Soul Forgotten Turns 2!

Happy book birthday to Soul Forgotten!

What a milestone reached this week. Two years ago, I pressed publish on my debut novel. I never would have imagined that in just two years, I’d be celebrating my 22nd release with two completed series and a spin-off in the works! It’s been a wild ride, and I’m so thankful to all of my readers for picking up a book from a new author.

I’ve got a wealth of bonus material here on my website, so here’s a quick list of all the things you can find!

Soul Series page - all of the details for the Soul Series and character introductions. There’s three books in this series, plus the spin-off Star Series that was released this week!

Shadow & Supernova - a retelling of Soul Forgotten (from opposite perspectives!). Plus, a deleted chapter from Ellie’s perspective.

Soul Forgotten playlist - curious about why I picked certain songs for the book? I’ve got a blog post for that.

Character superpowers - A little run-down of all the awesome superpowers that went into this book! Learn how I turned a supernova and black hole into magic powers.

Here are a few fun interview questions I’ve been asked in the past:

Who was your favorite character to write?
Clara was absolutely the easiest character to write. I felt like writing her was writing myself. Every inner thought I’ve had (or what I’d expect to say/think in her situation) poured out of me. From the first time I came up with her storyline, she was at the forefront.

What is your favorite quote?
I have way too many, but I suppose I could narrow down a few:
”Forget Queen Bitch, I was going to be Queen of Awkward Silences.”
”Rude.” - not entirely a quote, but I loved every quick little snap.
”Always forever.” - I stole this from my bestie who used to quote “I love you forever and always”, but I spun it into something that fit my characters.

What was your favorite scene to write?
Well, there’s a scene in the middle of Soul Forgotten that’s a bit of a spoiler, so I won’t share that one… but I think my favorite scene had to be Clara and Nate’s first kiss. I wrote it from Nate’s perspective at first, but I wanted so desperately to give Clara’s view as well… so why not do both? I mean, I’m the author…

How long did it take you to write Soul Forgotten?
The version of Soul Forgotten that you hold (from first word written to final draft) took about ten months. However, the first concept draft of 50K words was written in… ten days. That story, the one that was so incredibly rough, is so much different than the final version, but it’s one of those stories that you have to get out in the wrong way to get it right the next try. The bad guy changed, the plot line altered, music was added, and the rest was history!

What is your favorite song on the Soul Forgotten playlist?
I mean, technically my favorite song is Mason Jar by Smallpools. If we’re talking favorite song of the book itself, I’m going to go with She’s Out Of Her Mind by blink-182. If we’re talking favorite album, it’s Andrew Belle’s Dive Deep. If we’re talking about my favorite band, it’s Mating Ritual…
Can you tell I love the entire playlist?

How did you come up with the superpowers?
Half of the superpowers were planned, the others were happy accidents. I did try to add my own flare to the common superhuman abilities that we see every day. So, Glitch’s teleportation took on the life of not being a simple or instantaneous transportation. Instead, his power looks like a video game glitch (hence his nickname). Clara’s telekinesis is less smooth and a little more… explosive (like a supernova!).

Nate’s power, shadow manipulation, actually came a bit as a surprise to me. This was the happiest of accidents, because I originally wanted him to just be the contrast of ‘shadows’. He’s our bright, innocent cinnamon roll character who happens to have powers that others would see as darkness. It also happened that in the development and growth of his superpowers, the black hole begins to appear and that just takes the story and superpowers in an entirely new direction!

I’ve always loved space events, and I thought it was really cool to apply those sorts of details into superpowers. So telekinesis becomes supernova (thanks to Clara’s explosive personality), shadow manipulation becomes black hole, and the two of them together become… the Blue Star!

Thank you so much for two years!

This journey has been such a joy. I’m so excited for what the future holds and I’m thrilled to share all of the stories with you!

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