Author of Starlight.
I am excited to be joined by one of my co-conspirators from the Realm of Darkness boxet today! I am chatting with YA Fantasy author, Lea Cherry about her contribution to the boxset, Starlight; which releases on October 4th, 2022 and is currently available on preorder.
Helen: Welcome Lea! To start us off, tell us about Starlight.
Lea: My contribution to the ROD set is called Starlight. It’s a fantasy story set in the realm of Elesseand where the Princess of the Kingdom is a Starlight (Someone born of the stars with magical powers) but also a fierce warrior that protects the realm from any dangers with her Legion. I don’t want to give too much away, but there is an assassin, a magi, a shifter, some romance and a lot of dangers to go through.
Helen: Sounds like you packed a lot of elements into your story. I can’t wait to read it. Your cover is gorgeous, down to the font which glistens. What were your thoughts behind the design?
Lea: The cover for Starlight took some creativity. I tried various different things but none of them actually spoke to me, so I decided to create the cover with symbols instead so that later on, I could hopefully create art to accompany the books. The cover shows a beautiful star that represents the Princess Tekana and all the Starlights before her. Even though the star is bright and beautiful, it is sharp and dangerous and should be treated carefully.
Helen: Readers be warned! What made you write a novel for an anthology?
Lea: I love reading fantasy and thought that this was a great opportunity to write one myself. I usually dabble in other genres, YA and horror to be more specific, but thought that if I could write my own fantasy, the possibility of what could happen would be endless, so here I am.
Helen: I called you a YA Fantasy author but you actually write a range of YA genres, don’t you?
Lea: I usually write Young Adult books in various subgenres as I enjoy the way the young characters discover themselves and evolve into people that are strong, independent and overall great humans. I also enjoy writing horrors because I just love it and want to test myself with writing one that can scare the pants off the readers. I’m kind of wired that way.
Helen: That is mean! I am not a fan of horror, I have too creative an imagination. Tell us about some of your other books.
Lea: My two horrors are Chimera and Devil’s Doorway which were my first trials into the genre. I have also written two YA Urban Fantasy books for a series, currently busy with the third book, that is about a girl that learns she’s a descendant of a very powerful magical race known as the Pure and that she must learn to harness her powers before the Tainted (villains) can claim her soul to resurrect their leader. There is also a poetry journal that I co-wrote with another author as a companion book for her dragon series to give her main dragon character a poetry voice.
Helen: I bet that was a fun project, especially with dragons involved. You are multi-talented for sure. Many writers find inspiration from music, when you are writing do you listen to music?
Lea: I can’t, at all. If I listen to music, I find myself singing along and then I can’t concentrate of what I’m writing. If I listen to something, it is usually instrumental music that sounds like it could have been on the book’s soundtrack. Like Celtic instrumental songs for my fantasy stories. I do however listen to certain songs before I write to get me into the scene, like rock music before I write a fight scene, or something emo and sad for the heart-breaking stuff.
Helen: When I’m editing and solving plot knots it has to be instrumental, as like you I get distracted by the words of the song. But when I’m writing that first draft, anything goes. Do you plot out your novels or are you a pantser?
Lea: You could say I’m a plantser. I plot out the basics of my story, the most important things like characters, settings and the plot of how the story should go, but then I pants a lot of the story to give myself or rather my characters the freedom to sometimes roam free and choose other paths to get to their goal.
Helen: Characters do tend to have a mind of their own and go off on unplanned tangents. Do you have to much research for your books?
Lea: Sometimes way too much. I tend to fall into the rabbit hole with research, but only when I feel that there should be more and especially if the subject I’m researching is very interesting.
Helen: Tell us something random about yourself.
Lea: I’m from South Africa and English is my second language, is that random enough?
Helen: Wow! And you are writing in English which makes your work even more amazing. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. It’s been such fun talking shop. As we reach the end of our time together just to finish, when not writing what do you spend your time on?
Lea: My hobbies include watching movies, reading and painting. I have started teaching both my daughters to draw and they love it so a lot of the time they want to know how to draw something so if I don’t know, then we all learn something new that day. On a different note, just because I enjoy it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m great at it.
Helen: Thank you for joining me tody Lea. I am so excited to be part of this anthology, it has been a great experience, and I can’t believe the launch is only a month or so away. It has come around so quickly! You can preorder the anthology here for the insane price of 99c/79p!
Make sure you can check out some of my other posts as I spotlight the authors as they reveal their covers!
About the Author:
Lea Cherry is an international bestselling author residing in South Africa with her husband and two daughters. With a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing, she shares the spark of language in Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror, and Thriller. When she is not crafting stories, she shares her time with her family watching movies, painting, and reading up a storm when she is not exploring the outdoors on camping trips. Her first book in the Descendant series is set to arrive in 2021 and is filled with magic and adventure that will keep you wanting more.
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Other books by Lea Cherry
Hidden, Book one of the Descendents
Devil’s Doorway
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If you enjoy fantasy romance books then you will love my new release SoulBreather, part of the Realm of Darkness Anthology, and my epic fantasy Sentinal series. As a new threat against Remargaren is discovered, only one man can wake the ancient guards who can protect them, only he doesn’t know how. Start the adventure and stay for the journey. Sign up to my newsletter and download a free novella called Sentinals Stirring and get notified when my next books are published.
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Helen Garraway 