Meet a "Wonder" of an author: Naomi Stone

CONGRATULATIONS TO LINDA!! THE WINNER OF A FREE COPY OF "WONDER GUY" FROM NAOMI!

I'm very excited to introduce you to today's guest author, Naomi Stone. Naomi is a fellow Minnesota writer and has one of the most fun books to tell us about that I've ever read. When you read the blurb and the excerpt for Wonder Guy below, you might think it's just another superhero book--but, trust me, it's not. Naomi has taken the superhero "trope" and reworked it into a story that makes you believe this is what it would REALLY be like to be granted super powers. (You have to find out what crazy things happen when Wonder Guy battles dinosaurs in a Minneapolis Lake!) So please welcome Naomi Stone to Get Lost in a Story!

A little about Naomi

Someone asked me, "How did the writer's journey begin for you?" Answer:
My parents had to go and teach me to talk. Then they sent me to school where I learned to read and write. Seriously, that's where it started. I learned to read and pretty soon I fell in love with books and stories. I loved fairy tales and tales of magic from the very start. Even before that I loved to daydream; I daydreamed myself into adventures with my favorite TV characters. I dreamed up adventures crossing time and space on my own, meeting characters out of history and stories. Books gave me the sense that there was a home waiting for my daydreams, a place where they belonged.

A little about Wonder Guy

Greg Roberts has been in love with the girl next door since they were both twelve, but Gloria Torkinson is engaged to marry someone else. Greg can only respect her choice in the matter - until his fairy godmother pops in with a different idea. As a mysterious, masked superhero Greg can appear to Gloria in a whole new light and win her love. But superhero-ing is trickier than Greg knew, creating its own problems and uncovering inimical forces in his world that he never suspected. He'll have to discover the true hero in himself before he can set things right and win at love.

WONDER GUY

Publisher: Lyrical Press

BN ID: 2940016414614; ASIN: B00D0BPCQI

Check out an excerpt here:

    AMAZON      BARNES & NOBLE

Naomi’s given some awesome answers to a few fun and personal questions. Check out her interview and please leave a comment. Naomi will award a free download card for a digital copy of her first full-length novel Spirited to one lucky commenter.

LIZ: How often do you get lost in a story?

NAOMI:     Every day if possible. Reading is my favorite way to end the day, and to begin it. I’ll retire about an hour before I need to get to sleep and spend that time reading the latest book until my eyes are too tired to stay open. If I wake early enough in the morning I’ll also spend some time reading before I get started on my day.

LIZ: I need to adopt that early-morning attitude! What’s the first book you remember reading? 

NAOMI:  Wow. One of those first grade primers, ‘Alice and Jerry and Spot.’ I got hooked early and was reading a lot by the time I was in the third grade. My clearest memory is of an incident when my teacher caught me reading ‘Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet’ under my desk while she was trying to teach us something boring about Geography. She confiscated the book and I had to wait until the end of the school day to get back to my story.

LIZ:  Oh, man! That stinks even this far from when the episode took place-lol.

LIZ: What’s your favorite “love” word?

NAOMI: ‘Cherish’ is the word I use to descri-i-i-i-ibe… !

 

LIZ: What are the next five books on your ‘to be read’ pile?

NAOMI: Unfortunately, I’ve been moving house and have totally lost track of my reading pile. I’m currently re-reading some old classics I have on my Nook. At the moment it’s Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I originally read it as a teenager and the heavy political messages of the story totally escaped me then. Yeah, we’ve come a long way from the feudalism of yore – and let’s keep it that way.

LIZ: What’s your favorite fairy tale?

NAOMI: I relate to the story of the woman whose seven brothers are turned into swans by an evil step-mother. The heroine has to forego speaking while she weaves seven shirts from thistles in order to break the spell. She is a person who sticks to her cause in the face of all sorts of trials, in the face of death, and the loss of her husband’s love - when falsely accused of murdering their child - and without being able to speak a word in her own defense. She does it all for love of her brothers. It’s not a very romantic story, but she does succeed in the end, and she does marry a prince.

LIZ: What’s your favorite cartoon character?

NAOMI: Rocky the Flying Squirrel. When I was in first grade, I wanted him for my boyfriend. He was cute and sassy. What can I say?

LIZ: You don’t have to explain to me. I love that answer. We still like ‘em cute and sassy, right? And I’m still distracted by “squirrels’!

LIZ: Cast your book using fairy tale characters.

NAOMI:  That would be too easy – the book already includes a fairy godmother. The hero, Greg is clearly the youngest son of good heart who succeeds where older, savvier guys would all fail on a quest. He’s very intelligent, but not very worldly – a computer genius who’s loved the girl next door his whole life. In the end it’s not his brains, but his heart that wins the day. The heroine, Gloria is the princess who has to learn the difference between the superficial trappings of romance and the deeper power of genuine connection with another heart.

LIZ: What sound or noise do you love?

NAOMI:    I love the sound of a breeze through the leaves of trees. This is a sound that tends to get lost among the other noises of a city, but comes to the fore when we travel out to the suburbs and the woods and lakes of Minnesota.

LIZ: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you go and specifically why?

NAOMI: That question is answered more fully in my novel i, when the heroine travels in time back to ancient Mesopotamia. Her reasons have to do with her adventure. For my part, I’m just curious to see the origins of civilization, and I’ve read good things about the cuisine.

LIZ: That’s awesome cool. And (personal note) Spirited is a fabulous book!

LIZ: What’s your favorite movie of all time?

NAOMI: Romancing the Stone is my idea of a perfect romance, providing adventure, humor and romance all rolled into one neat package fulfilling the promise of each element. The romance between the bookish heroine and the mercenary adventurer hero offers plenty of conflict and spark, and the adventure provides a believable occasion for the growth of their relationship, as well as moments of hilarity. Danny Devito as the villain is a perfect addition to heighten the comedy.

I’m also very fond of the movie’s sequel, Jewel of the Nile  in which the same characters return for a new adventure and a renewal of the romance. Not only is it an excellent movie, but I had the personal connection of meeting a couple of the actors. I got my first lesson in juggling from Howard, one of the Flying Karamozov Brothers who appeared in the movie. This was back in the early eighties when he was dating my roommate at the time. And I had lunch with Avner the Eccentric, who played the title role. This was back when I was working on the convention committee when he appeared as a special guest at Minicon Science Fiction Convention.

LIZ: What do you hope for the future of romance publishing?

NAOMI: 1) I’d like to see more brick and mortar bookstores equipped to offer downloads of digital books and to offer print-on-demand versions of books that might otherwise be available only to internet users. There are still a lot of readers in the world who don’t have digital readers  – or computers – so; 2) I’d like to see libraries offering these services as well. I know there have been periods in my life when I couldn’t afford to buy books and libraries introduced me to some of my favorite authors, whose works I did eventually buy once my circumstances improved.

LIZ HAS GOTTA ASK: What’s the most personal thing you’ve ever put in one of your books?

NAOMI HAS GOTTA ANSWER:   In my book, Spirited, I describe a scene from the heroine’s past relationship in which her ex-husband’s behavior became increasingly disturbed and disturbing.

I was never married in fact, but was in a relationship with a man later diagnosed as schizophrenic. The illness was devastating for him, of course, but it had a profound effect on me as well. The inconsistencies in his attitudes and behavior caused me to question my own sanity, greatly distressed me when he’d threaten suicide, and sometimes even frightened me when he’d engage in violent outbursts such as punching a hole in a wall. It was all more than I could handle.

Recognizing that he needed a kind of help I couldn’t give him, and I needed to take care of myself by separating from him was a very difficult decision point in my life. The heroine of Spirited shares some of this past experience, and has gone on to make a better life for herself and find a hero who is capable of loving her in return.

Do you have a question you’d like to ask your fans?

I do.  I’d like to know, what would you like your fairy godmother to do for you?

Get in touch with Naomi:

Contact: NaomiStoneRWA@gmail.com

Website: http://www.dreamspell.net/LKS/stories.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naomi.stone.5

Twitter: @NaomiStone0RWA

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8346648-naomi

Blogs: I blog once a month on The Writer’s Vineyard: http://thewritersvineyard.com/ 

UP NEXT : My next release is Safe Haven, sequel to Sweet Mercy in the Team Guardian series, published by Champagne Books. Safe Haven is scheduled to be released in October 2013 from Champagne.

Rachel Connolly, the heroine of Sweet Mercy has a brother, David Connolly, Coordinator of Team Guardian, an organization of people gifted with special abilities - or Talents - created as an after-effect of the Probability Bomb that shook the foundations of reality ten years ago, transforming the world as we knew it.

Beth Talbot's psychometry Talent is a curse as well as a blessing, making Time for her less a smoothly-flowing river than a storm-tossed ocean. She sees David Connolly as a rock of stability in that maelstrom, with his Talent for neutralizing other Talents like hers. But how can she even try to turn his attention her way when everyone on Team Guardian needs him, especially with a mad Talent out to take control of the entire world's computing - and banking - systems.

Check out Naomi's PREVIOUS RELEASES:

 

 SPIRITED 

SWEET MERCY

    

     

THREE WISHES