Chatting with Lori Goldstein

Welcome Lori

We're days away from The Circle of Jinn being released (how exciting!). Have you read the first book, if not there now you can binge read them starting next Tuesday.

Thanks for chatting with me!

What made you want to write about a genie?
I didn’t set out to write about a genie. It all happened organically. I had finished writing my first ever manuscript and was beginning to query it. And while I was in the trenches, I knew I wanted to write something else. I knew it would be a young adult book, and I was actively searching for a topic but hadn’t found one yet. Then I heard a news report about an earthquake in Turkey. This was in 2011. It was an awful earthquake with people trapped in the rubble for days. This news report was about a mother and her infant, two week old, baby who were pulled out alive. They both survived. That baby’s name was Azra. As soon as I heard this name, I knew I wanted to put her into a story and create a world for her. As I began to think about this area of the world, Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, the Jinn popped into my head. Somehow I knew the term and the rest ran from there. I think it’s a great example of how there are story ideas all around us if you just open your mind to them. 

 Was it harder to write the first book or the sequel? 

This is a really hard question because I have two sides to the answer. Initially I will say the first book was easier to write. It was all new and I loved the world and the characters, and I wrote it very quickly. After period of plotting for about 4 to 6 weeks, I then wrote the manuscript in two months. It kind of spilled out. But then the revising with harder, which I’m not surprised about since it was really only the second manuscript I had written. I got an agent pretty quickly with it and she had a fair amount of extensive revisions, all of which made the book better. But it’s the opposite with the sequel. Even though I had a very strong idea of where the story was going and what I wanted to do with it, writing the manuscript was more difficult because it was under a deadline, because I now had an agent and editor and was no longer writing just for me, and all of that gets into your head as much as you try to stave it off. So the writing of the sequel was much harder and yet I had learned so much from book 1 that the revising wound up being much simpler and much quicker.  Let’s hope that the trend that continues!

I love the Read Local idea – what inspired this awesome project? 

I am so proud of the Read Local project (www.lorigoldsteinbooks.com/read-local. This came about because my good friend Jen Malone and I were talking about meeting local students and how so many of them seem to be in awe of meeting an author—as we would have been at that age. They don’t see us as "normal people”. We are casual and friendly and funny, and this surprised them. We wanted the students to understand that authors are all around them and that they can be an author too if they want to be. We thought they’d get a kick out of seeing just how many authors, big and small, come from the New England area, which is our home region, and one we are loyal to and proud of. Then we thought, how can we do this in a way that adds value for the students and their teachers and librarians? I don’t know if you know anything about New England, but we love our sports teams. Fiercely. People are quite competitive. So the idea of creating this poster and encouraging students to "read local" but also amping it up and making it a reading challenge just naturally fell into place. Jen and I looped in our fellow authors Jen Brooks and Trisha Leaver, who are also both extremely active in the young adult community, and we spent many a day and night gathering facts information for the poster, editing it, getting it printed, stuffing it into envelopes, and mailing it out to more than 500 schools in the region. In addition, we had it available at librarian conferences and we hope to distribute it even more widely next year. It’s gotten a tremendous response and we are so proud of it.

What’s the weirdest food that you’ve eaten and loved?
Grasshoppers. Spicy, crunchy grasshoppers on top of sushi in Mexico. Weird and delicious.

What will you do on your book birthday? 
Last year, release day was insane. As a debut author, there was so much excitement and nerves and pressure and I wanted to be active on social media and interacting with as many people as I could, and signing books in bookstores, and I spent hours driving around to do that, which was amazing. I plan to do it again. But not all in one day! So this time, my husband is taking the day off, and we are going to the spa for the morning. Then I’m going to sign books in some bookstores, go for a nice lunch, and head over to celebrate our joint release day with my good friend, Jen Malone, whose amazing middle grade, called The Sleepover, which is a MG spin on The Hangover movie (hypnotist is to blame), also releases on May 17. It’s going to be a great day.

