Assasins: Discord – A Guest Post and Giveaway with Author Erica Cameron

We’re so pleased to welcome author Erica Cameron to TNA today, on the tour for her new novel, Assassins: Discord. Be sure to check out the giveaway details below, and enjoy!

Welcome, Erica!

How and Why: Subplots

Consider your life. Is there ever just one problem to be solved or one mystery or one person making your life complicated? Complications are part of life, and they are definitely a part of books.

B and C can change E, which messes up what’s happening with D, and all of that impacts A. Seeing how that plays out is fascinating to me, a puzzle I can create as a writer and enjoy as a reader. When I start with a simple question and start poking at it with What Ifs and How Abouts and Maybe I Coulds, the subplots of a book tend to fall into place naturally. Sometimes the evolution of the subplots actually takes me far away from where the main plot started. Sometimes I end up dropping the original plot entirely in favor of something I find when I dig into the complications.

For Discord, the seed started with an image, a girl with a knife standing in front of a man tied to a chair, and this girl was deciding whether or not to kill her captive. From there I had to ask a hundred questions: Who is this girl? What kind of life would land a teenage girl in this situation? What would happen if she wanted to escape? How would she survive disobeying orders? Was there anyone in the world who would help her hide from her family? Why would they do that? What about the man she was supposed to kill? Who wanted him dead and why? What would they do if he didn’t die?

Obviously life and death is going to involve some pretty complicated questions, but the same kind of process applies to any book. Romance, fantasy, science fiction—no matter what genre the story, it can quickly become a multi-layered plot once you start asking the right questions.

I think the question for me is, “Are you capable of writing a book without a B, C, D, and E story in it?”

About the Book

Assassins Series: Book One
Release Date: September 5, 2016
Length: 411 Pages
Category: Young Adult, Mystery/Suspense, F/F
Purchase Links: Riptide Publishing || Amazon || ARe || B&N || Kobo
Blurb: Kindra’s moral compass has never pointed north, but that’s what happens when you’re raised as an assassin and a thief. At sixteen, she’s fantastic with a blade, an expert at slipping through the world unnoticed, and trapped in a life she didn’t chose. But nothing in her training prepares her for what happens when her father misses a target.In the week-long aftermath, Kindra breaks ranks for the first time in her life. She steals documents, starts questioning who their client is and why the target needs to die, botches a second hit on her father’s target, and is nearly killed. And that’s before she’s kidnapped by a green-eyed stranger connected to a part of her childhood she’d almost forgotten.

Kindra has to decide who to trust and which side of the battle to fight for. She has to do it fast and she has to be right, because the wrong choice will kill her just when she’s finally found something worth living for.

About the Author

After a lifelong obsession with books, Erica Cameron spent her college years getting credit for reading and learning how to make stories of her own. Erica graduated with a double major in psychology and creative writing from Florida State University and began pursuing a career as an author.

Erica is many things but most notably the following: writer, reader, editor, dance fan, choreographer, singer, lover of musical theater, movie obsessed, sucker for romance, ex-Florida resident, and quasi-recluse. She loves the beach but hates the heat, has equal passion for the art of Salvador Dali and Venetian Carnival masks, has a penchant for unique jewelry and sun/moon décor pieces, and a desire to travel the entire world on a cruise ship. Or a private yacht. You know, whatever works.

Connect with Erica: Website || Twitter || Tumblr || Facebook || Instagram || Email

The Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Assassins: Discord, one lucky winner will receive $30 in Riptide Publishing credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on September 10, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!