Blog Tour & Interview: Shattered Pack |

I’m participating in the blog tour for Aileen Erin’s newest title, Shattered Pack. I had the chance to interview Aileen for this tour, so be sure to keep reading to check out her responses below and to enter the (international!) tour giveaway.

Title: Shattered Pack
Author: Aileen Erin
Series: Alpha Girl
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: March 28th, 2017
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Meredith Molloney never thought she’d find a mate, let alone someone like Donovan Murry—one of the most powerful Alphas alive. Now that she’s no longer cursed and the evil Luciana Alvarez has been taken care of, she thinks life will finally settle down. Boy, has she never been so wrong

In the middle of the night, Donovan gets a call telling him that his pack has gone to pieces. The news that his second in command has been found brutally murdered has Donovan packing his bags for Ireland, but the last thing Meredith wants to do is leave Texas. She’s heard about how the Celtic Pack are with outsiders. And Donovan has more than a few exes in the pack that will be less than friendly.

Meredith’s never let a few angry wolves stop her, and she’s not about to start now. She’s faced down much worse the past few months. But when she gets there, she finds that it’s not just a few exes who stand in the way between her and her Full Moon Ceremony with Donovan

Meredith is thrust in to a deadly game of pack politics, one the fey have happily joined in on. When the dust settles, she knows she’ll either have everything that she wants or lose it all.

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Interview:

1. What did you learn from researching for your book?

I was in Ireland the first time I thought about doing a book set there. I was on a trip with my parents for my father’s 80th. My paternal grandfather was from Sligo, so it’d been my father’s dream to visit. But as I we drove through the county, I couldn’t get Donovan out of my head. I knew I had to do a book about him and Meredith, and they HAD to go to Ireland. The country is so beautiful. The thin—and slightly terrifying—winding roads, blocked in by hedgerows. The people were lovely, friendly and kind. I set one scene at a pub where we had the best fish and chips ever. So good! I’d love to go back and explore it some more. I’m definitely keeping another Meredith book in mind, if only so that I can go back there. 😉

2. Describe your book in 5 words

Romantic. Paranormal. Action-packed. Funny (Hopefully!). Fun.

3. What is your writing process like?

I start out brainstorming the story I want to tell. I tend to use a bunch of giant-sized post-its and lots of colored Sharpies. Once I have the basic idea roughed out—characters, conflict, where I want the story to begin and end—I start to work on the Beat Sheet. I use the one by Blake Snyder in Save the Cat as the basic outline. I love it because it breaks the story down into really easy chunks. By the end of the outlining process, I have 40 note cards and a much better idea of what I want the story to be. I say what I want it to be because that always changes. Always. It’s never what I think it’s going to be when I sit down to actually write the book. The first draft to me is still a bit of a discovery. Sometimes the characters don’t do the things that I thought they’d do. I like to write the first two acts, and then reassess my outline. Making sure that everything is set up in acts one and two so that they can be paid off and wrapped up in act three saves a lot of time for me. That way—since I always get side-tracked from my outline—I can revise and make sure the story is flowing well and paced correctly before I write the finale. Once it’s a full draft, I’ll usually do two or three full revisions and a polish before it’s off to the proofreader

4. What are you currently reading?

Right now I’m trading off between a couple of books: The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines from the show Fixer Upper. (I’m kind of obsessed with that show!), and Cast in Flight by Michelle Sagara. (It’s the newest in her Chronicles of Elantra series. Love it!)

5. What is the most important thing you want readers to take away from your book?

Meredith’s story was a chance for me to say that you don’t have to be the strongest or the best to make a huge difference. Sometimes it’s the little things that matter most. And sometimes you can underestimate your own power.

Author Bio:

Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd–from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW), she reads Quenya and some Sindarin, and has a severe fascination with the supernatural. Aileen has a BS in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, and spends her days doing her favorite things: reading books, creating worlds, and kicking ass.

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