Hey everyone! Today’s Spotlight is with Tessa Stokes, author of Spellbinding!
Summary: When 18 yr old Chloe McGarry moves with her family from her home in California, to an English estate rich in history, she isn’t sure what to expect. She never dreamed she’d get caught up in a mystery that has lasted for more than eight hundred years, nor that she’d fall in love with two gorgeous guys.
Her new home holds many mysteries. Out one day exploring the grounds she stumbles across Tristan Dearing. Tristan is enigmatic and beautiful; to begin with, he tries to keep himself apart from Chloe until she uncovers his secret; a secret he has been keeping for 800 years.
As Chloe, Oliver and Tristan form an unexpected alliance they must work together to save each other from the 800 year old magic spell which threatens to destroy Tristan for ever.
Chloe must travel back in time to save Tristan and find the real reason Oliver looks so familiar to them both.
Will Chloe’s life ever be the same again?
The first sentence of the novel: I had always loved the colour blue.
Spellbinding can be purchased at Amazon, Smashwords, Nook.
1)What inspired you to write this story? For a long time I had this story in my head, because I have moved so many times in my life to different places and countries. Then I visited a ruined abbey one day a few years ago, and had a strange experience; an old man came out of a ruined doorway, I thought he was just a tourist like me, but he started to talk to me. He talked about a door he was looking for and then about the weather; and I told him I didn’t know the door he meant. He looked at me closely and said, but you live here don’t you. I smiled and moved aside so that he could pass by me onto this overgrown path. I turned away slightly and then when I turned back only moments later he had completely disappeared, which was odd. I started to think of other rather strange experiences and places and then suddenly started to write one night and out came the book, Spellbinding.
I had trouble naming it for a long time and then the main female character named it for me. I have written about that on the amazon book description, editorial comments.
2)What is your writing process? Ideas tumble about in my head then I seem to get the first few sentences in my mind, start writing. Sometimes I make notes about the sequence of events, or when I get ideas and I am not writing, or at home to write, I jot them down. I write then read it over and edit. Re-edit, re-write, until the story flows. Very often I will write and write and then have a huge editing task to do.
3) Do you resemble your main character? If so, how much? Not really, although I do like the colour blue and drive a Jeep but it’s a Patriot not a Wrangler.
4)What were the last five books you read?
Mrs Garnet’s Angel, by Sally Vickers
Mr Golightly’s holiday, by Sally Vickers
Fragile things, by Neil Gamain
The Charming Quirks of others, by Alexander McCall Smith
Vampire Bites, by Katie Salidas
Author Bio: I can’t remember a time when I have not been writing something, either creative or commercial. I started writing fiction when very young with six page stories, that sometimes got me into trouble at school for being too long.
Over the years I have written, educational programs and curriculum, copy, brochures and leaflets, training programs, advertisements, all kinds of reports and plans plus stories, poems, books and songs.
Having written for ‘others and employers’ over the last ten years I decided that I could wait no longer to get back to my creative beginnings and write for myself.
I was born in the United Kingdom but I have lived in different parts of the world and have many interests, amongst which reading features highly. I do love history and try to cram in as many visits to historical and ancient places as I can in any free time I have.
I became interested in writing contemporary fantasy when looking back on some strange experiences. The first four finished books of The Seven Spell saga were a joy to write and I hope you fall in love with the characters as I have.
You can learn more about Tessa Stokes and her series on her website or her blog.
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! 🙂
Great interview, Jennifer. I learned quite a bit about Tessa Stokes.
Thanks for checking it out, Jack!