YA Story Teller: Blog tour (guest post): Dwellers of Darkness by Stacey Marie Brown

As a part of the Dwellers of Darkness blog tour, I had to think of a guest post topic for author Stacie Marie Brown. After a long time of wrecking my brain as to what that should be, here's what I came up with:

What is the one MUST HAVE theme in every novel? Why?

This is what I got in return:

There are so many themes that are considered important to make a good novel. Theme is crucial to a story. I like to think of a theme as the pulse of the story. Some of the most common are: Acceptance, Courage, Ambition, and Freedom. The list could go on.

Most books have several main ones and even more sub themes running through them. Each reader has a different idea of what themes they hold important and which ones they prefer in the story. Personally, I would have to say I enjoy the theme of Discovery or some kind of growth. A journey. Internal or external. This can be on a grand or a very small scale, but there needs to be some kind of change or development in the plot or in the characters.

Another theme I really find important is love, whether that be for a friend, family, a pet, or lover. Relationships are a crux to a story for me. It can have this action, but if there is no connection to the characters or the characters with each other, then I don’t care about the brilliantly executed action scene. Love adds conflict. It can turn to hate, blind, fades, overcome. Relationships, of some kind, are critical to a story whether the character has any friends or not. The lack of love can be just as interesting.

Loss is another great theme: loss of life, innocence, love, friends. There are so many ways you can write about loss, and usually with loss there is some kind of change from it.

There are so many more themes that are out there, but I feel the main theme running through my Darkness Series is: staying strong and true to yourself.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What themes do you need in a novel?

Upon seeing that question up there - you got it, the last one Stacey dared pose - I wondered whether I should be giving an answer. I mean, is it rhetorical or is it not? Then I thought, what the dunk - I'll just do it. It's quite simple really. One word, to be honest. And it is.....

....it is.....

....is....

.....the answer is.....

.... okay, that's enough of holding your attention with dots and empty lines. So I guess to me, the most important theme in fiction (and well, in non-fiction as well, but it's hard to incorporate love in a business-column, now isn't it?) is love. Nothing else could ever be more important. Courage, greed, living life to the fullest... these are all secondary things. Love is the ultimate winner.

So, there Stacey! Wait, now that the ball is back on my side of the court, do I challenge you with another question? Oh, that was a question of itself, wasn't it? *wink*

Book details:

BOOK ONE

Darkness of Light by Stacey Marie Brown
(Darkness #1)
Publication date: February 13th 2013
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal Romance

Synopsis:

Freak. Witch. Crazy. Schizo.

Ember Brycin has been called them all. She’s always known she’s different. No one has ever called her normal, even under the best circumstances. Bizarre and inexplicable things continually happen to her, and having two different colored eyes, strange hair, and an unusual tattoo only contributes to the gossip about her.

When the latest school explosion lands her in a facility for trouble teens, she meets Eli Dragen, who’s hot as hell and darkly mysterious. Their connection is full of passion, danger, and secrets. Secrets that will not only change her life, but what and who she is—leading her down a path she never imagined possible.

Between Light and Dark, Ember finds a world where truth and knowledge are power and no one can be trusted. But her survival depends on finding out the truth about herself. In her pursuit, she is forced between love and destiny and good and evil, even when the differences between them aren’t always clear. At worst, she will incite a war that could destroy both worlds. At best, she will not only lose her heart but her life and everyone she loves. Once the truth is out, however, there will be no going back. And she’ll definitely wish she could.

BOOK TWO:

Fire in the Darkness by Stacey Marie Brown
(Darkness #2)
Publication date: August 31st 2013
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal Romance

Synopsis:

It's been four weeks since Ember Brycin witnessed what her powers are capable of. The Electrical Current Storm has turned Seattle, Washington into a natural disaster zone. The death toll is in the thousands with countless others homeless and hungry.

And Ember is the one who caused it. Something she will have to live with every day.

Those people who were unable to escape either turned quickly into gangs or live in shelters. Ember, on the other hand, can’t do either. With a price on her head and a Dark Dweller on her ass, she is constantly on the move. Both Light and Dark are hunting her for their own purpose to use her as a weapon or a pawn in the war between the Unseelie King of the Dark and the Seelie Queen of the Light.

Em needs help but doesn’t know who to trust: Lars, the mystery man Torin told her to find? Torin, the Seelie Queen’s personal knight, who has sworn to keep Em safe? Or Eli, who wants to turn her over to the Unseelie King, but whom she has an undeniable, intense connection with?

No matter what she chooses she will probably lose—her life or everything and everyone she loves.

BOOK THREE

Dwellers of Darkness by Stacey Marie Brown
(Darkness #3)
Publication date: February 27th 2014
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal Romance

Synopsis:

Some days feel like years, but in Ember Brycin’s case just the opposite is true. She had only been in the Otherworld for a day or two when she returned back to the Earth’s realm. But it is three years later on Earth. Em is now 22. It would matter if she was human, but she’s not. She is a Dae, part Demon and part Fay, with a little Dark Dweller thrown in to make her even more of a freak.

Seeing Seattle rebuilt only confirms she has been gone three years. For her it was not long ago that the Seattle area was just rubble of concrete and death. All done by her hand.

One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is her undeniable connection to Eli Dragen, who is sexy, gorgeous, and even more volatile and frustrating. But her problems go way past him. The Seelie Queen of the Otherworld still holds Mark, Em’s father, and her friends, Ryan, and Josh as hostages. Em needs to rescue them without, once again, getting caught and being used as a pawn to help the Queen regain possession of Earth. At the same time Ember is in hot water with Lars, the Unseelie King, after breaking her contract with him.

As some secrets have come to light others seem to become even more enigmatic. The only truth Ember knows is,everyone is harboring secrets. As Eli’s past is revealed, Em understands more clearly why he acts the way he does and how much their lives are intertwined. But she also knows Eli is holding something back, something that could change their relationship forever.

Em herself continues to wrestle with her feelings toward Torin and her own secret she’s withholding from Kennedy. As the tension for war mounts between the Seelie and Unseelie (Light and Dark), the tension at the Dark Dweller’s compound mounts even more as they prepare to obtain the sword no matter what the price. But is Ember the answer to the location of the sword? Is she the one to fulfill the prophecy? As usual nothing is ever what it seems.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/series/105814-darkness

Purchase:

--Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Stacey%20Marie%20Brown%20Darkness

--B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/stacey-marie-brown

About the Author

Stacey Marie Brown by day is an Interior/Set Designer, by night a writer of Paranormal Fantasy, Adventure, and Literary Fiction. She grew up in Northern California, where she ran around on her family’s farm, raising animals, riding horses, playing flashlight tag, and turning hay bales into cool forts. Even before she could write, she was creating stories and making up intricate fantasies. Writing came as easy as breathing. She later turned that passion into acting, living and traveling abroad, and designing. Though she had never stopped writing, moving back to San Francisco seemed to have brought it back to the forefront and this time it would not be ignored.

When she’s not writing she’s out hiking, spending time with friends, traveling, listening to music, or designing.

Author Links:

-Website: http://www.staceymariebrown.com/index.html

-Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6938728.Stacey_Marie_Brown

-Twitter: https://twitter.com/S_MarieBrown

-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DOLSeries

Giveaway details: Tour wide giveaway