The SHANNON MUIR’S INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS column on Mondays and Wednesdays is a place at Shannon Muir’s author website open to interviews and guest posts from other authors. One thing Shannon firmly believes in for readers not only to learn about new books available, but about those who craft the tales behind them. As its name implies, SHANNON MUIR’S INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS weekly column features writers from all genres of fiction who want their potential audience to get to know them, and their works, better – and occasionally may offer features from Shannon herself that support readers to discover words.
Today, find out more about BRING ME THEIR HEARTS.

Bring Me Their Hearts
by Sara Wolf
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: June 5th 2018
Entangled Teen
Summary:
Zera is a Heartless—the immortal, unaging soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly.
Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum: if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy Zera’s heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles.
Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him—every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him—until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat.
So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all.
Winner takes the loser’s heart.
Literally.
Interview with the Author
What initially got you interested in writing?
It’s embarrassing to say, but what really got me interested in writing was the wonderful world of media I had growing up – specifically video games. I wrote a ton of fanfiction for my favorite video games, since I was not happy with the ending for some of my favorite characters. I rewrote them new endings, and really found joy in being able to share my work with other people all around the world. It was awe-inspiring to see, in my early teens, how much my words could affect people.
What genres do you prefer to write in?
I absolutely adore YA/Fantasy, but I’m always happy to admit my weaknesses and writing fantasy is one of them. I’m MUCH more adept at contemporary YA, without all the magic and cool stuff, mostly because I’m better at characters and characters tend to drive contemporary more than they do Fantasy. So I guess contemporary is my safe bet, and Fantasy is what I write when I want to push myself!
Are there any authors you prefer to read and why?
I love reading Sarah J. Maas. The effortlessness she writes with is incredible, even if I think the sex scenes are a little cheesy. 😛 They’re definitely my guilty pleasure. I also really like reading anything by N.K. Jemisin – I’m currently working through her backlog and loving every moment of it.
How did you make the move into being a published author?
To be perfectly honest, it was a lot of failed books and failed querying. About five or six, I wanna say. I really only became a published author through the constant rejection – learning what book got more attention than others and why, I slowly started to understand what agents were looking for. I did publish a book with a traditional house, but after that couldn’t seem to come up with anything else good. So I wrote the Lovely Vicious series, and knowing it was maybe too out there for most publishers through my experience with them, I self-published it. And the rest is history!
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
Definitely that moment when people tag me in a post on Insta or Twitter or Facebook, and gush about how much they enjoyed the book! Or when someone tells me how much my writing helped them – that’s always an incredible feeling, and honestly it’s the whole reason I keep writing!!
What do you find most challenging about writing?
It’s always a challenge to make an interesting middle in a book – not only interesting, but also compelling! It’s hard to think of plot threads to weave together, so I usually rely on my characters to make them for me. The hardest part is standing at the plot crossroads, knowing whichever choice you make will determine what the rest of the story is like. If you choose wrong, or rather, ‘untrue’ to the book, further crossroads will become harder, and the whole book as a whole can suffer for that one decision.
Do you have any tips for writers who find themselves experiencing writer’s block?
Yeah! I’m experiencing one myself right now, actually. A thing I like to tell myself is that I am a creator – meaning the book won’t come into existence if I don’t write it. Sometimes that’s compelling enough, but if it isn’t, I try to dissect how I’m feeling, and usually what’s behind the feeling of a writer’s block is fear. In the words of Dune, ‘Fear is a mind killer’, and that’s also a great thing to remember. Frequently, fear or anxiety is a product of wondering what will happen, not what is happening!
What advice would you give to people that want to enter the field?
Find joy in it. Find joy in writing kiss scenes, or fight scenes, or emotional scenes. Put yourself into your characters and be honest with their feelings, because their feelings are yours. You are them, no matter how much you try to distance yourself from them. The closer you become to your work, the better. It might be scary, but it’s important.
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
That things aren’t easy, but they are worth it.
Is there anything else about you that you think readers might find interesting?
I’m quite the boring old cat lady! Nothing to see here. 😉
About the Author
Sara Wolf is a twenty-something author who adores baking, screaming at her cats, and screaming at herself while she types hilarious things. When she was a kid, she was too busy eating dirt to write her first terrible book. Twenty years later, she picked up a keyboard and started mashing her fists on it and created the monster known as Lovely Vicious. She lives in San Diego with two cats, a crippling-yet-refreshing sense of self-doubt, and not enough fruit tarts ever.
Author Links:
Website: http://sarawolfbooks.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sara_Wolf1
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/authorsaraw/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorsarawolf/