April Jones has read, written, or edited her way through
numerous fictional worlds. When she's not teaching or writing, she spends her
time trying to learn other languages or keeping her mischievous cat from eating
the pet fish. She received her bachelor's in English and her M.F.A. in creative
writing.
A
Tennessee native, April currently lives in Michigan with her husband and three
children. You can find her poems and short stories published in various
literary magazines across the internet and in print. You can also check out her
debut novel, The Curse Breaker. For more information visit her website thepathtostory.com
Beverley: Which
genre or genres do you write or prefer to write? And why?
April: I’m
one of those writers who simply can’t seem settle down with a particular genre.
Right now, I’m really into a YA Fantasy, but you’ll also find plenty of poems
and literary short stories with my name on them as well. I find that what I
love most is telling a good story, but because I like to read across the genres,
I also like to write across them as well.
Beverley: Who
influenced you the most in deciding to become a writer?
April: When I was in the 5th
grade, I came across R.L. Stein’s Fearstreet series and I could not get enough.
I loved the mystery, the characters, the imagination. I wanted to tell stories
like that. The ones that capture you from the first page, and keep you reading
well past your bedtime. As These days, I’ve been particularly drawn to writers
who do retellings. There’s a lot of fun to be had by combining story elements
that don’t seemingly go together. For this reason, I find myself reading a lot
of Jessica Day George and Alethea Kontis.
Beverley: What gets your creative juices flowing?
April: A good song. I’m not particular on language, so my writing playlist has
Kpop, Spanish ballads, Scandinavian EDM, and plenty of indie American bands.
Beverley: Do you have a favorite cartoon character? Why?
April: Absolutely. There’s a WebToon character named Yumi. She’s ordinary, but
in all the ways that make a person special. Check it out! It’s called Yumi’s
Cells.
Beverley: Who would you love most to meet 'in person' and why?
April: I would love to meet my favorite screenplay writers the Hong Sisters (Jung-eun
Hong and Mi-ran Hong). Every screenplay they write is so amazingly good. I
would love to chat with them about their writing process and inspirations.
Beverley: If you had an unexpected free day what would you do
with it?
April: I would go for a long run with my favorite playlist, and then take a
long nap.
Beverley: What are you working on now?
April: I’m working on the second novel in The Curse Breaker
series, so I hope you all love dragons because there’s a lot of them in the
second book.
Blurb from The Curse Breaker
Eris's sister is missing, and Magic is definitely to
blame! Eris knows only Magic can bring her back, but even as a Light Magic
born, is she strong enough to save her sister?
Knox is cursed to spend his days as a corpse and his
nights trying to find the prophesized girl who can break the curse. If he can't
find her by his 20th birthday, he'll stay dead forever.
Eris
and Knox will discover there are scarier things in their path other than curses
and half-truths. If the Queen of the Underworld has her way, everything and
everyone will die. The only thing standing in her way is the curse breaker, and
Eris will have to choose between saving herself or everyone she loves.
Excerpt from The Curse Breaker
The
Queen paced in front of her blood-red throne. After so many years, she was
finally going to meet the thief who had stolen her amulet. And when she did,
she was going to slowly sever every one of their limbs, one by one, before
feeding their soul to Madame. The thought made her smile a wicked smile. That
would teach them to steal from the Queen of the Underworld. Stupid humans were
always trying to prolong their lives in the most feeble ways. Tonics, magic,
deals. Death was something that could never be avoided entirely, but they
didn’t seem to think that universal rule applied to any of them.
Three more months and her amulet would
call to her like it always did when she could get free of this place, and then
she would have her revenge. Whoever they were, they had been granted twenty
years that did not belong to them, and she would make sure they paid for that
stolen time. That was part of her job, after all, not that she was complaining.
“I apologize for being late, your
Majesty.” Madame hurried in, a little out of breath.
The Queen turned and stared at a
slightly disheveled Madame. Normally her long hair was braided and wrapped
elaborately around her head, causing her to look like a long-lost ancient queen
from the human world.
“We can discuss that in a moment. I
called you here because I have a proposition for you.”
“I am but your humble servant, your
Majesty.” Madame feigned humility they both knew she did not possess.
The Queen rolled her eyes and
continued. “If you can find the insect that stole my amulet before three months
are up, I will give you a special treat.”
“I will find the human. I will make it
suffer.” Madame smiled.
“No. You will not touch a hair on its
head. Bring it to me, and I will deal with it.” Madame looked disappointed but
nodded.
The body of a girl suddenly appeared in
the air in front of them, along with one of her servants. Madame examined the
girl for a moment, but then seemed to lose interest once she realized the girl
was neither alive nor dead. The Queen walked over and swept the girl’s long
black hair back enough to see her face. She scrunched up her nose at the young
girl’s beauty.
Snapping her fingers again brought new
servants running.
“Take her and put her with the rest of
the cursed.”
The women gently plucked the girl from
the air. The Queen wondered how many bodies lay waiting in the limbo between
life and death. Not that she would forgive the vermin that had stolen her
amulet, but she would enjoy watching the human be tortured by all the souls it
had trapped prematurely in the Underworld. Eternity would not be long enough
for all the lives that heartless human had taken trying to break the curse that
came with stealing something born from the Underworld’s power. Since the human
had not been able to break it thus far, she continued to collect bodies stuck
in the in-between, their lives connected to the cursed one’s. When that insect
finally died, so would all of those souls, and she would have a lovely new
collection of pets.
The Queen smiled to herself as she
watched one of the servants wrap her arms around the girl’s legs while the
other wove her arms around the girl’s back. Slowly they carried her out,
leaving the Queen to her thoughts again
Buy Link for The Curse Breaker
You can find
April at:
Facebook: Facebook.com/editorapril
Twitter: @akejones
Instagram: aprilkelleyjones
Website: thepathtostory.com
Twitter: @akejones
Instagram: aprilkelleyjones
Website: thepathtostory.com
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