#Blogtour: Magnetic by @ carissa_miller #interview #giveaway #ya @xpressotours 😍😊

I am excited about this Blog Tour Magnetic. This is Carissa Miller’s first novel. It’s a novel that hits real close to home for Carissa. Magnetic is based on the unsolved violent crime of her mother’s attempted murder.

Carissa took some time to do a Q&A with BooksBooks&More. It was very honest and insightful.

It’s a must read. 🤗🤗😍😍

Magnetic
Carissa Miller
Publication date: September 10th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

When Elle Christiansen’s rebellion leads to her father’s expulsion from a parsonage in small-town Ohio, the forlorn pair is forced to move to Oklahoma to live with an aunt neither of them has ever met. Here she encounters her aunt’s neighbor—Maverick Mason, the quietly confident son of a wealthy oil tycoon who infuriates her as much as he inexplicably draws her in…

Maverick slowly gains Elle’s trust and coaxes her out from the seemingly impenetrable walls of self-protection she erected around her heart when her mother was murdered. He convinces Elle to confide the secrets of her tortured past: that she saw her mother’s murder before it took place, and she was the one who found her, bleeding to death at the end of a lonely dirt road. Together the unlikely pair begins to unlock the secrets of not only Elle’s sordid past, but her mother’s and grandmother’s as well, to uncover decades of greed, corporate corruption, lies, and murder. Quickly, the sobering realization hits: if they do not solve her mother’s murder, Elle will undoubtedly suffer the same fate. As she continues her journey toward truth alongside the boy she is magnetically drawn to in a way both frightening and uncontrollable, Elle finds the road she is most afraid of going down—that one lane dirt road where her mother was murdered—just might be the only place she can truly find redemption.

Magnetic tells of the enduring pain of living with unsolved violent crime. Inspired by debut author Carissa Miller’s true-life events, it’s a haunting account of a young girl’s struggle in the aftermath of shattering loss. With an unraveling love story, puzzling mystery, unexpected twists and turns, and a gripping pace that will keep you turning pages, our heroine takes you on her journey as she learns one of life’s great lessons: facing your fears instead of running from them, is the only way to truly find freedom.

Goodreads / Amazon

💻 Interview Q&A  💻

 

Q: I know this book is based on the traumatic crime of your mother’s unsolved attempted murder.  What was the hardest scene to write?

A: The hardest, yet most therapeutic scene was the prologue, where the little girl is looking at the picture of her mother on her bedside table and reliving the fear and pain of her mother’s murderer still being on the loose, as well as how alone she feels. That was very raw for me because after my mother’s attack, I felt so alone and scared. I would lay in my bed and cry at night but tell no one. I was afraid my mother’s attacker would crawl through my window at night so often, I was unable to sleep. I just carried the burden by myself, though, because I didn’t want to burden my parents with my problems when my mother was fighting for her life.  In order to write that scene, I really channeled that pain, fear, and loneliness I felt as a child when I would lie alone in my bedroom at night.

Writing the dream sequences, specifically the ones where Elle relives the night of her mother’s murder, was also very hard at times because it brought back memories of my mom’s crime scene and the night of her attempted murder.

Q: How did you select the names of your characters?

A: I’ve always loved the name Elyse, with the nickname of Elle, so that name came to me quickly. I knew I wanted Maverick’s name to be something unique and strong and one of those one-of-a-kind kind of names. Maverick Mason was just the fit!

Q: How many drafts did you write before you felt it was completed? What did you edit out of this book?

A: I can’t even count how many times I went back through this book and cut things and made changes. Maybe 25 to 30? And I cut out a character in the book, an uncle—Aunt Cordelia’s husband. But I also added an entire section at the end to include more of Elle’s childhood friends (Grace and Charlie).

Q: Did you find writing this book to be therapeutic?

A: Absolutely. It was during writing this book that I found healing and forgave the man who tried to murder my mom.

Q: For something fun and light. What are the top 5 things on your bucket list?

A: Go back to Hawaii (where my husband and I had our honeymoon), take our kids with us and hike the Seven Sacred pools of Hana then jump of the waterfall together

  b. Write another book

 c. Go to New Zealand and Australia

d. Take a Painting Class and/or a Calligraphy Class

e. Run a 5K with my daughter

Thanks again for taking the time Carissa to answer these questions.

Author Bio:

Carissa Miller writes a lifestyle and design blog called CC and Mike, where she and her husband blog about their experiences designing, building, and flipping houses in the Midwest. She was inspired to write her debut novel–Magnetic—because of her firsthand experience living with the trauma of an unsolved violent crime, her mother’s attempted murder. When she’s not writing, blogging, or designing, Carissa loves Oklahoma summers on the lake with her husband and three children, going to Oklahoma State sporting events and cheering on the Cowboys, and traveling cross country with her family in the RV she and her husband renovated. Carissa laughs loudly, loves with her whole heart, tells it how it is to a fault, and enjoys living life to the fullest, every moment of every day.

You can follow along with Carissa and her family on Instagram – ccandmikecreative, Facebook – CC and Mike, Pinterest – CC and Mike, Twitter, or by subscribing to their blog – http://www.ccandmike.com/.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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