Today I welcome author Monica Millard chatting about her new book Children of the Gods.
Monica Millard was born and raised in Alaska. She doesn’t own a dog sled team, but has worked in a place where there are buildings with caged exterior doors to keep employees from being eaten by polar bears.
Monica’s favorite quote is, “People do not see the world as it is, they see it as they are.” She is not sure who said it but it is a quote that has always stuck with her. She loves to read because it allows her to see the world through someone else’s perspective and experience something she would otherwise never be able to. Sharing that same experience with others through her own writing is a possibility that makes her excited to get out of bed in the morning.
She lives in Wasilla, Alaska with all her critters, some four legged and others that stand on two. She writes Science fiction, fantasy, and Paranormal for young adults.
1. Tell a little about yourself, what you do when you’re not writing, what are your aspirations for the future?
I work a day job in medical insurance. In my free time when I’m not writing, I play video games, hang out with my dogs, my boyfriend and my brothers/nephews/friends. Watching anything Sci-fi/superhero related/action. Aspirations for the future. I hope to be able to write full time some day. Also, I’d like gain a superpower like moving things with my mind.
2. When and why did you start writing?
I’ve always written. I used to sit at the bus stop, waiting to catch my connecting bus and write. (I went to an alternative school.) Before that I made stories for my friends and then as I got older for the kids I babysat.
3. If you could only read one book over and over again for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
I love new stuff so that would be torture. But if I had to pick one, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was the book that really showed me the power words have to create whole other worlds. So, I’d have to go with that one.
4. Give us some back story about Children of the Gods, where and when did you write it?
I wrote it two years ago, riding the bus and waiting at bus stops or coffee shops before and after work. I was writing another book when the spark for the story hit. I made it wait its turn which I think helped to really let the world and the story develop.
5. What inspired your story?
It was a song. Music often inspires images and scenes for me. The inspiration for this one came from a song by Deep Forest. But I think questions are what do it for me. I always want to know more about theimages I see and the people in them. From there characters begin to appear and then their stories.
6. What was your favorite part of Children of the Gods to write?
The bonfire scene is my favorite scene, but the thing I love about Children of the Gods is when Reka starts seeing Jaxson for who he really is. Perception is something that has always interested me. The way your thoughts can make everything look completely different.
7. Are you working on any other projects at the moment?
I am. I’m editing the book I wrote before Children of the Gods – it’s a paranormal romance titled The Fall. I’m also finishing writing a shifter romance titled A Tail of Stars, and the first part of an epic fantasy that will be told in six or possibly seven parts.
8. Are you a Pantser or Plotter? Why?
Pantser all the way. I let the characters tell me their stories and I just get them down as I learn them. Though I always know how they end before I begin them. Sort of like learning or putting together the clues.
9. Do you have any tricks to your trade, bottomless coffee, a magic pen, a special muse?
Music. Headphones. They give me a private place to work anywhere (even walking through the grocery store).
10. If you could be any fictional character for a day, who would it be and why?
Clary Fray from The Mortal Instruments. (but in book three at the end preferably) Because Jace is probably my all time favorite leading man.
Feel free to leave a comment for Monica below and don’t forget to check out Children of the Gods.
For as long as seventeen-year-old Reka Cushing can remember, she has watched her friends and her neighbors be stolen, their bodies used as hosts for the Halorans; an alien race that has come to earth posing as gods. For just as long, Reka has lived in fear of drawing the eye of a Haloran, keeping her head down, hoping not to be caught in their sights.
The only time she has ever been bold, tried to get what she wanted, a god, one more powerful, more dangerous than all others is watching
