The Keeper Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway! - Closed.

Topic: How did you come up with the idea for The Keeper?

How did I come up with the idea for The Keeper? I apologize in advance, but this is going to sound cliché. I had a dream. Yes, a dream.

It was unusual in the sense that it was vivid and kind of creepy. Yeah, I’ve had creepy vivid dreams before, but this one was over the top. In my dream I was a young girl, about elementary school age. I was sitting on the ground and a Native American man on a horse went by me slowly. I looked up and the man stared down at me with dark eyes. His eyes looked like they were moving and something shot out of them in my direction.

That was it. I woke up.

It might not sound like much, but when I woke up my heart was pounding in my chest. I was terrified and I have no idea why. This dream haunted me for several days. I couldn’t get it out of my head.
One day sitting at my computer I decided to write the dream out. I opened a blank document and typed a paragraph. I stared at the words and read them back. I had the notion to keep going and to build on the dream. It was no longer me in the story, but a girl named Billie. Two questions rolled around in my head; Why was Billie there? And who else might have seen what happened? Before I knew it I had two pages typed up. This became the epilogue for my novel.

And if you’re wondering…the dream no longer haunted me.

The rest of the story I wrote by continuously asking myself questions. Chapter one starts out on Billie’s sixteen birthday. Naturally there had to be a gift. What kind of gift? Why? And what would happen as a result of receiving the gift?

I continued to write using this method for ten chapters. At that point I knew how it would end, but I needed to draft a simple outline to help get me there. That is how my debut novel The Keeper came to be.

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The eBook version of The Keeper by Natalie Star will be available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Decadent Publishing on January 6, 2012.

Links:

Natalie's Twitter | Natalie's Blog | Natalie's Website | Natalie's Facebook Page

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GIVEAWAY

* One lucky winner will get some signed swag, a $10.00 Amazon giftcard, and a digital copy of The Keeper by Natalie Star

* International (as long as you can receive an Amazon giftcard you can enter)

* Ends on January 20th at 11:59 PM (MST).

* You can get additional entries for every time you share the giveaway, and for following the author, Natalie Star on Facebook and/or Twitter.
* This giveaway is sponsored by the author, so she's the one to thank. :)

* The Winner will be chosen using Random.org.

Here's a Twitter share button for your convenience: Tweet

To enter just fill out this FORM:

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.***

(If the embedded form isn't working, just click the link in FORM above and it'll open up another window with the form for you.)

The next stop in the tour is I Am a Reader, Not a Writer tomorrow (January 4th). 

Good luck to everyone who enters, and thanks for stopping by! :D

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur