The Keeper’s Vow
by Francina
Simone
GENRE: YA
Epic Urban Fantasy
BLURB:
All Katie Watts wants
is to pass her junior-year, at Hamilton Private, with as little effort as
possible—devoting time to knitting hats, breeding gerbils, becoming a movie
critic, or even just sleeping. No wonder she isn’t ready for a world with
vampires, werewolves, and nightmares.
Her life is shattered
to pieces when Tristan gets stabbed in her front yard. She has no idea where he
came from and worse, he hears her thoughts—and when she can’t take anymore, she
starts to hear his. No one is who she thought they were. Her father is keeping
secrets and when she searches for the truth, she ends up homeless.
As the truth claws
its way to the surface, Katie and Tristan grow closer together and they find
themselves connected in more ways than she can believe. But is honesty worth
more than the peace blissful, ignorance brings? Especially if it sparks a chain
of events that will end the lives of millions? Can she live with the truth that
begins with her dead mother and ends with The Keeper’s Vow?
Excerpt:
Training Day
In one move, Tristan kicked Katie’s
legs out from under her and she hit the ground. “Shut up already. Be more
focused on what you’re doing, not me. Do you think the werewolf or vampire
who’s trying to kill you will compliment you on how you stabbed him in an
artery? Get over yourself. I’m sick of listening to your crap. You never shut
up.”
“Tristan!” Lucinda scolded.
Katie scrambled to her feet. Covered
in dust and dirt. “Then get out of my head!” How dare he complain about
invading her privacy.
“You think I enjoy this? Do you
realize I spend my entire day trying to shut you out!” Tristan yelled back.
Lucinda, Allison, and Brian were
staring at them, but Katie didn’t care if all of Boise was staring at them. She
was tired of him. Sick of not knowing whether she was right to hate him or not.
She clenched her fist and growled. “I can’t stand you.”
Tristan scowled. “Funny, you didn’t
say that yesterday.”
“I never asked you to do anything. I
didn’t show up at your school. I didn’t mess up your life!” she screamed.
“Katie,” Lucinda warned, taking a
step towards them.
Maybe it wasn’t fair that she was
taking out all of her anger on him, but he asked for it.
Tristan glared at her, his eyes
unwavering as the sun beam down on them. “I didn’t ask for you. I didn’t ask
for this. I didn’t have a choice.” He
balled up his fist and walked off.
Author Interview:
1. What inspired you to write The Keeper’s Vow?
So the Keeper’s Vow came about because I was reading a
paranormal young adult book that I thought was just super…not…great. I’ll never
reveal the title of that series (no it’s not Twilight) but I just pulled up my
sleeves and decided that if I wanted to read a specific book with vampires I’d
just have to write it instead of waiting for an author to read my mind.
2. When or at what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I was seventeen and I kept hearing this boy in my mind. Isaac.
He was on his way to a world full of magic and under dire circumstances he and
his best friend were separated from their parents. Isaac’s voice was slamming
around my head during class one day and I went home and wrote four or five
chapters of his story.
3. What is the earliest age you remember reading your first book?
I’m going to pick the first book I read and loved because I’m
way too old to think back all those years…I think that was Perloo the Bold by
Avi I was in the 8th grade and it was my first real introduction to
fantasy.
4. What genre of books do you enjoy reading?
I love fantasy. I pretend that I love everything but Fantasy is
my home. I just like other genres to visit every now and again.
5. What is your favorite book?
Is it fair to ask any book loving person this? I’ll tell you my
current favorite. Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I love moral ambiguity and her
characters and the world is full of it. I’m also a huge fan of a diverse cast
or and her books just satisfy a lot of my “love” checklist.
6. You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author
and why?
J.K. Rowling, Jacklyn Moriarty, DJ MacHale, Polly Horvath. These
are authors that mean a lot to me for one reason or another, but that list is
always growing these days.
7. If you could travel back in time here on earth to any place or time. Where
would you go and why?
Maybe I’d got back to 1780 ish (for like a week if it’s only
promised I don’t end up dead or deathly sick) To chit chat with Hamilton and
have a torrid love affair while he’s writing like he’s running out of time…But
I fear Lin Manuel’s Hamilton might be a bit more suave than the real one…
8. When writing a book do you find that writing comes easy for you or is it a
difficult task?
This really depends. Conceptualizing is difficult. But once I’m
in the world and writing—it all comes like a giants wave and I just try to type
fast enough to stay afloat.
9. Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?
I have a Catahoula puppy and a cat. My cat is 8 and he’s been
all over the world and is really low maintenance…he’s more dog than cat I
think. My puppy is currently chasing my screaming child around the house with a
hula hoop….so there is that. LOL we love him but he’s a handful.
10. What is your "to die for", favorite food/foods to eat?
Worst question for me because I’m fickle. On minute it’s key
lime pie, the next I will cut you if you ask if I want a slice *gag*. Right
now, I’m pretty bit on soup and gingerbread cookies.
11. Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to be an author?
Write. Once you have your first draft, this is the time to soak
in everything you can about story telling and writing as a craft. You’ll get
there. It takes a lot of research and time but you’ll get it and you’ll have an
amazing story. But what I want you to do now is start a blog, vlog, instagram,
twitter, whatever works for you, go out there and connect with the people who
will most likely love your story. Get out there now because you’ll make some of
the best friends and you’ll be surrounded by people who love books and writing
and on the bad days, this will help you get through them.
AUTHOR BIO:
Francina Simone is a writer of Epic Urban Fantasies
brimming with Magic and Moral Ambiguity.
From the time Francina Simone entered kindergarten,
she loved to read and share words with her friends. When she was in the
fifth-grade, she was scared to read aloud and so the teacher concluded she
wasn’t very good at reading—Francina read anyway.
Francina left her middle school book club behind for
the daunting and exciting life as a high school freshmen. She was quickly told
Young Adult books were childish and she should concern herself with finer
literature—Francina read them anyway.
Francina waved good-bye to her high school life and
strutted into University with her YA books and graphic paper to take notes. She
witnessed the birth of a YA trend where publishers flocked to sell their
stories to teens…stories that were underdeveloped and glaring with structural
issues. The message she heard as a consumer was simple—common belief is YA
readers aren’t good enough readers to discern quality stories or they are too
childish to tell the difference.
Francina dropped her degree in chemistry and decided
enough was enough—and set out to write the quality* stories her fellow readers
deserved.
After her formative years she moved to Japan, with her
best-friend and husband, land of some of the worlds best story-tellers and
creators of unique manga. There she worked on her stories and the quest to
understand what authenticity* in story means.
Now she lives in Boise with her husband, son, cat, and
Catahoula. She spends most of her time battling the terrible-twos and
puppy-dom. But when things are quiet—you can hear frantically typing away; her
mind far away with her characters in their quest to make the right decisions in
a world brimming with magic and moral ambiguity.
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Giveaway:
$25 Amazon/BN GC
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