Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Milledgeville Misfit by T.L. Gray

Welcome back to Author T.L. Gray

Remember how late night ghost stories had you jumping at every shadow and sent you diving under the covers with every bump, scratch and screech in the night? Or how about those legends that took you away on a magical adventure where you overcame unimaginable obstacles to save the day?

More than likely, it was someone like author T.L Gray who told you the tales that got your imagination so stirred. The only difference, this spinner of tales has decided to write those stories down so everyone else can share in the experience.

Blog: http://www.tlgray.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorTLGray
Website: http://www.tlgray.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/authortlgray

If you could travel in a Time Machine would you go back to the past or into the future? 
I’d choose the past. I don’t like knowing what the future holds, because I like to experience each new day and forge my own path. I’d love to visit the past, mostly to see how much our historians and storytellers got it right or wrong.

What is one book everyone should read? 
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen – everyone should at least once in their lifetime read a good love story.

If you were a superhero what would your name be? 
T.L. Storyteller – I’d be like the old bards and tell the grand adventures, instilling the idea of heroism and bravery.

If you could have any superpower what would you choose? 
The ability to increase the imagination. This world would be extremely bland without a good, healthy imagination. THEN, nothing is impossible.

Night owl, or early bird? 
Early Bird – First I get my body moving and my blood pumping through exercise, while at the same time reading the latest adventure on my Kindle. These two in conjunction with each other get my brain and creative ideas flowing – making what I can get written or accomplished in the day ahead of me more than possible.

What inspired you to want to become a writer? 
A world without a great adventure seemed unbearable, and I seemed to have a knack at story-telling. Writing just came natural to me, like breathing.

What's one piece of advice you would give aspiring authors? 
Read, read, read and keep reading. It’s the greatest teaching tool for every writer. Never give up. Keep chasing that dream as if you were dying of thirst and it’s the only thing that will quench it.

Can you see yourself in any of your characters? 
A part of me is buried deep in all of them.

What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?
Love yourself, you’re precious.

You have won one million dollars what is the first thing that you would buy? 
I would start my own publishing company.

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? 
Unbelievable.

Finish the sentence- one book I wish I had written is.... 
Harry Potter series. I’d love to have been Harry’s mother. I see myself as a mother to all my characters and stories, and that one I am so proud to have been just a glimpse. J.K. is surely very proud of her children.

If you had 24 hours alone how would you spend it?
With my husband and children – just doing something ordinary together.

What is you favorite way to spend a rainy day?
Curled up with a blanket, sipping on a large cup of coffee, and lost within a great adventure.

Milledgeville Misfits

Fourteen-year old Juniper "Junebug" Summerville loses her parents and her ability to talk in a car accident. Against her silent protests, she is sent to live in a remote swampland infamous for its ghosts, federal prison and insane asylum.

As Junebug struggles with her emotional scars, she begins to heal with help from six other orphans at Dearborn, a once famous Milledgeville Plantation. Just as she begins to enjoy the peace she’s long desired, she finds herself in a fight for her sanity when she stumbles upon a tear in the fabric that separates the possible from the impossible, and she must choose which to believe.

Milledgeville Misfit is a young adult novel that deals with grief and healing, and has an ending that leaves the reader with the choice of what to believe.

Giveaway Details:
1 paperback copy open to US only
1 ebook copy open Internationally
Ends 3/11/12

Paperback - Babel
Ebook - Megan

Book Review: The Blood of Cain by T.L. Gray

Teagan Dacre loves fast cars, loud music and beautiful women, however he carries a secret that keeps him isolated from the general population; he has strange silver eyes, heals really fast and hasn't aged in over a hundred years.
The darkest secret of all - he has a blood thirst that must be satisfied by each new moon.

Believing himself unique, Teagan's world gets turned upside down when he meets an unruly family of immortals seeking their father and maker, none other than the world's first murderer, Cain.

Everything Teagan thought he knew about himself is transformed when he learns how vampires came to be and for what purpose he was made.

For everything, there's a price to be paid, Teagan wonders if he'll be strong enough to pay it.

If I had to pick one word to describe the book The Blood of Cain by T.L. Gray it would be unique. Often I can guess where a book is going but I never had a clue with this one. Full of twists and turns it kept me guessing until the end.

The Blood of Cain mixes Christianity with fantasy for a very different kind of story. The vampire mythology in this book is unlike any I have ever read. The story focuses on the Biblical character Cain who is marked with silver eyes and is cursed to live his life alone until he inadvertently discovers a way to transform others. The story is told from the alternating perspective of Cain and modern day silver eyed Teagan.  It's a face paced novel that could easily be read in one sitting.

Overall a well written story. I'd like to have seen the relationship between Teagan and Tatiana developed a little more.



Content: A clean read for adults - there is some violence and a little language but nothing that stood out or made me concerned about recommending it.

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: From Author For Review

Interview & Giveaway: T.L. Gray - The Blood of Cain

Welcome to author T. L. Gray.

Biography:

T.L. Gray’s debut novel “The Blood of Cain” was released October 2009 from Fireside Publications. The sequel, The Arcainians, is due for release early 2011. T.L. Gray is an active member of the Carrollton Creative Writers Club, Deeper Life Christian Center, and is a contributing writer for Impact Times Magazine. The author lives in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of West Georgia. When asked as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up she replied, “A Queen”. Since that title isn’t available within a democratic republic, she has settled for the label of “Author” instead.

