Friday 21 November 2014

Featured Book: Echoes of Immortality by KC McDonald

Synopsis
Jenna Sims is a culinary student with a secret. While perfecting a homework recipe, she consults an old worn book that belonged to her great-great grandmother and unwittingly cooks up a spell for immortality. Jenna's secret, unbeknownst to her, is that her ancestry comes from a coven of witches. A down-on-his-luck cosmetics company marketing representative finds out about the spell and sets out to steal the book for the recipe, which he thinks would be a hit for the company and allow a reversal of fortune for himself. A period of self-discovery and a short learning curve is unleashed as Jenna strives to protect the family secrets and keep evil from stealing the spell book containing enough power to change the world.

Buy Links   Amazon (Kindle)   Paperback

Excerpt
Jenna Sims on Immortality:    “I don’t think being immortal sounds all that great. Don’t you think that not having to worry about death would steal the joy from living? I mean, life is stretching to achieve goals, and exploring new things, and struggling to overcome obstacles. Life is not just breathing in and out every day. I think immortality would make all these things that add up to our lives hollow and meaningless.”
Story behind the story
I set out to write a novel at the end of 2011, after writing a couple of short stories. For me, idea generation comes from asking myself what if questions. For example: What if the Hindenburg had been made of marshmallows? Or: What if cats had thumbs? Echoes of Immortality was borne from the question: What if a culinary arts student accidentally cooked an immortality potion? I thought this idea had more merit than the previous two examples, so more questions were asked. How would this character be able to do such a thing? What would be the consequences of this discovery? Once those questions were answered, many more were asked and soon a plot began to develop.
Once the plot became a bit less murky, I began outlining the story (yes, I am a reformed plotter). I outlined the entire story and began writing in December of 2011. About 25K words into the story, I realized it was predictable and would likely not be very satisfying for the reader. So, into the round file with the outline and the transformation from plotter to pantser. Once I made that change, the characters really came to life and began doing things on their own, surprising even me at times.

About me

I retired from the U.S. Army in 2008, after a 23-year career. It was then that I inventoried my skill set to figure out what I was good at and really enjoyed doing.
I worked at two other jobs after retirement, but was laid off at the end of 2011.  riting had always come easy to me and I enjoyed it, but serious writing was always on the ‘someday’ list. Someday came at the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 when I figured out that writing is what I wanted to do. I started Echoes of Immortality in December 2011, and published it on September 25th, 2014. I also wrote a 100-page screenplay during Script Frenzy in April 2012, titled Echoes of Enchantment, which is the back-story for Echoes of Immortality, and will eventually be the second book in the series. Another day job found me in the spring of 2012, but I am plugging along and eventually plan to shed the daily grind in favor of the glamorous life of a full-time writer.

Connect with Kevin online
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jennasimmortality
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JennasImmortal

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