Are you working on a new project? 
Yes I am. It’s a contemporary and it is about a girl with a rare neurological condition that has prevented her from living a normal life and going to high school. She’s finally able to do so, and the book follows her on this journey. Since it’s written by me, there’s still humor and friendships and themes of secrets and complicated relationships, and it’s a complete departure from the Jinn world, and yet it has many of the same themes, including the idea of a girl struggling to fit in, find herself, and her destiny. Perhaps this says something about me as these are the stories I want to tell. It’s nearing completion and am anxious to see what’s next for it.

Blog Tour: First Time in Forever

© Rosanna Hancock Photography

 I was super happy to be invited on this blog tour! I fell in love with Sarah Morgan's books with her O'Neil brothers trilogy - two take place in the winter and one takes place in the summer. I couldn't wait to read her latest book First Time in Forever. I knew it would be fabulous - and I was right. I fully confess that this was my upstairs books - but I became so engrossed with it that I brought it downstairs to devour. Sometimes that happens to me - but it's rare.

Emily's famous half sister dies leaving her custody of a six year old child. Emily and her sister were never close and she's never met her niece. Now responsible for protecting the child against the media hounds, Emily flees to the safety of an island where she spent her summers happy.

My Thoughts: I loved this book - it's all about letting go, second chances, and taking control of your life. It's the perfect read, especially for this time of year when I longed for the summer sun, longed to taste the ice cream, and longed to hear the waves crashing along the beach as I read about Emily, Lizzy, and Ryan. My heart went out to Lizzy who has been scared, but little by little she starts coming out of her shell. The growth of comfort level between the Emily and Lizzy made me smile and warmed my heart. I love how both Ryan and Emily had secrets in their past that shaped the person they've become - and how they started letting go of the past. I loved Cocoa the dog and the comfort she brought to everyone. I can't wait for book 2: Some Kind of Wonderful coming in August!

Final Thoughts: Read this one, either now when you're longing for the beach or in a few months when you're sitting on the beach. You won't regret it, it's fantastic!

Interested in learning more about the book and about Sarah?

 She answered some questions for us!

Q and A with Sarah Morgan

author of FIRST TIME IN FOREVER

First Time in Forever is the opening book in your brand new Puffin Island series. What inspired you to write this series?

         I knew from the start that I wanted the link between the characters and stories to be a strong friendship. I write romance, but I also love exploring the other relationships in my characters’ lives, including family and friends. I had finished my O’Neil Brothers series, which was set in the beautiful mountains of Vermont, and I wanted a completely different setting for my new series. I decided on an island, a coastal retreat where three friends could escape when life was hard. I want readers to dive in, breathe in the sea air, taste the fresh blueberries and the smooth chill of ice cream and take a beach holiday while they read.

  

    What is the title in reference to?

 The title was chosen by my publisher but it’s perfect for the story because for my heroine, Emily, it is a summer of firsts. Like many of us, she lives her life well within her comfort zone. She thinks she has control of everything but life has a way of shaking up that theory and overnight her life changes. Suddenly she’s forced to do all the things she has been avoiding and by pushing herself she discovers she is capable of more than she thought. For Emily, it really is ‘First Time in Forever’.

      Can you tell us a little about best friends Emily, Brittany and Skylar?

 I love these characters, and their friendship is a constant theme flowing through all three books. They met in college and formed an instant bond that has deepened over the years. Theirs is a deep, authentic friendship. They know each other, accept each other without judgment and they’re always there for one another. In a crisis, they’ll be on the phone – they may not always agree, but they always support. They encourage, laugh, listen and forgive. They share history, secrets, and they always want the best for each other.

All three girls are very different. Emily is the more cautious of the three. She’s guarded, but very loyal to her friends. After a difficult childhood, she protects herself emotionally by keeping tight control over her life. She lives well within her comfort zone, avoiding responsibility for anyone but herself. When she finds herself responsible for a child, everything changes for her.

Brittany is an archaeologist, a cross between Lara Croft and Indiana Jones (but nothing annoys her more than being asked if she owns a whip!). She is smart, adventurous and given to impulse. At the age of eighteen she married island bad boy, Zachary Flynn. It lasted all of ten days. Since then she has travelled the world and put that relationship behind her. Brittany’s story, Some Kind of Wonderful, will be out in September in the US, but readers who would like to meet her early can find her in Playing by the Greek’s Rules, a story I wrote for Harlequin Presents, which is out now.

Skylar is a jewelry designer, an artist with a dreamy streak and a wicked sense of humor.  She’s a free spirit, a trait that causes conflict with her family who are continually hoping she will choose a more conventional career path. Skylar is romantic but she doesn’t dream of weddings, she dreams of love. 

 How do you decide which character to write about first?

 I’d had Emily’s story in my head for a while, and she was my starting point for the whole series. What I didn’t have was the setting or the other characters. I started to think about what had happened to her (finding herself guardian to her half sister’s child when she’d made a life decision never to have children) and how she’d react. Even though it was never her choice to have Lizzy, she is a very responsible person so I knew she’d do anything and everything within her power to keep the child safe. I’d already decided that she would have close friends, so I decided the three women would have somewhere they always went in times of trouble. Castaway Cottage is owned by Brittany, and all three women treat it as a sanctuary. Once I had the friends and the island, all I had to do was build a warm, wonderful community who would gradually ease Emily out of her shell. And populate it with hot men of course!

What is the central theme of First Time in Forever?

 The central theme is courage. We all have a tendency to avoid the things that scare us, and that is what Emily has done. Her whole life has been constructed to avoid her biggest fears and suddenly she is forced to meet them head on. She is determined to protect herself and not make herself vulnerable so taking that leap with Ryan is huge for her. She’s known loss, so now she chooses to keep people at a safe distance. In the end Emily faces her fears and triumphs. Love and making yourself vulnerable, requires courage.

What made you choose the Puffin as the island bird?

I spent a long time researching the various islands around Penobscot Bay, Maine. Although I prefer to have a fictitious setting, it’s important to me to make it as authentic as possible so I was focusing on the national park and the wildlife of the area. I discovered that although Puffins are not an endangered species, they are rare in Maine and there are projects to reintroduce them to the islands.

I first saw Puffins in the north of England and they are the most amazing sea birds. As I was researching, one of the facts that stayed with me was that although they spend most of their lives at sea, they usually return to breed on the same island where they were hatched. This fitted well with my idea that Puffin Island would be a sanctuary for the three friends. Emily, Brittany and Skylar each live busy independent lives but when they need a safe retreat, they return to the island. In the books, the Puffins actually live on Puffin Rock, which is a small rocky outcrop to the north of the island. They don’t like humans to get too close!

The names that you chose for the island and the cottage are so lovely - how do you come up with them?

 Picking the setting for a new series is very important because I’m going to be spending so much time there myself during the writing process. It has to be somewhere that captures my imagination, and I need to fall in love with it myself before I create a word that hopefully the reader will love too. I knew I wanted to set the series in Maine, but I am lucky enough to have readers all around the world, so the place I chose had to work for them too. As part of my research, I was looking at seabirds in the area and decided that calling it Puffin Island would work for readers all over the globe.

The cottage is a sanctuary for all three women and I wanted the name to reflect that. It’s somewhere they can escape to when life is difficult, so ‘Castaway’ seemed like the perfect name. I wanted it to be secluded but also warm and welcoming and in the end I fell in love with the cottage. I’d move there tomorrow!

  

  Were you involved in the cover design process?

 I’m very lucky because the team in the art department at HQN do a wonderful job with my covers. My editor and I make sure they have as much information about characters and setting as possible, to help them design a cover that reflects the feel and tone of the story. My agent and I do see early concepts, and feedback our ideas too. I love the cover for First Time in Forever. It conveys that warm, summery, beach feeling that matches the tone of the book.

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

That’s a tough question. I enjoyed writing the beach picnic scene because it represents a real challenge for Emily, but also for Ryan who is equally out of his comfort zone. A woman with a child isn’t on his wish list and this is the scene where he realizes he isn’t as in control of his feelings as he’d like to be.

What first attracts Ryan to Emily and vice versa?

 Ryan first meets Emily because he is asked by their friend Brittany to check on her. At first he is simply fulfilling a duty, but he senses that she has secrets and he’s intrigued. Ryan loves a mystery and, of course, he’s very attracted to her. Once he finds out more about her, he wants to help her. Ryan pushes her out of her comfort zone and with him she starts to do things she hasn’t done before. In helping her, he is forced to take a long hard look at his own life.

