Rogue's Angels Present: Stealing Magic by Alex C Vick

Please welcome Alex C Vick author of Stealing Magic.

Alex C Vick will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Stealing Magic

by Alex C Vick

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GENRE:   Middle Grade Fantasy

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INTERVIEW:

1. What elements are necessary components for this genre?

Middle Grade fantasy can be a tough one! You need characters that your readers can relate to, and care about, and those characters must exist within a story that moves at a fast pace with a serious challenge to overcome. Yet you also have to create a magical world, full of believable and interesting details that don’t get in the way of the story.

2. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

The underlying idea for the story was to explain why there is no such thing as real magic on our world. I have always hoped that it existed somewhere, and that perhaps I’d just been unlucky in not discovering it yet. I wanted to come up with a reason for its absence, and all of the Legacy of Androva stories have followed on from that.

3. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

That I love to hear from readers and I love answering questions about my books! Also that I secretly wish I could travel to Androva and become a magician myself. Unfortunately, I have to settle for just writing about it.

4. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I’m going to continue with the Legacy of Androva series until it reaches a natural conclusion. I don’t know how many books there will be, but I still have a lot of ideas to explore about the various characters and their different worlds. Sometimes I think that I should apologize to my characters, because ever since I started writing about them, their lives have become incredibly dangerous and complicated!

All the stories are self-contained though, because I can’t seem to write a cliffhanger. I never finish a book until there’s a natural ending. I just released the fourth book in the series, and have now started working on the fifth.

5. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

It would be Shannon. My thirteen-year-old self would have loved the chance to do the things that Shannon has done. She’s the ordinary one at the beginning of the story, and yet she turns out to be a lot more powerful than she realizes. When she first sees Jax and Darius, she doesn’t just discover magic, it becomes part of her, and she learns how to use it brilliantly. She’s brave, and funny, and she also holds her own against Jax.

6. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?

I’d love to!

This is an extract from when Jax comes back to find Shannon, a week after they first met.

“I knew it!” shouted the voice triumphantly.

Shannon nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected words. Abruptly the force field seemed to snap back inside her head, leaving her hands and the surface of the tree completely back to normal.

She scrambled to her feet to confront the owner of the voice, knowing already who it was.

“Jax, I presume?” she said, as calmly as she could manage, though her heart was still jumping from the shock, and she was already half-smiling in amazement at what was happening.

Jax, standing with his hands in his pockets, and smiling the same mischievous, slightly mocking grin that she remembered from last time, raised his eyebrows.

“You have the advantage over me, Terran,” he said. “I don’t know your name.”

“Shannon,” she answered. “And you knew what exactly?”

Jax gave a half-bow. “Pleased to meet you Shannon. And I knew you were a magician.”

Shannon’s mouth fell open. Before she could reply, he continued.

“I shouldn’t even be able to travel here on my own. You see this symbol on my shirt?”

He pointed to the star, the center of which was spinning again just as it had the week before.

“It wasn’t until I met you that it started to spin. It’s not supposed to be able to do that until I come of age. In four years’ time.”

He paused, to make sure she understood the significance of this fact. “Who are you? Why is this happening?”

Shannon laughed. To think that Jax was the one asking questions of her!  

7. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I start writing. I have tried very hard to be a planner, but it doesn’t work for me. Apart from the basic idea for the story, and a few pieces of key dialogue, my books just happen while I’m writing them.

Sometimes when I’m half way through a book I do try to write a plan. I’ll be sitting there eating dinner or something, and I’ll get scared at the thought that I don’t know what’s going to happen in the rest of the book. I deal with those fears by creating a plan of sorts. But when I look back at those plans after I’ve actually written the book… they’re terrible, and bear no resemblance to what really happened in the story.

8. How do you maintain your creativity?

I wish I had a better sounding answer than this, but it’s just by living an ordinary life with my eyes wide open. Everything that happens to me, everyone I meet, everything I see, they’re all potential ideas. Even during a long day at work when I’m in one meeting after another, I’m still spotting things that I can use in my writing. I do a lot of reading and photography, to try to see the world from different perspectives. And I have two daughters in Middle Grade, who have ideas and opinions that are often very different to mine!

9. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

It’s Jax. The annoying thing is that if he were standing in front of me right now, he would probably grin and not be very modest about it! He does have the tendency to be a little too sure of himself. Let me explain why he’s my favorite though.

At the start of the book, he is over-confident, even considering the amount of magical skill he possesses. I have to bring him down a peg or two to make him more likeable. But he does learn from his mistakes, and he’s loyal and determined. He’s also knocked sideways by meeting Shannon, which is kind of cute. Stealing Magic is only the start of their adventures together, and I love writing about them both.

10. Are your plotting bunnies angels or demons?

They always start out as demons. I can think that I’ve got to the end of a particular story arc, and they won’t let me close it off until I include this other scene that they’ve just presented me with. And it’s usually a scene that is really, really difficult to write. Or they distract me with a great line that one of my characters could say. I then spend ages trying to find a place for it, until I concede defeat and set it aside for the next book.

But most of the time, with the benefit of hindsight, they’re more angel than demon. They usually know best, even if I don’t believe them at the time!

BLURB:

Shannon thought there was no such thing as real magic. Until that day. The day that changed everything.

Put yourself in her shoes. Would you open your eyes, if you were the one that heard them? Two magic-takers from another world, arguing about whether they can collect what they came for before you wake up. It sounds like a crazy dream, or a practical joke.

But what if the air around you started to vibrate with an invisible force field? What if, all at once, it felt scary, yet familiar too? You would have no way of knowing that this discovery would set you on a path no-one from our world has taken for centuries. Towards a deadly enemy, and a fight you will almost certainly lose.

All you know is that your heart is beating so fast you're worried they will hear it, and your brain is starting to buzz as the force field reaches it. Would you open your eyes?

Join Jax and Shannon as they live through the most exciting and terrifying ten days of their lives!

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EXCERPT:

“I knew it!” shouted the voice triumphantly.

Shannon nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected words. Abruptly the force field seemed to snap back inside her head, leaving her hands and the surface of the tree completely back to normal.

She scrambled to her feet to confront the owner of the voice, knowing already who it was.

“Jax, I presume?” she said, as calmly as she could manage, though her heart was still jumping from the shock, and she was already half-smiling in amazement at what was happening.

Jax, standing with his hands in his pockets, and smiling the same mischievous, slightly mocking grin that she remembered from last time, raised his eyebrows.

“You have the advantage over me, Terran,” he said. “I don’t know your name.”

“Shannon,” she answered. “And you knew what exactly?”

Jax gave a half-bow. “Pleased to meet you Shannon. And I knew you were a magician.”

Shannon’s mouth fell open. Before she could reply, he continued.

“I shouldn’t even be able to travel here on my own. You see this symbol on my shirt?”

He pointed to the star, the centre of which was spinning again just as it had the week before.

“It wasn’t until I met you that it started to spin. It’s not supposed to be able to do that until I come of age. In four years’ time.”

He paused, to make sure she understood the significance of this fact. “Who are you? Why is this happening?”

Shannon laughed. To think that Jax was the one asking questions of her!

   

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Alex writes contemporary fantasy books for a middle grade audience and older. There are three (self-contained) stories in the Legacy of Androva series so far, with a fourth on the way. You can contact Alex, and find more information about Androva, including a character interview, at http://www.alexcvick.com

Alex lives in the South of England with her husband and two daughters. When she's not working, or writing about magic, she also loves reading and photography.

Stealing Magic Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXQEPYR

Stealing Magic Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LXQEPYR

Stealing Magic will be $0.99 during the tour.

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Alex C Vick will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f2120