Paige Clendenin - A Thrilling Dystopian Romance Series

Paige Clendenin is a fun-loving girl with her primary focus being on family and friends. She loves to read, watch movies, listen to music, and gather all the information she can get her hands on about musicians, authors, actors, books, movies, and everything in between.  As our Author of the Day, she tells us about their latest book, Choosing: The Covenant Challenges.

Please give us a short introduction to what Choosing: The Covenant Challenges is about.

The Covenant Challenges has begun, and I, Elyse Fisher, have been chosen to compete for a man...

There is only one nation left on Earth. One Queen to rule us all. And almost no men to marry and make children with.

Why? Three generations ago, a silent pandemic ravaged the human race, modifying the Y gene and devastating the existence of the male hormone.

Only the lucky and the Elite can have male children. And that means, there are a lot of people vying to be their wives. In honor of our Queen, the Elite, and those lost to the bacteria, a competition is help to find out of 50 girls from 5 districts, who the lucky chosen will be.

I am one of the 50, whether I like it or not.

Tell us more about Elyse Fisher. What makes her so special?

Elyse Fisher is unique. While she respects authority, she bends the rules, nearly to the breaking point sometimes.

In bending said rules however, she is ALWAYS doing this to help someone else, or for the greater good.

Elyse is determined and knows that if she were an Elite, she would most certainly rule with a more gentle hand, while shaking things up a little bit… for the better that is.

What inspired you to set this story in a world where there are almost no men to marry and have children with?

Considering the conflicts that could or would arise, surrounding a pandemic or war, eliminating nearly all of one gender would definitely put a strain on things.

The appeal of what would happen in this case, came as a rushing wind to The Covenant Challenges co-authors.

We needed something that had not been done before and both wanted to see what the world would do, should this happen… hypothetically of course.

Your book features a silent pandemic, modifying the Y gene and devastating the existence of the male hormone. Why did you take this approach?

If the Y gene was not naturally in us anymore, the chances of having a male child, if you had a child at all is rare in this series. Again, we needed a conflict and the appeal of seeing how things would work without women or without men was more than we could handle.

My co-author Rae Hendricks and I developed our ideas and surmised that this would be the more complicated of them all to build on, and the most interesting for our readers.

When creating an entire world post pandemic, the sky is the limit.

People have compared your book to The Selection and The Hunger Games. Are you a fan of these series?

Rae, my co-author is a huge fan of The Selection Series, while I am on the other spectrum, so wildly in love with The Hunger Games and the world created through the eyes of Suzanne Collins. We are both proud that The Covenant Challenges has been likened to these two series that we both attribute a lot of our own writing styles to.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I am a jack of all trades, and a master of none… although I would like to be a master at writing one day soon.

Other than writing, I paint, mostly detail type work, I have an art degree and sometimes put that to use, I went to college and did photography as an adjacent degree to my art and science one, and as a result, do a lot of artistic work as well as do photography. Nothing professionally of course, but I know that every member of my closest friends and family has at least some semblance of my work on their walls at home.

This includes, but is not limited to Yoda and Darth Vader on the wall of one of my friend’s sons bedroom wall, many wedding and family portraits strewn here and there, and I KNOW that at least a few of them have one of a kind creations from the interesting mind of Paige Clendenin.

Your book has an interesting cover. Tell us more about this.

It was important to show Elyse on the cover. We wanted to be able to have her represented in a way that could show her toughness while allowing her charm and appeal to ring through. Behind Elyse, in the first book… Choosing, is the cityscape of a world devastated by pandemic, however, the irony of such beauty in the forefront shows how messed up a government so corrupted by a lack of innocence and greed could suffer by comparison.

You co-wrote this series. How did you pull this off?

Rae Hendricks and I work seamlessly beside one another. It all starts with a great amount of brainstorming and planning, not limited to outlining, many chats, and of course it all starts as a brainchild, a small kernel that needs to be cultivated.

Rae, in this case, was the sire of such brainchild, but we equally worked on the concept and outline before putting pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard rather.

Together we pass back and forth responsible sections, with the help of several pairs of eyes and ears, waiting in the wings to make sure that things are looking great as we piece the puzzle together.

How do the other books in this series tie in with this one?

Book Two will be coming out on June 1st and Book Three will be coming out on July 1st, respectively.

Both sequels will be a continuation of the last, making this a dystopian trilogy you will likely never forget.

What was your greatest challenge when writing this book?

Kitty… that is all I am going to say about that. You will have to read to find out what I am talking about…

What did you have the most fun with when writing this book?

I would have to say that writing with Rae is the most fun part of this for me. She and I have the same goals it seems, and our writing styles are similar. She is a USA Today Bestselling Author, and I am aiming for that… walking in her shadows if you will.

Do any of your characters take off on their own tangent and refuse to do what you had planned for them?

Again Kitty. Kitty was supposed to be one of those non-essential characters, needed for the storyline, but I would say that she has surprised me greatly. I like her a lot.

Also, I feel I must mention Elyse! She is so organic, almost opposite of how Kitty was for us. In being organic like Elyse is, she is easy to write, but often goes off on tangents that we didn’t officially plan out that causes us to adjust things down the line outline wise. However, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

What are you working on right now?

Right now, Rae and I are writing “Culling: The Covenant Challenges 2” as well as outlining book three.

Covenant Challenges aside, I am working on another series with another co-author. “The Elemental Angel Series” Book one came out on April 30th, and we are well into book 2!

Alone, I am working on “Jake’s Story: A Fighting Freedom Prequel” the prequel to “The Fighting Freedom Trilogy” that released last year. As well, I am finishing the final two books in “The Beast with a Burden Series” Books 4 and 5, “Celeste’s Landing” and “Magna’s Mist”

And much more!

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/paigeclendeninauthor/ 
Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/paigeclendeninauthor/ 
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/pcauthor/?hl=en 
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Paige-Clendenin/e/B07GLN27FF%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt…