Hello, everyone! This is just a little post to say that there probably won't be any posts for the next week. My WiFi is down until June 20th, so it'll be quiet around here until then. Speak to you all soon!
Friday 13 June 2014
Monday 9 June 2014
Code Red Lipstick Blog Tour: Interview with Sarah Sky & Giveaway!
Hello, everyone! Today I'm pleased to welcome the wonderful Sarah Sky to The Queen of Teen fiction on the first day of her blog tour for Code Red Lipstick! Sarah took the time to answer a few questions for us. Enjoy!
Can you tell us a little bit about your book, Code Red Lipstick?
Jessica
Cole’s an average teenager, except when she’s modelling and helping out
her private investigator dad, Jack, on surveillance jobs. When the
former MI6 spy vanishes mysteriously,
the 14-year-old takes matters into her own hands.
Following
her dad’s trail to Paris, her investigation leads her to AKSC, the
beauty headquarters of former supermodel, Allegra Knight, and a
conspiracy involving an MI6 double agent.
Jessica needs her wits about her and lots of gadgets to help give her
the upper hand against dangerous adversaries.
I'd
read a newspaper interview with a famous supermodel while she was still
at school, talking about juggling school
work while modelling at Paris Haute Couture Week. Immediately, the idea
of a teenage spy came to me. Fashion is a good ruse for travelling the
world alone - investigating conspiracies while maintaining a legitimate
cover. I liked the idea of a girl having
to negotiate the trials and tribulations of leading a dangerous but
thrilling double life.
The
book is your debut novel, what was your favourite part of the writing
process, and did you learn anything new about yourself?
I
really enjoyed doing the research for the book - I read up on MI5 and
MI6, gadgetry and pretty much any spy-related story I could get my hands
on while trawling the internet.
I also visited an annual security conference in London, which was
pretty thrilling. I
experimented with the latest tactical ladders used in hostage
situations and the high-tech grapnels
used to scale submarines as well as encrypted mobile phones and facial
recognition technology, which can spot even the partly obscured face of a
target in a crowd. I was shown how to use the hidden gadgets in
armoured car to disable or even destroy a vehicle
in pursuit. I learnt that I'd quite like to have been a spy if I hadn't
been an author and journalist!
During
the actual writing, I loved the action scenes and trying to get Jessica
out of difficult situations. I also enjoyed re-writing - cutting out
sections I wasn't happy with and starting some
chapters all over again. It felt really satisfying to know I was
improving the book. I learnt I wasn't afraid to cut and change things
around or even start from scratch.
Did you relate to your main character, Jessica, at all whilst writing the story?
I'm
very close to my mum - who lost her own mum at a very young age. It
still upsets her now whenever she talks about her. For Jessica, her
mum's death years ago is crucial to who
she is and what she's going to become. I could identify with how hard
is for Jessica growing up without a mum because of the experiences my
own mum went through.
Code Red Lipstick is the first book in a series, Jessica
Cole: Model Spy. How is the rest of the series coming along?
I've
already written book two and book three. Book two's currently being
edited and will be published in January 2015. Book three comes out in
June 2015.
Did you always plan for the story to be a series?
As
soon as I finished book one, I realised I wasn't done and wanted to
write more adventures for Jessica. Another idea for a gripping
conspiracy came to me and I started planning
and writing book two pretty much straight away. While I was doing that,
I made notes on the main plot for a third book. I then made another
file for possible plots for future adventures. I think I was pretty
fired up that day!
What made you decide to write for a teen audience?
I have vivid memories of my own teenage years - at heart I still feel like a teenager, even though I don't look like one!
What were some of your own favourite books to read as a teenager?
I
loved Wuthering Heights, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Jane Eyre, Pride and
Prejudice, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Daphne du Maurier books, particularly
Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, and other
authors including Agatha Christie, Judy Blume and Stephen King - a lot
of very different books.
Finally, can you give us a random fact about yourself?
I'm a brown belt in karate, about to grade for brown with white stripe. Fingers crossed!
* Code Red Lipstick is published by Scholastic.
Buy the book now on Amazon!
Would you like to win a copy? Then enter the giveaway below! Good luck!
*GIVEAWAY IS OVER*
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Code Red Lipstick Blog Tour: Interview with Sarah Sky & Giveaway!
Thursday 5 June 2014
Interview: Cathi Shaw, author of Five Corners
Hi, everyone! I'm pleased to welcome author, Cathi Shaw, to The Queen of Teen Fiction! She recently took the time to answer a few questions about her debut novel, Five Corners. You can read my review of the book here. Enjoy!
Hi,
Cathi! The Marked Ones is such an epic adventure, how did you come up with
idea?
I’ve been asked how I came up with the
story of Five Corners a lot of times
and honestly I don’t have a straightforward answer. I’ve told the story of how
the idea of the three sisters came to me one day when I was out running a
number of years ago. I was a bit frustrated that there weren’t a ton of epic
adventures that had female protagonists. Dystopian novels tend to favour female
heroes but in fantasy the main character is often male and I felt that there
needed to be more female characters in fantasy.
Did
you relate to any of your characters at all whilst writing the novel?
I tend to relate to all of my
characters when I’m writing. They very quickly take on a life of their own and
become real people to me. None of the characters are really “me” but when I’m
role playing I certainly take on their persona for a bit (I was a big drama
student in high school). I’m usually inspired by people in my life to create
parts of characters. I think my daughter, Caitie, really has inspired all three
of the sisters in Five Corners. Most obviously would be the similarities
between her and Thia because they both have Epilepsy. But Cait is strong willed
like Kiara and a nature lover like Mina. Think she probably inspired all the
main characters in the book for me.
Did
you learn anything new about yourself during the writing process?
Writing Five Corners taught me so much about the writing process. I’d
written a lot of poetry and even some ill-fated romance stories in my time but Five Corners was the first really good
novel that I completed. I thought I knew what was going to happen in the book
and I was constantly surprised by what would suddenly appear on my computer
screen as I sat down to write. I have no idea where the ideas came from but I
do know my characters took on a life of their own and really took over the
story. I just finished Book 2 and it was exactly the same process as Book 1
(but at least this time I knew what to expect). I have to say I found the
entire process delightful!
The
Five Corners has many various towns and people from all walks of life, was it
difficult to plan all of them out before writing the story?
This is where the mystery of the
writing process really came to life in the book. I actually planned very little
with respect to Five Corners. I just
sat down and made myself write every day for 30 days (I wrote the first draft
of the story during NaNoWriMo) and these places and people just emerged from …
somewhere. I have no idea where but I just loved it. It was like I, as a
writer, was going on an adventure each day.
Five
Corners is the first book in the Marked Ones series, what can readers expect
from the second book?
As I was writing the second book I felt
that it really surpassed the first book in the series. The second book, Finding Refuge, has just come back from
my beta readers and they seem to all agree that it is better than the first
book. For one thing, as often happens in series, there is not much back story.
Instead we jump right into the adventure. I’m assuming that most readers of Finding Refuge will be familiar with Five Corners. Also the second book allows
each of the characters to develop a bit more than in Book 1. We get a lot of
more of Mina’s story in particular.
Did
you always plan to write Young Adult novels?
I’ve written some (very bad) romance
novels along with an unpublished collection of poetry and some academic papers.
I also co-authored an academic writing textbook. But YA is my favourite genre
to read (and always has been). Somewhere about 10 years ago I realized that I
probably should be writing what I enjoy reading. Having said that, I do have a
chick lit book that is in the editing phase and I’m working on several
non-fiction books, too. But YA is definitely my first love.
What
were some of your own favourite stories to read as a teenager?
I grew up on a ranch so when I was very
young my favourite series was The Black Stallion.
Later I fell absolutely in love with Anne
of Green Gables (very Canadiana). And then I discovered fantasy novels: Tolkien, Terry Brooks,
and later Robert Jordan. I’ve always loved epic adventures. But for me the
stories I’ve loved best have always been the ones with strong characters and a
bit of romance. Both are essential elements of a story for me.
Big thanks to Cathi for stopping by, and be sure to check out her awesome series!
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Interview: Cathi Shaw, author of Five Corners
Monday 2 June 2014
Guest Post from Sherry Soule: Why I Love The YA Genre
I'm pleased to welcome Sherry Soule to The Queen of Teen Fiction! She recently took the time to write a guest post about why she loves the YA genre. Big thanks to Sherry for stopping by, enjoy the post!
“Why I Love the Young Adult Genre”
Guest post by
author, Sherry Soule
Today author, Sherry Soule
has some exciting news to share with us! She will be publishing a brand new
Upper YA / Sci-Fi Romance series: the “Starlight Saga” with
scorching-hot character chemistry, exciting suspense, and epic romance on June
26, 2014.
To help
promote this amazing interstellar love story, “LOST IN STARLIGHT,” Sherry is doing this
guest post to share the news with fellow bibliophiles.
Hi everybody, I’m author, Sherry
Soule—waving from the SF Bay Area. Thanks for letting me visit today, it’s an
honor to be a guest here and meet fellow booklovers.
