Indie- Pendence Blog hop Presents Sovereign Hope by Frankie Rose

This is such a great hop to be a part of, and we would like to thank Grave Tells for hosting this fabulous event! 

All of us here at S,E,R,'s have read a great deal of wonderful Independent Published books, and they have turned out to be among some of our very favorites, such as:

Kallypso Masters

C.J. Roberts 

J.M. Darhower

S,C. Stephens 

Skye Warren

and

Lisa Sanchez

Just to name a few.  I know there is some controversy over indie published books, and not everything out there is good.  But the same can be said for books that have been published by big publishing companies too.  People are really missing out if they stay closed minded and hang on to the stereo typing of indie books.  Sometimes it's an author's choice, not necessarily that they couldn't get published.  So for the next few days we are here to show our love and support for indie authors!!    

Today we are spotlighting Frankie Rose for this hop.  She is the author of  Sovereign Hope that was just released yesterday.  I'm going to admit, I stalked her for a copy of her book to review, and I am very excited to have been among the early reviewers.  I'm also excited to have her here today to chat as well!! Let's take a moment to admire this beautiful cover before we continue.......

 Please welcome Frankie Rose! 

Rhonda- Hi Frankie, I’m so excited to have you here with us today!!  So let’s start out with you telling our fabulous followers a little bit about yourself.

Hi Rhonda, thank you so much for having me here today! My name's Frankie Rose and I was born in the UK, but I now live in Australia. I have been writing poetry for about eight years, but i recently moved into novel writing. My first book, Sovereign Hope, was released on the first!

 

Rhonda- One of the ladies here at S,E,R’s , Sam is from Australia too!!  So you two are like real neighbors.  J  (This isn’t really a question, just commentary after your answer but feel free to respond if you like)

 Ha ha... Australia's pretty big country. She probably lives in a different time zone!

Rhonda- Frankie, I’ve had the privilege of reading Sovereign Hope and loved it.   What was your experience like writing this book ? 

I had a blast writing Sovereign Hope, I really did. It was such an enjoyable experience for me, because I had never done anything like it before. I'd always written short pieces and mainly poetry, which was great fun, but it was a very short journey from the beginning to the end. Writing a novel is entirely different because you can invest yourself deeply in the world you're creating, and really get to know who your characters are. 

It was a lot harder writing Sovereign Hope than any of the other pieces I'd ever written, of course, because it took patience. I'm not a very patient person, and I wanted everything to be written right away so I could move from one scene that I'd been imagining to the next. I have to say, it did actually help me learn to take my time and not rush things. 

Rhonda- Sovereign Hope is your debut novel, which includes a wonderful cast of characters that I really enjoyed.  I think my favorite two were Daniel and Aldan. Which character is your favorite to write, and why?

Oh, wow. My favourite just has to be Daniel. He wins hands down because he was so much fun to write. He isn't who anybody thinks he is really, especially at the beginning of the book. A lot of terrible things have happened to him in his past, and we only find out about some of them in Sovereign Hope. Eternal Hope covers a lot more of his history, and we get to know him even better. He's not very good at handling emotion or people sometimes, and he's arrogant for sure, but there are reasons for the way he behaves. There are a lot of different qualities that I enjoyed writing about in Daniel. 

Rhonda-  I’m really looking forward to the next book in this series, how many books are you planning for this series? 
I originally planned to only write three books in the series but, having just finished writing Eternal Hope, i sat down the other day and started plotting out the third book, and I realised there was just too much to cover. I really don't want to rush the series, and there are some major events that go down in the third instalment of The Hope Series, so I have decided to make it a four book series at this stage. Knowing me, I'll probably end up deciding it's a five book series after writing the third, but I'm going to try and be sensible about it.

I have a couple of other wonderfully fun projects going on right now, too, and I'd really like to be able to focus on those at some point in the future.  

Rhonda: Why did you choose to write YA?

Well, I've always had a soft spot for YA, especially YA romance, because there's something so amazing about falling in love for the first time. You really come into yourself as a teenager, and meeting a guy who blows your mind and experiencing all of those emotions for the first time is really special. Plus you can do so much when writing young adult. People who read that genre (and I don't say teenagers, because so many twenty, thirty and forty year olds read YA now!) are still open to believing in the unbelievable... they still love to immerse themselves in fantastical worlds, and writing for that audience is really rewarding.

Rhonda- Considering the blog hop going on, I thought it was only fitting that I bring up the subject of independent publishing. Since Sovereign Hope is independently published, I hoped you might share your opinion on the subject, because not everyone takes that route because they can’t get published.  What made you decide to take the independent route with your book?
Sure, when I finished Sovereign Hope, I queried agents and I was hopeful that I would get published by one of the big six (who doesn't want that when they finish writing their book?), but when I actually received a publishing contract (from a small press publishing house) I realised that I would probably be better off going it alone at this stage. I had done all the work for the book- the editing was complete, the design work was already finished, I had done a heap of marketing and had people interested in reading my work- and I just couldn't see how the publishing house in question was going to be able to earn the 40% of my royalties that they would be claiming. I was still going to have to continue marketing my book alone, and so I just couldn't see what they were going to be doing for me. 

I didn't want to sign over the artistic rights to my title and book cover, and I didn't want my book to become a ghost of it's former self because teams of people were picking it apart and editing out all of the good bits. And so I decided to do it for myself!

The journey to get here has been difficult, sure, but it's also been amazing. I've learned so much, and I would definitely recommend the self-pub route to anyone who wants to remain in charge of their own projects. That doesn't mean I would never consider traditional publishing, because it definitely is nice to have a team behind you, but this process has been so gratifying and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. 

Quickie questions:

What is your favorite food?

Avacado. Weird, but true.  

What are you currently reading?

I'm reading Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra  

If you could be stranded on a deserted island with anyone, who would it be? 

My husband, of course! Ha ha...  

What is your favorite movie?

Tough question. I change my mind all the time. Today, it's The Departed. I can't think of a single bad film Leo has ever made *cough* apart from Titanic.

Thank you Frankie for stopping by to chat today, it has truly been a pleasure!!

Rhonda's Review of Sovereign Hope

Now, on with the giveaway!!

 Frankie Has been kind enough to offer an ebook to one of our winners.  Winner's choice of Mobi, Epub, or PDF.   We are going to match that, so there will be 2 copies of Sovereign Hope given away!!

Please be sure your email is correct, we will send the winners a confirmation email. 

GOOD LUCK!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway