Dominion Blog Tour: excerpt, interview & giveaway

One teen girl. Two hot guy angels. A dream of murder. We are today's stop on the Dominion Book Tour presented by Bewitching Book Tours. We have our interview with author Melody Manful, an excerpt, and there's a tour-wide giveaway to enter.

Dominion (Guardian Angels Book One) by Melody Manful 

YA paranormal fantasy*paperback & e-book, 248 pages

Self-published (February 16, 2013)

Book Trailer

I Dare You. 

Look Over Your Shoulders. 

Do You See Them? 

They are behind you... 

They are always behind you. 

Abigail Cells had a nightmare the day before she met Gideon, the new guy in school who has every girl drooling just to be near him. In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really? Should Abby allow herself to fall completely for him, or is he the next disaster waiting to happen?

Excerpt:

“I’m going to divide you into groups for our Titanic memorabilia speech, which if you all remember, is this week.” Mr. Bernard said. “Speeches are due before the week is over.”

One of the students murmured, “Oh, no.”

“Mr. Silas, you and Miss Cells will be group one,” Mr. Bernard said, looking at Tristan and me. “Miss Tate, you and Mr. Duran are—” Mr. Bernard was interrupted by the sound of the door as it busted open. Everyone looked toward the noise.

Standing in the doorway was the guy I bumped into. The moment I saw him, my heart dropped. I prayed he was lost and wasn’t in our class. Frankly, I didn’t understand my uneasiness upon seeing him. He gave me bad vibes.

“You must be Mr. Chase,” Mr. Bernard said, and the boy walked toward him.

“I am,” he answered. He looked around the classroom, and his gaze stopped on Tristan.

To my surprise, Tristan looked like he knew the boy because he gave him a half-hearted smile.

“You’re late,” Mr. Bernard said, and the boy looked at the clock on the wall.

“I was actually here before the bell rang.” His eyes moved to mine. “Miss Cells can vouch for me.” I froze at the mention of my name. I wondered how he knew my name, but then I remembered I was known pretty much everywhere—the price of being famous. “She bumped into me and ran off.”

Someone please shoot me now. A few people chuckled. Jake cast a backward glance at me and grinned.

“You’re excused this time, Mr. Chase. Find a seat. I’ll assign you to a group.”

“Mr. Chase can join Jake and me,” Danny volunteered. I wasn’t surprised.

“It’s Gideon,” the boy said. “Gideon Chase.”

“What?” I blurted out in surprise at the mention of his name, and then all eyes turned to me.

Gideon? His name was actually Gideon? Why Gideon?

“Miss Cells, are you all right?” My outburst had obviously startled Mr. Bernard. Gideon stood beside him, confused, but the moment his eyes met mine, he smiled as if he knew why I was scared.

“I—I’m sorry, I didn’t—” I looked down in humiliation.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. This guy couldn’t be the same Gideon from my nightmare.

“Well,” Mr. Bernard continued, “take a seat, Mr. Chase.” 

My first impression of Gideon was that he was hot.

My second impression of him was dangerous.

My third impression of him was murderer, because if he was anything like the guy from my nightmare, he was going to kill me.

1) When did you know you wanted to write and when did you begin writing Dominion?
I started writing at a very young age, mostly songs, and soon they turned into cheesy stories I’d tell my friends and mom. I realized I wanted to become a writer when my I was about eleven and couldn’t stop writing in my journal. I started writing Dominion some years back with inspiration I got from my grandmother, and a story I was already working on at the time.

2) How did the concept of Grandinians and Lumenians come about?
The concept came from stories I heard as a child. I wanted to create two different worlds, the same in many things, but one thing makes them so different from each other. In the end, I think I somewhere accomplished two different worlds that somehow are unique in their own way.

3) How long did it take to write the first book in the Guardian Angels series?
It took what seemed like forever! Something that looked like five years, but now that I think about it, I could say hundred years and it wouldn’t be a lie, because that’s how long I think it took to write this book! My fault really, I kept, writing, deleting, writing and deleting some more J but frankly, I think the final work made up for all those long days.

