I am happy to have the mother/daughter writing duo A&E Kirk here on The Book Vixen today! They are going to share some secrets with us about being a mother/daughter writing team. There is also a giveaway and the secret phrase at the end of this post, so keep your eyes pealed for that.
Ten Things You Don’t Know About This Mother/Daughter Writing Team
1) Writing Process: Eileen gets her ideas while showering or driving and needs complete silence to write—graveyards are her preferred writing locations. Alyssa gets her inspiration from and writes while grooving to music.
2) Vocabulary: Alyssa really does talk like a nerd. Her vocabulary includes not only “groovy,” but also “trollop,” “skeedattle,” “coolio,” “jeez Louise,” and “Jiminy Cricket.” Yes, she earns a lot of snickers and odd looks.
3) Competition: We have daily competitions while we write to see who can write the most words in the shortest amount of time and the loser bakes a lavish dessert for the winner. It’s great for our career, not so much for our girlish figures.
Alyssa: I usually win.
Eileen: She’s delusional.
4) Romance Scenes: The first time Alyssa wrote a romance scene she was such an embarrassed blushing mess she only wrote it in her room with all the doors locked and wouldn’t let Eileen read it for two weeks. To this day she can’t talk about or read aloud romance scenes without her voice getting squeaky and her entire face going red.
5) Working Hours: Most of our writing goes on from 11pm to 3am, which is about the time Mr. Kirk gets up for work and he tucks us into bed.
6) Van Helsing: He’s real! Alyssa created Aurora’s cat because she desperately wanted to name a cat Van Helsing. When we got our next rescue cat, she named him Van Helsing and, as punishment, her brothers named the other rescue kitty Dracula. That’s right, every night we go out calling for Dracula and Van Helsing to come home. Our neighbors think we’re nuts.
7) Writing Team: We didn’t start out as a mother/daughter writing team. Alyssa had written several drafts of Demons At Deadnight. Then the family gave her a trip to a writing conference for her 18th birthday and she wanted to submit her first pages for review by another writer. She asked Eileen to look it over and give input. We attended the conference together, got all sorts of great info and have been collaborating ever since.
8) Writing Conferences: Alyssa was so young (17-18) when we attended, at some conferences many people wouldn’t talk to her, only Eileen. Ouch!
9) Recipes: All the recipes in the book are tried and true by our family. Eileen really drinks Ayden’s Hot Hex Boy Tea (it’s called Montana Gold). After trying several recipes, our family heartily agreed on Alyssa’s delicious find for Jayden’s Decadent Chocolate Cookies.
10) Matthias: The Hex Boy character of Matthias was always going to be from a foreign country, but we chose Australia because….*drum roll please*…we like Australian accents. Yep, that’s it. But come on, who wouldn’t want to sit and listen to these Australians talk? Okay, so maybe talking isn’t the only thing we’d like them to do.
Brianna, thanks so much for having us today. It’s been a pleasure. And kudos to you for doing so much while being such a busy mom!
Alyssa and Eileen
Good to know I’m not the only one who stills says ‘coolio’. LOL And that is too funny about your cats’ names!!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Anyone who says this mother-daughter team doesn’t mesh has only seen them trying to put out the fire from the stupid wires behind the television that should’ve been more clearly labeled.
Alyssa, the A in A&E, has gone from mucking out horse stalls and taping her eyes open during college lectures, to writing novels. When she’s not writing, reading, or running down the halls flapping her coat while singing the Batman theme song, she’s either dancing or immersed in anime.
Eileen has much more class. Even a degree. Fancy. Mother of three lovably peculiar children—all of which like to point out how short she is. Even though she really isn’t—they’re just freaking giants. Happily married, she enjoys escaping like a bat out of hell horseback riding at a leisurely speed around the mountains surrounding their home.
Demons at Deadnight is their debut novel, and currently they’re eating bon bons and watching TV diligently working on the next epic Divinicus Nex adventure.
Find the authors online: website | facebook
ABOUT THE BOOK
For seventeen-year-old Aurora Lahey, survival is a lifestyle.DEMONIC DESTINY
Aurora has the crappiest superpower on the planet. And it’s just unleashed a hit squad from hell. Demons are on the hunt, salivating to carve her carcass into confetti.CHARISMATIC KILLERS
The Hex Boys—mysterious, hunky, and notorious for their trails of destruction—have the answers Aurora needs to survive. But their overload of deadly secrets and suspicious motives makes trusting them a potentially fatal move.LETHAL ALLIES
The battle to save her family, herself, and stop demonic domination may cost Aurora everything worth living for, and force her to reveal her own dark secrets. But no worries. She needs the Hex Boys to pull this off, and, chances are, teaming up with these guys will get her killed anyway.
Amazon | BN | Goodreads | Book Trailer
**GIVEAWAY**
Thanks to A&E Kirk, one lucky winner will receive a paperback or an eBook (through Amazon Kindle gifting) of Demons at Deadnight!!
- Giveaway open Internationally.
- Comments are appreciated, however, you must fill out the Rafflecopter form in order to enter this giveaway.
- Please read the Contest/Giveaway Policy before entering.
- You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 to enter.
Good luck to all who enter!
To enter to win the Kindle Fire you need to know the secret phrase given out one word at a time by each blog tour host. Put the words together in sequential order and you'll eventually have the secret phrase! Right now you can Tweet and Follow on the AEKIRK Blog Tour Page to get points but starting March 9 (at the end of the tour) you can enter the complete phrase on the AEKIRK Blog Tour Page and earn BIG entry points! Your Kindle Fire will also include your choice of a DEMONS AT DEADNIGHT Skin. Either from the cover, or a Hex Boy group shot or individual "Team" skin of your favorite Hex Hunk!
The secret word for this stop on the blog tour is: OF
See the Demons at Deadnight Blog Tour Page for more information and to see the blog tour schedule.
Thanks for the awesome giveaway. I would love to read this book. Tore923@aol.com
ReplyDeleteWhat a charming writing duo! Will buy the book either way;)
ReplyDeleteProps to Alyssa for talking like a nerd, and I love that the cats are named Dracula and Van Helsing.
ReplyDeleteLOVED the story about Dracula and Van Helsing. Also, yay for Australian accents. :D
ReplyDeleteDemons at Deadnight -I love that you are mother and daughter, I too think it is coolio!!!! This book sounds great, can't wait to either win it or buy it. Either way it is on my list of books to read!!!
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