Can you give us a
brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?
Live Me is a new adult contemporary romance
that takes you through the life of Evangelina Ricci. Evangelina is a girl who
leaves the town she grew up in with her best friend in order to escape the dark
past that plagues her. Evangelina is very guarded and closed off, although she
puts on a façade to the world to make them think otherwise. Once at college,
she meets Blake Turner, the guy who will blow her world wide open and demolish
the make-shift walls she’s kept so perfectly in place all these years. Live Me
is part of the Pieces of Broken series.
What factors
influenced your decision to self-publish your book(s)?
Two things.
1- I’m a major control freak. I don’t take orders well and
I’m very opinionated, especially when it comes to something I’ve created. 2- I
don’t like to wait. Querying and getting accepted takes an awful lot of time
and it took me three years to get Live Me to the point that I was comfortable
publishing as it is. I didn’t want to wait any longer.
If you used a graphic
designer/publisher’s designer, how involved were you during the creative
process for your cover?
I was completely hands on in the full design of the cover,
down to the models. I wanted a good representation of Eva and Blake. It was
also important to me that it was eye catching and that even the back cover had
pieces of the novel.
Do you outline your
story or just go where your muse takes you?
I have a general idea where the story is going, but
characters are pushy f*ckers sometimes and think they should have a say. They
tend to take things where THEY think it should go. And that’s okay. Because it
IS of course their story to tell. I am merely a moving pen. Yes, pen. I hand
write my books.
Did you hire an editor
to review your manuscript before publishing?
Yes, two of them. And a proofer. I’m paranoid. And anal. If
you only knew how many times this book has been worked over…
What have you’ve
learned during your self-publishing journey?
The struggle is real. You can have amazing words and amazing
characters, but the market is rough to crack. However, it’s a community like no
other. People genuinely care and want to help. It’s the most passionate place
to be and I’m proud and humbled to be a part of it.
Besides Amazon, are
there any other sites where your books are for sale?
So far, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. iBooks is coming, but I
need a hand with that one, so keep your eye out. Google + is toying with me and
telling me they aren’t accepting any more. (Are they for real?)
Do you find it
difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing
your next book?
At the present moment, this is my greatest struggle. Live Me just released and already the
second book in the series is in high demand. So, I need to find ways to split
myself to make it all work.
Some fun facts about
you, which do you prefer – dogs or cats? Chocolate or vanilla? Coffee or Tea?
Talk or Text? Day or Night?
Dogs, always dogs. Cats freak me out. I feel like they’re
smarter than me and planning my demise. If you put an IV in me, you may find
chocolate running through my veins. And coffee, preferably pumpkin flavored. I
used to talk on the phone all day long, now I ignore it half the time and don’t
listen to my voicemails. Text me, please. Day, although I’m a vampire as of
late. (God, I wish I was for real)
What’s next for you?
I would like to tie up Eva and Blake’s story as quickly as
possible. There is a possibility of a third installment if I can make it work,
which will be featured in Blake’s POV. I also see a story for Eva’s sister,
Abby, and I would LOVE to give Jace a book if I could figure out how to master
writing m/m. There are so many things floating through my head that I have to
hope to have the time to get them all out. You’ll have to just follow me and
stay tuned. XO
Book & Author Details:
Live Me ~ a Pieces of Broken novel by Celeste
Grande
Publication date: October 27th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult
Synopsis:
Broken…
Shattered…
How can you begin to live again when
you’ve already been forced to…die?
Evangelina Ricci is trapped in a
world that’s a never-ending nightmare, a constant ache in which consumes her
every breath. Unable to bear the torture any longer, she does the one thing she
can to take back control.
Run.
With her best friend Jace in tow,
Evangelina attempts to escape her darkened past by leaving for college and
diving head first into an aggressive schedule, determined with everything she
is to make a name for herself. There’s only one problem—she can’t run away from
the demons she struggles with. The demons that’ll forever be there, locked
inside, battering her soul. Hiding behind a flawless façade, Evangelina faces
her ghosts until her world is turned upside down, invaded by…him.
Blake Turner. Sweet, witty,
flirtatious and drop-dead gorgeous, he finds Evangelina at every turn. Scared
he’ll uncover the truth she keeps so well guarded, Evangelina tries her best to
put on her act, deterring him like she has so many times before—only this guy’s
different. He’s relentless. Utterly, absolutely and completely relentless. He
sees her and he wants her and won’t stop until she’s his.
Will Evangelina succeed in pushing
Blake away? Or will he break down her walls and be the person to make her
realize life is worth living?
Purchase:
AUTHOR
BIO:
Celeste Grande grew up loving words. From an early age, it
was easy for her to open her heart through pen and paper and come away with
something poetic. She never thought anything more than releasing her emotions
would come of it though. A workaholic that can’t keep still, in her ‘real’
life, she’s a Certified Public Accountant who dreams of writing sexy books all
day long. When she isn’t working, she’s reading, writing, mommying and being a
wifey to the love of her life.
She lives in New York, still putting pen to paper and anxiously awaiting the
debut of her first novel, Live Me, a new adult romance, in October of 2015.
Author links:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
