HULLO, MY DRAGONS!
Today, I'm delighted to present Tricia Mingerink and Sarah Addison-Fox, in the duo-tour for their latest releases,
Dagger's Sleep and
Dissociate! I've got an exciting interview with
both of them for you, and Tricia and Sarah are kindly giving away paperback copies of their books! Without further ado, let's jump in! 😄
ABOUT THE BOOKS
DAGGER'S SLEEP BY TRICIA MINGERINK
BOOK ONE OF BEYOND THE TALES
A prince cursed to sleep.
A princess destined to wake him.
A kingdom determined to stop them.
High Prince Alexander has been cursed to a sleep like unto death, a curse that will end the line of the high kings and send the Seven Kingdoms of Tallahatchia into chaos. With his manservant to carry his luggage and his own superior intelligence to aid him, Alex sets off to find one of the Fae and end his curse one way or another.
A hundred years later, Princess Rosanna learns she is the princess destined by the Highest King to wake the legendary sleeping prince. With the help of the mysterious Daemyn Rand, can she find the courage to finish the quest as Tallahatchia wavers on the edge of war?
One curse connects them. A hundred years separate them. From the rushing rivers of Tallahatchia's mountains to the hall of the Highest King himself, their quests will demand sacrifices neither of them could imagine.
DISSOCIATE BY SARAH ADDISON-FOX
BOOK THREE OF THE ALLEGIANCE SERIES
Freedom begins with finding the truth.
Amidst the turmoil caused by Smyth's arrest, Celeste is stuck in limbo, stripped of her citizenship, with no choice but to flee to a peaceful Kyraenean hideaway with the tumultuous Amaya Mason.
When bounty hunters threaten the local orphanage, Celeste and Amaya must work together and fight. Even if it means risking what they cherish the most.
His plans in tatters, his career in jeopardy, Mick Haynes is forced to leave Kyraenea with the enigmatic Torrance Kyle, the agent he still can’t trust.
Torrance is good at lying, and even better at hiding his pain, but is he strong enough to deal with the consequences of betraying his own father?
Can Celeste accept the truth, accept her place in the Haynes family or will lies chain her to the past and destroy her chance at a new life?
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tricia Mingerink is a twenty-something, book-loving, horse-riding country girl. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn't writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.
Sarah Addison-Fox is a New-Zealand-born homeschooling mother of two, and loves action-packed fantasy with strong heroines. She has an astonishing amount of nail polish, has all her creative writing credentials shoved in a drawer somewhere, and has a husband who, after twenty-seven years, can still make her blush. When she's not working on her Christian YA fantasy series, she can be found fangirling on Goodreads or sending GIFs on Twitter.
INTERVIEW
Welcome, ladies! I'm so thrilled to have you here! First off, would you mind introducing yourselves and your books?
I'm Tricia Mingerink. I live in Michigan in the US and I'm the author of The Blades of Acktar series. My newest release, Dagger's Sleep, is the first in a new series of fairy tale retellings / Christian fantasy.
Hey there, I'm Sarah Addison-Fox, a homeschooling mum who lives at the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. I write action-packed fantasy with a strong dose of romance and family values. I'm the author of the Allegiance series, which includes Disowned, Dissemble, and the book this blog tour is promoting, Dissociate. May I just say, I'm a huuuuge fan of Tricia's so this is insanely exciting for me to be working alongside her. *grins*
Awwww... Honestly, it's been so much fun planning this blog tour with you too, Sarah. So much more fun doing a blog tour together instead of trying to do all the work yourself!
How did the ideas for
Dagger's Sleep and
Dissociate first come about?
I first wrote a version of Dagger's Sleep (then called The Quest for the Sleeping Prince) back in fifth or sixth grade. It was a straight fantasy back then, not allegorical at all. I had the idea to rewrite it in its present version about two years ago, and it took that long for the book to come together.
Dissociate is the third in a series, so it was a natural progression to continue writing Mick and Celeste's (and a few new characters) journey towards finding... well you'll just have to read... 😉
Did you have a favorite moment while writing
Dagger's Sleep and
Dissociate?
My favorite moment was when I hit about Chapter 17 and the book finally started flowing. I nearly gave up writing the book many, many times before Chapter 17, but after that, I wrote the rest of the book in about a week. It was the end of November's NaNoWriMo and I was way behind.
That's funny because I remember saying that to you. Something like, "Halfway through you hit your stride and everything flowed." As far as my favourite part of Dissociate, I could tell you... buuut spoilers. I will say that anytime Torrance and Mick share the page I had an enormous amount of fun.
Um, yes. Torrance and Mick together are my favorite parts of Dissociate, except possibly the ending. There's just so much "I really want to beat-up" tension between Torrance and Mick. They'd be brothers, if they stopped wanting to punch each other long enough to get along. 😛
What does your publishing process typically (or ideally 😉) look like?
Lots of flailing and panicking? More seriously, once I have the book written and I've cleaned it up a bit, it goes to my editor, my critique partner, and a few early readers. Once I have their edits, I make a large edit with lots of changes. I then go through it two or three more times before it finally goes to a proofreader and I begin formatting both the Kindle and paperback versions. I also make the cover right around that time. Then it all gets uploaded on Kindle and Createspace and into the hands of readers.
I concur with Tricia. Flailing and panicking are an instrumental part of the publishing process. Jk. The first draft is the easy bit. After that's done (Dissociate was written around nine months ago), I choose my photo and I send to my lovely cover genius. Once I've tinkered with it, I send out the polished draft to beta readers, get their feedback and make the first round of changes. Then I start agonizing over every single word, re-writing, editing out superfluous words, repeats of words, and read approximately 12,876 times before sending away to be formatted. Even when I think it's all ready to go, a pesky typo slips by, or I'll find something dumb like "The grin slid off Mick's face. His face fell." And it's already been formatted! That's when I get close to throwing things. Thank goodness for Tricia. I whined a lot to Tricia during this process. She kept me sane...ish. Then when you think it's as good as possible, you bite the bullet, upload to Createspace, Kindle Direct, and start to hyperventilate until everything is approved. Then, you read through another 12,876 ½ times... and hope and pray for the best.
Whining to author friends is definitely a big part of the process. Sarah and I bonded over listening to each other venting about the trials of publishing.
Thank you so much for your time, ladies! It's been a pleasure chatting with you! Last question, before you go: if you could each choose one message for your readers to gain from your books, what would it be?
The message I think all my books have is that all things work together for good to those that love God. This is a phrase we hear often, but it is true even in the depths of great darkness.
I love that, Tricia. I would like readers to come away knowing that every single person has a purpose and a reason for being here. And that every life is important to God.
GIVEAWAYS
Tricia Mingerink is giving away a paperback of
Dagger's Sleep! The giveaway is
open internationally where such giveaways are permitted and where Createspace or the Book Depository ships. The book may or may not be signed, depending on where the winner lives.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Sarah Addison-Fox is giving away a paperback set of the first three books in the
Allegiance series! The giveaway is
open internationally where such giveaways are permitted and where Createspace ships. The books may or may not be signed, depending on where the winner lives.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
TOUR SCHEDULE
Thanks again for chatting with me, ladies! And congratulations on your new releases!
What-ho, Dragons! Have you read any books in The Blades of Acktar or the Allegiance series? Have you added Dagger's Sleep and Disowned to your TBR, yet?
❤,
A couple months ago, Spring Song Press announced its latest writing contest -- a fae-themed anthology, called Oath & Iron. And because (a) it's a writing contest, and (b) FAERIES!!!!, of course I have to enter! Thus, the past several weeks have been spent 
