Book Blitz: Shine Not Burn by Elle Casey (spotlight, giveaway, interview)

Shine Not Burn
written by Elle Casey
published by Elle Casey

find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

About the book: IT HAPPENED IN VEGAS. I can’t be held responsible. Things that happen there are supposed to stay there, right? Right? Yeeeah. Not so much. … Andie’s just days away from tying the knot, but there’s just ooooone little glitch. Apparently, she’s already married. Or someone with her name is married to a guy out in Oregon of all places, and the courthouse won’t issue her a marriage license until it’s all cleared up. Tripping her way through cow pies and country songs to meet up with a man who gets around places on horseback is her very last idea of how to have a good time, but if she’s going to get married, make partner at the firm, and have two point five kids before she’s thirty-five, she needs to get to the bottom of this snafu and fix it quick … before her fiance finds out and everything she’s been working toward goes up in flames.

Every Free Chance Book Reviews is pleased to welcome Elle Casey, author of Shine Not Burn, to the blog today. She has answered some questions for all of you.

You started out writing in YA.  What brought you over to New Adult?

I’ve been a reader of new adult titles even before they were called ‘new adult’.  And I love the age group it covers.  18-30 years old is such a great time in life, isn’t it?  I mean, it’s when you sow your wild oats, learn about yourself in the context of the whole world and not just your family and friends; it’s where you figure out who you’re going to be.  The adult-formative years I guess you could call it.  And the sex part is awesome too, I won’t lie.  You can only get so sexy with a YA book, so as a writer, I have to hold back.  In NA, I don’t have to do that.  It can be passionate, raw, sometimes awkward and full of bad decisions, but it can be REAL.  I guess that’s what I love about NA most … it’s raw and real.

How do you write so many books in such a short period of time?

Short and sweet:  I have a system for getting the work done, and I’m a helluva fast typer.  More details: I have a ton of stories always waiting in my head to be told, and when I sit down at the computer, the words just kind of spill out.  My stories are very character-driven, meaning I don’t make up the story.  I just find the characters wandering around in my head, put them in a situation, and let them run with it.  Now that I’m a full-time writer, I can dedicate more of my time to writing that I used to when I was also teaching at a university.  I treat writing as a business and try to be very disciplined about it.  After eighteen months of writing, I’ve published 20 novels, so I think my system is working.  🙂

What’s your favorite part of being a writer?

My readers.  Hands down, it’s the readers.  I get emails and messages every day from devoted fans, and I can’t express how much that means to me.  There are readers out there who’ve set up book blogs just because they were so excited about my books, people who make it a point to promote my books on their Facebook pages and Twitter just because they want to share the reader-love, and whole families who are reading my series and discussing them at dinner.  It just blows my mind that people would be so generous and so involved in my made-up worlds.  Recently I had a fan dress as one of my characters at a comic con event.  I also occasionally get a very heart-warming message about how my writing has changed someone’s life – caused them to finally start reading or to go to college.  To me, that’s the sign of a life well-lived – that I’ve somehow inspired another person to reach for something they want in life that they thought they didn’t have a chance at having before.

How long have you been writing?  What did you do before you were a writer?

I’ve been writing since January of 2012.  Before that I was a lot of things … most recently an attorney.  But you can add the following other jobs to the list:  retail sales clerk, air traffic controller (in the Air Force), waitress, restaurant owner, stock broker, insurance salesperson, professor, and CEO of a medical device company.  I’m one of those people who gets bored easily, so after being in a job for a few years, I need a change so I can be challenged again.  The beauty of being a writer is it’s never the same job twice, and it really doesn’t feel like work.  It’s the best job I’ve ever had, hands down.  It’s the only job in the world were you walk into work (in my case, open the computer) and your boss starts the day by telling you how amazing you are.  My readers are my bosses now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  They really are great motivators. 🙂

About the author: Elle Casey is a full-time writer of New Adult and Young Adult titles in several genres, including romance, urban fantasy, sci-fi dystopian, and action-adventure. She’s an American girl who’s been living in southern France with her husband and three children since 2010. She loves chatting with her readers, so feel free to drop her a line.

Find Ms. Casey here: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads

 

And now for the GIVEAWAY!! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win an eBook copy of Shine Not Burn!

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