#GIVEAWAY Until The Day I Die Interview with author Emily Carpenter

Today I'm showcasing fantastic author Emily Carpenter's brand new Lake Union Release, Until The Day I Die and Emily has been kind enough to sit down and answer some questions. Plus she's giving away one autographed copy of her novel, details below.
Enjoy!

ISBN-13: 978-1503904217
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Release Date: 3-12-2019
Length: 347pp
Buy It: Amazon/B&N/IndieBound/Audible

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

If there’s a healthy way to grieve, Erin Gaines hasn’t found it. After her husband’s sudden death, the runaway success of the tech company they built with their best friends has become overwhelming. Her nerves are frayed, she’s disengaged, and her frustrated daughter, Shorie, is pulling away from her. Maybe Erin’s friends and family are right. Maybe a few weeks at a spa resort in the Caribbean islands is just what she needs to hit the reset button…
Shorie is not only worried about her mother’s mental state but also for the future of her parents’ company. Especially when she begins to suspect that not all of Erin’s colleagues can be trusted. It seems someone is spinning an intricate web of deception—the foundation for a conspiracy that is putting everything, and everyone she loves, at risk. And she may be the only one who can stop it.
Now, thousands of miles away in a remote, and oftentimes menacing, tropical jungle, Erin is beginning to have similar fears. Things at the resort aren’t exactly how the brochure described, and unless she’s losing her mind, Erin’s pretty sure she wasn’t sent there to recover—she was sent to disappear.

Emily is offering one signed copy of
Until The Day I Die
US ONLY
Please Use Rafflecopter form to enter
Good Luck!

My Interview with Emily:

Emily Hi! Welcome to The Reading Frenzy your new novel Until the Day I Die sounds fantastic.

Tell my readers a little about it.

It’s about a woman who’s recently lost her husband and needs a break from her grief and the financial app she started with him and their best friends. To push reset, she goes to a Caribbean island resort called Hidden Sands but winds up discovering things are not as they seem there. Meanwhile her daughter, who’s just started college, discovers somebody within the company is embezzling, and she’s determined to figure out who it is. By the end, both of them realize things are way worse than they ever expected, and they’re going to have to save each other because their lives are truly in danger.

This is your fourth book (I just bought the audiobook of your debut Burying the Honeysuckle Girls which is next on my audio queue, can’t wait)

Does sending a book out into the cold world get any easier for you?

First of all, a huge thanks for getting the book! I think you’re going to love the narrator Kate Orsini. She’s done all my audiobooks and I’m a huge fan.

You know, it is a scary thing- and you can definitely freak yourself out about it -  but it has gotten a little bit less stressful now that I’m releasing my fourth book. Not because I know how people are going to respond – you can never predict that. But more that I’ve come to learn after a few years in this business that you can never know which book is going to hit a nerve with the public. You figure some folks will love it, some will be “meh” and some will probably even hate it. It’s completely out of your control at that point, and, honestly, really okay. The main thing I hope for each time a new book comes out is that it’ll bring joy and entertainment and a bit of an escape for people. I feel like if I can do that for a few folks, I’m a happy camper.

Your books are all stand alones.

Have you ever considered writing a series?

I totally have. I would LOVE to do a series, to be honest. I have an idea for one simmering, but I think it’s going to take me a minute to try to focus on the exact right tone for it. I want to give my readers that Emily Carpenter experience of Southern Gothic and creepy darkness, but also build a world that readers want to return to again and again. I’ll say this: I absolutely adore the main character. She lives in my head, even as we speak – in a way that is probably weird, come to think of it…

Emily I just read on your bio that you worked in NYC in production for CBS’s daytime dramas where you were a script reader. Wow my dream job.

Did you get to do any fangirling while there and if so who was the biggest star you ever met?

It was a fantastic job and a wonderful learning experience. I did get to meet a lot of the actors and writers and showrunners, so I always felt very star-struck. I had a crush on Rick Hearst, and I got to meet him and was a little gaga, I’ll admit. Going to the Daytime Emmys was a highlight, too. A really fun night. At one point, I did accidentally step on the train of Robin Strasser’s beautiful gown (Dorian Lord from One Life to Live) and when she turned around, I pretended I had no idea what was going on. I did a really convincing acting job, they probably should’ve given me one of those Emmys. Thankfully, she did not have me thrown out.

I see that when you set out to write a novel you joined a critique group.

First- did this help and how?

Second- Where you taken under the wing of or inspired by any one particular author?
Joining a critique group was a turning point for me. It was the first time I’d read anything I’d written out loud in front of people and then asked them to tell me what was wrong with it! It was terrifying at first, but slowly I got used to it and ended up meeting my current critique partners there. It’s so good to learn to take criticism. We see some flaws in our writing, but more often than not, we tend to think what we’ve written is gold. So to have somebody you trust say, “Nope. That’s really not working for me” can be so essential. Painful, but essential.

I’m really inspired by Joshilyn Jackson, a writer who lives in Atlanta. She is fantastically talented, puts out consistently original, mesmerizing work, and she is so good to all the local writers around here. I had a critique from her at a conference early on and she was incredibly encouraging and gave me some really helpful tips, and I’ll always be so grateful for that. She was the first person who told me, “you know what you’re doing. You’ve got talent.” And that just meant the world. Plus, she’s hilarious. Oh, and she narrates her own audiobooks, and kills it. Did I mention she’s talented?

Emily you also mention that you started off writing rom-com but it wasn’t until going darker, writing thrillers that you found success.

Has your muse ever whispered in your ear to try another genre?

Oh, I’d love to go full-on paranormal someday. Maybe even horror. Also, I’d love to try my hand at writing a steamy romantic suspense. I’ve been talking to one of my author friends about a collaboration, because she’s more of the romance expert.

Emily thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

Good luck with Until The Day I Die and all your future endeavors.

Thanks so much for having me!

Emily's Other works

About the author:

Emily Carpenter is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of suspense novels, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies, and Every Single Secret. After graduating from Auburn with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, she moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. You can visit Emily at emilycarpenterauthor.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

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