Interview + Giveaway :Love in Darkness (Shattered Castles, #2) by E.M. Tippetts

Title: Love in Darkness (Shattered Castles, #2)

Author: E.M. Tippetts

Release date: May 21, 2013

Age Group: New Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tour organized by: AToMR Tours

Links to find/buy your books:

Love in Darkness

Goodreads–| Amazon – |Barnesand Nobel – 

Castles on the Sand (Shattered Castles, #1)

Love in Darkness

Alex had everything when he was with Madison. But the darkness within him wouldn't go away. After two years apart, he returns to Pelican Bluffs and to the girl he never wanted to leave. 

Madison wants to give their love another chance, but Alex can't fight fate. He is what he is. Ruined. Crazy like his mother. And Madison deserves so much more. When his secrets spill out into their small town, Alex has a choice to make. Hide away in the darkness forever, or let love in.

Castles on the Sand

If there’s one thing Madison Lukas understands, it’s pain. The pain she feels when her mother ignores her completely. The pain her best friend endures as her parents starve her as punishment. The pain of a dangerous boy whose mother has to be carried away by law enforcement on a regular basis.

She gets it. She feels the pain of others as if it were her own.

But when a mysterious man claiming to be her long lost brother appears with promises of relieving her suffering, trusting him could reveal more truths than Madison is ready for. Because the truth can hurt, too.

Goodreads-Amazon-Barnesand Noble -

Author Interview with E.M. Tippetts

Q: Do you remember how/when your interest in writing started?

Tippetts: Not really. It’s something I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember. I started writing short stories in middle school and attempted a novel in high school, but I didn’t really start to devote my life to fiction until after I’d finished all my schooling, which for me was when I earned my law degree. Once I had my diploma, I went to the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop for Science Fiction and Fantasy, started to sell short stories to various magazines and anthologies, and eventually got my first romance novel published by a small press. Then when indie publishing got going, I decided to try that too.

At this point, I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, and I have a very long memory. I vividly remember my first day of preschool. I wouldn’t be me without my writing.

Q: What were the challenges (research, psychological, and logistical) in bringing this story or characters to life?

Tippetts: The biggest challenge was writing from the POV of someone with schizophrenia, because accuracy wasn’t the only issue. I did want to be accurate, of course and read medical journals and talked to people with experience with the disorder. Beyond that, though, I didn’t want people to laugh at Alex, because unfortunately that’s people’s kneejerk reaction to seeing someone act mentally ill. There’s such a strong social stigma against mental illness, and especially psychotic disorders. There’s also a ton of misinformation out there, ranging from beliefs that mentally ill people are usually violent to mistaking schizophrenia for dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder.)

So the execution of this POV, to make Alex sympathetic, was every bit as hard as the research I did to make it accurate. I did a lot of rewrites on this one.

Q: What was the easiest part of writing LOVE IN DARKNESS?

Tippetts: Spending more time with Alex and Madison. Those two will always be favorites of mine. I started sketching them out by taking my husband and myself and switching our physical characteristics. He’s blue eyed and blond (like Madison) while I’m half Asian (like Alex). And then I did a lot of switching things up. Alex has my sarcasm, but he’s also very different from me. He’s fluent in Japanese, for one thing, and flunked out of school, while I was a nerd who sat at the front of the class.

Madison’s mild mannered and kind like my husband, but unlike him is an extrovert, has a very messed up family, and turns down the opportunity to go to college to start a small business instead. My husband just finished his second graduate degree.

So at the end of the day, Alex and Madison are their own people with their own identities, but the way I built them will always give them a special place in my heart.

Q: What is your favorite scene or was your favorite to write? Don’t forget to tell us why. 

 

Tippetts: The ending, because I’m a big believer in happy endings. In order to sell a happy ending to a reader, though, one or more of the characters has to pay for it. People don’t buy story that’s all sweetness and light all the time. For Alex, I wanted the ultimate happy ending. I wanted him to be set for life and have his most important dream come true, so this was a pretty dark book in places.

Which makes writing the ending that much more rewarding. And besides that, who doesn’t like a good kissing scene?

Q: What’s next for you writing wise that you can share with us?

Tippetts: I’m going back to the world of Someone Else’s Fairytale, which is my best seller to date. In Fairytale readers met Chloe Winters, a college student in Albuquerque with a fairly uninspired view of life and Jason Vanderholt, the Hollywood A-lister who falls for her and tries to get her to believe in knights in shining armor and happily ever afters.

The book I’m writing now is about Jason’s niece, who is eighteen and has a major crush on a certain boy bander. Because she’s got access to the world of the rich and famous, she manages to meet him, and from there… things get complicated. I hope people find it an entertaining read. I’m having a lot of fun writing it. The title is Break It Up.

About the Author

Emily Mah Tippetts writes romance under the name E.M. Tippetts and science fiction and fantasy under the name Emily Mah. Originally from New Mexico, she now lives in London with her family. Before she was a published author, she was an attorney who specialized in real estate, contracts, and estate planning, especially literary estate planning.

Author Social Media Links:

www.emtippetts.com

twitter.com/emtippetts

facebook.com/emtippetts

Tour Giveaway:

(5) Print Copies of Love in Darkness – International

Approx. value = $60 USD

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