Enemy Through The Gates Blog Tour: Guest post, excerpt & GIVEAWAY
Enemy Through the Gates
by D.T. Dyllin
Genre: Paranormal fantasy
Format: paperback, 424 pages
Published February 10th 2012 by iUniverse
Blurb: P. J. Stone, like most eighteen-year-old girls, is a little boy crazy and somewhat obsessed with finding the perfect boyfriend. Some days she feels like she might be the last remaining virgin in her entire high school, and maybe even the entire tri-state area.
After a traumatic night at a friend’s party, P. J. realizes what she truly wants has been right under her nose all along. Bryn O’Bannon, her best friend and partner in crime since age five, is head over heels in love with her, and she feels the same about him.
But P. J.’s life isn’t that simple. She’s a member of a separate society that exists secretly among the rest of the world; the society raises gifted individuals to protect the world from interdimensional interlopers, and P. J. was taught to put duty before her heart. She is expected to choose a suitable mate in order to perpetuate the Seer line. Unfortunately, Bryn is a Guardian and is forbidden to date—let alone mate with—a Seer such as herself.
As if figuring out her love life isn’t complicated enough, P. J. begins having visions of a threat to her world only she is able to perceive. Now, she must concoct and execute a plan to avert world disaster while at the same time avoiding the dissolution of her love life.
Topic: Can you share with us the fantasy world you created in your story and how it came into being?
Hello ravenously reading Reader Girls! Today I’m going to be chatting about the fantasy world in my novel ‘Enemy Through The Gates’ and how I created it.
I’m not sure what it’s like for other author’s, but for me…I don’t sit down and actively map my fantasy worlds. All of my ideas come to me from my dreams. Sometimes it’s just a particular character, or sometimes it’s the backdrop for the story. But once I have the first little spark of creation, everything else seems to fall into place. In the case of ‘Enemy Through The Gates’, I dreamt that I was in P.J.’s head for what is now the opening scene of the book. I could hear her thoughts, see through her eyes, and yet I was still me. It was if I was watching a narrated movie from inside her head. P.J.’s presence seemed to haunt me. So by the end of the next day the first few chapters to ‘Enemy Through The Gates’ were written, and the complete idea for the series was firmly implanted within my mind.
After initial inspiration hits, my main focus when writing is to make my fantasy world as believable as possible. I want the reader to be able to believe what’s happening in my book could actually happen in real life, no matter how fantastic the premise might be. It’s really about setting up world rules, and clearly defining them. For example, in my story, the secret world that exists within our world is populated by four basic types of ‘gifted’ humans.
Seers: They possess the ability to see any danger or threat to our world along with any matters pertaining to the gates. (Gates are a series of portals or “doors” throughout our dimension linking it to other dimensions.)
Gatekeepers: They have the ability to manipulate various energy fields, including the energy around the gates. They can open and close the gates, which comes in handy with shutting out unwanted visitors to our world.
Speakers: They have the ability to understand and speak all languages of any origin.
Guardians: They have super strength, super speed like Superman (minus the vulnerability to Kryptonite) but can be injured like any mortal human.
Once the basic parameters for the fantasy world are in place (such as the attributes of the ‘gifted’ humans in ‘Enemy Through The Gates) then as far as I’m concerned, the hard part is over.
Then comes the fun part. I begin working out how a character will react to the difficulties I throw at them. I suppose it’s the actress in me which prompts me to write only in a first person narrative because I like to lose myself in a character like P.J. It’s similar to acting in a play or movie, a part of me blends in emotionally with a character like P.J. yet I react to that world as if looking through P.J.’s colored glasses. It is my heartfelt conviction that realistic characters are what matters most in any story. And in my case, they sometimes surprise me with what they end up doing.
When all is said and done, I think the most intriguing part of constructing a ‘world within a world’ for a novel is playing with all the ‘what ifs’ in one’s imagination. There are an infinite amount of possibilities for countless types of fantasy worlds, and they can all live in blissful co-existence on our bookshelves.
Well, that about wraps up all I can say about the fantasy world existent in my novel without revealing too many details, because I want readers to discover for themselves the secret world of ‘Enemy Through The Gates’.
