Thursday, May 11, 2017

BLOG TOUR & AUTHOR INTERVIEW with Lydia Sherrer for "The Lily Singer Adventures Series"

The Lily Singer Adventures banner

This is my stop during the blog tour for The Lily Singer Adventures by Lydia Sherrer. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 28 April till 14 May, and you can view the full tour schedule here.

This series contains 4 books at this moment, with more planned. On 28 April 2017 the latest two books released: Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus Allies and Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus Legends.

Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: BeginningsLove, Lies and Hocus Pocus: 
Beginnings (The Lily Singer Adventures, #1)

By Lydia Sherrer

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Age category: Young Adult/ New Adult/ Adult

Blurb:
Saving the world is such a bother when it makes you late for tea.

By day, book-loving wizard Lily Singer manages library archives. By night? She sleeps, of course. In between, she studies magic and tries to keep her witch friend Sebastian out of trouble. Much to her displeasure, he finds it anyway and drags her along with him.

From unmaking ancient curses to rescuing a town lost in time, Lily and Sebastian fight to avert magical mayhem. Meanwhile, Lily's mysterious past begins to unfold--a past hidden from her by those she trusts most. Will she be able to discover the truth despite them?

Beginnings is the first installment of the Lily Singer Adventures urban fantasy series. Full of unexpected twists and snarky humor, this story has been known to cause: loud snorts of laughter, inexplicable craving for tea, and loss of work productivity. If you enjoy magic-filled adventures like Harry Potter and Sabrina the Teenage Witch then you'll love Lydia Sherrer's delightful new series.
You can find Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings on Goodreads

You can buy Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings on Amazon

Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings is part of Kindle Unlimited.

Later Books in this series...

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Revelations (The Lily Singer Adventures, #2)

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Revelations

Modern-day wizard Lily Singer prefers to stay in her library, studying magic and drinking tea. But when her cat starts talking back and she discovers a plot to steal a powerful artifact, Lily’s chances of peace and quiet are slim. Her past is riddled with dangerous secrets. Will discovering the truth reveal her future, or doom it?

Links:

- Goodreads

- Amazon

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Allies (The Lily Singer Adventures, #3)

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Allies

What’s worse than fighting with allies? Fighting without them. To stop her father’s evil plans, wizard and archivist Lily Singer must reconcile old grudges, make questionable allies, and bend the law to fix a problem that's not even her fault. Can she and her friends work together to save the day? Or will they let their differences divide them?

Links:

- Goodreads

- Amazon

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends (The Lily Singer Adventures, #4)

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends

Troublemaking witch friend and talking cat in tow, Lily Singer must pursue her father to England as he seeks to discover an ancient evil and steal its power for himself. But with a queen of the fae after the same thing, Sebastian’s past comes back to haunt him and the three friends have to think fast and act faster to defeat legends that are, unfortunately, no longer in the past.

Links:

- Goodreads

- Amazon

The Lily Singer Adventures series banner

~AUTHOR INTERVIEW with Kyrian Lyndon~


1) What gave you the inspiration for the storyline (for each book)?  

For each book? Whew, that’s a novel in and of itself. In general, though, I’d always wanted to write a story about a wizard librarian. Somehow I feel like librarians are an oft-used trope in fiction, but on the other hand I couldn’t really think of any books with a realistic librarian heroine in them. There are some that are a bit farcical, like the “Librarians” series, but I wanted a heroine who actually loved books, loved research, loved organization, and really actually did the job. Of course, the course of her adventures is interrupting her work and who knows, maybe she’ll get fired one day because she’s too busy saving the world to manage her archives!

As for specific books, I’ll go by episode, since they each have their own adventure:
Episode 1 - I pulled a lot of elements from my childhood in terms of the house and historical setting, and I just wanted to tell a good ol ghost story with a bit of romance and magic involved. 
Episode 2 - I’ve always wanted to write a time-travel story! Only, once I’d finished this episode, I hated time travel and never want to write about it again, haha!
Episode 3 - I loooove museums, absolutely adore them, and ancient history. This was my chance to introduce some new characters and play with a setting that I loved.
Episode 4 - Time to dive into Lily’s backstory, this story was more propelled by the need to develop the plot in this area, but I’d started many little stories in my childhood that contained elements of this episode, such as finding your family, your parents trying to marry you off, and fun themes like that ;)
Episode 5 - My husband and I went to Key West for our second anniversary and spent a few days in Savannah GA on the way down. I absolutely had to write something that involved that gorgeous town! Plus I’ve always wanted an uncle like Allen (he is very loosely based on one of my own uncles, though that uncle is a wizard at music, not magic, haha!)
Episode 6 - I don’t want to reveal spoilers or anything, but sooner or later something Seb did was going to land him in…hot water shall we say. Plus Lily needed to start taking life by the horns!
Episode 7 - AAAAHHHHH ENGLAND!!!! I have been dying to write something in England, specifically Oxford, since BOTH my sisters got to study there (and I didn’t, *cries in corner*). I love England and hope to go there again someday and visit more than just London
Episode 8 - I have long loved the mythology of King Arthur, and though his actual story is not a big part of this series, I knew from the start that ancient wizard throughout history (i.e. merlin/morgan) were going to be. Here’s where we get to dig our teeth into some of the actual fact (or as much as we know) behind the Arthur legends.

2) Are there any hidden themes in the book(s) that you hope readers will discover?

Family, friendship, and loyalty are big themes for me. I grew up in an amazing family. We lost my older brother when I was a teenager, and it was terrible to go through. But we did it, and it brought us closer together and gave me such an appreciate for the people I love. I hope throughout people see that love in my stories, and the importance of love, not squishy romantic love, but deep, committed, duty-bound love of each other as people, regardless of how we feel, because feelings are fleeting. I also strongly believe in a higher purpose that we all have in life, not just to live, but to do great things for all humanity, to serve a higher authority than our own desires and pleasures. We weren’t gifted with life to hoard it all for ourselves. I hope people can be inspired to service and sacrifice through the struggles that my characters face.

3) Are any of the characters based on real people you know?

Oh heck, everyone!! We writers write what we know, and while none of the characters are replicas of people in my life, all of them contain elements of people I know and have known through the years because that’s how I write AUTHENTIC characters, by thinking about the people I know and studying how they act and interact.

4) Who has influenced you most as a writer?

Probably Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Terry Pratchett. Tolkien gave me a love for epic fantasy, for great adventures, for dire deeds and fell evils to overcome. Lewis gave me a love for magic and childlike wonder in the world around us. Terry Pratchett gave me an appreciate for humor in fantasy fiction, and the joy it brings a reader to have humor in a book, even among terrible things happening (and he taught me not to take myself too seriously!).

5) If you could have any three literary characters over to your place for game night, who would you invite, what would you play, what would you serve, and why? 

Oh gosh, I have no idea. Um…okay, I’m going to be boring and pull from one book, but it’s because I read it ceaselessly as a child and wish I could meet the characters: Neal of Queenscove, Raoul of Goldenlake, and Numair, all from Tamora Pierce’s Tortall world. I absolutely loved her Protector of the Small and Wildmage series, absolutely adored them. Those three characters all have a great sense of humor and would be interesting to hang out with (Neal is a joker, Raoul is a strategist, and Numair a mage and scholar). I would teach them how to play bridge (a card game I grew up playing with my grandparents) and/or if we could get a few more people in on it, we’d play the Great Dohimi (another card game). Oh, no, wait! Cards against humanity…hmm, the possibilities. Anyway, since this is my fantasy and I can have whatever I want in it, I’d serve authentic Chinese and Syrian food, because I miss living in those places from when I was in college and wish I could visit. Their food is amazing.

Lydia SherrerAbout the Author:

Author of the Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus magical adventure series, Lydia Sherrer is a fantasy author whose goal is to leave this world a better place than when she found it. With an urban fantasy series, multiple short stories and a novella under her belt, Lydia has been writing for over a decade and enjoys nothing more than a good book, a cup of tea, and a comfy chair in the sunshine. When not writing she loves to play her ocarina (think Zelda), and also enjoys traditional archery, cosplay, larping, and art.

Growing up in rural Kentucky, she was thoroughly corrupted by a deep love for its rolling countryside, despite the mosquitoes and hay fever. She was instilled with a craving for literature early on, and her parents had to wrestle books away from her at the dinner table. Though she graduated with a dual BA in Chinese and Arabic, having traveled the world she came home and decided to stay there. She currently resides in Louisville, KY with her loving and supportive husband, and their very vocal cat.

You can find and contact Lydia Sherrer here:

- Website

- Facebook

- Twitter

- Goodreads

- Amazon

- Youtube

- Instagram

- Newsletter

Giveaway

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Lily Singer Adventures. These are the prizes you can win:

- 1st place is signed paperback copies of The Lily Singer Adventures Books 1 & 2 and ebook copies of Books 3 & 4 (US only)

- 2nd place is ebook copies of The Lily Singer Adventures Books 1-4 (open world-wide)

- 3rd place is ebook copies of The Lily Singer Adventures Books 1-2 (open world-wide)

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:




All four books in The Lily Singer Adventures series are part of Kindle Unlimited.

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