Remember back in January when I raved about A Curious Beginning, the first book in a new Victorian mystery series by Deanna Raybourn?  Well, guess what?  I have some great news related to this novel, which I adored.  First off, the next installment in the series—A Perilous Undertaking—will be available January 10, 2017.  Personally, I cannot wait!  Second, the paperback version of A Curious Beginning will be available on July 12, 2016.  Not only that, but it has gorgeous new cover art that matches that of A Perilous Undertaking.  Here, take a gander:


Pretty, aren't they?  I think I prefer the hardcover art, but still, these are lovely in their own right.

The real question is, how would you like to win a pretty paperback version of A Curious Beginning for yourself?  You would?  Good.  Thanks to the good folks at Penguin Random House (Berkley/NAL), I have one to give away.  Details are at the bottom of this post.

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Don't go there yet, though!  I had the chance to interview the wonderful Deanna Raybourn recently.  Here's the conversation we had:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Halloween, everybody!  I'm so excited to welcome Laura Bickle to my blog today.  She's the author of a new YA dystopian series that takes place in Amish country.  So intriguing, right?  After I read The Hallowed Ones and its sequel, The Outside, I had to know more about Laura and how she came to write these books (both of which I enjoyed immensely).  Here's how our conversation went down:

Me:  You've written several books for adults (under the pen name Alayna Williams). What made you decide to write for teens? How is it different than writing for an older audience?

LB:  I began wanting to write a rural fantasy – something a bit different from the urban fantasy I had
been writing. I love urban fantasy very much, but I wanted to turn it around a bit and see what
darkness is like from a rural perspective. Once the story was complete, I sent it to my agent. I
thought about whether it would work best in the contemporary fantasy or the horror market.  

And to my surprise…she said I’d written a YA novel.

So I re-read the book, and it began to come together for me. I never explicitly gave Katie an age.  Katie was dealing with many of the issues that young adults deal with: questioning authority, creating her own identity, and developing her own moral compass.

It was a happy serendipity. I’d wandered into new territory for me, territory that’s challenging and also really exhilarating.

Me:  What made you switch from the urban fantasy genre to horror? And, why vampires?

LB:  Most of the fantasy I’ve written has something of a dark side, so it was a short leap to horror for me. I love writing about things that go bump in the night.

Vampires are admittedly a hard sell right now. But I wanted a supernatural adversary for Katie that would challenge her faith and have some historical aversion to religious symbols and holy ground. Old school vampires are that, and if I avoided using them because of market saturation, I would not have been doing a service to the story.

Me:  In THE HALLOWED ONES and its sequel, THE OUTSIDE, you write about Amish people living in a secluded religious community. Do you have any experience with the Amish? What kind of research did you have to do in order to get all the details right?

LB:  I spent some time visiting the Amish settlement near where I live. I also did a good deal of reading…there are a lot of great books out there that look at the Plain way of life from a sociological perspective. National Geographic has also done a number of very good documentaries about the Amish. Many of the ideas were very foreign to me. For example, the Amish do not wish to be connected to the outside world, so power lines, phone lines, and electricity aren’t used. That kind of voluntary isolation is fascinating to me. The only parallel I can draw in my own life is when storms came through our area and we were without phone, cable, electricity, and internet for a week. It was very still and very peaceful.

I’m acutely conscious that I can’t know or understand everything about the Amish, never having lived in an Amish community. But I learned enough to develop an immense respect for the Amish way of life.

Me:  What intrigued you about this kind of setting? How does it make your vampire story unique?

LB:  I grew up not too far from a large Amish settlement - my parents would take me to visit on weekends when I was a little girl. I really admired the self-sufficiency of the Amish, how they remained separate from the modern world and kept very close to the earth for survival.  When I was creating this series, I thought that they’d be uniquely-equipped to survive a large-scale disaster. The isolation became some interesting material to work with, as they know that something terrible has happened to the outside world in my story, but they don’t know what it is.

Me:  You don't see a lot of YA books (especially horror novels) about faith and religion, yet this is actually the thing that intrigued me most about the story. Granted I'm not a teen, but still ... were you nervous about how a more philosophical/spiritual story would be received by your target audience? And, how do you think teens will relate to Katie?

LB:  Yes – I was nervous about how it would be received. Katie is unlike any of the heroines I’ve written before, as her religion is an integral part of her life. I didn’t want to minimize that or be untrue to who she is as a character.

Katie’s story is very much a coming of age story as she figures out what she believes and why.  Katie goes through many trials as she grows up, and I wanted to explore the tension of her becoming an individual from a very collectivist society. I think that’s something we all can relate to – becoming our own person, distinct from our family and the people around us. We ultimately have to make our own decisions and decide where the good of the many outweighs our own personal good.

Me:  Speaking of Katie, she's a very relatable, unique character. How did you make her feel SO real?

LB:  Thank you! I wanted her to be believable in her reactions and the way she tries to make sense of the world. She always approaches her decisions with compassion, which I think is an admirable trait. She’s much more compassionate and much stronger than I could ever dream of being, but she questions herself…which is something that I believe all thinking people do.

Me:  I love the question that lies at the heart of THE HALLOWED ONES and THE OUTSIDE -- If God doesn't exist, does it really matter what we do? Katie obviously thinks it does, but how would YOU answer this question for yourself?

LB:  I think how we act is what matters, bottom line. What we do has great impact in the world, and I think it’s important that we act with integrity and compassion, regardless of what might be waiting for us in the afterlife.
 

Me:  THE OUTSIDE ties everything in Katie's world up in a very satisfactory way, BUT I already miss the characters. Will we be seeing more of them in future books?

LB:  No plans just yet for further adventures! I never rule anything out, but I think that Katie has come full circle in her story.

Me:  What are you working on now?

LB:  I have another YA project and another contemporary fantasy project in the works…I can’t say much about them now, but stay tuned for details!

