{Giveaway winners} Author Interview and eBooks Giveaway: Derrolyn Anderson

Derrolyn Anderson is the author of Marina's Tales, a self-published series of books about mermaids, and much more. For the moment, two books have been released, Between The Land and The Sea and The Moon and The Tide. I really loved those two books, they were fantastic, refreshing and awesome readings. I can't praise them enough and you can find my reviews here and there. Derrolyn has very kindly accepted to answer a few questions and she has also offered to give away two sets of ebooks for two lucky winners (the link to enter is after the interview).

I'd like to thank Derrolyn a lot, for her time, as she's working hard on the third book and for the giveway.

- What motivated and inspired you to write a book about mermaids, surfers and Californian beaches?

I’ve always been a reader, but suddenly got the idea to start writing my first book last summer. I’m not really sure what made me think I could do it, but once I got started I became a little bit obsessed! It ended up being one of the most challenging, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding things I’ve ever done.

I spent the first ten years of my marriage living in the little neighborhood in Aptos where the story takes place, and I really miss my daily walks down to the beach. There really is a “secret staircase”, a cement shipwreck with a pier leading up to it, with really good surfing just up the coast a little bit! I think that given the setting, mermaids seemed like a natural choice! Now I see them everywhere I look!

- Which of the characters is your favourite one and why? Are the characters based on the people you know?

Wow, I love them all, so that’s a really hard one to answer. In the book that I’m currently writing (#3), so far I’m having the most fun with Shayla - there are some big things in store for that girl! All of the characters I write are loosely based on people I’ve known, or imagined I knew, taking a whole lot of artistic license.

For example, I have a very interesting, very chic aunt, that the character Aunt Evie is inspired by. My Aunt Janice was a fashion model and designer in New York, San Francisco and Paris, working in the glamorous “Mad Men” era. She was even featured in the 1963 Louis Malle film, “The Fire Within” (shown in flashbacks and still photos as the long-lost American girl). Unfortunately, unlike the mercenary Evie, she didn’t marry for money- so no fancy clothes and sports cars for me!

-Why do you write for young adults? Do you wish to write adults books?

I love all of the great the YA stories I read, and I think some of the most interesting writing today is coming out of that genre. As for me, I’m the mother of three teenage girls, so I have a vested interest in keeping my stories reasonably clean and sweet! Perhaps when my girls are a little bit older my writing will mature along with them. I have a few crazy eighties tales to tell....

- Which place is most likely to inspire you when you're writing? Do you rather write outside or at home? Do you plan a lot?

My husband and I run a home-based business, so I’m always at home. I try to carve out a little alone-time with my lap-top each evening, usually in my bedroom, sometimes out in my garden, which is bordered by hundreds of acres of vineyards- an ocean of pinot noir grapevines! I begin with an outline, but I’m open to random inspiration, and I often end up surprising myself.

- You're self-published, how was that experience?

Everything I read told me the first step in getting published was having a literary agent to shop your book around to the big publishing houses. When I finished my first book I sent query letters out to dozens of agents and got back plenty of form rejection letters. Steve, (my visionary entrepreneur of a husband) had been encouraging me to self-publish all along, so I worked up a few quick book covers with Photoshop, priced them low, and went for it.

I would have signed anything in order to get published, but now I own all the rights for all eternity so who knows? With the advent of e-readers, ten years from now it may seem like the brightest move I ever made! I do need to re-work my covers though... I think I can do a little better!

Self publishing takes away the gatekeeper’s power, but it also lets a lot of questionable writing through. I think that’s where trusted critics will step in to filter through the masses of content and help direct the right reader to find the right book. The hardest part about being an indie-writer is doing the self promotion, but with wonderful book-bloggers like you, and great websites like Goodreads, it’s getting easier!

- Can you tell us something fun about yourself that we probably don’t know?

When I was in college studying art, I used to work at night as an airport hotel bartender, and that alone has provided me with the inspiration for dozens of characters! Oh, and I type with one finger.

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This giveaway is now terminated. Thank you again to all who entered. 

The winners, picked with Random.org, are :

- Luna Z.
- Mirlou

They will be notified by email. Stay tuned there'll be other giveaways soon.

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And now the Giveaway. I totally loved those two books (you can find my reviews here and there). So I'm really glad to be able to share them with two lucky winners. Thank you so much to Derrolyn.

Giveaway details: Two winners will be picked using Random.org. Each winner will receive a set of two ebooks (Between the Land and The Sea {Marina's Tales, book 1} AND The Moon and The Tide {Marina's Tales, book 2}). Several formats are available: mobi (Kindle), epub (Nook, Kobo, Sony..) Pdf - you can view all of them here.

You don't need to be a GFC follower, but that's appreciated.

You can have extra entries:
+1 if you follow my blog (GFC follower)
+1 if you share this giveaway (twitter or facebook or anywhere) You can use the following tweet: Ebooks giveaway: Win Between The Land and The Sea and The Moon and The Tide by Derrolyn Anderson http://bit.ly/mU9DC1 @liliesbooks

Click here to enter!

The contest is open from now to the 30th July 2011. The two winners will be announced on the blog on the 31st July 2011 and I will contact them by email. If I don’t hear from them within a reasonable time, I will select other winners using Random.org. The giveaway is opened internationally. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Enter Here!

Good Luck to Everyone :)