Today, I'm so pleased to welcome DaniJo Avia! As we have exchanged e-mails, I feel I have gotten to know DaniJo a bit better. I love her enthusiasm in writing THE DESTINY series. "Friends and family… people you want to know and love to call your friends," she says about the series.
So settle in, find out more about DaniJo and her books, and ask questions if you have them!
BIO FOR DANIJO AVIA
Reflecting back on my life I realize that I’ve always expressed my creativity in writing. Be it poems, songs or short stories. Somehow, as I grew up I left that creative expression behind.
I left Corporate America in part because I needed to find and express my creative voice. Several years before I left, I found that a change had come over me as I formulated and crafted memos. I began to focus on hearing what needed to be said, on communication rather than dictating. As I explored this new way of writing, I found that I was required to leave the mechanics of spelling and formatting behind to focus on the message that needed to be communicated, even when the message wasn’t clearly communicated to me. I have discovered that the training I received by embracing this new style of crafting a memo has proven invaluable in rediscovering and developing my creative voice.
It’s taken all this time for me to move out of the mold that working for a Fortune 500 Company conformed me into. To hear something different than business and to write what I hear. While I loved my job and the company I worked for, I’ve found that I am happiest moving in a natural work rhythm; listening, hearing, deciding, acting. Moving forward without the pressure to conform into someone else’s image of me.
For a variety of reasons my husband and I have chosen for my novels to be written under a pen name. I love the name I was given at birth, and if you know anything about me, you know names and their meanings are important to me. So you know that DaniJo Avia was selected with a great deal of care and thought.
Beyond that – I am a Life Coach (specializing in Personal Coaching, Executive Coaching and Divine Purpose Coaching). I am the wife of an amazing man; we have no children but have collected many friends and acquaintances over the years. We live in the country in the Greater Seattle area with our dog. Among other things we both love to travel, read and watch movies.
ABOUT THE DESTINY SERIES
What is the name of your series of books? How many books are in the series? The Destiny Series. At this point books one and two are published, working on LEGACY (book three) and CRUSHED (book four). Not sure how many books there will be in the series but a fifth is stewing on the back burner…
What's the genre/subgenre of your series?
Contemporary Romance.
What is the premise your series? What ties it together? Are the characters related, have the same career, live in the same town, etc.?
Friends and family… people you want to know and love to call your friends. People whose lives you like to be involved in. Each book follows our friends as they address issues we each face in life, and the choices they make.
Why write a series? What are the pros and cons?
Does it count if I say that I never planned it this way??? It just kind of happened? All of the books stand alone, but what I am finding, at least with the first three, is that more of the backstories of the three couples are revealed as the series progresses.
What's your next project? Is there another series in your writing future?
Let me finish with the Destiny series and then see what begs to be put on paper… But to be honest with you, my favorite books have always been those that invite me back, not just because of the story, but because I get to visit with my friends, even if they aren’t front and center… so.. kinda thinking I like the whole series thing… we’ll see…
Any contests or giveaways related to this blog post or that you are running?
Marketing… need to turn my brain that direction… but honestly… just too into writing at the moment… watch my blog for updates:
www.DaniJoAvia.com or Like me on Facebook!
Any other information you would like to add?
Ummm… questions anyone???
EXCERPT
From Discovery – Book Two of the Destiny Series:
North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii
Two weeks from today….
Prequel
Katie breathed deeply of the fresh sea air. Luxuriating in the moist air, once again thankful to be out of the aired air of Egypt.
Stroking deeply, she propelled herself and her surfboard after Peter. Greg already knew how to surf, but they had hired the instructor for the day for her benefit. While Greg could have taught her, he had never surfed in Hawaii and preferred someone with local experience to guide them.
Before striking out to sea, they had decided that this was their last run. They had been able to talk Peter into this more advanced area – more because of Greg’s abilities than her own, she thought. Though, to be fair, she had impressed herself.
Peter pulled up and turned his board to face the beach, as she did the same. Sitting up, she lifted her face toward the clear blue sky and the lowering sun. Again, breathing deeply of moist air she mentally thanked her cousin for giving her the excuse to travel to Hawaii.
Opening her eyes, she shifted her gaze to Greg, floating on a board beside her, positioned slightly ahead of her and to her left. He caught her eye and the smile that had been on his face transformed into a grin.
She wasn’t close enough to see his gray eyes, but she knew they would be sparkling with happiness. They had been all day.
Greg signaled that the next wave was coming and that he was going to catch it. Katie looked over her shoulder and started to catch the wave as well, but as Greg sprang up on his board, she decided to drop out and watch him instead, admiring his athletic grace as he rode the wave toward the beach.
She wasn’t surprised that Peter dropped out as well; had expected it actually. He’d been dogging her all day, watching out for her. Far from being upset that she’d been singled out, she felt a freedom in his careful oversight of her.
Earlier, Greg had told her that if Peter had been applying for one of his trainer positions, he would have hired him on the spot. Peter had every characteristic Greg looked for in a trainer. The least of which was having the ability to teach.
Greg was always careful of her and was always very aware of her. The fact that he was willing to allow Peter to supervise her lessons and her safety spoke volumes to Katie about his confidence in Peter.
It also told her much about Greg and how he ran his business.
Watching him interact with Peter, she knew that he valued Peter’s experience and teaching style. Greg didn’t try to take over, and that told her that he did not micromanage his trainers but empowered them to connect with their clients to teach them in whatever manner best suited the client.
Peter’s whoop of approval at Greg’s ride snapped her back to the present. Pumping her hands high over her head, she cheered Greg’s ride as well.
Still sounding like the cheering section at the World Cup, she turned and shared her joy with Peter. It was difficult to communicate across the distance between them, but a sense of camaraderie that had been absent from her life for far to long had developed between the three of them. She knew he was just as pleased with Greg’s ride as she was.
Turning her attention back to the beach, she could see that Greg had planted his board in the sand and now stood looking out at her, obviously impatient for her to join him. And suddenly, she was just as impatient to get to him.
Focusing on the waves behind her, she saw a gentle swell rising. Perfect! She signaled Peter. As he nodded his approval, she flipped onto her stomach and began pulling herself through the water with powerful, quick strokes. The day’s lessons and advice playing over and over in her head.
Feeling the wave gather beneath her, she sprang to her feet, concentrating on the board beneath her, on the way it moved, how she was balanced.
The blue-green water flashed by her and the late afternoon sun gilded and defined the blown glass edges of the swell beginning to rise above her. It was a beautiful wall of living color.
She watched, mesmerized, as the sharp edges of the wave softened and then turned to foam, edging the wave with intricate fringe. The white melded into a deep seafoam green, reminding her of liquid mercury, alive and moving.
The sun shone through the center of the wave, creating a horizontal band of molten gold which made her catch her breath in awe. The wave was lit from within, light bouncing back and forth across its surface.
Beneath the band of light, the color blended from gold to the impossible green that candy makers use to entice their patrons, then to a blue they also envied but could never copy exactly. The blue gave way to the flatter portion of the wave where it reflected back the gold, breaking it up with glints of a deep jade green.
Suddenly, her board was gone, no longer beneath her feet, no longer supporting her. Before she could even breathe, she found herself falling forward into water that was a foreboding blue, devoid of all light.
From far away she heard Peter shout her name. Then the ocean opened up and the dark tumbling water pulled her down into its murky depths.
