Holly Cupala's Blog, page 10

Story Secrets: LANGUAGE OF LOVE by Deborah Reber + giveaway!

I'm very pleased to welcome author friend Deborah Reber to the blog today to chat about her first YA novel, LANGUAGE OF LOVE!

But Debbie is no stranger to writing for teens: she's written a bunch of fabulous books to empower teen girls and help them connect to their purpose and passions,
like IN HER SHOES, CHILL, and she compiled and edited the amazing teen-authored memoir series Louder Than Words (you might be familiar with titles ALEXIS, RAE, and HANNAH).

Welcome, Deborah!


*****

LANGUAGE OF LOVE is about a shy girl named Janna whose "bad influence best friend" convinces her to impersonate a Hungarian exchange student in order to keep the interest of Julian, a cute boy from another school. At first she thought her prank was harmless - Janna didn't expect to like her outgoing alter ego so much, and she certainly didn't realize that Julian was "the one" for her until she's in way too deep. That's when things really get complicated…

I'm soooo excited about LANGUAGE OF LOVE because it's my first stab at writing YA fiction. The book is part of Simon Pulse's Romantic Comedies series, which they've just rebranded by packaging two novels in one book. So Language of Love is actually paired with Caroline Goode's Cupidity in a new book called Love, Love, Love.

Holly Cupala: Great title, too! So where did the idea come from?


Deborah Reber: How many of us wish we could be someone else every now and then – try on a more interesting persona and see what happens? I wanted to play with that idea, and thought back to an episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210 where Brenda is spending the summer in France with Donna and fools an American boy into thinking she's French. And the story just evolved from there.

Holly: Hmm...I was just watching a 90210 rerun...one of those collective unconscious things! How did you go from writing nonfiction to YA fiction?
Deborah: I'd written two nonfiction books for Simon Pulse – IN THEIR SHOES and CHILL – and I loved the group of editors there. Over lunch with my Chill editor, Anica Rissi, we were talking about what might be next for me. She asked if I'd ever considered writing fiction (which I had) and suggested I pitch an idea to her for the Ro Com line. It probably took me 9 months or so before I did so (the idea of writing fiction was very intimidating to me), but I finally sent in my idea and we went from there.

Holly: You are very passionate about helping girls find there way in life. What has inspired that?
Deborah: I have many inspirations, but one of my biggest is my own teen years, which were hard, embarrassing, confusing, misguided…(you get the point). I like to write books that can play some role in improving the life of teen girls today, whether it's giving them practical strategies like in my nonfiction books or silly escapism (laughter's good for the soul!).

Holly: Do you share your ideas or keep them under wraps?
Deborah: I let two key people in on my writing process – my sister and my husband. My sister is a fantastic storyteller and a great sounding board, so when I get stuck on something, she helps me think about how to move forward in a way that makes sense for the project. And because it helps me to read my writing aloud, my husband is my audience of one when I'm writing. For this book, every night I'd catch him up with the writing I'd done during the day. For him it was kind of like listening to a radio soap opera, and he'd have keep tuning in to find out what happened next.

Holly: I love radio dramas! Great idea. How have your life experiences helped you get to the heart of your story?

Deborah: When I was in high school, I always felt like I was the goofy, slightly strange "sidekick" to my close girlfriends. I was the one no one took seriously, which was often okay with me since I loved getting a good laugh. But deep down I always thought there was so much more to me that no one knew about or cared to uncover. At her core, Janna is very much like me in that she expects to be overlooked and not seen for who she is, and she acts like she's okay with it, even though deep down it leaves her feeling bummed out and insecure.

Holly: Any secrets you might be willing to share?

Deborah: Here's a few: I pilfer candy from my son's Halloween / birthday party stash, taking care that I only grab things he has more than one of so he won't miss it; while I believe running is a very individual sport, I'm actually very competitive and love to blow past runners with my kick in the last half-mile of a race; I am jealous of women who can wear knee high boots over their jeans, since my big calves make this an impossibility for me.

Holly: What's up next?

Deborah: I'm the editorial director for a new girl-focused website launching next year aimed at teens with an interest in entrepreneurism and social activism, and I'm juggling three different book projects at the moment (2 nonfiction and 1 middle grade novel). Oh yeah, and I'm getting my certification to be a life coach for teens and young women, which I will start doing next summer!

*****
Thanks so much for stopping by, Debbie!

Ok, so NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:You know the drill. Until Monday at midnight, you can comment here and answer one of the following for a chance to win a copy of Deborah's LANGUAGE OF LOVE. Mais oui, bien sûr! Have you ever fantasized about posing as a girl from another land?Do you think, if you had the chance, you would act on it?Why are you dying to read LANGUAGE OF LOVE?

Tell us in the comments!

This is random.

Would you like to know how to pronounce my name? I will tell you myself, via TeachingBooks! (You'll have to listen yourself to find out why I borrowed this nice green impala picture below):

Secret stops and gifties!

Today is my day to blog over at YA Outside the Lines, and to celebrate finishing the Don't Breathe a Word copyedit, I'm giving away a signed print of the Tell Me a Secret art collage I made! Stop by to enter.

>
I'm also featured at the "Best I've Read 2010" event today (wow, what an honor!), where we're chatting about funny fan stories, holiday traditions, and other random secrets - oh, and I do believe they have a book to give away. Enjoy!

More fun giveaways

I'm resposting the schedule to the Tell Me a Secret event Kari at Teen Book Scene and a bunch of other amazing book bloggers have put together (thanks to all of you!) including character interviews, secret scenes, crazy videos, and cool handmade prizes and books.

We have a set of TMAS magnets (made by me!):

And I'm giving away two autographed prints of the TMAS trailer-inpsired collage I made:

Visit the tour stops and enter to win! Here is the full event listing:

Monday, November 29:
Hattie at DeRaps Reads (Character Interview: Nik + magnet giveaway)
Tuesday, November 30:
Katryna at Books Are Dreams (Book Post: Holly's Favorites)
Wednesday, December 1:
Jessica at Total Bookaholic (Character Interview: Miranda + art giveaway)
Thursday, December 2:
Eleni at La Femme Readers (Audio Book Excerpt/Feature)
Friday, December 3:
Brandi at Blkosiner's Book Blog (Character Interview: Rand's Mom + magnet giveaway)
Saturday, December 4:
Courtney at Stiletto Story Time (Review)
Sunday, December 5:
Kari at A Good Addiction (Book Post: Rand's Favorites + signed book giveaway)

Monday, December 6:
Kate at I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read (Character Interview: Kamran)
Tuesday, December 7:
Enna at Squeaky Books (Book Trailer Guest Post)
Wednesday, December 8:
Danielle at There's A Book (Behind the scenes: a story secret!)
Thursday, December 9: Sandy at Pirate Penguin Reads (Book Post: Xanda's Favorites)
Friday, December 10:
Sarah at Sarah's Random Musings (Character Interview: Delaney)
Saturday, December 11:
Corrine at Lost for Words (Review)
Sunday, December 12:
Angela at Reading Angel (Secret Scene)
Thanks so much to all of you! Readers, I hope you'll check it out and enter to win some cool TMAS prizes, some of them handmade by me!

More fun giveaways!

I'm resposting the schedule to the Tell Me a Secret event Kari at Teen Book Scene and a bunch of other amazing book bloggers have put together (thanks to all of you!) including character interviews, secret scenes, crazy videos, and cool handmade prizes and books.

We have a set of TMAS magnets (made by me!):

And I'm giving away two autographed prints of the TMAS trailer-inpsired collage I made:

Visit the tour stops and enter to win! Here is the full event listing:

Monday, November 29:
Hattie at DeRaps Reads (Character Interview: Nik + magnet giveaway)
Tuesday, November 30:
Katryna at Books Are Dreams (Book Post: Holly's Favorites)
Wednesday, December 1:
Jessica at Total Bookaholic (Character Interview: Miranda + art giveaway)
Thursday, December 2:
Eleni at La Femme Readers (Audio Book Excerpt/Feature)
Friday, December 3:
Brandi at Blkosiner's Book Blog (Character Interview: Rand's Mom + magnet giveaway)
Saturday, December 4:
Courtney at Stiletto Story Time (Review)
Sunday, December 5:
Kari at A Good Addiction (Book Post: Rand's Favorites + signed book giveaway)

