When The Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer

WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE

by Caridad Ferrer

Commercial Young Adult

St. Martin's Press
www.CaridadFerrer.com


3 autographed copies will be given away on Friday, December 3, 2010!





About the Book:

A dancer driven to succeed.



A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.



The summer they share.



And the moment it all goes wrong.



Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.

But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.

Read our Exclusive Interview with the Author Here!

1) If you could have dinner with one of your characters who would it be?

Oh, I'd be torn between Mamacita, Soledad's grandmother, who reads Tarot and is just an absolute kick, or Raj, who becomes Soledad's best friend, because he's all sorts of cheeky and outrageous and we'd have a grand time people watching and snarking.

2) What’s the first thing you do when starting a new book? What’s the first thing you do when finishing a new book?

First thing I do is make a music soundtrack to help create a mood and facilitate my getting into the world of the book. As far as finishing, the last couple of times, when I've hit the last period on the last sentence, I've burst into tears, just because I can't believe the journey is finally over. Then I've been known to order pizza and sit back and catch up on a LOT of television.

3) Which fictional character do you have a secret crush on?

Oh, hm... again, I'm torn. My literary fictional character on whom I have a crush is Roger MacKenzie from Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER series. He's just my perfect sort of hero (I love betas); he's an academic, he's musically inclined, but he's also not incapable of taking charge and getting down and dirty when necessary. He just doesn't HAVE to be in charge. My other fictional crush is television-oriented and it's Richard Castle from CASTLE, for a lot of the same reasons I mentioned with respect to Roger MacKenzie. He's not an outward hero, but he's a true hero in all the best ways.

4) When you set out to write a new book, are you usually sparked by a story idea or a character?

Oh, definitely story idea. A germ of a story idea will come to me, which in turn sparks a round of the "What if?" game and as the story falls into place, the characters reveal themselves. Even when the characters reveals themselves fairly quickly, it's generally because the story gives birth to them.

5) What are you working on next?

Well, I just finished an adult fiction manuscript that was nearly three years in the making-- it's set in the 1960s and was both a lot of fun to write as well as being one of the hardest things I've ever done. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from my agent on what she thinks. In the meantime, I've started a new YA idea-- something new and different for me, genre & style wise. I'm writing in third person POV for the first time in absolute ages and I'm petrified!


About the Author:

Caridad Ferrer is a first generation, bilingual Cuban-American, whose young adult debut, Adiós to My Old Life won the Romance Writers of America’s 2007 RITA® for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance as well as being named to the 2009 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list, awarded by the ALA. Her second novel, It’s Not About the Accent was released in 2007 with Publisher’s Weekly stating, “…this twisting book amply rewards readers.”

She has also contributed to the anthology, Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles, and Other Quinceañera Stories. Her newest young adult novel, When the Stars Go Blue, is a contemporary retelling of Bizet’s Carmen, and will be released by Thomas Dunne Books in November 2010. Booklist calls it, “Beautifully written, with contemporary characters and an engaging story line.” Visit the author online at: www.CaridadFerrer.com.

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