Part I Interview with Krista Holle and International Prize Pack Giveaway

Welcome back, everyone! I'm excited to introduce a new author, Krista Holle to Ensconced in YA! She's just written a terrific book entitled The Lure of Shapinsay.

Goodreads Book Description: Ever since Kait Swanney could remember, the old crones of the village have been warning her to stay away from the selkies. They claim that like sirens of old, the seal men creep from the inky waters, shed their skins, and entice women to their deaths beneath the North Sea. But avoiding an encounter becomes impossible when Kait is spotted at the water’s edge, moments after the murder of a half-selkie infant. 

Unexpectedly, Kait is awoken by a beautiful, selkie man seeking revenge. After she declares her innocence, the intruder darts into the night, but not before inadvertently bewitching her with an overpowering lure. 

Kait obsesses over a reunion deep beneath the bay and risks her own life to be reunited with her selkie. But when she lands the dangerous lover, the chaos that follows leaves Kait little time to wonder—is it love setting her on fire or has she simply been lured?

Youtube Trailer: The Lure of Shapinsay Book Trailer

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon Review: The Lure of Shapinsay Review

Author Blurb:

Krista has been writing since she was nine-years-old when she scribbled out her first adolescent work entitled Merish, the completely illogical but heartfelt story of a girl who was part mermaid, part fish.  As a young mother, Krista added to her repertoire some middle grade readers and picture books she’s wary of mentioning. 

In 2004, Krista began an intensive four year period working part-time as a critical care nurse while homeschooling her four children.  During this hectic time, courses of writing were taught and learned, and rules of syntax were scolded to memory. Ironically this period of study equipped Krista with the tools she needed to enter the next phase of her writing experience. Now equipped with the mysteries of the comma, Krista was ready to tackle a much bigger project—a full-fledged novel.

 

After the kids were enrolled in public school in 2009, it occurred to Krista that there is an insatiable audience of women and girls who want to read books filled with stories about true love, not just vampires.  Convinced that there was an unfulfilled audience waiting for what she love to write—romance, she sat down in the family’s dungeon, a.k.a. the basement, and began to furiously type.  In no time, her first novel was drying on crisp white paper. 

Krista currently resides in Midlothian, Virginia with her husband, four daughters, and an eccentric cat with a weird attachment to the family’s socks.  She continues to write obsessively every chance she can get.

Part I of Author Interview

1. How did your divert from your day job to writing a novel?
In addition to being a writer, I’m also a critical care nurse.  One of the perks of being a nurse is that you pretty much get to work the shift of your choice.  While the kids are in school, I write like a fiend.   In the evenings, I go to work.  As I get more books under my belt, I dream of the day I can write full-time. 

2. How did you come up with the idea to write about selkies and how did you go about researching the background for your setting?  
Paranormal Romance is really hot right now and I wanted to add a mythical creature to the mix that most people have never heard of—selkies!  In case they are new to your readers, selkies come from Scottish mythology.  They are beautiful seal men and women who live the bulk of their lives under water, but occasionally shed their skins and come on land.  The men are notorious for luring women to their deaths deep beneath the sea.

3. Which character was your favorite to write about and why?  
I think my favorite character was the selkie Eamon.  He’s a complicated creature who loathes everything on land and has a penchant for killing sheep.  He’s slow to love but when he does it’s with the force of a hurricane. 

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