The Light Within: The Aura Academy of Magic #author Tenille Seow

The Light Within: The Aura Academy of Magic

Sometimes you must look within yourself to show others what you are capable of.

Seventeen-year-old Alice Morgan has always lived a quiet life in Ring Four, until it’s time to leave Optimum for her mandatory year at the Aura Academy of Magic.

Ready to leave for the academy, her father dies suddenly, and without her knowing, the seer magic buried within her stirs to life. Then out of nowhere, Drake York, a tall, handsome boy she hasn’t seen for years, gives her a book and a warning:

“Don’t trust the Nobles. Question everything.”

Alice ignores Drake’s warning and becomes fast friends with Sofia Noble, and begins to fall in love with Beau, Sofia’s guard and Drake’s cousin.

At the academy, no classmates unsettle Alice more than Lexi Phan, whose quiet loathing seems to have no clear cause.
With enemies hiding in plain sight and a powerful, deadly creature stirring beneath the Noble palace, Alice must learn to look within herself to bring forth her power before the year is out.

To connect with Tenille ...
https://www.instagram.com/teaspoonsstorytime/
https://payhip.com/TeaspoonsStoriesStore
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tenille-seow

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

It's good morning to Neil Seal. Welcome to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Thank you, Joe. Yeah, good morning to you. Nice to see we're on the same time zone this time. I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome. You have got a new book out. Congratulations. I know it's super exciting, big, daunting times. Your new book, tell us all about it. It's called The Light Within.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Yeah, I like, yeah, The Light Within is nice and short, and this little the Ora Academy of Magic. It's book one. It's actually its book birthday today. It came out on the 30th of March. So that was meant to be, obviously. I didn't even think of connect the dots.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, it's out now. Tell us about the book. This is, I believe it's going to be a series. So tell us about like the book and what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yeah, so um it's about Alice Morgan. Uh, she's 17 because you know, I'm 40 now and I want a nice young character that had energy. Um, and it's a fantasy book that um is uh dystopian sort of vibe about it. Um it's set in Optimum, which is uh a city that's in it set in a circle. So the center is is called the circle, and it's run by the notes, and uh it has different rings. So she lives in ring in that circle. So she lives in ring four, and she's sort of just going through life, happy, is content, and then she's about to attend her year of Aura Academy of Magic, and that's when um a boy she once knew, Drake, uh, he's now living in ring one, he's in you know, high society, la-di da da, and he comes and sees her and he gives her a message in a book, and that sort of unravels her life from there on and causes a bit of grief. But it's um it's a bit of a love story, but it's also um, you know, it's got a bit of magic, a bit of intrigue, and all these secrets that hopefully will leave the readers asking what happens next for book number two. Um yeah, so it's um out now, and I wrote it because um I found uh some of the fantasy books as I was reading them a bit difficult to read. So I've got a bit of dyslexia and um so they made me blush a bit. It's a bit racy, and so I wanted to make something that um I wish there was an age group called this, called the in in-betweeners, sort of like in-between, not quite middle, but not quite YA. Um, I have had to put it in a category because that's how you shelve a book, so I've chosen YA, but I'm hoping it will appeal to um those sort of in-betweeners and parents because it's uh clean language and um it's not too hot on the romance. Um kids starting to get interested in those kind of things, you know, a little bit of I've got a crash, you know. I'm already getting that from my daughter, I've got a crash.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

And Danielle, the book's got themes you mentioned, um, like of self-discovery, inner strength, and then magical learnings.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, that's right. Um, you know, because Alice sort of just happy to go has life not and and sort of she appears a bit um naive, I guess. And then she finds out that life isn't exactly and I think all teenagers think that they go off to high school thinking they're in this nice, cute little bubble of primary school, and they go to high school and they're like, wait a minute, is this real life? So I'm hoping it will um reflect for the teenage in that respect, um, but also a bit of fun. And um, in the next book, I hope to um enlarge the the minor characters that you sort of meet very briefly and um intertwine them all with the story.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah. And Daniel, do you want to tell us about you as a writer? Did you always write what was the passion to write this book and then you know, obviously a series to come?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Um so I was never a writer. Um, I think I chose work over union because I dreaded the essays. I felt I wasn't good enough, I couldn't write them, I didn't understand the English language. I've been told I've got the imagination, but uh the mechanics I struggle with. So, but the mechanics is something you can learn over time and you can get um knowledge out. But they said the imagination is really hard to sort of to create just like from scratch. Um, so I just I had a bit of a career turn, I guess, and sort of what do I do now? And I found out writing well, probably, yeah, well, writing an essay is completely different, the structure and how you have to write it. But writing a story is sort of like let go, let free. And I just started writing, um, I think I started writing the prophecy that was in it. That was gonna sort of be the big focus, and then along the way it got, but that's what started the whole writing, and then I I like to finish projects, and so once I wrote it, and I'm like, I have to get this out there. Um, I committed myself to writing a series. Um, I really like I think I like middle grade. I'm still trying to find which genre or which age brackets I like writing for. I'm also very interested in children's books, so I have a a ton of children's books and missions out there. Um and middle grade as well. I've got another middle grade that I'm careering at the moment. Um, yeah, but if I just just enjoy the the look of I guess because we've always taught or read to our children and they've always enjoyed books and the magic of them. So I want to produce that for other people.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And Tanil, yeah, look, thank you for your honesty. I mean, I think the audience love knowing that journey of a writer, some of our challenges, you know, the fact that we're we might be creative, but we also might struggle with the technical side of so yeah, that's that's a really powerful share. Taniil, tell us uh, I'm connected to you on Instagram. Um, you've got some lots of visuals on Instagram. If we're watching anywhere in the world, we're curious about the book, curious about learning more about you, I'll put it in the show notes. Tell us how we connect to you and the book.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah, I I mean I'd love um I'd love to hear from you about the book, or if you're interested about learning about the book, that always makes my day hearing from anyone. Um I'm on Instagram mostly, that's my main source of communication. And I've just discovered Payhip, which is an amazing website that allows me to put products up. And for someone who's not technical, I was like, you know, a bit wary when someone recommended it, but I'm like, oh my goodness, I was able to do that without throwing my laptop across the room. No, I would never do that. Um, too expensive. Um, but yeah, it's amazing. I can do little products, and I think that will expand, get me more out there in the public. I need to get out of my show a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Is there a link on your website? How do we get to that? There is. Okay, great. Perfect. Well, what I'm gonna do is I'll put a link to the sh in the show notes to you, your website. Um, people can connect with you. I know, as a particularly a first-time published author, you really want to get feedback from the audience. We encourage anyone watching or listening to uh read the book, send us send us some feedback, that'd be great, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

That is, and you can get an e-copy book less for four dollars. So that's probably cheaper than a cup of coffee or uh a drink. Um, so yeah, um definitely check it out today. It really really encourages um indie writers um to continue on, I guess. Um any little positive feedback and negative because I I can always um work on myself and work on the next book, and I I won't do that again, but you know, I'm gonna try or I'll I'll try and change that to to suit everyone.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

So yeah, awesome. Well, listen, enjoy the journey of book launch, all the interviews that are coming your way. Um, and keep writing. Like if you book two comes out whenever it comes out and the series, come back and share with us.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Oh, thank you very much. I'd love to. And if any other book news, I'll let you know. Excellent. Taniel, all the best. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.