Born of Illusion Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

Today I'm extremely excited to welcome young adult author Teri Brown to the blog as part of the promotional tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours for her newest release, Born of Illusion. Teri was nice enough to answer a few questions about the world illusions in the time of Houdini, so I hope you all enjoy the interview! Be sure and check out the bottom of the post for a full list of the participating blogs as well as all the details on a fantastic giveaway!

If you were to try your hand at some of Anna’s illusions and create a show of your own, what would your stage name and the name of your show be?

Terrible Teri? Or the Great and Terrible Teri? HA! I think I would have to call it word play, except it would no doubt be very boring to people who aren’t Lit Heads!

Anna is able to sense the emotions of others when she touches them (and in some cases when she’s simply near them). Let’s say Anna is standing right beside you on release day, what is she going to feel?

I hope she would feel happiness. Maybe joy? I mean, I have lived with this book and these characters for a very long time. I love them! But I’m a writer and that means I skew on the neurotic side, so she will probably feel fear, anxiety and maybe nausea!

Harry Houdini may or may not be Anna’s father. When researching his life, which of his illusions impressed/fascinated you most?

Oh, man there were so many good ones! I think the Chinese Water Torture Chamber must have been the most visually stunning, but the one that made my jaw drop is when he’d hang like fifteen stories up in the air by his feet and get out of handcuffs and a straightjacket. I always thought to myself, “Okay, he’s free, but he’s still hanging fifteen stories off the ground!” For me, free wouldn’t be such an awesome thing in that situation…

Anna and her mother are doing a promotional interview for their new show and instead of a reporter asking her mother a question, the reporter requests that Anna ask her mother anything she wants to know. What would Anna’s question be?

You know, Anna is such a private person that I’m not sure she would ask the question she most wants to know in front of other people and, being fearful of the answer, I don’t think she would even ask her mother this question in private…but the question that she would ask her mother if she could is a question that has shaped her whole life. She would ask her mother, “Do you love me?”

Though Anna dislikes having to do them, she and her mother make good money conducting séances. Have you ever attended or conducted one?

No… well sort of when I was a kid. But not a “real” one. The whole idea scares me too badly. Not that I believe in them. Well, not much!

What aspect of Anna’s character would you say is most similar to one of your own personality traits or quirks? What aspect is drastically different?

While I don’t see visions of the future the way Anna does, or talk to the dead, I am pretty empathic and super intuitive. I get strong senses of how people are feeling, but honestly, I think a lot of writers are empathic.

And honestly, I think Anna is a lot braver than I am. She not only gets on stage (I have horrible stage fright) but she just so proactive when it comes to issues. I just love that girl’s guts.  

Anna sometimes gets glimpses of the future; brief flashes of images but nothing concrete. If we were able to get one of Anna’s visions about future books of yours, what are a couple of the images we might see in those flashes?

Oh, AWESOME QUESTION! A couple of dead bodies. A gypsy or two. Bombs. Maybe a burned out building and a palace or two. Wild stuff!

• • • • • • • • • • 

 

BORN OF ILLUSION

 (releases from Balzer + Bray on June 11th)

Anna Van Housen has a secret. A gifted illusionist, Anna assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums, and mentalists in 1920’s New York. As the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini—or so Marguerite claims—sleight of hand illusions have never been a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her own gifts secret from her opportunistic mother. Because while Marguerite’s own powers may be a sham, Anna possesses a true ability to sense people’s feelings and foretell the future.

But as Anna’s powers intensify, she begins to experience frightening visions of her mother in peril, which leads her to explore the powers she’s tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man named Cole moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a secret society that studies people with gifts like hers, she is forced to confront her past and rethink everything she’s ever known. Is her mother truly in danger, or are Anna’s visions merely illusion? And could the great Houdini really be her father, or is it just another of Marguerite’s tricks?

From Teri Brown comes a world bursting with magic, with romance, and the temptations of Jazz Age New York—and the story of a girl about to become the mistress of her own destiny.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

• • • • • • • • • • 

TERI BROWN

Teri Brown is proud of her two children but coming in a close second is the fact that she parachuted out of a plane and beat the original Legend of Zelda video game.

She is a word scribbler, head banger, math hater, book reader, rule breaker, food fixer, novel writer, kitty keeper, and city slicker. Teri lives with her husband and way too many pets in Portland, Oregon.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

• • • • • • • • • •

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate the launch of Born of Illusion, Teri is giving away 10 sets of Born of Illusion earth mineral eye shadow available for a limited time only from Glamour Doll Eyes. You, too, can get the glam look of the twenties!

Eye Shadow Giveaway (10 sets) 

Teri will also be giving away not one, but THREE grand prizes that Cari Cucksey, (of HGTV’s Cash and Cari), picked out from her RePurpose shop especially for the Born of Illusion launch!

Grand Prize Giveaway – Vintage Spoon Bracelets

So don’t forget to enter for a chance to win these beautiful vintage spoon bracelets! All giveaways are US and Canada only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• • • • • • • • • •

BLOG TOUR

Week One
June 3rd - Tales of the Ravenous Reader - Guest Post
June 4th - Mostly YA Books Obsessed - Review
June 5th - Hobbitsies - Interview
June 6th - YA Bibliophile - Guest Post
June 7th - The Starry-Eyed Revue - Review

Week Two
June 10th - Supernatural Snark - Interview
June 11th - Between the Pages - Review
June 12th - Icey Books - Guest Post
June 13th - Larissa & Friends' Bookish Life - Guest Post
June 14th - The Irish Banana - Review