AUTHOR BIO & GUEST POST - EMMA MICHAELS

Emma Michaels is the author of the ‘A Sense of Truth’ and ‘Society of Feathers’ series. Her goal with her latest YA novel 'Owlet' is to give others what she did not have growing up; a strong female protagonist with asthma.  While her previous aspiration was to be a lady knight she realized that not being able to run more than a few feet might become a hindrance so turned to writing instead. Her day jobs include being a cover artist, marketing consultant and silk screen designer. 

As the founder of The Writers Voice blog (http://OurBooksOurVoice.Blogspot.com) she loves to connect authors and readers. As a book blogger turned author, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, until she moved at eighteen to Washington State. Suddenly, the world was a new place filled with tall green trees that reached further for the sky with every moment, making her want to do the same. Ever since, she has tried to make her life something new and different from what it was before, pursuing her future career, setting high goals and reaching for them. With the support of her fiancé, Chihuahua, and her amazing blog followers and fellow bloggers, she wants to prove to the world that anything is possible and help inspire fellow literary lovers to reach for their dreams.

GUEST POST BY EMMA MICHAELS

Do I Plant Easter Eggs? YES!

I have two literary fascinations. Character Arcs (character growth throughout the span of a novel or series) and Easter eggs (foreshadowing tool spread out through a series like an Easter egg hunt. A fact that was planted in the novel previously but the true meaning is only revealed once you find the way to open it or it is opened for you/revealed). I interview a lot of authors for my multi-author blog The Writers Voice (http://OurBooksOurVoice.Blogspot.com) and one of my favorite questions to ask is; 

Do you plant Easter eggs?

So I guess it is my turn.

Do I plant Easter eggs?

YES. I am obsessed with them. Of course I plant them. I tend to get series ideas starting backwards. The climax of the finale comes first, and then it gets random. I will think of a scene that started off the whole adventure, I will realize details that lead to that crescendo and from there the series develops. It can be different for different novels or series for me but in the case of Owlet, I knew the epilogue of the third and final book before I was even perfectly sure about the first scene. I had the concept in mind already but only the barest of outlines from a dream I had.

I woke up the next morning and there were scribbles in the notebook I always kept by my bed. I shared those scribbles with my boyfriend of the time who is now my fiancé and he said I should work on it. Not believing (yet) that writing would be of any use other than for fun scribbling in my notebooks I started drawing a few pictures based off of what little I could still remember of the dream just to get the ideas out.

Later on I wrote The Thirteenth Chime and while I was partway through I realized, maybe my Owlet idea might be worth something, even if not to others then to me for getting to write it. I started working on it and kept working on it until finally the amazing Nicole from Tribute Books read it and now here it is! It ended up being worth every moment. Writing Owlet was an amazing learning experience and gave me a new meaning behind everything I did. Writing it made me feel free and now I take that on with everything I write and realize that every project I take on is an opportunity to do my very best and to have the freedom to write that novel that only I can write. My interests in ornithology, my asthma and my wish for new dreams combined and made a small scribbling into so much more.

Thank you for reading!