Hi guys,I know it's been awhile since I've last done a blog post,and unfortunately,it's going to continue that way until next May/June,when I'm finally done with my O'levels.But anyway,I'm really excited to be a part of the 2nd Annual Authors Are Rockstars tour.Full schedule of the tour can be found HERE so be sure to check out the other blogs participating as well! And without further ado,I'm glad to present my tour stop with Megan Shepherd,author of The Madman's Daughter!!!
Now on to the big question.Why did I choose her as a rockstar author?!!You see,I got the opportunity to read and review an ARC of her debut The Madman's Daughter right before its release last winter thanks to some awesome folks at HarperCollins.And I absolutely fell in love with it.This book gave me the courage to pick up more YA historical fictions which I seldom did before as they rarely aligned with my tastes.Not only that,reading The Madman's Daughter gave me this huge surge of adrenaline,the kind you get when listening to your favourite or any good rockband for that matter.So she definitely fits into the rockstar criteria. ;)
She even did this post on Great Gothic Classics for today,a bit similar to the premise of her book,which makes her all the more awesome!Check it out below:
One of my favorite parts of being a writer is getting to read other books as legitimate “work.” Since my first series, THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER, are Gothic thrillers, this meant brushing up on one of my favorite genres: Gothic classics. I adore all the dramatic and creepy elements of these novels: tortured romance, secrets in the attic, lightning crashing, windswept moors. Gothic books are such a wonderful blend of beautiful writing, melodramatic plots, tortured characters, and there’s usually a few brilliant twists. Here are some of my favorite iconic Gothic classics.
The works of Edgar Allan Poe
There really are too many too chose a favorite. The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart… Poe was a master of horror, science fiction, and satire. One of the first authors to truly explore death and its various manifestations as literary fiction, his works have been giving readers nightmares for generations.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, Oscar Wilde
I love almost every Oscar Wilde quote I come across, and it’s a shame he only wrote one novel. Luckily, it’s a brilliant one. In the book, a beautiful young man named Dorian Gray sells his soul so that his portrait will age instead of himself, thus giving him eternal youth. This hedonistic freedom leads to a sinful life, which manifests on the portrait. It’s a creepy story of the supernatural as a metaphor for our own split natures and how we can never escape ourselves.
FRANKENSTEIN, by Mary Shelley
Even more than the book itself, I love the story behind how Mary Shelley came up with this idea. One night, she and her husband Percy Shelley, along with Lord Byron, were sitting around an old manor daring each other to tell stories. At the time, galvanism (experimentation on dead flesh) was a flashy new sort of science, and Mary twisted this idea into the story of obsessed Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his tortured monster. There are so many different versions of this story in books and movies, but I highly recommend reading the original.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Emily Bronte
Along with her sister Charlotte, who wrote JANE EYRE, the Bronte sisters are known for starting the feminist Gothic genre. WUTHERING HEIGHTS is the story of a doomed love affair between beautiful Catherine and the brooding Heathcliffe, set on the windswept English moors, and should be required reading for anyone who loves tortured romance and family secrets.
Thanks for the lovely post,Megan!And now,on to the giveaway.Now I'm going to make this a super long one as I won't be active in the blogging world for a while.Also,this one will be an international giveaway,with two winners.One will get an ARC and the other will get a finished international edition paperback of The Madman's Daughter.Before that,here's a bit on The Madman's Daughter itself and you'll find a rafflecopter widget for the giveaway at the end of the blurb.
Publication date: January 29th 2013 by Balzer + Bray
Links: MyReview / Personal Guest Post With Author
Blurb:
In the darkest places, even love is deadly.
Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.
Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.
Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
