Deceived by L.A. Starkey
(Soul Keeper Series #1)
Publication date: August 28th 2014
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
They say a soul is the immaterial essence, the animating principle, the actuating cause of an individual life.
But what if you had to share yours with the one person you hated the most?
The soul mate principle states that for every one soul there is another that will recognize its match, hence creating the perfect union.
But what if you had two soul mates, which would you choose?
What if your choices had eternal ramification?
Deceived, the debut novel in the Soul Keeper Series, is a modern day love story about the implications of having more than one soul mate, and having to choose between the two of them. The decisions of the gods has left the next generation, their heirs, torn between fate and reality, and the balance of the future hangs in anticipation of what’s to come.
Goodreads
Amazon
Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest release was Destroyed, Book II in my YA Soul Keeper Series. It was a continuation of the story I started in Deceived and took me (and hopefully my readers) on a great story through the city of Seattle in hopes of finding an exit clause to the prophecy my three main characters are bound to.
The Soul Keeper Series is a modern day love story that centers on the implications of having more than one soul mate and having to choose. It’s further complicated by the backstory being centered on an old Greek prophecy that pushed a battle between the gods down to the males in my story. They appear as brothers, but the truth of the matter is that they are one boy, split into two bodies and thereby sharing a soul. They are charged with winning the love of the soul keeper, my protagonist, in order to bring balance back to heaven and earth.
What inspired you to write it?
I’m a reader first and foremost and I’ve read sooooo many books in my short life. I won an award my 8th great year for reading the most books in the school and the school was rather large. What can I say? I was reading YA before that was even remotely cool! After reading for so long, I figured that I could give back by writing a story of my own and creating in a few people, if even just my family, that great feeling you get when you read something good. So, I did it.
How did you come up with the idea for the cover?
I actually jumped on 99design.com (which is AWESOME) and had a contest. It was a little pricy, but I put a few things about the character and the scene that I feel would bring people in and the designer took what little I gave him and produced something fantastic. I actually got 144 designs in the contest and choose my favorite. After that I signed up with him for 2 more covers for book II and III. He’s Brand Launcher on 99design.com and he’s fantastic.
If it was made into a movie, who would you like to play the main characters?
Let’s see… Marcus and Nicolas are twins so I’d pair them up with Kellan Lutz. Samantha would be Victoria Justice, and Julie would be Annasophia Robb.
What is it about this genre that appeals to you so much?
I love disappearing when I read. I live a fast-moving crazy life and so where I am looking for adventure in the pages of a novel, I’m really also looking for something that could NEVER-EVER happen. I want to jump into a world where things exist that only do so in our imaginations. Paranormal novels do that for me every time. I try to read or write other genres and it never works out for me.
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But what if you had to share yours with the one person you hated the most?
The soul mate principle states that for every one soul there is another that will recognize its match, hence creating the perfect union.
But what if you had two soul mates, which would you choose?
What if your choices had eternal ramification?
Deceived, the debut novel in the Soul Keeper Series, is a modern day love story about the implications of having more than one soul mate, and having to choose between the two of them. The decisions of the gods has left the next generation, their heirs, torn between fate and reality, and the balance of the future hangs in anticipation of what’s to come.
Goodreads
Amazon
Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest release was Destroyed, Book II in my YA Soul Keeper Series. It was a continuation of the story I started in Deceived and took me (and hopefully my readers) on a great story through the city of Seattle in hopes of finding an exit clause to the prophecy my three main characters are bound to.
The Soul Keeper Series is a modern day love story that centers on the implications of having more than one soul mate and having to choose. It’s further complicated by the backstory being centered on an old Greek prophecy that pushed a battle between the gods down to the males in my story. They appear as brothers, but the truth of the matter is that they are one boy, split into two bodies and thereby sharing a soul. They are charged with winning the love of the soul keeper, my protagonist, in order to bring balance back to heaven and earth.
What inspired you to write it?
I’m a reader first and foremost and I’ve read sooooo many books in my short life. I won an award my 8th great year for reading the most books in the school and the school was rather large. What can I say? I was reading YA before that was even remotely cool! After reading for so long, I figured that I could give back by writing a story of my own and creating in a few people, if even just my family, that great feeling you get when you read something good. So, I did it.
How did you come up with the idea for the cover?
I actually jumped on 99design.com (which is AWESOME) and had a contest. It was a little pricy, but I put a few things about the character and the scene that I feel would bring people in and the designer took what little I gave him and produced something fantastic. I actually got 144 designs in the contest and choose my favorite. After that I signed up with him for 2 more covers for book II and III. He’s Brand Launcher on 99design.com and he’s fantastic.
