Indie-Licious Interview with Eliza Tilton

 Eliza Tilton is the author of the YA Fantasy, Broken Forest, published by Curiosity Quills Press. You can find her blogging about video games and writing on her blog and doing bi-weekly posts on author media over at YAStands.

She graduated from Dowling College with a BS in Visual Communications. When she’s not arguing with excel at her day job, or playing Dragon Age 2, again, she’s writing. Her stories hold a bit of the fantastical and there’s always a romance. She resides on Long Island with her husband, two kids and one very snugly pit bull.

  
Broken Forest sounds so very enchanting. I would pick this book up by its cover or title alone and buy it without blinking. I had the pleasure of interviewing Eliza Tilton, Author of Broken Forest, and here's what we had to say . . .

1. Eliza, can you tell us what first inspired you to write?

"I’ve always written. I still have my first short story I wrote in third grade—a fanfiction of The Chronicles of Narnia."

2. What are some of your favourite books?

"I am a HUGE R.A Salvatore fan. Can I count all his books as one? In the YA realm, picking a few is tougher, BUT if I have to…The Iron King, Graceling, Finnikin of The Rock, The Sky Is Everywhere, Legend of the Emerald Rose, Between Shades of Grey

And I think everyone should read Room."

3. Can you sum up Broken Forest in one line?

"A 17yr old boy goes on a desperate quest to find his kidnapped sister who’s been taken to a land thought only to exist in fables."

4. How did you come up with the awesome title?

"Ugh. Titles are soooo hard. The original title was WINDS OF CHANGE, but then I put in winds on Amazon and a ton of titles popped up. When I began thinking of another title, I came across a list of chapter titles I had written but never used. Broken Forest was one of the end chapter titles. When I read it, I knew that was the name of the book. It fit perfectly."

5. What was your inspiration for the story?

"It was a birthday gift to my husband. I was going to college, broke, and decided to write him a fantasy with him as the main character. The story was thirteen chapters and I never finished it, lol. After a few years, I got serious about writing, ripped the story apart, and re-wrote everything. The only aspect that stayed the same was the MC’s name—Avikar."

6. Are any of the characters and events inspired by real life?

"Not unless you count playing tabletop D&D. The last character I played was an archer."

7. I sense some word-building took place here. Was that a difficult process?

"Yes and no. You would think being a gamer and a D&D player, I’d understand the concept of World Building, but when I first started writing it was much harder than I expected. You have to think about history, culture, climate, creatures…I have a big binder with all that stuff written in it, including a very terrible hand drawn map. I took a few cultural aspects of biblical times, mixed it with a bunch of created elements and a smidgen of 16^th century life."

8. If Broken Forest was made into a movie, who would you want to play the hero and heroine?

"Dream movie cast: Avikar (Logan Lerman), Jeslyn (Imogen Poots) and Lucino (Ed Skrein—the hot guy who plays Daario Naharis in GOT)."

9. Do you have a favourite writing site or tip to share with other writers?

"Write the bones and add the meat later."

10. If you weren't a writer, what would you like to be?

"A singer. I’m horrible at singing, but I love doing it"

 Hopeless he'll never be more than the boy who didn't save his brother, 17-year-old Avikar accepts his life as the family stable boy, trying to forget the past. But when his sister, Jeslyn, is kidnapped, the thought of losing another sibling catapults him on a desperate quest. With his best friend by his side, and using the tracking skills he learned from his father, he discovers Jeslyn has been taken, kidnapped by one Lucino, the young lord of Daath, a mystical place thought only to exist in fables.  

And Lucino has plans for Jeslyn. 

His shape-shifting brethren feed off the auras of humans, and Jeslyn's golden hue is exactly what Lucino needs to increase his power. The longer it takes Avikar to reach her, the more entranced she becomes with Lucino's world, and the harder it will be for Avikar to set her free. 

He failed his family once. He won't fail again.

 Excerpt from Broken Forest:

Rudy stood in front of me with Reaper. “You ready to clean that up?”

Reaper stuck a sword into the fire, and I watched the metal glow.

“It’s not that bad,” I said.

Rudy huffed and lifted away the makeshift bandage I had put on. He rinsed the cut with water. I winced. “Here, bite on this.” He shoved a leather belt at me.

You’d think after a vicious battle, I could handle a simple cauterizing. Sweat dripped down my neck and my heart pounded so fast it made me dizzy.

Reaper walked over, holding that poker of death in his hand, and I swear he was smiling. Having him close the wound made me even more panicky.

“Hey, Derrick!”

Derrick looked over, and I waved at him. He saw Reaper, and his eyes widened.

“Hold my right arm,” I said. “I don’t want to accidentally punch Reaper when he burns it.”

Derrick smirked. “Sure.”

I took a deep breath; put the belt in my mouth.

HOLY-BEARDED-MOTHER!

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Author links: Twitter / Tumblr / Website  / Pinterest / Facebook

Buy links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / KOBO  Goodreads