Cheryl Rainfield's Blog, page 74

Interview with Karen DelleCava, author of A Closer Look, AND a chance to win a copy & a surprise gift

Today I interview Karen DelleCava, author of realistic YA A Closer Look, which deals with a teen who has alopecia–her hair falling out. If you read the interview and leave a comment on this post, you'll be entered to win a copy of A Closer Look PLUS a surprise gift but "Do not open it until page 153." Open to US and Canadian residents. To gain up to two extra entries, share a link to this interview on FaceBook and/or on Twitter (one extra entry for each format), and mention that you did so in the comments. Contest runs for a week, starting today.

But first, we've got a brief excerpt from A Closer Look:

"…and there were these moments–when we laughed on the phone, or met for a kiss-and-run, when I noticed the sweet way he looked at me–well, I felt so good I could almost forget about my secret. But in the back of my mind, it was like an invisible fist was lurking, one that followed me around, just waiting for the chance to rip out more hair."

And one of my favorite authors, Margaret Peterson Haddix (Multiple award-winning author of middle grade and young adult fiction), had this to say about Karen's book:

"In A Closer Look, author Karen DelleCava gives readers a feisty character who deals with family secrets, boyfriend complications, a cruel teammate–and her own body turning against her. Readers will be rooting for Cassie all along, and will want to cheer for the way she proves that losing your hair doesn't have to mean losing your spirit."

Wow! Doesn't that make you want to read the book?? Now, on to the interview…

Karen, can you tell us what inspired you to write A Closer Look?

Ten years ago, my nephew's grandmother arrived at a party with much shorter hair than usual and when I commented on it, she told me she'd donated her hair to an organization that makes wigs for children with alopecia areata.

I thought, whoa. There were kids out there living without hair?

Her random act of kindness touched me deeply and I proceeded to write a middle grade novel about kids who donate their hair. I was 80 pages into the first draft when I thought my main character might meet a child with alopecia. Then it hit me. I had to write the story of the girl who is losing her hair. So I started researching and started writing all over again.

I love that you were inspired by an event–your nephew's grandmother donating her hair!

What was your road to publication like?

I wrote the first draft over ten years ago in one semester in Margaret Gabel's amazing course: Workshop in Writing for Children at New School University in New York. I worked on the manuscript over six (not all consecutive) semesters.

I also write short fiction and have sold a number of short stories, games and crafts to Highlights for Children magazine. My middle grade short story, Surfing Iowa (July 2002) has been used for standardized testing numerous times since then. The editors there are fantastic to work with and it's always a thrill to be included in an issue of Highlights!

Back to A Closer Look…I landed a literary agent around 2004 and thought this is it! It's going to happen! We got a lot of nice rejections. One editor said, "A near miss." But when my agent couldn't sell the manuscript fast enough for his taste and I had no other novels ready to go, we parted ways. Deeply discouraged, I let the manuscript sit for a year or two. I knew it was a great story that needed to be told so I polished it some more and sent it back out. I received a letter (two pages single spaced!) from WestSide Books publisher, Evelyn M. Fazio letting me know what worked and what didn't. She invited me to resubmit.

Evelyn's great, isn't she? I'm glad you didn't give up!

How did you find out your book had sold?

I got "the call" from Evelyn on my cell phone while I was at work. She's so warm and friendly and she started chatting with me but my brain started racing. Editors CALL to tell you GOOD news. If my manuscript was being rejected she'd have emailed me. Then she gave me the news. I let out such a shriek of joy I think the people in the adjacent building heard me. As you know, Evelyn is an absolute joy to work with!

Yes! Evelyn Fazio is wonderful. I love that you got that call AND that you shrieked with joy!

What's the best email or review you've ever received from a teen reader?

A twelve year old girl emailed me the day she started the book and had read 50 pages. She also told me she was a super picky about books and she loved it! This wonderfully picky reader has alopecia and asked if I had it too, because I described what it's like so perfectly. That was pretty amazing! She also told me all of her friends wanted to read A Closer Look. It felt wonderful to know she enjoyed the book and wanted to share it with her friends.

That's incredible feedback!

If your main character, Cassie, had a theme song, what would it be?

