#Tour #GuestPost with #Author of Spirit Warriors by @del_connor

“One of us would finally end what had been started by the machayiwiw so many years ago. I would have to kill him. It was just that simple. I never thought I would want to kill anybody or anything, but maybe I never had anything worth killing for before.” 
-Emmeline Rima Belrose, The Scarring (Spirit Warriors, Book 2)

In the majestic beauty of a Montana summer, Emme and her friends celebrate her near-drowning survival and their defeat of the powerful evil spirit, the machayiwiw. But even as they rejoice, things are amiss. Emme watches helplessly as her family divides, and her friends struggle to hold their relationship together. Worse yet, the love-of-her life, Charlie, announces that he will move back to the reservation, without Emme. Different nightmares take over and Emme realizes she must fight and kill—or watch those she loves be killed. Friends from the reservation reach out to Emme and show her what evil can steal from her. Emme believes that evil can never break her bond with the Spirit Warriors or the love she shares with Charlie. Or can it?

About the Author

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Biography

Della Connor (D.E.L. Connor) was born in South Dakota and raised in Southeastern Montana where she acquired a keen appreciation for Western and Native American culture. She moved to Texas as a young adult and acquired her honorary Texan status. She became a registered nurse, a nurse practitioner and eventually earned her PhD in nursing. She still works as a nurse educator and as a nurse practitioner. Her nights and weekends, however, are filled with her stories and books. Her first book, "Spirit Warriors:The Concealing," was published by Booktrope Publishing in November of 2014. The second book in the series "Spirit Warriors: The Scarring will be available July 21, 2014. The Spirit Warriors series will consist of five books and a prequel.
The Spirit Warriors story evolved from a short story she wrote for a college English class in the early 1990's. The professor read it, loved it and asked her to stay after class and discuss it. During this discussion, he told her that a "dark" story like hers, that was written for older children, would be unmarketable and unsaleable. The story kept floating around in her mind. Finally, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyers and others stepped forward with amazing "dark" stories to create a new genre called Young Adult. The time was finally right for her book. She wrote book 1 in two weeks. It took another year and a half and about a 150 queries all with an "not interested" for her to find a publisher. She found Booktrope and as they say, it's all history.

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Guest Post

What’s in a name?

One of the hardest things I have done in my career as an author was to pick a pen name. If seemed easy enough. My name is Della Connor. Not a bad pen. It’s my real name. People can find me when they search online for me. I’m not famous or rich, and I lead a pretty boring life with no skeletons to fall out of the closet when you snatch open the door!

So why pick a different pen name? I have always liked the idea of just initials and a last name. It seems, well, just more mysterious and unusual. It turns the ordinary into something distinctive. It probably doesn’t hurt that some of my most admired authors have initials and then a last name.

Some of these initialed authors disliked their given names and shortened them. F. Scott Fitzgerald - Francis Scott. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, sounds like Francis Scott Key, who by the way was his second cousin, three times removed. Yes, he was named after him. C.S. Lewis - Clive Staples who called himself Jacksie. How about B.F. Skinner - Burrhus Frederic Skinner? Or J. R. R. Tolkien – John Ronald Reuel Tolkien?

Others used initials to disguise their gender. The most famous of these is J.K. Rowling - Joanne Rowling, who thought her female gender would hurt her story of a young boy wizard. We all know how that turned out!  She could have been an alien from another planet and it wouldn’t have mattered. There is some speculation; by the way, that K is not part of her legal name but rather a tribute to her grandmother, Kathleen.

Well I don’t dislike my name or need to hide my gender. I had another reason more in line with J.K. Rowling’s tribute to her grandmother. I picked D.E.L. Connor. It is a tribute to my parents. My maiden name was Della Elaine Leidholt, which made the initials of DEL. DEL as in Della. I was a middle child, and as such I sometimes felt left out. I was neither the oldest nor the baby. I know you middle children know what I am talking about! It made me feel special that my initials spelled out the first three letters of my name, after all neither one of my siblings had that privilege. I doubt my parents really planned it like that, but that doesn’t matter. It was awesome! I am fortunate that my parents are still living and I hope they live many more years. I just wanted them to know that I am and I will always be, honored and proud to be their daughter.

 

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Posted in: Interview, Promo, Young Adult