


The story behind the conception of First Visions is kind of two-fold. I first wrote a story about a psychic finding a missing child when I was a teenager and recently revisited the tale. My grandmother passed away last year and since she raised me, the majority of my old writings were at her house. I was feeling very sad after her death and it made me feel nostalgic enough to want to revisit the past.

Although the psychic story was inspiring, I made a few keen observations as I re-read my old stories from my teen years:

1. We were poor and I was hungry all the time (In almost every scene of my stories someone is eating and I describe their meals in painstaking detail).


2. I had no boyfriend (I was clued in by lines like: Their lips met for the very first time. She pulled away, “I guess this means you’re my boyfriend now.” “Definitely,” he agreed eagerly.)


3. I had a flair for the melodramatic (You could count on a pregnancy scare, a teen suicide or an AIDS scare in almost every single story).

The person I likely told the first time around about my story was my cousin Dana. She’s my creative soul mate and we started writing books together as far back as middle school. We always shared each chapter after it was completed and would lavish outlandish praise on each other about how amazingly talented and witty we both were. We grew up in unfortunate circumstances and writing stories was our way to give ourselves an escape.

For weeks, my husband had to endure every cheesy line that would induce me into a fit of giggles. I have no problems making fun of myself and I thought my angst induced tales were HILARIOUS. I asked him what he thought about me giving the psychic story a go and he said the concept sounded interesting. After that first dinner at Houlihan’s where we talked about the book, he became a major sounding board for different ideas I had. He’s been such a huge source of support-I really don’t know what I’d do without him.

This is a picture of my wonderful grandmother who I really credit for taking me down this path. I know she’s out there watching over me and cheering me on.

My Childhood Writings-28-Day Blog Challenge

I'm participating in the 28-Day Blog Challenge for Authors and this is our first prompt. The challenge is intended to bring other writers together to share our stories. If you're interested in the challenge, here's a link to their website so you can learn more.

Describe your earliest memory of writing. How did your writing habit/process/career develop?

My earliest memory of creating stories was in elementary school. During fifth grade, I created this series of thrillers. The plots involved this killer who stalked people in the woods (thinking my inspiration was Friday the 13th). The funny thing about the stories was the killer and then later his cousin had the most non-threatening ridiculous names (Mac Aroni and Spud Ghettio).

I had a rough childhood growing up and we didn’t have any money. No money meant clothes from layaway at Kmart, crackers for dinner many nights and a phone that was turned off more than it was turned on. This made it difficult to really have any friends, especially during that awkward middle school phase. My cousin Dana and I would get together and write these stories about the amazing lives we wished we had. I was always beautiful in the stories with a boyfriend who looked like Matt Damon (we were really into the movie School Ties at the time lol) and had a rich family.

My beloved grandmother who raised me at times when my parents couldn’t recently passed away. A large amount of my belongings were at her house and this included many of the stories I had written in middle school and high school. Although most of the plots and dialogue was cringe-worthy (sample lines: “They went to the Orange Pit for lunch, a diner that looked just like the one on 90210.” “Their lips met for the first time. ‘I guess this means you’re my boyfriend now,’ she told him. ‘Definitely,’ he agreed.), I did find a few diamonds in the rough. One of the stories involved a psychic trying to find a lost child and that became my inspiration behind my novel First Visions.

I didn’t write fiction for years and years, so I really have my grandmother to thank for leading me down this path. If I hadn’t found those old stories, I would have never rediscovered my creative outlet (I work as a freelance writer and it becomes difficult at times to become inspired after writing about hemorrhoid treatments).

Thanks for letting me share my story and I can’t wait to read other authors who are participating in the 28 Day Challenge.

My Writing Inspirations-Blog Tour Stop on Book Lovin' Mamas

Today, I stopped by the fabulous blog Book Lovin' Mamas to talk about writing inspiration, share an excerpt from First Visions and also hold a contest for a free e-copy of the book. Be sure to stop by to check out the entire post and enter the giveaway. Leave a comment to enter a chance for a $30 Amazon gift card. Contest details are here.

Getting in the Mood to Create: My Writing Inspirations

The topic of writing inspiration is really interesting for me to think about. I find inspiration in so many things, it almost seems impossible to narrow it down to a select few. The funny thing is the things that help me create my stories have a huge divide. I can just as easily find inspiration in a marathon of Supernatural on the CW as equally as a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Old Writings

Were you as angsty as I was during your teen years? Besides being dirt poor, I was socially awkward with a penchant for playing the trombone. To say the least, my dance card was far from full. Instead of a social life, I filled notebook after notebook of dreadfully melodramatic stories of characters with the lives I coveted. They were beautiful, rich and had amazing love lives. After my beloved grandmother passed away last year, I retrieved my writings from her home. Although most of the work was crap, I did find a few storylines worth developing. A book of my favorite poems as a teen was also in the collection and helped me tap back into that creativity of my youth.

Getting Away From It All

I LOVE my husband and sons with all of my heart. However, temper tantrums and diaper duty doesn’t lend well to creative inspiration. Going for a solo drive or having a chance to people watch can really give me a chance to work on current stories or find new characters or plot points to fit into future writings. Taking the boys for walks can really help with my inspiration as well. As they play, I can let my mind wander.

Books/TV Shows/Movies

I’m big on escapist shows, movies and books. Even the reality TV shows I watch are not really steeped in reality (The Bachelorette? You get to live in a mansion and travel the world while 20 gorgeous guys vie for your hand in marriage. I would guess not too many people have this kind of life). Watching these crazy scenarios play out on screen or on the page helps me get my mind in the place it needs to be to write about paranormal things. Although I definitely watch and read a lot of paranormal stuff, I try to vary genres and also enjoy romantic comedies, thrillers and real-life mysteries.

Music and art are definitely major inspirations as well and I love to spend the day writing after a trip to the museum or attending a concert. Although I could probably write a novel on the topic, these are the most significant. It’s exceedingly important to identify the things that inspire you since this can be such a huge help in overcoming writer’s block.