Born This Way by Lady Gaga! Cassie has to figure out how to love herself in order to move forward. I can picture her tying her sneakers in double knots, cranking up the Ipod and running to Born This Way feeling totally empowered.

I love Born This Way by Lady Gaga, too! It seems to fit so many of us.

Do you have a critique group? How much do you rely on them?

I commute an hour from the North Jersey suburbs to NYC each week because my critique group rocks! I trust them implicitly which is key. They cheer when I nail the perfect metaphor, call me out on cheesy cliches, and always make fabulous suggestions for improvements. I couldn't image not being connected to such a talented, generous group. I take all of their comments very seriously but ultimately it's up to me to decide what works best for my character and her story.

Yes, it's so important to trust your critique group!

Do you have any upcoming events you'd like to mention?

As a matter of fact, yes, Cheryl! Thanks for asking!

My first Blog Tour coordinated by The {Teen} Book Scene runs from April 2nd-April 13th.

Visit karendellecava.com for a link to the schedule and details on how to win a signed copy of A Closer Look PLUS a surprise gift but "Do not open it until page 153."

A Closer Look Book Signing:

Friday, April 13th 6:30-8pm

Well Read (New & Used) Bookstore

425 Lafayette Ave

Hawthorne NJ 07506

973-949-3440

Teens who attend will receive a surprise gift but "Do not open it until page 153."

(While supplies last.)

Visit karendellecava.com to read Chapter 1 of A Closer Look.

I'm having a blast being a part of a new blog GotTeenFiction with fellow WestSide authors, Selene Castrovilla (Saved by the Music & The Girl Next Door), Joe Junievicz (Open Wounds) and Shari Maurer (Change of Heart) all of whom I admire as writers and are a kick to work with! Stop by again any time!

Thank you, Cheryl, for being such a gracious host and for this lovely visit!

Thanks so much, Karen, for a fantastic interview!

You can read the first 6 pages of HUNTED *and* the author's note on Amazon.ca

Wow, very cool! I just saw that you can read the first 6 pages of the Canadian paperback version of HUNTED, AND my author's note and some of resource guide on Amazon.ca! http://ow.ly/9V6jL Thank you Fitzhenry and Whiteside!

You can now buy Harry Potter ebooks – legally!

You can now buy Harry Potter ebooks for your Kindle or Nook (legally) on Amazon, B&N, etc. This is big news for a few reasons. One is that the Harry Potter books have not been available at all as ebooks legally (though there have been illegal copies floating about). Many fans have been impatiently waiting to load Harry Potter books onto their Kindles or Nooks. Another reason this is big news is because this is the first time an author has been able to sell their ebooks directly to the reader through links on the major ebook retailers Amazon and B&N.

When you buy a Harry Potter ebook from Amazon or from Barnes and Noble, you are redirected to Pottermore, JK Rowling's own Harry Potter site. I think that's exciting–an author retaining so much control! I also love that the Harry Potter ebooks are being sold without DRM, making them so much more accessible and easily transferred to different hardware by the buyer (as it should be). The ebooks are still watermarked and can be traced back to the buyer.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the first book in the Harry Potter series, is $7.99, and ALL the Harry Potter ebooks are up and available for your Kindle or Nook.

What do you think? If you loved the Harry Potter books, are you going to download them for your Kindle or Nook as well? (I personally buy copies of books I love for both my Kindle and paper book collection.)

eBook for Writers Mugging the Muse by Holly Lisle only $0.99 on Amazon (US)

Another ebook of interest to writers: Author Holly Lisle 's Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love AND Money is $0.99 on Amazon (US) as an ebook! I love Holly Lisle's writing technique advice, and I think this is a bargain price. This is a new, revised edition with more & updated articles, links to promotion and self-publishing, and more workshops. I just bought my copy!

Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love AND Money by Holly Lisle is $0.99

Want to Get PAID for Writing What You LOVE?

In this collection of thirty-one essays, workshops, quizzes, Q&As, and how-to-do-it articles, novelist Holly Lisle — who went pro with her award-winning first novel, Fire in the Mist, in 1992 and who's been writing full-time ever since (more than thirty novels published by major publishers, and still writing) offers help, comfort, and wry practical advice to the beginning fiction writer looking for answers.

