Spotlight: Teal Haviland: Author Interview + Review

Hello, Therians!

The gorgeous Teal Haviland is here today for an interview :)

We chat about her debut, award winning novel, Inception, the first book in The Reaping Chronicles!!

Hi, Teal!

I'm really so excited to have you on my blog today.

Thanks for joining us. 

1.      Tell us a bit more about yourself.

Hmm . . . well, I am a mother, an “always look on the bright side of life” southern gal, a photographer, a pretty darn good cook, lover of music and the beach and the mountains, and a momma bear with my friends and family. Oh, and I also started my own publishing company and am now designing book covers.

 Wow! You're Superwoman!! :)

2.      Have you always wanted to be an author?

Absolutely. I have always wanted to be one. However, I never imagined I would make that dream come true. It seemed too out of reach.

3.      What genre do you love to read? Who are some of your favourite authors?

My favourite genre by far is fantasy, or maybe it would be more accurate is to say speculative fiction. Some of my favourite authors are J. R. R. Tolkein, Kristin Cashore, Neil Gaiman, Shannon Hale, Marion Zimmer Bradley, J. R. Ward, Kaitlin Kittridge, Leigh Bardugo, and Maggie Stiefvater.

4.      If you could be a character from any of your books, who would you be?

Ha! Hands-down, Gabrielle. I would LOVE to be the Angel of Karma. That’s why I created her.

5.      What obstacles did you encounter on the road to being published? How did you overcome them?

My biggest obstacle was shutting up that voice in my head that kept telling me I couldn’t write a book. I overcame it by telling it to shut the “bleep” up every time. Every. Single. Time. Eventually, it became a bit less insistent. It still pops in and makes itself known—probably always will. And I will keep telling it where to go.

6.      What is the best advice you could give other writers about writing or publishing?

To never, ever give up.

7.      How did you come up with the idea for The Reaping Chronicles?

I have always been a strong believer in you reap what you sow and am very spiritual. During the year prior to coming up with the story of The Reaping Chronicles I went through some horrible circumstances, and there was a person who was getting away with heinous things, who had gotten away with many others over the years that I also knew about. I found myself questioning my beliefs. It tested my spirituality to an extreme, and I began to grow angry and bitter. During this internal struggle, I found myself wishing I was in charge of giving out karma—good and bad—so I could make sure this person got exactly what they deserved. That made me wonder why karma couldn't be the charge of one individual, which led to me thinking about whom, in my mind, should be in charge of it. Which all led to me deciding it should be an angel that was given the task, the Angel of Karma. A specific job assigned to a specific angel.

8.      If you had to describe The Reaping Chronicles in one word, what would it be?

Deep.

9.      Did you learn anything from writing this book? What?

Definitely! I learned many things. The most important thing I learned, however, was that there is nothing I would rather be doing to make a living. I found my passion. Well, I already knew it was a passion, but I set it free. Now, it can’t be contained.

10.  Are you working on your next book? What can you tell us about it?

I am working on a novella for The Reaping Chronicles that will be released in October. I had many people tell me that they really wanted to see Gabrielle enforcing karma, herself. While I understand that, and honestly I wanted to see it, too, the book was already a beast. If I wrote in that part of the story I would have added a lot more words. Doing it in a novella allows me to really expand on why she chooses a particular person, what she goes through, and even why she chooses to get a particular fantastical being involved to help her. It’s going to be a better experience for the reader this way, I believe, and is definitely more fun for me.

Of course, I am also working on book two for The Reaping Chronicles, as well as a couple of other series projects and one stand-alone novel.

I kinda need minions.

11.  Is there any exciting news you’d like to share with us?

The most exciting thing that’s happened lately is that Inception won UtopYAcon’s award for Best Debut Novel of the Year! I was completely stunned . . . thrilled, but stunned.

That is fantastic! Congratulations!! You are most deserving :)

The world is in danger. Mankind is sinking deeper into darkness it cannot understand.

Demons are easily capturing souls as they lead men and women down dangerous paths from which there is no return, while Javan, one of the Fallen, seeks a mythical book and the power it promises. If he succeeds, humans— and the world as they know it—will be destroyed.

There is someone who is capable of stopping Javan . . .

If she discovers him in time.

Gabrielle is one of the most powerful angels ever created, her job one of the most important. She has come to Earth to learn more about humans and what influences them, and to fight evil she sees growing at an alarming rate. She soon finds herself carelessly distracted with one human in particular, however. Lucas Watkins holds a promise of peace and love for Gabrielle that she never believed she could have again.

