Indigo Awakening Blog Tour: Interview with Jordan Dane + A Giveaway

Today I'm hugely excited to be a part of the promotional blog tour for Jordan Dane's paranormal young adult novel Indigo Awakening. Thanks to the ladies at Kismet Book Touring, I have the pleasure of welcoming Jordan to the blog to answer a few questions, and you'll all want to check the bottom of the post for not only a pair of amazing giveaways, but also all the details on the other tour stops as well.

If you were to write yourself into the world of Indigo Awakening as an Indigo child, what special gift or ability would you give yourself?

Oh, great question. Some Indigo kids have the ability to see guardian angels. That seems like a very reassuring gift to know that there are special spirits who look out for us. That comes from my spiritual side. On my fun side, I’d love to teleport so I can travel and experience whatever I can imagine. I could pop in anywhere and avoid the lines at the airport or rush hour traffic. Think of the gas money I’d save.

This book has a fairly large cast of characters between the Believers and the Indigo kids; is there any one character in particular you would have loved to have spent more time with when you were writing?

I love this cast of characters. Even the bad ones were intriguing to be in their heads for a short time. I had fun with Gabriel and Rayne, but I secretly fell in love with Rafael. He’s Hispanic like I am, but I wanted to fix him, make his life better even though I knew the damage was already done. He made me cry, but it made me feel more like loving him.

If Gabriel saw himself taking Rayne on an official first date in one of his visions, what might the resulting sketch of said vision look like? Where would he take her? What would they do?

Since Gabriel has a deep connection to the dead, I can see him conjuring an amazing concert of dead musicians and have them jam together. Gabe and Rayne both love music. Gabe would have them play just for them in the Serenity room of the Stewart estate. They could have a spinning light show overhead and he’d make sure that she felt the love of her parents, a priceless gift for her. It would be a very romantic, once in a lifetime experience, that only he could give her.

Tomorrow morning you wake up in the world of one of your books. Which world most appeals to you and what’s the first thing you would do when you realized where you were?

I’d really love to wake up at the Stewart estate in one of the posh bedrooms, down from the suites of Rayne and Gabriel. Even though I’d be tempted to peek into my armoire to see what lavish clothes would be there—or investigate the enticing aromas coming from Cook’s kitchen—I’d have other places on my mind. I would race down the stairs to see the magnificence of the great room or marvel at the beauty of the Serenity room, but the real treat would be to climb the tower stairs to look out over the Bristol Mountains from Gabe’s favorite spot along the parapet wall of the mansion. I could get lost in that place, exploring all the attic places and trunks of special family mementos, if they let me of course. Maybe Gabriel and Rayne would show me around. I’d love to hear Gabriel’s stories of his childhood when he lived there. 

If you were given the chance to ask a single question of any character in young adult fiction, whom would you choose and what would you most want to ask them?

I would choose Death in The Book Thief and my question would be: When it’s my time to die, would you please be my escort? (I know. Feels like a wasted question for Death. Anyone else might’ve asked about the existence of an afterlife, but if Death is like the character in The Book Thief, how could anyone doubt there’s a heaven?)

What was the very first line you wrote of Indigo Awakening? Did it survive the editing process?

I constantly work the beginnings to all my books. Nothing has ever remained un-tweaked. Beginnings are always the toughest for me, but they are a labor of love. I didn’t think I had the original line, but I found it and here it is:

Before:
Fifteen year old Lucas Davenport stumbled through heaving waves of neon signs and drifting shadows, straining to make sense of the muffled whispers in his head.

After:
Lucas Darby stumbled through heaving waves of neon signs and drifting shadows, straining to make sense of the muffled whispers he heard.

Not much had changed, except for his age being deleted and placed elsewhere. I wanted for the reader to wonder who Lucas was – crazy, a drug addict or a kid in trouble.

Let’s say Gabriel has seen all the events of the second book in the Hunted series in one of his visions. What one word would he choose to best describe what he’s seen?

He’d choose the word “Epic.” Of course with Gabriel, that could mean ANYTHING. The guy is fierce.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Jordan! More information on Jordan and her books can be found here:

JORDAN DANE
website | twitter | facebook | goodreads | HarlequinTEEN website

INDIGO AWAKENING
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Book Depository

INDIGO AWAKENING

Voices told Lucas Darby to run. Voices no one else can hear. He's warned his sister not to look for him, but Rayne refuses to let her troubled brother vanish on the streets of LA. In her desperate search, she meets Gabriel Stewart, a runaway with mysterious powers and far too many secrets. Rayne can't explain her crazy need to trust the strange yet compelling boy--to touch him--to protect him even though he scares her.

A fanatical church secretly hunts psychic kids--gifted "Indigo" teens feared to be the next evolution of mankind--for reasons only "the Believers" know. Now Rayne's only hope is Gabe, who is haunted by an awakening power--a force darker than either of them imagine--that could doom them all.

They are our future–if they survive...

GIVEAWAYS

Thanks to Kismet Book Touring, Harlequin Teen, and Jordan Dane, I have not one, but TWO fabulous giveaways to share with you today. YEAH!

1. The first giveaway  is a copy of Indigo Awakening for this stop of the Indigo Awakening Blog Tour. Enter via the Rafflecoper form below!

2. The second giveaway is Harlequin Grand Prize Package (pictured above), including 2 copies of Indigo Awakening, 1 copy of Speechless, 1 copy of Pushing The Limits, 1 copy of Hooked and 2 Harlequin Notebooks. The Grand Prize winner will be drawn from entries from all Tour Stops!

Simply enter via the Rafflecoper widget below and get extra entries for tweeting (once per tour stop), following Jordan on Twitter, leaving your mailing address (for faster shipment of the prize) and for leaving a comment at each Tour Stops (one extra entry for each tour stop).

See full contest rules here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
And don't forget to check out the other stops for this tour for more reviews, interviews and chances to win!

Friday, January 4th - Harlequin Paranormal Blog

Monday, January 7th - Bumbles and Fairytales
Wednesday, January 9th - Miss Page Turner's City of Books
Friday, January 11th - Supernatural Snark

Monday, January 14th - The Page Turners
Wednesday, January 16th - Fiktshun
Friday, January 18th - Bewitched Bookworms