This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tours.
Have you ever had an imaginary friend?
Apparently, yes. My mother – she hadn’t got much else to do, poor thing, she was sick in South Korea, and had only got married nine months and one day before I showed up – kept day-to-day records of my babyhood. I had an imaginary friend called Buffalo who – wait for it, you’re not going to BELIEVE this – was, um, a buffalo. Personally, I blame this on Mom playing “Home on the range” on the piano during my childhood in Asia. Note: I have never, even by accident, ever seen a real buffalo. Go figure.
Do you have any phobias?
I hate spiders. I realize that this is deeply unfair, but they’re just too – fast. If they’d kindly slow down a little, I could get to like them, maybe.
And all those EYES.
Do you listen to music when you're writing?
I always listen to music when I’m writing. Bach is my guy, but I trained as a pro cellist, and got into Juilliard. So, might seem pretty odd, but Bach is what works for me.
Do you ever read your stories out loud?
No, that’s what “read aloud” on Word is for. Though I HATE the voices, I catch SO many tiny errors. Having said that, reading your novel aloud while flicking the pages is now a Thing, on BookTok/TikTok. So… never say never!
Tell us about your main character and who inspired him/her.
I did a whole tell-all interview about this, for the brilliant Alliance of Independent Authors, which got loads of views. Here’s the link, if interested: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/author-interview-alice-mcveigh/
And here’s the short version of who inspired my charismatic hero, Aiden:
I was trying to meditate when it suddenly worked. Yes! I was meditating! And for only the second time in my life, while I was meditating I had a vision.
And this was it: I was on the surface of this broken Earth, but looking down a metallic shaft maybe 75 feet or so, to where a guy was chained to chair. I saw the guy. I “saw” the chair. And when I snapped out of the vision, that image stuck with me, until – much against my better judgement – I started fantasizing about it. Who he was. Why he’d been captured. Why Earth had been broken, in 2094.
And the reason it annoyed me was, it derailed me. I had a plan – which is succeeding, by the way, check out my awards – to write a series of seriously brilliant Jane Austenesque books (Publishers Weekly: “McVeigh’s prose and plotting are pitch-perfect.”)
Aiden crashed the party. But now I’m glad he did.
Engineering a daring escape, Aiden’s growing feud with the new rebel leader leaves him out in the cold and smouldering with resentment. Faced with deceit and betrayals on every side, he recruits a group of overlooked outcasts and stakes everything on one last mission.
Can the restless, reckless Aiden take a stand long enough to save humanity from enslavement?
Nothing. Clean as a whistle. Until my massive hand grasped hold of something, something which must have blended into its background so perfectly that I hadn’t even spotted it. Something alive, nestling under the co-pilot’s seat. I couldn’t believe it. A live gromeline. Trembling, possibly with fury, and trying in vain to squeeze back. Grabbing my trophy – I could feel its hot little heart throbbing like an injury against my palm – I hopped out of the plane so fast that my wound protested.
‘Bully!’
Bully raised one eyebrow. Two would have been overkill.
‘Bully, you are not going to believe this. I found a gromeline!’ The gromeline – only about fifteen centimetres – bit my finger, hard, even though I could have easily crushed its entire body with my fist – and probably would have, had I been a tester, and not merely disguised as one.
Feisty little gromeline. I flicked it lightly with my sausage-sized finger. When it protested, I growled, ‘Cheese it, munchkin,’ though I could feel it struggling obstreperously against my palm.
Bully was intrigued. ‘Is it genuine?’ ‘Of course it’s genuine. It just bit me, didn’t it?’
Bully probably considered this no proof. But they’re rarer than clean air these days and his fascination was obvious. Now gromelines come from the farthest galaxy so far discovered, can speak any tongue and own enviable mental powers. They are also brave to the point of stupidity and ludicrously small. This one was mouse-coloured – they can be spectacular – with tiny red eyes. Few humans have ever seen one.
A professional London cellist, Alice lives in London and Crete with her professor husband: their only child is completing her Masters in Chinese Literature. They also share two miniature long-haired dachshunds and an incurable addiction to tennis.
Website: https://linktr.ee/ASTMcVeigh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alice.mcveigh.5/
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/alicemcveighauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcveigh.alice/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/astmcveigh1
Amazon author page (Alice Mcveigh): https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Mcveigh/e/B07TDKZPVT/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk OR Amazon author page (Spaulding Taylor): https://www.amazon.com/Spaulding-Taylor/e/B08TRLNW31/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1108881.Alice_McVeigh
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-mcveigh-59ab1718/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/astmcveigh/_saved/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alicemcveigh0?lang=en
Video for Last Star Standing: https://www.tiktok.com/@alicemcveigh0/video/7092364955680279813?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en
Book will be on sale for $0.99 during the tour.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Star-Standing-Spaulding-Taylor-ebook/dp/B08PF4ZTZF
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your interview and book details, I have enjoyed reading this post and I am looking forward to reading Last Star Standing
ReplyDeleteHI Rita and Bea, Thanks so much for your lovely comments, and for reading a little about my Last Star Standing!! Spaulding Taylor
ReplyDelete