Perfect Pitch by Alex Hayes
Publication date: August 6th, 2019
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult
All Dean wants is to escape…
But he can’t leave his younger brother, Ty, in the care of their alcoholic mother. And when their abusive father shows up, Dean has to get Ty out. Which means joining Shri — his best and only friend — in taking a job out of state and breaking the law by stealing his brother away.
Cadi’s life is almost back together after Dean blew it into a million pieces. She’s come to terms with her life as a shape-shifter — well, almost. She’s still trying to wrap her head around the fact that a vicious enemy is out to destroy the remnants of her people.
As if Cadi doesn’t have enough to deal with, Dean’s about to land on her front doorstep, forcing her to decide whether to let him into her secret world or slam the door in his face.
The Chameleon Effect series, starring shape-shifter teens with extraordinary superpowers, is sure to appeal to Young Adult and New Adult readers who enjoy romance with a paranormal twist.
~AUTHOR INTERVIEW with Alex Hayes~
1)
What gave you the inspiration for the storyline?
Perfect Pitch evolved out of the closing of Silken
Scales. There was a crystal tree cutting to be planted, evil enemies to
outwit, and a couple of loose ends by the names of Dean and Shri.
Dean and Shri weren’t meant to be anything more than
secondary characters, but they morphed into something more. I really wanted to
develop their pasts, their challenges and the story of friendship and love that
evolves between them in Perfect Pitch.
2) Are there any hidden (or not so hidden) themes
in the book that you hope readers will discover?
I love questions about theme. Yes, absolutely.
The theme for Perfect Pitch relates to
defining family and friendship as Cadi prepares the foundation for a new home
for her people, the ultimate extended family.
The main characters, Cadi and Dean, both have
specific character arcs and associated themes. Cadi’s theme deals with trust
and learning the difference between friendship and love; Dean’s focuses on
working out what defines family and that you cannot change other people.
Another aspect of theme appears in the book’s
title, Perfect Pitch. Perfect pitch is one of Idris’s musical strengths,
for which Dean dubs him “Mr. Perfect Pitch,” but Dean has a perfect pitch of
his own. He can throw a fastball with incredible accuracy. Both these talents
act as glue to connect them to each other through Dean’s younger brother, Ty.
Both guys make use of their talents repeatedly
through the course of the story. Idris connects with Ty using his perfect pitch
to play back any tune he hears and jam with the young boy, guaranteeing their
fast friendship. Dean uses his perfect pitch to impress his brother and share
the sport they both love. The brothers head outside to throw for each other
numerous times throughout the story.
3) Are any of the characters based on real people
you know?
Not really. I’m not certain I can say where my
characters truly come from, other than my head. Definitely, not from a single
person. They grow out of attributes I concoct.
For example, I have this new character I’m
working on who loves to transform into wild animals and isn’t that comfortable
in human form. She is very good at protecting herself and lives in the coastal
forest areas of Oregon.
When imagining what a character looks like, I
trawl the internet for faces. So they do look more like individual people.
Idris, for example, looks a lot like Jordan Fisher, while Dean looks kind of
like William Moseley.
4) Who has influenced you most as a writer?
My mother. She wrote a novel in her twenties,
encouraging and inspiring me. In fact, her story planted the seed for Ice
Cracks, my first novel. My mom also loved reading my stories and was
incredibly positive and downright excited about my dream to become a writer.
5) If you could have any three literary
characters over to your place for game night, who would you invite, what would
you play, what would you serve, and why?
Mark Twain’s No. 44, Sherlock Holmes and Hannibal
Lecter. We would play Clue and drink whisky. They’d talk about craft and plot
and suspense and murder and bad guys and all sorts of interesting things, and I’d
take notes and absorb their collective brilliance and total coolness.
6) Do you feel that you can ever have too many
books?
No, but electronic ones are more eco friendly. I
love having the Kindle app on my computer. Sad to say, I live on my computer,
and having instant access to hundreds of books for entertainment, education and
reference is absolute Nirvana for me.
Author Bio:Alex Hayes wrote her first fiction story when she was twelve. Inspired by her mother’s storytelling, she began work on her first novel, Ice Cracks, at eighteen.
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. In her twenties, she moved from Marin County, California to Boston, Massachusetts, where she built a career as an IT professional in database engineering. In 2004, she self-published Ice Cracks.
Alex splits her time between Grand Junction, Colorado and Guanajuato, Mexico. When she isn’t writing, she’s helping her partner, Lee, renovate a 450 year old hacienda. She is mother to one beautiful daughter and many wonderful cats.
Thanks for being on the tour! :)
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