It’s now time to give a roaring rant of appreciation to the ravenously reading Reader Girls for having me here today for lucky stop number 3 on my virtual book tour! I hope you all have had as much fun as I have! J
An excerpt from Enemy Through the Gates:
I was still staring at the screen when Bryn snatched my phone out of my grasp. “That’s a resounding no,” he said, anger flaring in his eyes as he read the message from Jeremy.
“Hey, Bryn. I have to . . . remember?” I made a grab for my phone, but he kept it just out of my reach with his long arms.
“You don’t have to anything. You went on a date with him, now it’s over. Time for Mr. Gatekeeper to move on along from you.”
“Bryn,” I whined. “Just give me my damn phone.”
“Why? Do you want to go out with him again or something?”
Was he kidding? “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I don’t want to, it’s just I need to look like I’m giving these guys a chance. Besides he was a nice guy, I should be able to get another date out of him without him trying something with me.”
The look that washed over Bryn’s face told me that had not been the right thing to say. “You are not going out with him again.” He said through clenched teeth.
“Bryn, what’s wrong with you? Stop acting all jealous and demanding. No matter how much I love you, there’s absolutely no future for us if this is how you’re going to treat me.” I raised my chin up and glared at him angrily. There was no way he was going to order me around. It didn’t matter that I loved him; I absolutely would not tolerate that kind of behavior from him or anyone else for that matter.
After a traumatic night at a friend’s party, P. J. realizes what she truly wants has been right under her nose all along. Bryn O’Bannon, her best friend and partner in crime since age five, is head over heels in love with her, and she feels the same about him.
But P. J.’s life isn’t that simple. She’s a member of a separate society that exists secretly among the rest of the world; the society raises gifted individuals to protect the world from interdimensional interlopers, and P. J. was taught to put duty before her heart. She is expected to choose a suitable mate in order to perpetuate the Seer line. Unfortunately, Bryn is a Guardian and is forbidden to date—let alone mate with—a Seer such as herself.
As if figuring out her love life isn’t complicated enough, P. J. begins having visions of a threat to her world only she is able to perceive. Now, she must concoct and execute a plan to avert world disaster while at the same time avoiding the dissolution of her love life.
Topic: Can you share with us the fantasy world you created in your story and how it came into being?
Hello ravenously reading Reader Girls! Today I’m going to be chatting about the fantasy world in my novel ‘Enemy Through The Gates’ and how I created it.
I’m not sure what it’s like for other author’s, but for me…I don’t sit down and actively map my fantasy worlds. All of my ideas come to me from my dreams. Sometimes it’s just a particular character, or sometimes it’s the backdrop for the story. But once I have the first little spark of creation, everything else seems to fall into place. In the case of ‘Enemy Through The Gates’, I dreamt that I was in P.J.’s head for what is now the opening scene of the book. I could hear her thoughts, see through her eyes, and yet I was still me. It was if I was watching a narrated movie from inside her head. P.J.’s presence seemed to haunt me. So by the end of the next day the first few chapters to ‘Enemy Through The Gates’ were written, and the complete idea for the series was firmly implanted within my mind.
After initial inspiration hits, my main focus when writing is to make my fantasy world as believable as possible. I want the reader to be able to believe what’s happening in my book could actually happen in real life, no matter how fantastic the premise might be. It’s really about setting up world rules, and clearly defining them. For example, in my story, the secret world that exists within our world is populated by four basic types of ‘gifted’ humans.
Seers: They possess the ability to see any danger or threat to our world along with any matters pertaining to the gates. (Gates are a series of portals or “doors” throughout our dimension linking it to other dimensions.)
Gatekeepers: They have the ability to manipulate various energy fields, including the energy around the gates. They can open and close the gates, which comes in handy with shutting out unwanted visitors to our world.
Speakers: They have the ability to understand and speak all languages of any origin.
Guardians: They have super strength, super speed like Superman (minus the vulnerability to Kryptonite) but can be injured like any mortal human.
Once the basic parameters for the fantasy world are in place (such as the attributes of the ‘gifted’ humans in ‘Enemy Through The Gates) then as far as I’m concerned, the hard part is over.
