Beth Revis's Blog, page 56

Ruta Sepetys: All About BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY

The very first thing I wanted to ask Ruta about was her fabulous book! So today's questions are all about BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY.





Can you give us a brief summary of your novel?



The book is about Lina, a fifteen-year-old girl who is deported from Lithuania to Siberia. The story chronicles not only Lina's fight for survival, but also her struggle to retain faith in mankind amidst Stalin's terror. It explores the mysteries of hope and courage and also the miraculous power of the human spirit.



What made you want to write this novel?



When I was in Lithuania meeting with family members they told me that they had burned all of the photos of my family, because they couldn't let anyone know they were related to my grandfather. So many people in the Baltics had experienced the terror of Stalin but had never spoken of it for fear of the consequences. The stories of Soviet occupation and Stalin are rarely discussed. And it occurred to me, there are so many heroes that we've never had the chance to meet or hear about. We've never been able to celebrate their bravery or console their regret. They're nameless and faceless. So I was inspired to write the book to honor the many people who were deported to Siberia by Stalin.



Why did you choose to make it YA instead of an adult novel?



A few reasons. First, I love YA books! Also, many of the survivors I met were young when they were deported and I was very affected by the things they told me they experienced during their teen years in Siberia. I hoped that making the main character a young girl might add additional dimension to the story. Also, since this is a very little known piece of history, I hoped the book might make its way to teachers and librarians.



This book seems as if it will be very emotional—not only because of the subject matter, but also because of how close you were to the story. Was there a part that was particularly hard for you to write?



Many parts were difficult to write because the cruelty I was describing was just unfathomable. There is a particular event with the mother in the book, Elena. It just destroyed me and I had to take a break for a few days after I wrote that chapter.



Thanks for telling us about the originations of BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, Ruta!








Between Shades of Gray Prize Pack:Signed ARC of BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAYSigned bookplateBookmarksMusic download card

All this week, I'll be posting about BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. Comment on a post, you get an entry for the random drawing. Five posts = five chances to comment and win. So come back every day this week for another chance to comment and win! 


Also, I thought it might be easier if I suggested some topics for comments--you don't have to comment on the following questions to enter (a simple "please enter me!" is fine), I just thought it might be fun to get a real discussion going.

Question 1: Have you read BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY yet? Care to share some (non-spoilery) thoughts?





Question 2: Ruta found the inspiration for BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY in her own family history. Is there an aspect of your family's history you'd like to explore more?[image error]

Ruta Sepetys and BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY

If you've not heard of Ruta Sepetys's debut, BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, get ready.



Because that's all I'm talking about this week.



Seriously, you guys--this book is (a) amazing and (b) the kind of book that needs to be written, in the same way that Markus Zusak's book THE BOOK THIEF was needed.



Which should probably give you an indication of what the book's about. Instead of just giving you the jacket flap description, I want to do something a little different. This is the opening of a review from the LA Times about BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY:

In young adult books about World War II, the Holocaust dominates. But there are lesser-known atrocities that also took place, including during the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. The Soviets not only displaced countless Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, leaving them to die, but wiped those countries from the map for much of the last century.



It's this story that is told in "Between Shades of Gray," the heart-wrenching debut novel from Ruta Sepetys. Sepetys is the granddaughter of a Lithuanian military officer who himself escaped to a refugee camp during World War II. Other members of her extended family weren't so lucky. They were deported to Siberia, forced into hard labor or imprisoned, much like the fictional characters here.

Booklist called BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY "An important book that deserves the widest possible readership." I couldn't agree more. You better believe that once I get my copy back from the Bookanistas, I'm going to shove it into my teacher friend's hands (I'm looking at you, Laura!).



If you're not convinced that you need to read this novel yet, stick around. This week, Ruta was kind enough to tell me all about her book, her writing process, her research, and even how the astounding video about the book's origins was made.



Not only that, but Ruta has very graciously provided one lucky blog reader with a wonderful prize!





Between Shades of Gray Prize Pack:Signed ARC of BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAYSigned bookplateBookmarksMusic download card



All this week, I'll be posting about BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. Comment on a post, you get an entry for the random drawing. Five posts = five chances to comment and win. So come back every day this week for another chance to comment and win! 





Also: sorry, but this contest is US only! However, next week and the week after I'll be hosting international contests with multiple prizes, so don't give up hope on me! Please also make sure to include your email address if you haven't got it in your profile.



Also, I thought it might be easier if I suggested some topics for comments--you don't have to comment on the following questions to enter (a simple "please enter me!" is fine), I just thought it might be fun to get a real discussion going.



Question 1: BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY deals with World War II history. What is your favorite period of history to learn more or read more about?





Question 2: This particular aspect of history is often (sadly) forgotten. What is a period or event in history--or that's going on right now--that you feel deserves more attention from the world?[image error]

Update on Social Media: GoodReads

Hi guys,



Phoebe North just did an excellent post about how authors can use GoodReads. Check it out here! I'll be updating my post below as well; just didn't want any one to miss it.[image error]

Social Media: An Introduction

Several people have asked me for background and help on social media. And I want to help, but first I want to say: I'm not an expert. Seriously. I just like playing around.



Which leads me to my next corollary: You don't have to do anything. This is my soapbox, and I find myself getting on it more and more lately. I do social media because I like it. I don't do it to "win" readers or "gather followers" or any crap like that.



The analogy I use is this: social media is like a cocktail party. Come to the party if you want to. At the party, meet new people, reconnect with others. It's a business party, so it's okay to talk shop, but it's not okay to monopolize the conversation and push yourself or your product on other people. Be polite. You can be a social butterfly or a wallflower; you can come with a thousand friends or not. It's up to you. You don't want to come to the party? Don't. You want to leave early? Do.



So my point is: you don't have to do anything. You don't have to do anything. But if you want to learn more about social media, then here's a little bit I've picked up on the way.



Blogs

What type of blog should you have? There are several different places you can go for a blog. Here's the most common:
Blogger
Advantages
A greater number of bloggers use this format
Easy to design, post, edit, etc. User friendly.
Run by Google, so Google Apps work with it (and are being developed for it)
Built in follower network--follow a blog, they go into your RSS feed; you can also stream your feed easily into Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr
Disadvantages
Commenting system is clumsy
Here's an example of a well done Blogger blog
LiveJournal
Advantages
Easily comment in-line; emailed notifications of comments
Good for groups (such as the Elevensies) as you can have locked posts just for group members to see
Disadvantages
Clunky formatting of posts
Difficult to format/change designs
Not as popular as Blogger; less people 
Here's an example of a well done LiveJournal blog
WordPress
Advantages
Creates professional looking pages; can be substituted for a static webpage (Although Blogger has recently added a Pages feature)
Streamlined commenting
Adapting more Google Apps
More pre-made designs available
Disadvantages
Not as popular as Blogger
Here's an example of a well done WordPress blog
See also: tumblr (below)
Appearances are everything. Whatever format you decide to go in, make sure your blog looks professional.
Design
When you have the option of a pretty design versus ease of reading, go for ease of reading. Don't clutter things up so much that I can't read your stuff.
Some basic online design tips: NEVER print black on red. It's hard to see for everyone, and for some, red/black color blindness is an issue. RARELY use black background on white type. Here's an exception to that rule: a white on black blog done well.
Err on the side of professional.
But don't be afraid to show your personality.
Don't focus your blog to one book--focus it more to yourself. For example, if you wrote a book about fairies, don't turn your blog into a fairy zone. After all, the next book you write may be about leprechauns. Instead, keep your blog mostly neutral, with a fairy graphic or two.
Therefore, I suggest making your URL your name rather than your book title.
Ease of access for information: There are some basic things that every blog should have in very clear, easy to find places
Contact information--not too much, but an email or contact form
Subscription feed (and if you don't have a subscription feed: fix that. You need one.)
If you are a published author, put your book in an easy to find place
Followers
Calm down. You don't need a gazillion followers to impress anyone. 
If you're that worried about getting more, then work for it: comment on other people's blogs, participate in the community. That's the best way.
Posts
Ask yourself what you want your blog to be. Do you want to talk about your dogs or your writing? Do you want to review books or talk craft? Do you want to post pictures of how cute your kids are, or do you want to highlight a certain genre of book?
Tone
You decide this. You can be super professional. You can inject your voice into your posts (a good example of voice in blogs is this one). You can be incredibly snarky and rude and trash other people. It's up to you. But think about what you do, and be willing to live with the consequences.
Style
Think also about the style of your posts. Use pictures. (Ironic, considering I am not using any in this post.) If you're disseminating a lot of information, use bold and italics and bullets (ah! at least I'm doing that!). 
Comments
Calm down. You don't need a gazillion comments to impress anyone.
If you're that worried about getting more, then give more. That's the best way.
You could also end your posts with a question to encourage answers.
Twitter



