Archive for October, 2010

October 29, 2010 • Comments

In case you thought that my blog is only GCC tours…. and who wouldn’t I’ve been so slack….. I’m doing a catch-up blog.

It’s been crazy busy here at the moment. Lots of customers in the motel to keep me occupied. The motel is now on the market and we’ve had a couple of couples look around, which means I have to try and keep the place tidy (not easy).

We went away for a long weekend recently, which was great – which of course meant no writing. In fact I’ve been a bit slack with my writing. I wake up each day full of good intentions, but the day seems to run away with me. If it’s not motel work, it’s sorting things out for the kids. Anyway, once we sell the motel and before we move to Australia I’m going to have so much writing time I won’t know what to do with mysef.

And another good thing….. Glee starts next week!!!!!! I’m so excited.

Plus…. the weather is great, lots of sun shine…. can life get any better!!!

Hope you all have a fab weekend.

October 20, 2010 • 2 Comments

I’m excited to be touring Denise Jaden and her book LOSING FAITH.

About the book:
When Brie’s sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie’s world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.

As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don’t line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night…a secret that puts her own life in danger.

What inspired the plot for your book?
At first, I just knew I wanted to write a sister story. From there, I figured out that one of the sisters had a secret, and the secret would only be discovered after she died. I lost a close friend of mine when I was sixteen, and I’ve always felt there was a lot to explore with a teen experiencing such a big and devastating event.

Why did you decide to write in this genre?
I think contemporary YA kind of chose me! My first novel was
officially for the adult market, but critique partners told me again and
again that it felt very teen to them. It wasn’t until I started on my next
novel, and specifically aimed it at teens, that I realized how right the
genre and young voice felt to me.

What is your writing process like?
I write almost every day, at least six days per week, and almost always in the afternoons. I try to write a first draft of something each November, and spend the rest of the year polishing it up. Though I admit, lately it’s been taking me more than a year to polish anything.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on another YA novel called Appetite For Beauty. It’s about a cheeky and forthright girl who discovers a dangerous, self-destructive side in her sister, and has to decide between helping her sister and a powerful and unfamiliar desire to become appealing to a mysterious boy.

What do you do when you’re not writing?
I’m also a professional Polynesian dancer and spend a fair amount of time practicing and touring around with the other girls in my dance troupe. I also spend lots of time home-schooling my seven-year-old son.It definitely keeps me busy!

Who do you like to read?
My favorite stories are usually contemporary YA, and to be honest, I don’t have much time to read beyond that genre. I love books by Laurie Halse Anderson, Sarra Manning, and Sarah Dessen, but there are also lots of up and coming debut authors that I will be following now too. Tara Kelly, Jandy Nelson, and Lauren Strasnick to name a few.

Bio:
Denise Jaden lives just outside Vancouver, Canada. When she’s not writing, she can often be found homeschooling her son or dancing with her Polynesian dance troupe. Losing Faith is her first novel. Find out more at denisejaden.com.

October 13, 2010 • Comments

I’m so excited to be touring the fabulous Linda Gerber and her latest book Trance, a paranormal thriller. I LOVED all of Linda’s ‘Death by’ series and am hanging out to read this one.

Ashlyn Greenfield has always known when bad things are going to happen. Each time that familiar tingling at the back of her neck begins, she knows what’s to come—a trance. She’s pulled in, blindsided, an unwilling witness to a horrible upcoming event. But she’s never been able to stop the event from actually occurring—not even when the vision was of her mother’s fatal car accident. When soulful Jake enters Ashlyn’s life, she begins having trances about another car accident. And as her trances escalate, one thing becomes clear: it’s up to her to save Jake from a near-certain death.

And now for the usual questions:

What inspired the plot for your book?
Several years ago, I had a very vivid dream about an airplane crash. Some of the details were so clear and disturbing to me that I wrote them down, just to get them out of my head. Then, a couple of weeks later, I saw an article in the paper about a plane crash on the other side of the country. The real crash was eerily similar to the one I had seen. It really shook me up.

Later, when I was finally ready to talk about it, I shared the dream with one of my sisters. She told me that she had also had dreams before about things that hadn’t yet happened.