Monday, December 6:
Kate at I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read (Character Interview: Kamran)
Tuesday, December 7:
Enna at Squeaky Books (Book Trailer Guest Post)
Wednesday, December 8:
Danielle at There's A Book (Character Interview: Rand's Dad)
Thursday, December 9: Sandy at Pirate Penguin Reads (Book Post: Xanda's Favorites)
Friday, December 10:
Sarah at Sarah's Random Musings (Character Interview: Delaney)
Saturday, December 11:
Corrine at Lost for Words (Review)
Sunday, December 12:
Angela at Reading Angel (Secret Scene)
Thanks so much to all of you! Readers, I hope you'll check it out and enter to win some cool TMAS prizes, some of them handmade by me!

Teen Book Scene Event

I'm resposting the schedule to the amazing Tell Me a Secret event Kari at Teen Book Scene and a bunch of other amazing book bloggers have put together (thanks to all of you!) including character interviews, secret scenes, crazy videos, and cool handmade prizes and books.

We have a set of TMAS magnets (made by me!):

And I'm giving away two autographed prints of the TMAS trailer-inpsired collage I made:

Visit the tour stops and enter to win! Here is the full event listing:

Monday, November 29:
Hattie at DeRaps Reads (Character Interview: Nik + magnet giveaway)
Tuesday, November 30:
Katryna at Books Are Dreams (Book Post: Holly's Favorites)
Wednesday, December 1:
Jessica at Total Bookaholic (Character Interview: Miranda + art giveaway)
Thursday, December 2:
Eleni at La Femme Readers (Audio Book Excerpt/Feature)
Friday, December 3:
Brandi at Blkosiner's Book Blog (Character Interview: Rand's Mom + magnet giveaway)
Saturday, December 4:
Courtney at Stiletto Story Time (Review)
Sunday, December 5:
Kari at A Good Addiction (Book Post: Rand's Favorites)

Monday, December 6:
Kate at I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read (Character Interview: Kamran)
Tuesday, December 7:
Enna at Squeaky Books (Book Trailer Guest Post)
Wednesday, December 8:
Danielle at There's A Book (Character Interview: Rand's Dad)
Thursday, December 9: Sandy at Pirate Penguin Reads (Book Post: Xanda's Favorites)
Friday, December 10:
Sarah at Sarah's Random Musings (Character Interview: Delaney)
Saturday, December 11:
Corrine at Lost for Words (Review)
Sunday, December 12:
Angela at Reading Angel (Secret Scene)
Thanks so much to all of you! Readers, I hope you'll check it out and enter to win some cool TMAS prizes, some of them handmade by me!

Tell Me a Secret Party Saturday night!

Are you in the Seattle area Saturday eve? Then we hope you'll join us for a party!

When: Saturday, December 04 from 06:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Kirkland Parkplace Books, 348 Parkplace Center Kirkland, WA 98033

Parkplace Books has kindly offered to host us for an evening of music that inspired the book, story secrets, tasty morsels from "Cafe Shiraz" (the restaurant in the book, of course!), and more yummy treats.

We've been working on a very special project since summer with the help of award-winning actress Jenna Lamia (known for reading The Chosen One, The Secret Life of Bees, The Help and others), and will have the special edition audiobook recording available to pre-order at the party!

Ten percent of the evening's proceeds will go to World Vision's Hope for Sexually Exploited Girls.
This is a public event, so please bring friends! Students! Teens! Please let us know if you're coming so Cafe Shiraz can keep up.


We are very excited to celebrate with you, our dear friends and family!

Story Secrets: POSITIVELY by Courtney Sheinmel + giveaway!

In honor of World AIDS Day (December 1), I am very pleased to welcome friend Courtney Sheinmel today to tell us her story secrets about her beautiful YA book, POSITIVELY.

I met Courtney in New York City when I went for BEA last summer, and she is honestly one of the nicest YA authors around. I wish I had a pic of us together! After the Teen Author Carnival (yes, another awesome author I met there!), we all went out for yummy Mexican food with a bunch of others and ended up talking the whole time.

I'm very excited to get to feature her today, and also to chat about her upcoming book, SINCERELY. Oh, and check out that amazing Be the Link photo (by Andy Tsagaris) below.

Welcome, Courtney!

*****
POSITIVELY is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Emerson ("Emmy" for short) who was born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. After her mom dies, Emmy has to move in with her dad and his new wife – who is pregnant and preoccupied with things like baking cookies and getting the house ready for the baby. Emmy feels isolated and filled with grief. Her dad ends up sending her to a camp for girls with HIV, where she finds hope and the will to live, even in a world without her mother.

Holly Cupala: I've been fascinated with this story even before I met you. Where did the idea come from? Courtney Scheinmel: Okay, to tell you that I have to go back to something that happened nearly two decades ago. It was February of 1991, and I was in eighth grade. I read an article about a woman named Elizabeth Glaser. She was infected with HIV and had unknowingly passed the virus onto her two children. Her daughter died of AIDS in 1988, during a time when there weren't many medications around to treat people with the disease. A couple months later, Elizabeth founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, in hopes of raising money to
fund research that would save her son. It was one of the most remarkable stories I had ever heard, and I decided I wanted to get involved. Since then, I've met a lot of men, women, and children who are living with HIV – just regular people who never imagined how their lives would be changed by illness. Over the years I wondered how I would handle being thrust into that situation, particularly as a young kid. So that was the impetus for Positively. In the book, Emmy has a personality that is pretty similar to my own; but unlike me, she's HIV-positive.

Holly: It had to be an incredible process to write about such an emotional and loaded topic. Did anything unexpected come out of it?
Courtney: I knew it would be a difficult, emotional book to write, but I honestly thought I'd be able to make it through the first draft just by using information I knew from being involved with the Foundation for so many years. Instead I was overwhelmed. I ended up calling my friend Carol. She used to run a camp for teenagers with HIV and I asked her if there were any kids she could put me in touch with, so I could talk to them about their experiences. There was one girl in particular Carol thought I should talk to – a high schooler from the tri-state area who had been positive since birth. Her parents had died of AIDS and she'd been raised by her older siblings. But, Carol told me, this girl had kept her status secret for her entire life, so she might not agree to talk to me. It wasn't until then that I really came to terms with the stigma that still surrounds the disease – that in 2007 (when I was writing Positively), there were still American families who felt they had to keep HIV secret, for fear of being shunned. That raised the stakes for me, and it was motivational too: I thought if I wrote the story well enough, maybe I'd be able to show kids that HIV can touch anyone, and it isn't so scary to be around.

Meanwhile, the girl Carol wanted to put me in touch with did agree to speak to me, and now she's a close friend – another unexpected and wonderful consequence.

Holly: Have your own life experiences played into this story?

Courtney: Readers have noted that my characters tend to have non-traditional families – divorced parents, single moms, stepparents. I'm certain that's because my parents divorced when I was nine years old. For years I lived with my mom and my sister in New York, and my dad lived across the country in California. I am extremely close with both of my parents, but it was tough when I was little. Like once I remember when I was fighting with my mom and missing my dad, I threw a bouquet of flowers I had bought for my mom. When they landed on the floor, the stems snapped. I was so devastated by what I had done – I had ruined something beautiful. And I brought those feelings to a scene in Positively, when Emmy destroys something that belonged to her stepmother.

Holly: Any secrets you might be willing to share?

Courtney: This is a tough question for me. First of all, I was just talking about kids who can't share their HIV status with even their closest friends, and my secrets can't compare to that. (My friend Regan Hofmann wrote a beautiful memoir about her experience with this, called I Have Something to Tell You.)

And second of all, while I'm good at keeping secrets for other people, I'm not really good at keeping my own. So I honestly can't think of any. I asked my friend Amy and she mentioned my height – I always say I'm five feet tall, but really I'm a quarter inch shy of that. My sister said my worst kept secret is that I don't like dogs – and she also says that my worst quality.

I guess I have secret fears – of being alone, of not writing well enough. They're not really secrets, just things I tend not to talk about, because I don't want them to become too real.

