Deborah Cooke's Blaze The Trail Tour - Guest Post and Giveaway

"Flying Blind" - Book 1

Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal – well, as normal as a girl with an obsession with drawing dragons can be. The thing is that she’s always been told she’s special and destined for great things. It’s not just because of her good grades, either. Zoë’s the Wyvern, the one female dragon shapeshifter with special powers. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL. Worse, there’s no reference book to consult and the last Wyvern is dead…

Everything changes when Zoë’s best friend is bullied and Zoë reacts. Before she can blink twice, her inner dragon is loose, she’s suspended from school and headed to a boot camp for thePyr guys she’s known all her life. But soon she’s doubting her powers—and even some of her friendships.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday - the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line—unless Zoë and her friends can solve the riddle, work together and save their own kind…

Buy Links:  Amazon / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble /IndieBound

"Winging It" - Book 2

Zoë Sorensson yearns to come into her powers as the only female dragon shifter. But being part of two worlds is more complicated than she expected. It’s bad enough that she’s the target of the Mages’ plan to eliminate all shifters—she also has to hide her true nature from her best friend Megan, a human. For her sixteenth birthday, all Zoë wants is one normal day, including a tattoo and a chance to see hot rocker Jared.

Instead, the Pyr throw her a birthday party but ban Megan from attendance, putting Zoë in a tight spot. Things get even worse when Zoe is invited to the popular kids’ Halloween party and Megan’s left out. Zoë knows the party is a trap laid by the host, an apprentice Mage. When Megan gets a last-minute invite, Zoë must save the day—and her best friend—without revealing her fire-breathing secrets…

Buy Links:  Amazon / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble /IndieBound

"Blazing The Trail" - Book 3

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and Zoë Sorensson’s love life is heating up. Cute, loyal, and understanding, wolf shifter Derek is pretty much the perfect guy. He likes Zoë, and he knows what it’s like to have to keep a secret. Yet, Zoë can’t help but wish it was rebel rocker Jared asking her to the Valentine’s dance instead. But Jared’s too busy playing hot and cold with her heart, calling Zoë his dragon girl one minute and then taking special interest in her best friend the next.

Zoë is just about ready to breathe fire, especially once she uncovers a new threat that targets her friends. Although Zoë thought the Mages were defeated, they’re back and have invoked an old spell to give them new power – they plan to eliminate all shape shifters on the night of the big dance. Now, Zoë must lead an alliance of young shifters to battle the Mages and figure out exactly what – and who – she wants, before it all goes up in smoke…

Buy Links:  Amazon /  Barnes & Noble / IndieBound 

Guest Post

Deborah and the Dragongrrl

by Deborah Cooke

http://www.deborahcooke.com

Where do story ideas come from? In the case of the Dragon Diaries, my paranormal YA trilogy, they develop out of other stories. The Dragon Diaries is a spin-off from my Dragonfire series of paranormal romances.

Let’s look at how it happened.

Once upon a time, I wanted to write a series about a group of heroes who were dragon shape shifters. I called them the Pyr. I thought these guys would be pretty sexy. They’d be gorgeous hunks who could change into dragons at will, looking good in both forms. They’d have the attributes of dragons - loyalty, intelligence, integrity, longevity, accumulated wealth - plus be great human guys too. I decided to give them a mission of defending the treasure that is the earth, and some enemies, called the Slayers, who were trying to eliminate humans and Pyr. The Pyr, of course, consider humans to be one of the treasures of the earth worthy of being defended - and this is because they mate with human women. The meeting of a Pyr with the woman who can bear his child is called the firestorm and it’s signified by sparks flying between the two of them. The heat of the firestorm can be felt by all of the Pyr andSlayers, so the dragon dude in question has a lot of challenges on his hands (or claws.) He needs to seduce the woman while he is defending her against Slayers and trying to explain to her what’s going on. At the same time, I set up my dragon dudes so that they fall in love with the woman in question - she is always the perfect match for him - which complicated things even further. These books are action-packed romances and a lot of fun to write.

