Flicker Blog Tour! (+$15 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Flicker

Author: Courtney Houston

Series: Defying Death #1

Pages: 320

Date Published: 2015

Publisher: Smashwords

Format: Kindle

Genre: Paranormal

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:
My name is Catalina Franklin. And I should be dead. When Death called my number, sending one of her Guides to take my soul, she didn't count on one thing. The Guide she sent - He was made for me, and I for him. Pulling me back from the arms of Death, Telor changed my fate - and his. Now we're left with the question of not only how he's still here, by why. Will we get the answers we need? Or will Death find us first? Only time will tell...but ours is quickly running out.

~Try an Excerpt!~

Every part of me wanted to materialize right in front of her, to take her in my arms and hold her close. That was the type of self-serving bastard that I was. Was, I was that man. I could be different now. She made me want to be different.

“I can’t remember you. I’m trying, but I can’t. I don’t know how to explain it, but I know there is a you, whatever that means. I can feel this abstract idea of a you.” She wiped angry tears from her face and took a deep breath, releasing it in a puff of smoke and wrapping her arms around herself to help ward off the cold.

“Go in the house, crazy girl,” I said aloud. “You’ll catch your death out here.”

Her eyes traveled over me, feeling rather than seeing me.

“Good, God.” She rubbed her eyes roughly with the heel of her hands and let out a cry of frustration. “Look at me, standing in my backyard, talking to the wind. I’m going crazy. I’m really going crazy. Now, I’m talking to myself.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, my lips tilted upward into a small smile. Wanting to soothe her obvious pain, I made a split-second decision. I stood and walked toward her so we were standing face to face, her hot breath exhaling onto my face. I wanted to embrace her and hold her in my arms.

“You’re not crazy,” I told her, sliding my knuckles down the side of her face, taking pleasure in the way she closed her eyes and leaned into my touch.

~Guest Post!~

Before I became an author (I say author, not writer, because a writer has always and will always be a writer), I used to hear authors talk about their characters as if they were real people. They would talk about how their hero wouldn’t shut up or their villain wasn’t doing what they thought he would do. This  always struck me as odd. I mean, they’re characters… that you made up. Surely they do whatever you want them to do.

WRONG

This was probably my biggest ‘AHA!” moment as an author. Even though they live inside the author’s head, they are by no means available for the author to manipulate. For all intents and purposes, the characters ARE their own person. It’s just that the author is the only one who can hear them.

Telor and Lina? They will literally talk my head off. I’m trying to cook or clean or drive and they are 

chatting away about one thing or another. Gavin? He will literally refuse to do things. I had it all planned out for him to go here, the minute I start writing-BOOM! He sasses me and tells me that my ideas are stupid and he’s doing me a favor.

Which brings me to the other dilemma of having characters in your head- having conversations with 

them. Not aloud (usually), but still, a silent conversation with a voice in your head is still pretty crazy. 

Below, see an actual conversation that I had with Lina (who is probably one of my most difficult characters to write):

Me: What are you doing? I thought you were supposed to be going home?

Lina: Weren’t you listening? I SAID I was going home, but I MEANT I was going to meet (NAME REDACTED). You were there, you should know this.

Me: But I think you should go home. Remember what happened the last time you did something like this?

Lina: You set your own hair on fire once. You’re not exactly the best judge of good ideas, are you?

Me: You’re a monster….

Lina: Start writing….

As you can see, they probably know more about me, than I do them. At first, this freaked me out. Until another author friend of mine explained it in the most perfect way. Author’s don’t own their ideas (or their characters) they are only a vessel for the story to come to life. It made a lot of sense to me. It helped me to feel like less of a failure as an author when I couldn’t get my characters to do what I wanted them to do.

So, the moral of this story is that authors hear voices, talk to themselves and it’s not our fault.

~Meet Courtney!~ 

Courtney lives in Kentucky with her husband (Mr. Houston), her two boys (Emmett and Ellis), her two cats (Polly and Jed) and her 3 chickens. Legal Assistant by day and writer by night, Courtney enjoys pancakes, coffee, wine and the number 26. She's a Leo, at least that's what the tattoo on her back says.

 Courtney will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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