Color Blind
Color Blind # 1
Genre- YA paranormal
By- Penny Miller
All her life Harmony Phillips has felt defective. Growing up in a paranormal community where magikal abilities come from the wavelengths of color, a color blind girl is worthless, and they haven't let her forget it. No one but her adoptive parents, Charlie a Were-Lion and Sarah a Witch, along with her best friend Tesch, a Siren, have ever given her an ounce of esteem. When a fit of outrage unlocks the color yellow to her eyes, Harmony passes out cold with shock over her eggs and accidentally glamours her nemesis Challen Parks into a cowardly golden retriever. As other colors unfold before her eyes, so do new abilities. Love and friendship get turned upside down as Harmony struggles to have faith in people, discovering they are not always as they seem. The misfit becomes the outlaw as she is once again different from everyone else. What began as joy turns to peril when the paranormal Council finds out she is more than a Witch, or a Were or a Fae... oh my.
Author Spotlight on Penny Miller!
Please tell us about yourself using 3 adjectives, 1 quirk and a pop culture addiction
I’m an intelligent, smartass, fluffy Ingress player who sings and dances her way through Walmart. I wouldn’t be surprised if my picture showed up on the Walmart “fail” website.
Who do you consider the most swoon-worthy man/woman in the literary world? How about on tv/in the movies?
Swoon worthy in the literary world? *smiling* Are we talking authors or characters? By and large authors can write hot stuff, but usually aren’t, at least superficially. But I think Laurell K. Hamilton is an exceptionally beautiful woman.
Now actors/actresses? That could be a lengthy list. It’s their job to be gorgeous. Personally, Jensen Ackles from Supernatural trips my trigger.
How do you come up with character names? How do you come up with novel titles?
Harmony is both the name of the main character and my use of foreshadowing. Tesch is named for the radio personality John Tesh because I listen to his program “Intelligence for Your Life” on my way home from work. I got the name Madame Osza came from letters being burned out the the Mazzio’s Pizza sign in our town. (ha ha ha ha). I even use my friend’s name occasionally. Or versions of them. So the character names can come from anywhere. The book Title itself came from obviously, the theme of Harmony’s being colorblind, but it was the publisher’s concept to split the compound word into two parts. Color Blind and that helped me to flesh out the next two book titles Color Full and Color Less and decide how to divide the story content between the titles.
Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to be an author?
Find all the ‘was’ words in your manuscript and exchange them for action verbs if possible. Try not to have a lot of passive voice narration.
Show, don’t tell. Don’t stand outside the story, describing to the reader everything that’s going on like a distant God. Attach the bits of background to actions if you can. It helps keep things interesting.
Write, edit, then edit again, and then again, then have someone (professional) edit your manuscript for you. It may cost a bit, but it’s worth it.
Remember to give your readers room to imagine some things for themselves. Don’t spend two pages waxing poetic on the way the sunlight hit the water on a perfect summer’s day. I think a good story is somewhat of a paint by number picture. Give the basic picture outline, set up the color schemes, but let the reader finish putting it together.
Oh yeah. Seek professional counseling. Seriously, you have to have a strong sense self-worth, confidence and determination to do this. Not everyone is going to love what you write. Publishers will say no more often than yes. If you don’t have the psyche to handle rejection then you might want to leave that novel in the drawer for a bit longer.
This or That-
*Morning or Night? Night. I’ve always been a night owl.
*Vanilla or Chocolate? Chocolate. Definitely chocolate.
*Summer or Winter? Summer. I hate cold.
*Ebook or Paperback? Mmm. Paperback. I read both, but there is a tactile pleasure in holding a book. And the smell of printed paper is gift from God.
*Fantasy or Paranormal? Really, can’t I have both? Okay, then Paranormal.
On a final note, I just wanted to so thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Now that your followers know a little about me, I hope they will take the time to check out Color Blind for themselves. Its a great book with more than a few laughs, a couple tears and a lot of good story. And as always, Happy Reading!
#whatcolorisyourmagik
About the Author-
Penny Miller is a born and bred Oklahoman. She has a nursing degree from Eastern Penny Miller Oklahoma State College and is a Registered Nurse in addition to being an author. Penny wrote her first short story complete with illustrations when she was seven-years-old and has been writing ideas and bits of dialogue ever since. As a child, her mother regularly read to her classic faery tales. It was those stories that ignited her imagination and attraction to the magical and whimsical. With her three children Robert, Amy and Cheyenne, she carried on the tradition of introducing them to fantasy and other worlds through stories. Three years ago, she co-authored erotic romance e-books under the pseudonym Jp Archer. At that time her daughters asked her when she was going to write stories they could read. Penny went to her keyboard and dug in and her debut solo novel, Color Blind, was born. Most importantly, creating a story in the Young
Adult/Paranormal genre is where she found her true voice as a writer. She hopes readers will become fans of her heroine Harmony Phillips and follow her story through the next phases; Colorful and Colorless.
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