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Reading In The Rain

They are not just books

interview

Interview with Melissa Landers!!

So if you have read my Alienated book review you would know that this book was AFREAKINGMAZING, and I love every single bit of it (probably my favorite read so far this year;)) So I needed I needed to know more so I got the amazing chance to interview the author Melissa Landers, and now I just love this series even more so without further adoooo here is my interview with the lovely Melissa Landers.

1. What made you want to write this book?
 In October of 2009, right before NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I was driving down the interstate thinking, “If I’m going to do this whole NaNo thing, I need a plot. What am I going to write about?” Several ideas came to mind, but I dismissed them because they were boring or clichéd. Then—out of nowhere—I thought, “What if a high school senior had to host an alien exchange student?” Boom! I fell in love with the concept, and the rest is history.
2. What made you want to become an author yourself?
I have an English degree, and I’ve always loved reading, but I didn’t start writing for my own amusement until I left a career in teaching to stay home with my babies. At that point, I needed a creative outlet.
3. Out of all the characters in your book who would you want to be?
Cara Sweeney. Who wouldn’t want to see the galaxy? Besides, having Aelyx as a boyfriend is a pretty nice bonus. 🙂
4. Out of all the characters in your book who would be your BFF?
Believe it or not, Syrine makes an excellent BFF. She really redeems herself in the second book, INVADED.
5. Any fictional boyfriends? (We all have them)
I’m partial to Jamie Fraser (Outlander) and Perry (Under the Never Sky).
6. Which fictional world would you want to live in and why?
Harry Potter, but NOT if I’m a muggle. Otherwise, what’s the point?
7. Any book recommendations for us?
This is tough to answer because everyone’s tastes are different. Some lesser-known recommendations are C. Robert Cargill’s “Dreams and Shadows” and “Queen of the Dark Things.”
8. Any advice for young writers?
My main advice for aspiring authors is to look at publishing like the Olympic games. You wouldn’t lace up a pair of ice skates for the first time, teeter onto the rink, and then expect to make the Olympic team that year, right? And yet SO many people will write one book (or two, or ten) and then give up if a publisher rejects it. Publishing a book isn’t supposed to be easy. Much like the Olympics, you have to practice for many years before you’re ready to compete. So don’t be afraid to try and fail, and be prepared to write as many books as it takes. I believe success is 90% persistence.

Interview with Tiffany Schmidt! + Giveaway!

So as you all know I LOVED Hold You Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt. And I loved it so much, I wanted to know more about the series. So I interviewed the great Tiffany Schmidt (the author of this amazing book) and she added a little giveaway along with the interview 🙂

1. What made you decide to sit down and actually start something like this book?

I’ve been fascinated by the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea since I was a little girl. Not so much the story that is told, but the story that isn’t, the parts of the princess’s story that never made it on the paper. Why was she alone at night in a rainstorm? Where is her family? Why is it appealing that she bruises.

Hold Me Like a Breath is not a retelling. It’s a re-imagining—it’s my chance, all these decades later, to take my childhood fascination and tell the story I wanted to read.

2. What made you want to become author yourself?

Stories have always held their own sort of magic for me. I’ve always cared a whole lot less about what actually happened and more about what else could happen.  This made me a challenging child—it wasn’t that I wanted to lie, I just didn’t particularly see the value in the truth. I’d much rather tell the story of the dragon that attacked my classroom and clawed my leg, than tell my mom I’d ripped by tights because they got snagged on a pointy part of my desk.

Stories on the TV, stories in books, and the stories I made my friends and siblings act out in the backyard were all equally fascinating. Woe on anyone who was stuck with me on a long car ride, because I was going to use the time to tell them some epic adventure: 1% truth and the rest pure fantasy.

Learning to read and write my stories down was a great outlet for all my creative energies. I don’t remember a time before I was a storyteller and I can’t ever see myself wanting to stop.

3. Are we going to see more of Penelope and Char in the next book? *she asks hopefully ☺*

Absolutely. The next book is told from Magnolia Vicker’s, point of view, however, so you’ll be seeing them from her perspective.

4. What fairy tale retelling are you using for the next book?

I can’t answer that yet… (sorry!) but, I will give you two hints.

  1. It’s been made into a Disney movie
  2. It’s a Grimm fairy tale (whereas Hold Me Like a Breath is based off The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen)

5. Who is your favorite character in the book?

Carter Landlow. Growing up, I though having a big brother would be the coolest thing in the world and I imbued Carter with the traits I wished for in my imaginary brother: protective, impulsive, adventurous, loyal, and possessing  a hot best friend for me to crush on 🙂

6. Which character do you think would mostly like to be your BFF?

I’m sure that Magnolia Grace and I could get in some serious hijinks together. Both of us have ‘Trouble Magnet’ coded in our DNA.

7. Any fictional boyfriends (We all have them.)

Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables

Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice

Wes from The Truth About Forever

Wes from The Archived

Mal from The Grisha trilogy

8. Any favorite books/series’?

Series:

Curseworkers by Holly Black

Gallagher Girls & Heist Society by Ally Carter

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Summer series by Jenny Han

Other books:

Anything by David Levithan, Sarah Dessen, Libba Bray, Courtney Summers, or Stephanie Perkins

9. Any recommendation for us?

If you mean book recommendations, ALL of the ones I listed above.

General recommendations: Wear sunscreen. Look both ways before you cross the street. It’s okay to ask for help—this is a sign of courage, not weakness. Occasionally say ‘yes’ to things that scare you (not dangerous things, but things that will stretch you as a person).  Don’t judge things by their covers—try out books and movies and people you don’t think you’ll like; they may surprise you. Naps are always a good idea. Eat your veggies.

10. Do you have any advice for young writers who would like to be authors in the future?

Keep reading and keep writing. Keep improving your craft. Don’t ever let anyone tell you your ideas aren’t good enough or don’t have value. They may not be good enough YET, but they always have value. Your stories are unique. Only you can tell them.

GIVEAWAY

The lovely Tiffany Schmidt is giving away a Anatomical Heart Necklace and Organ Gummies! (US ONLY!) Enter here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you again for doing an interview with me! Let me know when you have your next book coming out ☺

 

Interview with Carys Jones Author of Dare to Dream

1. Is this a first book in a new series?

Dare to Dream is the first book in the Maggie Trafford trilogy. I’m currently working on the second book in the series, Dare to Believe.

2. What inspired you to write this book?

A while ago I read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. If you’ve not read it, it’s quite a bleak tale about a post-apocalyptic world. You’re never really told what happened to the world, you just endure the exhausting quest for survival with the MC and his son.

The challenge of writing about a destroyed world really appealed to me. But I wanted to give my own story some more context, I wanted to describe what happened to the world and experience the destruction first hand. Then I started thinking about what if someone knew the world was going to end? And what if no one would listen because they were just a fourteen year old British school girl? And from those initial thoughts Dare to Dream was developed.

3. Who is your favorite character in the book and why?

I think Dawn would have to be my favourite character as she’s bubbly, pretty and popular (all the things I wanted to be when growing up) but she is also fiercely loyal and would stand by Maggie through anything, even the end of the world. She’s the kind of best friend I think everyone deserves to have.

4. Who do you most relate to?

The character I relate to the most is Maggie. She’s studious and quite withdrawn from her peers and that was definitely me. I was very much a geek in school and still am today! But now I wear that badge with pride!

5. When did you start writing?

I’ve always been interested in writing. When I was a teenager I used to write short horror stories which I’d create front covers for in the style of the Point Horror series which I used to just adore!

I was twenty three when I wrote my first full length novel, First to Fall and if anything I wish I’d started writing books sooner.

6. What inspired you to start writing?

From an early age I fell in love with reading. I loved how I could open the pages of a book and be transported away from my little corner of rain soaked England to the wide open plains of America or outer space. I was keen to create some of them magic for myself and so I started writing and jotting down story ideas.

7. Were any of the characters based on real people?

No, I don’t tend to base the characters in my books on anyone as I feel there is too much danger in it. I’d hate someone to think a character was based on them and then that character does something awful or dies and the person reads too much in to that. So if anyone reads my books and thinks a character is based on them I can promise that it’s merely a coincidence.

8. How did you get the idea for this book?

After reading The Road I was inspired to write an apocalypse story of my own. I can get ideas from a number of weird and wonderful places. Two of the books I’ve written are based on dreams that I had…

9. What are your favorite books?

For sentimental reasons I will always love Little House on the Prarie. Other books I’d count as favourites include Flowers in the Attic, Looking for Alaska and Let the Right One In. I like books that surprise me.

10. Do you have any advice for young writers?

Write as much as you can! But more importantly write the books that you want to read. It’s tempting to look at what trends are popular or write what you think other people will like but ultimately the best advice I’ve ever received is simply to sit down and write the book that I’d love to read.