Me:  Since today is Halloween, I have to ask: do you love the holiday, hate it or fall somewhere in the middle? What was the best costume you ever wore? Or the biggest Halloween scare you ever experienced?

LB:  I love Halloween. When I was a kid, I think I was Wonder Woman for five consecutive Halloweens. I loved running up and down the street with my friends, clutching a sack of candy.  What’s not to love?

Today, I just pass out the candy (often in costume). We have a giant inflatable black cat that we set up on our porch for Trick or Treat night, and the neighborhood kids really enjoy him.  Here’s a picture of me last year, dressed as Chell from the video game Portal.

I don’t know what this year’s costume is going to be, but I’m sure we’ll have fun!

Me:  Thanks so much for visiting BBB today, Laura!

Me: Although I've been hearing your names for years, I'm not familiar with how exactly you came to be known worldwide as parenting experts. Care to enlighten me? Beside on-the-job-training from your nine children, what led you down this unique and fascinating path?

Eyres: I am a Harvard Business School trained management consultant and Linda is a musician and teacher. We wrote an explatory book trying to apply management techniques to parenting and it did so well that we gravitated more and more into writing. When our values book hit #1 on the NY Times bestseller list, we became so busy with writing and speaking that we closed down the consulting company and became full time writers and presenters.

Me: What is "values parenting?" Why is it such an important concept for modern families?

Eyres: Everyone wants their children to follow sound values. We all understand that it is the ultimate way to protect our children. The site collects good ideas for raising responsible kids and makes them available to parents. It also gives parents actual "programs" to keep families on task in the business of improving relationships and reaching family goals.

Me: Tell me about your "Influence Triangle." Which corner of the triad seems to be the most effective as a teaching tool?

Eyres: They work together for us. The books lead to speaking opportunities and media appearances which in turn sell the books and drive awareness up that there are ways that parents can improve and become more deliberate in the raising of their kids

Me: You've given hundreds of presentations on parenting and other subjects throughout the world. Which stick out in your mind as the most interesting, funny, and/or memorable?

Eyres: The amazing thing is that, though the cultures change, parent's basic instincts are the same everywhere in the world. Love of and concern for our children unites everyone who is a parent. A fellow in Indonesia said "My definition of a conservative is a flaming liberal with a teen age daughter!"

Me: Since my husband and I are seriously considering making reservations for an upcoming cruise on which you're the featured speakers, I just have to ask: How often do you take on *tough* assignments like this? And what's the most interesting speaking/teaching opportunity you've ever been offered?

Eyres: What we like about cruises is that there is lots of time on board to talk to individual parents and get into their personal questions and interests.

Me: What's the best parenting advice you've ever been given and from whom did it come? As your children became parents, what advice did you give them?

Eyres: I love the older couple who once told us that the best thing we could do for our kids was to love each other. We have tried to pass this same concept to our kids. That as important as the parent-child relationship is, the MOST important relationship is husband-wife. We are aware of how many great single parents there are, but if you are a two parent family, your relationship with each other has to come fires.

Me: What's the most valuable parenting lesson you've learned while "in the trenches" with your own children?

Eyres: To have a sense of humor. We have found that, with parenting, crisis plus time usually equals humor!

Me: In terms of both the world and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (to which we both belong), your nine children have matured into successful adults, all of them earning college degrees, serving church missions, doing humanitarian work, and either marrying and raising their own families or planning to do so in the future. To what do you attribute this truly phenomenal accomplishment?

Eyres: Lots of it is luck. We were blessed with wonderful kids. Some parents have much harder challenges. Perhaps God didn't think much of us as parents--sending us all those easy kids, and perhaps He thought a great deal of some other parents, sending them such challenging kids. We try never to judge ourselves or others when it comes to parenting.

Me: What inspired you to write your new - and very timely - book, THE ENTITLEMENT TRAP? Why do all of us, as parents and just members of society, need to worry about this growing problem? How do we stop it?

Eyres: We think it is the biggest single problem that parents have today. We wrote the book to help parents solve it.

Me: In talking with parents all over the globe, parents of all different colors, creeds, and financial level, you've noticed something remarkable: Parents everywhere want basically the same things for their children - safety, good values, a good education, and the opportunity to reach their full potential. What, in your opinion, is the single most important thing parents can do to ensure this happens?

Eyres: Have actual goals for their parenting.....to overcome entitlement attitudes and to create, in its place, a true sense of responsibility.

Thanks so much, Richard and Linda!

Today, I'm happy to welcome YA novelist Angela Morrison back to Bloggin' 'bout Books. She and I chatted back in 2008 (read the interview here) when her first book, Taken By Storm, was published by Razorbill. Since then, she's published Sing Me to Sleep and finished the TBS Trilogy. Morrison's currently in the middle of a blog tour for the last book in the series, Cayman Summer. As part of the M + L Forever tour, she's hosting a huge contest over on the book's blog. You can win books and the yummiest swag ever, so click here now.

I haven't done one of these in awhile, so I'm especially happy to welcome Isla Morley to BBB today. Her recently published debut, Come Sunday, has received a great deal of acclaim. She's a fascinating person, as you'll see in just a moment. Be sure to read all the way to the end, because that's where the real fun is - a giveaway!

Me: Hi Isla. Welcome to Bloggin' 'bout Books.

IM: Hi Susan. Thanks for inviting me to your wonderful blog.

Me: Tell me a little about your path to becoming a writer. Did you enjoy reading and writingas a child? When did you decide you wanted to write a book? How did your work as an editor prepare you for writing your debut novel?

IM: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was the book that first captured my imagination as a child, and ever since I have loved to read. Not so with writing. In my teens, I really wantedto be that girl who kept a tell-all secret diary. But I kept losing interest after the third of fourth entry. When I worked on a magazine, writing was not all that much thrilling for me either. Bythe time I got married and came to the US, I’d pretty much decided writing was not for me. Ten years went by, and then the character of Abbe Deighton appeared to me one night with a story that needed telling. Subsequently, writing has become exciting and immensely fulfilling. Turns out, those editorial skills are in handy in the rewrites.