Emily has been playing it safe for most of her life, but now she is right out of her comfort zone, not only because of the responsibility for Lizzy, but also because of her feelings for Ryan. He makes no secret of the way he feels about her. He is strong, persuasive and insanely hot! The relationship is very sexually charged, and she isn’t used to that. She doesn’t know how to handle it. At first she resists but gradually he nudges her out of her shell and persuades her to open up to him. Also, he has experience in the area she feels most vulnerable – caring for a child. It’s through his dealings with Lizzy that she sees his true character.

 Your character Emily has a terrible fear of the ocean. Why did you choose to include this in the book?

 Overcoming fear is a theme of the book, and Emily’s fear of the ocean mirrors her fear of emotions. She is afraid of being swamped, of losing everything. She is torn because on the one hand Puffin Island is the perfect place to hide away, but it also means confronting her worst fears. When she visited the island with her friends she was able to stay indoors and inland and think only of herself, but now she has Lizzy, who wants to play in the sand and swim in the sea. She is forced out of her comfort zone and it’s difficult for her. I love challenging my characters and watching them grow, and that’s the case for Emily.

 You have a strong connection to the ocean. What are your fondest seaside memories?

 I love the ocean. I live close to London, so escaping to the sea is nothing more than a dream for most of the year. I have two sons and some of our happiest holidays have been spent by the beach. Every summer we hire a house near the ocean and like many families, we have our own routines and rituals that we often repeat each holiday. If we’re feeling energetic we brave the freezing waves to go body boarding and walk miles along the coast path. If we want a more leisurely day we explore the tide pools, delving beneath rocks and through fronds of seaweed to find hidden treasures. We build the most amazing sand sculptures and of course we eat! Beach picnics are always fun and sometimes we’ll take a fishing trip and cook what we catch. There’s nothing quite like the taste of freshly cooked fish eaten on the beach as the sun goes down. And no beach holiday would be complete without ice cream (my current favorite flavors are pistachio and vanilla). It’s no coincidence that ice cream plays a role in First Time in Forever. I had so much fun dreaming up Summer Scoop and the whole family (and my readers on facebook!) helped pick the flavors.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love spending time with family and friends.  I’m a sociable person and people are the antidote to long hours spent in front of the computer. Having friends over is a favorite pastime, and I love cooking.

I also try to spend time outdoors whenever I can. Writing is a mostly sedentary, indoor job so when I’m not tied to a deadline I like to walk and ride my mountain bike (but only in the summer I confess).

When I want to flop, I read (of course!) and I’m addicted to various TV dramas (The Good Wife, Scandal, House of Cards, The Big Bang Theory are among my favorites).

Who would play Emily and Ryan in First Time in Forever, the movie?

 Emily Blunt could be Emily, and Chris Pine would be Ryan.

 Are you a seat of your pants writer or do you plan out the story idea beforehand?

 I’m definitely seat of my pants, but I do have a rough idea of where I'm going before I start. I know the characters and the conflict, but the detail evolves as I write. I do find it helps to think hard about the ending right at the beginning of the process. If you know where your characters are going to end up and how they will change over the story, it forces you to think hard about what decisions they might make, and lessons they might learn, to affect that change.

    

What are you currently reading?

 Sarah Addison Allen’s First Frost. I love her work. One of my favorite books is The Peach Keeper.

Are there any quirky rituals/habits you have during the writing process?

 I use a lot of sticky notes and I don’t throw anything away until the book is finished. I make a playlist but I don’t usually write to it. Music is a wonderful way of evoking emotion, and finding exactly the right track can make a scene easier to write. It’s very personal. I’m not sure that a reader listening to a playlist would necessarily enjoy the music unless it was played in exactly the right place in the story, but it really helps the thinking process for me.

 Who are some of your favorite authors?

 This is such a difficult question because there are so many authors whose work I enjoy and I love discovering new authors. I read a lot. Among my top favorites would be Nora Roberts, Jill Shalvis and Sarah Addison Allen.

What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

Read

Write every day

Stay off the internet

When you’re stuck, keep going

Read more

Make your characters as human and real as possible

Join a writing organization such as Romance Writers of America

Put your work aside and don’t be afraid to revise. Revisions are part of writing.

