Blog Tour (Author Interview+Giveaway): Painted Blind by Michelle A. Hansen

  

Seventeen years old and agoraphobic, Psyche Middleton vows her dad will never see the risqué photos she took during a summer modeling stint abroad, but one of them ends up on a billboard in her Montana hometown. Now everyone—especially her dad—can see it. And yet, somehow, those are the mundane things in her life because she is about to fall unexpectedly, head-over-heels in love with Erik, a mysterious young man who rescues her from a crowd of admirers, and who she’s never actually seen because…he can make himself invisible.

As strange as this may seem, it’s about to get even stranger. Erik takes her to his palace in an idyllic kingdom, and she is swept into the beauty and culture of his world, but his affection has one condition: she may not see him. Overtaken, intrigued, and still not wholeheartedly believing he’s real, Psyche is going to have to decide if she can love him blindly; because if she can’t, she may lose him forever.

Author Interview:

I'm glad to welcome Ms. Hansen on Bookshelf Confessions for an interview.. So, guys, sit back and possibly win her books at the end of the interview...

Where did you get your idea or inspiration to write a series based on this particular myth?

I have a picture book version of the myth that I used to read to my freshman English classes on Valentine’s Day. It was that book that got me wondering how the myth would translate into a  modern world.

What is the most challenging part of writing this book?

There were several hurdles in the book. First and foremost was to take things that the Greeks accepted—gods who could make themselves invisible, flying, Olympus—and make them believable for a modern audience. The second biggest hurdle was having the book in first person point of view instead of third omniscient. Psyche doesn’t meet the antagonist until about a third of the way through the novel, but the reader needed to be introduced sooner. That made a prologue necessary. The third hurdle was having a romantic hero who is absent for most of the book and whom Psyche only sees once.

Is there anything in PAINTED BLIND that you hope readers pick up on but they may not?

Every plot point of the myth is represented in the novel from the priestess at Apollo’s temple to the ants who complete the first task for Psyche. I adapted and developed them, but they are all there.

Which character was your favorite to write and why?

Titus wasn’t in the first draft of the novel. I decided to lengthen the final task and give Psyche a companion. I planned for him to be one of Erik’s men that she’d seen in the orchard on her first visit to the palace. I was literally in the middle of writing the scene of her meeting Aeas at the airport. He tells her, “Titus will fill you in on the plane,” and I described him stepping into the doorway. I screamed, “Oh! I know who he is!” Titus’s entire backstory came to me at that moment. He added conflict to the end of the novel, and he creates a perfect contrast for Savannah. Titus is a true friend.

What are you reading right now?

 I just started Relentless by Dean Koontz (which is about an author who responds to a bad review and pays dearly). Dean could have said, “Don’t respond to bad reviews.” Instead he wrote a whole novel to get you shaking in your booties. 

I also have a stack of books on writing that I read continually: Write it Forward by Bob Mayer, Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Fray to name a few.

 

**GIVEAWAY **

US Only print copy

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 signed postcards and 10 ebooks 

open Internationally

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

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