The Flame in the Mist Blog Tour: Interview with Kit Grindstaff!

I'm happy to have on my blog today debut author Kit Grindstaff, author of the middle-grade dark fantasy The Flame in the Mist, out on April 9th from Random House/Delacorte! Kit is here to appease my whims and was at the mercy of my interview questions. Welcome, Kit, to Steph Su Reads!

www.kitgrindstaff.com

1. Let's create some quick book poetry: describe your book using other books' titles.

Great! I love rhymes. Here goes!

THE PECULIAR tale of a PROPHECY

And a RED-haired girl with a DESTINY

She’s a GIRL OF NIGHTMARES, that’s for sure

DIVERGENT plots, and schemes, and more!

The doom and THE DARK ‘neath the Agromonds’ thumb

Sends Jemma into a DELIRIUM

‘Cause they’re DIABOLICAL, she’s their PREY

And they badly want her OUT OF THE WAY!

The ROT AND RUIN grows intense

In a SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

Will Jemma live up to GREAT EXPECTATIONS

As she unearths each REVELATION?

Can wielding the MAGYK in her hands

RESCUE the POOR FOLK of her land?

THE DARK IS RISING! But ah, there’s a twist—

Read all about it in THE FLAME IN THE MIST!

Ok, I confess—I cheated a little. A couple of these are series titles, and there are several that I haven’t read. [full list of books that appear in Kit's poem appears at the end of the interview]

2. On your FAQ page you mention that you've had a lot of jobs before becoming an author. Which of them do you think had the biggest influence on your current writing style or material?

Not my main career of songwriting, for sure! Though “writing”, the formats are so different, and song content has little to do with dark, middle grade fiction! Far mor influential was a job I had before getting into the music business, when I was an assistant teacher in a primary school in England. It brought me into contact with children’s books after many years (since being a child!), and I totally fell in love with Maurice Sendak’s work with its dark, anarchic edge.

Also during that time I wrote a rhyming book which my sister illustrated (never published; it had serious flaws!). Knowing this, one of the teachers asked me to work with some of the kids in her class and write down fairy tales which they’d make up. Listening to the dark contents of some of those 5-year-olds’ imaginations—full of devouring witches and threatening forests—something clicked in me about children’s minds and archetypes in story telling.

The seed of wanting to write for children was definitely planted then. My dream of songwriting and being a pop artist took over, so it was years before I really began watering that seed. But it was always at the back of my mind, lurking in the shadows…

3. Tell us 3 things about THE FLAME IN THE MIST that aren't mentioned in the synopsis.

Ooh, what to say without giving too much away….How about this:

i) During her escape through Agromond Forest, Jemma is pursued by evil Inquisitors—bounty-hunters who enforce the Agromonds’ law.

ii) Later, Digby is kidnapped by those same Inquisitors and imprisoned at Blackwater, a town inhabited by Agromond supporters. And of course Jemma isn’t going to leave him there to rot…

iii) The head Inquisitor is connected to someone who will become very important to Jemma, and provide a major opportunity for developing her healing skills.

4. What is your favorite spooky:

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    - book?  The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Two ghosts….possessed children…Creeeeepy!

    - movie? The Innocents, a 1961 movie based on The Turn of the Screw. It’s in black and white, perfect for spook factor! Close second is the more recent The Others, with Nicole Kidman. The end totally took me by surprise.

    - TV show? A fabulously atmospheric and creepy 2003/2005 series called Carnival. Set in depression-era U.S., it pits fugitive farm boy Ben Hawkins, who has powers some would call demonic, against Brother Justin, a rabid evangelical. The setting of a traveling carnival, with its colorful ‘freak show’ cast, is the perfect background against which their sinister heaven vs hell battle is played out. And there’s a great twist on the good/evil dichotomy.

    - event?  The Halloween parade in New York City! I only went once, about 10 years ago. It was pretty wild. Favorite costume? A man in vampire garb holding an upturned human skull (presumably plastic) from which he was eating spaghetti with tomato sauce that looked just like…Well, you can imagine what it looked like. Eeew!

5. Which fictional character(s) would Jemma be friends with if they met?

Jemma would love Conn from Sarah Prineas’s Magic Thief series. They’re similarly spunky, and he has an irreverence that she’d relate to. Also, Septimus Heap of Angie Sage’s series; the circumstances of their births and early years would give them a connection, and plenty to talk about, as well as teaching each other magical techniques. Septimus may be confused by Jemma’s name being so like Jenna’s from his own books, though.

As a girl pal, I think Jemma would hit it off with Ginny Weasley. Not Hermione—she, Harry and Ron are too much of a unit. Jemma needs her own friend. Hogwarts might remind her too much of Agromond Castle for comfort, though.

6. Something I've been intrigued by recently is what makes certain book titles especially alluring to readers. Yours is definitely one of those special titles. How did you come up with it? What are some of your favorite book titles? What do you think makes a good book title?

Thanks, Steph Su! So glad you think of my title as special—words any author would love to hear.

Actually, coming up with it was a group effort. My editor, Michelle Poploff, and I had discussed that my working title wasn’t zingy enough for kids. She suggested including the words “Mist” and “flame” (or “fire”), as they’re recurring symbols in the book. Brain-tied by my familiarity with my old title, I sent out an email to a few friends who’d read the book, telling them Michelle’s suggestion and asking for ideas.

Brainstorming with my husband, he said, “How about The Flame in the Mist?” Too obvious, I thought. Not long after, I got an email from my nephew in England, responding to my SOS. His suggestion? The Flame in the Mist. Er….weird. Two people coming up with the same title…? But I still wasn’t convinced. Later that day, though, it hit me: their suggestion wasn’t just right; it was perfect! Now, it feels like it’s always been the book’s title, and it couldn’t be anything else.

