Hello! I’m Cornelia Grey—welcome to the Empty Hourglass blog tour! At various tour stops, I’ll be sharing some secrets about my writing process, sources of inspiration and future projects!

Comment on each stop to be entered in a drawing for a $15 Riptide Publishing gift card and the two previous titles in the Deal with a Devil series—Devil at the Crossroads and The Circus of the Damned—in an e-book format of your choice. Thank you for joining me on the tour!

The Writer’s Arsenal: Tea

It has become somewhat of a ritual for me to drink endless cups of tea while writing and editing my stories. It’s a habit I guess I picked up while living in London… I’m from Italy, and rather than tea we tend to drink several cups of espresso every day (including one after dinner, right before going to bed!). It is now one of my favorite moments when settling down to write, and putting on the kettle can immediately put me in the right mood for writing.

Somehow, I ended up hoarding several different blends, brought back home from different countries. And somehow, I always end up connecting a few specific blends to the ‘flavor’ of the story I am currently working on… to the point where simply smelling that particular tea will instantly bring me back to the atmosphere and the feelings connected to a specific chapter, scene or character.

The Empty Hourglass was mostly written accompanied to the flavors of a few German teas. For some reason, I’d never associated Germany and tea, so imagine my surprise when I travelled there for work and discovered an astonishing variety of blends for sale even in regular supermarkets! I was ridiculously excited when I saw an entire section of loose teas for sale in one of the main supermarket chains of the city where I was working. I can’t recall ever seeing such a thing even in British supermarkets… and, as you can see, I tend to get overexcited when it comes to tea… ;). I even snapped a picture in the supermarket near my house:

Yes, I was that person excitedly opening all of the boxes to smell the blends inside… and needless to say, I went on a mission to taste as many of them as possible, and therefore they ended up accompanying me through the whole writing process for The Empty Hourglass.

The main blends I was drinking were:

• Caramel Apple Pie tea by Teekanne
• Mango-Lassi-Chai Rooibos tea by King’s Crown
• Rooibos-vanilla-cream by Tea-Friends (which I absolutely love!)
• Green tea, peach and azahar loose blend I bought at a stall in Granada, Spain
• Mango green tea by Touch Organic

As you can see, I have a soft spot for super-sweet teas! and by now, a whiff of mango, caramel or vanilla tea is enough to bring me back to the mansion where the protagonists of The Empty Hourglass live, or to the German-style village nearby, with its little white houses crisscrossed by black wooden beams.I had also spotted around various supermarkets a Coca-Cola flavored tea, a Mojito one and a Cuba Libre flavored one… I have to confess, there I admitted defeat and didn’t quite dare purchasing them. Also, sadly, I have already depleted the stock of caramel, chai and rooibos I brought back from Germany… I will either have to travel back there with an empty luggage ready to be stuffed, or to persuade my German friends to send some over!What about you, dear readers? Do you have any particular blends you like to sip while reading? I’m always open to suggestions for new flavors to try!

About The Empty Hourglass

Thomas Escott has always wanted to be a toymaker, yet just as he achieves his dream, an accident claims his right hand. He’s certain his life is over—until he hears about groundbreaking prosthetics being made by a reclusive inventor.

Jethro Hastings is perfectly content to live alone up in the mountains working on a secret masterpiece: a humanoid automaton that will change the scientific community forever. He’s behind schedule, and the date of the unveiling is fast approaching, so when Thomas shows up on his doorstep offering help in exchange for a mechanical hand, Jethro agrees. Time, after all, is running out on another deal he’s made: one with the devil.

The devil gives Jethro’s inventions life, but he can just as quickly take life away—Jethro’s, to be exact. As the sand in the devil’s hourglass falls, marking the time until the end of the deal, inventions go haywire, people get hurt, and Thomas realizes he needs Jethro just as much as his prosthetic. Now he must find a way to save Jethro’s soul, but negotiating with a devil is just as difficult as it sounds.

Buy Links:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

Cornelia Grey is a creative writing student fresh out of university, with a penchant for fine arts and the blues. Born and raised in the hills of Northern Italy, where she collected her share of poetry and narrative prizes, Cornelia moved to London to pursue her studies.

After graduating with top grades, she is now busy with internships: literary agencies, publishing houses, and creative departments handling book series, among others. She also works as a freelance translator.

She likes cats, knitting, performing in theatre, going to museums, collecting mugs, and hanging out with her grandma. When writing, she favors curious, surreal stories, steampunk, and mixed-genre fiction. Her heroes are always underdogs, and she loves them for it.

Connect with Cornelia:

• Website: corneliagrey.com
• Blog: corneliagrey.blogspot.com
• LiveJournal: corneliagrey.livejournal.com
• Twitter: @corneliagrey
• Facebook: facebook.com/corneliagrey
• Goodreads: goodreads.com/Cornelia_Grey 

To celebrate the release of The Empty Hourglass, Cornelia is giving away the two previous titles in the Deal with a Devil series—Devil at the Crossroads and The Circus of the Damned—in an e-book format of your choice, plus $15 in Riptide credit. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on April 16, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!