GHOSTGIRL and GHOSTGIRL: HOMECOMING
Little Brown
www.GhostGirl.com
3 Autographed Gift Sets (featuring both books!) will be given away on Friday, November 20!
A New York Times Bestseller!
About GHOSTGIRL
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
And if I should die before I awake,
I pray the popular attend my wake.
Charlotte Usher feels practically invisible at school, and then one day she really is invisible. Even worse: she's dead. And all because she choked on a gummy bear. But being dead doesn't stop
If you thought high school was a matter of life or death, wait till you see just how true that is. In this satirical, yet heartfelt novel, Hurley explores the invisibility we all feel at some times and the lengths we'll go to be seen.
About GHOSTGIRL: HOMECOMING
Heaven couldn't be a phone bank, could it?
Charlotte Usher discovers that the afterlife isn't quite what she pictured when she's forced to intern at a hotline for troubled teens. Before she can officially cross over, she'll have to be a source of guidance for one such teen. The problem is she doesn't have much advice to offer since dying hasn't exactly boosted her confidence level.
But when Hawthorne High's leading, love-to-hate cheerleader Petula and her gothic little sis' Scarlet find themselves suddenly resting-in-peace in comas, Charlotte's opportunity to save them will prove to be the risk of a lifetime-for all of them.
Read our exclusive interview with Tonya Hurley!
1) This is a fabulous series, where'd you come up with the idea for the concept?
I was working on a TV show in Los Angeles, away from home in New York, and I observed the whole fame thing first hand. How you could be the biggest celebrity in the world and still feel invisible, feel like the loneliest person on earth even though you have millions of fans. It's all a big popularity contest, just like high school. It got me to thinking about my own high school experience and so I wrote the book I would have wanted in high school. ghostgirl is a story about ghosts, but it's not a ghost story in the typical sense. It's a story about self-acceptance, love and longing.
2) I read you're also a screenwriter and filmmaker! Will you be bringing Ghostgirl to life on screen anytime soon?
I sure hope so. It's something we're working on.
3) Ghostgirl explores the theme of invisibility. When, in your life, have you felt the most "invisible"?
High school is the backdrop for ghostgirl, but I think that the theme of invisibility is universal. I have a wide variety of readers who can relate because invisibility may start in high school -- it's a time when people really want to know who you aren't and not really who you are -- but it carries on through life.
4) You have some creative ideas about the afterlife, where did these come from? Are they based on anything you've seen before or completely made up?
I use death as a metaphor for invisibility and I thought it would be interesting to take that to the extreme --which resulted in the tragic death of Charlotte Usher. I wanted to explore how her desires – her love and longing, transcended death itself. We do transition when we die and we also transition when we love, and I wanted to write about that in this story. With this in mind, I felt I needed to take a whole new approach to the afterlife. It really intrigues me because it’s partly based in reality - none of us are getting out of here alive, so we're all going to face the truth at some point, but then again, no one comes back to tell us what actually happens. We all have a strong belief of what happens, but none of us really know for sure. It's the perfect topic for a writer because there’s so much to explore. I chose to approach the after life as a "life sucks and then you die and then it sucks again" sort of thing -- more like daily life where you can still be ostracized, still be hurt, but also still find happiness and ultimately fulfill your dreams. I remember when I was young, a teenager passed away and I was at his funeral. People around me were saying, "Oh, he was so young. He never got to go to the prom. He never got to fall in love. He never got to do this and that." I remember thinking to myself, "How do you know?" How do you know what he's doing and not doing? Maybe he's at the prom right now."
5) Will there be a third book in the Ghostgirls series? If yes, when can we expect that and what's in store for Charlotte next?
Yes. The third book is called ghostgirl: Lovesick and it's about the invisibility theme as well -- how we often lose our identities when we are in love. Romance is Dead is the tag, so either Charlotte gives up on love, or finds it after she passes. Maybe both.
About the Author:
writer and producer of animated and live action hit television
series, groundbreaking videogames and award-winning websites for
teens. She is the author of ghostgirl, a bestselling book series
about Charlotte Usher. ghostgirl was picked as one of the NYPL Stuff
for the Teen Age 2009. The second book in the series, ghostgirl:
Homecoming was released July 1, 2009.
Hurley has written and directed several acclaimed independent films,
which have been selected for film festivals around the world
including the LA Independent, TriBeca and Edinburgh and have also
been broadcast on ABC, PBS and IFC.
She was nominated for the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Award in
Film and made the semi-finals of the Sundance Institute's Writer's
Lab with her feature film script. Currently her film Baptism of
Solitude: A Tribute To Paul Bowles is being distributed through the
United Nations.
The audiobook versions for ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming,
narrated by actress Parker Posey with music by Vince Clarke of
Depeche Mode, Yas and Erasure, are available for digital download at
audible.com and on CD at recordedbooks.com.
Visit her website at: www.ghostgirl.com.
**Please enter to win using the form on the left side bar of our website. Comments left on the post, while appreciated, are not used as entry. Thanks!
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6 comments:
I love both books and have them but I would love to have them signed! Thanks for such a cool contest.
Meg from Boston :)
I already have these. The first book was good, but the end of the second was kinda boring to me...
I cried at the end of book two.
Love these books.
These sound fascinating, a lovely off-beat idea, and a neat topic. I certainly remember invisibility.
I freaking love these books and it would be so great if the stories were turned into movies!
-Suki, 21
Chicago, Il
cool interview, cool books.
tanner from columbus
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