If it was made into a movie, who would you like to play the main characters?
Let’s see… Marcus and Nicolas are twins so I’d pair them up with Kellan Lutz. Samantha would be Victoria Justice, and Julie would be Annasophia Robb.
What is it about this genre that appeals to you so much?
I love disappearing when I read. I live a fast-moving crazy life and so where I am looking for adventure in the pages of a novel, I’m really also looking for something that could NEVER-EVER happen. I want to jump into a world where things exist that only do so in our imaginations. Paranormal novels do that for me every time. I try to read or write other genres and it never works out for me.
What made you want to become an author?
I wanted to create an experience for the readers because I was a reader. My mom loves to read and I knew my girls would grow up into being teenage readers, so I did it for the four of us to start and then got tugged into self-publishing it by a few writer friends that loved the story too.
How do you come up with character names?
I use names I really like most of the time and some of the time I actually use friends and family members.
For Soul Keeper, I just love the names Sam or Samantha, Marcus, Nicolas and Julianna. I don’t know anyone with those names and they were spin offs of family or anything else. Now one of my characters, Ken, is totally modeled after my younger (playboy acting) brother. That was fun…
Name one of your all-time favourite books?
Well I know it’s a series and not just one book, but one of the more recent series that’s be added to my listing of favorites is Stephanie Myers Twilight Series. Such fantastic books and easy reading. I fell in love and looked like a freaking zombie the week I found the series. Read all of the books in four days and worked fulltime. Rough, rough week.
Who, or what, inspires you?
Life inspires me as do all of the people in mine. It’s amazing how resilient we as humans are to take whatever comes at us and make something of it. There will be times when we have heartache and pain, but most of us will use that to fuel the future or create something beautifully broken while we’re in it. I just love watching, learning and listening those that God’s blessed me with.
Where is your favourite place to write?
I love writing at my kitchen table, namely because the sunlight is coming in through all of the windows and the chairs are those booth like bench seats. Just the perfect place to find serenity.
What is your favourite movie that was based on a book?
That’s a hard one. I’d have to say Divergent, which was a fantastic book and an even better movie. Such an incredibly well put together concept by the author and the movie was fun with the characters perfectly aligned to the actors.
Name two of your favourite authors.
I love JR Ward and from my teen years LJ Smith. They both tell a great story that drags me in deep and yet have all the elements I’d want in a book perfectly balanced.
If you could have a dinner party with any authors from any time in history, who would you choose and why?
Stephen King, namely because I know he had a rough start at his career and yet he persevered to be an icon of our time for writing. I’d love to pick his brain and hear his thoughts.
Tell us a random fact about yourself.
I can vibrate my eyeballs. Check out the video on my blog on the “About – Seven Lovely Things About Me” page. www.lauriestarkey.wordpress.com
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
I’d say Julia Roberts. She’s very much my kind of gal, though my family would say someone more like Kate Winslet like she was in Divergent – driven, focused and quite intimidating. What? Me? Noooo…
Tell us an interesting fact about where you live.
I live in Texas and we’re capable of deep-frying anything, including butter.
What are your (writing) plans for the future?
I have a lot of writing plans for the future, but I’ll give you 2015 to keep things less than frightening. :-)
Under LA Starkey for my YA and Middle grade:
Descent, Soul Keeper III (YA)
Howl at the Moon, Liarus Detective Series Book I (MG)
Good to the Last Drop, Liarus Detective Series Book II (MG)
Door to Nowhere (YA – Standalone novel)
Shallow Water (YA – Standalone novel)
Seeker, Book I (YA Series)
Under Kate Thomas for my New Adult:
Equilibrium Series – 5 novels
Resounding Series – 8 novels (some will be 2016)
That’s all for now. In 2016 I’m totally doing a fantasy and a sci-fi just for the fun of it. I love reading everything.
Tell us one thing that's on your bucket list.
Successfully leaving the corporate world and owning my own business. We’re starting 3-4 this year in hopes of pushing toward making that a reality.
Who/What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I wanted to be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a hotel owner… you name it and I probably wanted to be it. There wasn’t any one thing. I’ve always been someone to figure out how to be too many things at once.
Laurie Starkey is the author of the upcoming Soul Keeper Series, a supernatural young adult series, and The Liarus Detective Series, a supernatural middle grade series. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband, Jacob and three beautiful kiddos.
She is a CPA by trade, a church planter and entrepreneur at heart; however, writing and reading are passions she just can’t help but indulge in. With more ideas than one person should be allowed, she is blessed to have a muse that doesn’t seem to take a vacation and more energy that one might consider healthy.