Titles that pull me most in are ones that pose a question I want answered, even if it’s as simple as “What does that mean?” Perhaps it’s a word that’s inherently intriguing to me, like Stefan Bachmann’s The Peculiar, (what Peculiar?) or juxtaposing words in an interesting way, like Laura Amy Schlitz’s Splendors and Glooms or R. L. LaFevers’s Grave Mercy, which has a clever twist to it. Others do that while also suggesting fun, like Sarah Prineas’s The Magic Thief series. (I mean, ooh…How do you steal magic?)

Then there are the catch phrases, the ones which take an extract from the book and place it out of context, like To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men, both of which are enticing. Another I’ve been dying to read simply from its title is Cat Winters’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds, whose eeriness is borne out by its synopsis. I totally want to know about that shadow, and what being in it will do, or has done. And as obvious as I thought it was, I like to imagine now that if I saw my own title on a book I hadn’t written, I might just be intrigued enough to pick it up!

Thanks so much for hosting me, Steph Su. It’s been fun!

The Peculiar: Stefan Bachmann (Greenwillow)  Prophecy: Ellen Oh (HarperTeen)  Red: Alison Cherry (Delacorte) [tbr 10/13]

Destiny: Carly Phillips (Berkley)  Girl of Nightmares: Kendare Blake (Tor Teen)  Divergent: Veronica Ross (Katherine Tegan Books)  The Dark: Lemony Snicket and John Klassen (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)  Delirium: Lauren Oliver (Harper Collins)   Diabolical: Cynthia Leitich Smilth (Candlewick Press)   Prey: Michael Crichton (Harper)

Out of the Way: Uma Krishnaswami (Groundwood)    Rot and Ruin: Jonathan Maberry (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers)   A Series of Unfortunate Events: Lemony Snicket (HarperCollins)  Great Expectations: Charles Dickens (many editions)  Revelation:  C. J. Sansom (Penguin)  Magyk: Angie Sage (Katherine Tegan Books)  Rescue: Anita Shreve (Little, Brown and Company)  Poor Folk: Fyodor Doystoyevsky (many editions)  The Dark is Rising: Susan Cooper (Margaret K. McElderry Books)   The Flame in the Mist: Me! (Delacorte Press)

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Thank YOU, Kit, for the fun answers! You can check out the other stops on the Flame in the Mist blog tour over at Mod Podge Blog Tours. In addition, enter the blog tour-wide giveaway using the Rafflecopter form below:
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Erin Jade Lange Guest Post for BUTTER Blog Tour

Erin Jade Lange's debut novel, BUTTER, was released last month from Bloomsbury. Here's what it's about:

A lonely obese boy everyone calls "Butter" is about to make history. He is going to eat himself to death--live on the Internet--and everyone is invited to watch.

When he first makes the announcement online to his classmates, Butter expects pity, insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And that feels good. But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn't go through with his plans?

With a deft hand, E.J. Lange allows readers to identify with both the bullies and the bullied in this all-consuming look at one teen's battle with himself.

And here's Erin with a guest post as part of the BUTTER blog tour!

BUTTER's Scottsdale setting is vibrantly alive with "Arizonian" elements of high school girls with fake tans and fake blond hair, bright 7am sunshine waking Butter up, and mountains on which Butter can get lost playing his saxophone to the coyotes. It's hard to imagine BUTTER set anywhere else. What is your own relationship with Arizona's culture? What do you like and/or dislike about it?

I first fell in love with the desert as a kid, on a road trip out west. My introduction to this half of the country was Monument Valley. It was so bare and vast and nothing like the crowded landscape of trees and hills that I’d grown up with. I was fascinated by it, and to this day, I think it’s one of those most striking places I’ve ever been.

But I knew I couldn’t live in that kind of landscape all day every day. I needed a little more variety… which is why Arizona is so great. I am a desert dweller, but I can be snowboarding in the mountains in 2 hours, swimming at the beach in 6 hours, floating down a river in 30 minutes and shopping in an entirely different country in less than 4 hours. Also, other than a few brutal months in the summer, I can’t complain about the weather!

Aside from the scenery, I often have a love-hate relationship with Arizona.

tourwestamerica.com

It’s good to live in an area where so many people are active and healthy, but I feel there is less empathy here when it comes to weight. I grew up in the Midwest, where we hibernate in the winter, hunkering down with rich warm comfort foods and generally spending a little less time in bathing suits and a lot less time looking in the mirror. It’s one thing to take care of yourself, but I sometimes feel parts of the southwest, Arizona included, put a little too much emphasis on physical image. That’s part of why I set BUTTER in Scottsdale, AZ – to position this character who is struggling with obesity against that backdrop.

Unrelated to the book, one problem I have with living in Arizona is the negative national attention we sometimes get. It’s disappointing to see our state so often the butt of a late-night comedian’s joke or in the news for all the wrong reasons. But as a journalist, it certainly makes Arizona an interesting place to work!

Like anywhere else, Arizona has its pros and cons, but one absolutely WONDERFUL thing about living here is being able to sit OUTSIDE and write almost year-round.

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Thanks, Erin! Check out BUTTER, now available in stores and online. And visit Erin's author website and Twitter for more information.

Author Interview with Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst has been a steady fixture on the YA fantasy scene for the past few years. Her latest is VESSEL, is recently out from Margaret K. McElderry. Us PoC book lovers have been dedicatedly keeping an eye on this book for a while, thanks in large part to the breath-stealing cover:

And this alluring book synopsis:

In a desert world of sandstorms and sand-wolves, a teen girl must defy the gods to save her tribe in this mystical, atmospheric tale from the author of Drink, Slay, Love.

Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyana’s goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate—or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

Today, I have Sarah Beth Durst as a guest on my blog to talk more about herself and VESSEL, hooray!

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1. Your cover has a beautiful POC model on it, and that is a total deal-maker for me! Can you tell us a bit about the type of research you had to do for VESSEL, and which cultures, if any, you drew upon for it? What was the most surprising thing you learned in your research?

I researched the lives and cultures of people who live in deserts, specifically the Sahara, the Gobi, and the southwest United States. And I meshed them together and injected them with magic to create my desert world.

A few things I learned: Snakes can stay venomous for twenty-four hours after death. You can eat a scorpion raw (if you cut off the tail). And date palm trees have bark that you can climb, but the bark is also sharp enough to cut you.

2. What was the hardest part of VESSEL to write? What was your favorite part?

I loved creating the world, especially inventing the mythology. (Oral storytelling plays an important part in the culture of my desert land.) The hardest part for me is always the first draft, when the story is the farthest from what it's supposed to be. I love revisions because, for me, that's when the story comes to life.

3. Give us a snapshot of A Day in the Life of Sarah Beth Durst, Writer.

Every morning I wake at the crack of dawn to feed the fire-breathing dragons, then I have to muck out the centaur stables and check on the were-chickens in between writing a few paragraphs...

Okay, I don't really wake at the crack of dawn. But otherwise, it's fairly accurate. My day is a constant mix of writing and daily life. I do my best to balance both.

4. You're stranded on an island. Would you rather do it on your own (Robinson Crusoe-style) or with a group of strangers (Lord of the Flies-style?)

If the island has its own library, then alone is fine. If not... then I suppose I'll take my chances with the people. Aside from being able to type fast, I don't have many survival skills so it would be nice to have other people... at least until they decide I'm Piggy.

5. What is your favorite thing to do after a good writing session?

Collapse on the couch with my husband and a bag of tortilla chips! I'd like to say something a lot more exotic, such as "after I finish writing, I head off to skydive, followed by a snorkeling expedition and a hunt for the Loch Ness Monster," but really, I just like to watch Project Runway then go to sleep.

mongolia-travel-advice.com

milk-and-pumpkin.blogspot.com

6. Complete the following sentences:

- Fans of Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, and Kristin Cashore will enjoy VESSEL.

- When reading VESSEL, readers should prepare date pastries and goat cheese on pita bread as their snacks.

- After reading VESSEL, readers will never be able to think of sand in the same way again.

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Thank you, Sarah! Be sure to check Sarah out at her author website, Twitter, and Facebook. Remember, VESSEL is out now from booksellers!

STORMDANCER Blog Tour: Interview with Author Jay Kristoff

A couple days ago I posted my review of STORMDANCER by Jay Kristoff, one of the biggest earth-shaking reading experiences I have had this year so far. I'm lucky to say that today, as part of the Stormdancer Blog Tour, I'm featuring an interview with author Jay Kristoff, who has given some of his precious time to thoughtfully and intelligently answering my many questions. Welcome, Jay, to Steph Su Reads!

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jaykristoff.com

1. How did the idea for writing STORMDANCER come to you?

This is kind of a lame answer, but I had a dream. It was about a little boy in a field of dead grass. He was standing in front of a griffin and screaming at it, trying to get it to fly, but the griffin’s wings were broken and it couldn’t get off the ground.

Friends who think too much about “what dreams mean” tell me that the little boy was me, and the griffin was my first novel (which I was querying at the time, and wasn’t going to get off the ground no matter how much I yelled). But that image of a griffin with broken wings stuck in my head. It all kinda came from there, really. The little boy became a teenaged girl, and the dead grass became blood-red flowers, but that was where it started.

2. What influences and inspirations did you draw upon to create your world of the Shima Isles and the oppressive Lotus Guild?

There’s this strange habit among a lot of steampunk authors where they treat the advent of industrialization as something fantastic. The machine is a gateway into awesome adventures and inexplicable corsetry. When in reality, the industrial age was forged on the backs of serf and slave labor, child exploitation and misery. So I wanted to make the gatekeepers to Shima’s technology bad guys. The machine is destroying the nation, even as it empowers it. I wanted to draw a parallel between the Guild and the constructs we see in our world today – faceless oil and munitions companies dictating foreign policy, wars being fought in the name of resource acquisition and to keep the military industrial complex afloat.

I’m not some hippy who wants to go back to the days of growing your own potatoes and starving to death when Mr Fungus comes to town, but I do genuinely believe we’re addicts, just like the people of Shima. Not to chi, maybe. But to something that looks an awful lot like it.

3. Tell us a bit about the writing process of STORMDANCER. Did you outline in advance or just start writing? What was the first scene you wrote? What is your favorite scene? What was the hardest scene for you to write?

I just started writing. I’m a pantser by nature. I like not knowing what’s going to happen next. I like surprising myself. Before I actually wrote the scene where he appeared, Kin was going to be a girl. The scar on Kaori’s face was something I threw in on a whim, and over the course of writing the sequels, it’s become this huge, character defining trait for her. The one thing I knew for sure when I started writing was how the book was going to end, and it didn’t end that way at all. :)

The first scene I wrote was chapter 2: Yoritomo giving Hideo his decree. Although again, when I started writing it, Yoritomo was much younger – eleven or twelve. It was only after the story developed that I aged him up and made him an utter bastard.

My favourite scene to write was the scene where Yukiko and Buruu are fighting the oni, and their minds converge for the first time. There’s a really cool brutality in that scene, but it’s framed in this moment where Yukiko and Buruu are perfectly in tune and moving through the world like water amidst all this blood and thunder. Lots of fun to write.

Hardest scene to write is full of spoilers, so I can't talk about it ☺

4. Did any part of the story surprise you with how it turned out?

Oh, absolutely. Most of the big twists in Stormdancer are twists I didn’t know were coming. I have this document called “So what happens now?” dated 2010 on my hard drive, back from when I was first drafting Stormdancer. It outlined where the book was going to go from the halfway point. I read through it now and it’s hilarious - everything ended differently from how I expected.

I can’t really talk about details without throwing in huge spoilers, but the twist at the end of the second act? Had no idea that was coming. The twist during the prison break with Masaru? No idea that was coming either.

But I enjoy that element of uncertainty. If you don’t know how your story is going to end, it’s a sure thing most of your readers won’t either.

5. Yoritomo is one of the creepiest fantasy villains I have ever read. Who are some of your favorite literary villains?

biography.com

I like real life villains. Villains who have a plausible foundation for their evil. I based Yoritomo on the Roman Emperor Nero – a kid who basically came to rule far too young, and eventually began experimenting with the limits of power. If you’re an absolute monarch who isn’t raised with a sense of justice and integrity, eventually you’re going to figure out you can do pretty much anything you feel like, and nobody is going to stop you – particularly if you’re the lynchpin of a dynasty. The choice between suffering a madman’s rule or plunging the nation into a bloody succession war in which thousands will perish – that’s a hard choice for most people to make.

I like studying people like Nero or Caligula. Xerxes. Alexander the Great. Edward the 1st. Henry the 8th. Napoleon. Stalin. These men were all absolute bastards – villains and conquerors and murderers, all corrupted by the absolute power they wielded. I like that idea. I like an evil founded in reality and human desire, a villain who started with the best of intentions and somewhere just went… bad.

6. How did you put yourself into the mindset of a teenage girl? Was it difficult? Did you have anyone checking your writing for you to make sure Yukiko's voice was genuine?

It was difficult, but I’m not sure if it would be any more difficult than writing in the shoes of another archetype I’m not and will never be. Is writing a teenage girl any more difficult than writing a soldier? I’ve never been to war, never killed anybody. Never swung a sword or felt my life in real danger. I think every writer faces that difficulty – unless you’re writing an autobiography, you’re always in someone else’s shoes. I guess that the challenge of what we do. I tried to stick to universal truths when writing Yuki – male or female, there are things everyone wants and needs. Friendship. Love. A place to belong. We all want those, no matter the configuration of our chromosomes.

I do have my wife vet all my work though. She devours books – she’s the most well-read person I know. So not only is she great for keeping the female voice true, but she spots clichés or tired tropes and my stumbling, bumbling logic. She’s brutal in her criticism, but she’s good at keeping me honest. This series wouldn’t exist without her.

7. Do you have any particular "writing quirks" (location, outfit, time of day/night, snack, music, etc.)?

I write all slouched on the couch with my feet on the coffee table. Usually wearing ugg boots (very glamorous, I know). Sometimes the dog sits on my lap, so I balance the laptop on his back. I always work at night – I just seem more comfortable when the world is asleep. The only snack I really pop is red bull. This is my rock and roll author life.

8. Can you give us a teeeeeeny tiny hint as to what the sequel will feature? :)

It’s actually tricky to talk about that – there are some massive spoilery events that occur in the first half dozen pages of book 2 that I shouldn’t be let out of the bag yet, and if you haven’t read book 1, the climactic events at the end of book 1 are also huge spoilers.

But basically, the Shima imperium begins to descend into all-out war. The seeds they’ve planted with their conflict overseas against the gaijin begin to bear bitter fruit, the nation begins tearing itself to pieces. The Lotus Guild try to maintain their grip on power as the nation begins to decline, and they risk all in a stratagem to wipe out the Kagé rebellion once and for all. Yukiko’s powers are growing beyond her ability to control, and she’s also trying to deal with the mantle of “hero” that’s been thrust upon her. We meet new friends, new enemies and a couple of the minor characters from Stormdancer become major players.

If you wanted to read more about Kin after book 1, you’ll be happy with book 2. Although maybe not happy with the way it ends…

Dun, dun, duuuunnnnnnnn.

9. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

Buruu says it best.

YOUR KIND ARE BLIND. YOU SEE ONLY THE NOW, NEVER THE WILL BE.
AFTER THE LAST FISH IS CAUGHT. AFTER THE LAST RIVER POISONED. THEN YOU WILL KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. AND BY THEN IT WILL BE TOO LATE.

I have a little more optimism than Buruu. I have a little more faith in our ability to turn back from the precipice we’re rushing towards in our 8-cylinder SUVs, tossing our Starbuck’s cups out the window. Maybe not much, but a little.

Everyone can make a difference.

You can make a difference.

Your time starts now.

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Thank you so much, Jay. Visit JayKristoff.com to learn more about the author and book. You can also visit the other stops on the Stormdancer Blog Tour here. Stormdancer is now available in the UK and US.

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone Blog Tour Author Interview with Kat Rosenfield

I'm lucky to be part of a blog tour for Kat Rosenfield's debut novel, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, about which I've heard tons of great things. And today I have Kat over for an exclusive interview, yay! Without further ado...

1. Who or what influences you?

Books, movies, memories, my editor, my agent, my husband, talking with friends, eavesdropping on strangers, old family photos, emails from my mom, local folklore, craft beer, trees that look like monsters, and about a million other things. (I'm extremely suggestible, creatively and in general.)

2. What are some differences between you writing for your freelance jobs and writing your own novels?

For one, I don't think I've ever spent an entire day lying facedown in despair over my freelance work. (Writing fiction gives me a lot of feelings, okay?) But apart from that, the voice I use as a freelancer is very different from the one I use in writing novels; they're both very much me, but the Kat that writes silly lists and entertainment gossip and advises teenagers on how to ask their crush to prom is a lot more sassy and extroverted. And she's probably more fun to hang out with; Novelist Kat is kind of a silent weirdo who collects bat skeletons and never washes her hair.

3. What other author's books would your book date?


I'd like to think that my book and John Green's books could have a pretty good time together.

...And by that, I mean that my book would hang awkwardly around his books until one of them looked over, gave it a bro nod, and said, "Hey", at which point my book would stammer something unintelligible and then pee its pants and run away.

4. Name 3 things that appear in your book that aren't mentioned in the synopsis.

A submerged tractor, a polka-dot bra, and a handful of bloody teeth.

5. What's on rotation in your MP3 player right now?

It's a little embarrassing, but I'm actually right at the start of a summer-long project to make myself more pop-musically literate after a years-long dry spell of not buying music. So I'm listening to the Civil Wars, Azealia Banks, and fun. at the moment — but if someone wants to suggest some others, that would be excellent.

Author Bio:

Kat Rosenfield is a freelance writer and YA author. She lives in New England, but that might change. Visit her author website, or follow her on Twitter (@KatRosenfield).

About the book:

An arresting un-coming-of-age story, from a breathtaking talent

Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life.

Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne Richardson's life are intercut with Becca's own summer as the parallel stories of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia's death.

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Thanks, Kat! Anyone got some music recommendations for her? (And, transitively, me as well?)

Follow the rest of the Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone blog tour:

7/9- Kick-off & Giveaway at The Mod Podge Bookshelf
7/10- Interview at Rescue Reads
7/12- Review at The Story Siren
7/13- Guest Blog at author Kelsey Sutton's Blog
7/15- Debut Author Spotlight Interview & Giveaway at Page Turners Blog
7/16- Guest Blog at 365 Days of Reading
7/17- Guest Blog at Magnet For Books
7/18- Interview at Steph Su Reads
7/19- Giveaway at YA Bliss
7/20- Interview & Giveaway at Reading or Breathing
7/21- Review at The Mod Podge Bookshelf
7/22- Giveaway at Midnight Garden
7/23- Guest Blog and Giveaway at Reading Away the Days
7/24- Giveaway at Books to Consider
7/25- Guest Blog at Words Like Silver
7/26- Review at Making the Grade
7/27- Interview at Book Chic
7/28- Guest Blog at The Mod Podge Bookshelf

This blog tour was organized by Gabrielle Carolina of Mod Podge Book Tours. For more information, go to the blog tour page!

Video Interview with Daisy Whitney + GIVEAWAY!

Hi blog readers! Daisy Whitney is back again on Steph Su Reads, this time promoting her latest novel, The Rivals, the sequel to The Mockingbirds. Thanks to Little, Brown, I was able to send Daisy a few interview questions, which she kindly answered in the exclusive video below. Enjoy!

The Rivals summary:

When Alex Patrick was assaulted by another student last year, her elite boarding school wouldn't do anything about it. This year Alex is head of the Mockingbirds, a secret society of students who police and protect the student body. While she desperately wants to live up to the legacy that's been given to her, she's now dealing with a case unlike any the Mockingbirds have seen before.

It isn't rape. It isn't bullying. It isn't hate speech. A far-reaching prescription drug ring has sprung up, and students are using the drugs to cheat. But how do you try a case with no obvious victim? Especially when the facts don't add up, and each new clue drives a wedge between Alex and the people she loves most: her friends, her boyfriend, and her fellow Mockingbirds.

As Alex unravels the layers of deceit within the school, the administration, and even the student body the Mockingbirds protect, her struggle to navigate the murky waters of vigilante justice may reveal more about herself than she ever expected.

The Rivals is now out in hardcover from Little, Brown!

The previous stops on this blog tour were at Books Complete Me and Eve's Fan Garden.

Also, thanks to Little, Brown's generosity, THREE winners can get a set of a paperback of The Mockingbirds and a hardcover of The Rivals! To enter, please fill out the form below. This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only and will end Wednesday, February 22, 2012. Good luck!

Author Interview with Julie Kagawa!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American-ish friends, wherever in the world you are! I'm a little late in putting up this interview with Julie Kagawa, which is part of a blog tour to promote her newest book, The Iron Knight. Welcome, Julie, to Steph Su Reads!

1. Out of all four books which has been your favorite to write?

I think my favorite to write was The Iron Queen, because that's when everything came together; the last battle, Meghan's destiny, her and Ash's fate, all the loose threads that wove together as this was the final fight. And it was satisfying seeing Meghan's story finally come to a close. Everything worked out, with the exception of her and Ash, of course, but that's where The Iron Knight comes in. ;-)

2. What are some of your favorite martial arts movies? Classics, animated, or modernized.

Too many to list, lol! But here are a few: Yojimbo, The Seven Samurai (anything by Kurosawa, actually), Ip Man, The Forbidden Kingdom, Zatto Ichi, Lone Wolf and Cub, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (hush), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and the list goes on. (Don't even get me started with anime, we'd be here all night.)

3. Had you already started Blood of Eden series before the Iron Fey series, or did the idea come from nowhere and wouldn't disappear?

I'd been toying with a post-apocalyptic world as I was finishing up The Iron Knight, but the idea to add vampires didn't come until my agent and I were discussing ideas for my next series. She mentioned that HarlequinTEEN was on the lookout for vampire books, and the idea to mesh the two together just sort of clicked.

4. Is Puck going to get his own book? Are you going to do any spin offs of other characters now that Ash and Meghan are together? Any chance for a novella of Ash and Meghan's new life together in the Iron Kingdom?

There is a spin off series in the works. This time it's Ethan Chase, Meghan's younger brother, as the protagonist, and I'm sure there will be many a cameo, including the original four. But that's all I can reveal at this time.

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Thanks, Julie! If you've been following the Iron Fey series, be sure to check out its fourth and latest installment, The Iron Knight, now available in bookstores!

Author Interview with Jaclyn Dolamore!

Yesterday I posted my review of Jaclyn Dolamore's lovely book Between the Sea and Sky (Bloomsbury / Oct. 25, 2011). Today I have for you an interview with the authoress herself! Welcome, Jackie, to Steph Su Reads!

1. The characters in BETWEEN THE SEA AND SKY have such beautiful names: Esmerine, Dosinia, Alander. How did you come up with them?

They just come to me. Which makes it sound easy! But sometimes the right name can take MONTHS to come to me. When I first started writing I was calling the mermaid "Millea" but it never sounded right... The story didn't actually get going until I found Esmerine's name.

2. Alander is an interesting and complicated character: a bit of a literary snob, but also deeply loyal. Who were your inspirations for Alander?

I saw him as kind of a Mr. Darcy figure but with an intellectual bent. I've periodically known guys like him, too, where you'll be talking about something and they'll, like, reference Dostoevsky or something, and you'll think, "Ooh, he's smart, I like smart" and "God, but Dostoevsky? How pretentious" at the same time.