4) Did any characters surprise you during the writing process? Any scenes become something totally different than what you set out to write?
Valoel as a character surprised me, in the end of the first book her character had more to tell than I originally intended for her to reveal in the first book. There is a scene in Dominion that turned out way different than what I set out to write. The scene is between Gideon and Abigail during a confrontation about something Abigail almost did. I wanted to write an ‘angry’ scene. Some fire throwing, roofs and walls crumbling, screaming, tears, someone getting hurt, and Valoel being the hero, but in the end, it turned out to be just… different… too different. I surprised myself when I went in that direction, but I liked the outcome so I didn’t bother changing it.

5) What is the allure of angels to you?
Defiantly their wings and heavenly backgrounds. But mostly the wings, because I’d always wanted to be superman, and I think wings are one step closer to that goal! It’s the next big thing J

6) How would you describe your book to me if we were standing together at a check-out line?
Oh I see you also got that cereal. I got one too, my siblings and I fight for this at the breakfast table. Oh, that remains me, I have a book coming out, which has some fighting scenes too, though not about cereals, but how cool would it be if it were? My book is called Dominion, which is a story about a seventeen-year-old girl, Abigail, who thought she was on the ride of a lifetime when she find out that guardian angels existence, but her life started crumbling down when she find out not all guardian angels were here to guide, and her ride was about to land with an explosion… and, oh it’s your turn to check out:)

7) What's in store for Abigail and the angels in book two?
In the next book the characters have a lot of choices to make. Their lives are heading in different directions, and theirs a storm coming that none of them are prepared for. One character is trying to run away from newfound reality, but they all have to grow up, and most of them are finding that hard to do, and the changes unacceptable. Gideon on the other hand has some very big shoes to fill, and he isn’t ready for them.

8) Are you working on anything else?
Apart from working on the second book to the series, I’m not working on anything else, unless you count all this homework I’d have to do after this interview.

9) Can you share with us your journey to publication?
A really confusing and hard journey. Some agents liked my story, but can’t work with me because I live so far away. So I tried my hands on self publishing, which didn’t work out, because my publisher and I couldn’t agree on some of the terms, so in the end I decided to give Amazon Create Space a chance, and I found out, they were really good.

10)What are some of your thoughts on the state of publishing today?
I think in the traditional publishing company, it’s become too hard for any author to get in contact with them or meet their terms. Some of the self publishing companies have also become way too demanding, and taking the one right that makes self publishing, self publishing, meaning you the author deciding how much, and when due date is. I think because of this things, many people will lean more and more to publishing houses like Hulu and Create Space, because there, no one bothers you so much, or make you run and sweat through invisible walls.

About the Author: 

 Melody Manful 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Melody Manful was born on June 8, 1994, in a town in Ghana called Tema. She started writing at a very early age and has been doing it ever since. Melody has two siblings and lives in Denmark with her family. She loves music, reading, and writing, and she puts a great deal into making her friends happy.  

My thoughts:

There are lots of books about angels and sometimes it's hard to differentiate from the lot. When an author does create something unique, as I reader I take note. Melody Manful has created a unique concept with her Guardian Angels series. This concept of good (Tristan) and bad (Gideon) 'guardian' angels working in conjunction with each other was interesting. The good/bad twist reminded me of how we wrestle with our conscious when deciding on something.

There's a teen girl, Abigail, who sees her own murder in a dream. When the guy, Gideon, who kills her shows up in her school--quite alive and very hot--she finds herself drawn to him. She wonders who he is and if her dream was exactly that--in her mind or a premonition of some kind. Though the love triangle has been overdone in YA, it was effective here and I think it worked because of Gideon. Watching Gideon as the evil one being conflicted intrigued me and I couldn't help but like him. Gideon and Tristan were well crafted and kept my interest, as did Abigail, the girl caught between the evil and good guardian angels.

I thought the opening lines from book's blurb sounded childish and has been overdone. Coupled with a manga-lite cover, I would have pegged this as an upper middle grade/lower YA book. While I enjoyed my time in Abigail's world there were some choppy transitions between scenes, some of the pacing was too slow and Abigail's lifestyle became a bit too much to believe. As an angel book fan, I liked the premise of Dominion's angelic beings.

Rating: 3 liked it

Cover comment: The art for this book is too 'cutesy' for me with its' manga-like look. I can't help but think younger YA readers may find the art appealing. I'm not crazy about it.

Book source: I received a copy from the author in return for my honest review during a book tour.

There is a tour-wide giveaway with 5 free e-books of Dominion and 2 signed Dominion paperbacks (this giveaway is international). Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway