Guest Author Interview - Mercedes Guy

In this week's Guest Author Interview I am joined by Mercedes Guy who talks about her debut novel What It Took To Realize & Voodoo, Daughter of the Ocean Book One:

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Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
I am Mercedes Guy, author of What It Took To Realize & Voodoo, Daughters of the Ocean Book One. I am also a poet, a blogger, avid reader, and huge Alexz Johnson fan.

What first inspired you to start writing?
It was 6th grade. We were doing poetry month in English class. It was a huge unit, we even had a special guest come in for most the unit to help us learn about poetry and how to write it. This is when I learned poetry could be fun, silly, but mostly a great form of expression. Ending the poetry unit we transitioned into short stories, and it was then I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to become a writer, to make stories come to life.

Where did the idea for the Daughters of the Ocean series come from?
The idea for this series was a working idea I would come back to often. I have been in love with mermaids for as long as I can remember. What girl wasn't after watching Disney's Little Mermaid? At first I started with a girl who could transform between Mer and human on a whim. She wore a pearl necklace, a pearl for each year she had lived, made by her mother: the ocean. Eventually, with more research and time, the story developed to a Mer tribe that were granted the ability to be human for a year after they turned seventeen. Morgan, of What It Took To Realize & Voodoo, Daughters of the Ocean Book One, being the only exception of course.

Which book has had the greatest impact on you?
Midnight Pearls: A retelling of "The Little Mermaid". This book was a gem found hidden in my High School library. I ate it up in a day, and fell in love. The librarians, when I asked about it sometime later, couldn't even tell me the title or where it ended up, they didn't even know they had it! But the story Debbie Viguié weaves probably impacting my own writing more than I realized

Where do you see your future in writing?
I hope someday I am up there with the stars! I work full time, and self-publishing is a rough path, but I am not one to give up easily when writing has been my dream since middle-school.

What are your favourite song lyrics?
This one is tough! I had to stop making passwords my favorite songs, because I have too many. Alexz Johnson's "Voodoo" was a song that I fell in love with the moment she put it on her website and when she released her first album with her brother. It wasn't until I bought her live Skipping Stone Tour Album she sang my favorite line, "You never let a devil in your head".

What makes your stories stand out?
I believe it is my unique take on the mythical world that makes these stories stand out. From mermaid who become human on their seventeenth birthday to mermaid-vampire hybrids. Elves who turn to wolves, pixies who want to take over the world through politics? And my favorite, the true form of a siren...But I don't want to say too much!

What are you working on at the moment?
Out of the Ocean, Daughters of the Ocean Book Two is in its final stages. After that, I will of course be working on Book Three: Meeting Destiny. But a little side project I am working on is called Wildest Dreams. It features a forbidden relationship between a young college professor, Mr. Prent and his student Rae. My favorite part about this is the creative freedom of writing her poems and journal entries. My cousin Emma Cromley is helping me out on this one and is doing all the illustrations as they would be done by Rae.

Tell us about your latest release and how we can find out more.
What It Took To Realize & Voodoo, Daughter of the Ocean Book One was published December 5, 2014. The story follows half-human, half-mermaid Morgan as she struggles to figure out who she is. She's branded as a freak until Leroy sets his sights on her, then her bully Ginger seems to be the last of her worries. When she has no one to reach out to, Emmaline waltzes into her life and offers her someone to lean on. Can she count on Emmaline? Will she be able to stand up to Leroy?

And of course, check out my blog for updates and free chapters on my latest projects: https://authormercedes.wordpress.com/

Click here to buy What It Took To Realize & Voodoo, Daughter of the Ocean Book One from Amazon