Blog Tour: Wander Dust by Michelle Warren (Interview & MASSIVE Giveaway!)

I’m so excited to be one of the stops on the Wander Dust Blog Tour! Today Michelle Warren is answering a few interview questions, you can enter a hugely massive giveaway, and there’s a clue for the Wander Dust scavenger hunt. There’s a lot going on, so don’t miss anything! You can also read my review of Wander Dust here.

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Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish.

The Lady in Black… burns Sera’s memories.

Unexplainable premonitions… catapult her to other cities.

The Grungy Gang… wants to kill her.

And a beautiful, mysterious boy… stalks her.

But when Sera moves to Chicago and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she is immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysterious that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose between the boy who has stolen her heart and the thing she desires most.

Wander Dust is a breathtaking fantasy that will catapult you through a story of time, adventure, and love.

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Interview with Michelle Warren:

1. What made you decide to publish Indie instead of going the traditional publishing route?

                Originally, I did not intend to publish this book. It was something I wrote for myself as a place to escape some difficult times during the recession. However, I did share the story with my sister, Tabitha. She loved it and begged me to publish. This was an extremely scary thought. I could scarcely call myself an author when I had lived with the label of artist all my life.

                With her prodding, I started considering publishing traditionally but only after some seriously arduous research. I stalked Nathan Bransford, Galley Cat, and many other publishing blogs, devouring every morsel of information I could get my hands on. My course was set until I read a blog post by an author who discussed her TEN year journey to become traditionally published. Her post made me realize that I wanted this to be a fun experience, not an agonizing “ten-year-journey-to-get-signed-by-a-publishing-house” experience.

                Becoming an Indie author was not a major stretch for me. I could easily see the value of self-publishing. After all, I’ve been selling my illustrations digitally with much success from many, many years without an agent. Although I would like readers to enjoy my book, the important part of my decision was making myself happy. That is why I chose to publish Indie.

2. Do you have any rituals before or during your writing process (a certain snack or drink, background music, etc.) that help you focus?

                Meditation is key in my writing process. Visualizing helps me imagine the most interesting outcome. For me, this is the fun part! I also love listening to soundtrack music when I’m writing.

3. I’m really intrigued by the time travel aspect of Wander Dust and all the different places it could take Sera. If you could travel to any time in history, what would be your number one destination?

                I would love to visit The Great Exhibition in London, 1851. Visiting the Crystal Palace and seeing all the displays and machinery during the Industrial Revolution would be so amazing!

4. The synopsis for Wander Dust mentions a “beautiful, mysterious boy” (who I absolutely cannot wait to meet, by the way). If you could spend an afternoon with your favorite fictional guy, who would you choose to spend it with?

                Romance in a Jane Austen novel is slow and beautiful, so I think John Willoughby from Sense and Sensibility would be my choice. He’s dashing, handsome, and loves art and poetry.

5. And because I’m always looking for new book recommendations, what are your favorite three books that you’ve read recently and don’t think anyone should miss out on?

These are my current favorites:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor

The Tiger’s Curse series – Colleen Houck

Starcrossed – Josephine Angelini

Thanks so much for visiting From A to Z, Michelle! :)

Find Michelle Warren:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Watch the trailer for Wander Dust!

Visit the other stops on the blog tour!

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Fun Tidbit:

So I actually got to meet Michelle Warren back in September at the National Book Festival in DC, which was very random and cool. We were both standing in (the very long) line to get our books signed by Cassandra Clare and when I saw that Michelle had a Wander Dust shirt on we ended up chatting. She and her sister are both super awesome ladies and it was so fun getting to meet them.

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Scavenger Hunt:

The details of the scavenger hunt haven’t been released yet, but be sure to visit Michelle’s Facebook page on December 18^th for all the information!

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MASSIVE Giveaway!

This is such an epic giveaway, and I kind of want to keep these things for myself (or at least enter my own giveaway, haha).

Here are the prizes!

One person will win the signed paperback copy of Wander Dust, the Tolkein quote necklace, and a signed Wander Dust bookmark.

Nine other people will win a signed Wander Dust bookmark!

USA/Canada ONLY (So sorry international peeps, but I’m broke and shipping is expensive.)

Fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter

Good luck everyone!