Read it aloud for rhythm

Develop resilience.

Find at least one good writing friend.

Every time you’re knocked down, get up again.

READ!

  

What are you working on next?

 I’m in the middle of the third book in the Puffin Island series, Skylar and Alec’s story, called Christmas Ever After. Sky is a really fun character to write and the tension with Alec is electric. It’s one of those stories where life keeps throwing boulders at the characters (a bit like real life!) and it’s interesting to see them fighting their way out. I love this couple. Their relationship borders on adversarial but they have off the scale chemistry and plenty of humor so it’s fun to write. And it’s a Holiday story, so there is all the extra frosty sparkle I always enjoy.

I can't wait to read more in the trilogy! Thanks for chatting with us today Sarah!!

Twitter Party: In Time

I really loved Darkest Minds and IN TIME takes place between Darkest Minds and Never Fade.

#INTIME TWITTER PARTY WITH AUTHOR ALEXANDRA BRACKEN

When: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 from 8:00-9:00 p.m. EST

How: Be sure to follow@AlexBracken, @HyperionTeens, and @TheBookCellarX and use #InTime during the 1-hour event to ask questions LIVE and win prizes.

·      To join the party, just search #InTime on Twitter.

 ·         Watch for questions from @TheBookCellarX and win awesome prizes including promo codes for In Time, autographed copies of The Darkest Minds, compass necklaces, and a $200 Visa card!

 ·         Ask Alex questions, enter giveaways and chat with other partygoers—just use the tag #InTime in all of your party tweets!

 Tweet your questions for @AlexBracken now using #InTime and participate on Wednesday, July 24^th for her live responses!

Chatting with Helene Boudreau

Helene Boudreau joins us today to chat. Thanks for joining us!

What made you choose to write? Like a lot of people, my road to becoming a writer was a bumpy and detoured one. Sure, it was always something I wanted to do but for a long time it was just a pipe dream. About five years ago, I was at home with a two and four year-old and was debating whether I should go back to a very demanding job which I didn’t particularly enjoy.

But then I wondered, what would happen if I put in just as much effort into something I did enjoy? That’s when I really started writing with intent. The deal was, I would work my tail off and if I didn’t have a book published by the time my youngest was in school, I’d consider going back to ‘work’. My youngest is now in second grade, so I guess things worked out okay.

Where do you write best? Being the mom of two girls, I tend to write in the ‘in between’ moments like after dropping them off at school, getting them to Girl Guides, making dinner or helping them with their homework. Having a laptop really helps because I can take it with me to the library while they read books or sneak in a bit of revision while they’re at swimming lessons or art class. So, I guess the answer to ‘where do you write best’ is really wherever and whenever I can.

You’re the author of several nonfiction books as well, is it hard to go between fiction and nonfiction? It’s actually kind of nice to write both. Non-fiction appeals to me because I get to research and write about all sorts of cool topics, but it also requires a lot of creativity, especially when writing for kids. There’s also something equally cool about creating a world from your imagination and hooking a reader in that way. But again, fiction writing requires research and draws a lot from reality and real life experiences—at least for me.

I think that's great. I like the idea of writing about a bunch of different topics

How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one? Like lots of other authors I know, ideas never seem to be in short supply. It’s usually finding time to write which is the limiting factor. Writing REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS was a mixture of ideas and many of those were inspired by real-life experiences. The setting for the book is based on a real town near where I grew up in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It has a canal connecting a fresh water lake with the ocean and was really the inspiration for my underwater mer-world.

Oh, I like that!

How did you come up with your title? Coming up with a title for this book was really tricky. At first, I’d called it BIG SPLASH because my main character, Jade, is a bit on the heavy side and she was definitely making a big entrance in her mer-world. But that title was a bit too similar to another book that had just been released.

Then, I thought about calling it RHYMES WITH JADE but my critique partner kinda said, “Huh? You mean like ‘trade’ or ‘afraid’?”

Um, no…MERMAID! Mermaid rhymes with Jade…so, um, that idea didn’t fly.

Finally, I was having dinner with my sister and she was wearing this cute thumb ring, which led to a discussion about toe rings, which led to REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS.

