Friday, March 30, 2018

New from S L Danielson and Cheryl Headford: Upstaged I - Opening Act






NEW RELEASE
START OF A NEW SERIES BY S L DANIELSON AND CHERYL HEADFORD
UPSTAGED I – OPENING ACT

BOOK NAME Upstaged I – Opening Act
AUTHORS S L Danielson and Cheryl Headford
PUBISHED BY Extacy Press
WORD COUNT Aprox 75,000
NUMBER OF PAGES 246
GENRE New Adult. Contemporary Romance.
HEAT RATING 3

Blurb
Wannabe singer and band front man Erik Von Nordgren hates snarky brit Asher Berkley with a passion. From the moment he turns up at practice with his twin sister Daisy, who is one of the band the two have hated each other.

Through a series of 'tit for tat' incidents they annoy, frustrate and exasperated each other. The die hard goth with purple eyes and the hard core rocker with dreams of the big time have nothing in common and no need to cross paths. Except to wind each other up.

Until the day that Erik throws Asher in the school pool, when everything begins to change. Erik is so far in closet he's in Narnia and Asher has a dark past and trust issues that stand in the way of any relationship, let alone one with the brash American who hurts him every time they try to get together.
A relationship doomed from the start, or so you'd think. 

Author Bios
S L Danielson
S. L. (Stephanie) Danielson began writing at the tender age of five. She knew it was her calling from the moment she put pen to paper. In her teens she began writing alternative works and the genre stuck. She created ever more elaborate tales and finally in her early 20’s years began to create works with her new love; male/male romance. She has since written more than 30 works (both solo and collaborations).

Stephanie is classically trained in business, accounting, and HR/training, possessing both an undergrad and graduate degree. She also owned and operated Romance First Publishing where the ultimate goal was to help other unknown, as well as known authors get their start in the publishing world.

Beyond writing, her other hobbies include: painting, gaming, and spending time with her husband and two cherished cats.

Cheryl Headford
Cheryl was born into a poor mining family in the South Wales Valleys. Until she was 16, the toilet was at the bottom of the garden and the bath hung on the wall. Her refrigerator was a stone slab in the pantry and there was a black lead fireplace in the kitchen. They look lovely in a museum but aren’t so much fun to clean.

Cheryl has always been a storyteller. As a child, she’d make up stories for her nieces, nephews and cousin and they’d explore the imaginary worlds she created, in play.

Later in life, Cheryl became the storyteller for a re enactment group who travelled widely, giving a taste of life in the Iron Age. As well as having an opportunity to run around hitting people with a sword, she had an opportunity to tell stories of all kinds, sometimes of her own making, to all kinds of people. The criticism was sometimes harsh, especially from the children, but the reward enormous.
It was here she began to appreciate the power of stories and the primal need to hear them. In ancient times, the wandering bard was the only source of news, and the storyteller the heart of the village, keeping the lore and the magic alive. Although much of the magic has been lost, the stories still provide a link to the part of us that still wants to believe that it’s still there, somewhere.

In present times, Cheryl lives in a terraced house in the valleys with her son, dog, bearded dragon (called Smaug of course) and three cats. Her daughter has deserted her for the big city, but they’re still close. She’s never been happier since she was made redundant and is able to devote herself entirely to her twin loves of writing and art

Author Links
S L Danielson
Twitter: @s_l_danielson

Cheryl Headford
                  Author Page:  https://www.facebook.com/Nephylim.author

Interview with the Authors
1. Where'd the idea for Upstaged come from?


S The idea, for me, came from a photo sent to me from Mika. She said doesn't he deserve a story? That put the juices of inspiration to work.

I'd always wanted to do one about a band too, and love young adult, so why not?

C I can't really remember where the idea came from. It just happened.

Didn't we start off talking about the characters? You made up Erik and I made up Asher. Then we found the wonders of One Note and brainstormed the sketch of the first book.

S Yeah, I think so; we named Erik and Asher right off...

C I think right at the beginning we were talking about the rabid fan and the stalking thing

S Ha, yeah, which was a great thought; but not in practice. We planned on Vince being the stalker; but as soon as I wrote him, he changed. He didn't feel like that to me.

C It was after that 1st party scene, where he had dialogue. Asher was feeling really down and he comforted him. I think it was when he and Asher had that moment. That’s when we first started talking about him changing.

S Yes Then when he took Asher back to his place and he was so sweet and shy. You said he was being so lovely, it'd be a shame to make him a stalker - so we didn't.


2. What was it like with one author in the US and one in the UK? Any continental clashes?

C There were a few idioms and local saying that threw us sometimes.

S Same here, some phrases I had to ask what they meant and a lot of 'u' usage.

C And 'z's I don't think we clashed at all

S No clashes It was just a matter of clarification otherwise it went swimmingly Brilliant. I now understand UK lingo.

C And as we had one character who was American and one British we could each use our own languages in the characters.

S Exactly I never wrote for Asher or Daisy; I couldn't do them justice.

C The one I had the most problem with was ‘book it’. I could never get to grips with that one.
Oh and carry out instead of takeaway

S Connor was another matter altogether, lol.

C Haha Yeah he started as mine and migrated.

S I adopted him after book #2...so you'll see that later on.

C Yeah, Asher was a bit confused sometimes by the lingo the culture and he hated Erik's Americanness

S So was Erik, and Vince, and Billy. Erik was very brash and harsh; not subtle at all. Hehe.

C Well, neither was Asher really.

S Not at all.

C He was just non subtle in a different way.


3. So how did you two meet? What spawned working together?

S I met Cheryl when she subbed to my company, RFP.

C You published my book.

S We got on so famously, we decided to make a go of it ourselves.

C Maybe we could say we had to talk over some issues and realised we had similar outlook and then gelled. Something like that It came up in discussion that I'd never co written and we thought we'd try it, see how it went

S It was wildfire after that. I've never written so fast. The ideas flowed out like a flood. It was crazy.

C We'd finished the first book in what three weeks. We had seven in five months.

S It was wild. Our families were tugging at us to slow down.

C But we couldn't. We were compelled to do it; it took over.

S Oh yeah.

C It was like an addiction but in a very good way.

S Lol...definitely.

C But it was wonderful. And we're not done yet.

S Nope.



#4Where do you see the collaboration going?

C I have no idea. We were originally looking at three, then we joked about it going to ten, then we reached and passed that so… who knows?

S Well, we have another Upstaged in the works.

C Plus another series we just started. I persuaded you to dip your toe into fantasy.

S Hehe, yes. Fantasty...the fae world. That's totally new to me; still getting used to it.

C But it's sexy as hell

S I dunno what's after that one, but I'm sure we'll think of something. Yes it is. I love Crow and Frank.

C It has the potential for another series.

C Crow is the sweetest thing... although he shocks the hell out of Frank sometimes.

S That he does.

C Frank seems so sweet and clueless.

S Frank doesn't know what to think sometimes.

C But then doesn't turn a hair at the thought of killing someone.

Well, on that note, I think it might be time to say goodbye to these two crazy kids. Until next time guys.



2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your support. It's always appreciated.

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    Replies
    1. Anytime, Nephy. Anytime you have something you want to have posted on my blog, all you have to do is ask. :-)

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