- What is your “day” job if you are not a full-time author?
I’m currently working as a Parapro at a middle school near my house. Basically, I work with behaviorally challenged kids in gen-ed classroom settings! I’m hoping for a teacher position in July. The job has been super fulfilling, and I love the people I work with.
- If you wrote a book about your life what would the title be?
Probably like “Unorganized Chaos” or something to represent how I have NO handle on life
- What is the hardest thing about being an author?
The hardest thing about being an author is finding our audiences, I think. We can write great stories and edit them to dust, but if we don’t find our PEOPLE, it can be discouraging.
- What is the best thing about being an author?
Personally, I love writing in my worlds. I love being someone else for a little bit, or having them share their experiences with me. Getting to that point with a character when they’re no longer just a character on the page, but someone very solid in your mind, is magical.
- Have you ever been star-struck by meeting one of your favorite authors? If so who was it?
I haven’t had the fortune of meeting any of my favorite authors! BUT, when Birth of the Storm got put up at my local Barnes and Noble, I was put right next to R.L. Stine and he responded to my Twitter post!!! That is life made.
- What book changed your life?
Hero’s Song by Edith Pattou, she really showed me how such a calm, easy-going kid could rise up and change the world when it’s required of him. The writing was also very simple in a way I find so, SO relaxing. I could read that book every day.
- What were some of your favorite books growing up?
Hero’s Song, Harry Potter, The Lightning Thief, and The Magic Circle books. All of them brought something up in me that I didn’t know existed, and helped shape who I am today.
- What books are currently in your to-be-read pile?
I have a few indie books in my TBR (Heir to the Sun, Malevolent Nevers, Alvertaen Axiom), and also some traditional books like Vespertine!
- Which do you prefer ebooks, print, or audiobooks?
I always prefer print books, but with the way life is right now, it’s so hard to find time to sit down and read. I’ve leaned heavily on audiobooks to help cover the gap, it’s just unfortunate I can’t get too many indie books this way )=
- If you could live inside the world of a book or series which world would it be and why?
My answer to questions like this changes all the time, but I think I’d like The Magic Circle world, a place where I could potentially have hidden magic inside of me. If I could talk to plants and coerce them to grow, or gently ask rocks to move out of my way…that sounds like the most amazing thing.
Demon Storm
Book Three
Valerie Storm
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
Date of Publication: 04/13/2023
ASIN: B0BY5RSVTP
Word Count: 92210
Cover Artist: Ginkahederling
Tagline: Ancient power wrapped in ancient secrets.The power to rend the world and save her loved ones, unless it devours her first.
Book Description:
Evil never really dies. It rises, again and again.
Now—Kari knows it’s rising inside her.
After barely defeating wicked Shadow Witch Raven, the wolf-demon knows her turmoil is far from over when her vanquished foe invades her dreams. And a new power stirs within her: thanks to Raven’s cunning, Kari’s potential as the Catalyst has awoken. A conduit for a terrifying, world-cracking force—one that could open at any moment.
Kari has resisted this new temptation thus far. But Raven again forces her hand, unleashing a demonic abomination to draw her prey out—a deadlier foe than any Kari has faced before. If she taps into this dark new power, she could become strong enough to defend the people she cares about. But the Catalyst has bloodthirsty designs of its own…
If she submits, what new horrors will be inflicted on the world Kari’s come to love?
And when the Catalyst is finished with her at last—what will be left of Kari?
Excerpt
Again, Kari thought of the
purple-skinned mutation that had chased her and Vivianne.
“So there were others?”
Raven sneered. “Failures, yes.” She
raised a hand, but Kari grabbed her by the wrist.
“What failures?! Did you send the
long-armed mutation that killed my friend?!”
Raven’s emotionless eyes made her
heart drop. “I have done so much worse than send one beast out into the world,
Kari, but I did not imagine we were here to talk about that.” Raven twisted her
hand, tangling Kari’s wrist in long fingers. “Shall I show you every life lost,
every drop of blood spilled? Not merely for my own pleasure, but because of
you?”
Captain Gorn and his men from
Flatcairn, bloodied and broken. And…a field of purple-blue flowers becoming the
eternal grave of a young blonde girl.
“Raven…” Kari’s voice hitched,
threatening a scream.
Raven laughed, derisive and cold.
“Focus, Kari. You know better than to lose yourself to grief, don’t you? You
know what is at stake now, in the present.”
Kari wrenched away, eyes wild. When
she did, the image of the desolate city wavered and was replaced by a
shimmering vision of a dark room. Cages lined the walls, each one filled with a
huddled group of monstrous beasts; neither human nor demon, they sported extra
limbs or other grotesque developments. Eyeballs protruded from sockets, tongues
lolled from the side of mouths, and tumors grew from faces, stomachs, and
chests. Their groans and screams filled the space, echoing through a long, dank
hallway.
“Stop!” Kari screamed, and the image
faded to Raven standing in the middle of a body-ridden street. She stepped away
from the witch before stumbling, landing hard on her backside.
“Why are you doing this?”
Raven approached, carefully stepping
around the gore and bodies. “This? This is the cost of knowledge. I had to do
these filthy, disgusting things to become who I am now.”
She stopped in front of Kari and
knelt. Despite the darkness of her eyes, they gleamed with untold levels of
cruelty. Kari had always seen such evil inside of Raven, yet she had never imagined
things like this.
“I want you to ask a different
question, Kari. I want you to ask yourself, what are you going to do to stop
me?”
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the path to sharing with other children and children-at/heart looking for a place to call home.
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Great intervieuw!
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