THE LAWS OF FOUNDING (Eververse Chronicles #1) by Nicole McKeon-Review and Interview

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 16, 2018

When Allie finally notices the clues, it’s already too late.
Stuck in the wrong world, her only ticket back to Earth is the group of mysterious strangers who kidnap her from a psychiatric ward, then leave her with Ronan, a beautiful but intimidating man who can disappear at will.

After learning the truth—that she is a Walker, one of the rare few with the ability to move between dimensional realities—Allie discovers the wonders of the Eververse, and confronts terrifying danger that will put the lives of everyone she loves in peril.

Allie is willing to risk her life, her sanity, and her heart to save the ones she loves, but her newly discovered powers won’t be enough save her from the consequences of walking the Eververse.

•••••••••••

REVIEW: THE LAWS OF FOUNDING is the first instalment in Nicole McKeon’s new adult EVERVERSE CHRONICLES fantasy series focusing ‘Walker’ Allison Chapters, a college student who suddenly finds herself ‘walking’ between dimensional realities in an effort to understand the truth of how and why.

When we are first introduced to Allison Chapters she has awoken in an alternate reality where the people are familiar but not. No sooner has she found herself in the local psychiatric ward then our heroine is freed by her would-be ‘rescuers’ a group that call themselves the Venatore, or hunters. As Allison’s world slowly begins to unravel she discovers that she has mystical powers of her own, powers that attract otherworldly assassins determined to kill our story line heroine. ‘Walking’ into mythical worlds thought only to have existed in fairy tales and lore, Allison, along with her mentor and Venatore Ronan find refuge in Avalon, alongside a fabled King, brought to life in True Earth’s stories and movies. From present day, to the medieval times of kingdoms and knights, Allison ventures on a journey of philosophical discovery where she must battle between head and heart, breaking the ‘laws of Founding’ as she travels the Eververse, in an effort to save the man with whom she is falling in love, only to discover that the not is all as it appears to have been.

THE LAWS OF FOUNDING is an entertaining, mesmorizing, exhilarating and animated story of fabled lore, fantasy and mythology; an imaginative tale of times past that traverse the present; of one woman’s discovery of self and the other. A simple yet complex story of energy, magic, power and love.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC: Hi Nicole, and welcome to The Reading Cafe.

We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Follow Nicole: Facebook / Website / Goodreads / Amazon Author page

Nicole: The most important things for anyone to know about me are that I’ve been happily married to the love of my life for fifteen years, I’ve got 3 sons, I have a deep and abiding love for fantasy in any form be it video games (Legend of Zelda, I’m looking at you,) books or movies, my curiosity is insatiable, I have no self-control around macarons, and I’m happiest when I’m outside.

TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Nicole: This is a tricky one, because I’ve loved to make up stories since I was tiny. I think the biggest influence though, aside from my parents letting me watch movies like Legend, The Labyrinth, and Willow when I was little, was my sixth grade English teacher, Stan Smith. He always wore a tie and loafers with no socks, his office area looked like a wizard’s tower with books and papers piled knee high, and he taught us to love and respect the power of well-chosen words. Room 212 forever!

TRC: What challenges or difficulties have you encountered writing and publishing your first novel?

Nicole: The hardest part of the process was finding balance between working on my manuscript, building my career as a photographer, and family life. I lost a lot of sleep writing The Laws of Founding.

TRC: Would you please tell us something about the premise of your new fantasy novel THE LAWS OF FOUNDING?

Nicole: The Laws of Founding follows college student Allie Chapter as she discovers her ability to move between dimensional realities in the Eververse, and how that opens the door for her to learn the truth about secrets from her past; secrets that put her life in danger.

TRC: At what age level is the story line directed (young adult, adult, new adult, all ages)?

Nicole: The main character, Allie, is in her early 20’s, which makes the book a natural fit for the New Adult genre. She deals with a lot of issues common to people that age, but I had an adult audience in mind when I wrote the book. Honestly, I wrote the story for myself first, because I wanted to know what happened!

TRC: How many books do you have planned for the series or is THE LAWS OF FOUNDING a stand-alone novel?

Nicole: The Eververse Chronicles will be a trilogy; The Laws of Founding, The Founding Lie (the manuscript is about halfway done for this one) and the name of the last book is still to be determined. However, I already have other stories brewing that might have ties to the Eververse, so I don’t think I’ll leave the world(s) behind, entirely.

TRC: From where did you get the idea for THE LAWS OF FOUNDING?

Nicole: I’ve always been interested in mythology, and this book came about from wondering what would happen if Multiverse Theory were a reality, and if our mythologies originated with people who could travel between the different worlds.

TRC: What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend researching /plotting before beginning THE LAWS OF FOUNDING?

