MAKE MINE EASY MONDAY with author, Mandy Harbin

If you like reading books with romantic and mythical elements to them, then I have the perfect young adult series for you. Season’s Change is a four part series about a teenage girl who discovers on her seventeenth birthday the mother she’d thought long dead is actually alive and coming back for her on her eighteenth birthday. Each book covers a season and follows our girl through the next year of her life while she learns to understand and accept the mysterious changes that are happening to her.

And of course it has hot guys who want her. One guy, Don, has been the guy she’s been drooling over for as long as she can remember. The other guy, Chrys, is new in town but has some secrets of his own.

The series starts with the book of Summer, and it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first book I ever finished. And I still remember the feeling of actually typing the last line in the book and knowing I’d done it. Like many writers, I’d started several different books but never saw them through completion for one reason or another. But when I started this series I knew it would be different.

I get my ideas from practically everywhere. Listening to music can make me feel a certain way and then the brain will start going down paths before I realize I’m even daydreaming, which turns into brainstorming. I also have vivid dreams of my own that I use snippets of or in their entirety. Several of Season’s dreams in this first book were dreams I’d actually had—with little or no changes—before the writing phase even started. It’s hard to say what the driving force was behind me writing this series, but I do remember feeling passionately about wanting to write a book with a heroine in the main role. I was a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and really liked the idea of a chick who could be or become strong through her own means, yet still feel the vulnerability of everyday life. This is how Season came to be.

After months of playing scenarios out in my head and then gradually working my way to writing out storylines and outlines, I researched Greek Mythology off and on for about six to eight months before I even started writing the book itself. Funny thing is, though, when I started writing, I’d only written about ten pages and stopped because I’d come across one of the Percy Jackson books and literally felt deflated. It was another six months before I decided that I’d put too much energy into my research over what was now years of contemplating storylines for all books, writing character bios, and doing all the grunt work to not finish what I’d started. I had a story I wanted to tell, and I was going to tell it. Even if I was only writing it for myself.

When I finished the first book, I immediately drafted the second book. Then I immediately drafted the third book. I was so passionate about the story, I didn’t want to stop to start editing and polishing the first book. It wasn’t until I’d finished the third and had written the outline to the fourth that I figured I needed to clean up the first book and step away from the series for a breather before I wrapped it up. While I was “breathing” I’d written, and published, several adult romance books. It wasn’t until I started getting acceptance offers on my other work that I revisited Season’s world.

And those Percy Jackson books? Still haven’t read them or any other young adult book that I felt might’ve influence my story. I freaked for nothing. Silly. I know, right? But I did finally cave and read the Twilight series last year… after New Moon was already out on DVD.

So there you have it. A glimpse at how Season was created and why. I really hope you all enjoy this series. I’d love to hear what you think.  You can like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or check me out on Goodreads. I’m all over the interwebs. And if you like it, please leave a review. Readers rely on what others think to help make decisions (I know I do when I decide to purchase a book :P). 

Go to mandyharbin.com to learn more about Season's Change and all Mandy's books!