Amelia grew up in a world of half-truths. She knows she's an Elder but has no idea what that means. Her father reminds her daily that she must maintain control but he refuses to explain why. Even worse, she's betrothed to the prince of the Immortals and she doesn't even know his name.
Finally breaking free to live a few normal years at a community college, the last thing Amelia expects is to find her best friend in a cheeky Southern girl and to fall for a self-assured human who sees her for who she is and not what she'll be.
As she learns more about herself, Amelia realizes the line between love and duty is a thin one. As her power continues to increase exponentially and her questions are slowly answered, Amelia must make the ultimate choice. The question is, will her head or her heart win the battle?
I was born in Southeast Iowa, in a tiny town without much to do. I came to love reading honestly, with a Mom that had an entire room devoted to books. We read together until I could read alone, and then we often shared books. We talked stories and favorite characters, even shared tears over the best ones. I made friends who also loved books and we grew up with the likes of V.C. Andrews, L.J. Smith and Anne Rice.
I live in central Iowa now, and went into marketing because I could use my love of words and head for branding. I married a guy who hates fiction and loves video games, but we compromise with great movies (often my book adaptations) and live music. We have two crazy cats that constantly walk across my key board or curl into my lap for naps while I write.
I love chocolate peanut butter and mint chocolate chip ice cream and Sauvignon Blanc wine, though not at the same time. I always have music of some sort on and someday I'll convince my husband to move to the ocean. Someday.
Hi everyone! Stormy Smith here. My debut novel – Bound by Duty – released on July 24 and I’m here to give you some insider information on me and the book.
Music is a HUGE part of my life. I am addicted to Spotify and adore finding new artists. I spend a lot of time getting to know local artists and live shows are among my favorite places to be. When I wrote Bound by Duty I knew it would have a soundtrack. Every significant moment in my life has a song associated with it and the book I spent a year pouring myself into would be no different!
I’m a little bit of an odd duck in that I can’t actually write listening to music that has words. So, I spend my writing hours listening to classical music that helps distract my mind just enough to keep the creativity flowing without stopping the lovely voices in my head from telling me their stories. But, once I’m in the car, cleaning, or doing anything else, I’ve always got an ear out for songs. I find that the lyrics often inspire new plot lines, emotions or authentic reactions in characters.
You can check out the full Spotify soundtrack for BBD here, but here are my top ten in no particular order!
1. The One That Got Away – The Civil Wars
2. Haunted – A Taylor Swift cover by Jess Moskaluke and Alex G.
3. In My Veins – Andrew Belle, featuring Erin McCarley
4. Hurricane – MSMR
5. Clarity – A Zedd cover by Corey Gray
6. Boston – Augustana
7. I’mnotwaiting – Bonne Finken
8. Breathe Again – Sara Bareilles
9. Promising, Promises – Jon McLaughlin
10. No Light, No Light – Florence and the Machine
It was really important to me to not only cover the storyline with my choices, but also the emotions of the characters. Music is really important to Amelia, my heroine, and she often lets herself get lost in it. I didn’t want to date my story by announcing the songs and artists in the book, but in my head I always knew what she was listening to.
Bound by Duty is truly a coming of age story. It’s a paranormal fantasy that explores the many layers of what makes a person themselves. Is it your family, your duty, the ones you love, the pieces of you that you can’t control or the family (i.e. friends) you choose for yourself? How do you balance the person you are with the life you want? Amelia faces all of these questions as she finds herself with her first-ever best friend – a sassy Southern girl – and her first dose of young love. But there are situations out there bigger than she ever imagined and she has to decide who she’s going to be and what she’s made of.
Synopsis for Bound by Duty: Amelia grew up in a world of half-truths. She knows she's an Elder, but has no idea what that means. Her father reminds her daily that she must maintain control, but he refuses to explain why. Even worse, she's betrothed to the prince of the Immortals and doesn't even know his name.
Finally breaking free to live a few normal years at a community college, the last thing Amelia expects is to find her best friend in a cheeky southern girl, or fall for a self-assured human who sees her for who she is, not what she will become.
As she learns more about herself, Amelia realizes the line between love and duty is a thin one. As her power continues to increase exponentially and her questions are slowly answered, Amelia must make the ultimate choice. The question is, will her head win the battle, or her heart?
If you decide to give Bound by Duty a shot, I’d love to hear the songs it brought to mind for you! Hook up with me at www.facebook.com/
.jpg)
Blog Tour Organized by:
Thanks for stopping by, Lisa! I hope you enjoyed the post. :)
ReplyDeletethis looks and sounds awesome!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Erin! I hope you get to check it out. I'm already making the playlist for book two :)
DeleteLoving the playlist.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary! I love making them. :)
ReplyDelete