{Interview/Giveaway} Lena Goldfinch, author of SONGSTONE

Check out the rest of the blogs taking part in the SONGSTONE Blog Tour
for more interviews, reviews, and more!

Check out today's review of SONGSTONE!


SONGSTONE is only $3.97 on nook, Kindle, Kobo, and Smashwords!
Likewise, Lena's earlier novel, AIRE, is also available across platforms for $3.97, and her novella 
THE LANGUAGE OF SOULS is only 99¢.
What great deals!
~*~

An interview with 

Lena Goldfinch

Lena lives in a scenic small town in Massachusetts with her husband, two kids, and a very spoiled Black Lab. She writes fiction for young adults, mostly light fantasy with a healthy dose of "sigh-worthy" romance.

Visit Lena's website, find her at one of my favorite sites, The Enchanted Inkpot (which is how I first discovered her!), or send her a message on Twitter and Pinterest!

You can also subscribe to Lena's newsletter to keep up with what she's working on next!

How did you come up with the magical ability to meld (or magically impress) song into stone? What inspired you?

The concept of storytelling as a theme in this story came early on. E-books were becoming really popular, and a lot of bloggers/readers were either enthusiastically embracing the idea or clinging to their paperbacks/hardcovers. It was really interesting. There was almost a sense from some articles that a book wasn't a book unless it was a printed & bound book on paper. I've been a book lover all my life, but I'm also a gadget girl, so I could sympathize with each side. (My husband is also an inventor/engineer, and he's worked on the development of new e-inks, so that brought the issue even closer to home.) 

The debate (and the passionate nature of it) got me thinking about stories as a concept, and how there are so many ways a story can be delivered (verbally, on screen, in a book, as a work of art,...), but whatever the method, whatever the culture, it seemed to me that we CRAVE stories and the telling of stories is so integral to our lives. It occurred to me that stories are stories are stories, no matter how we receive them. I love holding a beautifully designed print book in my hands, and I also love the ease of downloading an e-book.

What was your favorite scene to write? The hardest?

There are actually so many scenes that I love now, and the editing stages weren't a burden because I loved revisiting certain parts. But I have to say I adored writing the climax of the story, the ending, and the Epilogue. That's when everything came together and it felt so good to (finally) be done. ;) 

Because...this was the hardest book I've ever written. There were so many times I had to set the book aside and sort of recover and regroup before I could go on. It was just so emotionally draining. There are some dark themes in SONGSTONE, along with the fun fantastic bits, the lighter whimsical elements, and the humor, which I desperately needed at times as the writer. Otherwise, I don't know that I could have written it, or that anyone would want to read it. ;)

What are you working on now?

I'm working on a ghostly little novella called Haunting Joy. It's a contemporary first-person ghost story, something short and fun that I'm writing as a break between my bigger fantasy books. After that I have another ("big" ;)) YA fantasy that's waiting for me called Through the Spyglass. It's a Gaslight/Steampunk sort of fantasy with enchanted objects (ex. a spyglass).

Lena, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by while on tour! I'm fascinated with the fact that the birth of e-books created the idea behind SONGSTONE. It makes me love it even more!

   ~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title:  SONGSTONE

Author: Lena Goldfinch

Release Date: July 16, 2013
Publisher: Indigo Road

SUMMARY:

Kita can meld song into stone. In a world with no written word, storytelling—the ability to meld (or magically impress) song into stone—is greatly honored. The village honors her master as their medicine man, but Kita knows he's secretly a sorcerer who practices black magic using drops of her blood. She fears he’ll use her beautiful gift for a killing spell, so she conceals it from him. Each day, his magic tightens around her neck like a rope. His spells blind the villagers, so they can’t see him for what he really is. 

Not that anyone would want to help her. She was found in the forest as a baby and would have died if a village girl hadn't brought her home. But the villagers saw Kita's unusual coloring and decided she belonged to the mysterious tribe who lives in the forests of the volcano, a people feared for their mystical powers. So they fear her too. Now seventeen, she can barely admit her deepest longing: to know who she really is and where she belongs. 

Then Pono, a young journeyman, arrives from the other side of the island. He's come to fulfill a pact between their villages: to escort a storyteller back to his village--a storyteller who'll be chosen at the great assembly. Finally, in Pono, Kita sees her one slim chance at freedom and she'll risk her life to take it. 

A dark, twisty tale of sorcery, tummy-tingling romance, and adventure, inspired by the folklore of New Zealand's Māori people.

****Giveaway*****

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