Thursday, February 10, 2011

Guest Blogger Nicole McDonald Drops In...

If you haven't met Nicole MacDonald today is your lucky day!  Nicole has been kind enough to drop by and tell us about herself and her new novel The Arrival.




Hello! My name's Nicole and I'm delighted to be a guest poster on Sharon's blog. Let me tell you a little about myself. I'm a 28yr old kiwi (New Zealander) living in Wellington New Zealand. By day I'm a customer service representative extraordinaire (read: receptionist) and by night I moonlight as a novelist. That is until my current project takes off and I'll be living the dream as a fulltime writer. *grin*

If you're not particularly familiar with NZ let me acquaint you. We sit on the bottom of all world globes and are usually cut out of world maps in movies. When Lord of the Rings was filmed here, New Zealand as a whole went into a state of utter delight and yes we are VERY excited about the hobbit. And yes we cheer in the movie theatres when an actor utters 'New Zealand'. Hey we're only a nation of 4 million here. *grin*
From a young age I have loved to read action / adventure books and always imagined myself as the hero. As I grew older I got more and more frustrated at the 'heroine' roles in books and movies because although these heroines were tough and wonderful, they still needed to be rescued.

When Buffy came out I was infatuated. Here was a sassy, strong heroine who still got the gorgeous guy even though she was capable of kicking butt and looking after herself (and rescuing him even!).

I'm not some scary feminist (just to be clear) but it's never been my life's ambition to be 'rescued' by a male. In fact I firmly intended to be single my entire life. Of course that's when the fates like to throw a spanner in the works, isn't it? I met my soulmate (and current partner) a month before I turned 19. While I would not change this for anything I won't deny that this was a MASSIVE learning curb. It occurred to me that I could 'rewrite' my story to how I'd have liked it to have played out. And I'd get to play the heroine in a way I'd always wanted to. Okay so I took more than a little 'artisitic license' when it came to it - but it's my fantasy!
Well my little idea to keep me from idleness certainly worked. An immense amount of work later and I am the proud author of The Arrival, book one of the BirthRight Trilogy.

A trilogy which follows the lives of Catherine, Kassandra, Laura and Sian, as they navigate a new world after dabbling in the arcane.

That old line 'be careful what you wish for' never rang so true and the girls have the fight of their lives on their hands as they discover who they truly are. The spell they cast, to find their soulmates, was simple.

The process in reality however is anything but, just because the first few steps of a new journey are easy doesn't mean the rest will be.

These girls challenge stereotypes as they stand up for their beliefs and prove themselves to be anything but damsels in distress.
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You can learn more about Nicole by visiting her blog  (and you for sure should visit it) .You can download The Arrival  for only 99 cents!  (I already did!) 

Nicole will be blogsitting for me for the next few days so if you have a question for her, you can leave it in the comments....

Have a wonderful week everyone!


28 comments:

  1. And that top pic is a writer hard at work.. with her two sidekicks ;p

    Thanks so much for letting me blogsit Sharon! I'll try not to let the party get out of hand *grin*

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  2. Hmmm... Your book sounds interesting.

    By the way, I know what you mean about the movies.

    I'm South African.

    Can anyone say Charlize - aaaaaaaaaaaaargh! -

    ;-)

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  3. It's great finding out more about you, Nicole. The book art for your novel is fantastic, and the premise sounds very interesting. And don't forget to raid the fridge while your blog-sitting! :)

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  4. Wow, I loved learning about New Zealand, Nicole. I always imagined it as this very mysterious, very romantic place.

    Your book sounds fabulous. I can't wait to read it. Since these girls challenge stereotypes, are there pieces of you in any of them? :)

    *waves to Sharon*

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  5. Hi, Nicole! I love the pic of you and your dogs.
    (and Hello, Sharon!)
    I love books with strong female characters, toO!

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  6. The book sounds interesting and New Zealand sounds mighty nice!

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  7. I hope the dogs are helping blog-sit too! Sounds like a great book, thanks for sharing it with us!

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  8. Hey, Nicole...Thanks so much for blog sitting for me...OMGoodness the Dominican Republic is gorgeous! The people here aer fantastic. We are having a super time.......

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  9. The book sounds so great! And the dogs cracked me up! So nice of Nicole to blogsit. =)

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  10. Hi Misha - oh I adore Charlize! We have so many of her movies :)

    Hi DL - Thanks :) I love the cover - a friend designed it. And just raided the fridge - WOW you guys have weird food!! ;p

    Hi Robyn - a little of me *blush* well all my friends were in fits of laughter when they read - cause I squeezed EVERYONE in there *grin* even Sable my black dog is in there (Audrey) and Otis my tan dog is in book 2 :) itsa family affair ;p

    Hi Kelly - then it sounds like you'll love it :)

    Hi Brian - NZ is great, come visit sometime :)

    Hi Susan - well if by help you mean squabble over who gets more of the bed... *lol*

    Hi Sharon!! Oh you lucky thing, so jealous (..and you didn't expect the fridge to be full when you got back.. right?)

    Hi Carolyn - the book is great fun :) And the dogs are giant lazy bums ;p

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  11. Hi gorgeous Nicole!! Great to see you here on the lovely Sharon K Mayhew's blog! I love your sassy and amazonian approach to your novel!!! Certainly no damsels in distress here!! Good luck with The Arrival!!!

    Any chance this will be in print/paperback?? I'm an ol stick in the mud and avoid kindle type stuff like the plague - sorry!!! Off I go to hide now!! Take care
    x

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  12. Sounds like some terrific characters! Off I go to Nicole's blog... :)

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  13. Hi Old Kitty :)

    Yes I'm hoping by the end of March to have it available in paperback :)

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  14. What's this about Arrival being in Paperback in time for my birthday??

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  15. hi miss nicole! blog sitting all the way from new zealand! wow how cool is that! your book sounds pretty neat. im wondering for what age is it?
    ...smiles from lenny

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  16. Great to meet Nicole.
    I'll jump over and check out her blog.
    bethfred.com

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  17. Hi B.E.T - yeah :) I'm working on it!

    Hi Lenny - the book is about adults and book two does get a lot more 'adult' but otherwise anyone who doesn't take life too seriously will enjoy it *grin*

    Hi Beth :)

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  18. hi Nicole (and Sharon) great post Nic! And you didn't tell me you were going into print version!!!!!!!

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  19. Hi, Nicole! The book sounds great! Love the picture with the dogs!

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  20. Hey Nicole,
    Your book sounds great! I just got myself the Kindle version!
    And hey, you are a kiwi! Here's Reenie from Australia :)

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  21. Hi Kerrin! Yep that's the plan :)

    Hi Dawn - thanks :) Nice to meet you!

    Hi Reenie Aussie Girl *grin* hope you enjoy it!

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  22. ... and oh... hey Sharon, there is a little something waiting for you in my blog: http://mauzziemuses.blogspot.com/2011/02/stylish-blog-award.html

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  23. Great guest post! love the premise of the book.

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  24. Congratulations to Nicole! Looking forward to checking out your blog.

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  25. This comment is for Sharon: You have an award waiting for you at my blog, The Write Words!

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  26. Blogsitting--what a great idea! :o) I've known Nicole for awhile now and totally admire her going out on her own to achieve her dream of being published. Good luck to you, Nicole!

    We'll see you when you get back, my dear friend Sharon! :o)

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