Curse of the Beast Blog Tour: Author Interview and Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Curse of the Beast blog tour hosted by Silvermist Publishing!

For those that don't know about the book, here's the deets:

A dark shadow stalks the night, watching her—waiting to claim what is his.
Seventeen-year-old Tayla Jonas longs for a simple life, but after a traumatizing family loss, she is forced to be both mother and sister to her cousins while caring for her mentally unstable aunt. Moving to her grandma’s quiet town of Cody, Wyoming, Tayla finds some normalcy with her quirky green activist friend, Chel, who spends no time converting her to vegetarianism.

A few weeks into her new school, Tayla catches the eye of Kyle Harrington—the high school quarterback and resident millionaire—who can seduce any girl with his charismatic charm, including Tayla. But Kyle is anything but what he seems.
Walking through City Park, Tayla is unaware that an ancient curse has her in its crosshairs. The silver moonlight illuminates the path to her van, sprinkling shadows like evil twinkling eyes. Tayla’s skin prickles, and she turns. Something—or someone—is watching her.
A powerful werewolf steps from the shadows. An iridescent blue chord shoots from him and slams into her stomach, dissolving instantly. Pain wracks her body, and she tries to scramble to safety, but his silver eyes freeze her in place as the curse binds them together. The chord settles deep inside her body, coiling with dread around her heart.

Dismayed by the prospect of a werewolf for a shadow, Tayla fears for the safety of her friends and family. How will she keep the werewolf’s insatiable hunger in check? Her plans for a vegetarian lifestyle quickly dwindle away, and Tayla wrestles to fit her frazzled life back together—piece by piece. But what she didn’t expect was her attraction to the werewolf or the power of the full moon.

Will Tayla be strong enough to survive the Curse of the Beast? Or will it consume her like so many before? Find out in the first installment of this unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Interview with Curse of the Beast author, Ashley Lavering

It seems as though fairy tales retellings are getting a lot of attention these days, what do you think draws people to this genre?
I think the draw is that fairy tales are a part of so many of our childhoods. We have our favorites and know the plot line well. So when we see a retelling of one of our favorites it is like delving into that world again but from a different angle. That is how it is for me. I love the classic fairy tales of Beauty and the Beast, the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Sleeping Beauty and others. These stories were a big part of my childhood and will always hold a magical place in my heart.

How is Curse of the Beast different than the original Beauty and the Beast tale?
A huge difference is that my Beast is a werewolf. In order to make this work, I had to write a legend to make current werewolf lore different so that the Beauty and the Beast plot line could work.

If you were allowed to add one fictional character from another book to your novel, who would it be?
Wow. I have to say this was a thinking question for me. Hmmm. I guess it would be Yvaine from the Stardust movie/book. She would play Star very well. Both are sweet and innocent until they discover that the world is a dangerous place.

What part of Curse of the Beast was hardest to write?
I have to say that the most challenging part to write were the aunt scenes. They are full of emotion that I had to get right and in order to do that I re-wrote them many times with my editor (bless her soul).

Describe Curse of the Beast in three words. GO!
Captivating, romantic, surprising.

About the author:

A nomad at heart, I currently claim Nevada as my home. I have a wonderful husband and two young children that put up with my “writing time.” When I’m not pondering on a spell that will magically calm the ferocious winds that plague the air around me, you can find me, with notepad in hand, frantically jotting down ideas in those short momernts between caring for my girls.
Art and science have always been my yin and yang. Throughout my college career, I shifted between the two, but in the end I graduated with a Bachelors of Mathematics and Science from the University of Wyoming.
Charging into adventures and discovering something new has always been a passion of mine, but as a teenager I use to run screaming from a reading or writing assignment. Looking back, the irony isn’t lost on me. Now you can’t catch me without a book in hand or without an open word document. Every time a new idea pops into my mind my heart races and my hand twitch to write it. In that moment, I have my writer's high and pray it will sustain me through thousands of hours of revision.

Giveaway

 1 Ebook copy of Curse of the Beast

The deets:

Open Internationally.

Ends 8/17.

No cheatin', meddlin', or messin' around of any kind. 

If 13 or younger must of parent's permission!

a Rafflecopter giveaway