Blog Tour: Traveler (Seeker #2) by Arwen Elys Dayton

Today on WinterHaven Books I am participating in the blog tour for Arwen Elys Dayton hosted by the publisher.  I thought Seeker was fantastic so I am beyond excited to help out with Arwen's tour!  For my stop Arwen, being the amazing person that she is, has videoed taped her answer to "What is your writing process?"!
Take a look...

TRAVELER (Seeker, #2) by Arwen Elys Dayton

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Release Date: January 12th, 2016

Purchase: Amazon

Quin Kincaid is a Seeker. Her legacy is an honor, an ancient role passed down for generations. But what she learned on her Oath night changed her world forever.

Quin pledged her life to deception. Her legacy as a Seeker is not noble but savage. She was trained to be an assassin. And the boy she once loved is out for vengeance, with her family in his sights.

Yet Quin is not alone. Shinobu, her oldest companion, might now be the only person she can trust. The only one who wants answers as desperately as she does.

But the deeper they dig into the past, the darker things become. They are long-vanished Seeker families, shadowy alliances, and something else: a sinister plan begun generations ago with the power to end the legacy forever. And it might destroy them all.

 About the Author

ARWEN ELYS DAYTON is the author of SEEKER and TRAVELER. She spends moths doing research for her stories. Her explorations have taken her around the world to places like the Great Pyramid at Giza, Hong Kong and its many islands, and lots of ruined castles in Scotland. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @arwenelysdayton, and check out her video series about writing, 1 QUESTION, 2 MINUTES, at arwendayton.com and on YouTube bit.ly/1mLcdIn.

For those who can't access the video or who are at work trying to be sneaky here's a transcript you can read!

I’m here with Winterhaven Books to answer the question, “What is your writing process?”

This is a tough question because it’s a little bit like saying, “What is your living process?” I don’t know if I have a grand plan for how to write books. I think that each one is kind of a different animal and has to be tackled differently. But I will try to pull out the universal things I do to get a book done.

It really starts with the vision of a character – a personality that kind of starts manifesting itself and sticks around. Or it could be a place I am fascinated with or a situation, but for me it’s usually a character.

The beginning of writing for me is pulling on that thread because there is something there that intrigues me. And I hold onto that and keep pulling it toward me. Usually as I do that, more things will come into focus, whether it’s the people that surround this character or what led up to this situation I saw.

If it’s interesting enough to me, slowly, maybe over weeks, months, or even years, depending on the idea, little pieces of this world come toward me, and I catch hold of them. When I really start to like them, I’ll probably start writing anything down that’s in my mind that I think belongs in this world.

Once I have enough of these ideas and notes and pieces of the world, then I actually sit down and start putting it together into something that feels like a story: meaning, I think it starts here and it goes somewhere where we hit this point and then this point and perhaps it ends up over here. Even if you don’t want to call it outlining, it is kind of like the broad strokes of who does what when, just so I can form the story in my head.

Usually at that stage, so many more ideas come into play and get put into different places in my mind or this timeline or outline or however I decide to do it. And then at a certain point you just have to take that leap off the edge of the cliff into the dark abyss of unknown and start writing.

Maybe that’s actually what Winterhaven Books is asking me about – once you start writing, what do you do – but I feel like that earlier part is really where the book is born and comes to life. Pulling that thread toward you, for me is how I start to know that I have something that is good enough that I want to tell other people about it.

So I hope that gives a little insight into the writing process. And I actually do a weekly video called 1 QUESTION 2 MINUTES where I take up questions readers ask me about writing and publishing and editing and all that sort of stuff, or you can send me your own question for me to answer in the future.

Thank you very much to Winterhaven Books for having me.

A little more about SEEKER and TRAVELER…

SEEKER is the story of three teenagers who have spent most of their lives training for what they think is a noble purpose – to be Seekers - only to discover that their families are actually turning them into assassins. In TRAVELER, as they try to break away from this fate, or maybe embrace it, they discover that the world of Seekers is larger than they’d realized, and they become entangled in a plan begun generations ago that immediately threatens their very survival.

Arwen thank you so much for this!  I know your video will help a lot of writers out there and I know I will definitely check out your weekly videos!  Such a fun idea!!

We also have an amazing giveaway to share with you!!  The amazing people at Delacorte Press are offering to send one lucky reader their very own copy of Seeker and Traveler!
US only
a Rafflecopter giveaway