Emmalee Aple was born and raised in Wisconsin, but always dreamed of life on the coast. Now, grown with a handsome computer geeky husband and two beautiful blonde monsters of her own, she uses what spare time she can manage to squeeze out of her day, writing, sewing and crafting. Emmalee’s debut novel, Neophyte, was released in February 2012. She is excited to share the beginning of this story with you, and is currently busy working on Rogue, the second book in this series.
Emmalee lives off of carmel iced coffee and sprees. She strongly believes that a childs imagination is the most important part of growing up, and that the cleaning elves are avoiding her messy house.
She loves a good book that sucks you in and doesnt let go until the pages run out. And can not get enough of the show Glee. (Although she will admit she DVRs Bones, Castle, Pretty Little Liars, Vampire Diaries and Fringe).
Growing up her favorite movie was Annie and she knows all the lyrics to almost every disney song!
In the summer you can find her outside in her hammock, or out on a boat in the local lakes. Her current favorite books are The Hunger Games, the Demonblood series and The Lorax.
Welcome Emmalee Aple thanks for talking to us today and letting us have a little insight into you and your books.
Q: Tell us about Neophyte ………………
A: Neophyte is the first book in the series. It takes you through part of Addisyn White’s transformation from human to angel. Where she learns that her Link [group of angels she is connect to, kind of like her angel family] is keeping secrets from her, secrets about her, about being an angel, and about the dangers that surround them. Because she is a Neophyte, she isn’t allowed to do much, she is untrained, inexperienced and can still die a human death. But that doesn’t stop her from fighting for what she believes in. There is some romance, some fighting and a lot of tension. It starts with a kidnapping and ends with a life changing decision.
Q: What’s your genre and why did you choose it?
A: My genre is Young Adult fiction, in the sub category of fantasy or paranormal. I chose this genre because it’s what I read the most.
Q: What’s the biggest obstacle you faced with your writing journey?
A: The biggest obstacle I faced, honestly, was finding the time to get my ideas on paper. With a hubby and two kids, there isn’t much time in the day and the time there is, I should be using for sleeping.
Q: Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
A: My ideas come mostly from my wild imagination. Some things that happen in the book happened in real life. I don’t want to give too much away, but a certain date scene was actually from back when hubs and I were dating.
Q: Who or what are your influences?
A: My influences come from all over. I can’t really pinpoint an exact place or person, I like to draw from everything.
Q: Are you self-published, legacy or a combination?
A: I am self published, but I am currently looking for a literary agent or a publisher to represent me... so if you know of one, you know... put in a good word for me, okay?
Q: What was the hardest part of your self-pub / publishing journey?
A: I honestly didn’t know how much work it was going to take! Writing the book was the easiest part, if you can believe that. By edit round 17 I was pretty sure I had it right, then I ran it through my editor and had two more edits after that. Plus all the self promoting, it’s a lot of work!
Q: What format are your books available in?
A: Right now, Neophyte is only in e-book format, but as I said earlier, I am actively looking for representation.
Q: How many books have you published so far?
A: Just the one, but soon I will have the sequel and a secret book out.
Q: What things did you outsource, if any at all?
A: I have been blessed with a great group of friends. I had a friend edit for me, another one helped walk me through how to self publish (she also gave me pep talks when I didn’t think I could go on), then I had a friend who took the photos for the cover art, and another one used the photo and added the graphicy things to make it into the cover that it is.
Q: What’s the best bit of advice you received when starting out?
A: Don’t give up! Even when you have 20 rejection letters, use that to motivate you to improve, not give up.
Q: What advice would you offer to the future Debut Authors out there?
A: Before you release your book, hype it up a lot. Send advanced copies to bloggers, do blog hops, get the hype up for it. It will help later on when you are self promoting it.
Q: What’s next for you? Any projects in the pipeline for us to look forward to?
A: Right now, I am currently working on Rogue, the next book in the Neophyte Series, and a secret book that started to form a few weeks ago.
Q: Any favourite Author that you are a fan of and would recommend?
A: I will shamelessly promote my friend, Penelope King. She has been an inspiration and sometimes my pure motivation for getting Neophyte done and published. She has two series out right now, Demonblood (it’s amazing... you have to read it) and Spellbound (a great witchy series!) Check her out! You won’t be disappointed!
Q: Give us one of your favourite quotes……………….
A: My favourite quote from Neophyte is: “You’re right. That was definitely the harder way to go about explaining that I am dead.” I breathed sarcastically. “At least you have now confirmed I am not in hell.” (this is Addisyn’s reaction to when she sees her whole Link shirtless for the first time, right before they bloomed in front of her.)
My favourite quote not in Neophyte: “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” - Audrey Hepburn
Q: And finally tell us something random about yourself to make us chuckle………………………….
A: Are you sure? Oh boy... let’s see... When I was 18, I tried out for the dance team for my local pro-basketball team. My friend and I thought it would be a fun thing to do... long story short, she ended up messing up in a turn sequence, so I saw it and I started to laugh, and then it was just an onset for a bad case of the giggles. I laughed my whole way through both times through the audition, like, rolling on the floor laughing, while the others danced around me, trying hard not to laugh. So clearly, since then, I have found another career path. HAHA.
Emmalee it's been a pleasure having you here on my blog. Good luck with Neophyte and all your future work.
I will be reviewing Neophyte on this blog soon so please keep checking back!!
You can find Neophyte by clicking on the following links
