3 lucky winners will be receiving a free autographed copy of The Fox Inheritance!
About the Book:
Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.
4 lucky winners will be receiving a free autographed copy of The Secret Year!
About the Book:
After his secret girlfriend's death, seventeen-year-old Colt finds the notebook she left behind, but he is unprepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship.2) When you set out to write a book, are you usually sparked by a story idea or a character?
I need both: an idea for a plot or a situation, and an interesting voice to tell that story. Usually I have one element first, and it waits in my brain for the other element to show up so that I can start writing. I like it when a character whispers in my ear, but I like it even more when he has something important to say!
With THE SECRET YEAR, I had the idea of the situation first: a secret relationship, a death, a notebook left behind. But I didn't start writing until I found the voice of the narrator, Colt.
3) How do you come up with your characters' personalities?
I like to include some moments of unexpected honesty: times they tell a vulnerable or an ugly truth when most people would expect a self-protective lie. I also like to use some moments of humor sometimes when the story is getting very dark. Beyond that, I ask myself what each character wants and fears, and that determines how they behave.
4) Considering a book from the first word you write to the moment you see it on a bookstore shelf, what’s your favorite part of the process? What’s your least favorite?
My favorite moments include writing scenes when I feel that I've gotten them right; figuring out plot twists; and finding the perfect word for a particular spot. On the publishing end, I love seeing the cover, and holding the finished book.
My least favorite is the waiting. In between every step of the process, there is a lot of waiting and a lot of uncertainty.
5) What's up next for you?
My next book, TRY NOT TO BREATHE, is scheduled for 2012. That is another contemporary YA novel, described this way: In the summer after his suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Ryan struggles with guilty secrets and befriends a girl who’s visiting psychics to try to reach her dead father.
5 lucky winners will be receiving a free autographed copy of The Salem Witch Tryouts!
About the Book:
Pru Stewart is at the top of her cheerleading game at her Beverly Hills High School, until her parents announce a sudden move across country. Not only is Pru going to have to change high schools, she's now going to a School for Witches. After being forbidden to do magic around mortals, she now not only has to take magic classes, she has to learn to cheer while flying -- literally.I love telling this story. I got the idea for this story from mishearing something a speaker said at a writing panel on query hooks. The panelists were allowing audience participation in giving thumbs up or down to ideas, much like editors and agents have to do when they are queried. We were all having a lot of fun (I was thumbs up most of the time, which means I'd be a terrible agent or editor). And then they read off a title that sounded fantastic. The Salem Witch Tryouts. I sat forward, intrigued. Only to discover I'd misheard and it was the more traditional The Salem Witch Trials (another favorite history topic of mine). I couldn't help thinking that any book called The Salem Witch Tryouts would be interesting, and by the end of the panel, I had come up with the idea of a 16 year old cheerleading witch who has to transition from living like a mortal to living like a with -- complete with a change of high school, home, and team.
2) After this many books, how do you keep the content and story fresh? For you and your readers?
First, I'm a genre hopper. This annoys many readers, and I apologize to any I've annoyed along the way. But if the writer ain't happy, ain't nobody happy (to torture an adage almost beyond recognition). I've written short stories, novels, non-fiction, fantasy, romance, and science fiction. I have never written a thriller, and I don't expect to (just seeing a commercial for a horror movie gives me nightmares). But who really knows? Not me.
I let my characters speak to me. If they're constantly surprising me, then I can be assured they are doing the same for my readers.
3) This would make a great film. Any talks of turning your book into a movie?
Sony did take a 2 year option, but that has lapsed, so I think Hollywood has moved on to vampires and werewolves and dark witches. My funny Pru may come back into vogue one day, though. Fingers crossed. I really want to design a video game around her story, but I haven't had the time.
4) Thinking back to the way beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?
I've learned to write in scenes. This probably sounds very simple, but for me it was not. I was an English major and most of my literary analysis was done with classics instead of the contemporary fiction I devoured outside of class. Gradually, I learned that the secret for me to keep the tension high, and the characters active was creating a scene that started with a challenge, upped the stakes all the way to the end of the scene -- which hopefully had a hook strong enough to make readers have to read the next scene, and the next.
5 lucky winners will be receiving a free autographed copy of Dear Bully!
About the Book:
You are not alone
3 lucky winners will be receiving a free autographed copy of Possess!
