Video and transcript below!
Streamed live on Dec 29, 2023
— Katherine D. Graham
“Join me live for a special live chat with a new spotlight author for the 2023-2024 New Year’s Blitz: Christine Marshall!”
Watch the interview now!
Read the transcript here!
Katherine: All right we are live, welcome back everybody to another special live chat portion of the blitz. For those who have been tuning in ever since yesterday for the New Year’s Indie book Blitz welcome back. I know there’s been a lot of authors today but I’m super excited for this panel because this is another one of our featured authors, Christine Marshall, who is here because you voted and nominated that Christine come on as a featured guest. And not just one of our panelists this year. So, Christine, thank you for agreeing to come on.
Christine: Absolutely. I’m so excited.
Katherine: It is so exciting. I know when I put it up on Instagram, the votes, your name was dropped in so many times and I was like, all right I hope Christine will do this with me because this is such a busy weekend.
Christine: Oh yeah, this is a good week for us, we’re on vacation we’re just at home chilling. It’s awesome.
Katherine: Yeah, that’s great. For those who don’t know you why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what kind of books you write.
Christine: I’m Christine Marshall and I’m a fantasy author. My books are perfect for readers of all ages. I’ve had 10-, 11- year -olds read them and love them. I’ve had adults read them and love them. They’re appropriate for readers of all ages. I have some that are fairy tale retellings like the princess fairy tale retellings. I have some adventure stories, and a couple of my books are humorous adventure stories. And then my newest one is a Peter Pan steampunk underground dwarf book that is kind of geared for boys, but everyone will love it. Right now, I have 10 published books and then we have three more on the schedule.
Katherine: wow so they don’t always have the same characters then in those retelling ones?
Christine: Yeah, so there’s the first core series is the Charlie and the Giants books.
There’s Rise of the Giants, Battle of the Giants, and Last of the Giants. Charlie is the main character of those.
There are three princess retellings that are kind of the prequel trilogy for that, and they each feature a different main character. The first one, Becoming Cinder, is a Cinderella retelling and the main character ends up becoming the villain of all the other books.
All the books take place in the same world and there’s other side characters that have gotten their own stories and books.
Promised Beauty is my new Beauty in the Beast one. It’s a standalone but it’s still in that same world. There are no crossover characters for that one. So, if you like one, you’ll like them all.
Katherine: Yes, I love books where you can pick them up and you can read them sort of whatever order you want or one that catches your interest and then you’re like, well now I’m hooked I have to read everything.
Christine: yeah, and that’s how these are. Some of them are numbered but that’s just the chronological order. Most of them can be read in any order that you want, so it’s pretty fun.
Katherine: So how did you get into writing? Have you always wanted to write? Did you accidentally stumble into it?
Christine: So, I’ve been writing stories since I was a kid. I always thought it’d be really cool to publish a book, but I never really thought it would happen.
Then about six years or years ago I wrote my first book, Rise of the Giants, and tried the traditional route- getting an agent, like all of that. So, I was querying, and it wasn’t going anywhere and I kind of just put it aside and said Well maybe it’s not for me, maybe I’m not going to be an author. and then pandemic hit you can only spend so many hours binge watching TV shows and playing way too many hours of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild on my Nintendo switch.
I was like, I’ve got to do something different. My husband said, why don’t you pull out your manuscript and let’s do this.
So that’s what we did. I’ve been publishing- Indie publishing for two years now and it’s been a roller coaster of emotions, but it’s been so much fun. I’ve loved connecting with other authors and readers on social media.
Katherine: You’ve had a great support group too off social media. We were talking before we went live about how your husband has been 100% on board and supportive and helping you on your journey.
Christine: Steve does all of my cover art for all my books. All of my books have illustrations by him. He does pen and ink illustrations and then we digitize them and put them in the books.
um oh he’s coming in yay
Steve: hi all kids are watching in our room
Christine: yeah, we have five kids so there he is
Katherine: hey Steve, thank you for all you do- your gorgeous covers and everything.
