Sunday, February 23, 2020

*Book Tour & Giveaway* Bloodborn by Sydney Winward-GUEST POST


Bloodborn 
Bloodborn Series Book 1 
by Sydney Winward 
Genre: Paranormal Romance 


Adam Degore's personal need to find a cure for vampirism drives him to ensnare a vampire, but the creature he captures is Dracula's daughter. Worse yet, he's drawn to her—a monster he's vowed to kill.

Despite her father's wishes, Willow chooses to live among humans instead of the vampire conclave where she would be safe. She wants a life filled with more than shadows. Being captured by a human, not to mention falling in love with one, is not part of her plan.

With vampires and blood hunters closing in on their chosen prey, Adam and Willow need to trust one another. But will that trust come in time for them to survive and find a future together? 




Book Trailer




Sydney Winward was born with an artistic brain and a love of discovery for new talents. From drawing to sewing to music, she has loved to explore every opportunity that comes her way. At a young age, Sydney discovered her love of writing and wrote her first book at twelve years old, and since then, she hasn't been able to stop writing. Her active imagination and artistic mind take her away to different worlds and time periods, making every new story a fantastic adventure. When she is not writing (or fawning over animals in the neighborhood) she spends time with her husband and children at home in Utah. 





GUEST POST
Silver Dagger Book Tours Guest Blog Questions


What are you currently reading?
I’ve been devouring the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas. I just finished the fourth in the series, and I am in love with the characters, the writing style, and the plot. Chaol is my absolute favorite character. He had a few annoying moments in Queen of Shadows, but by the end, I loved him again. I definitely recommend this series to anyone who hasn’t read it, and I also recommend her other series, A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
Each book in the Bloodborn series can be considered a side story, just about different characters. The order goes as follows (and yes, all paranormal romance!):
1. Bloodborn: The first in the series about Willow Ardelean and Adam Degore.
2. Bloodbond: The second in the series about Zachariah Degore and Laurel Covaci.
3. Bloodbane: The third in the series about Oriel Covaci (Laurel’s brother) and Cosette Dragomir).
4. Still untitled, can’t for the life of me figure out what to call it: The fourth in the series about Luca Dragomir (Cosette’s youngest brother and Laurel’s old flame) and Kirsa Frey (daughter of the dwarven chieftain).
5. Bloodscourge: The fifth in the series. This book takes place a thousand years before Bloodborn, and it’s about Dracula and Elisabeta.
6. Blood Heir: The sixth in the series, and the one I’m currently working on, about Jesper (Dracula’s grandson) and Alavara (a dark elf princess).

Do you have a favorite movie?
I have several that I consider 10s on a scale from 1-10. 
Little Women (the old one as well as the one that just came out in 2019)
Stardust (I’ve never laughed so hard at a movie in my life!)
How to Train Your Dragon (all three movies)
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Cinderella Live Action
Spiderman: Far From Home

How do you find time to write as a parent?
Time to write? What’s that? Haha, but seriously. I have a 2-year-old and a 4-month-old, and there doesn’t seem to be a spare moment in the day. My toddler suddenly decided to stop taking naps, and we’re in the midst of sleep training the baby. When the baby naps, I stick my toddler in front of the tv. Did I ever think I would be one of those parents? Heck no! But you gotta do what you gotta do to maintain a little bit of sanity. I think my soul would die if I never had any time to write, so I somehow manage to squish it into my schedule throughout the day.

What are some of your pet peeves?
1. Losing something. I will tear my entire house apart to find it. I will go to Valhalla and back just to locate it again. What if I’m late for something? Doesn’t matter. I must find it or I will go absolutely berserk.
2. Getting my hair pulled. It doesn’t matter if it gets caught in a tent zipper, pulled by a toddler, or anything else. If you pull my hair, you will die.
3. A messy house. This one doesn’t make sense because I am a super messy person. 
4. The sun in my eyes. I can be in a happy mood one moment, and then the next I will want to strangle someone if the sun is in my eyes, whether while driving, in the reflection of my abnormally shiny kitchen floor, or glaring back at me in the snow.

What are your top 10 favorite books/authors?
1. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
2. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
4. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
5. Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas
6. Miss Kane’s Christmas by Caroline Mickelson
7. Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
8. Hope Springs Series by Sarah Eden
9. Friends and Foes by Sarah Eden
10. To be determined

Do you read yourself and if so what is your favorite genre?
I love reading. I’m not a very fast reader, but I do set a Goodreads yearly reading goal. This year’s goal is at 25 books. Hopefully I will be able to reach my goal, as I didn’t reach last year’s goal :( But I was closeish! 20/25 last year and I’m hoping to do better this year.

