Monday, June 8, 2015

Guest Post & Giveaway ~ C.S. Minsky

C.S. Minsky speaks about where this series came from...


Sophie’s Fate, the prequel to Sophie’s Time, was the first YA novel I wrote. I created the story from an experience of my own. I met someone at a conference, and he seemed so familiar to me even though we had never met. I kept feeling I knew him but I didn’t.

Months later I thought about that encounter and how sometimes a place I visit for the first time can feel like I’ve already been there. I played with those dèjá vu experiences in my head and began wondering what it would be like to discover you lived once before and certain events of that past still needed to be completed.

I took my personal experience of that encounter, and I created a story around it. I used places I know so it felt familiar to me and created a girl’s life with her family. I then added a paranormal/supernatural element to it. I wanted to create a loving family and a strong female protagonist. I chose the name Sophie because it means wisdom, and I wanted a girl who would be smart, curious and relentless is discovering the truth.

After Sophie’s Fate, I felt Sophie still had something more to discover, so I wrote Sophie’s Time, which continues a year later and once again, the story unfolds in places known to me and possesses a supernatural element to it.




The books...


Sophie’s Fate is book one in the Sophie’s Fate series. In a minute everything can change. Eighteen-year-old Sophie is spending a quiet summer with her father before college. When she meets Nick, her summer takes a sharp unexpected turn, leading Sophie into a direction she never could have imagined. Discovering she lived a previous life, Sophie is forced to confront a past she cannot recall. As inexplicable events follow her, Sophie must find her own path and her fate.




 

 

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I sense something behind me, and when I turn around I see a bright golden light out in the distance. It is warm and inviting. I know what this means, and I don’t want it. I get up and begin walking away from it, but I am weary and don’t want to fight it. It quietly calls for me like it’s inside my head. It pulls at me like gravity, so I turn and walk toward the light.

It’s been almost a year since Nick Amante departed, leaving Sophie with many unanswered questions as she attempts to move on. 

Sophie has now completed her first year of college and as she drives away from the Stanford campus, Sophie thinks about her life and wonders what direction it will take. Like the previous year, she will be spending her summer in Sonoma with her father. On the first day Sophie and her father arrive, an unfortunate fall propels Sophie into another haunting experience. 

 Something unusual happens to Sophie during the time she remains unconscious from the accident. While Sophie recovers, she believes her dreams and flashbacks relate to her fall. As she struggles to remember and put the fragmented pieces together, Sophie remains determined to discover the truth and in doing so, she creates her fate and her future. 

 


 

 

About the Author:

C.S. Minsky is a former award-winning California high school teacher and mentor for at-risk students. She loved teaching teens but decided to pursue her passion for writing. She is bilingual and has traveled throughout Europe. She supports sustainable and organic farming, enjoys cooking, hiking, bicycling and is a lover of dogs. Her favorite reads are both adult and young adult fiction and at times, nonfiction.






Giveaway...
 
 
The author is giving away a $5 Amazon Gift Card
 
 International as long as you can accept a gift card 
 
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

19 comments:

  1. I have experienced deja vu. Many years ago I stopped at a restaurant and felt I had been there before. I didn't understand it because I had never been there.

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  2. I can't say I have ever experienced experienced dèjá vu.

    It's not the same thing but my husband could always find me if I was lost. I don't know how he did it but even if I was shopping in a mall, he could locate me every time. The strangest time was when I was walking in the forest (completely turned around) and he walked up to me. He could always find me.

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  3. That is an interesting way to create a book. Me personally, I have experienced a few minor cases of deja vu, like I would dream something and it would happen during the day... I can't remember any specific ones though.

    Naomi @ Naomi’s Reading Palace

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  4. I think I experience deja vu at least once a week! Thanks!

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  5. I experience it at least several times a month.

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  6. I can't remember the last time, but it does happen.

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  7. A long long time ago when I was in high school. Thank you for the giveaway :)

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  8. I don't really remember anything specific.

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  9. I feel like that happens just about everyday! lol
    Thanks for the giveaway

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  10. deju-vu and past lives have always been interesting concepts to me. This series sounds really good! Thanks for sharing :)

    Lindy@ A Bookish Escape

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  11. I am not sure if I ever have experienced deja-vu. If so, I do not remember.

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  12. I have experienced deja vu a few times but they are only a few seconds long so I don't remember the exact circumstances

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  13. I have never felt deju vu. Wait I feel like i have been here before (ha,ha,ha)

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  14. A long time ago when I was really young we were driving in the Ozark mountains in Arkansas with my aunt and uncle and we were coming up to a curve and all of a sudden I knew what was going to be around the bend, spooked me out at the time.

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  15. I was traveling through Europe this past fall and was in Milan, Italy at the Duomo Cathedral. Although I had never been there before I had a sense I had. Weird! Anyway, I read this series of Sophie's Fate and I thought it was great. The characters were well developed and the plot kept my interest from beginning to end. A real girl power story.

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  16. I don't I even have. Sophie fate sounds like an intersecting book.

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  17. I know I have before but I can't think of when.

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  18. I am not sure I have , but I really would love to read this book :) ty.

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  19. It has been several years ago that I've experienced it.

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