Welcome… Isobel Irons, Author!

Hi Everyone,

Please help me give a warm welcome to Isobel Irons. She kindly participated in an interview and is offering a giveaway for  a chance to win a free copy of her book!

Enjoy!
~Ariesgrl

1.       Hi Isobel! Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Can you please tell the followers here a bit about yourself and your work?

Absolutely! I’m something of a jack of all trades in the marketing and media realm. In college, I studied broadcasting and got really into independent film-making, then after I got married I traveled all over the world, working on various projects, collecting all these stories. It was only a matter of time before I started writing them down, first as spec scripts, then as novels.

I guess that’s what sets me apart in the publishing industry, because unlike most writers who outline and draft, I visualize and cast and storyboard my ideas before ever typing out the first words on the page. My first book WAKE FOR ME, was incepted (hehe) while watching Inception and chatting with my husband about how awesome it would be to stay in the dream world for long periods of time, until it started to become reality. My second book, which is an unrelated “mature YA” / New Adult contemporary retelling of Cinderella (but with way darker issues than housekeeping), is called PROMISCUOUS, and is kind of like Easy A meets Girls. (Not for the faint of heart, I promise.) I adapted that one from a set of journals I’d kept for a documentary on sexual abuse in America.

These days, I’m taking a break from standing behind the camera to write full time and do a podcast with my bestselling author friend, Elle Lothlorien, which is called the S&M (Self-Publishing and Marketing) Podcast with Maven & Minx (I’m Minx.) We also have a website, book and consultation firm where we teach people the attitudes and tools of successful self-publishing. You can read all about it at TheBookEscorts.com. *Shameless plug, sorry about that. The podcast is pretty funny, though, so if you’re an aspiring author you should definitely check it out.*

2.       Your book, Wake for Me, is about a young woman who finds the man of her dreams, while being in a coma. What inspired you to write this story?

Like I mentioned briefly above, the first seed was planted by Christopher Nolan’s Inception (he’s something of a hero of mine.) I loved the idea of lucid dreaming—of dreams you could learn to control, or at least be completely aware of—and thought it would be awesome to write a contemporary, non-paranormal retelling of Sleeping Beauty where the heroine was in a coma and forced to run around in a dream until she couldn’t tell the difference between that world and reality anymore. And of course, because I’ve always had a bit of a girly side, I had to make it a romance.

3.       The main character, Viola Bellerose, has a very unique name. How did you pick that name for her?

The main character’s name was a cross between my favorite character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night(BTW in case you’re not familiar, Viola is the sassy and badass girl who dresses up like a dude and accidentally falls for her boss—such a kick ass story, especially for that time period) and yet another cheeky nod to the fact that WAKE FOR ME is loosely, loosely based on Sleeping Beauty. Bellerose…Briar Rose. Get it? There’s a couple of other sneaky references in there, which I won’t spoil for you here. But I LOVE it when readers message me on Facebook and tell me they’ve found them, my little Fairy Tale Easter Eggs. Hmmm, that gives me an idea: I might have to do a contest at some point in the future, centered around those little tidbits. (Psst. Friend me on Facebook if you want to be in the loop for such contests in the future.)

4.       Did you read a lot of romantic suspense novels growing up? What books/authors do you like to re-read often?

Oh, God, yes. When I was in college, I went through a huge phase where I just devoured everything I could get my hands on by Tami Hoag, Linda Howard, Suzanne Brockmann, Allison Brennan, Lisa Jackson…the list goes on, but I don’t want to bore you guys. Suffice it to say, I had a very unhealthy obsession with ‘Oh no, we almost died just then, let’s have sex’ scenes for a while, there.

Nowadays, though, I read pretty much everything. I beta read a lot for my fellow authors, too, which means on any given week I’ll be blitzing through some chick lit, some paranormal YA, some edgy NA books like the ones I write, and even a novel in verse (which is surprisingly easy to read, once you get the hang of it, and soooo beautifully written.)

Yeah, I love me some books.

5.       What are your writing plans for 2014? Will you be releasing any books this year?

My fellow authors like to laugh at me for my grand ambitions, but so far I’ve been averaging a book release a month. Can I keep this going? Probably not. But until the caffeine runs out of my system and my mind no longer buzzes with ideas for the next story, and the next, I’ll keep writing…until it kills me, probably.

*Ahem* And the non-crazed sounding answer to your question is, “Why yes. Thank you for asking. My next book, SAY ANYTHING (the ‘sequel’ to WAKE FOR ME, kind of) comes out in April 2014. Keep an eye on my website, isobelirons.com for updates!

6.       Where can everyone find you?

Website: http://isobelirons.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Isobel-Irons/187776254741611?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IsobelIrons

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/isobelirons/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7389142.Isobel_Irons

7.       Do you have anything that you would like to ask me or the followers here?

Absolutely! Here goes. *Clears throat, straightens ironic hipster glasses, dons look of attempted seriousness, fails* Would you like to win a FREE copy of WAKE FOR ME? If so, click here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/429fdb5/