Wednesday, November 15, 2017

SPOTLIGHT w/INTERVIEW - The One Apart by Justine Avery

The One Apart
by Justine Avery
Date of Publication:  December 4th 2017
Publisher: Justine Avery
Cover Artist: Oishii Designs
Genre: Paranormal
Only one obstacle stands in his way of enjoying a normal life. He remembers—every life he's lived before.
 
BLURB
Tres is about to be born... with the biggest burden any has ever had to bear. He is beginning again—as an ageless adult trapped in an infant body.

He and his teenage mother face life filled with extraordinary challenges as they strive to protect, nurture, and hide how truly different he is. But Tres alone must solve the greatest mystery of all: who is he? The answer is linked to the one question he's too afraid to ask: why am I?

In his quest, Tres discovers that all is considerably more interconnected and dynamic than he could ever imagine—and fraught with far more danger. He cannot hide from the unseen threat stalking him since his birth.

Life as he knows it—as all know it—is in peril. And Tres is the only one aware.
Buy Link: Amazon

The One Apart by Justine Avery –EXCERPT
A casual knock pre-empted the arrival of an attending nurse. Sancha heard the sounds of a metal cart rolled in, its wheels locked in place at her bedside. She took a quick puff of air and released it as the knuckles of her fists began to turn white.
She heard a rustling of linens, then Maria leaning toward her from her chair on the opposite side of the bed.
Something heavy and warm was laid against Sancha’s arm.
“Sancha...” Maria pleaded this time. “Please.
Sancha squirmed against the uncomfortable pressure on her arm.
“I can’t let you live the rest of your life,” Maria whispered, “knowing you never even saw him.”
Sancha swallowed. Her breathing quickened. She rolled her lips between her teeth. And she opened her eyes—as slowly as humanly possible.
The brightest pair of crystalline blue eyes stared back at her.
They blinked tenderly, giving away how new to blinking they actually were. Their steady gaze pierced straight through to something rooted within Sancha.
The eyes blinked again, temporarily cutting off the intense connection before opening again to resume it. Sancha rested on her bed in silence, mesmerized by the novice rhythm of blinking resembling Morse code.
Every muscle in her body relaxed. Her mouth began to form an unthinkable smile. She couldn’t help herself.
The baby—her baby—beamed at her with his big, round eyes and flooded her with the total contentment and perfect peace that wafts only from brand-new life.
Buy Link: Amazon
 
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with Justine Avery

How would you describe you style of writing to someone that has never read your work?
I tend to write what I “see,” everything that’s going down in the moment between the characters, as if I’m in the scene with them.  So, the reading experience is full of detail, reality, and emotions—like living the story yourself, along with the characters.  You’re not just reading; you’re feeling the story.  It has a rhythm to it, a flow; it’s an entire adventure in itself.  And… I write to surprise myself, to uncover all the mysteries I don’t even know the answers to as I set out to find the story, so every one of my stories tends to be full of surprises for its readers!

What mindset or routine do you feel the need to set when preparing to write (in general whether you are working on a project or just free writing)?
I have to try to empty my mind, forget my life and the world I live in, and completely let go… so that I’m inside the body of one of the characters or at least, in the room with them, listening and looking in.  I put myself in their shoes, into the situation, so I can know exactly what they’re feeling and what they’d say or how they’d act next.

Do you take your character prep to heart? Do you nurture the growth of each character all the way through to the page? Do you people watch to help with development? Or do you build upon your character during story creation?
I definitely get to know a character just as the reader who will later read the story does: page by page, scene by scene.  I don’t know who they fully are until they reveal the decisions they make in certain situations and evolve through the story.  It’s just like getting to know real people in the real world.  We might think we know other people, but it’s how they go through their daily life, all the little decisions, their choices, the events they find themselves in and how they work their way out, that reveals who they really are, what they’re really made of.  I’ve traveled a great deal and lived in so many different places in the world, and I think that really helps with being able to put myself in others’ shoes and realistically imagine what their life, personality, and situation would be like.

Have you found yourself bonding with any particular character? If so which one(s)?
I’ve bonded with every single character in The One Apart.  I think you can’t help yourself when you’re inside their heads and know all their desires and problems, motivations and weaknesses.  You really feel for them as individuals.  There are things I absolutely love about each and every character.

Do you have a character that you have been working on that you can't wait to put to paper?
That’s a great question.  I might have a bit of a character drawn up on my giant list of story ideas yet to be written, but I tend to consider situations rather than specific people: “what would a person do if they found themselves in this strange situation?  what would happen next?”  So, I have a long list of weird situations and crazy events that I’ll have to place people into and then see how their character develops to deal with it.

Have you ever felt that there was something inside of you that you couldn't control? If so what? If no, what spurs you to reach for the unexperienced?
I haven’t discovered anything that can run away with me… except maybe my workaholic tendencies.  But over time, I’ve realized I’m not too good at controlling them, because I love my work and I just don’t want to slow down!  But when it comes to being spurred on toward the yet-to-be-experienced, that’s probably the essence of who I am.  I grew up traveling the world, discovering every person on the planet is different, every town is different, every culture offers something of value and so does every perspective.  That’s kept me terribly curious my whole life, and writing stories is just another way to experience more variety, more situations, more places, and more people—to keep the adventure never ending.
 
Author Info
Justine Avery is an award-winning author of stories large and small for all. Born in the American Midwest and raised all over the world, she is inherently an explorer, duly fascinated by everything around her and excitedly noting the stories that abound all around. As an avid reader of all genres, she weaves her own stories among them all. She has a predilection for writing speculative fiction and story twists and surprises she can’t even predict herself.

Avery has either lived in or explored all 50 states of the union, over 36 countries, and all but one continent; she lost count after moving 30-some times before the age of 20. She’s intentionally jumped out of airplanes and off the highest bungee jump in New Zealand, scuba dived unintentionally with sharks, designed websites, intranets, and technical manuals, bartered with indigenous Panamanians, welded automobile frames, observed at the Bujinkan Hombu Dojo in Noba, Japan, and masterminded prosperous internet businesses—to name a few adventures. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree that life has never required, and at age 28, she sold everything she owned and quit corporate life—and her final “job”—to freelance and travel the world as she always dreamed of. And she’s never looked back.

Aside from her native English, Avery speaks a bit of Japanese and a bit more Spanish, her accent is an ever-evolving mixture of Midwestern American with notes of the Deep South and indiscriminate British vocabulary and rhythm, and she says “eh”—like the Kiwis, not the Canadians. She currently lives near Los Angeles with her husband, British film director Devon Avery, and their three adopted children: Becks, Sam, and Lia. She writes from wherever her curiosity takes her.

Avery loves to connect with fellow readers and creatives, explorers and imaginers, and cordially invites you to say “hello”—or konnichiwa.
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