Me: You obviously have great empathy for the suffering of women and children. I assume thisis, at least partly, a result of your extensive non-profit work. What kind of impact did thoseexperiences have on your life? How do they influence your writing?

IM: The empathy extends to the downtrodden too, and I’ve had it since I was a little girl. Nobody in my family was surprised I was drawn to those organizations that seek to help others. I think a lot of it had to do with my upbringing in apartheid South Africa. At the age of five, I woke up one night to the sound of terrible screaming. My grandmother’s maid was in the garden, attacking her boyfriend with a whip. I’ve thought about her many times over the years and wondered what drove her to the point of violence, and then what pulled her back from the brink of madness the next day when she served us tea and toast. I’ve seen women suffer in terrible ways, and I’ve seen them turn their suffering into something good, something that benefits not only themselves, but others too. It’s this sacrificial element that inspires much of what I write.

Me: What causes are you passionate about now that you're a wife and mother living in urban America?

IM: I grew up in a society where prejudice and fear went unchecked. It was handed down from one generation to the next, and children were taught to be suspicious of those whose skin was of a different color, whose traditions were different, whose beliefs were different. What I want for my child, and for all children, really, is to live free of the tyranny of fear, and to respect and love others.

Me: COME SUNDAY has received a great deal of acclaim/award nominations, something that's quite unusual for a first novel. How do you feel about all the accolades and awards?

IM: I am completely in awe. Humbled, really. If the book receives a glowing review, I tend to think, “That’s nice, but I bet this reviewer gives everyone five stars.” But if it’s a harsh review,I think, “See, this proves I really should put the writing aside and take up macramé.” An award, like the Kafka Prize, really silences the critics in my head. More than anything, it is an affirmation, an encouraging “You can do this; keep going.”

Me: I loved the exotic settings in COME SUNDAY. I understand why some of the story needed to be set in South Africa, but why did you choose Hawaii for a secondary setting? What does that particular location add to the story?

IM: I lived in Honolulu for seven years, and it was there that I started writing this story. Most people are afforded such a limited view of Hawaii. It’s paradise, and so it’s hard to imagine anything bad happening there. But the story takes you deep into the valleys, literally and figuratively. South Africa, on the other hand, is usually viewed in terms of its ugly past, and its violence. It’s the antithesis of Hawaii in many ways, and yet it’s in the midst of this that the promise of resurrection lies.

Me: COME SUNDAY is about a mother's profound grief over losing her child. How did you channel that kind of pain into such an authentic portrayal of suffering?

IM: That’s a good question, and to this day I haven’t really come up with a good answer to it. “Channel” is exactly the right word, though. I would sit down at my computer and close my eyes, and Abbe would present herself. It would be her voice in my head, her heart beating in my chest. I felt like her story came through me, rather than from me.

Me: Ultimately, Abbe (the MC in COME SUNDAY) has to rebuild her faith/belief system, since whatever she thought she believed was shattered by the death of her daughter. Why is going home so often a necessary part of this healing process?

IM: The gift of suffering, in Abbe’s case, is that it cleared out everything that wasn’t authentic. Much of what was part of her life she had layered in, sort of as a way to cover up past traumas. All of that gets ripped aside and she is left with the gaping wound of her childhood. Going back to the place of her birth parallels her return to a very painful period of her past, which is her only hope of having old wounds healed. But I don’t know that I’d call it going home. As an expatriate, I have returned many times to South Africa and while in transit I always think of it as “going home.” And yet the minute I step foot off the plane, I feel more like a visitor. Home becomes something we carry within. Abbe’s journey is finding her home.

Me: How connected are you now to South Africa (your birthplace)? What did you enjoy most about growing up there? What do you miss?

IM: Both my parents died in the last few years, but I am now connected to the place through a brother I never knew I had. I also correspond with several friends and family friends with whom I am very close. But I am connected in other ways too, by memories, by language, by the land which somehow has knit itself to bone and sinew. I only have to open my mouth for South Africa to come pouring out. I grew up with a deep appreciation of nature. I miss the beauty of the country, the varied landscapes, the beaches, the wildlife. But I also grew up in a multicultural society with so many different artistic and musical expressions. I miss the slang, the satire and humor, African harmonizing, Saturday afternoon barbecues, my friends.

Me: What are you working on now? Will South Africa show up again in future novels? Please say yes :)

IM: It’s hard for me to discuss what I’m working on because I try to give myself permission to fail. This project may fly or it may end up in the compost pile, who knows. But I do want to write about South Africa again at some point, and I really appreciate your enthusiasm about this special location.

Me: Lastly, I ask this of every author I interview because I'm so fascinated by the variety of answers I receive. How do you write? Do you write every day or just when the muse comes to visit? Do you make meticulous outlines or start writing and see where it takes you? Where do you write? Where do you find ideas? Is there anything you have to have by your side in order to write (food, good luck charm, music, etc.)? What makes you, as a novelist, unique from other writers?

IM: I write (or rewrite) every day, after my daughter leaves for school (in summer, all writing therefore comes to a grinding halt). Instead of a muse, for me there is a great, invisible river running above my head, and when I sit down to write, it’s like sticking my finger in the current and letting the energy travel through me and out onto the page. If I want to interrupt the flow of creativity, all I have to do is start working on an outline! I wrote Come Sunday in a closet, and I now write by hand at the patio table on the deck that overlooks the mountains. I am not superstitious, but I can’t seem to part with a little crystal a friend gave me several years ago which is supposed to have good writing juju. I usually say a silent prayer before I start writing. I don’t know what makes me unique. I would say that if I am any good at writing it must be because I have so much in common with other people.

Me: Thanks so much, Isla!

I'm thrilled to have author Jenna Blum hanging out with me today on Bloggin' 'bout Books. Jenna's the author of two novels - Those Who Save Us (read my review here) and The Stormchasers (which will be out on the 27th of this month. You can read my review of it here.


Welcome, Jenna!

Me: Tell me a little about your path to becoming a published author. I know you've wanted to write since you were a child, but how did you actually make it happen?

JB: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I can remember. My dad was a writer, a broadcast newswriter for the networks, and my earliest memories have a soundtrack of his typewriter (remember those?). So from the time I could scribble, I was writing stories. I wrote my first novel, about my crush on my Social Studies teacher, when I was 11. (I shopped it around and got encouraging remarks but, much to my annoyance, no publishing contract.) I won the Seventeen Magazine national fiction contest when I was 16, and I published a lot of short fiction in college, all of which combined to give me the idea that the world owed me a living in writing fiction. What happened was, I graduated, worked in food service for about a decade, wrote and marketed more short stories, had some published, received many many rejections, and kept pollinating the world with work. My mantra, a Winston Churchill quotation I had on my wall, was—and is—“Never give in, never give in, never give in.” THOSE WHO SAVE US, my debut novel, was published the traditional way: I wrote it, published some excerpts from it as short stories, revised the whole to the best of my ability, sent it out, got an amazing agent, the agent sold it. This was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I am very, very lucky and grateful.

Me: Your first novel, THOSE WHO SAVE US, is about the experiences of the German people during WWII. What inspired you to write about this time period, especially from the perspective of non-Jewish Germans?

JB: You can find the long answer on my website, http://www.jennablum.com/, but the short answer is that while I was researching THOSE WHO SAVE US, I went to Germany with my mom, who has German relatives on her side of the family. Neither of us speak German, nor did we have a plan; basically, we tooled around the country visiting sites and asking each other, “How could the Holocaust have happened here, in this beautiful place? How could people—from the country that gave the world so many great composers, musicians, writers, artists and thinkers—have aided, abetted, stood by, let this happen?” One day we were driving from Buchenwald, which we had just visited, to neighboring Weimar, and I was struck by the fact that from the camp, you could see the city—so from the city, the citizens must have been able to see the camp. What did the Germans tell their children when ash fell from the sky in May? I asked my mom, “If you had lived here during the war, what would you have done?” Because I’m half-Jewish, I would have been sent to the camps with my Jewish dad, but my mom would have been considered a full-blooded Aryan. She said thoughtfully, “I don’t know. I hope I would have been brave enough to help my Jewish neighbors, but if the Nazis caught you they would kill you, and if I had you kids to care for….I just don’t know.” That’s when the character of Anna came to me, on the road from Buchenwald to Weimar: an ordinary German woman caught in the crucible of circumstance and forced to make terrible decisions.

Me: What kind of research was involved in the creation of the book? What did you learn from the Holocaust survivors you interviewed that surprised or touched you most?

JB: To write THOSE WHO SAVE US I not only went to Germany three more times with my mom, I engaged in what one reader kindly called “method research” and others might call “insanity.” I read everything I could about the time period, but I also tried to immerse in my characters’ lives as much as possible. I listened to German music. I took German classes. I baked everything that appears in the novel, which was no small undertaking considering half the novel is set in a bakery. For a while, I even dressed like Anna, my heroine, when I was writing—wearing a dirndl skirt, my hair in braids. (But only inside the house. Except on Halloween.) Of course, I was privileged to be able to interview survivors for the Steven Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah Foundation, and although I didn’t consider that research per se—it was an honor unto itself—this blessed experience did inform the novel. I did NOT use any survivors’ stories in the book, because I believe those are hallowed ground. But what astonished me over and over was how generous the survivors were. Here was this stranger coming to their homes to ask them to excavate their worst memories, many of which they had not talked about in fifty years—even to their children, even to their spouses, even if those spouses were also survivors. And what did they do? Fed me. “Eat,” they would always say to me, settling me at their kitchen tables. “Eat.”

Me: How have readers responded to THOSE WHO SAVE US, especially those who lived through the events described or lost loved ones in the war/concentration camps?

JB: My readers have been incredibly generous in their reactions to THOSE WHO SAVE US. I have had several interesting dialogues with readers about the graphic sex in the novel, which to me is intrinsic to the story of Anna’s realistic wartime treatment at the hands of her captor, the Obersturmfuhrer, and her subsequent shame—which so strongly affects her daughter as well as herself. Readers often write to me about this aspect of the book with varying degrees of discomfort, but I am grateful to say these emails have become conversations about writing choices and what happens to women in wartime. Otherwise, I have been humbled by how many readers have written to me to say THOSE WHO SAVE US has touched their lives by explaining to them why, maybe, their parents didn’t talk about what they endured during the war. I think the book has become sort of a lightning rod for the second generation struggling with their parents’ experiences, and I feel very grateful that it has brought some readers solace by providing an exploration of how people act when they’ve survived trauma.

Me: Your second novel, THE STORMCHASERS, is vastly different from your first. Did you purposely plan to publish such diverse books? How did both stories come about?


JB: Actually, THOSE WHO SAVE US and THE STORMCHASERS share very similar thematic ground—which speaks to your next question as well. THOSE WHO SAVE US is obviously a historical novel, and THE STORMCHASERS is contemporary. But both novels are set partially in “New Heidelburg,” the fictional Minnesota town based in part on the southern Minnesota town where my mom and grandmother were born. So readers who read THOSE WHO SAVE US will be able to revisit that landscape in THE STORMCHASERS. Both novels pose a moral question: what would you do, how far would you go, to save somebody you love? THOSE WHO SAVE US tests a mother’s love for her daughter; THE STORMCHASERS asks this question of a twin trying to care for her mentally unstable brother. Both novels are about people whose lives have been swiftly devastated by enormous forces beyond their control: the Nazi regime, mental instability. And with both novels, I aimed to give readers a good story, well told.

Me: Will fans of THOSE WHO SAVE US find anything familiar about THE STORMCHASERS? What similarities are there between your two books? What differences?

