@GoddessFish Interview: The Blue Effect by Rose Shababy

The Blue Effect


Renegade Heroes, #1
Rose Shababy


Genre: Adult Urban Sci-fi/Fantasy
Publisher: Super Sheroes LLC
Date of Publication: September 7, 2014
Word Count: 91,390
Cover Artist: Regina Wamba & JT Formatting

Available at the following retailers:
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Blue Brennan is jaded and bitter despite her pinup girl looks and quick wit. Night after night, she scours the Seattle club scene looking for someone or something to fill the emptiness inside. When she meets the mysterious Kasey, her world stops… literally. He claims she has the ability to control time and stuns her even further when he reveals his own gifts.

Blue is inexplicably drawn to Kasey and reluctantly enters his world filled with a new breed of humanity. They’re misfits like her, blessed or cursed with powerful abilities, struggling to hide their differences from the rest of society.

Then the group discovers a nameless, faceless sociopath with nightmarish powers; and he’s coming for Blue. She’s left reeling when they discover her gifts are the key to defeating his terrible evil and saving them all.

Now she must race against the clock to harness her own powers and save her new friends. Can she be more than a renegade? Can she be a hero too?

Excerpt: 

He held out his free hand and I reached for it without thinking. Taking the hand of this stranger seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

Our fingers touched and my skin came alive. I felt a surge of electricity as some sort of energy shot from his hand into mine, running through my whole body and back to his like an endless circuit. I couldn’t stifle the gasp that broke through my lips. I stared at him, my vision narrowing until his face and eyes and smile were the only things I could see.

The energy between us exploded outward like a wave into the crowd, through the people and everything around me stopped. The music ended like a switch had been flipped, the people froze mid-step and even the air around me seemed to stop moving.

Interview: 

Today, we welcome Rose Shababy to Musings and Ramblings. Let's all give a great big Geeky welcome!

Let's start with some writer specific questions before moving into the fun stuff. That way everyone can really get to know the person behind the writer. We will finish things off with round of Think Fast. Ready for the interrogation to begin?

Writing Specific

1. Is your writing style more plotter or pantser?
A little of both. I usually start with a central idea, a theme with some sort of general direction. I know I want to get from point A to point B, but sometimes the way I get there changes as I write. For instance, in The Blue Effect, the main character ends up in a romantic relationship with someone other than who I’d intended in the beginning. As I wrote the story, I realized she was attracted to someone else and I ended up creating a whole new subplot that wasn’t part of my original outline.

2. What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I read. I love movies. Sci-fi, campy sci-fi or horror, comedy. I love to laugh. I feel like there’s enough reality in everyday life. You see the horrors of the world on the evening news every day, I want a little escapism in my entertainment. I don’t mind genres that are a little more existential, I want to be forced to think about the world around me and what it all means, but the power of laughter is a magical thing.

3. How did you choose the genres you write in?
It never occurred to me to pick a genre. The stories in my head are usually about the future or fantastical people and things that could never happen in real life. I just naturally lean toward sci-fi/fantasy. I’m a Trekkie from as far back as I can remember, so I’ve always been slightly out of touch with reality!

4. Is there any particular author or book that has influenced you or your writing?
I love a lot of different authors, but some of my favorite books are The Stand by Stephen King, Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I like sweeping, epic novels, although I won’t pretend to be that caliber of a writer. Someday I want to write a book that really says something about society and the world. I would love to make a real impact. I don’t think that financial success is as important to me as impacting readers in the long term.

5. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
Do artists ever take criticism well? LOL… Seriously, I guess the worst was when I had a guy join a critique group I’d formed with local writers. We would get together every 2 weeks and edit each other’s work, talk about it, what we liked and didn’t like, etc. This guy joined and the first week he tore me up. I’d always received really good feedback about my writing. but he spent 45 minutes telling me how awful my main character was, how this was that and that was this until I almost had to get up and go to the bathroom because I thought I was going to start crying. I was just shocked. When I left I called my best friend (Jennifer Malone Wright, also a writer) in tears, and after she volunteered to come beat the sh** out of him, she reminded me that no matter what, there will always be people who think you suck. It was hard, but a good lesson.
The best compliment I’ve ever received thus far was from one of my beta readers, a long time comic book collector (this book is supposed to have a graphic novel feel) and former English teacher, who not only told me I was a good writer, but that she laughed out loud at my work. I can’t think of anything better… except if I made you cry. That would be a major compliment too.

Fun Stuff

1. What was the last movie/concert/show that you saw?
X-Men: Days of Future Past (which was totally awesome by the way! Best one since the first came out)[*facepalm* And I decided to wait till it came out on vidoe!]

2. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
Blue Brennan, the main character of my book The Blue Effect can jump through space and time. I think that would be pretty awesome. It’d cut down on travel costs since you wouldn’t have to take an airplane anywhere, you could just think yourself there.

3. Tell us 2 positive and 2 negative character traits you possess.
Positive traits: I’m kind of OCD, so attention to detail is pretty important to me, something that really aids me in writing. I also have no problem laughing at myself.
Negative traits: I’m kind of OCD! Lol Sometimes I fixate on details when I need to just move on. I dwell. I roll over the same thought over and over and over. Also, I may be OCD but I’m not the obsessively clean kind. I’m kind of a slob so sometimes I’m looking for this note or that paperwork and I can’t find it and it drives me crazy.

4. What is your biggest pet peeve?
It’s a toss-up between people who are late all the time and people who talk down to me.

5. If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, fictional or real, who would it be and why?

I know I should pick Jesus or Ghandi or someone really important, but most of what I know about the kind of person I’d like to be came from Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation. When I imagine my fictional heroes, there are always threads of him in them. I think that he encompasses all the qualities I most admire in a person; honor, intelligence, integrity, bravery, kindness, compassion, open-mindedness, curiosity. Plus, he’s hella sexy.[Yep, Yep, Agreement!]

Think Fast

1. AM or PM? PM
2. Mountains or Sea? Sea
3. Italian or Chinese? Italian
4. Summer or Winter? Summer
5. Coffee or Tea? Coffee

Thanks for coming by and spending some time with us. Any final words of wisdom to pass along?

No wisdom. Who knows if I have any to pass along? Just a fervent hope that you’ll read my book and maybe you’ll laugh. Or cry. Or both. I look forward to hearing from readers and making new friends in this wonderful writing community.


Giveaway: 

Rose will be awarding a $25 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Tour Info: 
Don't forget to check out the other stops on the Book Tour:
August 25th:
Danita Minnis

August 26th:
Edgar's Books

August 27th:
Christine Young author

August 28th:
It's Raining Books

August 29th:
Musings and Ramblings

September 1st:
Room With Books

September 2nd:
Long and Short Reviews
Blood Moons and Nightscapes

September 3th:
RhiReading

September 4th:
Booklover Sue

September 5th:
from the Library

Author Bio:

Rose Shababy and her family reside in eastern Washington State. Rose grew up in the Northwest but swears she’s going to move to warmer climates someday. She’s claimed this for over 20 years, however, and has yet to move more than 75 miles away from her mother.

Rose has a deep love of all things Star Trek and yearns to travel the heavens, as well as an intense desire to be bitten by a radioactive spider. Unfortunately she sucks at science and math so she hasn’t been able bring her dreams to life, instead living vicariously through books, comics, television and film. She hopes to someday make a million dollars so she can afford to buy her way to the international space station, but she’d settle for being able to fly around the world and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Rose also loves to cook and worked for years in a gourmet Italian grocery and deli where she learned to hone her skills. She prepares culinary masterpieces for her family, but fervently wishes the dishes would wash themselves. Especially now that her dishwashers/children are nearly grown and only one still lives at home.

Rose likes to use her free time wisely. For instance, she likes to daydream, will often read for hours until she falls asleep on the couch with an electric blanket and a warm tabby cat curled up on her hip, as well as spending cozy weekend days watching Syfy movies like Sharknado and Mega Piranha with her husband.

If Rose were a cartoon animal, she’d prefer to be a wise old owl or a sleek and sexy jaguar, but in reality she’d probably be a myopic mole with coke-bottle glasses.

To connect with the author online:

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