I recently read a wonderful and unique book by a brand new author and was invited to join my first blog hop.
Unfortunately due to illness this is a day and half late but would still like to share with you my interview with the lovely B. N. Toler and some excepts from her wonderful book
Healer. Although my review has already appeared here on my blog I wanted to once again share it and remind everyone what a truly unique book this is and how I believe PNR and UF lovers alike will enjoy this first book in The Healer Series.
First let me share a bit about B. N. Toler:
B N Toler's first novel
HEALER was released in July 2013. B N Toler lives in Virginia with her husband and three kids and is currently working on HYBRID, the 2nd in the
HEALER series. On the side, she is throwing her hat into the new adult/romance genre and working on a novel she will possibly call Chance.
Her Favourite books are :The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, She is also a big fan of Samatha Young and Sylvia Day.
tt: Hi B.N. Welcome to the 'talk thanks for taking the time to visit with me today. As you already know I am a huge fan of
Healer and was lucky enough to read and review it a while back.
I was concerned when starting the book that it was going to be a Y/A and athough I enjoy N/A characters younger than that don't usually appeal.
In Healer though you actually take the characters through a few years of their lives with twists and turns. I loved the uniqueness of the concept and plot of the book and can't wait for "Hybrid"!
B.N.:Thanks so much for participating in the blog tour and for taking the time with me. I'm ecstatic about all of it! Yes, Healer is a real mind blower. I swear I thought everyone would figure out what was happening by the middle of the book, and I hated that thought. I wanted to blow some minds and so far, the reviews are saying just that. Hybrid is a different beast though. There will be surprise and suspense just like Healer, but it's written all in present tense.
tt: While reading I had a few questions that popped to mind.
> How did you come up with the name Aldo? Especially for a girl?
> (I know we discussed buying shoes there LOL)
B.N.: Allen & Dorothy---These were actually my grandparents names and I always wanted to use the first two initials of their names and name one of my daughters Aldo, but somehow I gave it to the heroine in Healer and that's where it stayed. I love the uniqueness of the name too.
tt: Florida? Just wondering why this destination when running away?
B.N.: Honestly, I have no idea. I've been a few times in my life and it seemed as good a place as any, but it actually worked out well being that Maela (The Midwife) made her way into the book as a Cuban illegal immigrant.
tt: Who or what was your muse for Healer?
B.N.:Yeesh! So many people have asked me where the idea came from. To tell you the truth, I have no idea because I started Healer sooooo long ago and actually wrote a completely different version of it unlike what I published.
tt: When writing do you go to the internet and try to find a picture of
> characters or just pull them from your imagination? If you just imagine
> them do you mind when readers try to find actors etc that represent the
> characters to them?
B.N.: I pull from my mind, but I have made a dream cast for the characters. I really think Shailene Woodley from The Descendants fits the image perfectly of Aldo in my mind.
tt: When deciding to write a paranormal why did you choose healing as the
> "super power" for your characters as opposed to mind reading etc?
B.N.: I really wanted to bring something new and fresh to the genre while keeping what I love most about it. I have always loved paranormal/fantasy and I wanted to create something people would be able to absorb and enjoy while keeping some of the familiar aspects of the genre. Healing as the super power just seemed unique. I loved that the healers could be turned and still walk in the daylight. It really unfolded well now that I think about it because when I started writing this story there were no blood healers.
tt: I found your cover interesting. Does the tree represent something to
> you? Is the use of black and white with a touch of color just an
> esthetic choice or was there meaning to that?
B.N.: No the tree isn't particularly meaningful to me personally, but I absolutely love Willow trees. They are just so beautiful and elegant. The black and white is a representation of the two worlds Aldo exists with in, conscious and subconscious. I am actually going to change the cover of Healer and will reveal the new cover hopefully in December. The cover for Hybrid will be released shortly after.
tt: Have you always wanted to write? Why did you choose this time in your
> life to put your story into novel form?
B.N.: I have always dabbled with it. More of a hobby. But when I finished Healer I just felt like I needed to share it and believe me even after I let a few people read it, I sent it to edit and there was a lot I had to add and remove. God Bless the editors because we writers can get carried away and they have to bring us back down to earth and tell us like it is.