Can you tell us a little bit about REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS?

First zit. First crush. First…mermaid’s tail?

If she hadn’t been so clueless, she might have seen it coming. But really, who expects to get into a relaxing bathtub after a stressful day of shopping for tankinis and come out with scales and a tail?

Most. Embarassing. Moment. Ever.

Jade soon discovers she inherited her mermaid tendencies from her mom. But this revelation raises a serious question: if Mom was a mermaid, how did she drown?

Jade is determined to find out. But how does a plus-sized, aqua-phobic, mer-girl go about doing that, exactly? And how will Jade ever be able to explain her secret to her best friend Cori, and her crush, Luke?

This summer is about to get a lot more interesting…

Here's the book trailer:

What did you do on your release day? My release day was December 1^st but the official launch was at my local library a few days later. I love launching my books at the library because the children’s librarian there is so supportive, their book collection is amazing and the library itself is beautiful.

We’ve also been doing a ‘virtual’ launch of sorts and in a fun promotion for the holidays my publisher, Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, is offering signed REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS bookplates for anyone who’d like to personalize their copies of the book. More info HERE.

Oh I Love the idea of having the launch at the library!

What’s up next? My next release is an early chapter book called WATER HAZARD, which is the second volume of my RED DUNE ADVENTURES series (Nimbus Publishing). It’s an eco-adventure mystery series for 7-9 year olds. In terms of new writing projects, I’ve got two young adult manuscripts on the go as well as the very first chapter of something brand new.

What was the last book you’ve read that you’ve been recommending to everyone?

I really enjoyed PLAIN KATE by Erin Bow and of course everybody’s probably heard of THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

Are there any authors you’d love to meet? I would be completely intimidated but I’d love to meet Kate DiCamillo or Katherine Paterson. I love their books.

Do you have a favorite literary quote? “One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.” — Annie Dillard (The Writing Life)

Listing of your favorites:

Candy: Chocolate covered raisins
Pizza topping: Meat-lovers
Genre of books: Funny!
Singer and/or Song: Top 40
Restaurant: Tex-Mex
TV show /Movie: Vampire Diaries or Big Bang Theory
Color: Red
Shoe: Flip-flops

Thanks for chatting with me today, Hélène!

*You can find Hélène on Twitter, Facebook and on her Website.

Chatting with Catherine Clark

Catherine Clark is one of my favorite authors - I adore her romances especially Icing on the Lake and Maine Squeeze. With her latest book, she's trying something new for tweens. Thanks for joining us!

What made you choose to write? Uh, destiny? Love of reading, probably. Love of books. Having a dad who taught high school English and filled our house with books. Living close to a library and visiting it often for all the others I wanted to read.

Same here, my house - both now and growing up was filled with books

Where do you write best? A combination of places. For each book I tend to choose a couple of spots, and return to them over and over—certain coffee shops, a studio rental, or libraries. Then afterward I have to find new places because, you know, you can’t go home again.

How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one? Well, they come from all over the place. The inspiration for “Meanicures” came from a friend of mine who still celebrates her former BFF’s birthday, even though said BFF became a mean girl and their friendship ended. A bunch of us got together and went out for dinner and started talking about the mean girls in our lives… At the end of dinner, I noticed we were kind of making some not-so-nice comments about people, and I thought, “What if the nice girls turned mean?” That was how the idea for the book came about.

What a great idea! I love how the book came to you.

How did you come up with your titles? Some of them appear instantly as I’m dreaming up the concept for a book, and they’re tied to the book from day one. (Like “Maine Squeeze,” “Truth or Dairy,” and “Meanicures.”) Others are a bit more difficult and requite tons and tons of thought and silly lists of brainstormed ridiculous titles.

Can you tell us a little bit about Meanicures? Three best friends have a particularly bad Monday at school with their former friends, and decide enough is enough. They can’t take being pushed around by the “mean girls” one more day. They decide to have a somewhat magical ceremony to get the girls out of their lives; instead of that happening, they turn into mean girls themselves… which is NOT what they wanted. So they have to figure out how to turn things back.

