Friday, May 6, 2011

Welcome Guest Blogger Nova Sparks

Hello Everyone!
My name is Nova Sparks and this is my first guest post and I’m so excited! I have published my first novel, the DOME on April 30th 2011 and I’m super excited about that, too and hope you guys get a chance to check it out. Here is a synopsis below:
What if you knew the exact date and time the world will end, what would you do? Sam Tucker was faced with that dilema when he began getting visions of the Earth's demise. Luckily for him, he was able to save his family and as many people as he could before the tragic event occured, and he did so with the help of unknown visitors. With Earth now destroyed, Sam, his family and thousands of other lucky survivors must live the rest of their lives on a faraway planet in a Dome that simulates life on Earth. But Sam's mind can't seem to rest as a few questions arise. Why did the aliens save them? How did they know about Earth's sure fate? And exactly what are they hiding?

Emma Tucker begged for an escape from her boring life but never in a million years did she think it would come at the destruction of Earth. Living on a new planet and finding it difficult to get rid of her rebellious habits, Emma finds herself making friends with a member of the alien race and it soon develops into an unexplainable love; a love that is more dangerous than she could ever imagine. While her father is searching for his own truths, she has no idea that she is stumbling on a truth of her own.

Told from the point of view of both Sam and Emma, author Nova Sparks takes readers on a journey to discover love, fate, faith, truth and the mystery of the DOME!
So  how/why did this all got started?
About sometime in 2009 or 2010, I was writing a series of TV show/movie treatments because I was so adamant on becoming a screenwriter. I wrote about 6 in total. I’ve always been writing before and everyone in my life always told me that I should write books. At one point I wanted to, but I never liked doing what other people expected of me so I just took a whole different route. After I wrote a few TV/movie treatments I started my hunt on getting them picked up. Obviously that never happened. I got a little discouraged and began thinking I wasn’t good enough. One of the treatments that I wrote was called the DOME and I wrote it specifically for HBO. At the time I wrote it, they didn’t have any paranormal or sci-fi urban fantasy shows on the air and I figured they would jump for joy at the thought of satisfying a starving market of people who are craving for it. I wanted the DOME to be on HBO because 1) I love that network and 2) they don’t censor and I like to watch real television shows with profanity, sex, violence and drugs because THAT’S LIFE!  
Then TRUE BLOOD came out on HBO and I thought it was a sign! They were starting to understand that there was a market of people that needed their paranormal fix! Then not too long after that, Vampire Diaries came on the CW 11. Then I started seeing everything vampire left and right. When that started happening, I got discouraged again. Why would anyone watch a television show about humans and aliens when the whole world was going Vampire crazy? Here goes the bug in my ear again: Why not write a book? I said no!
After a few weeks of mopping around, I thought to myself: What is it that makes this story different from other human/alien concept stories? If I can figure that out, maybe I can have a shot at HBO.
It took me sometime to figure it out but eventually I did. Many of the human/alien concepts that I’ve read or seen all have to do with a single alien abduction, aliens invading the earth, a single alien befriending a single human, UFO sightings and aliens saving humans.
I don’t think I’ve seen or read a concept where aliens take humans to their planet and they have to live there with no choice of ever returning. Of course there’s more to it, but if I told you there would be no reason to read book 1 or the other 2 books in the series.
Not to say that there has never been a concept where humans had to live on an alien planet (ie;  AVATAR, Ghosts of Mars, etc…) but I just feel that the concept of this book is slightly different, at least different enough for HBO to like it.
But still…no HBO…no response…no nothing!
That was the final straw! I sucked up my pride and made the DOME into a book (which didn’t take long because the whole concept, characters and story was written down already). And I have never been HAPPIER! I should’ve done this a long time ago! Writing the DOME as book allowed me to do what I would’ve never been able to do as a screenwriter. I got a chance to get in touch with the actual emotions of the characters and I was able to really develop a back story that I’m very proud of. I’m happy HBO didn’t pick this up. I don’t think I would’ve been able to let the DOME go out of my hands and into the hands of strangers without having full control over where the story goes.
As a book, my mind went a totally different direction.
I began to think: What makes us human? What is the only difference between humans and every other species on the planet? Is the one thing that makes us different the one thing that is destroying us? The meat and potatoes of this story is all about ripping humans from their comfort zone, forcing them to make it work without a “get out of jail free card”, reconstructing what it means to be human and finding out if it’s all worth fighting for.  
That was the easy part…actually self-publishing the book is a whole other story!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered by,
Nova Sparks

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since this is your first guest blog tell us about yourself. What books do you read yourself? is there any you would recommend and why?

Nova Sparks said...

Hello Anonymous,

About me...hmm...
Well, I'm from NYC. I'm in my 20's and I've been writing since forever, I guess. My mother was really against television when I was growing up so I wasn't allowed to watch it until High School so I blame her for my literary fondness. With nothing to do it was just a matter of time before I started writing life. the DOME is my first published book and whether it does well or not, I'm positive it won't be my last.

About the books I read... I really like Chicklit. I love gushy romance stories. I also really love urban fantasy novels, paranormal/sci-fi. My favorite authors are Kerrlyn Sparks (I swear the last name is a coincidence), Emily Giffin (surprise), james crawford, Liz Fielding and Rachel Vincent.

My top books are 'How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire' by Kerrlyn Sparks, 'Caleo: Leech book 1' by james crawford, and all of Emily Giffin's books. I recommend them all. There are a lot more but I always find when someone asks me to name things, my mind goes blank.

I think that's about it about me. I suck at talking about myself. Thanks for asking, though. :-)

~Nova