Interview with author L.S. O'Dea about Lake of Sins

Today is a special interview with L. S. O’Dea about her new novel Lake of Sins.

During her virtual book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions, L.S. will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops, too!

A little bit about Lake of Sins:

In a world where class distinction means the difference between imprisonment and freedom and even life and death, being chosen to stay in the encampment and breed is the only way to guarantee survival for a teenage Producer.

Every year after harvest, the finest examples of teenage Producers are assigned mates; the rest are loaded onto carts and hauled away, never to be seen or heard from again. Trinity, a sixteen-year-old Producer, knows that she has no chance of being chosen to stay. She isn’t even full-blooded Producer. Her father is a House Servant and she’s spent her entire life hiding her differences, especially her claws and fangs.

She has one week to sneak into the forest and discover what happens to those who are taken. Her plan is simple, but she doesn’t count on being hunted and captured by predators long believed to be extinct. Can she elude her captors to uncover the fate of her kind and return to camp before her escape is discovered?

Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

Oh, definitely yes. I still have imaginary friends. They are the characters in yet untold stories. I was the youngest of seven. My closest sibling was almost five years older than me. That was a huge age gap for a child and I played by myself often. I don’t recall having any particular imaginary friend so much as having entire stories with numerous friends and characters to keep me company.

Do you have any phobias?

I am slightly afraid of heights (it is weird that I’d love to be able to fly), but I’d have to say that my biggest phobia is the fear of water. Not chlorinate water but the ocean and lakes. To be more precise, it isn’t a fear of water so much as a fear of those creatures lurking under its depths just waiting to eat me (sharks and alligators mostly).

When I first moved to Florida, I had a lot of nightmares about alligators. It’s subsided a bit since I moved to the country, but they still trickle out of my subconscious sometimes and into my dreams.

Do you listen to music when you're writing?

No. The voices in my head are enough noise for me.

Do you ever read your stories out loud?

I have just finished reading both books to my great niece and nephew. Their mother (my niece) is one of my beta readers, so they have been hearing us talk about the story for years. They really wanted to read it but they are only nine and ten and there are some things in the books that are not appropriate for kids their age. They stayed with me this past summer, so I read the books to them, skipping and glossing over the parts that I felt were too adult for them.

Tell us about your main character and who inspired him/her.

My main character is Trinity. At the start of the series she is sixteen. She is different than all the other kids in the encampment and does not truly fit in with them. She is lonely.

I’m not sure if anyone really inspired me for her creation. I don’t create characters with someone else in mind. Truthfully, I’m not even sure that I create them. I flesh them out on paper but they already exist in the fog of my brain. I just help them into a body.

Excerpt from Lake of Sins:

“Something’s following us,” he whispered as he unsheathed his knife. 

The quiet rustle of vegetation behind them signaled that night was not the only thing approaching.  He pointed to a large tree.  She scurried up it and stopped on a limb high off the ground.  He signaled for her to wait and then walked several yards farther before climbing another tree.  He crouched on a low branch, knife in hand.

The woods were gray, the shadows growing wider as time passed.  She waited, scanning the forest below, her heart pounding in her ears.  What was hunting them, besides Guards?  She pulled her knife out of the sheath and adjusted her position.  Gaar always said that predators had to have patience, so the smart prey would too.  She was still working on that.  She shifted around again for a different angle.  So far, she hadn’t seen anything dangerous in the forest, but she had traveled mostly with Mirra.  She tried to relax her breathing, but it was coming in short pants.  She had to calm down.  Fear could be smelled.  Fear attracted predators. 

There was a soft whisper in the vegetation and a pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the brush.  A few feet away were two more eyes and then another set.  There were at least ten pairs, shining in the darkness.

Bio:

L. S. O'Dea grew up the youngest of seven. She always wanted to do what her older siblings were doing, especially reading stories.

At a young age, she immersed herself in books. Her life changed when she read a short story written by her older brother and realized that normal (somewhat anyway, since her brother was a bit weird in her opinion) people created these amazing stories. From that day forward, she wanted to write.

However, as with all good stories, obstacles rose in her path (mostly self-created obstacles) and it took her many years to put finger to keyboard and type her first book.

Links:

Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Website | Blog | Amazon Author Central | Amazon Buy Link

The first book of the series is on sale for $0.99 until the end of the tour.

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