On Friday, Erin and I attended Summer Reads stop at RJ Julia's and it was a blast! Lots of laughter and lots of talking. Here's some notes on the tour.
Susane Colasanti:
All I Need is her 7th book (read my review here)
She wanted to write a beautiful summer romance - the kind of romance she always hoped would happen to her one summer. It never did. She always thought this summer was going to be the one that changed her -either a romance or she would reinvent herself. But it never did and summers were always boring.
So she wrote this book.
Also in this book, she writes about Soul Mates. She confesses that she's obsessed with Soul Mates and that everyone has one.
She also confesses that she's still 16 at heart.
She loves her job because she can reach out to teens and make them feel less alone. She loved being a science teacher (10 years) but believes that she can help more teens as a writer. She wants them to be able to survive the worst time in the lives, knowing that it really does get better.
She used to fight with her high school English teacher over the books assigned for school. She would read them, but she never really liked the classics. The Outsiders was the only book she had to read for school that she enjoyed. Otherwise, she'd be reading Stephen King.
Huntley Fitzpatrick:
My Life Next Door is her debut novel (although she has 2 other books written that will never be published)
She believes that you can change your past with writing and make things better.
She's a hopeless romantic and adores the Happily Ever After Ending - which she brings to her books.
She always reads the ends of books first, so she knows if she wants to read it or not and if it has a satisfying ending.
For her book, she wanted to take the star-crossed lovers theme from Romeo and Juliet and change it. She didn't want the main characters to be impulsive and immature with crazy families, and of course, the two characters don't die at the end. The ending of that tale always bugged her.
She loves writing YA because it's the time where all the first experiences happen and because teens are so curious and questioning everything during this time in their lives.
Leila Howland
Nantucket Blue is also her debut novel
It's a novel about friendships and what happens when a great friendship breaks up.
It's based off of her experience as at the time she was breaking up with her best friend. When she went looking for books to read, she couldn't find any.
She wanted to explore the idea further and started writing to let out her emotions and heartbreak.
In her book, she wanted to make a perfect girl - and then place her into a summer where Everything goes wrong for her. She says something wrong at a major life event for someone else, and then she can't take it back. Regret follows and then Shame.
How can she make it right?
But also Leila wanted to figure out what's the worst thing that this one friend could do after a best friends breakup?
She had previously written a novel for adults, but was told that her voice was too young. Her agent sent her some YA titles by E. Lockhart and Natalie Standiford. She found urgency to writing and entertainment value with lots of emotion. She couldn't put the books down. She finally found her voice after reading these books. A sequel will be coming next summer.
Una LaMarche
Five Summers is also a debut novel. (Read my review here)
While it's her first novel (ever written and published), she has a background in journalism.
It's a novel about friendship based off some of her own camp experiences. She attended a camp with an annual dance, so she added that into the book.
She wanted to make this centered on friendships and what happens to the friendships after a few years of not seeing each and a few secrets that could damage the relationship.
She has a love/hate relationship with books where the main characters were clearly meant to be together, but never did - like Little Women and Circle of Friends. She's crushed when the romance doesn't work out the way she expected.
She used to keeps a diary - but sometimes her life was so boring she wrote fictional accounts of her day.