JB: Since I’ve discussed the similarities already, I will say that one difference between the two novels is stylistic. For instance, although I didn’t use quotation marks in THOSE WHO SAVE US because I wanted the novel to have an austere, almost sepia atmosphere of memory, there ARE quotation marks in THE STORMCHASERS. This should please a lot of readers who weren’t so happy about their omission in the first novel! Also, with THOSE WHO SAVE US, I aspired to give the writing a formal cadence, almost as if the language had been translated from German. With THE STORMCHASERS, my goal was to be able to capture the storms in the novel—atmospheric, mental, and emotional—in as simple and descriptive a manner as possible, so their enormous power would speak to readers for itself.

Me: I know you did extensive research for THE STORMCHASERS. Tell me what got you interested in the subject in the first place, and then what your research involved.

JB: I’ve been fascinated with severe weather since I was four years old, when I saw a tornado at night in my grandmother’s southern Minnesota hometown. While everyone else was asleep, I hid under the living room couch and watched a black rope twister move slowly across the picture window, left to right. This experience—which I transposed into THE STORMCHASERS—was terrifying, but to a little girl so obsessed with the Wizard of Oz she would answer only to “Dorothy,” it was also terribly exciting. I spent much of my adult life trying to see another tornado, chasing as an amateur when I lived in Minnesota in my 20s, often with my poor mom in tow. The results were predictably disastrous, like we’d end up cowering in a barn with a severe storm coming on and all the animals running like heck in the other direction. Finally it occurred to me that it would be much safer and more effective to chase storms with people who knew what they were doing, so when I started researching THE STORMCHASERS in earnest, I signed on to follow the professional storm tour group Tempest Tours, the model for Whirlwind Tours in the novel, as their media correspondent. I’ve been tailing Tempest for five years now and am about to take readers on a storm tour this June—check out http://www.tempesttours.com/ if you’ve ever wanted to stormchase! We will keep you safe while we take you on the big weather safari—and I’ll tell you how my experiences translated into the book. There’s also a photo and video gallery and audio about my close calls—I had a few really hair-raising ones—on my website, http://www.jennablum.com/.


But the real heart of THE STORMCHASERS is bipolar disorder—the novel is about twins, a brother and sister, and the brother, Charles, is bipolar whereas his sister Karena isn’t. Like many of my readers, I have beloved people in my life who are bipolar, and for years I’ve watched them struggle with the unspeakable conundrum the disorder presents: either take medication to comply with polite society and run the risk of not feeling like yourself, or don’t take medication and feel like yourself but risk alienating family and friends. While researching bipolar disorder, I was struck by how often it is likened to storms—mania is literally caused by a storm of electrical energy in the brain. The brother in the novel, Charles, believes he is a sort of human storm, that his rapid-cycling moods enable him to understand severe weather better than anyone else, and I wanted to explore how he and his twin grapple with the disorder in this context—through describing Charles’s storms in the mind’s eye and their consequences.


Me: How would you describe the *crazy* people who are obsessed with chasing storms? What did you learn about them that surprised you?

JB: That actually, they’re not crazy! From what we see in movies and on TV, we have the idea that all stormchasers want to do is hurl themselves into the heart of a tornado, screaming the entire time. That’s not true. There are a few “yahoos,” as chasers call them, who want to do very dangerous things so they can post the footage on YouTube and get famous. But really, what we fear is what they’ll get is dead. The chasers I know are a super-responsible bunch of scientists, meteorologists with master’s degrees and PhDs. They drive the speed limit. They’re veteran chasers of 10 years or more. They’re cabinet salesmen, supermarket managers, graphic designers with a summer hobby about which they are extremely passionate. Most chasers chase because they love the extraordinary majesty of big weather—simple as that. They love the awesome experience of being in the great lonesome Back Of Beyond, watching a cloud grow from a cumulus puff to a sculpted supercell. How does this happen? Why does one storm put down a tornado and another not? Chasers want to know this, and we also provide a public service by calling dangerous storms in to emergency management—on my Facebook page, there’s a video of my doing this during a recent chase on May 12th! Finally, it comes down to what my stormchasing friend Leisa said once: “I’m not a religious person, but chasing makes me think I could be; it’s like communion, to be one with something so much bigger than yourself.”

Me: You've taken readers to Nazi Germany and to Tornado Alley - where are we going next? What are you working on now?

JB: I’m sorry to say that’s a secret for now :) I do have another book in mind, and even when I’m not actively writing, I’m thinking about it—which to me is actually a big part of writing! But if I talk about the story now, it will dissipate. As the witch in The Wizard of Oz says, “These things must be done delicately, or you break the spell.”

Me: Finally, I ask this of all the writers I interview because I'm so fascinated by the variety of answers I receive: What is your writing routine? Do you write at the same time every day or do you wait until inspiration strikes? Do you outline or just let your ideas flow? Where do you write? What do you have to have (food, music, lucky charm, etc.) in order to write? How do you handle writer's block? Of the 24 hours in a day, how many do you spend writing?

JB: Oh, gosh. Well, I’m a crop-rotation writer; my writer’s life occurs in seasons. There’s the season of rest, when I don’t write much of anything except journaling and correspondence, and this is typically when I am miserable to live with because I always feel I should be writing. But in my wiser moments I remember this fallow-feeling period is actually very productive and necessary, because it overlaps with the information-gathering season: I’m traveling to research, I’m forming and discarding and considering ideas. Then there is writing season, when I’m actively working on a project; I go into lockdown, immerse totally, write and talk about and think writing 24/7. For instance, while I was writing THE STORMCHASERS, I moved to a motel in the small town the book is set in, lived there for two months with my black Lab Woodrow, so I could write without distraction until the novel was done.


In order to write, I need strong coffee, Ultra-Fine black Sharpies, canvas-covered notebooks from Borders to write longhand in, and my MacBook Air to actually write the scenes. I also need Woodrow for ruminating walks.