3. What was the most interesting job you had?

The first job-let I ever had was working a booth at an anime convention. My sister and I were at a convention and this guy is like, "Hey, you want to work for me?" Like, he would just show up to a convention and hire reasonably attractive girls (the better to get anime nerd boys to part with their dollars) on the spot as they browsed his booth. We didn't have anything else to do at the convention so we spent the rest of the day working the booth and at the end he paid us in merchandise. We then used this to convince our parents to take us to Anime Weekend Atlanta, because he got us in for free. It was a lot of fun, but grueling. We had to work the entirety of the dealer room hours, which was like 10 hours, without any break or barely any food (and the whole time I was wearing a Fushigi Yuugi costume complete with those little cheap Chinese shoes with NO support) and in the end I was paid in anime soundtracks. I had an awesome collection of anime soundtracks after that, though. I always worked the CD section because I could read some Japanese and so I could find CDs for people much easier than everyone else.

www.moviegoods.com

4. What are some of your favorite mermaid stories, both classic and new?

I love Splash, in all its 80s movie glory. And The Little Mermaid in various incarnations--the heart-wrenching original, the Disney version. As a kid I was obsessed with Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid.

5. What is your favorite thing about autumn?

Cooler, drier weather, in theory, although living in Florida we're lucky to see much of my true favorite weather, with a high of about 60, until December. (With any luck next year I'll be living in Maryland.) Ditto for changing leaves...I love them, but they don't really change here! Autumn is my favorite season, actually, but in Florida it's kind of a big tease, where you only get hints of the best parts.

6. What is your favorite Miyazaki film? (This can be expanded to include all Studio Ghibli films.)

My two favorites actually are not Miyazaki films: Whisper of the Heart and Only Yesterday. They are both slice of life stories, that capture certain aspects of what it's like to grow up and find your place in the world, as well as to fall in love, although in Whisper of the Heart, the growing up and falling in love happen together, in the moment, and in Only Yesterday we see flashbacks of the protagonist's childhood, and then her current life going to rural Japan, a sort of "back to the land" thing. Both have beautifully rendered backgrounds of Japan, but they aren't fantastical like so many Ghibli films. To my chagrin, Only Yesterday still has not been released in the US. But I am also a big fan of Miyazaki himself. Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite of his, but I love so many of them!

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Thanks for answering my questions, Jackie! Whisper of the Heart is also, in my opinion, one of the best Studio Ghibli films ever (remember my old blog banner?). I hope you consider checking out Between the Sea and Sky when you have the chance!

Review + Interview: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Tags: YA, contemporary, grief, teen pregnancy, adoption

Summary

Jill MacSweeney thinks that her mother’s way of dealing with her father’s death—adopting a baby—is absurd. After all, you can’t replace a lost loved one with a new person. And someone else’s arrival precedes the baby’s—Mandy, the teen mom. Mandy has had a rough life, and living with the MacSweeneys in the weeks before she gives birth feels like paradise—although knowing that it won’t last definitely puts a damper on it. Can these two hurting teens, coming from such different backgrounds, find a way to accept, and maybe even love, one another as their lives intertwine in hurt, grief, and hope?

Review

I’m kind of ashamed to admit that, when it comes to Sara Zarr’s novels, I appreciate them as good literary examples, but otherwise don’t often connect with them as much as I feel I should. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE is no exception. Once again, Sara Zarr elevates the writing of a common yet controversial topic to a literary level, but falls short of the emotional connection I need to consider books and authors my favorites.

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE’s strength lies not in a flowing plot, but rather in the inner thoughts of the characters. Thus, this book will work better for you if you like character-driven novels. Just to make it straight, I like strong and well-developed characters as much as anyone, but I admit to being disappointed when character-driven novels come at the expense of real plot. And this book has a lot of inner monologue, but not much plot. Jill and Mandy are fine main characters if you like ‘em passively angsty and full of inner monologue. But really, the plot—or the lack thereof—really drags. Jill goes to school and angst with her faux-friends, and Mandy stays at home and angsts. Fun times.

The truth of the matter is that I feel like HOW TO SAVE A LIFE attempts to do so much more than it actually ends up doing. There’s a POC love interest, an unusual family situation, teen pregnancy, abuse, the ending of a relationship…but I never felt the full power or emotions that each one of these deserves. In short, I felt like this book tackles YA clichés without much oomph behind it.

Some character-driven novels with little to no plot can make me climb on top of tables and blast-sing its praises (see: Melina Marchetta); HOW TO SAVE A LIFE, however, kind of just made me hum a little, under my breath. I recognize that my appreciation-but-not-love for this book is totally a personal thing, because the majority of people have loved and probably will love this book. Just putting another point of view out there, for any fishies who want to bite.

Similar Authors
Elizabeth Scott

Cover discussion: The scene makes some more sense after reading the book. However, I can't get past that stupid song by The Fray every time I think about this book or see its cover...

Little, Brown / Oct. 18, 2011 / Hardcover / 352pp. / $17.99

Review copy requested from NetGalley.

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Interview with Sara Zarr

1. What was the very first scene, character, predicament, etc. that came to you when you started writing HOW TO SAVE A LIFE?

This book actually started with a writing prompt from NAMING THE WORLD, a great book on craft edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. The initial scene, from the prompt, was basically what became the first chapter - Jill waiting, with her mother, for the train that brings a pregnant teenager, Mandy, into their lives. When I went back to that exercise months and months later, I thought, "Hey, this is a story!" I had questions: Why did Jill's mother want to adopt, at her age? What did Jill think about it? Why didn't Mandy want to keep the baby, and what were the circumstances of its conception? The story unfolded from there.