Since
I was a child, I recognized that books were a way to travel to other places and
have incredible adventures. Even though I am older (you’re NEVER too old to
read young adult novels, in my opinion) than the average teen reader, I’ve
always loved reading Young Adult literature.
I
think I love reading YA Lit because I think that most novels in this genre are
fast-paced and thrilling, and the stories are written in a style that is
engrossing, with story-driven or character-driven plotlines with lots of
first love.
I also adore that there are so many books created into a series nowadays, so that
you can continue to have additional adventures with your favorite characters.
Could my love of YA
Lit be simply because I’m still stuck at age sixteen, just a teenager-at-heart in
disguise?
Could
be. And like many of you, I’ve read hundreds of YA books and I can actually say
that I enjoyed them all. Some I genuinely loved and these books became like good
friends that I didn’t want to part with, so they adorn my bookshelves and wait patiently
to be reread again one day. Other novels were simply read and then disregarded
with a contented smile.
And you know what? I am NEVER
embarrassed to buy YA novels (although, I buy most of my books online through
Amazon) in bookstores, or carry them around with me. I love the genre and
always have and always will.
Of
course, I realize that we all have diverse tastes in literature. Most of you
will have varied genres that you love to read, and probably some of my favorite
books are simply your forgotten reads. That is what makes the world of YA Lit,
and reading as a whole, so fascinating. Each one of us will enjoy different
types of characters, plots, and of course, a writer’s voice, the way only they can tell a story.
At
its core my new novel, LOST IN STARLIGHT is basically a love story about two
lonely hearts finding each other and how their star-crossed relationship
changes both of their lives. And I don’t know about you, but I need some
romance in almost every book I read. Even in YA! And if you’re a hopeless
romantic at heart, then you’ll enjoy reading my new book.
Thus,
LOST IN STARLIGHT is the first book that I’ve ever written that focuses heavily
on romance more than any paranormal baddies trying to kill the heroine or having
the plot center around a supernatural mystery to solve. And I think the heroine
of my new series, Sloane, is rather unique. To me, she’s not your average “Mary
Sue” or flawless hero. She’s chubby and has some self-esteem issues, but she’s also headstrong
and gutsy, with an eccentric fashion sense.
Thank
you for letting me chat about my love of young adult literature. I hope you
enjoyed this post. Now go feed your mind and read a book! Preferably one
of mine. :-D
Please mark your calendars to buy your copy of LOST
IN STARLIGHT on June 26th 2014!
Read the first five chapters for free on
wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/story/14214838-lost-in-starlight-syfy-romance
VOLUME ONE
of the Starlight Saga
High school reporter Sloane Masterson knows she has
one helluva story when she witnesses hottie Hayden Lancaster bending forks
with his mind.
Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to
uncover the truth, even if it includes a little stalking. When the superhuman
feats start to pile up and the undeniable heat rises between them, Hayden has
no choice but to reveal his secret: he’s an alien hybrid.
They’re as different as night and
day—she’s a curvy, purple-haired, horror junkie and he’s a smoking hot,
antisocial, brainiac—yet the intense fascination between them refuses to go
away. Even at Hayden’s insistence that dating each other is “off limits” and
crazy dangerous, their fiery attraction threatens to go supernova.
Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über
snobby extraterrestrials, and a psycho alien ex-girlfriend out for revenge.
After a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating, Sloane must decide if
their star-crossed romance is worth risking her own life....
About
Sherry Soule
Sherry Soule lives with her family
and one very spoiled black cat in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the
bestselling author of the adult novel, “Immortal Eclipse” and the popular YA
series: Spellbound. Sherry writes
thrilling tales of romance and suspense, often mingled with a dash of the
mystical and a splash of trendy fashion. Her love of literature began when she
was a young girl and it has continued throughout her life.
Her published novels do not include
any graphic sex scenes or explicit violence, nor excessive profanity, so that
all of her novels can be read and enjoyed by both teens and adults.
Sherry’s debut novel, “Beautifully
Broken” was nominated for Best Paranormal Romance in the 2011 Wizard and
Witch/Sorcery category by The Romance Reviews
(TRR). Her adult novel, “Immortal Eclipse” is a *TOP PICK* by Night Owl Reviews.
Places
you can find Sherry Soule:
Please add LOST IN STARLIGHT to your TBR on
goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20707942-lost-to-starlight
The awesome book cover was designed by the talented
Kristen Thompson-Oh of KCT Designs at www.kctdesigns.com
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