Monday Moonings: Scarlet Woods by Brooke Passmore with author interview

Monday Moonings is a weekly meme here on my blog featuring new books or authors, but mostly self-published authors. :)

Hi guys! Another Monday again. Start of another week at work and school. Anyhoo, today, we have on the blog author Brooke Passmore with her book “Scarlet Woods”. Check out the book below and the author interview with Brooke. :)

Title: Scarlet Woods
Author: Brooke Passmore
Self-published
Expected Publication: December 2012
Add to Goodreads

Past, future, and love all exist in the door through time.
Modern and independent seventeen year old Morgan Westbrook thought she had seen all there was to her home town of Scarlet, Georgia, but one day while walking in the woods behind her house she discovers a mysterious door masked behind the trees. After admiring the door’s timeless beauty she walks through its entrance to venture into more woods, but what she doesn’t know is that the door is a gateway through time that takes her back to the year 1863 during the days of the Civil War in Scarlet.
Without knowing that she had traveled back in time, she stumbles upon Danny Carson, an attractive young man who is appalled to see that Morgan is wearing skimpy modern clothes instead of a nineteenth century dress. Although they find each other completely different than anyone they’ve ever known, they cannot help but feel drawn to one another. After spending time in another century, she discovers that she's time traveled back to the year 1863 and that the door took her there. For months she and Danny journey back and forth through the door to experience the joys of traveling to both of their centuries. When dilemmas of unwanted marriage, slavery, and war are thrown at them, they must face the perils that time travel has delivered them in both the future and the past.

And here’s my interview with Brooke Passmore. :)

Tell us a little about yourself and your book.

Well, I'm a normal chick from Oklahoma with a big smile and a love for skittles and Disney. I love history and fantasy type things so writing a book about both of those subjects has been the absolute best of fun. Scarlet Woods is a love story about a boy and a girl from two separate times. They are able to travel to each others' centuries whenever they go through this door in the woods behind Morgan's house. They both live in the same town in Georgia but since their centuries are different it’s like walking in a place that’s very foreign and new to them. As they time travel together they start to see the pros and cons to each century. It’s a ya book for anyone who is looking for adventure, love, history, and fantasy.
When did you know that you wanted to write a novel?

When I was a kid I was always coming up with stories while playing with my Polly Pockets or whenever my friends would come over and we'd pretend we were mermaids in my pool. I started writing stories at a very young age, though none of them were well written at all. As I grew older I had many ideas playing around my head of what I wanted to write for a book and Scarlet Woods was one of them. I had come up with the idea for Scarlet Woods when I was in eighth grade but every time I tried to write it I never liked how I began my story and stopped writing it many times because of it. When I was 19 I finally figured out where I wanted to take the beginning, middle, and end of my book and officially began writing it.
What’s the most difficult thing you encountered while writing?

Knowing what extra stuff to add and what extra stuff to take out. I spent more time editing Scarlet Woods than I did writing it. I would cut scenes and add new ones and then when I'd go back to rereading I'd wonder if I made the right decision adding or cutting certain things. So many other things about writing are hard but they're challenging in a good way. 
When you’re not writing, what do you do?

I'm a lazy person most of the time so I like to sit around the house and watch TV mostly. I also read, play Call of Duty on my brother's xbox, play soccer on the weekends, hang out with family and friends, and if I have any Skittles around I'll pig out on those for a little bit. I enjoy walking around the woods whenever the weather's nice out, it makes me happy and gets my creativity flowing entering a place that isn't swarming with people, buildings, and technology everywhere you look. 

First thing that comes to mind:
 favorite book? 

The Hunger Games, and Shiver 

fave author?

I have many, Suzanne Collins, Maggie Steifvater, JK Rowling (meeting her would be the ultimate dream) 

Favorite book/movie/TV series character?

Katniss Everdeen is pretty awesome. Oh gosh I love Peeta Mellark! Neville Longbottom and Fred and George from Harry Potter have great dialogue that makes me laugh out loud. Favorite movie character would be a tie between the wonderful Scarlet O'hara and Rhett Butler, they both have so much character and are pure awesomeness! TV series character would be another tie between Damon Salvatore and Barney Stinson, they both have some of the greatest lines on television right now. 

Let’s talk about your book ‘Scarlet Woods’. What inspired you to write it?

I came up with the idea for the book partly because I have woods in my backyard. I always walked about the woods thinking of cool things that I wished would happen in the trees and so that was what got me into writing this book. I'm also a big fan of history and fantasy so putting both of those together into one story was very fun to write. 

Who/What do we need to watch out for in ‘Scarlet Woods’?

Roy Walker is the bad guy and he'll make you love hating him. When I picture what Danny looks like in my head I always think of a boy who has hair like Jack Dawson from Titanic where it''s straight and sometimes gets in his eyes but with more of a light brunette color to his hair. But Danny doesn't look anything like Jack Dawson. Danny's more of a rugged handsome type (with a boylike grin) than a pretty boy like Leo. Whenever I picture Danny's father Bruce I always think of Ed Helms (who plays Andy from The Office or the dentist guy from The Hangover). Ed Helms is hysterical and has the right age and looks that I want for Bruce Carson. There was this one episode on The Office where Andy spoke in a Savannah accent and it completely sold me. I was like "Yep that's Bruce." What are your plans after Scarlet Woods?

I am writing the second book to the Scarlet Woods Trilogy right now and I hope to be done with that soon. After that will be the third and final installment of the series and I'll be able to move on. I plan on writing a book that isn't a part of a series that's an intense, thrilling love story that I've had in my head since I was in tenth grade. Part of it has been written but I can't truly focus on it until my Scarlet Woods Trilogy is done. After that I have an idea for another Trilogy that's more fantasy/science fiction. I just came up with the idea this year and have started writing that sometimes too, but the Scarlet Woods books come first.

Hope you’ll check out Brooke’s new book guys! :)