In the second edition of this book, Holly walks writers through Preparation, Practice, Writing & Selling, and Frequently Asked Questions, offering end-of-chapter exercises, workshops, and free downloadable worksheets designed to get the individual writer or members of writers' groups working productively with publication as the goal.

In this newly updated writing course, you will discover:

Why you want to write…

What you want to write…

Who you want to write for…

How to write only what you love and what matters to YOU…

How to make your work good…

And how to get paid for doing it.

Writing is a learnable skill, not a magical process only those

touched by the Book Fairy, or the Muse, can ever reach.

If you want to write fiction, you can.

free now on Amazon: 101 Habits Of Highly Successful Screenwriters

Free right now on Amazon (US) and of interest to writers:

The 101 Habits Of Highly Successful Screenwriters: Insider's Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers by Karl Iglesias.

Insider Secrets from Hollywood's Top Writers

This book not only shows how to be a screenwriter, but what it's actually like to be one. An inspiration to all would-be screenwriters, this book is about living the screenwriter's life — the habits, writing environments, creative processes, daily passions, and obsessions.

In The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters, author Karl Iglesias has interviewed 14 top contemporary Hollywood screenwriters who offer their experience, insight, and advice to aspiring screenwriters everywhere.

Guest Post – YA author Nancy Springer: It Works To Play

I'm excited to have Nancy Springer here today with her guest post in the importance of playing in helping us write. I love Nancy Springer's children's and YA books (my top favorite is Sky Rider), so it's so lovely to have her here! Take it away, Nancy!

It Works To Play

Nancy Springer

"What do you need those for?" asked a new acquaintance as I bought a pack of pens in all the hues of the rainbow. "Don't you write on a computer?"

Yes, indeed, I write on a computer. Actually, I didn't know what the pens were for, exactly, but I knew I needed them. I mean, purple, fuchsia, chartreuse, teal, peach for gosh sake -– I had to have them. Sure, I send my editors plain black words, but before I get to that point, give me color. Colored Sharpies, pencils, printer paper, poster paper, Post-It Notes -–

Mama don't take my Post-It Notes away! Sometimes I'll write story business on "stickies," then arrange and rearrange them on a big sheet of poster-board to rough out a novel. I know a mystery writer who uses a story grid blocked into chapters, and color-codes her notes, yellow for setting, green for character, red for murder — but me, I just like the way spring-green stickies look against lilac poster-board, especially if I use violet pen.

Writing about Enola Holmes, Sherlock's kid sister, needing to know my stuff about late Victorian life in London, I discovered a research playmate named Dover. Oh, my gosh, Dover, a.k.a. doverpublications.com, has big beautiful books full of Victorian paper dolls to cut out, Victorian stickers to help me organize my notes, information-packed Victorian costume and Victorian house coloring books. Those were crucial. Sure, I read reams of serious research first, but it was the coloring books that internalized the material for me. Crayoning, say, a street scene, identifying each person and object in order to choose mahogany, midnight blue or mustard yellow, I absorbed knowledge of all things Victorian so fondly and deeply that later, writing, I could focus on my story without needing to stop and think about sealing wax or slop buckets; I just knew.

It works to play. We writers get so serious about our craft sometimes, I think, so focused on important thoughts about plot and pacing and character arc and narrative technique, that we lose a sense of playfulness as integral to creativity. "Don't play with your food," they told us when we were kids, but don't great chefs do just that? Don't great visual artists need to fingerpaint now and then? I know I need to play in order to write well, and it's not necessary to be working — I mean playing — on a specific research topic, either.

For instance: As suggested by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge in her wonderful book Poemcrazy, and for no other reason except that it sounded like fun, I made myself a word ocean. I cut colorful card stock, the kind crafters use for scrapbooking, into quirky shapes, on which I wrote my favorite words –- in bright-colored pens or markers, naturally. Some with stickers. Some embellished with a doodle or two. As days and weeks went by and my word ocean deepened, story ideas leapt out of it like flying fish, even though I was really just playing.

Sure, I write on a computer, and it's a good thing I can change the font color at whim. Maybe today I feel like writing in vermilion. No problem. There will be plenty of opportunity to zap my story into sober black after it is finished. I once heard renowned science fiction author Jack Vance tell how he did his first drafts: in longhand, on notebook paper folded in half into folios, writing across the lines, in a different color of fountain pen ink for each paragraph. It had to be fountain pen, green, azure, violet, not ballpoint or marker. It had to be lined notebook paper so that he could rebel against the lines. He added, dryly, that because he liked to write this way, he produced rather slowly.

My rainbow Sharpies seem a mild eccentricity by comparison.

Color isn't the only way to play, of course. There are musical accompaniment, and rubber stamps, and dingbats, and fun fonts, and wazoo computer papers, and the stuff you clip from newspapers and magazines to stick up in the office, and…all sorts of ways to play. A lot of writers play at collecting words or faces or bright ideas the way a child collects seashells or marbles or bugs. I love that kind of collecting too, especially as it involves keeping notebooks. Colorful ones, of course, landing all over the place like butterflies.

Just because I've published more than fifty novels, some people call me prolific. Humph. I don't like "prolific." (It's not in my word ocean!) Instead, why not color me playful? After all, that's how I get so much work done.

About NANCY SPRINGER:

It's never too late to have a happy childhood, or, in the case of a fiction writer, an immortal work of literature, which is why, after

authoring fifty-some books in various genres for adults and children, Nancy Springer continues to write with zest. Her forthcoming YA novel, MY SISTER'S STALKER (Holiday House, May) marks yet another hair-pin turn in a career full of them. As opposed to THE ENOLA HOLMES MYSTERY SERIES, complex and witty, MY SISTER'S STALKER exemplifies stark suspense. Nancy Springer, formerly from Pennsylvania, now lives in a wild woodsy area of the Florida panhandle.

A 9-year-old girl has a wardrobe that opens into a Narnia playroom

A nine-year old child has a wardrobe in her bedroom that opens up into a Narnia-themed playroom! WOW! What incredible, book-loving, inspiring parents that girl has. I love that they're encouraging a love of fantasy, magic, and imagination, and a love of books! I would have LOVED having a room like that as a child. I still would! I love the Narnia books.

What about you? Does that room appeal to you?

The Knife of Never Letting Go (ebook) on sale for $0.99!

I've heard so many people talk about this book, I thought you'd all want to know it's on sale.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (YA novel) is on sale today for $0.99 on Amazon US!! (as an ebook)

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

5 YA Dystopian ebooks on sale $1.99 ea on Amazon today (deal of the day)

5 YA dystopian ebooks are on sale for $1.99 each on Amazon today! (The sale is likely only for today since it's their "Deal of the Day", so if you want any of these books at the sale price, grab them now.)

The Scorpio Racesby Maggie Stiefvater is $1.99 (89% off)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shiver and Linger comes a brand new, heart-stopping novel.

With her trademark lyricism, Maggie Stiefvater turns to a new world, where a pair are swept up in a daring, dangerous race across a cliff–with more than just their lives at stake should they lose.

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari is on sale for $1.99 (89% off)

A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

Epidemics, floods, droughts–for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.

Green Heart by Alice Hoffman is $1.99 (80% off)

A two-fold tale of grief and hope loss and love told as only Alice Hoffman can.

When her family is lost in a terrible disaster 15-year-old Green is haunted by loss and the past. Struggling to survive in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings she also begins to destroy herself. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story.

As she heals Green lives every day with feelings of loss. Her family is gone the boy she loves is missing and the world she once knew has been transformed by tragedy. In order to rediscover the truth about love hope and magic she must venture away from her home collecting the stories of a group of women who have been branded witches for their mysterious powers. Only through their stories will Green find her own heart's desire.

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch is $1.99 (89% off)

In an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

In the aftermath of a war, America's landscape has been ravaged and two thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade for food and other items essential for survival. But when Stephen's grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler's Landing, a community that seems too good to be true, where there are real houses, barbecues, a school, and even baseball games. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to

accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler's Landing forever.

Emptyby Suzanne Weyn is $1.99 (89% off)

A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out…

It's the near future – the very near future – and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope – there has to be hope – just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.

Missed my interview with Dr Beth?

Check out a snippet of the interview I did with Dr Beth, where I talk about being a ritual abuse survivor (something I draw on for every book I write), as well as my new book HUNTED: