Authors Are Rockstars: Amy Butler Greenfield! (and GIVEAWAY!)

Welcome to Day 4 of the Authors Are Rockstars tour! For the rest of the schedule, click HERE, HERE, or HERE.

Today, I'm hosting Amy Butler Greenfield, author of Chantress! Before I introduce her to you, let me tell you why this lady is a ROCKSTAR!

Well, first, she has an amazing book called Chantress, out in the world since May 2013. I'm a huge fan of historical fiction, especially historical fiction with fantasy elements. WELL, to my immense pleasure, Chantress has BOTH! Amy has an amazing, fluid writing style that totally sucked me into Chantress. Also, she's like, the nicest person ever! She always responds to me on Twitter, no matter how annoying I am. Amy lives in England (way cool!), and she has a Ph. D in history. So, she's a kind, cool, and smart cookie! And she lives in the land of yummy accents! Am I right? :D 

And here is the lady of the hour!

Music and Magic

When the idea for Chantress came to me, I was sitting in a coffee shop. At the beginning, I knew only this:  There was a spymaster, and a ruby, and girl who could work magic.  

But what kind of magic did she have?  

I might’ve gotten stuck if I’d stopped to think about it, because there’s so much to choose from.  She could have been a healer, or a diviner, or a summoner.  She might have worked magic through cards, or Latin, or crystal balls.  She could have called on gods, or djinns, or ancestors.  But somehow I knew from the start that she was a singer who worked her magic through music.  

To me, music is magic.  Just look at how it can change our moods!  Certain songs boost our energy. Others make us daydream.  Maybe there’s a person you miss, or a relationship that went sour, and you think you’re over it… only to find that music dissolves every wall, and you’re crying again.   

Even without words to guide us, we have a deep response to music.  Certain chords and progressions and tempos tend to cheer us up.  Others make us weep.   Sometimes every note seems to wring our hearts.  

Music also connects us with memory.   You probably know this already, just from your own experience.  If you listen to a song you haven’t heard for a while, it often brings back the last time you heard it in vivid detail:  the color of the sky, the feel of the air, the clothes you were wearing, the people who were with you then.  

With music, therapists can even reach the minds of people suffering from severe dementia—especially, it turns out, if they play the music those people loved as teenagers.  Listening to tunes they loved decades ago, they smile and laugh.  Sometimes people who haven’t spoken in years know every word to their favorite songs.  While they listen, they feel a little more like themselves again.

In the world of Chantress, singing has even more power.  Lucy casts spells with it.  She transports herself to new realms.  She can even walk into people’s minds.  

But even in our own ordinary world, there’s a tremendous power in music.  And it might just be the closest thing to real magic we’ll ever experience.

More About Amy:

Amy Butler Greenfield was a grad student in history when she gave into temptation and became a writer. Since then, she has become an award-winning author.  She lives with her family in England, where she writes, bakes double-dark-chocolate cake, and plots mischief.

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About Chantress:

Chantress by Amy Butler Greenfield

Book One of the Chantress trilogy

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Date: May 7, 2013

Summary (from Goodreads):

Lucy’s Chantress magic will make her the most powerful—and most hunted—girl in England. 

“Sing, and the darkness will find you.” This warning has haunted fifteen-year-old Lucy ever since she was eight and shipwrecked on a lonely island. Lucy’s guardian, Norrie, has lots of rules, but the most important is that Lucy must never sing. Not ever. Now it is 1667, Lucy is fifteen, and on All Hallows’ Eve, Lucy hears a tantalizing melody on the wind. She can’t help but sing—and she is swept into darkness. 

When she awakes in England, Lucy hears powerful men discussing Chantresses—women who can sing magic into the world. They are hunting her, but she escapes and finds sanctuary with the Invisible College, an organization plotting to overthrow the nefarious Lord Protector. The only person powerful enough to bring about his downfall is a Chantress. And Lucy is the last one in England. 

Lucy struggles to master the song-spells and harness her power, but the Lord Protector is moving quickly. And her feelings for Nat, an Invisible College apprentice and scientist who deeply distrusts her magic, only add to her confusion... 

Time is running out, and the fate of England hangs in the balance in this entrancing novel that is atmospheric and lyrical, dangerous and romantic.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Check out my 4-star review of Chantress HERE!

The Giveaway:

Thanks to the publisher (Simon and Schuster), one winner will win a copy of Chantress - USA only! Read the terms and conditions in the Rafflecopter. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway