Author Interview (and a Giveaway!): Maggie Platt & Kingdom Above the Cloud

I am delighted today to introduce you to Maggie Platt who’s here to chat about her debut novel, Kingdom Above the Cloud!

Maggie Platt is a writer, traveler, cancer survivor, and dreamer. Her greatest joys are being Auntie M to her amazing nieces and nephew and sitting with students and friends over cups of coffee and deep conversations. She works at her alma mater, Anderson University, and she lives in a cozy little cottage nearby where students come to sit on her couch just to laugh, cry, and talk about life.

You can connect with Maggie on her website, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

KINGDOM ABOVE THE CLOUD
SERIES: Tales From Adia #1
GENRE: YA Fantasy
PUBLISHER: Ambassador International
RELEASE DATE: April 17, 2020
PAGES: 295

What if the nine Fruit of the Spirit and the Seven Deadly Sins were locked in a battle for control?

Abandoned as infants, Tovi and her twin brother were raised by an eclectic tribe of warm, kind people in a treehouse village in the valley. After her brother’s sudden disappearance Tovi questions her life and her faith in an invisible King. Ignoring her best friend Silas’ advice, she decides to search for her brother in the kingdom on top of the mountain.

Above the cloud, the Council of Masters receives their orders. Tovi and her brother are the objectives. King Damien has a plan and Tovi is the key. The Council of Masters want her, but will she remain unscathed?

Amidst the glamour of the kingdom above the cloud Tovi is torn between her own dark desires and unanswered questions. It starts with a snake and a crown. When the ring is complete, will her life be over?

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Hi Maggie! Welcome to the blog!

Maggie: Summer – I live in the Midwest, so I cherish the months of sun, flowers, green trees, and being outside!

Carrie: Yes, winters are long in the Midwest (I miss it lol)

Maggie: {Diet} Coke – Can’t live without it! I have to discipline myself to not drink it all day, every day. 

Carrie: Yes! Same here. Especially diet cokes from McDonald’s – I don’t know why theirs are so good!

Maggie: Mountains – I LOVE the mountains, and I take every opportunity I get to visit our National Parks.

Carrie: Me too!!! The mountains are my happy place.

Maggie: Print Book – There is nothing like holding a book in your hands and smelling the pages! (Ok, that just got weird…)

Carrie: hahahaha no judgment here 🙂

Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?

Maggie: My superpower is probably making people cry. But not in a bad way! Maybe a better way to word it is “creating a safe space that allows others to process their feelings and what they’re going through.” I was the Resident Director of a dorm at a Christian college (Anderson University in Indiana!) for five years, and most conversations in my apartment resulted in tears. Whether it was a student in the conduct process, one of the student leaders who worked for me, or a resident who just dropped by, I always had to keep the tissues handy. One year the graphic on the RA team’s staff shirts (designed by them) was a couch, to symbolize all of the times they came to my apartment to cry on my couch. Ha!

Carrie: hahaha love it!

Q: If you knew you were only going to be allowed FIVE books for the rest of your life, besides the Bible, which five would make the cut?

Maggie: Are you sure I can’t have 7?? I would choose the Harry Potter books for sure. If I was forced to narrow it down to five, I would say Sorcerer’s Stone (1), Prisoner of Azkaban (3), Goblet of Fire (4), Half-Blood Prince (6), and Deathly Hallows (7). I have re-read all seven books over and over again, and I never get tired of them!

Carrie: (whispers) I would have totally allowed the whole series to count as 1 😉

Q: If I asked your characters to describe YOU as an author, what would they say?

Maggie: Listen, she is crazy. One minute I am going about my business that SHE assigned to me, and the next minute she has completely changed her mind, sent me to some forsaken wilderness to wait for rescue, and deleted my love interest (thanks a lot). She babies some of the guys over there. They don’t know what it’s like to be constantly edited to the point of identity crisis. I hope that after this book release, she’ll settle down and leave me alone!

Carrie: LOL!! At least until the next book in the series 😉

Q: Were there any songs that inspired you as you wrote Kingdom Above the Cloud?

Maggie: I had whole playlists that inspired this book! Over the years, it’s been a lot of Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Lorde, Keane, Bastille, Florence and the Machine, and so many others. I listened to Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing” and Owl City’s “If My Heart Was a House” as I dreamed about the setting of Adia, where my main character grew up. There were also songs for specific characters, like Keane’s “A Bad Dream” that inspired my character Eryx. I could go on and on! More recently, there are several Billie Eilish songs that make it so fun to dream about villains.

Carrie: ooo I love Owl City!

Q: Some authors like to hide little things in their stories. Is there anything you have hidden in your book?

Maggie: Yes! I love reading books with lots of Easter eggs, so I knew I wanted to write them, too. When the book was finished, I went back and made sure every chapter had at least one thing that would be glossed over in a first reading and then found in a second reading. Sometimes it’s a hint to solve a mystery, sometimes it’s foreshadowing, and sometimes it’s pieces of metaphor and allegory that point to the underlying story of Christ. 

Carrie: how cool! love that!

Q: What do you most want readers to take away from Kingdom Above the Cloud?

Maggie: I just hope that God will speak to each reader in whatever way they need to hear Him. God spoke to me a ton through the writing process, helping me to grow in my faith, heal, and start a closer walk with Him. I hope it’s the same for others. It’s been humbling to read the feedback from some of my advanced readers, and I am so grateful that God is allowing me to be part of what he is doing in other people’s lives. “I haven’t cried reading a book in a long time… but tears were streaming down my face while reading the scene in the dungeon. I feel like most Christians struggle with believing the lies that Satan is whispering over us… and when we aren’t connected to Jesus we don’t hear his voice speaking truth. Such a good reminder of the importance of protecting your heart with God’s truth and staying connected in his Word and through prayer! And that he had been preparing Tovi for the most difficult moments her whole life, planting the words of truth in her to bring back in the darkest times and preparing her physically to run…” – Allie, advanced reader

Carrie: that’s beautiful!!

Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.

Maggie: Kingdom Above the Cloud, Book 1 of the Tales from Adia series, releases on April 17th! My next adventure is writing Book 2, which is about halfway done. 

Carrie: yay!!

Maggie Platt is offering an awesome prize pack to one of my readers! One winner will get signed paperback with a limited edition map of the fictional world, custom bookmark, and two Kingdom Above the Cloud stickers/decals! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What interests you most about Kingdom Above the Cloud and/or my Q&A with Maggie Platt?