Remember the cocktail party analogy? Twitter is the best example of that. You drop in, you drop out, you talk with other people.
Tweets
The most important rule: Don't monopolize the conversation. You know how annoying it is when someone tries to sell you something? Yeah. Don't be that person. 
Lisa and Laura have a fantastic rule that I think everyone should follow: every time you talk about yourself or your book, you have to follow that by talking about someone else or someone else's book. It's fine to share that your book got a great review. But follow that up by sharing someone else's great review.
Tweet design
URLs: They should be tiny.
Hashtags: They can be relevant (i.e. #kidlitchat) or they can be funny (i.e. #youseewhatididthere) But remember: less is more. The master of this? Maureen Johnson.
Don't copy. Be yourself. Yes, Maureen's funny with her jar and her 4Qs. But that doesn't mean you'll be funny if you do the same thing. Find your own voice. It'll take practice, but you'll find a way to show your personality in 140 characters. 
Twitter Background Design
It's fine if you want to use your background to showcase your book. An example of this is here. I think, actually, that's a good idea.
Info
There's a spot in your profile for your information. In that spot, make sure you put in your website and your book (if you're published). Also, your interests--i.e. that you're a book reviewer, that you write YA, or whatever. Here's why: sometimes, someone tweets back at me. I don't know who they are. If I click your profile, and can't tell, I might think you're a creeper and block you.


Tumblr



Tumblr is hard to explain. The best method would be to try it for yourself.
Fandom
There is a strong fandom base in tumblr. Things like Doctor Who and Firefly are more up my alley, so I sought those sort of blogs out. You can find plenty of fandoms for whatever you like.
Reblog/Like 
In tumblr, you have a dashboard. From the dashboard, you see posts from everyone you follow. Think of it like Twitter, but with longer posts and lots of pictures and .gifs. If you like something, you can click on a little heart to like it. This does nothing but add to your list of things you like, and lets the person who posted it know you liked it. You can also reblog. That's sort of like retweeting--it shows up on your dash.
Give credit
If you write a quote; give credit. If you reblog; give credit. It's basic kindness, but tumblr's extra watchdog on that.
How to use it as a writer
Tumblr is mostly about a community and entertainment. Don't try to sell them something. They won't like it. But here's what I think--if you build a community of people and fandoms that you like, then if you occasionally post something on your stuff, you're integrating your likes with theirs. It's like this: if you're in line to see the next Harry Potter film, and you start talking to someone else in that line, then you can be reasonably sure they might also like some other book/movie that you like. 
So...I post about Firefly and Doctor Who and astronomy and nerdy stuff that I like. People follow me for that. Occasionally, I also post about my book. I figure if people like the other stuff I post, they might like my book.
But--I really mean occasionally. Recently, I posted about my Win Breathless contest--and if you check out my tumblr, you'll see that's buried under 8 pages of other posts that have nothing to do with my book. 
Posts
Keep it short
Keep it simple
Just a photograph is fine. Just a quote is fine. Just a short paragraph is fine.
Ask Box
This is a great tool that others can use--they ask a question, you get to answer. A very simple way of doing the "ask me anything" thing.
Here's an example of a great tumblr
Updated to add: Amber made a great point that some people do use tumblr as a blog base, to very great effect. I think she's 100% right--you absolutely can use tumblr in the exact same way that, for example, I use Blogger. To check out her site, click here. She's a great example of how to do long posts in tumblr very well. 


Facebook



I'll be the first to admit: I don't Facebook well. I'm sure there's others that do it better than I. I use it mainly as a way to interact with readers (I try to respond to every wall post) and I use it as a landing page for everything else I've got going on.
My best example of an author's Facebook is Carrie Ryan. So, from looking at her site:
A landing page is a great way to make an easy-to-see advertisement for your book
Store all your photos, especially of alternate book covers
Fun, easy to enter contests
A good thing about Facebook is the easy-to-share feature. Get a contest going on, and you can easily get others to help spread the word among their friends. The Across the Universe page does this well, I think (and for the record, my publisher runs that, not me). Lots of contests, lots of interaction, really focused on building a community.
Anyone else got pointers for this? 




YouTube



This is one I don't participate in at all. So I've got little to share on this. I'd say, if you're interested in using YouTube for social media, watch how the best do it:
VlogBrothers
Charlie is so Cool Like
Jackson Pearce
GoodReads



Thanks to Phoebe for reminding me about GoodReads! I didn't to add it because, really, I mostly just use GoodReads to keep track of what books I've read and what books I want to read. I set up the author page there, but do very little to maintain it. So I definitely welcome any others who would like to share!


Feeds



Be aware of what feeds where.
Look, I get that this is a lot of stuff. But--you don't have to do it all. You don't have to be everywhere. So if it's overwhelming, don't do it. Or just do part of it. 
But what you shouldn't do is do one thing and feed it everywhere. 
Example: you only blog. You feed all your blog posts through Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. You never post anything on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr--you only use it to feed your blog. 
This isn't a bad thing. But don't expect much from Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr if you only use it to feed your blog. People can just follow your blog and ignore the rest. I have new, different content on Twitter, Tumblr, and this blog. Facebook feeds my Tumblr, but I do also interact on Facebook, although not much, admittedly. But my point is: go to any of my social networking sites, you get something different. Some people subscribe to all four. Some just subscribe to one. That's cool. When I've got something big going on--a book launch, a big contest, etc.--then I cross-post to everything. My audience for the occasional rare big thing is exponentially larger then. 
What I DoBlogger
This is what you're looking at now. I selected Blogger as my program of choice because I felt that it was the best to design and the most popular program among other writers.
My blog is focused on reading and writing, primarily YA in both. So, I post about books I like, and writing things.
I also post about my own book--but I hope in a non-braggy way. I just want to make sure that what to know about it, do. I consider this blog as a base to my website (notice that the header's linked to my website), so I figure this is one of the first places people go for information.
Contests are based here--this is because this is the easiest place to organize and post information, and provides me a larger base to do so.
I consider this place to be a bit formal, in that I post more about books/writing than about silly things.
Twitter
I use this as a conversation--it's the epitome of the cocktail party analogy. If I've got a big contest going on, I do tweet about it, but I'll spend more time on Twitter just chatting than anything else.
I also use Twitter as a source for information--a love finding new links and clicking around--and I try to also provide information for others through it.
Tumblr
This is the comedy--fun, interesting, neat things that I think people would with my tastes would like as well.
Facebook
This is mostly a landing place for everything else, but also a way to connect and talk directly to readers. 
YouTube
I don't do this one--but I've got my eye on it for now.
GoodReads
I use this for my own personal uses--an easy way to keep track of what I'm reading/want to read. I don't really consider it a social media site as I don't use it as such.
Cortex App
The secret to my success--an easy app that's an add-on for Chrome, that makes it super-easy to share links, pictures, etc., is the Cortex App. 


I know this was a lot--I hope it was helpful for people! In the comments, let me know if you have any other questions--and if you have any tips for anyone else! My way isn't the only way, and there's a lot of smart people doing a lot of smart things online. Watch them. Figure out what works and why.[image error]

Winner of WITHER!

The winner of the copy of WITHER is....



starryeyedjen

Congrats!

Bookanista Feature: Shaun Tan's LOST AND FOUND

My friend Heather kept telling me about this artist and writer, Shaun Tan. And then Tan won an Oscar for his short film based on "Lost Things."



And still, I would look at his books and think, "meh." It didn't seem to be my sort of thing. It wasn't pretty. It seemed like a quiet book. I was fairly certain neither kissing nor explosions were involved.



But recently I was in Salisbury at the Literary Bookpost, and thought...I'll try it.



Within the first few pages...I was hooked. My doubt was SO unfounded.



LOST & FOUND was beautiful. Well...it was, but it wasn't. I was right in that the artwork isn't pretty. But there's a difference between "pretty" and "beautiful." Something can be ugly, but beautiful at the same time.



