Jess Rothenberg is the author of The Catastrophic History of You and Me. You can find her on the web at her website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and blog.
Who was your favorite character to write in The Catastrophic History of You and Me?
I really loved and cared about Brie. I know her emotions and actions were sometimes selfish and immature, but I loved watching her grow and change in different ways throughout the story. And even in the moments when I was mad at her, I always tried to stay true to Brie’s age and what she was going through. After all, being sixteen by itself is already a pretty emotional rollercoaster, much less when you’ve died of an actual broken heart!
Is there a book you’ve read recently and loved?
I’m reading a book called Cloud Atlas right now that I’m really savoring. But as for YA, the last thing I read and loved was All Unquiet Things, by Anna Jarzab.
If you could be any mythology creature, what would you be?
Unicorn all the way! I used to tie my ponytail at the top of my head when I was little and go galloping around the house. The Last Unicorn is still one of my all-time favorite books and animated films.
Would you say The Catastrophic History of You and Me had a theme song at all? If so, what is it?
Actually, the book has a whole playlist of songs that inspired and influenced the story as I went along (you can listen at http://jessrothenberg.com/playlist.html) so it’s hard to pick just one! But if I had to, I might go with Walking with a Ghost by Tegan and Sara. I’ve always felt it really captures the way heartache can linger. And then also, in the literal sense, Brie really is walking with a ghost.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwwytVceo8Y
Which is harder for you to write: The first line? or the last line?
I knew the last line of CatastrophicHistory from the very beginning because it is taken from a poem my grandpa wrote for me when I was Brie’s age. So in this case, the first line was probably a little harder. : )
I am very excited to have Maureen Lipinski here for another Fantasy Five Friday interview
Maureen Lipinski is the author of Shadow’s Edge, which is her debut young adult novel, as well as A Bump in the Road and Not Ready for Mom Jeans. She graduated from Miami University and lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and two kids. You can visit her on the web at her website.
My magical life is dead to me now . . . This is my last chance at freedom. Once, Leah Spencer didn’t mind being a natural-born Shaman to the Creatuir, a human helper to faeries, shapeshifters, and other magical beings. But that was before she listened to her friend Fiona and broke Rule #1, traveling unprepared to the Other Realm where she quickly lost a whole year of time. She missed out on everything–holidays, school, her sixteenth birthday, the boyfriend who ditched her. After that, Leah swore to leave all things magical behind and lead the life of a normal high school girl.
Now Fiona is missing, and something is killing off the Creatuir, both Light and Dark. As the Creatuir prepare to go to war, Leah is torn between her safe new life and solving the Other Realm murder spree. With the help of her three sisters (each with her own magical gift), and three gorgeous guys–who may or may not be part of the evil magic–Leah must vanquish an ancient dark force. Unless an unimaginable secret about her family destroys her first.
Could you give us the one sentence pitch of your book?
SHADOW’S EDGE is about sixteen year old Leah Spencer, a natural born Shaman to the Other Realm, who has to choose between attending regular high school and “getting all CSI” on a mystical murder spree.
Since you have a fantasy novel coming out, the next question I obviously have to ask is: If you were a fantastical creature, which would you be?
Ooh, fun question! I would love to be a creature with the ability to stop time. I always seem to have a mile-long To Do list and too few hours in the day to accomplish everything. I would love to be able to stop time and catch up on all my projects…or maybe I would just take a nap!
Do you have a favorite fantasy read?
My favorite fantasy book will always be Madeleine L’Engle’s A WRINKLE IN TIME. I still remember being a kid and tearing through those pages while sitting on my pink Laura Ashley bedspread.
Generally speaking, which comes first: the world, the characters, or the plot?
Usually, the characters come first. Often times, I have an idea of where I want the book to go, I’m just not sure how the characters are going to get there. Of course, there are also many times when the characters have other ideas in mind and I have to go with it!
They are always coming out with new editions of board games. If your book could be a special edition of any board game, which would you choose?
The Game of Life! I LOVED that board game growing up. Still do, actually. I remember my little brother would always lose the pink and blue pegs representing kids and husbands so we’d have to use push pins. It wasn’t nearly as fun.
I am super excited to have Courtney Allison Moulton here at The Book Cellar today, for another Fantasy Five Friday.
Courtney Allison Moulton is the author of Angelfire, Wings of the Wicked, and the forthcoming Book 3 in the Angelfire series. She lives in Michigan with her horse, Pia.You can find her on the web at her website, twitter, and blog.
Could you give us the one sentence pitch of your book?
A teenage girl with extraordinary powers battles the armies of Hell with
the help of her reaper Guardian.
Since you have a fantasy novel coming out, the next question I obviously have to ask is: If you were a fantastical creature, which would you be?
I’d love to have superhuman abilities like in the X-Men. It would be fun
to be a secret government weapon or something. For like a weekend.
Do you have a favorite fantasy read?
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Generally speaking, which comes first: the world, the characters, or the plot?
This varies. I have about a hundred or so projects to finish on my
computer, and sometimes the world comes first and sometimes the character.
I don’t really know why one or the other, but I just go with the flow.
They are always coming out with new editions of board games. If your book could be a special edition of any board game, which would you choose?
Hungry Hungry Hippos with human faces on the little balls and you, as
Ellie, have to chop their heads off before they eat the little people.
It’s like Anti-Hungry Hungry Hippos. I want to play this now.
Life as the Preliator is harder than Ellie ever imagined.
Balancing real life with the responsibility of being Heaven’s warrior is a challenge for Ellie. Her relationship with Will has become all business, though they both long for each other. And now that the secret of who she really is has come out, so have Hell’s strongest reapers. Grown bold and more vicious, the demonic threaten her in the light of day and stalk her in the night.
She’s been warned.
Cadan, a demonic reaper, comes to her with information about Bastian’s new plan to destroy Ellie’s soul and use an ancient relic to wake all the souls of the damned and unleash them upon humanity. As she fights to stay ahead of Bastian’s schemes , the revelations about those closest to her awaken a dark power within Ellie that threatens to destroy everything—including herself.
She’ll be betrayed.
Treachery comes even from those whom she loves, and Ellie is broken by the deaths of those who stood beside her in this Heavenly war. Still, she must find a way to save the world, herself, and her love for Will. If she fails, there will be hell to pay.
I am super excited to have a guest post/interview from Kelly Milner Halls and Rebecca Fjelland Davis as a part of the Girl Meets Boy blog tour!
When the legendary Terry Davis (Vision Quest, If Rock and Roll Were a Machine) and his hand chosen writing partner Alex Flinn (Beastly, Breathing Underwater) couldn’t come eye to eye on their story pairs, I was faced with a duo of daunting problems. I needed a writer who would step easily into writing with Davis, and I needed someone who would do so quickly. The deadline was coming fast.
Enter Rebecca Fjelland Davis to save the project and the day.
Rebecca was Terry Davis’s ex-wife and loyal friend. She had a published YA novel (Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged; Chasing AlleyCat soon followed) and she knew him as well as any person alive and could synch with him quickly to meet the deadline. Her invention of an Iowa farm girl in love with Davis’s gentle Muslim boy created one of the most critically acclaimed stories in the anthology.
I caught up with Becky to find out how she felt about being recruited for GIRL MEETS BOY. Her answers are as thoughtful as her short story.
KMH: Did you create your short story specifically for GIRL MEETS BOY or was it a work in progress that just fit the girl/boy ideal?
RFD: Neither. Actually I had written this whole story, and Terry Davis had read it. He approached me asking if he could write Rafi’s story to pair with it, so it might be included in the anthology. I was excited–but a little cautious at first.
KMH: How was it writing with your ex-husband, award winning novelist Terry Davis?
