Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Emerald Isle Blog Tour: Guest Post with Kate Hinderer


Today as part the promotional tour for Kate Hinderer's newest release, The Emerald Isle, I'm turning the blog over to her to tell us a little bit about how the book came to be. Welcome to Supernatural Snark Kate!

Hi. I’m author Kate Hinderer and I’m pleased to be guest posting here as part of the book blog tour for The Emerald Isle. This book is part paranormal and part contemporary fiction.

To be honest, The Emerald Isle came about in a slightly different way than my usual stories. Nine times out of ten I’ll be walking down the street or listening to a story and suddenly I am making up an entire book based around a character or scenario. For instance I once heard a story about a firefighter getting someone into their locked apartment with a credit card. My mind took that real life event and turned it into a 25-page short story.

But The Emerald Isle didn’t start from a story or character. It started with an idea – a theme. I was just wrapping up my first book, Aurora Undefined, and trying to look at the market to determine what was selling. It wasn’t hard to pinpoint paranormal as a huge market. But at the same time, I hated the idea of writing a vampire story. I felt, even three years ago, that this topic had been done to death and there were too many copy-cat style books coming out. They lacked creativity and originality. I spent days wracking my brain to come up with a paranormal element that hadn’t been extensively covered. Harry Potter had the monopoly on witches and wizards. Twilight owned the vampire and werewolf market. That’s when I hit on the idea that suddenly became a character, Tristan, and then a book, The Emerald Isle, and finally a series, The Fascination Island series.

Still I didn’t jump in head first and just go with where ever my imagination took me. I did research on the folklore about my paranormal character. I took notes on the books, movies and TV shows that had this paranormal element as it’s major theme. And then I created my own idea of these beings.

One of the things I like about the Twilight series is how the books take the idea of vampires and really fleshes out what they are all about. Stephenie Meyer explains away some common misconceptions and gives them a spin of her own. I tried to do the same – starting with the grains of truth that every accepted about these beings and then gave them my own creative spin.

Hopefully, it paid off… You be the judge!

Thanks so much for being here Kate! More information on Kate and her books can be found here:

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THE EMERALD ISLE (from Goodreads)

To escape a bad break-up and fighting parents Audyn takes a job as a lifeguard at Fascination Island. The posh five-star resort lives up to its name in every way, including the strange rules the owner has about entering the water at night. Despite declaring it a boy-free summer, it isn’t long before the shy, endearing Levi and the mysterious, tattooed Tristan begin vying for her attention. When Levi tries to push his advantage and Tristan comes to the rescue, Audyn realizes there is more to both these boys and the island they inhabit. Suddenly, she’s forced to acknowledge a reality she’d never considered and to pick a side in the conflict that has been waging for decades.

24 comments:

  1. Now I'm curious what paranormal this book has! I'm guessing mermaids or something. But maybe not... That's awesome there was lots of research and thought put into it. I know I'm sick of the same ol' thing!

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    1. I'm curious too - definitely something water related I would think given they're on an island.

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  2. Finally, a paranormal book that doesn't have the mythical species (?) blatantly placed in the summary. Most of the paranormal books out there pinpoint what kind of creature is in it which takes the fun out of the mystery. So yay!

    Telling us that "seeing what's selling" technique was used is kind of odd though.

    Still, cool guest post, Jenny :D

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    1. I know! Now I desperately want to know what Tristan is, it should be fun to read and try to figure out the clues:)

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  3. YEAH for paranormal stories!!! I miss them lately and ... now that Kate mentioned Twilight I am all set :)

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    1. I LOVE THE PARANORMAL DANNY! That is all:)

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  4. I agree I became really tiresome with the paranormal books, they seemed to be going down the same path, but this book sounds interesting; a mash up of the paranormal and contemporary?? Thank you Jenny and Kate for this fab guest post and for bringing this book to my attention, as I'm definitely in the need for something different :)

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    1. I like the contemporary paranormal aspect - like maybe whatever the supernatural species is could actually exist:)

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  5. How intriguing! A mystery before you even crack open the book. :) That is pretty much made of awesome!

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  6. Cute boys and a mysterious island? I like the combination. So hard to find something completely unusual in the paranormal world (not that I mind so much--I'm still a paranormal junkie).

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    1. She had me at the name "Tristan" and the word "tattooed". Win.

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  7. ohhh sounds like a good nook...and you know if the guys name is Tristan he's gonna be hot...:)

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  8. I agree with what the author said. It can be really tiring to see the same theme over and over again. -_-
    I'm really curious as to what the paranormal beings in this book are, but I'm guessing they are merpeople or anything related to the sea.
    It's always interesting to see how authors get their ideas, so thanks for sharing, Jenny! :)

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  9. I love the idea of a book set at a resort. It was interesting hearing how Kate came up with her idea for the paranormal aspect of this story. I'm still wondering what it is. Thanks for sharing Jenny and Kate. :)

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  10. I will put this book on my wish list!

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  11. Oh I love a well researched paranormal book. That right there and the mystery surrounding it already has me curious.

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  12. Oh I'm really curious about this book now! I can't wait to find out which supernatural theme Kate decided to write about. She definitely has my attention. Thanks for sharing, Jenny! :)

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  13. Awesome post! I just read this book and few days ago and enjoyed it!

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  14. So glad that the paranormal entity wasn't defined in the summary. I miss the excitement of trying to figure out that mystery.

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  15. This was such an interesting post! I agree with Kate that a lot of themes in paranormal are done to death and very similar to one another. If I have to look at the cover of another Vampire book I might scream! The synopsis for Emerald Isle sounds really intriguing! I love that it doesn't come out and say what the paranormal aspect is. This is one I'll be adding to my list for sure =)

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  16. Hmmm...I am curious as to what these paranormal creatures are? Obviously something a bit different which is always a bonus in the paranormal field as like she said vampires have been done to death!

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  17. Lol, I think everyone is now curious to find out what Hinderer's paranormal creatures are. I think it's kind of cool that the guys are departing away from stereotypes; the shy guy ends up being pushy and the tattooed guy comes to the rescue :)

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  18. I'm curious. Is there anything other than mermen? Crabs and Lobstermen? Rival sea captains?? I need to know.

    Heather

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