2. Which character in HOW TO SAVE A LIFE do you relate to best?

Anyone who knows me will see a lot of Sara in Jill. In my late teens and early twenties, especially, I was very sarcastic and impatient, and intolerant of people, and all of that was a mask for pain and insecurity. I wanted to keep people at a certain distance to avoid any mess or potential loss or abandonment.

3. Would you consider writing in a different fictional genre? What other genres appeal to you as a writer?

There are a lot of things I'd like to try, including adult fiction, screenwriting, short fiction. Maybe even something fantastical or historical if I had the right idea.

4. What was the best piece of writing advice you ever received?

I'm not great at answering questions about "bests", but here's a good, practical piece of advice I almost always heed: leave off every writing session in the middle of a scene or, even better, the middle of a sentence. That takes care of the momentum or blank page problem that can keep so many of us from getting our work done.

5. Current guilty pleasure(s)?

I try not to feel too guilty about any pleasure, but I think a lot of people I know would frown upon my love of country radio.

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Thanks for answering my questions, Sara, and thanks to Ames for setting up this blog tour. The next stops on the tour are:

10/19 - largeheartedboy.com
10/20 - foreveryoungadult.com
10/21 – hookedtobooks.com
10/24 – chasingray.com

Hope you check them out in the next few days!

Blog Tour Interview: Catherine Fisher!

I have a special guest on my blog today: the incredi-author Catherine Fisher, of Incarceron and Sapphique bestsellerdom, is here to celebrate the re-release of The Margrave, the fourth and final book in her Relic Master series, by answering a few questions! Welcome, Catherine, to Steph Su Reads!

1. Was there anything in the Relic Master series that changed between their original release and their re-release? Is there anything you wish you could change?

There was nothing fundamental that changed between first publication and the re-issue in the US. I had the opportunity to re-read and edit the books lightly, but I feel they represent a phase in my writing that was important to me, so I didn't change very much. If you start playing around with your work you might lose the spontaneity it had at the time of writing. Of course my style has changed a little - it seems sparser to me now - but I really enjoyed revisiting Anara, and reliving Raffi and Galen's adventures with a new readership in mind.

2. Which of your books was the most challenging for you to write?

Each book is challenging in its own way. Some have difficult or complex plots that have to be worked out- such as Oracle, or Incarceron; in others the characters are hard to pin down, or are not what I expect them to be, such as perhaps, Corbenic, or my current project, which is still under wraps! In some books, like Crown of Acorns, the challenge is writing in the first person voice of an 18th-century young man, and also jumping between three stories and trying to give equal weight to all of them. Some books have pacing problems - the action drags, or goes too fast. So none of them are easy. I did find the Relic Master books a challenge, as they are very complex in both ideas and plot. But perhaps Incarceron was the most difficult book I've ever written.

3. While fantasy is not as explosively trendy as paranormal romance or dystopian, it has enjoyed steady readership over the years. Why do you enjoy writing fantasy? Why do you think fantasy has had consistent readership over time?

I don't really categorize what I write as fantasy, or dystopian or anything really. Actually I invented a term /mythic fiction/ a while ago to use when people asked what sort of books I write. It baffles people, at least! I just like to write stories with a strong element of the metaphysical, the strange, the unearthly, and that manifests in various ways - ghosts, sci-fi, elemental beings, gods. I think such stories have a consistent readership because they, like myths, appeal to some very deep need in us; they try to explain the workings of the world, and they give readers the ability in some way to control fate and nature. Which is what we all want.

4. In your Q&A section on your website, you mention that you don't write much in first person because you find it limiting. Can you explain this more? What things about writing in third person do you like?

I do find first person a bit limiting, but only in the sense that one character must see or take part in everything - if that character is not there, the scene can only be reported. It's a challenge and I am using it more often now, mostly in the form of diaries and journals. It also, of course, has huge advantages; the character can really express their depths, you can get into their feelings. But I think a third person narrator can do that too. All things are good. (Except stories told in the present tense, which I don't like.)

5. How much do you feel like your college studies and degree contributed to your current career as an author? What advice would you give college-bound students who are interested in becoming writers?

Things are different now. When I was in college there were no creative writing degrees or any way of getting professionals to look at your work without sending it to publishers. So people have a lot more opportunities for that now. But I still think you can't beat studying the greats of English Literature. If you don't know what is possible, how can you find your own limits? So I suppose my advice would be, study Shakespeare, study great literature of all languages, but don't despair and think I can never do anything like this. You can do something, and you will enhance your own work. Also the truth is it takes time to develop as a writer. As a student you are unlikely to be anywhere near your best work yet.

I hope everyone enjoys the final episode of Relic Master, THE MARGRAVE.
My favourite. And possibly, the best.

Best wishes!

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Thank you, Catherine! Be sure to check out the Relic Master series, starting with THE DARK CITY, and visit the Relic Master series website. And here is the fourth piece of the map of Anara! Each book in the series contains a portion of the map:

About the Relic Master series:

Welcome to Anara, a world mysteriously crumbling to devastation, where nothing is what it seems: Ancient relics emit technologically advanced powers, members of the old Order are hunted by the governing Watch yet revered by the people, and the great energy that connects all seems to also be destroying all. The only hope for the world lies in Galen, a man of the old Order and a Keeper of relics, and his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Raffi. They know of a secret relic with great power that has been hidden for centuries. As they search for it, they will be tested beyond their limits. For there are monsters-some human, some not-that also want the relic's power and will stop at nothing to get it.

RELIC MASTER is a four book series. Each book will be released over four consecutive months this summer:
Book One: The Dark City, May 17
Book Two: The Lost Heiress, June 14
Book Three: The Hidden Coronet, July 12
Book Four: The Margrave, August 9

Each book will include a piece of the map of Anara, the world of RELIC MASTER, on the reverse of the jacket. Collect all four books and you will have the complete map.

Visit Catherine's author website. And thank you, Big Honcho Media, for organizing this Q&A!

Luminous Blog Tour: Author Interview with Dawn Metcalf!

Flowing from Books With Bite, the next stop on the MundiMoms' LUMINOUS Blog Tour is Steph Su Reads...here! I have for you an interview with Dawn Metcalf, author of the upcoming book Luminous, in which she talks about the themes in her book. Welcome, Dawn, to Steph Su Reads!

1. LUMINOUS features many themes, such as the true significance of appearance, determinism vs. free will, and so on. At what point did the themes figure into your writing process? Did you know which themes you wanted to write about before you started drafting, or did they come out of drafting, revision, etc.?

Any underlying themes or messages really emerged as part of the writing process. I'd like to say I planned it all from the beginning, but really, it was my brain on autopilot enjoying the idea of creating a myth of a sort of Lady of the Dead, a supernatural-slash-paranormal heroine out saving souls with a closet full of elemental skins. Looking back, I can see where my feelings on body image in the media or beliefs about self-worth cropped up, but while I was in it, I was just in it.

2. Is there any character in LUMINOUS whose philosophy you disagree with?

Sure! Most of them, actually. Consuela is a bit too passive for my tastes, but that's because she is far more trusting as an idealist than I am. I'm not big on V's belief that you can "fix" something for someone else, because then you are imposing your standards on that person, presuming that they are somehow "broken". I'm not proud of Wish's "stick close to the person with the most power until something better comes along", which works well for him and his life experiences, but it's not gold star material in my book. I also don't agree with Sissy's "accept a situation and make the best of it" if there's something else you want and it's possible--however unlikely--to succeed; it feels too much like giving up or giving in. I don't think you can chart the world or people in it into nice, neat categories and expect it to reflect reality, no matter how pretty Abacus makes it look, it's disparaging and academic to real people (and it's pretty arrogant, too). And certainly Tender's belief that the ends justify the means no matter what the cost makes me a little queasy, especially when it's so single-mindedly self-serving.

Essentially, there's something I love and something I dislike about each of my characters' personalities; that's what makes them real to me and deserving respect as something separate than myself. My characters aren't meant to be mirrors or messages, they're (fictitious) people.

3. Consuela feels powerful in her pearlescent form, but as the story progresses she misses her old, loving life a lot. It's often said that beauty comes from within, but I'm sure we all have had experiences in which crappy days are alleviated through a manicure, new haircut, or shopping. What is your stance on the importance of physical appearance, and the relationship between physical appearance and inner beauty?

In one sense, you're asking the wrong girl! I used to joke that I failed "Girl School" because I know next to nothing about makeup, hardly ever get my hair cut, and the three times I had a manicure (all for weddings), it was my idea of torture. I'm also a prevention educator and big on positive body image and self-esteem including all the health and wellness issues that go along with it, for both young men and women.


That said, I am of the mind that you should do what makes you happy, what you feel meaningfully brings out your best. For some, that's their favorite pair of jeans, for others it's fresh-painted nails, for others it's self-expression with colorful hair or a new pair of shoes; as long as it's YOU choosing IT and not IT choosing YOU, if you get the difference. (Like having fun by matching your eyeliner to your shirt is different, in my mind, than never considering leaving the house without first putting on makeup or shaving your back. Make sense?) The funny thing is that it really isn't any of these things that make you feel powerful, beautiful, sexy, professional, or more mature, it's the associations you've created for yourself. You made these things powerful to you and therefore, you feel the power you've given yourself. If you can skip the middle man and just go to feeling powerful about yourself, the rest of it no longer matters a whole heckuva lot!

4. Tender is all about individuals being in positions of maximal impact. Do you agree or disagree with this thinking, and how might it play out in our world?

I believe that each individual should make a maximum impact in the time allotted to each of us. It was Marianne Williamson's A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, (Harper Collins, 1992) which had this incredible quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Playing small or waiting for a chance to someday get "It" (whatever "It" might be for you), is completely human and completely ridiculous. Your life starts now. It is happening now. Now. RIGHT NOW! And waiting to do something tremendous with your life isn't the way to go about things: you are only you, now, once. There is no better time to achieve your dreams than today. What are you waiting for? Why play small?

Now I believe that you being the best, most inspirational and empowered you that you can be includes empathy, abundance, and generosity. That is part of being human and shared karma and is nice, besides. So the idea of being the best "you" doesn't mean you should smash everyone else along the way; they are on their way to being the best potential "them" that they can be, so keep that in mind on your way to mind-blowing awesomeness.

Therefore, I think Tender has the right idea, but goes about it the wrong way.

5. Do you believe in destiny or free will?

I believe in free will. Destiny smacks a bit too much of Sissy saying "these are the cards you're dealt, so deal", which has its own wisdom to it, but I inherently don't like some outside force placing limits on anyone or saying "that's just the way it is." I've had enough personal experiences playing inside the box and outside the box, bowing to popular consensus versus expressing the less popular (but more personally meaningful) choice, and I'd place my chips on free will all the way. While each person may be meant to do great things by a Higher Power, I frankly think that our ability to make choices powerfully and passionately is a divine gift and any Higher Power would be awfully disappointed to see us not use it.

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Thanks so much, Dawn! This interview on the MundiMoms' LUMINOUS Blog Tour was brought to you by the letter: O. (Visit this page to see the complete blog tour schedule.) Collect all the letters along the blog tour, unscramble the puzzle, and win a secret surprise as well as an extra entry in the LUMINOUS Grand Prize Giveaway, June 30th! Details at www.dawnmetcalf.com.

About LUMINOUS:

As reality slips and time stands still, Consuela finds herself thrust into the world of the Flow. Removed from all she loves into this shifting world overlapping our own, Consuela quickly discovers she has the power to step out of her earthly skin and cloak herself in new ones-skins made from the world around her, crafted from water, fire, air. She is joined by other teens with extraordinary abilities, bound together to safeguard a world they can affect, but where they no longer belong.

When murder threatens to undo the Flow, the Watcher charges Consuela and elusive, attractive V to stop the killer. But the psychopath who threatens her new world may also hold the only key to Consuela's way home.