Graced 1943 By Courtney Milford 4 Stars on Amazon and Goodreads! Get it now for FREE on Kindle Unlimited! |
Courtney: Hello, thanks for the questions.
Me: You have done illustrated Children's books as well how did you make the switch to Adult Historical Fantasy?
Courtney: It wasn't really a switch. I developed the Tales of Bark Story Land series at the same time that I was developing The Grace Family Chronicles. I also wrote a middle school book at that time. I guess I was just trying out various genres. And For the record, I'm not an illustrator. I just write the stories. The illustrator is Julie Leiman Weaver.
Me: Graced 1943 is about a family of "Graces" who have special abilities. Where did you get inspiration for this and how did you come up with the different Graces?
Courtney: I wanted to use "Gifted," but that sounded too much like a school program, so I switched to "Graced." As far as the different Graces, I just made them up. Some of them you'll find in other fantasy series, such as the concept of a Healer, but I try to give mine a unique twist. For example, the child Healer, Tatum, is an Emotive Healer, meaning she can only Heal people she loves.
Me: How is Book 3 in the Grace Family Chronicles coming? Do you have anything else in the works right now we should look forward to?
Courtney: It has been edited and I'm going through it, revising it here and there. I've also written another adult novel called Shackledown about the ghost of a 15 year old girl who haunts the old plantation house she lived in 100 years earlier. It is being edited. I'm sure it, and the third Grace Family book, called The Train of Thought, will be out in the next few months.
Me: What is a hobby you enjoy when you are not writing?
Courtney: Working out (cardio at the gym and barre are my most common workouts) and reading are how I spend much of my time when I'm not writing, or running my wholesale automotive fleet leasing company called Courtney Leasing, Inc.. I like to travel as well.
Me: What has been the most challenging part of writing Graced 1943?
Courtney: The easy part is writing the book. That was one of my first books, and I struggled with the editing (I've since gotten a new editor, Kathleen Rothenberger). The first editor "corrected" every instance of a Grace-related word being capitalized. That took a long time to fix.