We are so excited to be a part of the tour for Shadow Hour by Melissa Grey! We loved The Girl at Midnight and were dying to get our hands on book 2 and we couldn’t have enjoyed it more! Before we share an interview with Melissa, how about the book details!
The Shadow Hour by Melissa Grey
(Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Also by this author: The Savage Dawn
Published by Random House Children's Books on July 12th 2016
Genres: Action & Adventure, General, Legends, Myths, Fables, Love & Romance, Other, Romance, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 432
Format: ARC 
Everything in Echo's life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: she is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to bring peace.
The firebird has come into the world, but it has not come alone. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Echo can feel a great and terrible darkness rising in the distance. Cosmic forces threaten to tear the world apart.
Echo has already lost her home, her family, and her boyfriend. Now, as the firebird, her path is filled with even greater dangers than the ones she's already overcome.
She knows the Dragon Prince will not fall without a fight.
Echo must decide: can she wield the power of her true nature--or will it prove too strong for her, and burn what's left of her world to the ground?
Welcome to the shadow hour.
What inspires you to write?
Love. I don’t remember when exactly I decided I wanted to write – I was just a child and a very small one at that, I think – but it’s always had to do with my love of stories. I was enamored with books growing up and I’m still enamored with them today. I love how they can transport you to other worlds, let you see inside other minds, take you on adventures you’d never have otherwise. I love reading them and now, I love writing them.
Who are your writing heroes?
I don’t think I’d be a writer now were it not for J.K. Rowling. I’d always loved to read and I’d always wanted to write – see above – but it wasn’t until Harry Potter that I started to think that maybe it wasn’t an impossible dream. There was something about those books coming into my life when I was 11 or 12 that made me think, “I can do this.”
Aside from Rowling, the writers who’ve most influenced me are Neil Gaiman, Joss Whedon, L.J. Smith, Mercedes Lackey, J.R.R. Tolkien, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Edith Wharton. They’re my go-to authors. When I feel a bit lost in my own writing, I turn to them to find my way back.
What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
Typing “The End.”
Have you made any major changes from draft to publication?
Oh, have I ever. The first draft of THE SHADOW HOUR is completely unrecognizable from the published draft. I scrapped most of the plot and rewrote it completely for the second draft. The changes are too grand and too numerous to mention.
For THE GIRL AT MIDNIGHT, surprisingly little changed from the draft I sent my agent to the one that made it into the book. Just cosmetic changes here and there.
What are some things readers would be surprised to learn about you?
I’m not sure what would be surprising about me, but people do frequently ask if I studied creative writing or literature or English quite a bit. I didn’t. I was briefly a lit major though with a film concentration in college but I switched to studio art (with a painting/printmaking concentration) and that’s what my undergraduate degree is in. At the graduate level, I studied art history, which is heavy on the writing like any history degree, but is still a visual arena, which I think definitely influences what and how I write. I don’t think having Echo break into famous museums in TGaM and TSH would be half as satisfying if I hadn’t spent so much time in those buildings for school.
Get your copy today: Amazon | B&N
Tour Schedule:
Giveaway:
2 sets of GIRL AT MIDNIGHT & THE SHADOW HOUR (US/Canada Only)
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