I really enjoyed this book - check out my review

Was it harder to write a middle grade novel after writing teens novels? Did you find it very different? For me it was fun to write something that was purely about friendship and (to a light degree) family. I wished I could have gone into more detail on several things. I think I could have, in retrospect, but I was trying to keep things moving quickly as I flipped their situation.

What will did you do on your release day? Our daughter gets out of pre-K at noon, so we’ll have lunch, then we have to go get her hair cut because tomorrow is picture day, then maybe buy some pumpkins for the front steps. Mostly I tend to freak out a little bit, so if I can distract myself from the fact that it IS release day, that will be a good thing. It’s nerve wracking.

Update: she had the haircut, then we went bike riding and she smashed into a metal pole and now has a giant bruise on her face. More nerve wracking than pub day, so it put things in perspective. Poor girl.

What’s your favorite part about working in a bookstore? Opening the boxes of books and toys and doing receiving. I seriously love that. I’ve worked in 5 different bookstores. I love meeting people who enjoy the same books I do, and working with other people who like books is the best. I also like seeing the authors and illustrators who come to our store on tour.

Those are my favorite parts of being a librarian too! Opening boxes of books always feels like Christmas to me.

What’s up next? I just finished another MG novel tentatively titled “Clarinet Hero” about a boy who gets swept up in the presidential campaign with hilarious (and heroic) results. I’ll be rewriting it over the coming months and it should be out from Egmont in Spring 2012. Now I’m working on a more serious YA that I’m dying to get to.

Also, I should mention that my book “Maine Squeeze” is being reissued in a couple months with a new cover – and I have the sequel to “Rocky Road Trip” coming out next summer in a big trade paperback edition. It was delayed so they could redo the cover and format, so it moved from winter to summer, which is ironic because the publisher wanted me to write a winter story. Oh well!

I notice from your website that you’ve written under the name Caitlyn Davis. Do you have other pen names? What made you choose to write under a different name?

At the time I wrote that book (“What’s Hot”) I was under contract with one publisher, and writing for a different one. I couldn’t write something that would compete with myself (“Catherine”) (This sounds weird, I know). I’ve written a TON of books under various pen names, as a “writer for hire.” It can be a lot of fun, but you don’t get the feeling of satisfactionction you get when you create the entire thing yourself.

What was the last book you’ve read that you’ve been recommending to everyone? Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien. I am not into paranormal, but I do like dystopian novels. I can somehow see those as happening. Plus they tend to be political and I enjoy that aspect in a vision of the future and as a statement regarding the present.

Are there any authors you’d love to meet? Many! But being authors we’d be too awkward to talk to each other. Maybe I could meet him/her by email. ;-)

Do you have a favorite literary quote? “In the end, they just ask you those crappy little questions.” –Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men

Listing of your favorites:
Candy – caramel creams
Pizza topping – black olives, pineapple, banana peppers
Genre of books – adult fiction, young adult fiction, children’s fiction
Singer and/or Song – Elvis Costello
Restaurant – Pizza Luce
TV show /Movie – The Office, Glee
Color - green
Shoe – new red Converse sneakers from TJ Maxx
Video Game – not my thing, but I have made a fool of myself on Rock Band

Anything I didn’t ask? I take my coffee with cream. ;-)

Chatting with Chloe Neill

Chloe is out celebrating the release of TWICE BITTEN, the third book in the amazing Chicagoland Vampire series. I'm dying to read this one, it comes out on Tuesday. Luckily, she took some time to chat with us here. Welcome to Cadogan House, here's your pass.

What made you choose to write?
I went through a period in my life where I was reading a ton of urban fantasy, but I eventually got to a point where I just couldn't find anything else I wanted to read. That's when I decided it was time to start writing the story I wanted to read, and the rest is history!

I LOVE this answer! It's perfect.

Where do you write best?

In bed with my laptop, usually after the chores are done and dogs have quieted down for the night. And sometimes at a coffeehouse on the weekends.

What was the last book you’ve read that you’ve been recommending to everyone?
The last book I recommended was probably the In Death series by J.D. Robb. LOVE those books. They're police procedurals set a bit in the future and feature a fabulous heroine (Eve) and a great hero (Roarke).

They sounds fun, I'll have to try one.

How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one?
Ideas come from everywhere--conversations, things I pick up in books, research, photographs. I use real historical events--such as Chicago's Great Fire--but not recent ones.

How do you come up with your titles?
Through much debate with my editor. :) We usually work through lots of options until we hit the one we want.

Can you tell us a little bit about Twice Bitten?
Sure! In TWICE BITTEN, Merit is asked to play guard for shapeshifters who've come to Chicago for a convocation. But when someone takes a shot at Gabriel Keene, head of the North American Central Pack, she finds herself in the line of fire.

So looking forward to reading it!!!!
Do you think it’s a cross-over title – one that teens are gobbling up as much as adults? Did you intend it to be one? (I ask this because I’m curious and also I think it’s a great cross-over title)
Merit is a 28 year-old heroine, so the book is technically written for adults, but it's not dark or exceptionally graphic fantasy, so I think older teens could definitely read it.

How many books will there be in the series?
There are currently four books under contract, but I hope to write many more.
I hope so too :)

What’s up next?
I'm currently editing HEXBOUND, the second book in my Dark Elite series, and I'll then go back to writing the fourth book in the Chicagoland Vampires series, which I think is going to be a lot of fun.

Oh, I'm excited for this one too. I LOVE the cover for Hexbound.



Are there any authors you’d love to meet?
Diana Gabaldon, Christopher Moore and Neil Gaiman


Do you have a book crush?
Yes--on Roarke from the In Death series and Jamie Fraser from the Outlander series.

Your favorites
Candy - Kit Kat
Pizza topping - Veggie
Genre of books - Right now, nonfiction
Singer and/or Song - Muse, Hysteria
Restaurant - Lydia's in Kansas City
TV show /Movie - Community and Star Wars
Color - Blue
Shoe - Three-inch stiletto heels

Anything I didn’t ask?
Only if Merit is going to chose Ethan or Morgan, but I'm not touching that one.

Thanks for having me today!!

Intrigued? Read a chapter of TWICE BITTEN

Teen Read Week Book 2 and author Chat

Now that Kendall's gone through her awakening and saved her father from a ghost, she and her friends have been working all over town. Not everyone is happy about Kendall's newfound abilities. First, her mother still doesn't believe her daughter's a psychic, and she's made Kendall promise to be tested. Kendall and her mom travel to Atlanta to meet with an open-minded doctor. They talk about her awakening and finally run mental and medical tests. Courtney, the queen bee at school, hates all the attention people are giving Kendall. Plus, she hates that Kendall is dating her ex-boyfriend. She comes up with a plan to shift the attention back on to herself: she fakes her own awakening. However, Courtney doesn't understand the rules and she's playing a very dangerous game. When a seance turns into something more, Kendall knows she has to step in and save Courtney if she can. The ghost oppressing Courtney is more vicious than any spirit she's ever encountered. She's not sure if she's strong enough to handle him.

The second book in the once trilogy, but now at least five book GHOST HUNTRESS series, picks up a couple of months after the first book, THE AWAKENING, ends. It continues the fun, danger, and romance of ghost hunting. The ending left me with goosebumps and I can't wait to devour the next book in the series.

This book is a bit different - being a nonfiction How-to manual for ghost hunting. It's a fun read and touches on a number of points

* you can't scientifically prove that ghosts exisit
* a quick history of ghost hunting
* You don't make money by becoming a ghost hunter
*explains the different types of apparitions
* Dos and Don't of actually hunting ghosts - a great list
* What types of abnormalities you might encounter (draining of batteries, cold spots, etc...)
*Equipment to use
* EVPs (Electronic voice phenomena - voices not heard aloud in normal conversation, but in a playback situation.)
* Different types of psychic abilities - and how to test one.
* Reviewing your evidence
* How to put your own team together (Like Kendall)
* Plus some places to start investigating.

Chat Information: Chat with the Authors of The Other Side

What: Online Chat with Marley Gibson, Patrick Burns and Dave Schrader!

Where: TKA Chat Room

When: TONIGHT - Wednesday, October 21st @ 9pm ET

How To Chat: (1) Click on this link: http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=115545 (2) Enter a username and password (any combination) (3) Click Login