MIDNIGHT AUTHOR INTERVIEW+GIVEAWAY






Title: Midnight
Author: Eve Eschenbacher
Publisher: Booktrope
Publication Date: May 11, 2015
Purchase Links: Amazon ~ Barnes & Nobles
Genre: Young Adult

When ordinary girl, Karen, waits out her last year of high school, she hopes for magic. Her small town has nothing for her and she longs for adventure, which she finds at a party of all places. Finally away from the small town minds she meets someone new.

Someone, who with a few scratches of ink on her skin, awakens a part of her she never knew about. All of a sudden Karen is shown a whole new world, and Gabriel wants her to make it hers. All she has to do is love him eternally. Her new life is magical and amazing, until her new powers bring a new threat.

Can she do what needs to be done? The sacrifices and decisions that will need to be made--Is she strong enough?      


EveE author photo
Author Bio: Eve Eschenbacher lives in the Pacific Northwest with her son and a very fluffy cat. By day she’s a video game voice-over producer, and by night she writes books and freelances as a Japanese translator. Always with a book and a video game close at hand, she probably spends too much time looking at screens.  

Author Links:
 Where did the idea for Midnight come from?

A conglomeration of Doctor Who, Christopher Pike, and my own imagination. I really like the Doctor Who episode “The Girl in the Fireplace,” and the idea of peeking back in time stuck with me. Christopher Pike was my first and favorite young adult author, and he wrote a series called, “The Last Vampire,” starring a woman named Sita. She doesn’t need to kill to feed, and that idea always stuck with me in regards to vampires. As far as my imagination goes, sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head and I end up exploring it from different angles. The time travel story stuck with me, and my subconscious just couldn’t let it go. Once I thought of what kind of people would be really fun to use as a template for travelling time, that’s where Midnight really started to come together, and then I had to start writing it.


Do you have any tattoos?  Where? When did you get it/them? Where are they on your body?

Two of them, one on each ankle. I had always wanted tattoos from my teen years, but couldn’t think of anything that I wanted permanently on my body for the longest time. Then, after my son was born, I finally had an idea for a tattoo. My motto about names on tattoos is that “boyfriends and husbands come and go, but my kid is my kid forever,” so I was comfortable getting my son’s name inked on my body, and the ankle seemed like the best/most appropriate place for it. I named my son after a video game character, so I got the image of that character, with my son’s name and birthdate tattooed on my right ankle, when I was 27.
Then at 32, after a bad breakup with a controlling guy who didn’t like my tattoo, I decided to get another one, almost on a spur-of-the-moment decision. It was a bit of a statement of freedom, and an act of asserting control over my own life again, but I still didn’t want anything frivolous. I ended up getting an image from a game series that I really enjoy. It’s the iconic mascot from that series working on a vintage computer, because my father introduced me to computers back when they still had tape drives (1984!), and that instilled a love of gaming that pushed me to my career path and where I am in life. So it was part that game that I love, and part honoring my dad and my career. That one’s on my left ankle.
Yes, I am the kind of person who has two video game tattoos. :)


What are you working on right now?

A contemporary young adult novel. I wanted to try something a little different, and I had an idea that’s been working out well. That’s not to say that I won’t return to the world of Midnight, just that I’ve got another idea I’m working on first.


What do you think you’re really bad at?

Oh boy, where do I start? In the interest of not airing my dirty laundry, I’ll just say that I am a very shy and not at all public person, and I have terrible balance.


Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

Does talking to inanimate objects count? :) Or digital representations of people? Because I’m sure I have a few in my video games. There’s also the main characters of my current work in progress, because they’re real enough to me.


Any weird things you do when you’re alone?

Talking to myself and my video game characters would probably qualify for weird things. I think I only do that when I’m alone. Sometimes I worry that I just had that whole conversation with myself aloud, but I think I’ve been silent so far. :)


What is your favorite quote and why?

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." – Tyrion, as written by George R.R. Martin. I find this absolutely true. I am a voracious reader and gamer, and the thing I love about both activities is the ability to explore and experience stories, lives, and perspectives very different from my own. I knew someone once who told me they thought reading was boring & they hadn’t read a book in the 20 years since they graduated from High School, and I just couldn’t wrap my brain around that concept. The idea that reading could be boring just does not compute in my world. How could it be boring to see through another person’s eyes?


What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Mango sorbet. I just like really fruity flavors, and while ice cream is good, sorbet is even better for that strong fruit flavor.


What are four things you can’t live without?

My morning coffee, my video games, my routines, and my books.


What kind of music you like?

Hard rock, heavy metal, and alternative, but also classic rock. It absolutely needs to have a guitar in it.


What are 5 things within touching distance?

My cellphone, my tablet, my coffee, my thinking putty, and a shelf full of books. All the essentials.


What part of the writing process do you dread?

Editing my work. It’s harder to get in that mindset of being detached from the story, and looking at it with a critical eye. I end up reading, and then I have to go back and figure out at what point did I stop editing?


Where do you get your best ideas?

By letting my brain wander. I must have a couple dozen post-its stuck to my monitor with story ideas on them.


What do you do to relax?

Play video games. I like to lose myself in digital worlds. I also enjoy the “vicarious thrill” aspect of video games, in that you can do things in games that you couldn’t/wouldn’t do in real life. I also build LEGO sets. I’ve got a few of them displayed around my home. There’s just something about pressing those bricks together that makes the stresses of the world disappear for me.


If we were to come to your house for a meal, what would you give us to eat?

Have you ever had sukiyaki? :) It’s a Japanese dish. You have a pot of broth and ingredients boiling in the center of the table, a bowl with raw egg in it in front of you, and a bowl of rice. You take food from the center pot, dip it in the egg, put it on top of the rice, and then eat it with a bite of the rice. The heat of the food heats the egg. Really, I just enjoy the “hot pot” setup from Asian cuisine. The idea of sharing food from a communal pot in the center of the table brings the diners together, and it’s very cozy.


Do you listen to music when you're writing?

It depends. Sometimes I need the sound in the background to set the mood, other times the lyrics will get in the way, and I’ll have a hard time writing until I switch to music in a different language than the one I’m working in.


What song would you choose for Karaoke?

No karaoke for me. I’m a terrible singer. Seriously, I’m so far off-key, I’m on a different piano. That said, I did do karaoke when I lived in Japan. It’s a completely different experience there. You rent a small room with your friends for a few hours, and hang out and sing songs. You can have food and even drinks delivered to the room. Much better experience, because you’re not getting up in front of strangers to sing.


First book you remember making an indelible impression on you. 

Die Softly by Christopher Pike. It was my first exposure to young adult novels, and I was hooked. I read all of Pike’s YA novels, and kept them through the years. Just don’t tell my mom that Die Softly featured a guy who hooked a video camera up above his bed so he could film himself having sex with the head cheerleader, only to instead film her killing him by tying him to the bed and making him snort tainted cocaine. That one really left an impression on eleven-year-old me!


Do you have any other talents you want to share?

Sure. In addition to writing, I’m also a Japanese to English video game translator. I’ve worked on a few games that you may have heard of, even if you don’t play games. 

GIVEAWAY:
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This tour was hosted by Good Tales Book Tours.

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1 comments

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    Laurie Starkey
    Good Tales Book Tours

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