Friendly Fridays – Elizabeth Belyeu and Secondhand Shadow

So I’m going to be adding a segment to my Fridays. I’m calling them Friendly Fridays or, “Hey go check out this awesome blog.”

I promise that if I am going to promote someone and know the person I am promoting outside of an admiration/fan setting, I’ll let you know.

Without further adieu, please go check out an up and coming author, Elizabeth Belyeu.

She has recently published her first novel, Secondhand Shadow with Astraea Press. In Belyeu’s first novel, heroine Naomi is pregnant and struggling with finals when she accidentally stumbles across the troubled and brooding Damon, a mysterious boy with an even more mysterious past. Through a connection that neither of them quite understand, Naomi is pulled from the normal world of tests, work and pregnancy cravings, into a dangerous realm of Shadows. Belyeu introduces a fascinating and unique world, creating a new entry into the paranormal romance genre.

 

I sat down with Belyeu over email this week and discussed a few things that most authors don’t get asked during their book releases. There have been some great interviews about her writing style and goals but I thought it would be fun to discuss things a little differently.

AH: What is the worst thing you ever wrote?

EB: Aw geez, do I have to ‘fess up to bad writing? Fine, I’ll throw my grade-school self under the bus. I wrote this story about a lamb named Amanda that got lost in a hurricane and was trying to find her way home. There was no coherent plot whatsoever. Nothing that happened actually made sense. And there were literally entire pages consisting of the words “She walked on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on…”

AH: Marvel or DC?

EB: I’m primarily a Marvel girl; I have definitely enjoyed some DC stuff, mostly the Batman movies and the Young Justice animated show, but on the whole I prefer the “feel” of Marvel.

AH: If you could base a novel anywhere, what areas would you avoid and why?

EB: I CAN base a novel anywhere, thank you very much, but I enjoy sticking to places I actually know. It’s both easier and more fun to evoke a place I remember than to come up with one from whole cloth, and I think it comes across as more real anyway. Probably the last place I would want to set a novel would be the Middle East. Aesthetically it doesn’t appeal to me, I’ve certainly never been there, and I would definitely screw it up and mortally offend a whole bunch of people.

AH: Tell us, would you date any of your characters?

EB: In a way I feel like I date all my characters, at least all the ones who are involved in any kind of romance with each other… I have to understand the point of view of both lover and beloved, if you follow. But are there any I would bring to life and go out with? Well, I’m enough like Naomi that me and Damon might work out, actually.

AH: If you were an alcohol-imbibing person, which one of your characters would you most like to drink with?

EB: I don’t drink, as you know, but I also kinda don’t even want to drink? So that’s a tough question. I feel like Naomi and Damon would be fun up until they started with the PDA, which they would. Paris would probably be a lot of fun; he’d get snarkier and snarkier until he fell asleep on the table.

AH: Cats or Sexy Robots?

EB: How sexy are we talking? ‘Cause I’m thinking David 8 levels of sexy and if that’s the case, then let me tell you which one I would rather have curled up at the foot of my bed.

AH: What imaginary animal are you most afraid of and why?

EB: TOLKIEN’S VARIOUS ENORMOUS SPIDERS. Shelob, Ungoliant, your little grandkids in Mirkwood, I am looking (or actually not looking) at you. On the other hand, do zombies count as animals? ‘Cause I cannot deal with zombies at all.

AH: What is your least favorite word?

EB: Scrotum. It just sounds so gross and weird and the accompanying mental images are also gross and weird. So naturally my brother likes to sneak up behind me and whisper it in my ear.

AH: If you were trapped in a group of people that you couldn’t stand being around, how would you get out?

EB: Excuse myself to the bathroom and never come back. Failing actual escape from the premises, stay in the bathroom with a book or iPod until they’ve gone away. Experience has taught me the effectiveness of these methods.

AH: Name three of your least favorite foods and how you would eradicate them from the earth.

EB: Sweet potatoes, baked beans, and V8 comprise my Short List of foods that I don’t merely dislike, but physically cannot eat without gagging. I would hire teams of warriors with flame throwers to track down every one of them in existence and burn them to ashes.

You can buy Secondhand Shadow from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.

And go check out Ms. Belyue’s blog! She’s found over at https://elizabethbelyeu.wordpress.com/. She updates regularly about writing and life as a newly published author.

 

DISCLAIMER: I happen to know Elizabeth in real life. We are quite good friends and she has been a huge encouragement to me over the last few years in getting back on the writing horse and working hard to master my craft. However this blog post was completely my idea and I am pleased to be able to claim friendship with someone as talented and interesting as she is. Please consider checking her out and reading her book. She’s worked very hard on it and it is a very good work in a market that has not be open to new paranormal material in a while.