LOST & FOUND consists of three stories--"The Red Tree," "The Lost Thing," and "The Rabbits."



The stories are each different in tone. "The Red Tree" is about overcoming depression; "The Lost Thing" is about losing the nature of innocence; "The Rabbits" is about colonialism. But, of course, it's not as simple as that. None of it is. Because "The Red Tree" might be about depression, but it's also about finding yourself, about being yourself, about accepting what's wrong and what isn't. Also: it's about a red tree.



None of these stories are simple. While I think you could make some comparisons to "The Red Tree" with Doctor Seuss's OH, THE PLACES YOU WILL GO! this story is much more complex. Tan's stories are not meant for children, despite the picture-book format. Or, rather--they are meant for children. In the same way that the Grimm Fairy Tales were meant for children. These stories aren't silly little nothings, they aren't  fluffy bunnies and pokey puppies. But they are true, and they are beautiful.



[image error]

This is an illustration from "The Red Tree"--the dark fish is the disappointment, sorrow, and sadness hanging over the red-haired girl on the street. It doesn't swallow her, but it does block out the sun. And that's one of the most important things in this book--that the text and pictures are indelibly intertwined.



But if you look closely--and I mean closely--you'll see a red leaf. And the red leaves add up to a red tree.



[image error]

So: check this book out! And check out Shaun Tan's other works, too--I know I will be![image error]

Interview with Lauren DeStefanos, author of WITHER

One of the most highly anticipated books this spring is WITHER by Lauren DeStefano--the first of the Chemical Garden trilogy, a brand new face to dystopia, and featuring one of the most beautiful covers made!



MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS INTERVIEW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN YOUR VERY OWN SHINY COPY OF WITHER!!!



WITHER tells the story of a world after the fall, where males can't live past 25 years, and females can't live past 20. Women are often kidnapped, forced into harems to reproduce. Women like Rhine--taken and forced into an unwilling polygamous marriage that she must escape if she's to find her brother, return home, and maybe even fall in love...before she turns twenty and it's all too late for her.



What interests me most about the story is the ticking time bomb. The crushing pressure of knowing that there's nothing you can do...you'll never live past a certain date. More than the extreme situation, the bleak landscape, and the tangled romance, it's the ever-present death looming over all the characters that really draws me to this story.



Luckily, I had a chance to send Lauren (who is an absolute sweetheart and way cooler than me) a few questions about herself, her book, and her writing. So, without further ado: Lauren DeStefanos!





YOU





We can all read about your bio from the back of your book or your FAQ online. So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know? 



The book that's shaped me the most as a writer and as a human being is probably Harold and the Purple Crayon.



As a child, what was your favorite book? Have your tastes changed since growing up? 



When I was very young, I was positively obsessed with the American Girl books! My parents even took me to Colonial Williamsburg for summer vacation. Somewhere around middle school, though, I fell in love with adult fiction because it was much more dramatic than books in my age group, most notably of which was T he Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon. I entered the world of dark and tragic and never looked back.



As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 



I didn't give it much thought. I can't say I had many finely-honed skills. Towards high school/college I thought I'd work in an office of some sort and pursue publication on the side. I never thought I'd be fortunate enough to have writing as my career.











YOUR BOOK





How much of you is in your book? 



It's my every intention, when writing, to completely detach my own life from the lives of my characters. If I'm feeling sad or mad or happy, it still doesn't change the kind of day my characters are having. In fact it's sort of the opposite; the moods of my characters and the overall tone of the story can impact me. When I was writing Wither, I would spend a good eight or nine hours in Rhine's prison, and I'd go to bed feeling just exhausted and defeated, like 'Is she ever going to get out of there? Will things look up?' I just wanted her to be happy.





What was your timeline for the book? How long did it take to write, revise, submit, and finally, get published? How did you feel at these stages? 



I wrote the first draft in under a month. This is NOT typical for me--it hasn't happened before, and it hasn't happened since. It was just an adrenaline rush, I suppose; I kept writing because I wanted to know what would happen next. I revise as I go along, so that part got integrated into the actual writing itself. I'd come up with a solid draft by the start of October, at which point I sent it to my agent. It usually took several weeks or months to hear back from editors in the past, so I tried to just put it out of my mind. But Simon & Schuster offered a pre-empt before the end of the month. The whole thing happened incredibly fast. After that, I'd say my editor and I went back and forth on revisions for a couple of months; a lot was added, but little to nothing of the original manuscript was changed.



