Featuring Authors #14: Sara Beth Parker + GIVEAWAY

Hi everyone!

Today is the fourteenth post of my featuring authors series! To see the other authors I featured click here! To be featured contact me here!! Today I’m going to feature Sara Beth Parker an author that has written The Calm Within the Storm and The Battle for Liberty!! In this post there will be a bio about the author and about one of his books, a giveaway and an interview!

About Sara Beth Parker:

I grew up on the edge of Texas’ most populous city with my three siblings and loving parents. Early in my life I became infatuated with the arts, literature being among them, and soon after I learned my alphabet I began writing. Since then I have made my way through high school and college, married the love of my life, and settled down in the beautiful state of Washington. Though my degree is in interior design, my experience with communicating all motives behind the execution of hundreds of projects has assisted me in authoring novels. My brilliant junior high English teacher also has my thanks; she taught me how to properly use my native language. I also draw all of the illustrations in my books and design their cover art.

Arvenig: “It’s so cool that you draw the illustrations in your books!!! I really love The Calm Within the Storm‘s cover!”

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About the book The Battle for Liberty:

She danced upon rays of Sunshine and drank the wine of time. Naught in the world could touch her, high in her lofty place among princes of the stars and potentates of the mountains. Starlit flowers wove her blankets and wholesome creatures befriended her; she rested her head upon daisies in the evening and clothed herself in grasses of the morning. She was the Wild Miss. She was Liberty. Far from the verdant lands of Liberty’s freedom, across sundry wonders of her sweet time, an evil ancient as the days grew in the darkest corner of Whenua. Kino It was called, and It hibernated within the blackened depths of Mont Ata. With the greatest power of the deities in Its emblematic hands, this Kino abided below until that idyllic time when the stolen treasure would rise to its utmost potency. When that time arrived, naught in the world could have stayed Kino’s curséd hand. Nevertheless, Liberty had to try.

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Arvenig: Tell us a little about yourself and your background!
Sara: I grew up in Spring, Texas, a suburb on the northern side of Houston. With two parents and three siblings, there was never a dull moment. We frequently had conflicting sporting events; my two sisters and I continually found more sports we enjoyed. Our brother, self-nominated “armchair quarterback”, had more than his fill of spectating. I began thriving on creativity at an early age, following in the footsteps of my artist grandmother. Throughout junior high and high school, one of my elective periods was always filled by an art class. I even went on to study interior design at college, earning myself a bachelor’s degree in the subject. It was there that I met my future husband, and he convinced me to move up to Washington State with him. We currently live in Seattle, enjoying all the summer and winter excursions it has to offer.

A: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
S: I’m not sure I ever really had a clairvoyant “I’m going to be an author!” moment. As a child, I briefly considered authorship as a career when we were asked to create a booklet about what we wanted to be when we grew up. “Author” was stuffed in with the likes of “painter” and “basketball player”. When I graduated from college, I knew immediately I didn’t want to become an interior designer. I didn’t know what to do instead. I moved up to Spokane, Washington to be with my husband, and it took me four months to get a job. During that time I had few things to do. I read the entire Harry Potter series in a week. I ran around the neighborhood countless times. Spokane isn’t a very exciting place. Bored out of my mind, I started considering what type of books I’d like to read. I wondered if there were any YA books without sappy love triangles. Slowly, some ideas started spinning around in my head. I wrote them down and asked my mom to look them over. She had been a teacher, and I trusted her editing skills. What she expected from me was a story with a few hundred words. What she got was a novelette with 10,000. Just like that, I began writing my first book. I haven’t stopped since.

A: Is there a message in your story that you want readers to grasp?
S: There are several messages in my book, but the most prominent one is to accept yourself for who you are despite your flaws. You are not perfect; you will never be perfect. And that is perfectly alright.

A: What are you working on at the moment?
S: At this moment I am working on a Japanese mythology-inspired book. It revolves around the life of a kitsune, a magical fox who can transform into a person. As with my last two books, the main character is female. It’s not exactly on purpose; I just find females easier to write. Maybe a future book will feature a male lead.

A: Any last thoughts for our readers?
S: Authors love retelling classic stories in a unique way. It seems like a right-of-passage these days, making a new story out of an old favorite. I thought I would retell another type of story, swing readers in a different direction. I chose “The Nutcracker”, embellishing and fashioning it as I saw fit. The end result is that “The Battle for Liberty” doesn’t resemble “The Nutcracker” in the least. Instead, I give you Liberty: a thirteen-year-old daughter of a Phantom who grows up in the wild. She learns to flourish in spite of her weaknesses; and in the process, she strives to oust the enemy of her world. “The Battle for Liberty” is a fantasy of a fairy tale told with the occasional use of the Maori language. I originally had it set in New Zealand (the perfect setting for a fantasy, no?), but I soon discovered that the terrain wasn’t elastic enough for my tall tale. So I created my own world, retaining some of the Maori influences I had adopted. In addition to the New Zealand influences, I wrote every chapter with clever personification in order to give you as much of a living, breathing atmosphere as is possible from paper and ink. It will welcome you with open arms as it has done for me these last couple years.