Interview with YA fantasy romance author April Marcom

YA fantasy author April Marcom is in the hot seat today. She’s chatting with me about her new romance, The Gingerbread Curse.

The book will be $0.99 during the virtual book tour.

During her virtual book tour, April will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Nobel (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
April Marcom grew up all over Mississippi, traveling from one adventure to the next with her two sisters and their musical parents. As a teenager, they made a home in Oklahoma when her mother pursued a formal education in music.

Creativity runs through April’s veins in the form of writing, while her three wonderful children are blessed to have found it in art. She’s living her own happily ever after with her high school sweetheart in the beautiful countryside with their eight rowdy dogs and his collection of classic cars.

Welcome, April. Please tell us about your current release.
The Gingerbread Curse is about a high school girl who inherits a strange version of the classic Gingerbread Man story. It leads her to a magical world underground where she meets and falls in love with an old-world young man who’s been enchanted to look as if he’s made of gingerbread. With the help of a monstrous fox hybrid, a boar big enough they can both ride it like a horse, and a woman who gifts them each with a special ability, they just might escape the deadly underground maze.

What inspired you to write this book?
I wanted to write a more grown up version of a classic fairytale, and this idea just popped into my head. The idea of my heroine rescuing the hero, who rescues her in return, seems very romantic.

Excerpt from The Gingerbread Curse:
I cast my eyes back to the book cover. THE GINGERBREAD CURSE was written above the desperate-looking figure.

A chill raced through my spine as I opened it to the first page. There were no pictures, only a tiny sentence centered on paper:

As my life draws to a close, I realize the time has finally come. This is for your eyes only.

Page 1

Hidden within the Evanish Mountains, there is a crevice that leads to an unknown world deep within our earth, where magic bleeds through the ground, transforming whatever it touches.

Page 2

Over time, a great many wanderers have fallen into the enormous underground world, drawn in by its magic and turned into beings who look like they could have been made from gingerbread. The only way to escape is to face a maze filled with monsters and peril nearly impossible to survive.

What exciting story are you working on next?
Right now I’m working on a dark fairytale where a girl is stranded on a cursed Romanian island. Without realizing it, she begins to fulfill a hundred year old prophecy about a golden princess who will restore everything to what it once was. She’ll have to join forces with the island spirits and a gorgeous secret prince to unravel the mystery of how the curse came to be and how to lift it from what was once a magical utopian island. How will they do it? Your guess is as good as mine. It’s a work in progress.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve always considered myself a creator of stories. Growing up in Mississippi, my family took turns visiting my granny and my Uncle Mike each weekend, which was quite a drive for a youngen’. This was before cell phones and tablets, so I passed the time staring out the window, dreaming up fantastic stories. I didn’t actually finish a written story until my early twenties, though. That’s when everything really took off.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
My most important job is being a mother and wife. I also work as a Pre-K assistant at my kids’ school. Weekends and holidays are the best times for writing. A lot of what I write happens in bits and pieces wherever I can find the time. It’s not unusual to sit down and barely write half a sentence before I’ve got to get back up to do something else.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I don’t have ADD, but it sure seems to kick in the minute I sit down to write. Suddenly I’m thinking of all the things I want to look up on my cell phone or the things I need to get done around the house or for the kids. I’ve got to tell myself to just get it done. Once I get into the flow of writing, it’s just as hard to break away and do anything else. Super annoying.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a veterinarian. I LOVE animals! So working with them was my dream job. Somewhere between the movies and books about being a veterinarian, I realized shots and surgery were part of the job. That’s when the dream died, because there’s no way I could ever do something like that. I do still love animals, though. Our house is like a zoo with eight dogs and two cats.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
THANKS! I love readers and I really appreciate you. If only we could all magic ourselves into our favorite stories, right?

Links:
Website | Twitter | Amazon | Apple | Kobo | Barnes and Noble

The book will be $0.99 during the virtual book tour.

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