If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from the book, what would you want that to be? 



I would never, ever tell a reader what to take away from my book. There's no wrong way to interpret a story. I've had a few readers tell me they felt guilty for liking Linden, Rhine's obligatory husband, because they don't think that's supposed to happen. But there is no 'supposed to'--if that's how you feel, it's how you feel. It's genuine.





YOUR WRITING



What are your goals as an author? Where do you want to see yourself as a writer in 5, 10, 15 years?



Okay, let me first just say that I never could have anticipated having such an enthusiastic publishing team promoting this story, or the wonderful response Wither has gotten from readers and the blogosphere thus far. It's higher into the stars than I would have dared to reach. For that reason, I have no predictions for where I'll be in 5, 10, 15 or 30 years; I'm just going to keep writing, keep trying new things, and see where it takes me.



What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer? 



That doubts are my sworn enemy.



Beyond the typical—never give up, believe in yourself—what would be the single best advice you'd like to give to an aspiring author? 



My advice would be not to take writing advice too seriously. What works for one author may not work for another. You, the author, knows what's in your head better than anyone else.



What do you consider to be your strongest talent in writing? Your weakest? 



I would be the last person to have an accurate answer for this. I'm constantly surprised by the reactions others have to my stories and the things readers take away from them.



What's a writing pet peeve that you have? 



This is not a peeve exactly, but when I'm really in the trenches of a manuscript and things have gotten intense, I get a rash on the back of my hand.





SO, WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR OWN COPY OF WITHER?

Just comment on the interview in the post here, and then check out Lauren's guest post and comment on the League, and you're entered to win a copy of WITHER! Open internationally--please leave your email address if it's not in your profile so I can get in touch with you. The winner will be announced on Wednesday at noon EST. 

And the Winner is...

Wow! You guys are freaking awesome--I am still in awe of how many of you wanted these books! :D







So...without further ado...



The winner of all five autographed Breathless Reads books...



...is...



*drumroll please*



Serena from Pensive Bookeaters!

Mini Linkspam!

It's been so long since I've done a linkspam! *sigh* Ah, the good ol' days :D



Here's what's been preventing me from actually working this week:



Beautiful Covers!



Jeff Hirsch just revealed the cover for THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE (spoiler alert: there's a Suzanne Collins blurb on the front!)
Michelle Hodkins has one of my fave covers of the year with THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER
Elana Johnson's POSSESSION has a shiny blurb on it, now, too! 
And I keep making grabby-hands at this


Smart People Saying Smart Stuff!



If you've never checked out Write On Con, you're missing out
This post by Mandy Hubbard is wise and true and everyone who aspires to publish should read it.
Lauren DeStefanos points out that writing doesn't equal money, but it's still worth it.
Nathan Fillion has my heart. (Link has some cussing, if you want to avoid that, don't click) 




Preparing for Bloggy Stuff!



I'm not going to say too much about this (otherwise, why would you bother to come back?) but here are some books that you're going to be seeing here in the next few weeks. Many of which involve, yanno, prizes. And such. 
WITHER
BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY
BLACK HOLE SUN
THE VESPERTINE
HOURGLASS
Has your head exploded from the upcoming awesome? Mine has!

Were-llamas and Cupcakes and AWESOME

It has been one of my secret goals in life to be interviewed by CJ Redwine. Seriously. I mean, c'mon. She's awesome. She makes numbered posts that crack me right the heck up; her interviews are done by characters such as were-llamas and Captain Jack Sparrow and she's an amazing writer who has made me cry twice and laugh countless times through reading various posts on her blog. She was one of my first blog-stalkees, and I would dream, as a fledging writer, of being cool enough that her husband would make a cupcake in honor of my book.



Guess what?





It's a koi! If you've read the book, you'll know how fitting this is.


*dies of joy*



You can read the whole interview here. I was a brave soul, and took on the were-llama. I was all sassy-pants about it, but in reality, that llama is for reals scary.



Go. Check it out. And make sure to follow CJ while you're there because she's nine shades of amazing.



And while you're there, comment to win a signed copy of my book.[image error]