Then comes the fun part. I begin working out how a character will react to the difficulties I throw at them. I suppose it’s the actress in me which prompts me to write only in a first person narrative because I like to lose myself in a character like P.J. It’s similar to acting in a play or movie, a part of me blends in emotionally with a character like P.J. yet I react to that world as if looking through P.J.’s colored glasses. It is my heartfelt conviction that realistic characters are what matters most in any story. And in my case, they sometimes surprise me with what they end up doing.
When all is said and done, I think the most intriguing part of constructing a ‘world within a world’ for a novel is playing with all the ‘what ifs’ in one’s imagination. There are an infinite amount of possibilities for countless types of fantasy worlds, and they can all live in blissful co-existence on our bookshelves.
Well, that about wraps up all I can say about the fantasy world existent in my novel without revealing too many details, because I want readers to discover for themselves the secret world of ‘Enemy Through The Gates’.
It’s now time to give a roaring rant of appreciation to the ravenously reading Reader Girls for having me here today for lucky stop number 3 on my virtual book tour! I hope you all have had as much fun as I have! J
An excerpt from Enemy Through the Gates:
I was still staring at the screen when Bryn snatched my phone out of my grasp. “That’s a resounding no,” he said, anger flaring in his eyes as he read the message from Jeremy.
“Hey, Bryn. I have to . . . remember?” I made a grab for my phone, but he kept it just out of my reach with his long arms.
“You don’t have to anything. You went on a date with him, now it’s over. Time for Mr. Gatekeeper to move on along from you.”
“Bryn,” I whined. “Just give me my damn phone.”
“Why? Do you want to go out with him again or something?”
Was he kidding? “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I don’t want to, it’s just I need to look like I’m giving these guys a chance. Besides he was a nice guy, I should be able to get another date out of him without him trying something with me.”
The look that washed over Bryn’s face told me that had not been the right thing to say. “You are not going out with him again.” He said through clenched teeth.
“Bryn, what’s wrong with you? Stop acting all jealous and demanding. No matter how much I love you, there’s absolutely no future for us if this is how you’re going to treat me.” I raised my chin up and glared at him angrily. There was no way he was going to order me around. It didn’t matter that I loved him; I absolutely would not tolerate that kind of behavior from him or anyone else for that matter.
About the author: Cynical-Optimist. Chocolate-holic. Sarcasm Addict. Paranormal Believer. Self imposed Insomniac. Sci-Fi Dork. Animal Lover. Writer. Those are just a few words to describe D. T. Dyllin. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and very spoiled GSD. ‘Enemy Through The Gates’ is her debut novel.
Links: Blog/site | Facebook | Twitter
Giveaway: The author will be awarding a $15 GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour and to the host with the most comments (excluding the author’s and the host’s).
The tour dates can be found here.
Links: Blog/site | Facebook | Twitter
Giveaway: The author will be awarding a $15 GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour and to the host with the most comments (excluding the author’s and the host’s).
The tour dates can be found here.
This tour is presented by Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you so much for hosting my tour today!!! :)
ReplyDelete~D.T. Dyllin
I love the excerpt! And the concept sounds so original, great world-building:)
ReplyDeleteccfioriole at gmail dot com
Thank you for hosting today!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great story line. I hope this is only the first book in a series.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book and your world seems very complex and well thought out ( I love that in books).
ReplyDeleteChristina~ Thank you so much for the compliment!
ReplyDeleteMomJane~ Yes, it is the first book in a Trilogy. The second one should be out sometime this fall and the third in 2013.
Patricia~ Thank you as well for the compliment! And yes I did put a lot of thought into making sure my world seemed realistic, as I stated in my guest post. I'm glad there are people out there that appreciate it!
~D.T. Dyllin
I think I would like to have the ability of a Speaker. It would be wonderful to be fluent wherever I went. What a fun ability that would be.
ReplyDeletecatherinelee100 at gmail dot com
Catherine Lee aka the sarcastic librarian~
ReplyDeleteBeing a Speaker would be pretty amazing! And when I say they have the ability to understand and speak all languages of any origin...that includes animals, insects...you name it. Think of the possibilities. *Evil laugh*
~D.T. Dyllin
I second that sinister laugh. I'm imagining me ruling the world by leading the birds and the insects...Ha Ha Ha.
DeleteI'd like to be a Guardian I think. I like the whole idea of them.
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Sounds very interesting! I would love to read this.
ReplyDeletefelecia@twinoaksfl.org