✴Book Blitz & Excerpt & Author Interview & Giveaway✴ - Dust by Sarah Daltry

Book Details:

Dust by Sarah Daltry

Publication date: November 7th 2014

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Who makes YOUR choices?

“I was once the type of person who was impressed by starlight; the type of person who would dance beneath glass ceilings and let the world swim in its loveliness. The sky reminds me of the parties we used to throw – parties like the one last night. The memories bring back the trill of harps and endless ripples of satisfied laughter. Now, though, when I try to recall what I felt, all I hear is screaming.”

In a world ravaged by war and oppressive forces of evil, a princess must fight to claim her bloodright and save her people.

When the princess, Alondra, falls for the beautiful, blue eyes of a hooded stranger, it awakens in her a taste for freedom and an escape from her duty.

But her parents have other plans; they have a kingdom to protect and Alondra must marry to ensure the peace between nations. Only what happens when your parents choose a cold-hearted assassin as your betrothed?

As lies, illusions, and long hidden vendettas surface, the princess has to confront a very secret history. One that makes her realize that she not only risks losing her liberty, but also everything she has known and loved.

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Excerpt

My parents are sitting by the fire; Sanara is with them. People eat in silence. The joy felt by gathering here was quickly overshadowed by the awareness of how much smaller the group is than when we set out. I sit beside Sanara. She hands me a plate of greens without speaking.

“Have you taken a tally?” Ereditus asks Lormander. “We must know who is missing.”

Lormander looks to Sanara; she won’t meet his eyes. He starts to gather names and stories spill from the lips of the Kooramen.

“My mother was running, but they shot her before she could make it out of the alley.”

“They cut off my brother’s hands in front of me and told me to keep my mouth shut, unless I wanted to end up the same way.”

“Blood. There was so much blood.”

“Where is my child? Please, find my child.”

I try to focus on the fire. The crackling wood shoots out sparks, small fires that land on the rocks edging the flame pit. The smoke swirls around the cauldron; I see bodies through the haze.

“Is it as bad as they’re saying?” Sanara asks.

“It’s bad. Just... bad.” I can’t describe what I saw, not because I don’t have the words, but because I don’t want to fill Sanara’s life with those images. “How long have you been here?” I ask.

“After Galatia sent out the siren spell, it was chaos. You were there. You know how insane it got.” She looks at her feet. “Lormander told me to get out and then he left. It was all too real too fast.”

“Who led you here?” I ask. I know what happened in Kooram after the attack started. I heard the call to retreat to the caves, but I was there through the first wave. Sanara may have been fortunate enough to get out before she saw too much.

“After the call, we just started moving. I was alone, running through the fields. The moon was high, so I was lucky, I suppose.” She pauses. “I made the wards. They won’t last another night.”

“You can rest, gather strength to repair them. Until then, I am sure another mage...”

Sanara looks directly into my eyes and shakes her head. “No. They won’t. There are no other mages. He killed them all.”

I take in what Sanara says. Her training is not enough to replace all of our mages.

Author Interview

What is the most important thing you have learned since becoming an author?

You need to write for yourself. It's hard for me, because I love books and I love to read anything, so I guess I naively used to believe everyone was like that. It took me a while to put it all together and figure out what was most important to me and what that meant for me as an author.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? What is it?

I can't redeem characters who abuse other people or animals. A character who sexually assaults someone or bullies them or beats them will never deserve redemption in my eyes. There's a line and I am a fan of complicated characters, but once you abuse another person for your own benefit, you don't earn the right to be redeemed. And I absolutely will never make that abuser a love interest.

What do you consider to be your best accomplishment?

My Gamerscore? :D

You write across many genres, from fantasy, to comedy, is there a genre you prefer not to write in?

Not really. I used to write romance, but when I think of romance I like, I think of books like those by Simone Elkeles or Jenny Han or even Danielle Steel (at least when I used to read her books 20 years ago). However, I've never enjoyed the "Fabio romances," and when I wrote romance, I wanted to write love stories about real people. I don't think the escapism that people prefer in romance and my style of writing mesh well, so generally, I think romance is something I'm going to put aside.

Do you remember the very first book you read on your own? What was it?

I don't really, because I remember reading before anything else. I don't have a lot of memories of my childhood and I loved The Velveteen Rabbit and the Little House series, but I don't remember what I read first on my own.

What is the hardest thing about writing?

Trusting yourself. It's incredibly difficult for me to have faith in my work, because I don't have a lot of faith in myself as a person. I tend to hate everything I write and I have very loud inner critical voices that never go away.

What is your favorite quote?

"Everyone who isn't us is an enemy." - Cersei from Game of Thrones for two reasons: 1. I think she's awesome and 2. it says a lot about how empathy really works in the world. Eventually, if it comes down to ourselves or anyone else, most people choose themselves.

What advice would you give the younger you?

None of it matters, so do what you want to do. You can't please anyone, not really, and it's the only life you have. I spent a lot of my life trying to make everybody else happy, but in the end, it wasn't enough and no one really was.

What is the easiest thing about writing?

I like the escape into another person's life and to be able to put into words the ways of the world.

As the author of YA novels with strong female protagonists is there anything you would like to say young girls who would be reading your novels?

To quote Cersei again, "Everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls." Let's make a world where they don't.

Growing up who were your role models?

My grandfather, my high school English teacher, Holden Caulfield, Jane Eyre, Eponine in Les Miserables

AUTHOR BIO:

Sarah Daltry is a varied author, known best for the contemporary New Adult series, 'Flowering', a six-title series that explores the complexities of relationships, including how we survive the damage from our pasts with the support of those who love us. Although the books are no longer in print, they are being rewritten and redeveloped for future publication. Please visit Sarah's website for more details.

As a former English teacher and YA library coordinator, Sarah has always loved Young Adult literature and 'Dust', an epic fantasy novel where romance blends with the blood and grit of war, is her second official foray into YA, following the gamer geek romantic comedy, 'Backward Compatible'. Most of Sarah's work is about teens and college students, as it's what she knows well.

Sarah's passion in life is writing - weaving tales of magic and beauty. The modern and vast social networking world is an alternative universe that she makes infrequent trips to, but when she does, readers will find her attentive, friendly and happy to discuss the magic of stories and reading. Please stop by and say hello anywhere Sarah is online! You can find these places at http://sarahdaltry.com

Sarah has moved back and forth between independent and traditional publishing. Her first novel, 'Bitter Fruits', is with Escape, an imprint of Harlequin Australia, and she signed with Little Bird Publishing in the spring of 2014.

Sarah has also written 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,' a reimagining of one of her favorite poems in a contemporary setting.

She is an obsessive Anglophile who spends more time watching BBC TV than any human being should, as well as a hardcore gamer and sarcastic nerd.

Author links: Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads Page