I’m excited to share my first author interview with you today!
I recently met fellow author N. Ceves after she picked up my first book and found my blog. Through total divine intervention, we struck up a conversation via Facebook when she agreed to be my beta reader for my latest release. And recently, I became her beta reader for her new book, Even the Stars.
Let me just say that I started reading Even the Stars, a Christian sci-fi/romance, with some doubt. Why? I thought I wouldn’t be able to feel for the male character … who just so happens to not be human. You read that right. The hero of the book is an android. (I can hear all the Star Wars fans cheering now, haha.) I honestly wondered if I would be disappointed by the story and if it would be believable or relatable.
Well, let me tell you how wrong I was! Not only was I drawn into the story from the first sentence, I couldn’t put it down until the very last page. I also teared up several times throughout the book. Even after I finished it, I had deep philosophical/theological questions going around in my head for days … all because of an android. 🙂
Even the Stars left such a big impression on me that I decided to interview its author and find out more about her and the inspiration behind her book. I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I did. So, please sit down, share a pot of tea with us and meet your new favorite author, N. Ceves. 🙂
Me: Please tell us about yourself (ie. your family, background, hobbies, etc).
N. Ceves: I am a wife, a mom, an indie author, a teacher of infants with special needs. I love reading and tea and learning. I am passionate about faith, social justice, equality, education, and peace. Did I mention tea? Total tea nerd.
Me: What prompted you to start writing? What genres do you like to read and write?
N. Ceves: NaNoWriMo changed everything. I began writing creatively as soon as I could write, but joining the wild ride that is NaNo made writing a bigger part of my life.
I love to read anything that draws me in until I’m lost in that fictive dream.
Me: Please tell us about your book Even the Stars. What was your inspiration for the story?
N. Ceves: Even the Stars is about two people, one human and one synthetic: an android. Leaving Earth aboard a starcraft in hope of finding a habitable planet light years away, these two people find themselves falling in love.
The book is about faith and the power of unconditional love.
It is a sweet, faith-infused love story that happens to take place in space. Is there a genre for that!?
I imagined a glimpse of a scene: a woman aboard a spaceship of some kind, leaving Earth. The intense feeling of homesickness that I picked up on was heartbreaking. “No matter where I go,” she seemed to say, “it won’t be home. It won’t be Earth. No other place could ever be home.”
I began to write a story around this glimpse. After I completed it, I felt something was missing.
Later, I remembered a moment in the story where the android, Dev, asks Verity, the doctor aboard the starcraft, if she believes he has a soul. I began to wonder more in depth about Dev. What gave him courage, what gave him hope in his isolation? The answer came to me that he had faith. At a moment of loneliness and grief, he reached out and he believed.
Me: What challenges did you have in writing Even the Stars? What did you enjoy most about writing it?
N. Ceves: There were a few scenes in Even the Stars that involved a great deal of sadness for me. To write those scenes as well as I could, feeling so much emotion, was challenging. The scene in the book that includes Dev’s journal hurt to write.
What I enjoyed most was that I felt as though I got to know two pretty wonderful people: Dev and Verity, and take part in their adventure. I know, logically, that I made them up… but it doesn’t feel that way.
Me: What do you hope readers will gain from the book?
Nobody should ever make you feel less than. You are infinitely precious.
Me: If Even the Stars was made into a movie, which actors/actresses would you cast in the film?
I was just thinking that I would love to see True To You as a movie! I feel as though I actually viewed the scenes in your novel; that’s how immersed I was. (Me: Aw, thanks!)
If Even the Stars was a film I would wish for completely unknown actors and actresses to be cast. There are so many amazingly gifted actors and actresses working very hard and we just never see them.
Me: One final question – if you had to leave earth for another planet, what would you take with you? What would you miss most about earth?
N. Ceves: I would have to take my dog and cat as I view them as part of my family.
I would miss the very essence of our planet: the earth itself, including everything that grows and lives; the air, and the light.
Me: Thank you, N. Ceves, for taking the time to chat with us!
If you want to take a trip aboard a starcraft and get lost in a sweet, timeless love story, you’ll want to read this book! And thanks to N. Ceves’ generosity, she has made Even the Stars FREE (you read that right – FREE!) today only! Get it now on Amazon.com (click here) and please help her spread the word by leaving a review once you’ve read the book.
And check out Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ song, “Stars”, which kept playing through my mind as I read Even the Stars.
If you had to leave earth for another planet, what would you take with you? What would you miss most about earth?