Belle Whittington, review and interview

Belle Whittington, writer of Young Adult Sci-Fi Paranormal Novels, released her new novel- Cicada.

Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun... until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair's true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their survival depends entirely upon their ability to keep a secret.

Sounds interesting, right?

For more, check out her page.

1.) How did you get the idea of writing Cicada?

There’s not any one thing that inspired me to write Cicada. I find inspiration in everything around me, and there are a lot of cumulative memories of inspiration from over the years that all culminated in this YA Paranormal Sci-Fi trilogy! However, I will say that I did include a lot of actual places from the town in which Cicada is set.  For instance, I pass a ranch on my way home every day (and sometimes night!), and out in the middle of one of the grassy fields is a small forest of trees with a dense wall of tightly grown underbrush.  For years, I’ve imagined that something very mysterious was going on inside that forest, and sometimes at night I’d get creeped out while driving by it!  Now readers can get a feel for that forest by reading about the “haunted forest” in Cicada!

2.) When did you realize that you'd like to be a writer?

I have been daydreaming stories for as long as I can remember.  My first recollection of wanting to be a writer was when I was in the second grade, and my teacher, Mrs. Rambin, would have us lay our heads on our desks after lunch while she read us stories full of magic and imagination.

Most of my early writings were stories with a twist of science fiction…even my earliest poems.  I remember sitting on the dam of a neighbor’s pond around the time I was eleven, writing a story about space travel.  In fact, I still have that little handwritten story.  It’s still bound in the same yellow notebook that I put it in way back in the sixth grade!

Growing up in Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas, afforded me summers full of adventure with my friends.  I call on those adventures and memories a great deal for my YA stories.  Cicada has a lot of the energy of those childhood adventures spun throughout.  One of them is something that actually happened to me when I was thirteen years old.  I was on one of my adventures in the woods with my dog, Dusty.  We made our way through the woods to a neighboring pasture and crawled through the barbed wire fence.  When we got to the top of one of the rolling hills in the grassy field, I realized I was standing in the middle of a giant circle imprinted in the pasture grass.  No one had ever told me about crop circles at that time in my life, so I just thought it was an odd occurrence that there was a strange circle in the tall grass.   Now that circle is forever memorialized in a YA novel, Cicada!

3.) What kind of books do you like to read in your free time? 

As a literature major at University, I love anything lit-related.  However, for casual reading, I usually stick to reading Young Adult fiction, because it’s so full of adventure!  I frequently get asked which books or authors are my favorite.  I’m not even sure I can answer the question of favorites, because I don’t have any one favorite. Of course I love Jane Austen. Who doesn’t?  And Beowulf totally rocked my world.  Getting past that, there are so many others! For instance, Suzanne Collins rocked my world with her Hunger Games trilogy! After I finished Mocking Jay, the characters stayed with me night and day until I picked the trilogy up and reread it!

Then there’s Beth Revis and her awesome Across the Universe series! I was completely engrossed with the first two books, and I cannot wait for the next one! Not only are her characters compelling, but the world she created aboard Godspeed is unique and fresh.

Likewise, Amy Kathleen Ryan’s Glow was enthralling. The twist in her story literally caused me to gasp out loud when I read it! I’m looking forward to reading the sequel to her novel!

It goes without saying that I love J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series! I still wish I could have gone to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

As you can see, I could go on and on… so many terrific authors, so little time! And, just about with every book I read, I add another favorite author to my list! For instance, I’m reading Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan, so you can imagine that I’ll be adding it to my favorites soon!

4.) What gives you inspiration?

If I had to answer that in one word, I would say “life”.  Everything around me feeds my imagination.  As an avid daydreamer, I sort of walk around this world half-in, half-out of a daydream.  I enjoy looking at life through the lenses of magic.  However, there are those daily routines from which I draw inspiration.

Like most authors, I love listening to great music while writing.  There are so many talented musicians that inspire me while daydreaming and writing my stories.  I thought I'd share my inspiration play lists with your lovely readers. :-)

• Cicada inspiration playlist
• Firefly inspiration playlist
• No. 3 inspiration playlist

Another thing I think readers might like to know is that I have a favorite song that fits the mood for each one of the books in the trilogy! Want to hear the unofficial theme song to each book? Here goes!

· Cicada: The Resistance

· Firefly: Cosmic Love

· Third (yet unnamed book): Electric Feel

Belle Whittington’s social networking sites:

• Website
• Facebook
• Goodreads
• Tumblr 
• Twitter
• Kindlegraph (for free e-book autographs)

Where is Cicada sold?

Paperback:

• Amazon
• CreateSpace

E-book:

• Amazon 
• Barnes and Noble
• BooksonBoard
• Smashwords

Where to find out more about Cicada:

• Book Trailer  
• Goodreads 

Belle, thank you so much for the book, can't wait to get it. I hope you'll write more amazing books for us! :)