7th Day of Christmas: Angela Brown

Cate: Author Angela Brown is here to spread some holiday cheer! Angela, please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Angela: Hey Cate :) First, let me say that it is an honor to be here with you and your readers today. I am the author of Neverlove, a young adult novel infused with action, romance and elements of paranormal. I’m a single mom who works a full-time day gig while living a double life as a recently self-published author. Reading and writing are big-time passions for me and Wild Cherry Pepsi is my addiction of choice lol!

Cate: The honor is mine, Angela. :) What do you love most about Christmas?

Angela: The fact that more people choose to treat each other as people. We seem to become more aware of how blessed we are and take it for granted for less…until we awaken drunk on New Year’s Day lol!

Cate: Ha, too true! Do you have a favorite memory of a Christmas past?

Angela: Yeah, it’s one my little Chipmunk – my daughter – has no memory of. Her father and I were still happily married at the time. We woke up early because I was so giddy to celebrate my little girl’s first Christmas. We opened presents left and right. She slobbered on new stuffed animals effectively rendering them unreturnable then she crawled on the floor having the best time with just the boxes. Yep, the boxes lol! Couldn’t get mad. She was having a blast. As I watched her, so was I.

Cate: So cute! If Santa could grant one wish, what would you ask for?

Angela: Peace on earth and good will toward men is nice, but perhaps we could start with putting concern for human beings as employees somewhere near equal footing with profits for a start, maybe?

Cate: What was the best gift you’ve ever received? What made it so special?

Angela: I’ve always considered my daughter my best gift. She was born in the summer but she was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been a part of creating. Her love for me is beaten only by the love I believe God has for me. That’s a whole lot of love J

Cate: Aw, love that. Any favorite Christmas recipes you’d care to share?

Angela: Uhhhhh…I am so inadequate to respond. I really need to get in better touch with domestic Me lol!

Cate: Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it online.

Angela: Neverlove is a tale of overcoming, of two teens – upper YA – who grew up with little to no expectation of love and eventually find it in each other. But with secrets and duties that pull them in different directions, would they be able to keep this rare thing they’d found or would they be destined for an existence without true love? It can be found at Amazon. Here are the buy links: Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon paperback

Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt?

Angela: Sure. Here is a brief scene with Basil after an assignment:

He tiptoed from the shade trees then made his way through the complex, past the pool and into his corner apartment. Lucky for him, the upstairs neighbors moved out the day he arrived. Although, the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if luck had anything to do with his life. How lucky could he be if he joked up on sealing a deal with the devil for his soul? Stupid lucky, maybe.

He shut the door behind him and strode to the overstuffed couch, one of many pieces of the furnished and decorated apartment. From the Zen posters, glass vases with silk flowers weighted in place with assorted marbles to the serenity fountain nestled in a nook of the hallway, nothing really fit him. Until now. He picked up the journal and pen, finally feeling a piece of home. Pressing the blue button, a thin strand of blood slithered from the end. Putting pen to paper, he wrote:

Important rule: Cleansers are my enemy.

Important rule: “Don’t even think about falling in love. Not happening. Can’t happen. So don’t try,” as quoted by Perfect Pam. So what am I supposed to do with what’s going on inside me every time I think of or see Abby?

Important truth: I’m not what I used to be. What I am now is a crap-load of unknown. Unworthy.

Yeah, afterlife with the devil sucks.

Cate: What inspired you to write about the theme?

Angela: Forbidden love is something that always calls to me. The novel also touches upon a few sensitive subjects that aren’t the center focus of the story, but their presence has purpose in regards to the importance of finding ways to overcome obstacles, even if we’re the ones placing them before us without realizing it.

Cate: Anything else you’d like to share?

Angela: I’d be honored to have folks hop on over to Amazon to get their own copy of the novel, if they haven’t yet, but maybe they’d like to consider it a gift for someone else. Also, a small random act of kindness can go a long way to making someone’s day.

Cate: Thanks so much for being part of the 12 Days of Christmas! Hope you have a jolly holly holiday!

Angela: Thank you for having me.

Angela Brown spills the beans!

Hi Angela! So glad to have you at Spilling the Beans, where we can learn a little bit about you, and your book.

*Thank you, Cate, for having me.  I’m super excited to be here and to share about Neverlove.

Grab a cappuccino and let’s chat. Unless you have another favorite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?

*Wild Cherry Pepsi is my drink of addiction – um – my favorite.  But for our chat, I better relax with some delicious Fuki plum wine to settle my giddy nerves.

Fur or feathers, petwise?

