Guest Author ~ Tia Nevitt

Today's post is an interview with Carina Press author Tia  Nevitt. Her new book, The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf, was released this past Monday. It's an fantasy romance, one of my favorite kind of stories. Check out the bottom of today's post for a Tia Nevitt exclusive give away!

Not even a stint in the military as an aircraft mechanic could erase Tia Nevitt’s love of fairy tales. To this day, she loves to read (and write) books that take her to another place, or another time, or both. She also dabbles in calligraphy, violin, piano and songwriting. Tia has worked on an assembly line, as a computer programmer, a technical writer and a business analyst. She lives in the southeast with her husband and daughter.

Tia’s novella, The Sevenfold Spell, won the 2012 EPIC ebook award for Fantasy. 

Here is a short description of The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf.

This story is about the mysterious face within the magic mirror of the Snow White story—who he is, how he came to be there, and why he finds the queen so lovely. It is also about the seven dwarfs, why they live together, and how two of them fell in love and came to defeat the evil queen.

Here are some questions that Tia has answered so we can get to know her better.

1.     How long did it take you to write The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf? About six months, with another two months of revisions.

2.     How much research did you conduct for The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf and what was the most interesting thing you did while conducting your research?

This was my most research-intensive book. I researched German farmouses, the kingdoms of Medieval Germany, images and videos of the Black Forest, the German language, deaf communities and most of all, achondroplasia.

For German farmhouses, it started with a question—what were German farmhouses like? Aren’t the style of farmhouses universal?

Certainly not. I read, fascinated, of the icon German farmhouse architecture—those immense buildings covered with windows, and timbers making squares and Xs almost at random all across the structure. I learned how they were designed that way so the farm family and the animals all lived in one structure—the animals in stalls toward the front and the family in more homey quarters to the back.

The other research topics might be obvious, but why deaf communities? I lived near one many years ago, and I started wondering if the whole idea of seven dwarfs living together might have evolved in a similar way as deaf communities. I decided that to reach such a conclusion was well within the confines of what is permissible with literary license. J

And finally, not only did I read all I could about classic dwarfism—achondroplasia—but I looked into day-to-day living challenges as a little person. I discovered furnishings for little people, specifically designed clothing (a grown man can’t shop in the kid’s section), and even things that don’t apply to the middle ages—like mechanisms to make driving possible—because it helped me develop what I hope was the proper mindset.

3.     Do you write multiple drafts or barely need revisions when typing, The End?

I needed plenty of revisions! And when I thought I was done, I sent it in. It was accepted but then what did I need more of? Revisions! Lots of them! With The Sevenfold Spell, I did not have much of a developmental edit phase at all. But with The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf, it seemed like there was a lot more.

Of course, that COULD have been because the story is almost twice as long.

4.     When you are writing, who is in control? You or your characters?

For this story, I was more in control. I was definitely more disciplined, and when I did go off into flights of fancy, I took a hard look at the resulting scene to determine if it really needed to stay in the story. If not, into the discards file it went. Ange as the Tattered Princess almost made it into that file, until I realized how important that scene would be to Richard’s emotional development.

That’s not to say that I don’t have to obey my characters when they insist on having their way. A certain scene involving Gretchen, Lars, a moonlit river, and nudity? That was all Gretchen’s idea, and I wasn’t about to stop her.

(And believe it or not, this book is rated PG-13!)

5.     What advice do you have for other writers?

Finish your first book, and then write another one.

I ran a blog focused on debut novelists for over three years and almost all of the writers said that they had written multiple books before they wrote one that sold. In one case—Alex Bledsoe—he had about 5 or 6 unpublished novels when his book, The Sword-Edged Blonde, was published. And  then guess what happened? He started selling his other books.

Don’t think of them as unsold books. Think of them as inventory. J

And yes, I have taken my own advice. I have an unsold series that will always be my trunk novels, plus two additional novels that I consider inventory. Even my trunk series is ripe for reuse; I have always wanted to use that magic system in another story.

6.  What do you want your readers to take away with them after reading the story?

I want them to have a smile on their faces.

7.  With so many changes in publishing over the past year, where do you see the future of publishing going?

I think books are going to be cheaper, and authors and publishers will, as a consequence, sell a lot more of them. I already see fiction evolving to be more immersive for the reader as ebook readers begin to do more than simply display text. I see the size of the press mattering less and less, while the quality still has to equal that of Big Six houses.

Anyway, those are my predictions.

8.  If you were a millionaire would you still write?

Are you kidding me? Being a millionaire would allow me to write for a living. I would put out a healthy four books a year. When I run into writer’s block for one idea, I’ll simply pursue another. And thus I would earn my next million!

To tempt you even more, here is the copy for the back cover of The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf.

Book two in Accidental Enchantments.

Prince Richard is cursed. Enslaved to a magic mirror, he must truthfully answer the evil queen when she uses it to call on him. To keep from betraying innocents, Richard wanders the countryside and avoids people.

 ll her life, Gretchen has been teased for being small. When she hears of a hidden farm populated by little people like her, she sets out to find it—and is welcomed by the mostly male inhabitants. Lars in particular woos her with his gentle kindness and quiet strength.

 Danger looms when Gretchen meets a runaway princess and offers her shelter at the Little Farm. Wandering nearby, Richard instantly falls in love with the beautiful princess, and is later compelled to tell the queen that she is not the fairest of them all. Enraged, the queen vows to find them and destroy them.

 If either Gretchen or Richard are to have their happy endings, they must team up to break the mirror's spell before the queen kills them all…

Get your copy of The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf at Carina Press and on Amazon.

Find her at her website/blog www.tianevitt.com

On Twitter @tianevitt and Facebook www.facebook.com/tia.nevitt

GIVEAWAY: All readers who leave a comment will be entered into my weekly giveaway, detailed here: http://www.tianevitt.com/2013/02/week-long-giveaway-of-all-my-releases-1/