T.L. Gray is currently working on two non-fiction projects (Joyful Mother and the Mary Perry Hudson Memoir) with the International Arise Conference Founder, Mary Hudson of Keith Hudson Ministries.

Thanks to T.L. Gray who has agreed to a short interview and then has a book giveaway!

Interview:

Night owl or early bird?
Definitely an early bird. I’m up at 6am, getting my heart pumping and my synapses firing. By 6pm… I’m no earthly good to anybody except for making dinner, playing games with the family, taking a hot bath, watching a little television or reading a good book; sometimes many of these things at the same time. Sometimes I can’t sleep because my brain won’t shut off and keeps me up at all hours in the morning. But even with that, come six o’clock I’m doing my aerobics and hitting the tread mill and by eight I’m on the computer. Adrenaline helps me focus.

What fictional character would you most like to meet?
That’s easy, Cain. Not because I’ve written about him, but because I’ve fell so deeply and passionately in love with the character I came to know. He stole my heart. He stole my compassion. He helped me see myself better and the people around me. If there’s hope for Cain, then there’s hope for anyone. I took a one-dimensional damned character and humanized him – having him become relatable, and in turn found a hope I didn’t realize I was missing. As for the Biblical Cain – I’m not sure I’d want to meet him. I’d be curious about him, but it would be hard to separate him from my fictional character.

If you could have any superpower what would you choose?
To fly. In my dreams I can do some amazing things like breathe under water, read minds and travel at the speed of thought. But, the most vivid of these dreams is the ability to fly. I can feel the air swirl around me, under me and through me as it lifts me from the ground. That is something I’d like to experience firsthand.

When you were 12 years old what did you want to be when you grew up?
Have you read my bio? A queen. I also remember wanting to be a journalist or an exciting archaeologist like Indiana Jones. I got to be a journalist when I worked as a newspaper reporter, and I still have a love for history and ancient artifacts which I sprinkle throughout all my books. I’m still working on the Queen thing.

What is one book everyone should read?
Oh, there are so many to choose from. However, there is one book I always turn back to and I re-read at least every other year, and that’s Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Like the Harry Potter series, Austen was able to transport me out of my current reality and plop me right into the middle of a fantastic story, helping me lose myself for a small period of time. In many events throughout my life, this book has been relevant. Though I already know the ending, my heart still feels every emotion as I progress through the pages and relate with Elizabeth Bennett. We all could use a Mr. Darcy in our lives.

If you could meet one person who has died, who would it be?
Sir Isaac Newton. The knowledge and wisdom this man’s brain projected was astounding. I love science and history… would be fascinated by his endless discoveries. I adore outcasts and heretics, so we would have been good friends. Uh-Oh, I think I’m letting my inner geek show a bit.

What inspired you to write about Cain?
Cain is one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible. He was the first born son of humanity, the first murderer, the first and only person to be directly cursed by God, the only person to have ever been ‘marked’ by God, but then not much else is said about him. The Bible is silent on the mark, the curse and even if Cain died. I went around for about a year and just asked random people what they thought about Cain, his curse, his mark and what they think happened to him? What I found is pretty much most people didn’t think much about him at all. They all acknowledged he was a bad man, but it’s like he was separate from everybody else, more heinous, more evil. We often pick characters we can relate to, especially from the Bible, drawing inspiration from their triumphs, lessons from their failures and so forth. But, with Cain I never heard anyone give or say anything relatable to him, yet I saw him a regular human being and for one moment put myself in his shoes and questioned how he was any different than me. Was I capable of doing the same thing? I realized I was, and in that realization Cain became human to me, full of emotion, full of fears, full of hopes like the rest of us. Thus, a new character was born. The basis of a new adventure had already been laid with all the mystery that surrounded this man, and from there my imagination soared. I don’t change the history or the facts as they have been given in the Bible. I don’t interfere with the religion of this character. I just tell the ‘rest of the story’ as I see it and I myself can’t believe some of the things that have evolved from it. But, I’m not going to tell you all those tidbits. You’ll have to read the book to find out about their secrets.

Visit T.L. Gray's Website

Book Blurb:Teagan Dacre loves fast cars, loud music and beautiful women, however he carries a secret that keeps him isolated from the general population; he has strange silver eyes, heals really fast and hasn’t aged in over a hundred years. The darkest secret of all – he has a blood thirst that must be satisfied by each new moon.
Believing himself unique, Teagan’s world gets turned upside down when he meets an unruly family of immortals seeking their father and maker, none other than the world’s first murderer, Cain. Everything Teagan thought he knew about himself is transformed when he learns how vampires came to be and for what purpose he was made.
For everything, there’s a price to be paid, Teagan wonders if he’ll be strong enough to pay it.

Author T.L. Gray is offering up a copy of her book The Blood of Cain to a follower of this blog.
Target Audience – Young Adult – Adult; genre fiction – paranormal/thriller/inspirational
(I have not yet read this book but the author told me it's rated PG-13: no sex, light violence and no vulgar language.)

Giveaway Details:
Giveaway open to followers of this blog with a US mailing address.
Giveaway ends 11/18/10.
To Enter Please Fill Out The Form.

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