*Oh…petwise.  Darn *snaps finger*  Well, petwise it would be neither.  My Chipmunk’s  allergies make things a bit hard.

Any pet peeves? One thing that really burns your biscuits?

*Writing-wise, nothing comes straight to mind, however, I have a strong lack-of-understanding how people can make choices, especially really big ones, without consciously checking information for themselves.

Favorite quote?

"You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Love that. :) What’s your ideal day like?

*My ideal day would consist of me dropping the Chipmunk off to school and running up to the mall to get in a good early morning thirty minute powerwalk.  A shower afterwards would be a must to get the sweat gone.  Then I’d spend the day hopping around to blogs, writing and more writing.  After picking the Chipmunk up from school, it would be homework time and “spend a little time bonding with my Chipmunk” time.  Bedtime and prayer time with Chipmunk would usher in another hour or two where I would read a book until sleep claimed me.  Not exactly exciting, but if I didn’t have my day gig in the way, what I mentioned here would be my ideal day.

Sounds lovely. If you could live out any fantasy, what would you do?

*This is probably the hardest question. Maybe I could get caught up in a fantasy randomizer machine that tosses me into situations where I was guaranteed to have Idris Elba, Johnny Depp and Daniel Dae Kim in every fantasy, whether we were playing at pirates stealing the ultimate treasure, perhaps one with me as the queen and the three of them as my faithful guards, or our own lost in paradise fantasy.

I like the way you think! 
Beethoven, Beatles, Foo Fighters or Keith Urban (what types of music makes you rock out)?

*I rock out to Linkin Park and Evanescence, relax and refresh my mood to neo soul like Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton and find my center with various classical songs.  I have a particular penchant for flamenco like Gypsy Kings and Jessie Cook.

Does music influence your writing? Do you have a music playlist for your book?

*Adele’s “Set fire to the rain” was the inspiration for my 2012 A to Z blogging challenge that turned into my Abby and Basil blog opera which morphed into the novel Neverlove.  But I don’t have a playlist for my book, though I mention a song by Linkin Park in the book.

Which of your characters would you most/least to hang out with, and why?

*I would enjoy hanging out with Abby.  She’s been through a few things and she loves to read like I do.  We’d probably have tons to discuss.  The one I would least like to hang around with is Walter.  He’s just so full of himself, ugh!

While creating your books, what was one of the most surprising things you learned?

*I learned I liked writing up the villain more than I cared to admit.  Don’t want to psycho-analyze that, though.  It could mean something and I’d rather remain blissful in my ignorance J

It's fun the explore the dark side! 
Where can readers find out more about you?

*My blog, Angela Brown in Pursuit of Publishness, is where people can find out more about me.  They can also visit my Goodreads author page.

Please share a book blurb and/or excerpt.

Neverlove

Book blurb:

For seventeen-year-old Abigail, one rash decision leads to an unexpected chance for redemption. At V'Salicus Academy, a unique institute where she trains to become an agent of heaven, she struggles with the pain of her past, the changes of the present and accepts a loveless future until her path – and heart – crosses with Basil’s.

Basil's off-chance slip of the tongue binds him to a life of servitude to the Devourer, the master of hell. His existence has no upside until a chance meeting with Abigail brings new perspective.

Keeping the truth of their present lives from each other brings disaster when secrets are brought to light and the life of Abigail’s mentor is put on the line.

Can Abigail and Basil save her mentor and salvage their love amid the chaos? Or will they lose it all, destined forever to NEVERLOVE?

Excerpt:

Minutes passed to an hour when Abigail finally sank into her parents’ claw foot tub. Steam rose in white, smoky wisps from the water’s surface. Stinging warmth seeped into her skin, her pores taunted open by the heat. Just the thing to cleanse her father from her system. Release the filth of his still-lingering touch. Not that it would matter soon. After last night, she’d made up her mind. Seventeen wasn’t such a bad age to die.

Abigail cast a glance toward the bathroom floor. Ripped pieces of her mother’s stationary littered every inch, her failed attempts to come up with a poetic message, something meaningful to leave behind.  The lace edging of each pink scrap curled from the steam, pitiful imitations of rose petals. Her tired gaze slid up to the mirror where her final words stood out bold in her favorite shade of dark red:

Deciding to die should have been the hard part. Not the stupid note!

Three empty lipstick tubes sat on the pedestal sink.

Yeah. That’s about all her life amounted to.

Buy links: Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, B&N

Thanks so much for having me here today, Cate :)

Thanks for spilling the beans today, Angela!