Because I can’t imagine setting out on a journey without a map, I always, always outline, although the outlines always change; for THOSE WHO SAVE US and THE STORMCHASERS, I had at least 11 outlines apiece! Finally, when all the writing and revising is done, it’s promotion season, as it is now. This is the delightful time when I get to go out on the road to bookstores, book clubs and events to meet the readers who have been so wonderful and supportive to me and my books. I very, very much hope everyone will come out and let me introduce them to THE STORMCHASERS, and I hope you will love my second baby as much as I do.

Me: Thanks so much, Jenna!


JB: Thank you!


(Author photo from Jenna Blum's Official Website)

Today, I'm pleased to introduce Lindsey Leavitt, author of Princess for Hire. Welcome to Bloggin' 'bout Books, Lindsey!



Me: You've said that you were a bit of a tomboy growing up, so what prompted you to write a princess book? It's an anti-princess book, but still ...


LL: Ha! I don’t really know why I’m the chick writing the princess books. Ideas just kind of come and you go with them. I fought it a bit, actually, because I didn’t think I could do it justice! Someone else with the same idea would have written a totally different story, but I do think my tomboy ways add a unique perspective.


Me: Since you were THAT girl in high school (the one who was popular and involved), how do you tap into the kind of insecurity/angst felt by kids like Desi, who are picked on and not part of the in crowd?


LL: Oh wow, maybe I should revise my website bio. Involved at my high school did not equal popularity. It just meant I really wanted to get into college and so spent more time padding my resume than my bra. So I still had plenty of insecurities, ESPECIALLY in junior high. I felt like everyone was watching me and that I never measured up in comparison. That was really easy to go back to because emotions at that age felt so BIG. And the more I talk to people about their adolescence, the more I find these feelings of alienation and invisibility are sadly universal.


Me: Why did you include the Old Hollywood themes in PRINCESS FOR HIRE? I'm in my 30s and I barely recognize the names Grace Kelly, Paul Newman, Ingrid Bergman, etc. Do you think modern kids will be able to connect with this old-time glamour?


LL: I didn’t want to date the story—if I would have included celebrities hot right now, they might not be hot next year. Old Hollywood has a timeless quality that more closely resembles the elegance we associate with royalty. AND I wanted Desi to be a little quirky, to have interests that don’t match her peers. Modern kids don’t have to know who Ingrid Berman is to appreciate that. (and to learn more, I’ll be featuring a different Old Hollywood screen siren every month on http://www.princessforhire.com/)


Me: How did you come by your love of Old Hollywood? What are your favorite classic movies?


LL: I used to watch them with my dad. I remember one time REAR WINDOW was on and he pointed to Grace Kelly and said, “You know, she left acting and became a real princess.” How cool is that? I was hooked.My favorite movie when I was younger was SABRINA with Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart. Does the love triangle thing like no one’s business.


Me: Since we're talking favorites, who are the authors you like to read? Which writers have inspired/influenced you most?


LL: I seriously read all over the map. I’ve been reading lots of tenners books lately (debut authors in 2010) because I’ve made friendships with lots of these authors and am interested in their work. Some I’ve read recently from that group that I really enjoyed are PROPHECY OF DAYS by Christy Raedeke and TORTILLA SUN by Jennifer Cervantes. Oh, and another that won’t be out until fall is THE REPLACEMENT by Brenna Yovanoff. Chilling and delicious.


I grew up a reader, and my favorite writers inspired me to give writing a go—Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, Kurt Vonnegut, P. G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen... we could be here awhile.


Me: You've got several projects in the works. Tell me about them (I know you like to be cryptic, but we want DETAILS).


LL: Well, I have to be cryptic about the second book in the PRINCESS FOR HIRE series because I don’t want to spoil anything for people who haven’t read the first! Plus, I’m still tweaking it and thus don’t want to say there will be a zombie mermaid because zombie mermaid might not make final cut.


Another book I have coming out next March is called SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD and I’m so excited about it! It’s a little older than P4H and straight contemporary. Here’s a bit about it…After discovering her father’s big Multiple Sclerosis secret, Payton Gritas’s structured life crumbles. So begin her excruciating ‘chats’ with Ms Callahan, a school counselor aiming to save Payton from drowning in denial by encouraging her to write Focus Exercises on any random object. Payton chooses Sean Griswold, her alphabetical connection since kindergarten. More specifically, she chooses his somewhat over-sized head.As Payton’s research grows into something a little less scientific and a little more crush-like, it spawns more and more questions about Sean and his dome. Like what’s with the scar? And why is a fifteen year old training to be the next Lance Armstrong? Payton finds answers to these questions by getting inside Sean’s blond head, while Sean somehow finds a way into her guarded heart. But when Payton realizes her Sean obsession won’t ultimately mend her battered relationship with her dad, she must shift her focus to the one person who can find the way forward – herself.


Me: Okay, The Tiara Tour - how much fun did you have on your first book tour?


LL: You know, I was warned that tours aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. And it’s true, it’s pretty nerve-wracking walking into a store and not knowing if anyone is going to come. Still, it was a blast—blogged about it here http://lindsey-leavitt.livejournal.com/124255.html. It’s been so wonderful to meet readers and potential readers and booksellers and teachers and librarians. Writers spend so much time behind the computer, it was lovely to step out and talk with real life PEOPLE for awhile (but just awhile. Gotta get back to those fictional characters, after all).


Me: How has your life changed - or not - since you've become a real, live, published author?


LL: The main thing that's changed is I have a career now (It still feels funny using that word. Like when I first signed with my agent, I dropped her name All The Time). A career gives me legitimacy to family, friends, and anyone else I have to tell to leave me alone so I can hole up and write. I’ve also had to take on some more authorly roles (interviews, fan mail, book signings, ect) but the writing is the same. I still need to hammer out the next story.As far as day to day living goes, everything is really the same except now there’s a book on a shelf (and okay, maybe I go visit said book about three times a day).


Me: Lastly, I ask this of all the authors I interview, because I'm always amazed by the variety of answers I get. How do you write? Is there a certain time of the day when you prefer to work? Do you write every day or just wait for the mood to strike? Do you outline or just let the ideas come as you're writing? Is there anything - chocolate, perhaps? - that you have to have by your side in order to write?


LL: My best writing usually happens late at night, but lately, with three little kids, I’m finding I’m just too tired to go with the muse most evenings. Now, I write WHENEVER I CAN. As I type this, my baby is sleeping and my other two (6 and 3) are playing Play-Dough at the table with me. I find I can do businessy stuff when they’re around, but save real writing for when I’m alone. When I have a deadline, I hire sitters or hubby helps out. There isn’t a set schedule, I just kind of get by and do what I can when I can. I prefer to let my ideas take me where they may, but with a series, that can really turn into chaos. So I’m starting to outline more than I have in the past and I keep charts so I can keep track of details for continuity purposes. Chocolate is always readily available in this home. Always. That and a laptop and I’m good to go.


Me: Thanks so much, Lindsey!

Hi Ashley! Welcome to Bloggin' 'bout Books.

Me: If it's not too personal, can you tell me a little about your path to adoption? What made you decide to adopt?


AHB: After years of infertility and the heartache that goes along with that, I came to a cross-roads of either spending lots of money to do IVF procedures without a promise of it working, or giving up on the idea of having a child naturally and moving my focus toward adoption. After much prayer, I decided that it didn’t matter how my children get here, only THAT they get here. So we stopped trying to get pregnant and set our minds on adoption. Once I made that decision, I finally had hope. I could actually see light at the end of the tunnel for the first time and I was happy.


Me: You said you wrote ONCE UPON A TIME because you couldn't find "the perfect book" about adoption to read to your daughter. What does your book say that other books didn't? When you were writing the book, what ideas/themes were you most passionate about getting across to your readers?


AHB: I was looking for a book that helped my daughter (and all adopted children) to see that their adoption journey was orchestrated by a caring Heavenly Father who loved them. I was most passionate about giving adopted children a feeling of being wanted and loved by everyone involved. Birthmothers are not usually mentioned in adoption stories. How could there even be an adoption story without a birthmother? It was important to me to have my daughter know how hard it was for her birthmother to make an adoption plan.


Me: This is a similar question, but what do you think adopted children need to know about themselves? What do you think the general public needs to know about adoption?


AHB: Adopted children need to know that their journey is a spiritual one and that even though they didn’t grow in their mommy’s tummy, they are as much their real child as if they had been. I’m glad that adoption is no longer taboo around the community. My children actually feel sad for their friends that aren’t adopted because they feel pretty special.


Me: How have readers - especially those within the adoption community - responded to your book?


AHB: It has actually been received better than I expected. My favorite quote was from a grandchild of a reader. She said, “Grandma, will you read me this book because every time Mom reads it to me, she cries.” I actually hear stuff like that a lot. Not that I want my readers to cry, but it does mean that it must have brought back all the wonderful memories of their adoption story and that’s what I was hoping for. The original title for my book was Happy Tears: An Adoption Story, but I later found out that there was another book by that name already in print.


Me: Tell me a little about the art in ONCE UPON A TIME. You said illustrator Amy Hintze allowed you to "photograph my vision for each page" - how did that work exactly?


AHB: As I wrote this book, I had a vision of what each page would look like. I cannot draw at all so the idea of doing the art myself was out of the question. I spent days going through books looking at illustrations to see the style that I wanted. As soon as I came across I Chose You, which was illustrated by Amy Hintze, I knew I had found the illustrator for my book. Her artwork was so real and so beautiful. It took a few days to track her down, but when I did and she said she would love to work with me on my book, I was ecstatic. Wait, that wasn’t your question. =) Amy likes to use photos as models for her paintings and since she lives close enough to me, we decided to work together to create the pictures. Because this is my daughter’s story, I wanted her to be the main character. So we spent several days setting the scene for each page. Her paintings are amazing. Although she has never adopted, she captured the emotion of each person as if she had been there to feel it. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.


Me: One of the most unique aspects of your book is its question-and-answer format. Why did you decide to write the story this way?


AHB: I didn’t actually set out to have it written that way. I knew what I wanted it to say and the message that I wanted to share. I just didn’t know the best way to do that (I’m not a writer by trade). After about three tries, I finally came up with this format. I was really happy with the dialog and the way it flowed. Plus, it is a conversation I have had with my daughter several times so it made it feel more real.


Me: Tell me about writing ONCE UPON A TIME. Did you outline the story or did the words just come to you? Did the story require a lot of revision? How did you decide which information to include and which to leave out?


AHB: I knew the basics of the story. That part was easy. The hard part was making it fun for children to read while still getting the message across. It was also hard staying in the word number/ page number guidelines of children’s picture books. I did have to revise it several times because it just didn’t “feel” right. 32 pages took me 4 years to write! That tells you how much a struggled with it. I wanted ALL of the information to be included and that was hard to do in only 32 pages. But once I started with the last draft, I knew it was right. It really just flowed at that point.


Me: You've said that you love children's literature. What are your favorite books to read to your children?


AHB: Wow, so many, but if I had to name my all-time favorites they would be: Goodnight Moon; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; There’s a Nightmare in my Closet; Ira Sleeps Over; Who’s Making That Smell?; Hop on Pop; If you see a Kitten; Where the Wild Things Are


Me: What are you working on right now?


AHB: Well, right now, my husband and I are about to adopt a 6-year-old boy from Taiwan. I hope to be traveling in the next few months to bring him home. I told myself while publishing Once Upon a Time: An Adoption Story that if it went well, I would write another book about an international adoption. I’ve been gathering information and taking notes about this journey that we’re on in the hopes of using it for my next book. We’ll just have to see what happens with the reception of this book first.


Me: If you could send one message about adoption out to the world, what would it be and why?