In the world of the Pyr, there is only ever one female dragon shape shifter at a time. She’s pretty mysterious and is called the Wyvern. The story is that she has extra powers - like the ability to prophesy, and to see past, present and future simultaneously - but Sophie, the Wyvern at the beginning of Dragonfire, didn’t hang out much with the guys. This is a tiny spoiler, but in book #3, KISS OF FATE, Sophie died, and the child conceived in that firestorm turned out to be a girl. Her father, Erik, knew that his daughter, Zoë would be the next Wyvern, and in fact, he’s pretty impatient for her to come into her powers. The male Pyr come into their powers fully at puberty. Once I remembered that, I knew that Zoë’s journey of becoming the Wyvern would be a paranormal YA book. Because she had a lot to learn - and homework to get done too - I decided to make it a trilogy.

So, that’s where the idea of the series came from. What was interesting about writing Zoë’s story was how different it was from the stories of the older Pyr. The olderPyr tend to be loners or at least to have minimal contact with their fellow Pyr. Some of them are unaware of the fullness of their powers. In contrast, this younger generation - they are the kids conceived in all the firestorms of the Dragonfire series - have grown up in the company of dragon shape shifters. They’re fully aware of what they can do (or should be able to do) and they don’t feel like freaks because they have friends who are just like them. The guy dragons are quite competitive with each other and have a particular kind of confidence as a result of this dragon fellowship. Zoë is, of course, within this circle of friends, but outside it as well, since her own powers have been so slow to develop.

Also, no one fully knows what the Wyvern can do. Even I didn’t know all of the Wyvern’s powers in detail before I wrote Zoë’s story. I wasn’t sure how the power of prophecy would manifest for her, or how exactly she would see past, present and future simultaneously. I had no idea that she’d have such powerful dreams, much less that she would be the one to create a union between the Pyrand other kinds of shape shifters.

Finally, the young Pyr needed a different enemy. In Dragonfire, the Pyr are in the midst of their final confrontation with the Slayers, a battle which only one side can survive. These kids are born during the conflict, so by the time they’re 16, it’ll be over. No spoiler really that the Pyr must win and the Slayers must lose - but then, who are the bad guys? I had fun twisting my Dragonfire world a little bit to give the new kids their own challenge.

So, you can see that even though the Dragon Diaries evolved out of Dragonfire, the books are quite different. I enjoyed bringing some of the elements from Dragonfire along to the YA series, but also enjoyed playing around with new and different elements. The interesting thing is that I suspect these characters will continue into another paranormal romances series - it makes sense to me that the young male Pyr will have their biggest change and challenge during their respective firestorms. I’m still thinking about that.

Here’s my question to you - do you like to read books that feature different generations within the same world, or maybe different groups of characters within the same world? Do you read series in different genres - like one series that is paranormal YA and one that is paranormal romance? I’ll follow characters I like no matter where they end up in the bookstore. How about you?

 Deborah Cooke has always been fascinated with dragons, although she has never understood why they have to be the bad guys. She has an honoursdegree in history, with a focus on medieval studies. She is an avid reader of medieval vernacular literature, fairy tales and fantasy novels, and has written over forty romance novels and novellas. She has also been published under the names Claire Cross andClaire Delacroix.

Deborah makes her home in Canada with her husband. When she isn't writing, she can be found knitting, sewing or hunting for vintage patterns.

Connect with Deborah:

Website:  http://deborahcooke.com/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/AuthorDeborahCookeFanPage

You can check out the rest of the tour for Deborah Cooke at the links below: 

Deborah Cooke's

BLAZING THE TRAIL Blog Tour

May 28 - June 15

May 28 - Lori's Book Blog (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

May 29 - Day Drmzz Blog (Guest Post & Giveaway)

May 30 - United By Books (Guest Post & Giveaway)

June 1 - Pimpin' Reads YA (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

June 2 - Book Monster Reviews (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

June 3 - Delicate Simplicity (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

June 5 - Paranormal Haven (Q&A Interview & Giveaway)

June 6 - I Smell Sheep (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

June 7 - All Things Books (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

June 8 - Page Flipperz (Interview & Giveaway)

June 9 - Writerspace (Guest Post & Giveaway)

June 11 - Paranormal Cravings (Guest Post & Giveaway)

June 14 - Books N Kisses - (Series Spotlight & Giveaway)

June 15 - One A Day YA - (Interview & Giveaway)

                                                *****GIVEAWAY*****

Deborah has generously offered up a paperback of Blazing The Trail to one lucky winner. This giveaway is open to all. So International is welcomed. Just fill out the rafflecopter below and answer the question Deborah asked located in white to be entered. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway