My Guest ~ Airicka Phoenix
Hello and thank you
so much for having me! It is so wonderful being here with all of you!
I
think the most heavily asked question an author receives is how did
you start writing? Personally, I always want to say, well, I sat down
with a pen and put thought to paper, but this would be a complete lie
truthfully, because it wasn’t a pen.
It
was a Crayola crayon in bright pink.
My
love of stories came from my mother who never picked up a single book
to read to me. Every story I heard came first hand from her mouth. I
would sit at her feet while she knit or mended socks or shelled peas
and listened while she would tell me about daring princesses that
would rescue the prince from monsters lurking in dank caves.
Sometimes, she would stop and ask me to tell her a story and I would
try to make one up as good as hers. She said she always loved them,
but her stories are the ones I remember.
My
love of writing started in Grade 3 when my teacher asked us to write
a short story using images and words. I got out my blue book, the one
with the blank spot on top and lines on the bottom and started. At
this point, I was in love with Disney movies, but my absolutely
favorite, the one I had plastered all over my room, was Beauty and
the Beast. But I had a problem with the story line, the plot. I
really did not like the end. So, when I was asked to write a story, I
rewrote Beauty and the Beast. Belle killed Gaston, turned everyone
human, got on the back of the horse and rode off in search of danger
and adventure. She slayed monsters and battled dragons. After many
years, she finally returned to the castle and decides to marry the
prince.
Yeah,
I am no artiest, but I will say this, my stick people could win
medals!
After
that, I was hooked. I wrote. I wrote in notebooks, napkins, the back
of my mom’s old envelopes, my walls (much to my mom’s annoyance),
my hands, anywhere I could make the pen work, I would write. By the
time I was in high school, I had thirty eight binders falling apart
with scraps of paper, old hamburger wrappers, post-its and whatever
else I could get my hands on. I got in trouble a lot in school for
daydreaming, for wanting to write rather than listen, for writing
when I should have been working. I wrote when I went on the bus. I
wrote when I went to visit family or anyone. I wrote until 3-4am
every night. I had stories that never had an ending because I refused
to stop writing that story, so they ran on and on for thousands of
pages, back and front.
Even
after school, I got married, started a family and the need to write
never went away. I still walk around with a pen and pad, writing
whenever, wherever I can. Did I ever imagine myself getting
published? No. Not at all. I wrote because if I didn’t, my head
would explode with all the voices and ideas. I was honestly happy
with just writing and filling my hard drive with never to be seen
stories. Later on, I was encouraged to try and send my stories off to
publishers. I sent them to so many I lost count. Everyone was so
kind, sending me gentle words of encouragement and apologies. I won’t
deny that it was discouraging at first, until one day I was talking
to a friend and she suggested I try doing it myself, which I laughed
at, at first, because the process seemed enormous and so daunting.
But I looked it up, did my research and decided, why not? Why can’t
I do it myself? So I created the cover for Touching Smoke. Got some
friends to read/edit/format the story and here we are. The rest is
beautiful history.
Writing
for me, stepping into that other world, letting myself be consumed by
the characters is taking a breath for any other person. It’s like
my coffee. If I don’t write at least one page a day, I feel I have
wasted a day. I believe very strongly, very passionately in my art,
in my work, in my readers and in myself. I have so much I want to
share and my only fear is not having enough time to do it.
But
I know this isn’t the case for everyone. I know for some it’s a
struggle and if I could give any words of advice, it would be this:
There
are people rooting for you to fail. There are people rooting for you
to succeed. Don’t write to prove them wrong or right. Write
for youself, this is your dream. It’s for you.
Thank
you all again so much for having me here. It was a pleasure and an
honor.
All
the best to you all!
Airicka
Oh, wow... I think some people are born to do things, and from the looks of it you were born to write, create and show it off in the books you publish! To this day I wonder what it is I am meant to do with my life, and sometimes I think I'm right where I am supposed to be. I enjoyed having you here and believe I get to have you back next week! So stay tuned followers, Touching Eternity and Airicka will be returning a week from today!
Touching Smoke Blurb & Review
Blurb
Secrets...
Fallon has one. She doesn’t know it, but it will kill her... if she’s caught.
Love...
Isaiah. Her soul mate. Made especially for her. Created especially for her. Designed to be everything she would ever need. But loving him will destroy her.
Betrayal...
Willing to die for her, kill for her, Isaiah must first save her from the monster chasing them — the man that had created them to annihilate the world.
What would you risk for love?
Fallon has one. She doesn’t know it, but it will kill her... if she’s caught.
Love...
Isaiah. Her soul mate. Made especially for her. Created especially for her. Designed to be everything she would ever need. But loving him will destroy her.
Betrayal...
Willing to die for her, kill for her, Isaiah must first save her from the monster chasing them — the man that had created them to annihilate the world.
What would you risk for love?
My Review
I felt connected to the main character, Fallon as she is described very
well early on in the story. Taking the journey with Fallon as she
learns truths untold. Feelings erupt within her, her mother trying to
protect her, while her father's bodyguard, and monsters chasing her.
Fallon's character amazes me, with her thoughts, and personality. I
love her quirky commentary though out the story. When she meets Isaiah,
now that's a character I won't forget, she feels a connection. One so
deep that she cannot just leave him... She has to keep moving forward,
there are those that are after her and Isaiah must protect her. One
cannot live without the other and there is no way they will let anything
come between them. Separation is unheard of, not after...
Throughout the first half of the story I had questions, many build up to a list that I almost felt I would need to start writing them down to remember what I wanted to know. Then all of a sudden I was given the answers, not all at once mind you but the answers came, one by one and in a way that didn't just dump a ton of information on me. There are some books that will build up and you have so many questions then just dump every answer on you in a few paragraphs or chapter. Touching Smoke was nothing like that, the answers came here and there and I felt I was more able to follow and grasp the story with that said.
There was always something that I wanted to know, always something that makes me think, "Oh man, really!" "In a totally good way!" I was able to guess one, one thing that I expected and yes it happened and was true! HA HA HA I loved it, loved not being able to predict the story based on the writing and the author's style.
So many twists and turns that totally blew me away, never expected and wanted to know more as to why the story turned in the direction it did. Oh my goodness, I'm about to pick up Author Airicka Phoenix's Touch Series Book #2 ~ Touching Eternity and can't wait! So very happy to have read and reviewed, gifted a copy from the author.
Throughout the first half of the story I had questions, many build up to a list that I almost felt I would need to start writing them down to remember what I wanted to know. Then all of a sudden I was given the answers, not all at once mind you but the answers came, one by one and in a way that didn't just dump a ton of information on me. There are some books that will build up and you have so many questions then just dump every answer on you in a few paragraphs or chapter. Touching Smoke was nothing like that, the answers came here and there and I felt I was more able to follow and grasp the story with that said.
There was always something that I wanted to know, always something that makes me think, "Oh man, really!" "In a totally good way!" I was able to guess one, one thing that I expected and yes it happened and was true! HA HA HA I loved it, loved not being able to predict the story based on the writing and the author's style.
So many twists and turns that totally blew me away, never expected and wanted to know more as to why the story turned in the direction it did. Oh my goodness, I'm about to pick up Author Airicka Phoenix's Touch Series Book #2 ~ Touching Eternity and can't wait! So very happy to have read and reviewed, gifted a copy from the author.
Airicka's Links
Amazon
Amazon
Book Links:
I love Airicka! She is so nice! I'm a new follower:) Check out my blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://andreaheltsley.blogspot.com
Cheers
Andrea