Mundie Moms

Monday, February 1, 2016

BLACKHEARTS by Nicole Castroman / Blog Tour: Author Interview / Giveaway


Hello and welcome to the first stop in the BLACKHEARTS blog tour, hosted by Rockstar blog tours. I'm so thrilled to have debut author, Nichole Castroman on the blog today, to talk about her upcoming release, BLACKHEARTS. First, here's a little bit about her book. Don't forgot to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

ABOUT THE BOOK



By: Nicole Castroman
Published by: Simon Pulse
To Be Released on: February 9th, 2016
Pre-Order it from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks
Add it to Goodreads

Blackbeard the pirate was known for striking fear in the hearts of the bravest of sailors. But once he was just a young man who dreamed of leaving his rigid life behind to chase adventure in faraway lands. Nothing could stop him—until he met the one girl who would change everything. This is their story.


Edward "Teach" Drummond, son of one of Bristol's richest merchants, has just returned from a year-long journey on the high seas to find his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high society he was born into, Teach dreams only of returning to the vast ocean he’d begun to call home. There's just one problem: convincing his father to let him leave and never come back.


Following her parents' deaths, Anne Barrett is left penniless and soon to be homeless. Though she’s barely worked a day in her life, Anne is forced to take a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks, and Anne longs for escape. How will she ever realize her dream of sailing to CuraƧao—where her mother was born—when she's stuck in England? 


From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn to each other, they’re trapped by society and their own circumstances. Faced with an impossible choice, they must decide to chase their dreams and go, or follow their hearts and stay.



AUTHOR INTERVIEW


Hi Nicole! Welcome back to Mundie Moms! Congratulations on your debut!! I am so thrilled your book is almost out. Thank you for stopping by Mundie Moms to talk about it.
Thank you so much for having me! I love stopping by Mundie Moms. You did a fabulous job on my cover reveal and have been a champion for BLACKHEARTS from the beginning.

Your welcome! I loved being apart of your reveal the cover for BLACKHEARTS. I LOVE the cover BLACKHEARTS. What was your first impression when you saw it?
I was speechless. The cover is stunning and minimalistic. The ship in the bottle is so emblematic of Anne’s and Teach’s struggle for freedom, and I think Karina Grande is brilliant. I had the cover blown up for a school presentation and I could simply sit and stare at it for hours if my family would let me. 

How would you describe BLACKHEARTS in 5 words or less?

It’s a Blackbeard origin story (as in PRE-PIRATE) 

I love the concept of BLACKHEARTS, and the story behind the legend of Blackbeard. You did a beautiful job with writing Edward's story. Behind the scenes, I would have been intimidated by the story. Did you ever feel intimidated by Blackbeard's story? If so, how did you overcome feeling that?


I didn’t feel intimidated, because there isn’t that much information about him. Maybe I should have felt that way, because he’s such a notorious figure, but I had a lot of fun writing it. I enjoyed taking the few things that are known about him and incorporating it into my story. The ideas simply flowed. Even during the revision process, it almost wrote itself. My other manuscripts weren’t like this. I knew as I wrote BLACKHEARTS that it was something special, at least for me. I love Anne and Teach.


I loved how you were able to take a character who was feared in his adulthood, and make him a character who's so easy to love in his younger years. What was one of the things you enjoyed most about writing Edward's story?

I had to make sure that Edward wasn’t perfect. He chose a life of crime later in life, so I had to have shades of that already showing.

Since we're keeping this spoiler free, can you tell us what chapter one of your favorite scenes is in?

Definitely the first chapter when Anne and Teach first meet. I wanted to make sure they would each remember that first encounter, and that the reader would remember that first encounter as well. Don’t most people do that when they fall for someone? 

What is one of your favorite lines from your book? 

“You’ve confessed to being a liar and a thief. Why should I believe you, sir?”

If you could write in, one of your favorite characters into Blackhearts, who would it be and why?

I think I would write in Dom from Becky Wallace’s THE STORYSPINNER and THE SKYLIGHTER series, because I think he’d bring some fun to the BLACKHEARTS bunch. ☺

Let's talk pirates for a moment. How many times did you watch Johnny Depp, er I mean Pirates of the Caribbean when you writing your book? Is there any character in your story who was inspired by Jack Sparrow?
Even though I enjoy the movies, I didn’t watch Pirates of the Caribbean once. And I can honestly say that no one in BLACKHEARTS was inspired by Jack Sparrow. ☺ Because of the name Blackbeard, people probably expect a swashbuckling story, but I didn’t set out to write a Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff. It would have been too easy to write a young man on a ship and have him act like a pirate. I don’t believe Blackbeard was born a pirate. He was educated, because he could read and write. That meant he came from a wealthy family. Something happened to make him choose that life, and that is what I wanted to explore.
Thank you Nicole for stopping by to talk to us about BLACKHEARTS! I loved getting to know more about Blackbeard and I'm excited for readers to get to know him better as well.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicole was lucky enough to come with her very own best friend...she has a twin sister who can read her mind and finish her sentences for her. 

At the age of 13, she went to Europe for the first time and it changed her life. She loves learning about different people, languages and cultures and speaks fluent German. She knows enough Spanish to get herself into trouble and can still read the Cyrillic alphabet from when she studied Russian.

She received her B.A. from Brigham Young University and has lived in Germany, Austria and two different places called Georgia. One is located on the Black Sea. The other is the state of Georgia where she now lives with her handsome husband and two beautiful children who continue to amaze her.


Find Nicole online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Pinterest

ENTER TO WIN 


1 winner will receive a signed finished copy of BLACKHEARTS, US Only.


FOLLOW THE TOUR


Week One:
2/1/2016- Mundie MomsInterview
2/2/2016- Beauty and the BookshelfReview
2/3/2016- My Friends Are FictionGuest Post
2/4/2016- Brittany's Book RamblesReview
2/5/2016- Two Chicks on BooksInterview

Week Two:
2/8/2016- Fiktshun- Review
2/9/2016- Dark Faerie TalesGuest Post
2/10/2016- A Reader Under The Sea- Review
2/11/2016- A Perfection Called Books- Interview
2/12/2016- Lili's ReflectionsReview

Shadowhunters TV Series: Sneak Peak of Episode 4: Raising Hell #Shadowhunters



Happy Mundane Shadowhunters! Check out the newest promo trailers Freeform has shared for this week's Shadowhunters TV, episode 4, Raising Hell. 



Don't miss the latest Shadowhunters news, promos and more on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Shadowhunters.com.
Tune in to Freeform on tomorrow at 9 pm / 8 pm CST to catch episode 4. 

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