Author Spotlight
Halie Fewkes
Halie Fewkes comes from Kalama, Washington and has been writing Secrets of The Tally since she was twelve. She loves traveling new places and trying new things, and recently quit her job to travel the whole country and work on Book III while she's on the road!
Q&A with Halie Fewkes:
Q: What has been one of your favorite books to write to date?
A: Ooooh, I love all three of my babies, but I really think Catching Epics is always going to hold a special place in my heart. Mainly because it’s the book where we meet Ebby and Vack and watch them grow from little goobs, but also because I LOVE Prince Avalask, and he’s just such a dad haha. The three of them will always make me so happy.
Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?
A: Sometimes I’ll see a name I really like, and wonder to myself what it would sound like if I changed a couple letters around. And other times, the names come from literally nowhere haha.
Q: What has been your favorite guy or girl that you have written to date?
A: This is the hardest question ever haha, because it’s really a four way tie between Allie, Archie, Ebby, and Vack. They’re all so different, and I love them for such unique reasons. Like, Allie has always been my inspiration to be brave in my own life, and Ebby and Vack never cease to crack me up, but right now I think I’m the most proud of Archie’s progression. Between the three books, he’s grown and changed the most of any of them, and there’s something about that that’s really exciting.
Q: What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
A: I actually do very light research before writing – most of my research comes in during the editing process. I’m always looking up when different kinds of animals are born, and when certain kinds of crops are ready to harvest, so baby horses aren’t being born in the middle of winter, or corn isn’t ready to harvest in early spring. I also end up researching wounds, ailments, and symptoms a lot to make sure they’re being written accurately haha. But since the entire world is unique – and the languages, cultures, and places all made up - there’s actually not a ton of outside research needed.
Q: what was your inspiration behind Archie and Allie in the Secrets of the Tally? And what was your inspiration behind Ebby and Vack in Catching Epics?
A: I took a Young Adult class in college where somebody asked the question if male and female characters could ever exist in YA in completely platonic relationships, and I adamantly insisted they could. I wanted Allie and Archie to be best friends facing the odds together, and if there was going to be romance, it was going to be way the heck later. More than anything, I wanted to write a brave friendship, where friends would defy the odds to look out for one another without any driving romantic force compelling them. That’s still one of my favorite themes.
I always had the Ebby and Vack story in the back of my head while I was writing about Allie and Archie, but it wasn’t until I sat down and wrote a chapter about them that I realized how FUNNY those two little buds were together. I loved the idea of taking two kids who couldn’t possibly be more different and forcing them to coexist in the same space. (They’re also the two most powerful kids in the world, and fated enemy combatants – for anyone who hasn’t read Catching Epics yet.) I had to slow myself down from writing all their funny encounters, because they had so much to learn from each other and hash out, and there’s just never a dull moment between them.
Q: A Deal for Three is soon to be released.
Is there anything you can tell us about it?
A: Deal for Three is definitely going to be the most intense of the three books. Catching Epics introduced us to the Zhauri Brotherhood, a frightening group of men who hunt people for money and pleasure, and Deal for Three is about their hunt to catch three of our main characters - Allie, Ebby, and Vack. The Zhauri don’t abide by any rules when it comes to torture or killing, and when they force Archie onto the team to aid in their hunt, he truly has no choice but to join them. So we get to see the pursuit from all angles and watch as our characters grow and change with their circumstances, and the Zhauri use every method available to them to catch our heroes.
(Blurb for a Deal for Three added below - but DO NOT READ unless you have Read Catching Epics first!)
Q: What was the hardest part to write in a Deal for Three? In any of your previous books?
A: This sounds kind of funny, but there’s a scene in Deal for Three where ten people sit down to have a conversation, and that was weirdly difficult to write. Trying to get ten people’s personalities and dialogue into one scene is a mess lol, and making it flow and feel natural took a lot of tweaking. I’m really happy with how it turned out though, and you’d never know how hard it was to pull together haha.
Something that I found really difficult in Catching Epics was lining up the timelines on two different perspectives to make sure time was passing the same for both of them. I had to sit down and write out like, a day-by-day calendar for both of them to make sure they were experiencing events at the right times lol.
Q: What part was the most fun to write in a Deal for Three? In any of your previous works?
A: This is such an easy answer haha – Vack and Ebby are the most fun ever to write, in both Catching Epics and Deal for Three. Vack loves to torment Ebby but she’s learning to stand up to him in her own funny ways, and since they still lovingly hate one another, their trainings are still hilarious and full of mockery. They’re both learning mind control in Deal for Three, so for Vack, that means he gets to make Ebby pick her nose, and Ebby decides to retaliate by trying to make him dance like a ballerina. They’re still such kids, and I just never get tired of them.
Q: Was there anything that you had edited out of a Deal for Three?
A: Actually yes, there was a TON that I took out, and even more that got completely rearranged. Without giving too much away, I can say there are a couple pretty big strains on Allie and Archie’s relationship throughout the book, (obviously, he’s sort of hunting for her lol) and in my original drafts, I had taken those problems in a very different direction. But I’m really glad with how things eventually ended up.
Q: Was there a playlist that inspired some of the scenes or the characters in a Deal for Three? Or in any of your previous books?
