A Shadow in the Past International Blog Tour Day 8 – character interviews and more!

I’m back on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean today visiting first with Peggy Stanton who is interviewing my characters, Sarah and Robert. Now Peggy herself, is quite the character so it should be a lively time. Oh, I do hope those three behave themselves… Anyway, you can catch the interview at Peggy Stanton – Looking Out.

Then it’s back up to Bonnie Scotland and Janice Horton. We first met “virtually” when Janice launched Bagpipes & Bullshot and we quickly became fast friends. So far we remain virtual friends only but hopefully, we can rectify that in the coming year.

A Shadow in the Past International Blog Tour Day 7 – a day of rest???

Not as such. But, the three blogs I’m visiting today are all in my hometown of Brockville. I need an easy day like this to rest up after the hectic schedule I set myself up for. Yeesh… wouldn’t you think I could have been a bit more coordinated rather than jetting all over from point A to B and back again? Over and over again. Oh well, at least I’m only travelling virtually. If it were for real, I would have the UK and European stops together and the same with the North American ones.

So where am I today? Well, three members of my local writers’ group – Writers’ Ink – have agreed to host me.

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My first stop today is with Joe Mossman. Back in January, Joe and I were guests on the local cable company’s program Reader’s Corner. You can see his interview with me on his blog joe-mossman.blogspot.com. Hope Joe has the coffee on. After my hectic schedule, I’ll need the caffeine jolt to get me kick-started this morning.

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My second stop is at Chris Hanna’s My adventure in becoming at writer blog.

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My last stop is with Dorothy Bush. She’s invited me for high tea. Hmm… wonder what we’ll be having? No coffee at this time of day, but a tipple of something just in keeping with the occasion. Dorothy blogs at Twisting in the Wind. Maybe if she hasn’t put her motorcycle away for the season, she’ll take me out for a short ride.

Drop back tomorrow and see what part of the world I’ll be visiting.

A Shadow in the Past International Blog Tour Day 6 – lots of travelling today!

Today truly brings in the International element into the title of my blog tour! Two countries – an ocean apart – in the same day!

I’m starting out this morning after making the short trip down from Scotland to be CentreStage with the lovely Nicky Wells.

And from there, I hop a flight to Canada where I’m Maureen Fisher’s guest at her blog Books by Maureen. Maureen is a fellow member of the Ottawa Romance Writers’ Association so I suspect her questions will be skewed in that direction. I hope they aren’t too difficult to answer.

A Shadow in the Past International Blog Tour Day 5 – I’m in Scotland with Rosemary Gemmell

Today I’m with the lovely Rosemary Gemmell over at her Ros’s Reading and Writing Blog. Many of you don’t know but if it weren’t for a post Rosemary put on her blog about the MuseItUp online writers conference last year, I wouldn’t have pitched my novel to 4RV Publishing and landed a contract. So thank you ever so much, Rosemary!

The Star Child Blog Tour

Today’s guest on Celtic Connexions is Kellen St. James from The Star Child. Welcome Kellen.

Hi Melanie, thanks so much for having me on your blog today.

Well I’m sure everyone is anxious to find out more about you so let’s get started. Your bio says you grew up being unwanted, ordinary and slightly geeky. I know it’s painful to talk about but can you tell us why you always felt that way?

Well, who hasn’t, you know what I mean? In my case, I always had my head stuck in a book, I’ve always been a reader and pretty much lived in the library. They called me a prodigy too. I’ve always done well in school. Graduate Yale at eighteen and guess they call you geek, now. I don’t know. I’m just a normal guy, you know?

The unwanted part? That’s easy. Stephen, my messed up father, kept shipping me off to different places like boarding school in England and college at Yale when I hadn’t reached college age. What else am I supposed to think? Then that turd for a brother of mine, Roger, verbally abused me. Didn’t really give me that sort of warm fuzzy feeling… It wasn’t exactly Family Ties if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t say it’s painful, it just is what it is.

Can you tell us anything the dreams you’ve had for these last eleven years?

Freaky. That’s what they are. It’s the same dream, over and over again. I met this girl on the beach when I was six and she just kept… appearing in my dreams every night. It used to worry me. I thought I was losing it.

After a while, I realized that those dreams were far better than my reality and I started looking forward to them, you know? At least in my dreams I wasn’t being treated like crap.

Who is this girl who comes to you in your dreams?

The same girl that I met all those years ago on the beach. This girl named Calienta. I can’t explain it but we have this weird connection going on. From the first moment we met, I knew that we would be best friends. She made me feel… important. Like I mattered.

What was your reaction when she turned up with her tales of a prophecy that involved you?

That she was out of her mind! Seriously, what would you have thought yourself, Melanie? I felt like I’d been played. She just shows up and tells me all sorts of things about this prophecy and expected me to take them at face value.

Where was her proof? I assumed she was hiding dead bodies underground and I was next. Of course, I ended up trusting her, but, let’s just say I wasn’t going to believe her that easily.

Is there anything else you would like to/can share with the readers of The Star Child?

All I can tell you is that there’s this messed up Celtic god out there with a twisted sense of honor, psychotic focus on his father, whose running with Arawn, the Lord of Faerie. His sick dream is to bring the Earth to darkness, I mean total darkness. For whatever reason, I’m supposed to be able to stop this.

How? I couldn’t tell you. It’s not like I have any “powers” or anything. I’m just sort of brainy and have a photographic memory. Who knows? Oh and I used to like dogs, I’m just gonna to leave it at that.

Thanks for dropping by today, Kellen, and sharing with us. I’m sure you’ve tweaked a lot of interest in the readers and they’ll now want to read Stephanie’s book.

A Shadow in the Past International Blog tour Day 4 – My first review!

Okay, I’m not sure if I should be excited about my first review or quaking in my boots. This is all so new to me, I have no idea what to expect. So, follow me over to Nikki Bywater’s Books4U and read her impressions of my debut novel – A Shadow in the Past.