Meet Author Ticka C. Bates

Ticka C. Bates graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2004 with a degree in Music Education. As an elementary music teacher, Ticka delighted in educating her young students about music history. Discovering that a room full of rambunctious five-year-old children would listen to a long story about a composer if it was told just right, she began to seriously consider writing fiction with a music influence.

After four years of researching Sodus Point, dissecting her mother's piano, researching various legends and fairytales, and quoting Wordsworth, Ticka is proud to present her debut novel, THE BEAST.

TEN FUN FACTS ABOUT TICKA

1. I can beat most people at arm wrestling (men included).

2. I play the trombone. My go-to song for playing in front of children is “Cruella De Vil.” Maybe this is why I’m so good at arm wrestling?

3. I met David Hasselhoff when he was filming an episode of Knight Rider next door to my childhood home. After shaking his hand, I told him that I’d never wash it. I didn’t end up keeping that promise, so no worries there.

4. I have four children. They say that after three you hardly notice when you add another kid. That is a lie.

5. I used to collect X-Men trading cards in my youth. My favorites are Rogue and Psylocke. I wonder what Sigmund Freud would say about that?

6. I had the privilege of teaching elementary music for four years. I only had a few phone calls from concerned parents after I scared their children with classical music. Ghost Train, Danse Macabre, Der Erlkonig, Symphonie fantastique… Good stuff.

7. I like to imagine prequels and sequels to movies that don’t have them. For instance, I wrote a plot line to a sequel for The Boy Who Could Fly.

8. I have a red birthmark on the front of my neck. Oddly, it’s in the shape of a capital E. My parents toyed with the idea of naming me Elizabeth, Emma—something with the letter E. (Note: This fact has more weight if you get to read my book.)

9. I have a way of getting myself involved in many things, no matter where I move or whatever promises I make to myself. For instance, I currently co-lead a Girl Scout troop, teach piano lessons, lead a religious/service group for girls aged 12-18, play in a local trombone choir, sing in a women’s octet, and take classes towards earning a master’s degree in elementary education. Sprinkled in there are times when I arrange music, make slideshows, exercise, etc. Did you read the part where I have four children?! Oh, and I’m participating in NaNoWriMo (where you attempt to write a novel in the month of November). My husband has learned to accept my insanity. It’s just easier that way.

10. As a kid, I wished David Bowie would take the shape of an owl and take me to a labyrinth where I would fight my way to the center with the help of a goblin, a sasquatch, and a dog that rides on top of another dog. If you got the reference, then I think we would get along quite well.

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From Revolutionary War to Civil War, THE BEAST defines lust, like, and love as man is separated from beast one layer at a time.

Utilizing the real-life history of 1860 Sodus Point, New York, and the poetry of Wordsworth, a new tale of the classic Beauty and the Beast is formed. Complete with kidnapping, knife-throwing, war, and angry invisible men, women, and children, THE BEAST will take you across a century of American history and leave you contemplating lust, like, and love long after the last life has fallen.

A dramatic retelling of Beauty & the Beast set in mid 19th century just before the Civil War.

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