November 13, 2012

Owlet Blog Tour: Guest Post & Giveaway!



Owlet (Society of Feathers #1)
Author: Emma Michaels
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: October 13, 2012
ISBN: 9780985792213
ISBN: 9781476473338
Pages: 170


Description:

Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.

Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.

 
 





 

The last thing Iris thought about as she fell asleep on a very full stomach, were the eagles dancing on the beach and her extraordinary kiss with Falcon. She felt like she had always known him and he had always held a part of her heart in his hands. She couldn’t explain why or how, but she always felt like there was something missing and now she knew that ‘something’ was Falcon. She wondered if everyone felt that way before they met someone who looked into their eyes the way he did. He felt like an old friend, a new love and a part of her dearest family all at once...but she couldn’t trust that. Iris had done enough reading to know that sometimes emotions were wrong. Sometimes things weren’t always what they seemed.

He isn’t. You hated him once. Then you begrudged him, befriended him and over the course of years, fell in love with him. You can trust this. You can trust him. You just don’t know it yet.


She felt her eyes start to close and her body relax as dreams slowly took over


 

Why I made my MC Asthmatic 
by Emma Michaels
 
I made Iris asthmatic because I would get really upset reading some of my favorite novels growing up because the characters were always able to do things that would be impossible for me. I wanted to be that girl that could run for hours to save the day. One character was able to run for five days to get to the man she loved. My thought was ‘great, if it had been me he would have died’. I wouldn’t have been able to do that. I wouldn’t even have been able to live in another era because without modern medicine I would have died very soon after being born or at a very young age.

Not being able to do that made me feel that I was less than they (the characters) were. It made it difficult for me to look up to them as role models, because you don’t try to find someone that is out of reach, you try to find someone who you try to be like and that it is possible to be like. But how could I be like any of them?

So I realized what I wanted to write was what I needed at that age, in that time of my life. Everything around me was changing but I wasn’t. The doctors told me I might outgrow asthma, but I didn’t. It was frustrating, painful and when I compared myself to characters in books, it felt downright cruel at times to know I could end up in similar situations and not have any options as my disposal.

Iris is faced with the pain and problems of real life. She is my attempt to bring to writing what I had needed back then, and what I hope I can provide those who need that now. When you read something it can change your life. It can change your perspective of your life. The last thing I wanted was girls to have a weaker perspective of themselves, rather than to see themselves for who they really are inside. I wanted them to read about a girl who if she became angry, she would be forced to calm down otherwise her lungs couldn’t handle the strain. I wanted them to read about a girl who can’t run, and yet is being chased by the truth. I wanted them to have a role model who didn’t have even the normal abilities of your ‘average Joe’ at her disposal but was always able to find a way to pull through.

Iris is a real girl and she doesn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she has the weight that all real girls face – who we really are and who we have the chance to become.



 

Emma Michaels is the author of the ‘A Sense of Truth’ and ‘Society of Feathers’ series. Her goal with her latest YA novel 'Owlet' is to give others what she did not have growing up; a strong female protagonist with asthma.  While her previous aspiration was to be a lady knight she realized that not being able to run more than a few feet might become a hindrance so turned to writing instead. Her day jobs include being a cover artist, marketing consultant and silk screen designer.

As the founder of The Writers Voice blog (
http://OurBooksOurVoice.Blogspot.com) she loves to connect authors and readers. As a book blogger turned author, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, until she moved at eighteen to Washington State. Suddenly, the world was a new place filled with tall green trees that reached further for the sky with every moment, making her want to do the same. Ever since, she has tried to make her life something new and different from what it was before, pursuing her future career, setting high goals and reaching for them. With the support of her fiancé, Chihuahua, and her amazing blog followers and fellow bloggers, she wants to prove to the world that anything is possible and help inspire fellow literary lovers to reach for their dreams.

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3 comments:

  1. Steph, thanks again for sharing 'Owlet' with your blog followers. We appreciate your support of Emma's YA novel :)

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  2. Awesome guest post. I'm asthmatic too and I agree that it's nice when the main characters have human flaws.

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  3. This book looks great! I love the cover and excerpt. Thank for the chance to win!
    -Brooke Banks

    ReplyDelete