Holly: So I know you have a lot of irons in the fire. What's up next?

Courtney: My latest book SINCERELY is available now. It's about Sophie Turner and Katie Franklin, cross-country pen pals who confide in each other when their home lives seem overwhelming. Next up will be ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE, which comes out on June 14, 2011, about seventh grader Carly Wheeler, whose life is turned upside-down the day FBI agents come to her house to arrest her mother for a white-collar crime. I went to law school and practiced law for several years before becoming a full-time writer, and this book marks the first time I've worked any of my legal knowledge a piece of fiction.

I also have a young readers series that will debut in the Fall of 2011 (I think). It follows a seven-year-old girl named Stella who lives in the Bay Area (like I did at that age), has a younger sister (like I do), and whose parents own a candy store (unfortunately, that part is completely made up). So far I've written the first two books. The titles haven't been finalized or I'd tell you.

And I am working on something else... It's not exactly a secret but I'm afraid to write it here because I might jinx it. But my friends know and you can ask them. Or if you see me on the street, stop me and I'd be happy to tell you.


****

Thank you, Courtney!

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:
For a chance to win a copy of POSITIVELY from Courtney, comment below on one of the following: a) why you'd really love to read this book, b) how you might react if a close friend told you they'd been living with HIV, or c) what you think teens, readers, adults, society can do to help destigmatize people living with HIV or other chronic illness.
Here's a video of Courtney talking about POSITIVELY:

Plus here's a fantastic fan-made trailer:

Don't forget to follow Courtney on Twitter, and check out her blog!

Story Secrets: POSITIVELY by Courtney Scheinmel + giveaway!

In honor of World AIDS Day (December 1), I am very pleased to welcome friend Courtney Scheinmel today to tell us her story secrets about her beautiful YA book, POSITIVELY.

I met Courtney in New York City when I went for BEA last summer, and she is honestly one of the nicest YA authors around. I wish I had a pic of us together! After the Teen Author Carnival (yes, another awesome author I met there!), we all went out for yummy Mexican food with a bunch of others and ended up talking the whole time.

I'm very excited to get to feature her today, and also to chat about her upcoming book, SINCERELY. Oh, and check out that amazing Be the Link photo (by Andy Tsagaris) below.

Welcome, Courtney!

*****
POSITIVELY is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Emerson ("Emmy" for short) who was born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. After her mom dies, Emmy has to move in with her dad and his new wife – who is pregnant and preoccupied with things like baking cookies and getting the house ready for the baby. Emmy feels isolated and filled with grief. Her dad ends up sending her to a camp for girls with HIV, where she finds hope and the will to live, even in a world without her mother.

Holly Cupala: I've been fascinated with this story even before I met you. Where did the idea come from? Courtney Scheinmel: Okay, to tell you that I have to go back to something that happened nearly two decades ago. It was February of 1991, and I was in eighth grade. I read an article about a woman named Elizabeth Glaser. She was infected with HIV and had unknowingly passed the virus onto her two children. Her daughter died of AIDS in 1988, during a time when there weren't many medications around to treat people with the disease. A couple months later, Elizabeth founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, in hopes of raising money to
fund research that would save her son. It was one of the most remarkable stories I had ever heard, and I decided I wanted to get involved. Since then, I've met a lot of men, women, and children who are living with HIV – just regular people who never imagined how their lives would be changed by illness. Over the years I wondered how I would handle being thrust into that situation, particularly as a young kid. So that was the impetus for Positively. In the book, Emmy has a personality that is pretty similar to my own; but unlike me, she's HIV-positive.

Holly: It had to be an incredible process to write about such an emotional and loaded topic. Did anything unexpected come out of it?
Courtney: I knew it would be a difficult, emotional book to write, but I honestly thought I'd be able to make it through the first draft just by using information I knew from being involved with the Foundation for so many years. Instead I was overwhelmed. I ended up calling my friend Carol. She used to run a camp for teenagers with HIV and I asked her if there were any kids she could put me in touch with, so I could talk to them about their experiences. There was one girl in particular Carol thought I should talk to – a high schooler from the tri-state area who had been positive since birth. Her parents had died of AIDS and she'd been raised by her older siblings. But, Carol told me, this girl had kept her status secret for her entire life, so she might not agree to talk to me. It wasn't until then that I really came to terms with the stigma that still surrounds the disease – that in 2007 (when I was writing Positively), there were still American families who felt they had to keep HIV secret, for fear of being shunned. That raised the stakes for me, and it was motivational too: I thought if I wrote the story well enough, maybe I'd be able to show kids that HIV can touch anyone, and it isn't so scary to be around.

Meanwhile, the girl Carol wanted to put me in touch with did agree to speak to me, and now she's a close friend – another unexpected and wonderful consequence.

Holly: Have your own life experiences played into this story?

Courtney: Readers have noted that my characters tend to have non-traditional families – divorced parents, single moms, stepparents. I'm certain that's because my parents divorced when I was nine years old. For years I lived with my mom and my sister in New York, and my dad lived across the country in California. I am extremely close with both of my parents, but it was tough when I was little. Like once I remember when I was fighting with my mom and missing my dad, I threw a bouquet of flowers I had bought for my mom. When they landed on the floor, the stems snapped. I was so devastated by what I had done – I had ruined something beautiful. And I brought those feelings to a scene in Positively, when Emmy destroys something that belonged to her stepmother.

Holly: Any secrets you might be willing to share?

Courtney: This is a tough question for me. First of all, I was just talking about kids who can't share their HIV status with even their closest friends, and my secrets can't compare to that. (My friend Regan Hofmann wrote a beautiful memoir about her experience with this, called I Have Something to Tell You.)

And second of all, while I'm good at keeping secrets for other people, I'm not really good at keeping my own. So I honestly can't think of any. I asked my friend Amy and she mentioned my height – I always say I'm five feet tall, but really I'm a quarter inch shy of that. My sister said my worst kept secret is that I don't like dogs – and she also says that my worst quality.

I guess I have secret fears – of being alone, of not writing well enough. They're not really secrets, just things I tend not to talk about, because I don't want them to become too real.

Holly: So I know you have a lot of irons in the fire. What's up next?

Courtney: My latest book SINCERELY is available now. It's about Sophie Turner and Katie Franklin, cross-country pen pals who confide in each other when their home lives seem overwhelming. Next up will be ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE, which comes out on June 14, 2011, about seventh grader Carly Wheeler, whose life is turned upside-down the day FBI agents come to her house to arrest her mother for a white-collar crime. I went to law school and practiced law for several years before becoming a full-time writer, and this book marks the first time I've worked any of my legal knowledge a piece of fiction.

I also have a young readers series that will debut in the Fall of 2011 (I think). It follows a seven-year-old girl named Stella who lives in the Bay Area (like I did at that age), has a younger sister (like I do), and whose parents own a candy store (unfortunately, that part is completely made up). So far I've written the first two books. The titles haven't been finalized or I'd tell you.

And I am working on something else... It's not exactly a secret but I'm afraid to write it here because I might jinx it. But my friends know and you can ask them. Or if you see me on the street, stop me and I'd be happy to tell you.


****

Thank you, Courtney!

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:
For a chance to win a copy of POSITIVELY from Courtney, comment below on one of the following: a) why you'd really love to read this book, b) how you might react if a close friend told you they'd been living with HIV, or c) what you think teens, readers, adults, society can do to help destigmatize people living with HIV or other chronic illness.
Here's a video of Courtney talking about POSITIVELY:

Plus here's a fantastic fan-made trailer:

Don't forget to follow Courtney on Twitter, and check out her blog!

Miranda's interview + video craziness + my handmade collage art prize

Stop by Total Bookaholic today, where Jessica has asked Miranda, the main character in Tell Me a Secret, some tough questions (I tried to keep the spoilers out, but be forewarned).

BUT...

What you might really want to know is two things: one, I made a brand new video with some rarely seen footage of my own secrets.

AND...

Jessica is running a virtually one-of-a-kind giveaway of a TMAS-inspired collage art print, handmade by yours truly! Here's a shot of it:

So head on over for this very limited giveaway (I'm only making two for this blog tour!). I'd love to know what you think!