As feelings between her and Lucas become more than she can deny, so do the dangers mounting against him. After discovering who Lucas is, and the choice he faces, she realizes Darkness will come for him through demons and fantastical beings he thought only existed in his imaginings—forcing fairytales to become his reality.

Caught between her new mortal ties and ancient immortal responsibilities, Gabrielle must race against what seems to be an ever-quickening clock to learn what she needs to know, protect Lucas, uncover Javan’s plan, and find a way to stop him and all who live in Shadows.

Things become more complex than she ever anticipated, her decisions more critical, and what begins as a quest for information rapidly places her in an even more crucial position within the longest and most important war ever waged.

Join Gabrielle and her allies in a story of love–past and present–fantastical beings, hidden realms, magic, fate, loss, and the fight of good versus evil.

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REVIEW

I have to start off by saying how beautiful the cover for this book is. It drew me in the second I saw it and I knew, without even reading the blurb, that I wanted to read this book.

Haviland has created an amazing story, taking mythical and magical beings that we see in so many other books and breathing new life into them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was well-paced, a little slow at times but never to the point of being boring, in fact, I loved that Haviland didn’t rush through certain mundane bits of the story just to get to the exciting, plots twists. She put so much thought into every aspect of her story and it showed in her fantastic writing. Her characters were all well developed, well-rounded individuals, even the secondary ones, and they each found a place in my heart. I even felt myself warming to a few of the unsavory characters.

Gabrielle was exciting and strong. I mean, she’s the Angel of Karma, it just doesn’t get better than that! She had to endure many struggles throughout the book, and it was exciting to see how she handled herself. Nothing really ever came easy to her, no matter how awesome and powerful she was. She had some major adjusting to do, being in human form – the biggest obstacle was trying to deal with her conflicting human emotions while living by Yahuwah’s rules and then of course the fact that her human form subdued her powers. She also had to deal with the constant change to her state of mind every time she dished out karma. As the story developed, many problems arose, from a dangerous book that could bring about a war between good and evil, to the interference of the Qalal. I was enthralled and couldn’t put this book down, not even for a second. It literally, went with me everywhere I went!

I didn’t entirely warm to Lucas when he first appeared. He was a little immature at times, but then again he was a teenage guy. I knew there had to be more to his story otherwise I couldn’t see why Gabrielle would have fallen for him. However, the more I read, the more I started to like him. His relationship with Gabrielle had an ease about it. Their interactions felt effortless, except for when either was brooding over where their relationship was headed. Lucas was sweet and had a boyish charm, but I have to admit that I kind of really liked the “new” Lucas. I tend to have a thing for bad boys :) He just seemed to really come alive, and I cannot wait for the second book, to see what becomes of him.

There was a plethora of great characters in this book, both good and evil. I really cannot wait to see more of them. I have to give special mention to Phalen though. Aside from Gabrielle, she was awesome. She had this amazing carefree attitude and she loved my favorite flavor of bubblegum, too.  

I really enjoyed the fantasy element of this book but there was also a beautiful, spiritual message that spoke to me on a much deeper level. I was entertained but at the same time enlightened and reminded of all the things we take for granted. All the ways in which the human race defiles and desecrates the beautiful life each and every one of us has been blessed with. This story will stay with me for a long time and I can only hope that when Gabrielle looks down on me, my daily dose of karma helps shift her mood to the light and happy side.

This book deserves nothing less than…

** P.S. If you're the type of reader who, at the end of the book, ignores the author's acknowledgements etc., keep reading until you cannot go any further. There's a fun interview between Teal Haviland and Gabrielle that you don't want to miss!! :) 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Teal Haviland grew up with a love for anything fantastical or outrageous. As a teen she spent much of her time writing poetry and children’s stories, but set it aside for two decades before allowing her passion for it to take root (or, as she describes, take over her life). After years of dreaming of worlds where fairies, angels, demons, and shape shifters (to name a few) exist, she finally decided to begin writing her stories down. Inception, book one in her series The Reaping Chronicles, is her first published novel.

Nowadays she happily spends her writing time penning urban fantasy novels and is testing out her horror/suspense writing abilities. In addition to completing her debut series, Teal is also working on the first book in her second series, The Silver Rift, her first horror/suspense, Whispers of Stacey Glen, and several other works-in-progress.

Residing in Tennessee with her daughter and her four-legged friends, Teal enjoys photography, travel, reading, music, cooking, daydreaming, writing (of course), and above all spending time with her family and friends. 

 Connect with Teal online:

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