Angelbound by Christina Bauer | Interview + Giveaway

Interview with Christina Bauer

My book, ANGELBOUND, tells the story of a part demon girl who falls in love with a part angel prince. If you aren’t familiar with the book, there’s a quick trailer right here. In any case, I’m now doing an author tour to celebrate the launch of ANGELBOUND as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes, and I’ve been asked to answer some questions by the awesome folks at WhateverYouCanStillBetray. Here goes!

Describe your book in five words or less.

Kick ass chick kicks ass.

Most urban fantasy books take place on Earth, but you decided to place Angelbound in Purgatory. How did your concept of Purgatory come about?

This is a really good question. In thinking about it, I didn’t look at the genre and then decide what could I do differently. I know many authors can look at what’s out there and say, “I’ll move it a little in this direction” and that totally works for them. For whatever reason, that’s a roadblock for me. Instead, my world building always starts with a question. For ANGELBOUND, I asked: “What if in the after-life, they were pretty much as confused as we are here?” Since I was raised a Roman Catholic, I placed that question into an after-life filled with angels and demons. In this world, angels are more likely to be good, but they still have their not-so-great moments. The reverse is true of demons.

At the same time, I became really interested in the ideas of lust and wrath as sins, especially for girls. I realized that there are times when both emotions are completely appropriate, but we don’t really talk about that too much, especially when we’re teenagers…And that got me wanting to have a heroine who didn’t only have wrathful feelings against evil souls and demons, but who actually liked “getting her wrath on” and fighting the bad guys. In this scenario, she’s not really evil, so long as she has it under control. And that’s when Purgatory came into play. Myla is a character who is between good and evil, so Purgatory was the natural place to put her.

After that, I decided to highlight the question of “what’s good and evil” by pairing Myla with a part-angel Prince who thought that anyone with a touch of demonic DNA must be wicked, through and through. ANGELBOUND was on its way.

Which scene or plotline veered away from what you initially planned?

Brace yourself. Armageddon (the big bad of my story) actually started off as a small pink poodle.

No, I am not kidding.

I honestly thought it would be awesome to have the King of Hell be a small pink poodle that talked. You know, the “last demon that you would have expected” type thing? And yes, it was funny. But no, it totally didn't work. That said, I loved the name so I kept working with it until I came up with a look and backstory for Armie that I liked.

Thrax, quasi, ghoul, angel or demon; which one are you?

Quasi, definitely. Although, I think I’d be a special breed that had powers over lust, wrath and envy… Sort of a mash-up of Myla and her best friend, Cissy.

What does your writing process look like?

To answer that question, I need to give a little context on my non-writing life. For years, my day job has been high-tech marketing for software companies. So, I’ve seen first hand what artists can do with the right process and software to support them (and yes, I truly believe that a good software developer is an artist!) As a result, I leverage a three-step development methodology for my work:

1. I use the beat sheet system developed by Blake Snyder. This helps me create an outline for the story. I only write series, so I do beat sheets for five books before I start on book one. It’s the only way I can make sure I don’t write myself into a corner.

2. I create Pinterest boards for all my main characters, places and powers. This is a really critical part of the process for me. Reading fills my head in important ways—and I read a book/day on average—but getting fresh visuals is an awesome way to break out of the mold.

3. Once it’s time to write, I use Scrivener as my writing software. Some people love Microsoft Word, but I like to move chapters around and cutting and pasting makes me dizzy. This is a tool specifically for writing novels, and I love it.

What would you like your readers to take from your story?

When I first got into the workplace, there were no real templates for women who wanted to kick ass—you were seen as either a dragon lady or a doormat. And as hard as that was, I soon discovered that the situation was even worse for men. My guy friends told me they felt pressured to show their killer instinct or be seen as weak. If you weren’t a sadist or a sociopath, it wasn’t a great situation. Long story short, there weren’t any templates out there for how to team, be aggressive, and have fun while you’re doing it.

One day I realized that part of the problem was that we had few (maybe no) stories along those lines. How did we expect anyone to be prepared for anything else than the status quo? So if folks get something from my books, I’d love for them to vicariously experience two people who act as a team, share information openly, fight side by side, and love every minute of it.

What is next for you?

In the fall of 2017, I’m launching WOLVES & ROSES, the first book in a series called Fairy Tales of the Magicorum. It’s an adventure/love story that combines fairy tales, magic, and midtown Manhattan. I love the original Grimm’s fairy Tales (yes, the ones that had all that death and mayhem) as well as the Disney-fied versions. I want to reimagine them all as an ensemble of heroes and heroines who work as teams. While ANGELBOUND really focuses on the dynamic between Myla and Lincoln, Magicorum will also include richer alliances between friends as well. For example, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are buddies and jewel thieves who have to attend the same Teen Therapy Group in New York. It all gets crazier from there…

Thanks so much for the opportunity to answer these thoughtful questions! I certainly enjoyed the journey of writing responses to them. If you think of more queries, please know that I’m always up for reader interaction, and more information on how to contact me is listed below.

Angelbound

Angelbound Origins #1

Christina Bauer

Published by: Monster House Books

Publication date: December 30, 2016

Genres: YA Fantasy, Paranormal

*Now an audio book!*

Eighteen-year-old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your everyday quasi-demon, half-demon, and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she has not lost a battle yet.

But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights are not enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it is not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and does not like the answers she finds. What happened 17 years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is?

Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what does a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla is not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla is going to shake up Purgatory.

Monster House Books is celebrating the launch of the audiobook version of the best seller Angelbound, both on iTunes & Audible! As a result, every launched book in the series is only $1.99, aka more than 50% off…And that includes Angelbound ACCA, which was only released a few months ago: http://wp.me/p7Tzb3-2L5

Extras

• Audiobook sample: https://youtu.be/yADVDpUK8I8
• Book trailer: https://youtu.be/roznLuuUY1c
• Video of author doing the voices: https://youtu.be/6mfmw1VT1IU

About the Author

Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatory’s Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers. It is now available as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes.

Bauer has also told the story of the Women’s March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press release—the only one sent out on a major wire service—resulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press.

Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.

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