Today’s
featured author, Deleyna Marr, shares with us her book, Sisterhood, which is a
modern adventure with a paranormal twist. Writing has been her passion since
she could hold a pencil.
Deleyna
is the proud mother of three energetic children, ages 6 through 19. She also
tends to collect additional children the way most people collect stray cats—as of
late, she has the cats as well.
Deleyna
graduated from Santa Clara University with a BA in English/Creative Writing, a
Minor in Anthropology and the equivalent of a Minor in Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science (the university would not offer the minor officially until
the next quarter, but she completed all of the coursework). Basically, she had no
idea what she wanted to be, and followed various interests.
As
a young woman, Deleyna learned to program and discovered that she has a talent
for helping people and computers to work together and play nice. When she isn’t
teaching her 6 year old her letters, working on her writing, or designing for
the internet, she can be found in the kitchen or wandering the local beaches.
Sisterhood Synopsis
A genetically engineered psionic must find her sisters and uncover the truth of her creation. Her deadly protector has been through hell trying to rescue her. When she is tortured to increase her abilities, they’ll have to escape his brothers and the spirits their powers have attracted before they discover their love.
What motivated you to write Sisterhood?
Sisterhood started as an exercise in Deleyna’s writers group. She wrote a character sketch of her best friend. From there, the characters came to life. Her friend is a poet and she features the poems throughout the book. The book has two main concepts: friendship and slavery. As a girl, Deleyna discovered that the neighbor's nanny was really a slave. Ever since this discovery, she’s been fascinated by the existence of slavery in America, and this book explores the different levels of slavery she sees all around us.
Why go Indie?
Deleyna met with agents and editors who loved her writing, but felt that they couldn't sell it. They tended to not give suggestions other than to write in another genre (She writes in two different genres, apparently neither are selling these days). She continued to query, as she has a number of friends in the industry, but eventually she became tired of waiting for them NOT to respond to my queries. Deleyna doesn’t write to become rich or famous. She writes to share her stories. Deleyna went with Heart Ally Books as her indie publisher because she knows the owner.
Links to purchase
the book:
Amazon (paperback): http://amzn.to/VDHPiR
Amazon (paperback): http://amzn.to/VDHPiR
Amazon
(Kindle): http://amzn.to/TkhGor
B&N: http://bit.ly/OhsHop
Kobo: http://bit.ly/Tb09cZ
Kobo: http://bit.ly/Tb09cZ
Author
Website: http://www.deleyna.com to preview
the book and request autographed copies.
I’d
like to thank Deleyna Marr for sharing her publishing experience with us and
participating in Pay It Forward. Now let everyone else know about Sisterhood by
sharing this link – http://bit.ly/VPvy9N
Sisters
and Paranormal,
Bea
Cheers to Deleyna for going Indie. We know that story all too well; the agents/editors think your book is too unique and would be a "hard sell," then they scratch their heads in confusion when you ask what you should do (uh, just write a Twilight knockoff, we can sell that!). We were also sick of not getting replies, even to full submission requests. Common courtesy, people.
ReplyDeleteSo good luck to her, and I hope she does well!
Thanks, Bea for the great interview! I will definitely be paying this forward. I've found a triad of authors who share writing the way my sisters share their spy adventures!
ReplyDeleteSisiterhood sounds great, but even Deleyna's life seems like an amazing story. Great interview.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview! And her book cover is AMAZING! I wish her all the luck in the world with it-- it sounds like an equally amazing book!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyable interview Denise, and good for Deleyna not giving up with a story that very clearly needed to be told. it would have been easy to just walk away, so it's definitely inspiring that she went for it. I hope she has great success with her novel.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for the well wishes. Sorry to be so slow in replying. "Eternal Curse" -- you sound like my mother. She was always after me to write my life story. (grin) Peggy -- I love my cover. It was done by Eithne O'Hanlon. I saw some of her work and wanted her. She took the concept I had of the cover and turned it into something amazing. That broken glass imagery is a center point to the novel, so it was wonderful having an artist so in tune with what I was writing.
ReplyDelete