Interview and Review with T.L. Frye + GIVEAWAY!!!

Happy Saturday my lovelies! I'd like to welcome a brand new lovely to The Lindsay Show, the fantabulous T.L. Frye! I had the privilege of getting to beta read her awesome fantasy book, The Secret of Magik and Dragons and it is soooooo good. It will be released next week so be on the lookout for it!! First, bask in the awesomeness that is the cover!

Be sure to leave a comment with your email address for your chance to win one of 2 ARCs of this awesome book!

That's right...2 winners!! Everybody do the happy dance :)

Alright, have your coffee or tea ready? Let's get started!

Interview

Thank you so much for joining me! I'm so happy you let me beta read this wonderful book :) When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

In elementary school, we had an assignment to write a short story. I wrote pages and pages and loved it. So did my teacher. She thought it was so good and I fell in love with writing and I continued writing on my own.

Aww that's so awesome! I remember doing a story back in 5th grade about a witch and I loved it. I wonder whatever happened to it lol. What has been the most difficult part about being a writer?
Finding time to do it. Right now, I still have a regular 40-hour a week job as a report editor, and sometimes it saps my writing energy. I have to think about English in two different ways. I also have a teenager, a husband, and a mother with an illness.

Oh wow, you are busy! I think it's fantastic that even with all that going on, you still find time to do what you love. Who are your favorite authors?

J. K. Rowling (of course), Anne McAffery (I still read her on occasion), Victoria Holt (especially when I was a teen), Jennifer Crusie, Kady Cross. These are some authors whose books I’ve bought and read because they wrote them. There are a lot of other authors I’ve read, especially lately, and I’m waiting to see something else from them.

OMG Anne McAffery was one of the very first fantasy authors I ever read and her books are what led me to adore the fantasy genre. What authors inspire you?

J. K. Rowling has an amazing story. So does Stephanie Meyers, I think. But their stories are also a bit cautionary. Both had publishers that, I think, messed with their stories, and they aren’t what they should have been because of that.

I will admit that part of the reason I'm hesitant to ever sign a contract is because I'm afraid the publisher will want to change my story too much. Do you like to plan your scenes out or do you just wing it?
I am what one of my writing instructors calls a “pantser”; I write by the seat of my pants, as I go. I will do a rough outline once I get into a story, to try to keep my on track, sort of a road map, but there are lots of different ways to get somewhere, and I usually take a lot of detours.

I'm a pantser too! It's much more exciting that way I think :) What type of books do you like to read?

I grew up reading Victorian Gothics, fantasy, and then romance (think Barbara Cartland). I still read romance, but I like lots of different stories. I read YA stuff, though not so much the dystopia. I read steampunk and science fiction, literary if it isn’t too depressing.  I don’t like to cry when I read; but I love to laugh.

I love that mix of genres and I completely agree about not wanting to read anything too depressing. Reading is an escape for me and escapes are supposed to be fun. What do you like to do in your free time?
What free time? I love to read, always have. Though since I decided it was time to start publishing, I don’t have as much time for that as I would like. I have three books started but unfinished beside my bed right now. Two are by independent writers.

Hahah I think becoming an author should come with the warning "you will have very little time to actually finish reading a book once you've written one." Where is your favorite place to vacation?
Anywhere as long as I get to spend time with my husband and daughter without stuff pulling us away. My husband has his car club hobby, my daughter is in theater and art. We all have our own thing and it’s nice to do stuff to focus on each other. My dream vacation, though I have not been there yet, would be a grand tour of Europe.

Oh, that sounds like it would be simply amazing. Why did you choose to write a fantasy novel?

I read fantasy as a teen. Anne McAffery, Madeleine L’Engle, Piers Anthony, and a lot more. I also like medieval romance and that’s kind of like fantasy – it was real, but it isn’t anymore, and folks believed in magic and sorcery.

Well, I must say I'm thrilled you fell in love with the fantasy genre because I adored your book. I LOVED the interaction between the dragon and Alex. What was your inspiration for the dragon’s personality?
Hard to answer. Probably my husband, with a bit of my brother thrown in.

LOL I must admit, I was very curious how you'd answer that. Love your answer! Tell us, if you could have a pet dragon, would you want one? Why or why not?
I don’t think I would want one. My dogs wouldn’t like it much. And if it was like Orion, I know my husband wouldn’t like it! :)

Who knows, maybe the dogs would love to play with it! Hubby might get a little irked but maybe you could convince him to share you with Orion ;) What has been the most fun about working on your books?

