Happy Indie-pendence Day Celebration of Indie Authors!

I have three great Indies to feature on INDIE-pendence Day because they’ve written some sizzling summer reads!

Have you read a great Indie title lately? Post it here, I love getting reading recs 🙂

Tiffany King is a fellow Plume and her books are fabulous because they hit at the heart of what it means to be yourself. No. Matter. What. I love this about Tiffany’s books. But I also love her writing. When I open up any of her books, it’s like she’s sitting at my kitchen table telling me a story and I love that feeling. Once you read one, you’ll want to read all of her books! Here’s a little bit about WISHING FOR SOMEDAY SOON:

Seventeen year old Katelyn Richards is a stronger person than anyone will ever know, and that is just the way she wants it. Behind her normal facade lies the reality of a broken home life. Thanks to her abusive mother, a string of deadbeat stepfathers, and an unsympathetic system, Katelyn has learned that the only one she can count on is herself. Her life’s mission has become to shield her nine year old brother, Kevin, and to give him the future that they both wish for. A life with no more abuse, no worries about where their next meal will come from, and no more wondering if they will have a roof over their heads.

When her mother moves them again, this time to a small town in Montana, Katelyn’s resolve is shaken when she meets Max, a cute boy from her new school, who gets a glimpse into her real world. Max slowly manages to break through Katelyn’s wall of distrust, stirring up feelings she never saw coming. Now with her world more complicated than she ever intended, Katelyn struggles with the decision to follow her heart into the arms of the first boy she has ever loved. A decision that could risk the promise she made to protect Kevin, and to give them the ‘someday soon’ that is so close within their grasp.

I just read FORBIDDEN TERRITORY and I have to tell you it’s a great summer read and total page-turner. There’s something in here for everyone. It’s a thriller, an adventure, a romance. I’m posting a review soon on The FORBIDDEN TERRITORY Blog Tour July 5 so I thought I’d post an interview with the authors for the Indie-pendence Day Celebration of Indie Authors! Authors Melissa Pearl & Brenda Howson are the co-authors and they live in New Zealand, where the story is set. I loved imagining the story there, in a place rarely written about in YA. Here’s a little bit about FORBIDDEN TERRITORY:

Mica and Lexy have been best friends and next door neighbours since they were eight years old. They share everything and have no secrets from each other until… Tom arrives on Mica’s doorstep – a gorgeous exchange student from England. And Lexy is smitten.

Suddenly both girls are keeping secrets. Mica is hiding news about Tom’s English girlfriend and Lexy hasn’t got the heart to tell her best friend that her brother Eli, the guy Mica is mad on, thinks of her as only a friend.

After a massive fight, the girls decide the best way to mend their friendship is to spend some quality time together. And what better way than to go camping away from their parents and why not invite along the guys they are crushing on.

So the four teenagers embark on a geo-caching expedition into New Zealand’s native bush expecting a long weekend filled with flirtatious fun; instead secrets are exposed as they stumble across a hidden marijuana crop and its gun-wielding watchmen. Forced apart they spend the next forty-eight hours racing blindly in opposite directions as they fight to find each other before the hunters do. FB fan page: www.facebook.com/MicaLexySeries

Melissa is a fellow YA Indie Carnival Author and I’m thrilled that she took the time today to ask the questions I had on my mind after I read FORBIDDEN TERRITORY.



LAHE: You and your friend Brenda Howson co-wrote FORBIDDEN TERRITORY. Can you talk about the process?

MP: It was a very easy process to be honest. Brenda and I have been best friends for over a decade. We think the same and work the same way. When we get together to plan a book it just seems to flow. About three weeks ago we met up to plan out Forbidden Waters (Bk 2). It took us the day and was SO much fun. We seem to spark ideas off each other and the story developed so easily.

We also know each other’s characters really well, so it makes it easy to plan out scenes. We did this initially writing diary entries. I wrote Mica, and Brenda wrote Lexy. We got to know our own character and the other person’s character really well.

LAHE: Did you write the Mica chapters and Brenda wrote Lexy’s or….?

MP: Yes. I am in charge of Mica and Eli. They are my creations and I take charge of those chapters and scenes. If I need Mica or Eli to do or say anything particular in one of Brenda’s scenes, I just let her know and vice versa.

We also edit each other’s scenes really thoroughly and make adjustments as necessary. We got together for an editing weekend a while back and actually read the entire book aloud together. I read Lexy’s chapters so Brenda could hear what her character sounded like through someone else’s interpretation…. and she read the Mica chapters. It was really helpful.

LAHE: The story is about two best friends, what was the inspiration for the story?

MP: Brenda and I have spent a lot of time on holiday together with our husbands. We all get on really well. We have done three trips around the South Island of New Zealand. SOOOOOOO beautiful!! We fell in love with Te Anau when we were there so setting the story in that town was easy. We also did a girl’s weekend down there and hiked some of the nearby trails so we could get a feel for the bush.

We were actually out geo-caching (the four of us) when one of us said it could make a really good story. We can’t remember who said it, but it sparked all these ideas and by the end of the day Mica, Lexy, Eli and Tom had been born then placed in the bush finding a treasure they never meant to discover.

LAHE: Have you ever found yourself lost in the bush?

MP: Once – when I was nine and only for a really short time. I ran ahead a little too far and missed the turn off. I soon found myself totally alone. It fully freaked me out!! All the forest noises are much louder when you think you’re lost 🙂

Check out more great Indie reads from these fabulous authors/reviewers/readers!