Today we’re happy to welcome Lisa Mantchev, author of Eyes Like Stars and Perchance to Dream on Book Lovers Inc. I’m guessing the fairies followed her so let’s hide the cupcakes everyone!

The HEA Lover: Lisa, can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Lisa: I am a temporally displaced Capricorn with a fondness for dessert.

The HEA Lover: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?

Lisa: A typical day writing involves not just writing, but emailing, conducting interviews for blogs, posting links on Facebook and Twitter, and trying to keep my daughter suitably occupied while I work.

As for the planning vs. pantsing question, I’d say I’m a weird hybrid of both… I outline extensively, but the outlines are fluid during drafting (often getting rewritten several times) and then my drafts usually undergo extensive revisions as well.

The HEA Lover: What do you think is the difference between a reader and a real Book Lover?

Lisa: Book lovers are exceptionally enthusiastic about their favorite works, carry a book with them almost at all times, and don’t find it odd at all to have whiffles in their paperbacks from being dropped in the bathtub. *whistles and stares at the ceiling*

The HEA Lover:I know the fairies must be stealing all of them all the time, but what is your favorite type of cake?

Lisa: Usually chocolate with some sort of ganache. Or vanilla with chocolate. Or apple-spice. Wait… er… did I say something about carrot and cream cheese frosting yet?

The HEA Lover: Eyes Like Stars is the first book in the Theatre Illuminata trilogy, can you tell us a bit about Bertie’s world?

Lisa: Bertie lives at the Théâtre Illuminata, an enchanted theater that houses all the characters from every play ever written. She lives in a bedroom set on the stage, gets her clean clothes from the Wardrobe Department, and pilfers food from the Green Room. Her very best friends are the fairies from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (who help get her in and out of all sorts of trouble) and they do their best to provoke and annoy the Stage Manager, the poor man charged with keeping order onstage and off.

The HEA Lover: In your books we meet the characters from Shakespeare’s plays,  can you tell us more about this? I’m guessing you are a fan of Shakespeare, what is your favorite play?

Lisa: I am a Shakespeare fan… I asked for a Complete Works of Shakespeare right after reading Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes because I wanted to read A Midsummer Night’s Dream for myself. Hardly understood any of it, but that didn’t stop me from loving it! I’d say my favorite is a tie between Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing.

The HEA Lover: Beatrice’s world revolves around the Théatre, do you perform in plays yourself?

Lisa: I started doing community theater when I was seven, performed all the way through college (where I majored in Drama) and took a break only when I got pregnant with my daughter.
Since we’re talking about Shakespeare I’m curious…Did you listen to music while writing these books? and if so was it modern or classical music?

I actually find it quite hard to write while listening to music… if I have the choice, I prefer no noise at all, though that doesn’t happen very often around my house! I did have “The Assassins’ Tango” on my iPod for writing the scene when Bertie and Ariel dance, though!

The HEA Lover: Now that we’ve set up the atmosphere, could you tell us more about Perchance to Dream? What can we expect from this book?

Lisa: ***Spoiler Alert*** PTD picks up right where ELS leaves off, with Bertie, Ariel and the fairies setting off in the Mistress of Revels’s caravan to rescue Nate from the Sea Witch. Along the way, I promise there is more mayhem, (new!) mysterious strangers, identities revealed, and dessert.

The HEA Lover:I love the fairies, *hides cupcakes*, they are hilarious, will we see them again in Perchance to Dream?

Lisa: Absolutely! I don’t think they’d willingly let Bertie out of their sight, especially Peaseblossom. She like a tiny mom with wings.

The HEA Lover: Will there be more books in this series?


Lisa: The third book is tentatively titled So Silver Bright and will be out in 2011.
Do you have other projects outside the Theatre Illuminata world?
I have a steampunk novel in progress on the backburner, and–as usual–more ideas than I have time to write.

The HEA Lover: Evil question: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read your books?

Lisa:

1. Every time someone reads the book, a fairy gets its wings!
2. Theater in-jokes
3. A teenaged protagonist who doesn’t wait around for a boyfriend to complete her

Thank you so much Lisa for coming over today!


About the Author:
When not scribbling, Lisa Mantchev can be found on the beach, up a tree, making jam,or repairing things with her trusty glue gun. Her short fiction has appeared in venues like Clarkesworld, Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine and Strange Horizons. Her YA fantasy trilogy, The Théâtre Illuminata, is being published by Feiwel & Friends with Book One, Eyes Like Stars, released in 2009. You can read more about it at her LiveJournal (lisamantchev.livejournal.com)


About the Book:

The stuff that dreams are made on.

Act Two, Scene One

Growing up in the enchanted Thèâtre Illuminata, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith learned everything about every play ever written. She knew the Players and their parts, but she didn’t know that she, too, had magic. Now, she is the Mistress of Revels, the Teller of Tales, and determined to follow her stars. She is ready for the outside world.

Enter BERTIE AND COMPANY

But the outside world soon proves more topsy-turvy than any stage production. Bertie can make things happen by writing them, but outside the protective walls of the Thèâtre, nothing goes as planned. And her magic cannot help her make a decision between—

Nate: Her suave and swashbuckling pirate, now in mortal peril.

Ariel: A brooding, yet seductive, air spirit whose true motives remain unclear.

When Nate is kidnapped and taken prisoner by the Sea Goddess, only Bertie can free him. She and her fairy sidekicks embark on a journey aboard the Thèâtre’s caravan, using Bertie’s word magic to guide them. Along the way, they collect a sneak-thief, who has in his possession something most valuable, and meet The Mysterious Stranger, Bertie’s father—and the creator of the scrimshaw medallion. Bertie’s dreams are haunted by Nate, whose love for Bertie is keeping him alive, but in the daytime, it’s Ariel who is tantalizingly close, and the one she is falling for. Who does Bertie love the most? And will her magic be powerful enough to save her once she enters the Sea Goddess’s lair?

Once again, LISA MANTCHEV has spun a tale like no other—full of romance, magic, adventure, and fairies, too—that readers won’t want to put down, even after the curtain has closed.

About Caro The HEA Lover

Caroline is a HEA loving, yarn addicted French who's desperately hoping to get a HEA of her own. If she's not reading then she can be found knitting while listening to Audiobooks or watching Tv shows. Her secret addiction is reading websites that make fun at other people's expense (DYAC, Failbook)! Caroline also blogs at the Secret HEA Society with Susi.

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