Friday, April 25, 2014

Blog Tour: Z2 by @cinnabar01 - #interview #giveaway


Science Fiction

Date Published: January 26, 2013

Alex once walked away from a rare ability to warp time, thinking it was only a young man's trick to play basketball better. Now, as a father and teacher, he needs to relearn the skill quickly before the past begins to destroy his own future. To protect his daughter and his most promising student, he must stop the school at which he teaches from turning the clock backwards to an era of white supremacy. 
An old high school friend is in desperate need of Alex’s unique gifts to help solve an ancient Maya mystery. As the puzzling artifact offers a rare chance to bridge the past and the future, its story begins to intertwine with the growing tensions at Alex’s school. As both situations take dangerous turns, Alex knows that he must learn to control his temporal talents before he runs out of time.
z2 is part of 46. Ascending, a collection of loosely interrelated novels about five very different family members who each discover that they can do the extraordinary when circumstances require it. These books are designed to be read as stand alone stories or in any order.

Interview

Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
There are a few to be honest, but in z2 I focus a lot on tolerance. I firmly believe that the best and worst human qualities are well distributed among every age group, both genders, every race, culture and religion, every sexual preference, every style and every income level. To me, one of the missions of a writer is to take a reader outside of their own head and into that of another. More than anything, I’d like to increase our understanding and appreciation of each other.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
For me, it’s not giving up.  With each book I’ve written I’ve hit at least one point where I had to ask why am I doing this? Shouldn’t I get some chores done instead? There isn’t a good answer to that, and my house is generally a mess. But every time I consider quitting, I don’t. I always find a reason to keep writing.
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
I’m working on my fifth book now, and my favorite is always the one I am working on. This latest one has to do with a young woman to can see the future. It’s been very challenging to define her abilities, but now that I’ve gotten my arms around it I am really enjoying the story.  
If You had the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
That’s a fun question, especially because my main character in z2, Alex, is modeled loosely after my husband. Alex is a light-haired former college basketball player who is now about fifty. I was stumped, but my husband just walked through the room and was kind enough to suggest Brad Pitt. Okay, I did give him some grief about that choice, but personally, I see Alex as more of a Kevin Costner type.
When did you begin writing?
I used to make up bedtime stories for my little sister. She was not only nice enough to beg me for more, she’s stayed nice enough to still be one of my best beta readers All my life characters have marched their way through my head, having all sorts of adventures and interactions while I waited at traffic lights or took a shower. It was more a matter of deciding that I really had to start writing this stuff down, which I started to do in 2010.
How long did it take to complete your first book?
I wrote an outline for the six novels in the 46. Ascending collection in late 2010 and started writing x0 right after that. It took me about six months to write and two months to rewrite, then I let it set for a few months and came back to it.  I always knew that I would self-publish these, and I published it in February 2012.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
Two authors affected me a lot as a young girl.  Madeleine L'Engle and her “A Wrinkle in Time” hadn’t been out all that long when I first read it and I thought it was greatest thing ever. Of course it went on to have sequels and win all sorts of awards. The other author, Jane Langton, wrote a book called “The Diamond in the Window” and I obsessed over that book in grade school. Both authors shaped my young view of the world and convinced me that there was real magic tucked in-between and all around the layers of ordinary reality.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?
I think I am addicted to the adrenaline high of having my characters surprise me with unexpected twists.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
mystery morphs into solution
Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your writing?
I am working on a collection of six novels called 46. Ascending.  Each book is the stand alone story of one member of a family as he or she discovers an extraordinary power to turn to when circumstances force them to dig deep.
The first book, x0, concerns telepathic Lola as she finds herself the unlikely hero in a rescue mission in Nigeria. The second book, y1, tells of her son Zane, who has always had an odd ability to alter his appearance.  Zane finds himself in danger while working at a pharmaceutical company and at more risk once he is sent on a sales trip to the South Pacific. My third book, z2, is the subject of the this blog tour.

I just published my fourth book, c3, on kindle and it will  be available in paperback soon. It takes place in Darjeeling, where youngest daughter Teddie encounters a human trafficking ring and then an ancient group offers to train her to use her innate skills for out of body experiences to save her friends.

I hope to finish the fifth book, d4, this summer. It will tell the story of the middle child in the family. a young woman named Ariel who can see the future. I am very excited about getting to finally start the sixth and last novel next fall, in which all five family members will use their powers to work together. And I have no idea what I am going to do after that.





Sherrie Roth grew up in Western Kansas thinking that there was no place in the universe more fascinating than outer space. After her mother vetoed astronaut as a career ambition, she went on to study journalism and physics in hopes of becoming a science writer.
She published her first science fiction short story in 1979 and then waited a lot of tables while she looked for inspiration for the next story. When it finally came,  it declared to her that it had to be whole book, nothing less. One night, while digesting this disturbing piece of news, she drank way too many shots of ouzo with her boyfriend. She woke up thirty-one years later demanding to know what was going on.
The boyfriend, who she had apparently long since married, asked her to calm down and  explained that in a fit of practicality she had gone back to school and gotten a degree in geophysics and had spent the last 28 years interpreting seismic data in the oil industry. The good news, according to Mr. Cronin, was that she had found it at least mildly entertaining and ridiculously well-paying  The bad news was that the two of them had still managed to spend almost all of the money.
Apparently she was now Mrs. Cronin, and the further good news was that they had produced three wonderful children whom they loved dearly, even though to be honest that is where a lot of the money had gone. Even better news was that Mr. Cronin  turned out to be a warm-hearted, encouraging sort who was happy to see her awake and ready to write. "It's about time," were his exact words.
Sherrie Cronin discovered that over the ensuing decades Sally Ride had already managed to become the first woman in space and apparently had done a fine job of it. No one, however, had written the book that had been in Sherrie's head for decades. The only problem was, the book informed her sternly that it had now grown into a six book series. Sherrie decided that she better start writing it before it got any longer. She's been wide awake ever since, and writing away.


Twitter: @cinnabar01




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