Interview and giveaway with Tina Hogan Grant...

What group did you hang out with in high school?

I grew up in England and went to a pretty strict small grammar school (the equivalent of a high school). Rules included, wearing a uniform, no makeup or jewelry and no heels. I was into a lot of sports, high jump, long distance running, netball (same as basketball) and hockey. I had some kind of sporting event or practice everyday after school. I mainly hung around with my teammates and even on weekends we’d hook up for a practice run.

What are you passionate about these days?

Writing is my number one passion by far, second would be reading. When I need to escape or refresh my mind I turn to the kayak. Nothing beats drifting on a solitude lake in a kayak and letting your mind wander. The peace and tranquility is so refreshing. My favorite times to kayak are at sunrise and sunset, there is something about those hours of the day that are just rejuvenating. My one other passion is riding the ATV. Living in the mountains we have endless miles of trails in the national forest that do wonders for the mind. When I need to blow off some steam, or I find myself frustrated with my writing, zipping around the trails on the quad really helps.

If you had to do your journey to getting published all over again, what would you do differently?

This is my debut novel and so far the journey has been fantastic. I think I’d write the book quicker. This one took twenty years before it got to this stage. I hope to have the second one completed by JUne 2019.

Ebook or print? And why?

Definitely print. When I pick up a book, I love the way it feels in my hands, the way it smells and the crisp papers yearning to be turned. When I first pick it up I study the front and back covers, flipping it back and forth. I love turning real pages, feeling the corners between my fingers as I progress through the story.

Everything I use during the day needs a cord or needs to be charged. The cell phone, the iPad, and the laptop. Books take me away from all of that. No need to plug it in/ charge it up or check to see if I have enough battery juice to finish my book. ( I would be so upset if it died in the middle of a really good chapter.) I love the escape books give me from all of the technology.

I can pretty much leave my book anywhere, in the car, on a bench at the park, on the seat in a waiting room and not have to worry about it getting stolen. It will still be there when I return. I can’t do that with an e-reader, constantly when in public I have to keep tabs on where I put it. If left alone, someone would snatch it up in a heartbeat. There goes my library of one hundred books. Yes, I can restore them from my purchase history on Amazon etc but not until I’ve forked out the expense of buying a replacement. Also, I would have to deal with contacting the retailer to block my e-reader and figure out how to restore my collection. Not an easy task. If my book was lost, very cheap and simple to replace.

yes, that’s true! I can’t tell you how many people I have met while sitting somewhere reading my printed book. Some are still really good friends today. It seems people will approach you when you are reading an actual book. They will sit next to you, see the cover and the author. Normally they will strike up a conversation by asking “Good book?” or, “Aah, James Patterson. I like him. Haven’t read that one yet. How is it?” immediately we strike up a conversation. We have something in common, We like to read!

With e-readers or any electronic device for that matter. You’re in a bubble, you’re unapproachable. It’s like you’re wearing a sign across your forehead that reads, “Do not disturb.” It’s a shame and sad how disconnected and unsocial these electronic devices have made us.

Another escape books bring me, is time away from a plastic screen. Everything has a screen, it’s like you’re looking through a window at everything. A separation barrier. Books draw me in, I touch it, I feel it, I turn the pages. I’m drawn into the story more, able to connect better with the storyline. It has my undivided attention.

If I want to hang onto a book and hand it down to my grandkids, I can do that if I choose. It will still be there on my bookshelf. Can you do that with an e-book? Oh wait in fifty years it will probably be in a new format. Everything has to be changed and updated, buy new readers, new software. My book will look and feel the same and can be handed down for generations to come.

Yes definitely give me a printed book anytime, I will enjoy it more and will probably hang onto it for a very long time.

What is your favorite scene in this book?

Without giving too much away in the book, I would have to say it’s the phone call between Tammy and her father when they are discussing her sister Donna. The phone call happens out of the blue and takes the reader by surprise. It’s extremely emotional and a tear jerker.

Reckless Beginnings

by Tina Hogan Grant

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Women’s Fiction (based on true events)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Tammy Mellows, a fourteen-year-old native of England, was shocked when her father and troubled older sister, Donna, moved to the States.

With her family now separated by divorce and divided by an ocean, Tammy felt helpless when she learned Donna had run away and couldn’t be found.

Thanks to her father insisting she stay behind in England to finish school, Tammy could do nothing for the next three years but pray that Donna would be found safe.

When Tammy’s lifelong dream of moving to the States was finally fulfilled, she had high hopes of looking for Donna. But with no leads and faced with turmoil in her own life, there wasn’t much Tammy could do.

After a forbidden secret love affair and a catastrophic dispute with her father, Tammy eventually meets Steven, settles down and has his child, only to discover he is a heroin addict. Thrown into a life of drugs and violence. Shadowed by his addiction, she becomes the silent and forgotten one. Living in fear of what Steven might be capable of and struggling alone to provide for her young son.

What consequences might she face if she leaves Steven? Is she ever going to find her sister alive? Will she have enough courage to conquer the impossible challenges of her twisted world and still come out on top?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT

“What do you mean she’s gone, John?”

Who was gone? Tammy wondered.

Her mother became angry. “She can’t just disappear, John! Someone must know where she is!”

Glued to the railings, Tammy was dying to know who and what they were talking about.

Then her mother began to cry hysterically while she held the phone tight and screamed into it, “She’s still a child, John. She’s just seventeen. You should never have put her in that home! She isn’t an object you can just discard because she’s in your way. She’s your daughter!”

Tammy remembered how her heart sank to the floor when she suddenly realized they were talking about Donna. Her sister had run away and was now missing. She wanted to race down the stairs and snatch the phone from her mother’s hands and ask her father WHY? Why had he put her in that awful place?

Donna had written a letter to Tammy and Jenny, telling them how much she hated being in the home. How no one wanted her anymore and she was going to run away. Frightened by what she had read, Tammy showed the letter to their mother. As upset as she was by both the letter and the fact that Donna had written to her sisters and not her, Rose never believed Donna would actually run away. “I’m sure she’ll be okay. She just needs time to adjust. It’s all new to her. We have to trust your father’s judgment. He said this would be good for her. I have to believe that. She is a very troubled young girl and needs help,” her mother had told her. But she had run away, and now no one knew where she was.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Tina Hogan Grant was born in England and grew up in a small town on the Yorkshire Moors. She is the youngest daughter of science fiction author, James P. Hogan. After moving to California, she became a commercial lobster fisherwoman, fishing off the coast of Southern California for ten years with her husband Gordon.

For fourteen years, she’d had a notion of writing her debut novel “Reckless Beginnings”. But it wasn’t until the sudden death of her father in 2010 and a battle with breast cancer a year later that she made the decision to get it done. Seven years later, she finally completed it. She is now working on a sequel titled, “Better Endings.”

She currently resides with her husband in the small mountain community of Frazier Park in Southern California. Together they enjoy anything that involves the outdoors, fishing, hiking, kayaking and riding quads.

Website: www.tinahogangrant.com

Buy Links may be found here: https://tinahogangrant.com/tina-hogan-grant-press-kit-book-reckless-beginnings/

Social Media Accounts

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tina.Hogan.Grant.Author/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TinaHoganGrant

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tina_hogan_grant/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tinahogangrant/

Book Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1BilNEwsCI&t=5s

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

Please use this rafflecopter code on your post: