Month: February 2018

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Zara Hoffman – The Belgrave Legacy

Taking a break from obsessing about my own book, I’m really pleased to welcome a special guest to my blog. (It’s not all about me, as my mother always told me!). She is the very talented Zara Hoffman, author of The Belgrave Legacy.  You should check out her work.

But first, I asked her about her current work in progress. Here’s Zara.

The inspiration for Unmoored, book 2 in The Belgrave Legacy trilogy, came to me as I was revising The Belgrave Legacy into a single book (I had planned on originally making the first book three books on its own). The first book is all about Fawn Belgrave and a dark angel named Caleb. This second book is all about her also magical twin brother Alec and her best friend Ivy, who is siren, unbeknownst to him.

A lot was cut from the middle section of The Belgrave Legacy when it became a single book. One of the main things to go was a significant subplot between Alec and Ivy as they struggled to help Fawn through her tumultuous relationship.

As a siren, Ivy, knows she is other than human and that makes her interactions with them, and other Supernaturals so interesting to explore. And the biggest difference between this one and the first book in the trilogy? She believes in soulmates and her own soulmate doesn’t.

Unlike for The Belgrave Legacy, the idea for this book didn’t come to me in a dream. It was a simultaneous cerebral and heartfelt urge to expand on the paranormal aspects of the world I hinted at in book 1. When I did a blog post all about Ivy, the idea became more pronounced. As did the idea for book 3, Taming the Alpha, when I talked more about Alec and Fawn’s old friend Dylan. Another thing I was dying to explore was the Supernatural world through the eyes of someone who was introduced to it from a young age, rather than Fawn and Alec who didn’t know until they got their magic at age sixteen.

Zara Hoffman

About the Author

Zara Hoffman is a college student and has been writing since she was eight years old. She spends most of her time doing homework and writing new stories because if she didn’t, her head would likely explode. She writes young adult multi-genre fiction to share the crazy products of her imagination with the world and hopes that you find them as entertaining as she does. Her books are for young adults or the young at heart. After all, growing up is overrated.

When she isn’t wrapped up in projects, Zara listens to music or hangs out with friends. Connect with Zara below, and don’t forget to subscribe to her mailing list to receive The Belgrave Legacy for free: http://zarahoffman.com/subscribe.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AuthorZaraHoffman/posts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AuthZH
Instagram: http://instagram.com/zarahoffman
Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/authzh
Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/zarahoffman
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Fifty-One: Pre-Order now

Fifty-One finally hits the streets (and Internet) on Monday 12th February. The ebook will be available internationally, and a print paperback will be available in the US. The print version for those of us stranded in the UK, will follow in March (date to be confirmed).

Minions-Joy

To make things easier, I’ve updated the various links and collected them together here.

Pre-order from Amazon US

And Amazon UK

Pre-order from Filles Vertes Publishing

Enjoy the video trailer

Find out more about the book, courtesy of Renee Scattergoods’ generous profile

 

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Saving Churchill was the easy bit – Fifty-One coming soon

My time-travellin’, love-trianglin’, history-muddlin’ novel Fifty-One will be published by Filles Vertes Publishing on Monday 12 February.

Exciting for me, obviously. But we’ve reached the point in the publication journey where the writer can start to feel helpless. The words have been writ and re-writ, and then they have been through the editing wringer.

Design by Kate Cowan, Broken Arrow Designs

The cover has been designed and re-designed. (Have I mentioned the cover, by the way? I love it so much I’m worried I’m turning into Catherine Cookson.)

And now it’s at the actual physical printers, so what can you do but worry?

One worry that has plagued me recently is the question of Winston Churchill. Here in the UK, we’re mildly obsessed with Churchill, and that period of the War when it looked inevitable that all was lost, Britain would have to surrender and Europe would be at the mercy of Hitler.

In fact, as we know, during 1940 and 1941 Churchill helped the nation rally, and we stubbornly held on until the USA and USSR helped remove the chestnuts from the fire.

It sometimes feels like the 1940s were the last period when Britain really had no doubts about what it was doing as a nation. Ever since, we’ve not been sure whether we’re European or Atlantic, a big country or a small one. All this means that Churchill – despite his faults – remains a hero. Recent movies- such as Dunkirk and Darkest Hour – suggest the fascination with those days remains strong. And the muddle over leaving the European Union shows we still aren’t sure what we’re doing.

Credit: Kate Cowan, Broken Arrow Designs

In my book, Fifty-One,  Churchill plays an off-stage part early on. My hero, Jake Wesson, is sent back from 2040 to 1941 to foil Churchill’s assassination. That mission is accomplished suspiciously easily, and the book heads off in other directions. But the recent Churchill worship got me worried that my compatriots might feel I had committed the sin of doubting Churchill’s importance.

Early on, Jake and his partner Lew Brockley are being given their orders by their boss Ed Robinson. When Robinson tells them there has been an unauthorized time jump back to 1941, and their mission is to counter it, we get this exchange:

Robinson said, “We’ve checked it out and the system says it’s at least 90 percent likely they’re behind the assassination of a politician, a guy called Winston Churchill.”

“Should I know him?” Jake didn’t share Lew’s interest in obscure periods of the past, but the thoughtful expression on Brockley’s face said he’d heard of Churchill.

“Well, he was prime minister for a year, as I’m sure Agent Brockley could’ve told you,” Robinson said. “I’ve had it checked out: if Churchill isn’t shot after a year in the job, he turns out to be an inspirational war leader.”

“How can anyone know that?”

“You know I can’t talk about that, Jake. But you can trust me on it. Churchill shouldn’t die, and your job is to save him.”

“Hold on.” Lew frowned. “What’re these guys trying to achieve by killing Churchill?”

“I assume they want Britain to lose the war.”

“But the Allies won without Churchill,” Lew said. “So they failed.”

“Maybe their computers aren’t as good as ours. But we still need to undo the damage,” Robinson said.

The recent Churchill worship got me worried that my compatriots might think I had committed the sin of doubting  Churchill’s importance.

So – for the record – I don’t. It’s FICTION!

Now, what else can I worry about….?

Watch the Fifty-One video trailer here

Order Fifty-One at Filles Vertes Publishing

or Amazon US

or Amazon UK