Blog Tour: Identified: The Maya Price Story by Faith A. Rice-Mills (spotlight, guest post, giveaway)

Identified: The Maya Price Story
written by Faith A. Rice-Mills
published by Faith A. Rice-Mills

find it here: Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads

About the book: Maya Price is a typical eighteen-year-old girl without much going on in her life. Her biggest problems include getting ready to leave her hometown for college, figuring out how to avoid her ever-so-strange stepmother, and trying to muddle through her feelings for her best friend, Pete. Yet, on one of her last nights in her hometown, she and Pete are in a car accident. A stranger pulls Maya from the accident, leaving Pete behind, and takes her out of this world and into another dimension.

Maya soon discovers that she has been taken to a dimension called Leets by a group of people that call themselves shifters. Shifters are of mixed human and onyx blood and have various abilities.  These shifters are able to travel between dimensions and control the four elements (fire, earth, wind, water) and the five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste). Their leader, Victoria, informs Maya that she, too, is a shifter and that she must choose to join them or risk being sought out by their greatest enemy, a shifter named Leonas.

Maya joins Victoria and her ragtag group of rebel shifters in Leets, where she is teamed up with a group of seven other shifters. Her new “teammates” include a street-smart girl named Luz, who is especially adept at controlling fire, her twin sister Espy, and a nervous boy named Lamar, who can manipulate sound better than any other shifter. Together, Maya’s team trains for the battle that will soon be  inevitable.

However, Maya soon learns that her purpose is not to just move the earth or send water flying into the air. There are rumors of a hidden prophecy and that the prophecy mentions Maya by name. Supposedly, the prophecy says that Maya will one day have to choose a side and will be essential in bringing her chosen ally to power…

Every Free Chance Book Reviews is pleased to welcome Faith A. Rice-Mills, author of Identified: The Maya Price Story, to the blog today. She is touring the blogosphere with Xpresso Book Tours. I asked Ms. Rice-Mills how she comes up with her playlists for her writing and this is what she had to say.

When I am writing, I tend to listen to music that either reflects the mood of what I am writing or music that helps me focus.  It I am writing an intense scene, where my characters are fighting for their lives, I may listen to Skrillex, Bone Thugs N Harmony, or anything with an intense bass line. Most of the time, I will listen to bands like Mumford and Sons, Bright Eyes, Radical Face, Bon Iver, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, The Head and The Heart, The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men, The Raconteurs, or Simon and Garfunkel. If I am writing about Texas, I will listen to old school country music like Johnny Cash or Hank Williams Jr.  Sometimes, if I really need to focus, I will listen to instrumental bands like Explosions in the Sky.

However, I did create a playlist to go along with each chapter of Identified: The Maya Price Story.  I chose the songs because I felt like either the music or the lyrics reflected the mood of the scene, or both.  I have included the playlist to Identified below, along with the reasons I chose the songs, and links to the songs on YouTube.

Chapter 1: “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” John Denver

Relevant lines:

“Take me home, country roads

To the place, I belong…”

Chapter 2: “Steady As She Goes,” The Raconteurs

Relevant lines:

“Live a simple life in a quiet town…”

Chapter 3: “Gunpowder and Lead,” Miranda Lambert

Relevant lines:

“If he wants a fight well now he’s got one

And he ain’t seen me crazy yet…”

Chapter 3: “I’ll Follow You Into the Dark,” Death Cab for Cutie

Relevant lines:

“ If there’s no one beside you

When your soul embarks

I’ll follow you into the dark…”

Chapter 4: “Wake up,” Arcade Fire

Relevant lines:

“Somethin’ filled up
 my heart with nothin’,


someone told me not to cry…”

Chapter 5: “Almost Lover,” A Fine Frenzy

Relevant lines:

“Goodbye, my almost lover

Goodbye my hopeless dream


I’m trying not to think about you

Can’t you just let me be?

So long, my luckless romance


My back is turned on you

I should’ve known you’d bring me heartache

Almost lovers always do”

Chapter 6: “The Cave,” Mumford and Sons

Relevant lines:

“So come out of the cave walking on your hands…” (and)

“Cause I need freedom now

And I need to know how

To live my life as it’s meant to be…”

Chapter 7: “Apres Moi,” Regina Spektor

Relevant lines:

“I must go on standing


You can’t break that which isn’t yours


I must go on standing
I’m not my own, it’s not my choice”

Chapter 8: “We Are Young,” Fun -and- “Ugly,” Bubba Sparxxx

Relevant lines:

“How else can I say it

I don’t speak no other languages…”

(Maya can’t speak Letian to save her life.)

Chapter 9: ” Bittersweet Symphony,” The Verve

Relevant lines:  

“You know I can’t change…

But I’m here in my mind…”

Chapter 10 “Queen Bee and Her Pals,”  Thurston Moore

Chapter 11: “Seven Nation Army,” The White Stripes

Relevant lines:

“I’m gonna fight ‘em off

A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back…”

Chapter 12: “Sail,” AWOLNATION

Relevant lines:

“Maybe I’m a different breed

Maybe I’m not listening….”

Chapter 13: “Fix You,” Coldplay

Relevant lines:

“When you try your best, but you don’t succeed…”

“When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep…” (and)

“And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can’t replace

 When you love someone, but it goes to waste

 Could it be worse?”

 “Lights will guide you home

  And ignite your bones

  And I will try to fix you”

Epilogue: “Welcome Home,” Radical Face

Relevant lines:

“All my nightmares escaped my head

 Bar the door, please don’t let them in

You were never supposed to leave

Now my head’s splitting at the seams

And I don’t know if I can…”

So how do you like my playlist? If you’ve read Identified, and have some other songs in mind, I am open to suggestions!

About the author: Faith A. Rice-Mills is the author of Identified: The Maya Price Story and a handful of short stories.  She moonlights as a Spanish teacher,  but has wanted to be a writer since she wrote the poem “The Jackowhipp’s Wail” as an eight-year-old.  Her writer’s spirit resides somewhere between Narnia and Mount Doom, but her physical body lives in Texas with her family.

Besides writing, she loves reading (and will take recommendations!), yoga, coloring with her daughter, and watching Parks and Recreation with her husband.  She dislikes snakes, the word “literally,” and teaching double object pronouns in Spanish.  She is currently working on Burdened, the second book in The Maya Price Story series and is writing whatever short story she has to get out of her brain.
Find Ms. Rice-Mills here: web, Twitter, Goodreads

 

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Happy reading wherever you are and whenever you get a free chance!!!