What’s harder, naming your characters, creating the title for your book or the cover design process?
Never wanting to sound snobbish or self-aggrandizing, I have to say that none of these tasks is hard; they bring me joy. Character names seem to get whispered into my ear, and the book title came fairly organically too – though I must confess even I didn’t understand all the ways the title suited this book until I wrote the very last scene in it. I’m a visual artist, so I pitched a few cover designs and although they weren’t the best in terms of marketing for PeopleFish, I was happy that one of my layout suggestions made the cut.
How do you answer the question “Oh, you’re an author…what do you write?”
I cook up fiction by creating main course characters with bits of me sprinkled on top, who are plated for unconventional tables and served up to readers with side dishes of love, sex, heartache, truth and beauty. I’m an accidental novelist and I’m trying to invite readers on a journey that starts inside the minds of my characters and ends inside their hearts.
What does your family think of your writing?
My spouse and chosen family are supportive, encouraging, and brutally honest. I can’t be sure if anyone related to me by blood will actually read what I write, so that’s a “to be determined.”
Tell us about your current work in process and what you’ve got planned for the future.
I’m working on a novel called The Weightlessness of Dreams, which is set in San Francisco, in 1998, and two of the main characters are women who are the age I was back then. Other characters include an unconventional nun with a tragic back-story, and a former history professor who has gone missing. I’m about a third into the first draft and I love my characters, which is a good sign. After this book, I’m not sure which direction my writing will take, but I am sure that I will write every chance I get!
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Synopsis
Her Cree grandmother called it the gift of seeing, but for Petra “Pete” Orvatch, knowing things in ways that defy explanation has made reality and fantasy blur in a world where the clocks literally go backward. Her fascinating and clairvoyant mind is a riddle that many doctors have tried to solve with medication. Love comes her way unexpectedly when she meets Fiona Angeli, a stunningly beautiful single mother. A risk-taker by nature, Fiona is not scared off by her new lover’s psychic abilities and eccentricities.
The two of them share passion and secrets on a magical and surprising journey, and their torrid love affair takes them to thrilling new places until betrayal divides them. Both these women fight battles within themselves; Fiona must gain control of her dangerous compulsions, and Pete’s onerous gift ultimately puts her at risk of losing herself in the gap between delusions and the real world.
Purchase Links
NineStar Press: http://ninestarpress.com/product/peoplefish/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MU8Z4ZD
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/peoplefish-medella-kingston/1125465975
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/peoplefish
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/695471
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Excerpt
PeopleFish
Medella Kingston © 2017
All Rights Reserved
Pete looked up from the mystery she was reading and scanned the faces in the waiting room. There was Tired Pinched Mom, with faded blond ponytail and dark roots coming in. She had one kid under control and was now quietly negotiating with the other. Next to this trio sat Man Too Large for His Seat, who seemed to be staring at his shoes or sleeping with his eyes open. In the corner was someone so nondescript she couldn’t instantly name her—then it came to her: Any Woman. This woman was neither thin nor large, short nor tall, and had a slightly exotic yet familiar face. She looked as if she could be from many different places, like Greece, Morocco, Central America, or New Jersey. She was text-messaging so quickly, Pete half expected her thumbs to spark and set fire to her phone.
Doesn’t anyone people-watch anymore? Was she the only person left who liked to read faces and create narratives? Maybe so. She’d never stop doing it. She’d been spinning this stuff since she was little—much to the annoyance of her mother. Instead of acknowledging the creative gifts of her child, or at the very least being entertained by them, she’d say, “God will punish you, Petra Marie, for thinking bad thoughts about people and making up lies.”
Some traits must skip generations, because Grandma Sweets had the right attitude. She’d join right in and embellish her granddaughter’s rough outlines of strangers’ lives with additions that could only come from a seasoned mind. If Pete said a passenger on the bus looked guilty, Gram Sweets would say, “Of course he looks guilty, he ought to! Instead of cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving, he cooked his wife!”
Her reminiscing was perforated by the staccato ring of a telephone.
“Cambridge Holistic Health and Wellness Center, please hold.”
Please hold? No one else is on the line; is this receptionista just fucking with the caller? Pete dog-eared the page in her paperback, closed it, slipped it into her bag, and decided to devote all of her energy to observing. She was just about to make up a story about the receptionist when her eyes landed on something strange. She hadn’t noticed the cheap plastic clock on the wallpapered wall before, but now she couldn’t take her eyes off it because the second hand was moving backward.
At first she thought she was seeing things, since her imagination was such a well-developed muscle. So she did something that made her feel seven instead of thirty-seven. She closed her eyes to reset, inhaled a long, slow breath, and then opened them, hoping this simple act could alter what she saw, or make things feel right again. She didn’t return her gaze to the clock right away, but rather avoided its face like you would dodge direct eye contact in a volley of flirt-and-stare with a stranger who’d caught you looking.
She panned her eyes evenly over all she had just taken in. Now the previously obedient child of the two was acting petulant, Man Too Large for His Seat actually was asleep, and Any Woman had stopped texting and was staring back at Pete. This startled her a bit. She looked away and then forced herself to look at the clock again. The red second hand was still moving backward and now instead of 2:27, it was 2:26, and the room seemed brighter to her than it had been just a minute ago.
“Petra Orvatch?”
She heard the automaton call her but she couldn’t move—she felt obligated to monitor the clock and confirm that it was in fact going backward, but knew she shouldn’t say anything about it. It was one of those times when she couldn’t expect people to understand her. These occurrences had happened ever since she could remember and could be confusing, amusing, or even downright dangerous.
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Meet the Author
Medella Kingston fell in love with writing at an early age and published articles, poems, and stories when she was growing up. She wrote, performed, and sold songs for movie soundtracks, and continued writing short stories for her own pleasure. She currently sings in the band Omnesia, which has aired locally on UC Berkeley’s radio station and been heard as far east as Goa and the Mumbai University. She lives with her partner and their two dogs in the East Bay. PeopleFish is Medella’s first novel, and she is currently working on a new book.
Author Links
Website: http://medellakingston.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medella.kingston
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MedellaK
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Tour Schedule
1/23 – On Top Down Under – http://ontopdownunderbookreviews.com/
1/23 – Scatteredt Thoughts And Rogue Words – https://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/
1/24 – Molly Lolly; Reader, Reviewer, Lover of Words – https://mollylollyauthor.wordpress.com
1/24 – Stories That Make You Smile – https://authoraddisonalbright.com
1/25 – Erotica For All http://eroticaforall.co.uk
1/25 – Divine Magazine – http://divinemagazine.biz
1/26 – MM Good Book Reviews – https://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com/
1/26 – Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents – http://fangirlmomentsandmytwocents.blogspot.com
1/26 – Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews – http://wickedfaeriesreviews.blogspot.com
1/26 – Boy Meets Boy Reviews – http://boymeetsboyreviews.blogspot.com
1/27 – Happily Ever Chapter – https://www.facebook.com/happilyeverchapter
1/27 – Sharing Links and Wisdom – http://sharinglinksandwisdom.blogspot.com
1/27 – Love Bytes – www.lovebytesreviews.com
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Giveaway
One lucky winner will receive an ebook of their choice from NineStar Press