Nicole: I’m one of those writers who allows the story to grow organically and, while I have the outline of the plot in my mind, I don’t always have the details. I love creating and exploring new worlds, but I tend to stay very character focused. Because of that, it’s hard for me to know what to research beforehand. I wasn’t even sure which worlds I was going to visit in TLOF, so research happened sporadically as I wrote the manuscript. I spent a lot of time in front of Google for historical references, I read an awesome book called Reality is Not What it Seems; The Journey to Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelli, and a few books centered on mythology.

TRC: What was the most challenging scene to write?

Nicole: You’d think the hard scenes would be the emotionally charged ones, but for me the fight scenes were the most challenging because they needed to be choreographed. I know what I need the fight scene to do for the plot or the characters before I start to write it, but I don’t always know how two fighting styles will blend together, or what two bodies will look like moving in space and reacting to each other. This made for quite a few rewrites, hours on YouTube watching people try to hurt each other, a very sordid search history (it’s all writing related, I swear,) and a bit of time with my husband throwing *very* slow punches at my head.

TRC: How will publishing THE LAWS OF FOUNDING affect your writing style moving forward?

Nicole: I’m not sure that it will affect my style in the long run. Publishing TLOF solidified my tastes and made me more confident in my voice, I think.

TRC: Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Nicole: Absolutely. A cover says something about the tone of the book and makes a visual representation of what has only been in the authors head up to that point. I tested several different covers with groups of very diverse people and chose the overwhelming favorite.

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Nicole: I find this process almost magical. I know in a general sense where I want the story to go, but I’m always amazed by how much agency the characters seem to have. The first time a character made a decision for themselves, I sat there looking at what I’d written thinking, “what in the hell just happened there?!”

There have been times when I’ve needed to wrestle the characters into the storyline but, more often than not, I decide the main plot points and who the characters are as people drives the details.

TRC: The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Nicole: Wow, this is a great question. There are a few aspects that make a story immersive, I think. First, the writer must either deeply understand the character or be incredibly empathetic. Sometimes we write about things we’ve experienced firsthand, so we know the emotions involved, and sometimes we write about things we’ve never done, so we must begin by putting ourselves in the characters place. If an author isn’t empathetic, they’re going to have a hard time drawing the reader in because they’ll be writing emotions and scenarios they can’t properly imagine, which means the character might think, say, or do things that don’t make sense. Readers are quick to catch onto things that create mental disconnects.

The second important aspect, to my mind, is writing with a sensory related focus. It’s much easier to put a reader into a scene when they feel the chill bite of the wind on their cheeks, smell the tang of the salt, and hear the roar of the waves than to simply say, “she stood by the ocean.”

TRC: Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Nicole: This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. If I need to think my way through a scene, I like silence. I’m easily distracted by lyrics. When I’m working on a scene that I need to feel, I’ll play music that fits what I want the characters to be experiencing. Never does any music I choose influence where the story is going, though—that’s all up to the characters.

TRC: What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Nicole: That we’re all introverted hermits. I like to be around people, and I’m pretty damn friendly.

TRC: How should authors measure a book’s success?

Nicole: I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules for this. Each person should decide what success means for them, and recognize that it might be different for every book they write. Success might be just finishing the freaking book, and it might be $100,000 in sales. The worst thing anyone can do is use someone else’s life or accomplishments as a measuring stick for their own success.

TRC: What is something that few, if anybody, knows about you?

Nicole: That I’ve been keeping a journal since I was thirteen. My grandkids are going to know way more about their grandma than they’d like to. Sorry, kiddos.

TRC: Who is your favorite author (living or dead)?

Nicole: I love many different authors for different reasons. I adore C.S. Lewis for his brilliant mind and moral compass, Tolkien for creating the archetype, Austen for her insight into human behavior, Brandon Sanderson for his kick-ass world creation, fight scenes and magic systems, Patrick Rothfuss for the tapestry of story and world he weaves, and Diana Gabaldon for the elegance of her prose and creating characters that feel like real people to me. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Jack London, Lois Lowery, Andrew Greeley and David Eddings for having written books that inspired me as a youth. I could go on…

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Nicole: I’m focusing on The Founding Lie, which is the second book in the Eververse Chronicles Trilogy, as well as playing with a short story that follows a character from that book, and a fun new idea that may turn into a book or novella that lies in a different world but ties into the Founding storyline.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Nicole: Just that I’m incredibly grateful for the interview, and I hope people grab the book and go an wild adventure with the characters!

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food: Tomatoes

Favorite Dessert: Macarons

Favorite TV Show: Anne with an E

Last Movie You Saw: Avengers Infinity War. I LOVE superhero movies

Dark or Milk Chocolate: ALL the chocolate

Secret Celebrity Crush: it’s no secret: it’s Chris Hemsworth

Last Vacation Destination: Sedona, Arizona

Do you have any pets? A pug named Sissy

Last book you read: Age of Swords: Book Two of The Legends of the First Empire by Michael J. Sullivan

TRC: Thank you Nicole for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the new release. We wish you much success.