RFD: First of all, I have admired Terry’s writing from the moment I first opened Vision Quest, long before I met him, so that part was thrilling–to have my story published alongside his? Wow. But also, I know Terry well, and I know that sometimes he pushes the edges of “propriety” and sexuality and vulgarity; even though what he writes is always honest and rings true. So it was a little scary to turn over a character I created to Terry, to let him find and establish Rafi’s voice. I loved most of what he came up with right away, but some of it seemed over the top. I couldn’t reconcile his Rafi with mine. We talked about it, and we looked at it together, and he was willing to listen to ways to revise–and I revised a lot, too, to meet him halfway. As we finally finished the pair of stories, we both loved how Kerry and Rafi turned out. Interesting, that even the writing of the stories parallels the theme of the whole collection: we all see relationships differently, no matter how close we are to each other!
And on a side note, everybody asks, “With your EX-husband”? Yes. Terry and I remain wonderful and supportive friends, and we consider his kids mine, and mine his, even without any biological connection. It’s a strange and wonderful extended family. My boyfriend is man enough to understand and accept it, too. (Thanks, Tom).
KMH: Any plans to turn your story into a novel so we can get to know the characters better? If so, can you share any developments?
RFD: Yes, actually. Terry and I talked about doing it as a tandem novel, but the logistics of that seem too complicated. And I don’t want to be Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich–too many possibly bad outcomes of that. I have been working on the story, starting at the beginning of their relationship, and how the whole thing developed in the first place. Kerry’s parents and her grandmother are ultra-strict and ultra-Christian like my mother was, so the complications are fun to play with. I also wrote several chapters developing what happens after this story, and that might involve some illegal activity on the hog farm site…but I have yet to decide where the novel will culminate.
Now that Terry’s in the hospital with a head injury, I have to think about revisiting working on parts of the story together…it might be a way to get him writing sooner. We’ll see about that.
KMH: How challenging was it writing about a Muslim boy?
RFD: Very. I spent an hour a week for nine months talking to a Muslim grad student from Bangladesh. I have an entire notebook of notes from those conversations. That gave me the groundwork, and the language to develop a “real” guy with his beliefs and cultural background.
I still got “stuck,” and I had to do the “how to develop a character out of thin air” exercise that I give my creative writing students. Then I finally understood Rafi on all levels. Remember, writing a good character is like building an iceberg. 90% is below the surface, and the readers never see that . But as a writer, you have to know the whole 100%.
KMH: I loved how you made Raffi so appealing and decent. Was he based on anyone real?
RFD: I actually met a man from Bangladesh named Rafi. I instantly liked him–and he was married to a midwestern Caucasian Protestant woman, who had converted to Islam. I couldn’t stop thinking about what that whole transition must have been like. And what if they had met when she was still in high school? What if her parents were super conservative Christians? How would Rafi have dealt with all of that? How do you conjoin and reconcile all of that?
Also, after 9-11, Muslims in general have gotten a bad rap and are subject to all sorts of prejudice. I have many, many wonderful Muslim students who are kind and sensitive and generous, and are the complete opposite of the radical stereotype. I want to do everything in my power to eradicate that misconception (like Kerry’s grandma holds).
KMH: You grew up on a farm, right? Did that influence your story’s major plot points?
RFD: Actually this is the first time I wrote a story in which I had an issue at the heart of what I wanted to write. I hate hog factories with a passion. I try to never, ever buy pork that isn’t free-range and organic. That’s because I raised pigs as a teen, and paid for my first two years of college with the savings. Pigs are smart. They’re full of personality. To confine their entire lives to a space barely big enough to turn around? It’s somewhere off the cruelty scale. I don’t mind eating meat that lived a happy life. But to live an entire miserable existence so I can eat? It’s like veal production. I think it’s absolutely inhumane. That’s a long way to say “Yes” to this question.
So–I had this idea to deal with hog factories–and I needed a girl who raised pigs to care about the issue. Kerry emerged. I also had Rafi in the back of my head as a character I wanted to write. Then I thought–what if?–what if Kerry fell in love with a boy who couldn’t eat pork at all? What sort of crazy conflict would that raise? The two of them took off from there.
KMH: You teach along with writing YA novels. How do you balance the two callings?
RFD: The two things are mentally mutually supportive since I teach English—Composition, Creative Writing, Literature (including Children’s and YA), and Humanties. The two callings are almost mutually exclusive timewise. Sometimes school takes so much of my time that I barely get any writing done in a week. I just keep plugging.
KMH: What advice do you have to writers hoping to follow in your footsteps?
RFD: To write because you love making stories out of words, not because “being a writer” looks appealing. And if that’s the case that you love to write, don’t let anybody or anything stop you from doing what you love.
My rules:
1. Live
2. Pay attention
3. Read
4. Apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair
5. Write it down
KMH: Can you tell us a little about your new novel?
RFD: The newest one is upper middle grade. It’s a murder mystery set in North Dakota during the depression. Grant O’Grady is the sheriff’s son, who discovers the body with his dad.
KMH: Any plans to write for another anthology in the near future?
RFD: At this point, I don’t know about any other anthology plans, but I would love to be part of another one. I’m so thrilled to be part of this impressive list of great YA writers.
Thanks to the lovely folks at Chronicle, I have a super exciting giveaway! One lucky winner will get a copy of Girls Meet Boy signed by ALL the contributors to the anthology! Ends of February 17 and open to US/Canada only.
I am super excited to have one of my all time favorite authors, Heidi R Kling, by the blog today for another Fantasy Five Friday!
Heidi R Kling is the author of Sea as well as the series, The Spellspinners of Melas County. Witch’s Brew, the first book, came out last week! She also has short stories in three anthologies, Truth & Dare, The Visitors Guide to Mystic Falls, and The First Time. You can find her on the web at her website, Goodreads, and Twitter.
Spellspinners is an “Active Fiction” title, a new type of e-book from Coliloquy. In this Active Fiction series, your input influences future books from this author. Specifically, in Spellspinners, your input influences what happens to star-crossed lovers Logan & Lily. Spellspinners is a young adult series about a witch, a warlock & their forbidden love. Once soulmates, the witch & warlock covens have been estranged for a century. Twice a year, their teens meet in the Solstice Stones, a magical battleground, to draw energy from each other. Logan & Lily have trained their whole lives for the Stones. In Witch’s Brew, Lily is torn between her feelings for Logan & her loyalty to her coven. The lovers race against time, their distrust for each other & their powerful elders to unravel the mystery of the past before their future is destroyed. While Lily & Logan’s fate may be decided, the author explores several paths to get there. The author sees the aggregate statistics on what option gets picked the most, so the more you read, the more you influence what she writes!
Could you give us the one sentence pitch of your book?
A witch, a warlock, and their fight to save their magic–and their forbidden love.
Since you have a fantasy novel, the next question I obviously have to ask is: If you were a fantastical creature, which would you be?
While I would LOVE to be a witch like Lily, I’m going to go with my first reaction: a unicorn. (Sorry Team Zombie.)
Do you have a favorite fantasy read?
Most recently I’ve liked A Discovery of Witches–can’t wait for the sequel!
Generally speaking, which comes first: the world, the characters, or the plot?
This go round it was the world. I could see it with such shimmering clarity. I knew from the get-go I wanted to combine nature’s innate magical elements with supernatural charms and enchantment. Setting the Spellspinners series in a modern beach town make perfect sense to me. There’s something so magical about the ocean and the coastal redwoods near where I live.
And then, once the town and the plot were in place, the characters popped into the places they intrinsically belonged.
They are always coming out with new editions of board games. If your book could be a special edition of any board game, which would you choose?
Oooh AWESOME question. How about a Spellspinner edition of MONOPOLY. Where players can gain a power, lose a power? Confront Jacob and Lose A Life?
Or Chess. A Logan chess piece. Now that’d be cool.
Thanks so much for stopping by Heidi! And I would LOVE that edition of Monopoly or a Logan chess piece! Make sure to check out my review of Witch’s Brew, which I absolutely adored!
I am super excited to have Jasmine Richards by the blog today for an interview!
Jasmine Richards is the author of The Book of Wonders, which debuted January 17. She is a senior editor at a British publishing house, and lives in Oxfordshire with her husband. You can find her on the web at her website, twitter, and Goodreads.
Magic, Djinn, Ogres, and Sorcerers. Thirteen-year-old Zardi loves to hear stories about fantastical beings, long banned from the kingdom of Arribitha. But anyone caught whispering of their powers will feel the rage of the sultan—a terrifying usurper who, even with his eyes closed, can see all.
When her own beloved sister is captured by the evil ruler, Zardi knows that she must go to any lengths to rescue her. Along with her best friend, Ridhan—a silver-haired, violet-eyed boy of mysterious origins—and an unlikely crew of sailors led by the infamous Captain Sinbad, Zardi ventures forth into strange and wondrous territory with a seemingly impossible mission: to bring magic back to Arribitha and defeat the sultan once and for all.
If you could be any magical creature that appears in The Books of Wonders, which would you be?
I would be a djinni but with one caveat – I would want to be free one. In The Book of Wonders many djinnis have been shackled to mortal objects and so are under the control of humans. This means that extremely powerful creatures have essentially become slaves. The are not happy campers!
Say the characters from The Book of Wonders got stuck on a deserted island. Who would fare the best? The Worst? And who would get them off the island?
Oh dear, this is a hard one because in the Book of Wonders my characters are actually stranded on a deserted island and so if I answer this I will be giving away plot spoilers!
Suffice it to say that on this island nothing is as it seems and many of characters are going to be faced with challenges beyond their imagining . . .
Could you tell us five random facts about yourself?
I have interviewed the former prime minister of the UK, Tony Blair
I have written books as a man
I’ve failed my driving test four times
I have visited over 35 countries
I was born left handed but now use my right hand to write
Since there are sailors in The Book of Wonders, if you had a boat, what would you name it?
I’d call my boat something like Just Imagine because, as undoubtedly imagination is the best form of transport!
Does The Book of Wonders have a theme song at all? If so, what is it?
I’d say it was Zemer Attic/Tanz Tanz Yiddlelac by 3 Leg Torso. I love this piece of music – I feel like it really captures Zardi’s world and the sense of wildness that sweeps her up and sends her headlong into an amazing adventure. I loved this piece so much I actually used it for my book trailer http://youtu.be/6ugfHlrMKEU.
Thanks for stopping by Jasmine! Now I have one super cool giveaway for a lucky winner. One lucky person will get a signed copy of The Book of Wonders + a cool swag pack which includes a bookmark, book plate, and a necklace. Open internationally. Ends January 27.
I am super excited to have Marissa Meyer by the blog today for an interview, as part of the Cinder blog tour! Welcome Marissa! Marissa is the author of Cinder, the first book in the four book Lunar Chronicles. You can find Marissa on the web at her website, Goodreads, Facebook, or Twitter.
If the characters from Cinder got stuck on a desert island, who would fare the best? The worst?
Cinder would fare the best—she’s incredibly brave and resourceful, plus she has Internet connectivity in her brain, so depending on how deserted we’re talking, she could potentially send for help. As long as sand didn’t get into her cyborg joints and incapacitate her, that is. I think her stepsisters, Pearl and Peony, would probably fare the worst—they’ve been rather spoiled and aren’t used to taking care of themselves.
And who would get them off the island?
Cinder—she could probably have a raft built before everyone else realized what was going on!
If you were a Disney Princess, which would you choose?
Jasmine. I’ve always wanted an exotic pet like Raja.
If you could travel back in time for one day, where would you go?
I’d love to go back to Elizabethan England to see a Shakespeare play. One day would be just the right amount of time before I was ready to come home and take a shower!
Do you have a favorite place to write?
At home I’m usually writing either in bed or my office, but I also like to go to my local café or a favorite restaurant, particularly on those days when it’s a struggle to concentrate.
Can you share 5 random facts about yourself?
1) My karaoke song of choice is “All That Jazz” from the Chicago soundtrack. (Don’t be fooled, I’m still a terrible singer.)
2) The country I’d most like to travel to is Germany, so I can see the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale Road and Neuschwanstein Castle.
3) I once almost died from taking penicillin—turns out I’m allergic.
4) I was the founder and president of the Anime Club in college.
5) I come from a family of costumers. My favorite that I’ve ever worn was Princess Zelda, from the Zelda video games, and I’d love to someday do Cinderella or Glinda the Good Witch.
Thanks for stopping by Marissa! Make sure to check out my review of Cinder, which I super loved! And check out the rest of the tour – the schedule is here.
I also have a super cool giveaway – A copy of Cinder AND a cool Cinder mirror! This is open to US/Canada only and ends January 31.
I am super excited to be a part of the tour of Michaela MacColl’s sophomore novel, Promise the Night. And Michaela has stopped by for an interview!
Michaela MacColl is the author of Prisoners in the Palace and Promise the Night. You can find her on the web at her website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
Who was your favorite character to write in Promise the Night?
You might as well ask me which of my daughters I like best… it depends on the day! But on the whole, I think Beryl was the most fun. She’s so brave and so determined to get into trouble. Her affinity for danger is so foreign to me; it made me feel like I was have vicarious adventures through her. And no matter how many enemies she makes – essentially Beryl is a lovable girl.
If one of the characters from Promise the Night was best friends with a character in Prisoners in the Palace, who would be friends?
Surely Inside Boy (a housebreaker turned squatter in Kensington Palace) would find common ground with Kibii, Beryl’s best friend from the tribe. They are both side kicks – but such capable side-kicks. They could both roll their eyes at Liza’s and Beryl’s antics!
If you could go back in time to one point in history, where would you go?
Elizabethan London perhaps or Michelangelo’s Florence. Those cities at those times were just so sure of themselves. Their inhabitants knew it was a special time when human kind’s potential was being realized. And such gorgeous clothes!
Would you say Promise the Night had a theme song at all? If so, what is it?
Fly like an eagle? The Lion Sleeps Tonight?
Which is harder for you to write: The first line? or the last line?
Definitely the first line! I write with an outline and I almost can visualize the last scene. But knowing when to start a book is so hard. My amazing writing teacher Pat Reilly Giff is always giving her students permission to take our original chapter and make it chapter two, three or four. In my case, I added six chapters to the original manuscript.I have a 13 year old daughter who is a particularly ruthless reader. I’ve seen her skim a first page and (literally!) toss the book aside. That first line cannot be underestimated.
What is a book you have read lately and loved?
I recently read Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. It won the Printz Award last year. I don’t read a lot of science fiction and frankly I’m sick to death of the word “dystopia,” but Bacigalupi has done some fabulous writing. There’s a scene early in the novel where the main character, Nailer, faces death and betrayal. In a page or two, we learn everything we need to know about his courage, resolution and ethics. Absolutely great!
Thanks so much for stopping by Michaela! Make sure to check out my review of Promise the Night that went up today as well! Now, thanks to the lovely people at Chronicle, I have one copy of Promise the Night and one copy of Michaela’s first novel, Prisoners in the Palace for a lucky winner! Open until February 4 and US/Canada only
I am super excited to have Sarah Prineas by for the first Fantasy Five Friday Interview of the year!
Sarah Prineas is the author of The Magic Thief Series and Winterling. Her latest book Winterling came out on January 3. She has a Ph.D in English literature and lives in Iowa City, Iowa. You can find her on the web at her website, twitter, Goodreads, and blog.
TBC: Could you give us the one sentence pitch of your book?
SP: In Winterling, a girl named Fer follows a tricksy puck-boy through a Way into a world of magic and danger, where she must set right a terrible evil.
TBC: Since you have a fantasy novel coming out, the next question I obviously have to ask is: If you were a fantastical creature, which would you be?
SP: Here is a picture of my own mighty fantastical creature, a dragon.
TBC: Do you have a favorite fantasy read?
SP: As a huge Lord of the Rings geek, I reread the books fairly often (I’m reading them aloud to my kids now), and as a New Year’s Eve tradition, my family watches all three of the extended-edition movies. This year we’re watching the movies and having a LotR-themed feast, including hobbit beer, mushrooms, and lembas.
TBC: That is the coolest thing ever! My cousin and I always try to have an extended edition marathon on New Years as well, but your house sounds much cooler! Now generally speaking, which comes first: the world, the characters, or the plot?
SP: It’s all fairly organic for me. Plot usually arises out of what drives the characters, and the world takes shape around that. I never plot out the story ahead of time, which I call “writing as discovery.” It’s a very fun way to write.
TBC: They are always coming out with new editions of board games. If your book could be a special edition of any board game, which would you choose?
SP: I’m a huge word nerd and have lots of neologisms in my books, so I’d have to say Scrabble.
Thank you so much Sarah for stopping by! You can find Sarah’s books on the web at:
Fantasy Five Fridays are a part of the 2012 YA/MG Fantasy Reading Challenge. Are you a fan of fantasy? It’s not too late to sign up! Check out the central hub of information HERE.
I am super excited to have Emma Carlson Berne by the blog today for an interview! Emma is the author of Still Waters and Closer. She lives and writes in Cincinnati. You can find her on the web at her website and blog.
Hannah and Colin sneak off for a trip to the lake house. Do you have a vacation that has been a favorite?
My grandfather was in the Air Force, and they were stationed in Colorado Springs when I was growing up, so all of my favorite vacation memories are linked up with red mountain dirt, the smell of sagebrush, and Mexican food—all of the things I associate with the many trips we spent in the Rockies. We’d often go fishing with my grandmother at the lake on the Air Force Base—there were two good things about this trip, as a child. The first was that Grandma usually had some kind of cracker or candy in her tackle box. The second was that within a couple hours, Grandma would catch a dozen or so lake trout, take them home, gut them, and fry them in cornmeal and bacon grease for dinner.
If the characters from Still Waters got stuck on a deserted island, who would fare the best? The worst? and who would get them off the island?
Colin’s mother would probably fare the worst. She’s pretty messed up and wouldn’t do too well in stressful situations. Hannah would do the best. She’s terribly practical, to her dismay sometimes, but she’s the one I’d want on my team. And who would get them off the island. . .um. . .Hannah’s mother seems like she’d be the one to exhaust all resources to get them back.
Say you co-wrote a book, what author would you want to co-write a book with?
Such a fun question. I’ve heard Joyce Carol Oates is a very organized, calm writer, so she would probably be the easiest to write a book with. But Roald Dahl, one of my favorites, would be the most entertaining. He seems like the type to have an endless supply of good, possibly inappropriate, stories.
Since you like coffee, what is your favorite drink at Starbucks?
I have one of those embarrassingly long, Starbucks-specific drinks that people make fun of. My dad, for instance, is the type to go into Starbucks and defiantly order a “small coffee.” My drink, on the other hand, is a tall nonfat one-pump peppermint two-Splenda latte. I even know how to order it in Starbucks-speak.
So what is next for you?
Things are already moving ahead for my next thriller, CLOSER, which will be out in Fall 2012. This is about a twisted love triangle, and is a little darker and more gory than STILL WATERS. My editor has told me I’ll get a look at the cover sometime after the holidays – always an exciting moment.
Thanks so much for stopping by Emma! Make sure to check out my review of Still Waters, which went up today as well. You can check out the rest of the schedule of the blog tour here. Also, check out Still Waters on the web on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N and The Book Depository.
Jess Rothenberg is the author of The Catastrophic History of You and Me. You can find her on the web at her website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and blog.
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