Blog
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Tour-wide giveaway (US and Canada only)
A signed copy of both Deceived and Destroyed by L.A. Starkey
I wanted to create an experience for the readers because I was a reader. My mom loves to read and I knew my girls would grow up into being teenage readers, so I did it for the four of us to start and then got tugged into self-publishing it by a few writer friends that loved the story too.
How do you come up with character names?
I use names I really like most of the time and some of the time I actually use friends and family members.
For Soul Keeper, I just love the names Sam or Samantha, Marcus, Nicolas and Julianna. I don’t know anyone with those names and they were spin offs of family or anything else. Now one of my characters, Ken, is totally modeled after my younger (playboy acting) brother. That was fun…
Name one of your all-time favourite books?
Well I know it’s a series and not just one book, but one of the more recent series that’s be added to my listing of favorites is Stephanie Myers Twilight Series. Such fantastic books and easy reading. I fell in love and looked like a freaking zombie the week I found the series. Read all of the books in four days and worked fulltime. Rough, rough week.
Who, or what, inspires you?
Life inspires me as do all of the people in mine. It’s amazing how resilient we as humans are to take whatever comes at us and make something of it. There will be times when we have heartache and pain, but most of us will use that to fuel the future or create something beautifully broken while we’re in it. I just love watching, learning and listening those that God’s blessed me with.
Where is your favourite place to write?
I love writing at my kitchen table, namely because the sunlight is coming in through all of the windows and the chairs are those booth like bench seats. Just the perfect place to find serenity.
What is your favourite movie that was based on a book?
That’s a hard one. I’d have to say Divergent, which was a fantastic book and an even better movie. Such an incredibly well put together concept by the author and the movie was fun with the characters perfectly aligned to the actors.
Name two of your favourite authors.
I love JR Ward and from my teen years LJ Smith. They both tell a great story that drags me in deep and yet have all the elements I’d want in a book perfectly balanced.
If you could have a dinner party with any authors from any time in history, who would you choose and why?
Stephen King, namely because I know he had a rough start at his career and yet he persevered to be an icon of our time for writing. I’d love to pick his brain and hear his thoughts.
Tell us a random fact about yourself.
I can vibrate my eyeballs. Check out the video on my blog on the “About – Seven Lovely Things About Me” page. www.lauriestarkey.wordpress.com
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
I’d say Julia Roberts. She’s very much my kind of gal, though my family would say someone more like Kate Winslet like she was in Divergent – driven, focused and quite intimidating. What? Me? Noooo…
Tell us an interesting fact about where you live.
I live in Texas and we’re capable of deep-frying anything, including butter.
What are your (writing) plans for the future?
I have a lot of writing plans for the future, but I’ll give you 2015 to keep things less than frightening. :-)
Under LA Starkey for my YA and Middle grade:
Descent, Soul Keeper III (YA)
Howl at the Moon, Liarus Detective Series Book I (MG)
Good to the Last Drop, Liarus Detective Series Book II (MG)
Door to Nowhere (YA – Standalone novel)
Shallow Water (YA – Standalone novel)
Seeker, Book I (YA Series)
Under Kate Thomas for my New Adult:
Equilibrium Series – 5 novels
Resounding Series – 8 novels (some will be 2016)
That’s all for now. In 2016 I’m totally doing a fantasy and a sci-fi just for the fun of it. I love reading everything.
Tell us one thing that's on your bucket list.
Successfully leaving the corporate world and owning my own business. We’re starting 3-4 this year in hopes of pushing toward making that a reality.
Who/What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I wanted to be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a hotel owner… you name it and I probably wanted to be it. There wasn’t any one thing. I’ve always been someone to figure out how to be too many things at once.
Laurie Starkey is the author of the upcoming Soul Keeper Series, a supernatural young adult series, and The Liarus Detective Series, a supernatural middle grade series. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband, Jacob and three beautiful kiddos.She is a CPA by trade, a church planter and entrepreneur at heart; however, writing and reading are passions she just can’t help but indulge in. With more ideas than one person should be allowed, she is blessed to have a muse that doesn’t seem to take a vacation and more energy that one might consider healthy.
Blog
Goodreads
Tour-wide giveaway (US and Canada only)
A signed copy of both Deceived and Destroyed by L.A. Starkey
Hi Suzy!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting me today!!
I’d love to have you or any of your friends jump on my mailing list. I sent out previews of my covers, have freebies coming and ask for interactive feedback on my books!!
http://eepurl.com/9Nrc1
Thanks again!
Laurie
Thanks for hosting today, Suzy!
ReplyDelete