Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Stansbury's First Featured Author: Desiree Finkbeiner




While Stansbury is not always the friendliest of towns to visitors, we do love it when authors come to visit. Today, we are proud to feature Desiree Finkbeiner and her novel, Ethos: Morning Star (Book #1 in the Ethos series). 


When in town, she met up with Shelley, who always loves a good book, and Shelley asked Desiree if she could give us a preview of her book? What's the plot? What inspired her to write this kind of story?
Desiree was kind enough to respond:


In short, it’s written in first person, from the heroine’s perspective. She’s a normal college girl until she has an accident that warrants a trip to the hospital. Her injuries heal quickly and her lab results are off the charts. It’s a mystery as to why bizarre happenings are overshadowing her, until Kalen, the hero, enters the picture.
He reveals to her an ancient prophecy that transcends time and the planes of existence, challenging her take on reality, and Brianna is thrust into a race for her life. With the balance of their worlds at stake, Kalen takes Brianna to his world, where he can better protect her… unanswered questions would be addressed by the council that resides in the mountain cities of Ethos, so they take up their journey.
During their trek to the mountains, they undergo a series of trials, and find themselves facing the ultimate choice. Throughout their perilous adventure, they are tempted by forbidden love, knowing they can never be together, but it’s that same temptation that leads them to find their greatest strengths.
It’s a story about integrity, duty, agency and self mastery. I wanted to write something that would teach a moral, inspired by an apparent lack in action by the people of today. People everywhere seem complacent, and the liberty of those same people is on the brink of destruction. My series is a call to action; to act or be acted upon. It’s about choice, the very thing that makes us superior beings… and the same element that can ultimately lead to destruction, if not exercised wisely.


Shelley was pretty excited to read the book, and cancelled her plans with Gil because Gil had nothing really planned for her except to tell her that she should make plans with other people sometimes because he really wasn't all that much interested in doing much of anything. So Shelley went home to find out more and order a copy. 


Finding the trailer was easy enough...



Shelley also discovered the following information and posted it on the bulletin board inside Charlie's where people in the Stansbury like to share things with one another:







Shelley originally bought the Kindle for Jenny Kennisaw as a Halloween present (Shelley always gave her friends Halloween gifts because it was her favorite holiday and rather than give children candy, she gave everyone presents. She gave out candy on Christmas.) But Jenny told her that she had no interest in fiction and gave her the Kindle back as a Christmas gift. Shelley accepted it gratefully and quickly found out how much she loved it. She especially loved it because Stansbury did not have a book store and she hated to drive and hated waiting for things to be delivered to her. 

She quickly discovered Desiree's book and downloaded it and promised herself that she would send the author a lovely note and, post a review once she had finished reading it (because she liked the idea that she could contribute to the collective conversation about the book...and it was polite).




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