A: I really like to listen to pump up/workout music while I’m writing. Pop is my favorite. It gets me in the mood for super action packed scenes.
Q: Do you ever read your books after they are released?
A: I do! But I have a rule that a fellow author recommended, where I always wait six months after they come out to read them. Because then you’re not super critical of every little word choice – it’s a lot easier to just read all the way through and enjoy the book for the story when it’s not so fresh in your head, and you’re not stuck in editing mode still haha.
Q: Do you have any other books planned out for the future?
A: Yes, I do! Secrets of The Tally is going to be a Five Book Series, and I’m about halfway through Book Four right now. I’m already in love with the direction it’s heading.
Q: Do you snack on anything while writing or reading?
A: I frequently am sipping on a coffee while I write. (Right now it’s a Chai Tea Latte.)
Q: When you aren't writing what are you up to?
A: Traveling on the train! I LOVE taking the train all around the US. It’s super cheap, and you get to watch the whole world go by (admittedly, while writing haha.) I also love taking long walks and listening to music. But for the most part, if I’m not writing, I’m probably working on marketing, sales, distribution, and production. It’s a majorly full time job haha.
Q: What is one of your favorite songs that you can play on repeat?
A: I have a couple of these! But I think my all time favorite is Light It Up by Major Lazer. I’ve probably listened to that song a million times by now, but it still gets me pumped up for writing action scenes lol.
Q: What is one of your favorite books (or author) that you have read? What is a book you are looking forward to reading?
A: Harry Potter will always be my absolute favorite series of all time. But I just finished Ember in the Ashes, and I’m REALLY looking forward to moving on to Torch Against the Night. I’m in LOVE with the series. OH! And the next installment of Children of Blood and Bone. CAN’T WAIT!
Secrets of the Tally:
Blurb:
Meet Allie: she's just woken up in an empty forest with blood on her hands and everything she's ever known wiped from her mind. In her survival-oriented world, people are hunted by vicious predators and it quickly becomes clear that they are specifically hunting her.
Allie's friends and sister have no insight as to why she's a target, and her only clue is a list of tally marks she finds tucked away, detailing how many lives she's saved and how many deaths she's caused. Judging by the amount of ink slashed across the page and the fact that nobody seems to know about it, Allie knows she used to have secrets that need to be recovered.
Without knowing whom to trust, she finds herself drawn to a new stranger in the caves they call home, and even though he won't talk about his own past, he's ready to help Allie recover hers.
The problem now is that Allie's instinct to survive is the only thing strong enough to bring her memories back. Flashes of her old self will only surface to save her from life threatening danger, so if she wants to avoid living as an echo of her former self, danger is what she must seek.
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26416390-secrets-of-the-tally
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Tally-Book
Read Chapter 1:
https://www.secretsofthetally.com/read-a-piece
Catching Epics:
Ebby didn’t know she was the new Human Epic until the day she was captured, stuck with the new Escali Epic, Vack, and told to be friends with him. They’re the two most powerful kids in the world, destined to be enemy combatants like every Epic before them, but they've been imprisoned together in hopes they might resolve some of their differences. Unfortunately, Vack would rather push Ebby out a window than befriend her, while Ebby thinks Vack is a barbarian who might eat her, and the result is chaos.
Allie and Archie are thrown into the fray when they’re asked to help a team of brutal hunters find and rescue Ebby. Archie makes recovering the Epic a priority, but Allie couldn’t be pulled any harder in the opposite direction. Rescuing a little girl sounds like the right thing to do, but leaving Ebby in the hands of the Escalis has a different appeal. If Ebby and Vack existed to do more than fight one another, they could change the course of the entire Human Escali war.
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36490964-catching-epics
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Epics-ebook/
A Deal For Three:
Blurb Reveal:
Remember don't read until after you read Catching Epics!
People say it's impossible to find an Epic in hiding, ehich is why Ratuan has hired the cruel Zhauri Brotherhood to catch Allie, Ebby and Vac, who have all but vanished. They're the three most elusive individuals on the continent, but the Zhauri haven't let a target escape in the brotherhood's history - and they're not about to start.
To pay for a hunt of this magnitude, Ratuan has promised Maverick far more than money. He's brought the Zhauri a three way deal that will wreck the Escali's, declare independece from Tekenda, and crown Maverick as ruler of their new kingdom. All Maverick has to do is capture his three targets, and Ratuan will take care of the rest.
Unfortunately, the Zhauri know that Archie has ties to all three runners, and he is not only corerced into joining the team, but given great motivation to take part in their hunt. Because while Allie is slowly dying from the curse that now plagues her, Maverick holds the key to breaking it. To save his best friend, Archie will have to lead the effort to find and catch her, all while trying not to become one of the Zhauri himself.
Coming Soon!
You can Preorder book III (or get all three books at bundle price) on the website www.secretsofthetally.com and can use code INSTA20 to get 20% off their orders.
Follow Halie Fewkes:
Website: https://www.secretsofthetally.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/haliefewkes_author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/317888111652245/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/author/ref=dbs_p_ebk_awm_abau?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0775XHYWH
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14229669.Halie_Fewkes
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