Lisa: We’re so pleased to welcome author Jess Thomas to TNA today on the tour for her new novel Bones of Belief, book thirteen in The Chronicles of Darius series. Welcome, Jess! Let’s start with a book question: what’s your favorite scene in Bones of Belief, and what makes it a fave?
Jess: When the stick people form together on the wall to tell Trend his mate and his little brother are on the planet with him. Something as simple as a line can be the difference between happiness and sadness.
Lisa: Would you care to share an excerpt from the scene with us?
The Teaser: He looked at the word yes written out. “Yes, to what?” Trend screamed, running his hands through his hair. He shook his hands trying to calm down. “Alright a more specific question. Is Grendolin here? Come on,” he said, watching the stick people, make a line once more. “Yes.”
Lisa: If you could spend some real-life time with one of the characters in the book, who would you choose and why?
Jess: Oh that’s easy it would be Trend. He’s fashioned after someone who was as close as a brother was to me. He taught me art and makeup. I felt protected with him and loved and actually, it’s why I started to write these stories. He passed away from Parkinson disease and I miss him every day.
Lisa: Have you ever created a character so despicable that even you hated them and can’t believe you made them up? If so, who was it and what made them so awful?
Jess: Predition, who will be popping up on a regular basis. My father was a psychologist; Predition has the negative traits that tell you to beware, this man is beyond sick, he’s evil. Maybe I don’t like the character because I remember going to my father’s office at times and seeing men in orange jump suits and guards and chains. My father saw men who liked to kill.
Lisa: Have you ever written a line, paragraph, or passage, and thought, “Darn, that’s pretty amazing, even if I do say so myself”? What was it?
Jess: “I thought it was a beat of a distant drum until I realized it was my own heartbeat that called out frantically to be heard.”
Lisa: What’s the one genre/sub-genre you haven’t written yet, but would love to? What’s kept you from it so far?
Jess: I actually have a mystery started. I just can’t figure out how to end it.
Lisa: What’s your favorite part about writing a story that either alters our contemporary world or creates a world entirely from scratch?
Jess: I love creating new worlds full of traditions, animals, and races and interweaving the arts into them.
Lisa: If you could choose one of your books to be adapted for the silver screen, which would you choose? Why do you think it would translate well to film?
Jess: I think Memory of Me, because you not only get the artsy flair I want but also a creepy feeling in the fourth.
Lisa: Was there a particular part of the process—from writing to editing to cover design to publishing—that was easier or harder than you thought it would be? What was it?
Jess: Cover design. I thought it might be hard to do, but I love making them. In fact, I usually make up about five of them before I decide.
Lisa: If you won the lottery, what’s the first completely self-indulgent thing you’d do?
Jess: I buy some land in the Colorado Mountains and build a large lodge where artist could come and work: writers, fine artists, etc.
Lisa: If you had to choose between becoming a superhero or supervillain, which would you choose and why?
Jess: Superhero. I want to help people in their time of need.
Lisa: What would your superpower be?
Jess: Easy, I want to be able to read or see anything and be able to do it.
Lisa: If you could be any animal in the world, what would you choose? Why?
Jess: A cat, they have a quiet beauty about them. Their eyes have so much depth and when they love you, you know it’s a special relationship.
Lisa: It’s the zombie apocalypse. It’s up to you and 5 other uninfected humans to save what’s left of humanity. Which fictional characters would you want on your team, and why?
Jess: I’d want Darius/Paden. He can turn back time.
Lisa: Thanks very much for stopping by, Jess. It’s been nice visiting with you.
About the Book
Publisher: Self-Published
Cover Artist: Jess Thomas
Genre: M/M Romance
Length: 645 pages
Release Date: March 1, 2018
Goodreads
Blurb: The Jewel has many protectors and a large family, but it still isn’t complete. Trend, a white wizard, is in limbo and can be seen only by Vega, Enif, and Darius. Dorian, one of the newest clan members, can only hear him and none of them are able to tell anyone else about him. Darius knows he needs Trend to help complete the family and fulfill his destiny. He desperately wants to have him home, but there is a major problem, Hippson’s timeline. Meanwhile, Trend’s mate, Grendolin, has searched everywhere he knows in order to find him, including some very dark places, with no luck, but he never lost hope, never lost his belief that he will be with his true mate one way or another.
Can Darius beat the timeline? Must he follow the wishes of those in power who think they know better?
Darius’s quest of self-discovery continues as his talents grow to astounding proportions. Even the mighty Hippson and Bunthar don’t know what to make of Darius’s abilities or what the dreaded timeline holds for the Jewel, his mate, and the rest of the clan.
Become part of Darius’s clan and share his continuing journey in Bones of Belief.
Buy Links – Available on KU: Amazon US || Amazon UK
Tour Excerpt
For so long, I’d seen myself looking like a gray and leathery alien. In fact, I’ve seen myself looking like this since I was nineteen when I was part of a distant nightmare simply called The Pits. There, Cold Ones lived alongside dark wizards and all manner of evil things that destroyed planets for their own needs. Cold Ones enjoyed destroying anyone with strength and just for the sake of killing generally.
Although the Eiravian people were more advanced, they had sent me to a time on Earth when we lived and died by the sword, where gladiators and slaves had the misfortune to be simply entertainment. My appearance had drifted away to the point that I didn’t know it anymore. Now I tended to look at my appearance as I walked down the hall, the man who walked in the mirror’s reflection wasn’t someone I knew. It had been a long, long time since I’d seen who I really am. I was skinny, but the muscles and weight were coming back on, and the peach skin of my brothers and sisters had replaced the gray skin. My leathery appearance had disappeared in my reflection. The only thing that seemed the same was my blue eyes that appeared to glow power and a large scruffy beard.
Sometimes as I was walking down the hallway, I’d step backward and then forward, to actually see if my appearance stayed the same in the mirrors. The spell was breaking, and we would soon celebrate Finnal’s birthday. I always asked him what he wanted, and he’d always reply he got what he wanted. Therefore, this year I was going to give him what he asked for…me.
About the Author
Jess Thomas was born in the mid-west and she has a natural love for nature and animals. A gentle creature born to loving parents who believed in seeing the world for all its beauty, she learned the imperfections in life were something to be treasured and seen as a learning experience. An artist from an early age, she went to art school where she got a degree in drawing and painting, photography, and in Art Education. In 2009 she laid down her paintbrush and she picked up writing and channeling her creative energy in a fresh direction. A new writer, she pours sensitivity and her love of the world she has created into her emotions and the characters who live there.
Social Media Links: Blog/Website || Pinterest
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