>
tt: I have a question I have wanted to ask a number of authors. Why
> initials vs first name? Is it the anonymity of it or that it isn't as
> easy to identify the author's sex? Or am I just reading way to much
> into it LOL?
B.N.: Haha. I had a list of 10 different names I thought about using, but couldn't decide. No one would help me either until finally I called my sister-in-law and begged her to help me. She listened to me rattle off the names and just said, "B N Toler". It was as simple as that. I love her. She doesn't pussy foot around. :)
tt: Finally, is your writing process organic or organized? Meaning does it
> jump to mind and you write or do you plot out your beginning, middle and
> end before putting pen to paper, like a story board?
B.N.: I'm probably the most unorganized writer that ever walked the face of the planet. I write, re-write, delete, and change so much it's insane. With Healer, there would be weeks where I would not write waiting for an idea and suddenly, BAM! It would hit me. So maybe a little bit of everything is how I get a story down. I'm really happy with the way
Healer turned out. I re-read it sometimes and wonder what I could've added to it or changed, but I still love it..
tt: Thanks so much for spending time with me here on t'irla's talk.
B.N.: Thanks for having me and I can't wait to see what you think of Hybrid!
B.N.Toler was wonderful to chat with if you are interested in contacting B.N. Toler you can reach out to :
Visit her website
http://www.bntoler.com
Visit her on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/B-N-TOLER/279007692235640
Visit her on Goodreads
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7150768.B_N_Toler
Now an excerpt from
Healer!
Have we caught your attention yet??? No? Ok one more quick excerpt!!
t'irla's talk review of
Healer
Read from September 26 to 27, 2013
Amazing Debut for B.N. Toler! A Paranormal series so different from the rest I hate to call it a PNR!
Description:
Healers, such as Aldo Lawson understand the power of their gift, although at times, it seems more a curse. Upon meeting a handsome young healer named Thomas, Aldo's life heads into a tailspin. With his arrival, Aldo's aunt, the woman who raised her, is forced to share a hard and scary truth--vampires exist. And not only do they exist, but they thirst for healer blood.
Aldo's world is turned upside down when her aunt is murdered and Thomas disappears. Riddled with questions, she sets out to find him.
Submerged in a world filled with sex and danger, Aldo hopes to find the vampires that will lead her to Thomas. When they find her first, she is forced to piece together truths, deal with her pain, and finds that not everything is what it seems
The Author gave me this book for an honest review. Thanks Ms Toler
My Thoughts:
Wow, where do I start.
Is the book perfect no, it is a first novel by a very new writer however, that being said holy cow! this is a breath of fresh air in the Vampire genre. In fact, it is not so much a Vampire novel as it is a truly paranormal novel. The writing is fabulous and as you keeping reading the novel it gets better and better. Her characters were interesting, in some places sketchy but since this is a 3 part series I think a lot of the blanks will be filled in as we make our way to the ending of book 3. Aldo is an interesting character although at times confusing but confusing in a young girl way. She struggles with her feelings and fears. She has the normal teenage angst and behaves as expected around a cute older guy. Thomas is a mystery from moment one and that is what keep us readers on our toes right until the end and actually even then I was chomping at the bit for the next one.
The book started out writing from Aldo's "present" and then we are faced with chapters bouncing from present to 6 years before. I was a bit confused at first but muddled my way through and got used to it. I wonder if a simple chapter title would make this a smoother transition? Apart from that the story flows with it's bends and twirls and sudden change in direction then twisting once again. I admittedly was finding myself flabbergasted in the last 1/4 of the book. The spins were enough to make me want to read all night.
Starting a world from scratch is difficult for even the most experience authors and even then the first book of the series is often the worst as there is so much to explain. BNT did this seemlessly and using the different points in time as a vehicle to further her plot and keep the story moving.
Brava Ms Toler on an excellent first book and I can't wait for 2014 to read the next book in this trilogy! Toler's name is now in my *watch* list and with writing this good I know her future books will be amazing.
5 stars for this budding author and a standing ovation for the uniquness of the story and the ingenuity used to keep readers surprised. A MUST read this Fall ..don't miss what the buzz is all about read this today:)
Reward for reading to the end:) 3rd excerpt from
Healer