It made me think… what if there were sisters who shared precognitive visions?And what if each one of them only got part of the vision and the other one got the other part, so they had to put the pieces together to see the whole?

Oooh… and what if when they had the visions, they went into trances, which made it really hard to hide what was happening from their family and friends? And what if they wrote clues about the meaning of what they were seeing while they were in the trances? And what if those clues weren’t given in words, but in numbers? (Actually, my ingenious editor came up with that idea.)

So, long story short, the idea for TRANCE evolved from a long string of what ifs, and my quest to find the answers.

Why did you decide to write in this genre?
I love to read YA, so writing it is a natural fit for me. I’m trying supernatural fiction because that’s the story that came to me.

What is your writing process like?
I outline by necessity, although I’m a pantser at heart. I usually start out with a pretty good idea of where the story’s going, although I don’t always know how I’, going to get there. Each day, I start by reading back the last couple of pages I wrote from the previous day and then continue on from there. I use a timer on my computer to set goals (and limits, such as staying off the Internet.)

What are you working on now?
HACKED, book three in my upcoming Middle Grade series, LIGHTS, CAMERA, CASSIDY, about the daughter of popular TV travel show hosts, and the trouble she manages to get into every time she goes on location with them.

What do you do when you’re not writing?
Read. Listen to music. Catch up on TV. Be a mom.

Who do you like to read?
Wow. How much space do you have? Meg Cabot, Sarah Dessen, Alyson Noel, Becca Fitzpatrick, Lisa McMann, Kate Coombs, Sara Zarr, Eoin Colfer, Jonathan Stroud, Neil Gaiman, and so many, many more.

You can find Linda online here:
http://lindagerber.com
http://lindagerber.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/gerbsan

October 4, 2010 • Comments

I’m thrilled to be touring Lauren Strasnick and her book Her and Me and You. which is published by Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster. I’m hanging out to read it.

Here’s what it’s about:

First love, broken friendships, and heartache all play a part in this evocative, voice-driven novel about Alex, a girl whose world is ripped apart when her father’s affair splits her family in two.
Alex moves with her mess of a mother to a new town, where she is befriended by hot, enigmatic Fred–and alternately flirted with and cold-shouldered by Fred’s twin sister, Adina. Others warn Alex to steer clear of the twins, whose sibling relationship is considered abnormal at best, but there’s just something about Fred–and something about Adina–that draws Alex to them and makes her want to be part of their crazy world, no matter the consequences.

Now for the usual questions:

What inspired the plot for your book?
Twins, Connecticut winters, indoor pools, obsessive relationships, friend breakups, & kittens.

Why did you decide to write in this genre?
YA? I’m not sure it was much of a choice. I’ve always read and written teen.

What is your writing process like?
Before I start a project I sort of obsess about it for weeks or sometimes months – I’ll read and watch movies and listen to a particular type of music, all in an effort to brainwash myself into believing in the book. Then I outline, I write, I rewrite.

What are you working on now?
Another book for Simon Pulse, DAKOTA WEBB IS MISSING, slated for spring 2012. Mystery! Rock bands! Messy relationships!

What do you do when you’re not writing?
I cook things, eat things, watch sick amounts of television, read, dance around the apartment, play with the kitty, dress up, grocery shop, thrift shop, see my friends.

What do you like to read?
All sorts of stuff. Well, all sorts of stuff about teens and young adults. Well, all sorts of realistic fiction about teens and young adults. I have very varied tastes, clearly.

Check out Lauren on her website & blog: www.laurenstrasnick.com

“Strasnick’s slim second offering packs a lot into its short chapters: divorce, broken friendships, crushes, the lines between love and sex and more. Characterization, scenes, dialogue and setting are seamlessly distilled into so few sharp, image-rich phrases that the novel reads almost as if it were written in verse. Less is definitely more here, and readers are plunged into Alex’s physical and emotional world within three to four words. Although the plot moves swiftly, the author’s ability to capture Alex’s inner world in so few words give the novel depth and balance. Complex and thought-provoking.” –Kirkus