Christine: He’s the artist designer, he does it all. So, he built this awesome backdrop for these interviews and then we can take it with us to shows. Today, even when I was getting ready, he’s like, here’s a couple different outfits you can wear, make sure you do your hair and I’ll get everything all set up.
Katherine: so nice to meet you
Christine: We’re both on social media and we do a lot together on social media as well, so if you follow one of us, you’ll find the other one in there a lot.
Katherine: That’s really exciting. I know we were talking on some other panels today that the level of support that you have can vary so much and it’s just such an easier journey when you actually have someone who knows what you’re going through to be there, walk through you both with you know family. But also, within we’ve had a lot of people talk about the Indie author community and it sounds like with you going to shows and everything, how has being Indie really impacted your writing journey and publishing?
Christine: I was not on social media before I started publishing and so I joined to be part of the Indie author community and it has been life changing. Really, we don’t have a lot of extended family, so Steve really is my only family, and my children are my support system. I don’t have other people, extended family, to be there with me. But I found that family on booktok and on Facebook and Instagram and it has changed everything for me.
I mean, you’re one of the first people I connected with when I first started a couple years ago and my daughter and I love your books and I just I remember following you on Facebook and thinking, oh my gosh this person actually knows who I am.
And now I feel like I get to do that for other people too. It’s just really really such a great community and we all help each other out. One of my favorite people, Tanya, is on social media at Celtic blue to you pa Services, she’s a friend that we’ve met on social media and her favorite saying is “the rising tide lifts all boats” and that’s how that community feels.
Katherine: Yes exactly, because the whole reason we’ve been doing the panels for the blitz, as we’ve said earlier in other streams, has been that if you find one author that you really love they can only put out a book so fast, and so we’re not looking at competitors we’re looking at our colleagues, our peers, and if you’re not reading my books you can be reading Christine’s book if you’re not reading Christine’s books you can read somebody else’s books.
Christine: I’m a voracious reader so I need stacks and stacks of books, so it’s definitely not a competition. If I find a book that I like I want all the books like that by everybody. I want them all. I’m sure most readers are like that too.
Katherine: One question I had about your writing, because you get in the head of your characters so well, is do you feel like that is your mom instinct from having your kids, or your innocent sense of whimsy from when you were young, or does it something that’s really hard to get into- because like you mentioned earlier you have a trilogy where it follows a young boy and versus writing these as adult how do you sort of bridge that gap?
Christine: I know my husband’s okay with me saying this because he says it too but kind of a big kid, so when I write the boy adventure stories, I really try to get into his head. He just knows how to have fun. Whenever I’m out with the kids by myself I always think, okay if I want to make a memory with them what would dad do? What would their dad do? What would Steve do? Because he just has this amazing sense of fun and adventure and so I try to see things from his eyes for that part of it.
And then I’m an avid reader and so I just read a lot and I’ve read a lot all these years and I kind of just stick in the back of my mind the things that I like about characters and scenes and stories and things like that to help me make sure I’m getting it out there.
And then I have teenage daughters, so my husband and my teenage daughters read my books too before I publish them and give me feedback as well. So that’s really fun, it’s a big it’s a whole family activity.
Katherine: yeah, and so really this character is the result of a lot of different inputs that’s wonderful.
Christine: Some of the characters that I started with I based loosely off of my children’s personality. All of my kids’ personalities. And so that that kind of got me going and then from there I was able to kind of expand out and use my imagination more.
Katherine: Luna asked, do you have a favorite out of your books?
Christine: okay that is like the hardest question ever. It’s like asking me to choose a favorite child, especially since personalities are loosely tied.
But I feel like it’s usually my newest book is my favorite because I’ve been spending so much time with the characters.
And so right now I just released Promised Beauty which is my Beauty and the Beast retelling and that’s probably my favorite princess book as of right now.