I love writing. I can be walking down the street and an idea will pop into my head. They don’t’ always work into a full story, but it happens. And I’ve met a lot of great people since I decided to start publishing – reviewers (like you and Cynthia), artists (like Rene, who did my cover), and other writers. Though I love the writing, the promoting and marketing sucks. It drains the life out of a person.

I think one of my favorite things has been the people I've met too :) You're all such amazing people! What has been the hardest scene for you to write?
In The Secret of Magik and Dragons, it would be that last scene in the dungeon. I rewrote it over and over. I’m still not 100% happy with it – but I think that’s why there’s a second book in the works.

I can definitely understand how it could be a hard scene, but I thought it was very well done. Do you have any favorite characters?

I love J. K. Rowling’s characters in the Harry Potter series. They aren’t perfect, they make mistakes, big fails even. I think this makes them real. It’s the same for Jennifer Crusie’s characters; they are sometimes deeply flawed, and yet you fall in love with them anyway.

Oh yes, J. K. Rowling has some of the best characters I've ever read! Tell us more about how you came up with the premise for The Secret of Magik and Dragons.
Many, many years ago, I told my daughter a bed time story about a dragon that was really a little boy. That story stuck with me. When my daughter was in elementary school, I started writing about him and a girl that turned into Alex. I finished it the first go round when she was in middle school, and her class mates read it and really liked it. I tried sending it to agents but no one bit.

That's awesome that you were able to have her classmates read it :) I'm so glad you didn't let it stop you that no agents wanted to pick it up! The world was so rich in your book. Tell us more about it. Did you draw inspiration from anywhere when you were creating it?
I like medieval periods and stories. Arthur and the round table. Dragons and swords. When I wrote about Alex and Orion, that is the world I saw them in. I’m not sure how Gwennie turned into a gypsy. That kind of just happened. Same with Bertram. They just grew, these characters, and the world grew with them.

I love Gwennie as a gypsy, no matter how it happened haha. Do you plan on writing any more books featuring the characters from The Secret of Magik and Dragons? I really hope you are :)

Yes. I’m working on a sequel now (among many other projects). In it, we’ll meet couple more characters and go on a “road trip.” 

Oh yay! That made my morning :) What's next for you?

More writing! Beside the sequel to The Secret of Magik and Dragons, I’m working on a contemporary teen book, the sequel to Dhampyr Heritage (as E. G. Gaddess) and a bunch of short stories. I think one of these short stories will morph into something bigger – it’s about a girl whose Mom gets cancer. She’s younger than teenage, which is a little different for me.

I cannot wait to see what else you write. We are unfortunately out of time, but is there anything else you want your readers to know?

I have a page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/T-L-Frye , and my website should be ready soon (I’ll post on my Facebook page when it’s ready.)

And don’t forget, if you like Victorian Vampires, check out my Dhampyr series as E. G. Gaddess.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Review of The Secret of Magik and Dragons

What I liked:

I'm a huge fantasy fan if you didn't know so obviously that was a huge draw for me. I loved the characters of the book, especially Alex and Orion. Alex is so sweet but she's also spirited and Orion was amazing. I never thought my favorite character in a book would be a dragon. When I was younger, I read and reread the Dragonriders of Pern books and in a lot of ways, the relationship between Alex and Orion reminds me of those stories. Besides the characters, there was plenty of adventure to keep things interesting and I enjoyed the pacing very much.

What I didn't like:

As much as I loved the personality of Alex, the name threw me for a loop. In the story, Alex is a girl pretending to be a boy, so the gender neutrality of the name could be why the author chose it. My issue is that it's a very ordinary name and seems out of place within a fantasy. I'm not saying I expect something out of this world, unpronounceable, or totally bizarre, but I guess I was hoping for something a little more fantasy.

The other thing that stuck out was there was a tinge too much description in some parts but that's more of a personal preference. The world is very rich and very immersive, I'm just more of a "dive in and give me action" kind of gal.

Overall Verdict: 4/5 Blue Duckies!

If you're looking for a fun, action packed fantasy, definitely give this one a read! The friendship between Alex and Orion is wonderful and this will definitely keep you entertained!!

Although the ebook will not be released until February 1, you can still snag a paperback on Createspace!

Don't forget to leave a comment with your email address to be entered to win one of 2 ARCs!!

Meet T. L. Frye

T. L. Frye lives in southeastern Virginia with her husband and daughter, and two stand-in dragons (her two bullmastiffs.) After 6 years in the Navy, a Bachelor's degree in English, and one child that couldn't find anything she liked to read, she decided it was time to start publishing her stories.