Author Interview & Giveaway: AD Starrling (Soul Meaning)

Today we have the pleasure to share our interview with author AD Starrling. Enjoy getting to know AD Starrling that much better.

Soul Meaning
Seventeen Series Book One
AD Starrling
Genre: Supernatural thriller
Cover Artist: Streetlight Graphics
Purchase Links
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1.      Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m AD Starrling, author and part-time baby doctor. I was born and bred in Mauritius and came to the UK 18 years ago to study medicine. I published my first novel, Soul Meaning (Seventeen Book One) in 2012. 

2.      What inspired you to write your first book?

I wrote my very first novel when I was twelve and that story was inspired by one of my many adventure dreams (I have lots of them!). In terms of what I’ve published, Soul Meaning was inspired by the image of the number 17 painted in red on a black marker stone in the middle of a lagoon in Mauritius.

3.      How did you come up with the title Soul Meaning?

When I decided to write about a man who could die 17 times, Lucas Soul walked into my head, a ready-made, living, breathing, character. This story is about Lucas discovering the special meaning behind his own existence, hence the title.

4.      Describe Soul, your main character, in five words.

Humble, powerful, lonely, kind, immortal.

5.      What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your book?

That I could write this type of story at all! The previous books I had written had been light-hearted fantasy. I never thought I could write in the action-thriller genre.

6.      Have you ever done anything strange or weird in the name of research?

Yes! Steve, my reference guy for all things weaponry and battle, had me over for dinner one night. His wife and three cats watched on in amusement while Steve and I enacted one of the fight scenes from the second book. I was wearing heels and a dress!

7.      How long does it take you to write a book?

Working part-time in medicine, it currently takes me 11-12 months to write a first draft running at 100-110K words. If I wrote full time, it would take 6 months to produce a first draft.

8.      Can you share a little of your current work with us?

I am polishing King’s Crusade, the second novel in the series, before it goes for formatting. It’s scheduled for release late April, early May this year. I have also started the third novel in the series, scheduled for release Spring/Summer 2014.

9.  Do you have any writing rituals?

I must have the playlist for the book playing on my iPhone and several cups of tea or coffee! I usually compile a book specific playlist for each novel.

10.  What book are you reading now?

Angel Bait by Tricia Skinner by day, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett by night.

11.  What new author has grasped your interest?

I’ve fallen in love with Jade Kerrion’s Double Helix Series, which I discovered last year. It’s a thrilling combination of science-fiction, action, and also some deep philosophical questions about the direction that genetic research could take in the future. I cried when I was reading the second and third books. A lot. The fourth novel in the series is out later this year.

12.  Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

I hope Seventeen entertains you! My aim was to make you turn the pages and not want to stop. There is plenty of bonus material of my website with music playlists, research extras, and character profiles that you might find interesting after you’ve read the book.

Random Questions:

1.      What’s in your fridge right now?

Low fat tuna and mayo sandwich filling, jacket potatoes, cheese, low fat butter, skimmed milk, wine, salad, fish cakes, fruits, vegetables, cooking sauces and condiments, olives, left-over New York cheesecake from a recent dinner party!

2.      What song do you sing at the top of your voice every time you hear it?

Airplanes by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams from Paramore!

3.      Other than writing, what special or unusual talent(s) do you have?

I love drawing, mostly life drawings with charcoal. I have taken classes in the past and would love to have the time to start drawing again.

4.      Where did you last go on holiday?

Cuba. It was a beach holiday in Holguin. Gorgeous hotel, great food and wine, and lovely weather.

5.      If your house was attacked by feral aliens, and they were zapping your house with their  Uber super bombs, what five items would you save?

Swiss army knife (don’t have one, but have always thought I should), matches, torch with batteries, phone with GPS, first-aid kit.

6.      If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

Please say ‘Arrrghhhh!’ 

A special thanks to the author for taking time to answer our questions. it's always great fun getting to know our authors.

Book Description

A half breed immortal. An international manhunt. A race against time to stop a terrifying plot that threatens to kill millions. The gripping, action-packed debut novel by AD Starrling and the first in the supernatural thriller series Seventeen. 
‘My name is Lucas Soul. 

Today, I died again.

This is my fifteenth death in the last four hundred and fifty years.’

The Crovirs and the Bastians. Two races of immortals who have lived side by side with humans for millennia and been engaged in a bloody war since the very dawn of their existence. With the capacity to survive up to sixteen deaths, it was not until the late fourteenth century that they reached an uneasy truce, following a deadly plague that wiped out more than half of their numbers and made the majority of survivors infertile.

Soul is an outcast of both immortal societies. Born of a Bastian mother and a Crovir father, a half breed whose very existence is abhorred by the two races, he spends the first three hundred and fifty years of his life being chased and killed by the Hunters.

One fall night in Boston, the Hunt starts again, resulting in Soul’s fifteenth death and triggering a chain of events that sends him on the run with Reid Hasley, a former US Marine and his human business partner of ten years. When a lead takes them to Washington DC and a biotechnology company with affiliations to the Crovirs, they cross the Atlantic to Europe, on the trail of a French scientist whose research seems intrinsically linked to the reason why the Hunters are after Soul again. From Paris to Prague, their search for answers will lead them deep into the immortal societies and bring them face to face with someone from Soul’s past. Shocking secrets are uncovered and fresh allies come to the fore as they attempt to put a stop to a new and terrifying threat to both immortals and humans. 
Time is running out for Soul. Can he get to the truth before his seventeenth death, protect the ones he loves and prevent another immortal war?

Tour Wide Giveaway

8 prize packs containing a paperback, postcard and bookmark

2 prize packs with postcard and bookmark plus an ebook

10 ebooks and bookmarks

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