And then my other book that I just released Noblestone and the Lost Dwarves is the Peter Pan steampunk dwarf underground adventure and that one’s like for boys and it’s full of adventure. It’s a group of friends that are on this quest to save their people and its super fun.
So those are my two favorite right now, but I love all of my books so much.
Katherine: I think when I started doing interviews, I started asking that question and then I shifted to- which of your books would you recommend if someone was picking up a book of yours for the first time that’s like looking for a good example of your style?
Christine: So that one right now is Promised Beauty. Because it’s a standalone, it’s not part of a long series, and so you can read it and you get the warm fuzzies and then you’ll love it, and you’ll want to read all of my other books.
Katherine: So how do you go about tackling the classic… I don’t want to call it a problem because I don’t know it’s a problem, but it’s definitely a challenge… I think writing general fiction to fit multiple ages. How do you tackle making something that’s whimsical and innocent enough for the younger children but also intriguing enough and you know for the adults?
Christine: That’s a really really good question. For starters, one of the reasons why I say they’re for readers of all ages is there’s no violence, like there’s a little bit of violence in some of the books- there’s like battle scenes but it’s not like graphic violence. There’s no sex. So, like in all of the romance stories it’s all sweet, innocent, like they kiss a little and that’s it. And then there’s no bad language at all in any of them, like nothing. And so that opens it up to be able, if you can read a book, you can read these.
Some of like the princess stories, because there’s romance to it, so younger kids might not enjoy it as much because there’s a little bit of romance, but I’ve had 10 and 11- and 12-year-old boys and girls have really loved even those books. And then like some of the adventure ones I keep the pace really good and fast and so that keeps an older, an adult reader interested but a young reader also is going to like it.
And then one of the things that we’ve really tried to do… so my husband grew up and he really struggled with reading when he was a kid and he said he always liked books with pictures in them because it would kind of help like break up the reading part of the book. One of the reasons why he illustrates our books and so for people who have kids or grandkids or friends or nieces or nephews that struggle with reading a little bit the books, that’s why we have pictures in them too and they’re really whimsical illustrations there’s always like little secret things that he’s hidden in there that if you don’t really look at it super closely you won’t notice. And so, a kid that likes that is going to sit and really study those pictures for a while and then that can help them want to continue reading the book too.
Katherine: yeah, oh it makes me think of like the old classic Alice in Wonderland, it’s like book without pictures. I know yeah exactly yes oh my goodness so you’ve really got a sweet spot where you have someone who can illustrate for you, who can design covers for you, you’ve got family on board with you.
Where do you guys see your books going in 2024? Do you have author events you’re excited about for next year?
Christine: Yes so, we have I think we’ve officially registered for four different book events. So, we live in Eastern Tennessee so just kind of within like a day’s drive or so from us. And then a lot of the events aren’t opening up for applications till after the new year, so we’ll be signing up for more and our goal is to be go to as many as we can.
The first one so far that we have scheduled is the Rose Glenn literary Festival in Sevierville Tennessee which is where Dollywood is for anyone who’s familiar with Dollywood. We’re going to be there, we’ll have our whole big backdrop, we’ll be selling books and signing them, and we always give out stickers and bookmarks and things with our books as well. And I love talking to readers and answering questions and getting to know people.
Katherine: oh, my goodness so I am super excited for everything you’ve got going in the new year. Thank you so much for hopping on and talking about your books. This has been so long overdue, chatting, oh my goodness, but seriously thank you and thank you Steve and the kids for watching, and everybody else who’s watching live too.
Thank you again Christine, this was awesome.
Christine: I’ll just put in a little plug my website is Christine Marshall author.com, super easy to remember and you can see all the books on there and the upcoming books and everything and if you love fantasy or you know anyone who loves fantasy, you’ll love these books.
Katherine: so yes, and they are in the description box too is the link to Christine’s website so you can just scroll down if you’re on YouTube and click there and start reading the books.
Thank you so much Christine, take care, bye bye bye everybody.
Christine Marshall Fantasy Author 