AHB: I’m sad when I hear people say that adopted children were “given away” or “given up” by their birthmothers. I have sat with a wonderful young girl on her last night with her new baby boy before placing that child into the arms of his adoptive mother. I have seen the pain that they feel in doing what they know is best for their child whom they love deeply. Their decision to place is a total sacrifice on their part. My message is that adoption is a loving choice and that the Lord helps build eternal families through loving birthmothers who are following the Spirit to do what is best for their unborn child.


Me: Thanks so much, Ashley!

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Amy Brecount White to BBB. She's the author of Forget-Her-Nots (reviewed here), a YA novel about (among other things) the power of flowers. Welcome, Amy!

Me: I know you loved to read as a child, but what about writing? Did you make up stories as a kid or did that come later?

ABW: I remember having an active imaginary life and playing very elaborate games with my friends and siblings, but I didn't actually write anything down until I was in college.

Me: What made you decide to write for a YA audience?

ABW: I used to teach high school English, and I love working with teens. (Often more so than adults!) I think it's a very exciting and elastic time of life. When I started reading more YA novels, I also became aware of how well-written and engrossing they are. Teen readers are a demanding audience, and the writers rise to their expectations.

Me: What made you choose to write brighter, more hopeful stories than those that are currently on the market for teens?

ABW: Quite frankly, I'm a pretty bright and hopeful person. I have my moments, but I like to celebrate the joys and connections of life, rather than dwell on all the negatives. Happy stuff happens, too.

Me: How has teaching junior high and high school influenced your writing?

ABW: Teaching made me very aware of lots of the issues and stresses teens face today. I also came to have great respect for the intelligence and depth of my students. I wanted to write a book that would truly appeal to their curiosity and empathy.

Me: Have you learned anything about teenage readers that helped you while writing FHN?

ABW: I learned that they care a great deal about the world and that they're always listening. I hope that knowing about flowers and their messages adds a dimension of fun and intrigue to their own lives.

Me: In Forget-Her-Nots, Laurel's classmates tease her because she's so into flowers, something that's not common among today's teenagers. Why did you think the subject would be interesting for YA readers?

ABW: Personally, I think flowers are amazing,and they bring me great joy. I wanted to share that joy and delight and encourage teenagers to stop and smell the roses - literally. There are scientific studies that show how having flowers in your room at a hospital can help you recover more quickly or that receiving flowers can boost your mood for days. I wrote a guest blog about it for the Book Butterfly here: http://butterflybookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/spread-flower-love-blog-tour-amy.html.

Me: How did your love for flowers come about?

ABW: It's partly inherited from my mom and a neighbor who gardened. So I always knew I wanted my own garden when I had some soil to play with. Both my sisters garden, and we all enjoy plants and flowers in our houses. I love to watch each bud emerge and then open wide. The colors and scents can be magnificent.

Me: What kinds are your favorite to grow in your garden?

ABW: I have flowers blooming in my garden from February to November. Whichever ones are in bloom are my favorites. I especially love the bleeding hearts, native wisteria, and hellebores.
What do your choices say about you? I'm pretty easy to please, as far as flowers go. I love them all.

Me: If Laurel made you a tussie-mussie, what would it include?

ABW: White bellflowers to express gratitude for telling her story. Mountain laurel, because that's HER flower. Rosemary, because she wants me to remember her and bring her back to life on the page.

Me: In FHN, Ms. Suarez is cultivating a very exotic flower in the school conservatory. If you could choose such a bloom for your own gardens, what would it be? Why?

ABW: Ooo, I'd be a little scared to have something that rare and wonderful, but it would probably be a lady slipper orchid. I've seen a few lady slipper orchids in the wild, and they just take your breath away. So beautiful. I haven't had the time or patience to try them in my yard, and they're expensive, too. With my three kids and dog to keep me busy, I prefer lower maintenance stuff now that I know will come back next year (perennials).

Me: I know you're working on a new book, after which you plan to write a sequel to FHN. Tell me about both stories.

ABW: The next one is called STRING THEORIES. It's YA, ages 14 and up, so slightly edgier. It's about love and lust, the physics of relationships, a stream, and getting even.

After that, I'd love to do a companion novel (kind of like Shannon Hale's Bayern books) to FHN. It would have more to do with the world of orchids and flower smuggling.

Me: You juggle so many roles - wife, mother, teacher, writer, blogger. How do you balance it all?

ABW: It's a little nuts right now. I'm not teaching at all, but I hope to do school and Skype visits, because I do love to talk about writing. I try to live fully in every moment and give my best to whatever I'm doing. I'm sure some things have slid through the cracks, but I'm having a great time. I'm a very energetic person! My kids are thrilled for my success, so they're pretty good about helping out.

Me: Finally, I ask this question of all the authors I interview, simply because I'm fascinated by the variety of responses I get: How do you write?

ABW: I love to get up early and write while the world is still asleep, but I usually only do that when I'm deep into a novel or revisions. Most days, I write while my kids are in school. I just finished STRING THEORIES, so I'll read it one more time, then send to my agent and take a little break to catch up after the FHN launch and let some ideas gestate.

Me: Do you have a regular writing schedule or do you compose as the mood strikes?

ABW: I have to write when the house is silent, which means while the kids are at school. I'm fairly disciplined. My most important rule is to leave a note to myself at the end of each writing day, so I can dive in where I left off without feeling blocked or blanking. I don't have time for writer's block.

Me: Do you outline your books or just write?

ABW: I do both. Sometimes the voices and scenes just run in your head, and you follow along. Then later I'll go back and see how it fits into the whole scheme of the novel. Sometimes I plan exactly what to write. It's different every day.

Me: Where do you write?

ABW: Anywhere quiet.

Me: Is there anything you HAVE to have beside you when you write? I love to drink hot tea while I write. I drink a lot of Earl Grey with milk.

ABW: What makes you unique from other writers?

Me: My topic of the language of flowers definitely sets me apart. Every writer has had unique experiences she can bring to the page. So every writer has the potential to be unique. :-)

Me: Thanks so much, Amy!