Some of my favorite books to read are in the fantasy/paranormal categories. Vampires. Witches. Shapeshifters. Dragons. Oh, and ROMANCE! It’s not an absolute requirement for the books I read to be romantic, but I do live for the cute.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
They come straight from my imagination. So don’t worry, Mom! Any likeness to any of my characters if purely coincidental.

Advice they would give new authors?
Make each chapter count. If it doesn’t further the story, if it just adds more unnecessary words to your story, then take it out! The common pitfalls I see with new writers are as follows:

1. Adding scenes to their stories that don’t make sense or don’t need to be there.
2. Switching back and forth between past tense and present tense.
3. Adding too many dialogue tags.
4. Writing with passive voice.

Do you believe in writer’s block?
Not at all. If the story or the scene or even the sentence isn’t coming, then SKIP IT! You can always come back to it. Either that, or trudge through it. I love the quote “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!
I used to ride TRAX to my college every day, and one morning, I saw this man standing up with a large soda in his hand, the plastic kind you get from Del Taco. I thought to myself, “That guy is going to drop his soda.” I forgot about him and turned back to my book. A couple minutes later, I heard a giant splash and looked up to see soda all over the ground. 

What is something unique/quirky about you?
I have a “rollerblading gang”. When we were teenagers, the four of us would go on rollerblading trips across the city. Sometimes to the wetlands, other times to the library, and plenty of times we’d go out late at night when most of the city was asleep. We all still rollerblade ten years later.

What did you edit out of this book?
There was a part where Adam Degore was trying to woo Willow in order to get something he wanted, but I decided that it was completely against his character to even attempt to woo. I tore out the whole scene and rewrote it from scratch.

What does your writing process look like?
I am what they call a plotster (somewhere in between a pantser and a plotter). I have a basic outline in my head, though I never write it down. And then I write. And then it all comes together nicely in the end. Hey, if it works, it works, right?

What are you currently working on?
So I had five books written in the Bloodborn Series, the first of which is published and the second is coming out soon. I was in the process of writing a story about a princess and a druid with magic and dragons, but then the idea for #6 in the Bloodborn Series hit me like a brick. I tried my HARDEST to ignore the call of the book because I needed to finish my druid story. But the pressure built and built until I couldn’t handle it anymore. I opened a new document, and the story just exploded. I’m two weeks into the explosion and I’ve already written 25,000 words. The story was desperate to get out, and I’m absolutely in LOVE.

What is it about?

In the very first chapter, Dracula (the king of vampires) is killed in battle, and his grandson, Jesper, inherits the throne. Within the first month of his rule, he finds five armies on his doorstep, and after the battle when Dracula had fallen, the city wasn’t ready for another war. He is forced into a treaty to take the daughter of the elven king as his mate, but little does he know that she has deadly plans of her own. There is more at stake than just his heart… Or is there? An iron dagger can do a lot of damage after all.

Who are the characters?

Jesper Degore: He’s a vampire. He’s frightening and can be ruthless. He’s driven by his duties as the new vampire king, and thinks of little else except his work. He’s convinced he’s not able to fall in love, that his heart is only filled with cobwebs and echoes.

Alavara Elroris: Daughter of the elven king. He has honed her since birth to be a deadly assassin. Stealthy as shadows. Quick with her knives. She can take down eight male vampires without any weapons using her knowledge of the body’s weak points.

What is your most favorite character to write in Bloodborn?
I had a lot of fun writing Adam Degore because he’s so serious and his knowledge of herbs and how they can hurt or kill someone is entertaining.

I also loved writing Zachariah Degore (Adam’s younger brother). He’s been a feral vampire for half of his life, and he has to relearn what it means to actually live his life rather than waste away in a dark cellar. The second book in the Bloodborn Series is about Zachariah and his journey of self-discovery. Oh, and don’t forget the romance! He’s determined that his first love be his only love.


5 Things Adam Degore Can’t Live Without
1. A weapon. Doesn’t matter what kind. Sword, dagger, nails. Heck, he could probably even kill someone with a twig if he was determined enough.
2. A second weapon. In case the first weapon doesn’t work. But of course, he’d need to conceal this one. In his boot. Beneath his armor. Maybe even inside his glove. You can never be too careful.
3. His horse. Doesn’t have a name. Doesn’t need one. The blood hunter brand on the creature’s shoulder speaks for itself. If you steal his horse, he will hunt you down.
4. Several reliable herbs. Violet brittlebrush to knock a man out. Wolfsbane to stop lycanthropy just in case. Perhaps even a few healing herbs. Being a blood hunter is dangerous work after all.
5. His brother. Everything he has done up until this point has been for his brother. Becoming a blood hunter. Dedicating his life to hunting dark creatures. If only saving him was within his own reach.




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