Fun Friday Q&A: Shawna Thomas revisits!

I'm really happy to host one of my favorite new (well, sort of new) authors today...again. Okay, truth. Shawna's debut book completely won me over last year, so she's been here before. I'm also sure I stalk follow her more on social media than she'd probably like, especially when you consider how crazy busy her schedule is. I seriously doubt she has time for stalker-types. Even so and since she has a new book out—the first in a new series!—I invited her to revisit my blog and catch up. And since I have already read this book, I can tell you that you're in for another treat.

Book one of the Triune Stones
After her grandfather's death, Sara inherits an ancient pendant and a near-impossible quest—master the mysterious pendant's source of magic. Driven to do so, she must find the other two stones of power, long considered lost, while preventing an unknown enemy from finding her first.

Unprepared and alone, she travels to where the keepers of the stones, the Siobani, were last seen. Along the way she meets Tobar, leader of the nomadic Heleini tribe. As Sara wrestles with feelings for this intriguing man, she is also invigorated with her grandfather's passion to find the ancient Siobani race.

After a rival tribe kidnaps Tobar's son and heir, Sara must harness the stone's healing magic to unite the tribes and save the boy. But as the dark power stalking her gains ground, will she continue on her quest to reach the Siobani or risk everything to save the warring tribes from eliminating each other?

Shawna Thomas

ANGELA: Welcome to my blog again, Shawna! It’s been almost a year since you were last here. Your book ALTERED DESTINY, which I loved loved loved won the RT Reviewers Choice Award for 2011 and you signed a three-book contract with Carina Press. You also had a baby! Congratulations! Sounds like you’ve had a busy year! How do you juggle it all and manage to keep writing? Seriously, I feel like an underachiever compared to you.

SHAWNA: Ah, thank you and thank you so much for having me on your blog, Angela! Sometimes I get discouraged because I’m not as prolific as I’d like to be. So no need to feel like an underachiever! I fall in to that same pit from time to time. I couldn’t juggle any of it without help. For instance, right now my husband has taken over baby duty so I can talk to you. I can hear him singing to her in the living room. There are times the laundry piles up and my room is a cluttered mess, but I’m learning to prioritize. Oh, Carina exercised their option on the fourth book in the Triune Series so there will be four!

ANGELA: Four books! That's fantastic! Tell us about JOURNEY OF AWAKENING and the Triune Stones series. Where did the idea for the story come from?

SHAWNA: The idea for this book originated as a dream. I dreamed about a woman named Ilythra and a prince. I’ve looked up the name and I’m pretty sure it’s original to my imagination. Ilythra wouldn’t leave me alone. She haunted me; the feeling of the dream haunted me—the world she lived in. Images and snatches of conversation followed me around. Finally I started writing everything long hand on the back of a piece of paper. (I still have it somewhere.) I suppose, looking back, it was my journey of awakening to the fact I was, and am, a writer. Yes, I’m a little bit corny, too. ; )

ANGELA: Aren't we all? ;) Tell us about your heroine in this one, Sara. Is she as awesome as Selia from ALTERED DESTINY was? 

SHAWNA: I’m glad you think Selia is awesome. I’m kinda fond of her, too. Sara is a different kind of awesome. Selia was bad ass from day one. Sara is much more reserved, a little naïve, and has a lot to learn. However, she shares Selia’s I-can-do-it-so-get-out-of-the-way attitude. Sara has had a burden on her shoulders since the day she was born. She lived, breathed and studied to accomplish a task given to her by her grandfather. Eventually she has to decide if the task is something her grandfather wanted for her, or something she wants for herself.

ANGELA: I know book 1 is just being released, but any teases about what book 2 in the series is about? When can we expect that one? 

SHAWNA: Book 2, Journey of Dominion, will release in May of 2013. If book one is the awakening of a legend, book 2 is the fall of a legend. LOL Enough said. Book 3 will be out in August.

ANGELA: What are you working on next, and when can we read it? 

SHAWNA: I am currently working on book four in the Triune Stone series. I believe it will be out early 2014, but I don’t have a date yet.

ANGELA: Let’s get to know Shawna the person with these questions. I know you love to cook (and especially bake), so what’s your favorite comfort food? 

SHAWNA: Believe it or not, it’s hash: cubed fried potatoes and crumbled ground beef mixed together. I eat it with ketchup and wrap it in a tortilla. It’s fast and easy and takes me back to my childhood. Second to that would be roast beef and mashed potatoes. I may love to experiment with fancy dishes but it’s the simple ones that comfort me.

ANGELA: Which five people (real, fictional, historical) would you invite to dinner and why? 

SHAWNA: Stephen King—although I can’t read his books because they give me nightmares, I admire him immensely; Nathan from Altered Destiny—I’d really like to get to know this character better so I can tell his story; Nora Roberts—I think she’d be as witty as she is talented; Carlos Guzman—It might sound sentimental, but I honestly couldn’t think of this dinner without my other half; Crystal Posey—because she’d kill me if I didn’t invite her to any dinner in which Nora Roberts was in attendance and it might just take that to get the woman to fly to California. She’s afraid of earthquakes.

ANGELA: What’s the last book you read? 

SHAWNA: Steele’s Edge by Ilona Andrews. Love everything by Ilona Andrews. The couple making up Ilona Andrews was on the short list for a dinner invitation above.

ANGELA: Celebrity crush? 

SHAWNA: I pondered this aloud and my husband says it’s Johnny Depp. Who am I to argue with him. ; )

ANGELA: I would like to thank Shawna for visiting with me today! She's such a nice gal, she's giving away prizes! She's giving this beautiful blue pendant away to someone who comments on one of her blog posts (including this one) from Feb. 4 to March 4. You can also comment at her blog and the Carina Press blog.

You can learn more about Shawna Thomas online at www.shawnathomas.com.