Giveaway + Interview with Monica Leonelle

-


I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Monica Leonelle of Social Punk for the latest release! (At the bottom of the post you will find a Rafflecopter giveaway form hosted by the book tour host - enter for a chance to win an iPad 3, a Kindle Fire, or one of 25 autographed hardcovers!)


Hey, Monica! Welcome to Ricochet Reviews. First off, can you tell us a little about The Socialpunk Trilogy?
Socialpunk is a bit like The Truman Show meets The Terminator, except Mark Zuckerburg is president of the world. I wanted to do a cyberpunk and Socialpunk is classically cyberpunk, down to its roots. I loved the idea of being trapped in a virtual reality, and then acclimating to the real world.

It sounds wonderful! What kind of reader would you recommend your novel to?
Adults and mature teens 14+ who enjoy dystopian or science fiction. The book series is being compared to The Hunger Games, the Divergent series, and the Uglies series.

So, if it became a screenplay, who would you cast?

Brenda Song would probably be my choice for Ima. Ember is a tall girl, but for some reason I think Kristen Bell could embody her. The guys are more difficult, but maybe Cam Gigandet for Nasser, Hunter Parrish for Dash, Matt Lauria for Vaughn, and Raza Jaffrey for Nahum. Of course, most of those people are television stars, so I probably wouldn't get any of my choices if there ever was a movie!


Great choices! Which character do you most identify with?
I would have to say Ima, as she's the main character and the book is told entirely from her point of view. What I love about her is how much she changes from the beginning of the book to the end. She feels very guilty and is constantly struggling with right vs. wrong. She's probably one of my favorite characters out of all the ones I've written.

Interesting! What inspires you to write?
I've been writing forever! I write a ton almost every day, as it turns out. Writing is the way I express myself, so I just fell into it naturally. I started a Gen Y blog in 2007 called Twenty Set. It actually gained quite a bit of steam early on, but eventually I moved away from Gen Y topics. The reason I started that blog, though, is because I couldn't clear my mind! I literally just needed to get things out of my system. So I wrote that blog 4-5 times a week for about six months until my ideas stop churning so quickly. My love for writing as an adult grew out of that experience.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in becoming an author?
Writers should learn marketing because they are either going the indie route or they are under fire to sell through on their advance with a traditional publisher. You can learn more about marketing your writing with my Free Writer Toolkit here:proseonfire.com/the-free-writer-toolkit. More importantly, writers should inject their marketing directly into their manuscripts. Writers often think of marketing as this separate thing from writing, but it's not at all. 80-90% of books are sold through word-of-mouth and most of the marketability of a book is right there in the manuscript. So even if you are going the traditional route, if you are serious about getting published you should hire an editor to go through your book and see how marketable it is. Traditional publishers are looking for marketable books. It's a business and they need to make money.

Awesome! Well, it was an honor to have you. Thank you for participating!

Thank you!

-

Here's a little something about the author and her work!

Featured Author's Bio:
Monica Leonelle is a well-known digital media strategist and the author of three novels. She blogs at Prose on Fire (http://proseonfire.com) and shares her writing and social media knowledge with other bloggers and authors through her Free Writer Toolkit (http://proseonfire.com/free-writer-toolkit).
Social Punk Book Description:
Ima would give anything to escape The Dome and learn what’s beyond its barriers, but the Chicago government has kept all its citizens on lockdown ever since the Scorched Years left most of the world a desert wasteland. When a mysterious group of hooded figures enters the city unexpectedly, Ima uncovers a plot to destroy The Dome and is given the choice between escaping to a new, dangerous city or staying behind and fighting a battle she can never win.

Get your copy of Social Punk!



You Can Enter to Win A Copy Here!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Post by Brain Holers

-
Image
Please enjoy this guest post by Brian Holers, author of the literary novel, Doxology . Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.  Not just for Christians One of the beauties of self-publishing is that the gatekeeper has been fired. In this new world of books made possible by the Internet, no one is left to guard the door. To tell the reader what is what. This state of affairs may introduce an element of confusion for dogmatic readers, but the good news is, new breeds of literature are being created. Self-publishing allows literature to cross over in new ways. Traditional Christian fiction publishers, for instance, disallow most references to sex, and even the most juvenile profanity. Self-publishing changes this. Not to suggest a writer should ever debase a genre—as writers we are obliged to choose our words carefully. But the old Christian ...
Read more

The Strong Female: Guest Post by Sheryl Steins

-
Image
Please enjoy this guest post by Sheryl Steines, author of the urban fantasy novel, The Day of First Sun . Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $450 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book. The Strong Female I am always amazed to hear that, in the year 2012, women are still talking about strong female characters. It’s funny that we’re always surprised when one comes along. Even in Hollywood, actresses still can’t find roles to sink their teeth into. As a reader, I look for characters that I can relate to in some way; a character who is more than a damsel in distress but less than an unfeeling, mean, witch. I’m putting it gently, but I’m looking for someone, who when facing a problem, doesn’t necessarily need a man to bail her out--a woman who can take care of herself in spite of her vulnerabilities. Because in reality, women are multi-layered and complex. We don’t fall to one end of an extreme o...
Read more

Guest Review by Bonnie Wheeler: Guardian by Elita Daniels

-
Image
This is a guest review by Bonnie Wheeler . * * * * * 5 out of 5 Stars to author Elita Daniels and her novel “Guardian.” B efore I begin, I must say, I absolutely devoured this novel.   W ithin the very first chapter, Daniels brings us into a world where vampires exist and are treated as second-hand-citizens. The vampire life isn’t glamorous – they have cruel experiments performed on them, they are assigned humans (many of whom are cruel) as a sort of “parole officer” to monitor their every move, and they are forced to take meds that make them ill. I loved the scientific aspects of how vampirism could be spread as an infection, how the government would have their hands in using the disease as a weapon, and how a society’s fear of the unknown would bring out the worst in them.   What I loved the most was how Daniel’s created characters that were both terrifying and fascinating. Her vampires aren’t made of fluff – they have intense emotions, they hav...
Read more