Interview - Kami Garcia/Margaret Stohl

This summer, I had the awesome opportunity to read an ARC of Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.  I fell in love with the characters, the story, everything!  So, today, I am honored to bring you an interview with the authors.  I am so honored that they agreed to do this!

photo credit:  Alex Hoerner

WFAR (Write For A Reader):  Tell a little about yourself.

Margie: I’ve had my nose stuck in a book since Kindergarten. I didn’t speak to anyone outside my family until third grade. I went to a college where I could take only literature and writing classes. I went to a writing school in the UK. I wrote screenplays. I made videogames. I have a husband, three daughters, and two bad beagles. And I read a book almost every day of my life.

Kami: I’ve been writing since I was a kid, and spent most of high school filling about forty notebooks with poetry. I’ve always been a reader, drawn to fantasy in particular, since I’ve always been a little dark. I have an MA in education, and I’ve been teaching for thirteen years. Currently, I’m a Reading Specialist and when I’m not teaching kids to read, I’m discussing books with them.

WFAR:  How did you end up writing a book together?

Margie: We’ve been friends for so long, we emigrated over from being book- swappers to critique partners to writing partners. I guess we just ran out of other things to talk about!

Kami:  And the fact that Margie’s daughters, and some of my other former students, dared us to do it. We were always talking books with them, and I taught them to be demanding readers when they were in my class. They definitely remembered the demanding part – but it’s the reason we wrote and finished BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.

WFAR:  Can you give us some of the back story on BC?  How did this story come to be?

Margie:  It involves a long lunch, lots of Diet Coke, writing on the backs of many napkins, a love of the South, and the words “Sixteen Moons.” From there it was a short leap to Ethan, and telling a supernatural boy meets girl story from the perspective of the boy. Everything just sort of rolled out from there.

Kami:  It was a completely caffeinated, salsa-induced, brainstorming session of epic proportions.

WFAR:  BC is set in the South and you live in California. Did either of you live in the south once? If not, how did you decide on this setting?

Margie:  Our maternal families are both from tiny towns, mine in the west and Kami’s in the South. We both eventually lived with these three generations under one roof, so we have a shared casserole culture between us. I also came to the South through spending many years studying American Literature, and loving Eudora Welty and Harper Lee and Flannery O’Connor.

Kami:  My mom’s family is from North Carolina, and living with my grandmother and great-grandmother, I lived in a world of sweet tea and sass. My mom still remembers her summers on her aunt and uncle’s farm. But small towns are small towns, aren’t they?

WFAR:  What made you choose the YA genre?

Margie:  That’s what we read. My teenage girls and I are practically our own book club!

Kami:  We read YA, so there was never a question about writing it. I think YA is raw and real in a way few genres are. We’re pretty raw.

WFAR:  You have a blog called the Caster Girls. Can you tell the readers about the significance of the Caster Girls and how they can find out more about them? (plugging Vania's blog; it's shameless, I know)

Margie:  The Caster Girls are the girls who have been our first readers, right from the start. The blog their own authentic teen voices, which we felt were important to put out there. They can always be found at www.castergirls.com, or from links at http://www.beautifulcreaturesthebook.com/.

Kami:  The blog is actually theirs. They run it, write it, and maintain it. And they do an amazing job.

WFAR:  Lena, the main character, is a strong-willed character. Is she based on anyone?

Margie:  She’s more of a reaction to many YA heroines than anything else. We wanted her to be powerful and strong and opinionated. The teen girls we know are more individualistic and brave than we are!

Kami:  Lena is as strong as we wished we were as teens. She wants to be herself. But more importantly, she tries to be.

WFAR:  Can we expect a sequel? If so, have you already started? Title?

Margie:  The sequel is just finished, hooray! And we can’t tell you the title yet, but soon!

Kami:  We think the sequel will be out next December, and there are lots of surprises.

WFAR:  What are your writing "must haves,” the things you just can't write without?

Margie:  I think they’ve been fairly well documented: Diet Coke, Starbucks, Wheat Thins, Earphones, Reading Glasses, my MacBook Air and the soundtrack to Spring Awakening. Though sometimes my sister- in-law will make me a mix to go with what I am working on; I’ve had both a Sixteen Moons and a Seventeen Moons writing playlist that have really helped. And I have to start writing with the same song, every time.

Kami:  Aside from food, which Margie covered, I need quiet to write. No music. I hear the voices of the characters in my head as I write, and I need silence to hear them.

WFAR:  How does it feel as you wait to see your book on bookstore shelves?

Margie:  Crazy. Surreal. Amazing. Like a dream. The first time I saw the ARC I cried like a baby. The first time I saw the book on the shelf I forced Anna the bookseller to autograph it.

Kami: The book is actually on the shelves, and it is totally surreal. It’s like I’m living in an alternate universe, looking at something that someone with the same name as me wrote.

Fast Five: Margie

Favorite food and drink – Cheese & Diet Coke
Place you've always wanted to go – Prague
Favorite place to read – In bed with my 8 reading next to me
Word you love to use – “You know what I mean?”
Your wish – for my family to finally not have the flu anymore. And once that happens, to get to keep writing!

Fast Five: Kami
Favorite food and drink – Hot Fudge Sundaes & Diet Coke
Place you've always wanted to go – Italy
Favorite place to read – In bed
Word you love to use – Seriously?
Your wish – For everyone I love to be happy and healthy, and readers to find the book that makes a difference for them. Hopefully, for some, it will be BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.

WFAR:  Ladies, thank you so much for allowing me to interview you.  Beautiful Creatures is a wonderful book and I can't wait for the sequel!!

You can keep up with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl at http://www.beautifulcreaturesthebook.com/.

Visit Little, Brown’s Beautiful Creatures website at http://www.somelovesarecursed.com/.

Beautiful Creatures is out in stores and would make a wonderful gift for Christmas!
Buy it at Amazon
Buy it at Powells
Buy it at Indiebound

Blog Tour Review: The Castaways

 
Title:  The Castaways
Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Review Copy Provided by: Little, Brown

About the Book:  Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy's closest friends for what will be revealed.

About the Author:  Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

My Review:   What's better about a beach read than to be set on a beach, and the beaches of Nantucket, nonetheless?  This is a great summer read!  Hildebrand does a good job of telling the story of four couples who have done everything together, vacationed, celebrated, confided in and depended on.  What happens when one of those couples mysteriously disappears, leaving behind 2 small children?  How will the rest of their friends go on? What really happened to the MacAvoys?  Elin Hildebrand tries to answer all of those questions through this book.  The six friends left behind try to answer the latter question on their own.

I enjoyed the passion in this story, as well as the suspense that the disappearance and search for the answer to the disappearance brought about.  This read allowed me to get out of my reality and into another that I was unfamiliar with; life on the beaches of Nantucket.  What an escape for me!  Secrets are stirred up, old affairs revealed, and many other tidbits are brought out into the open.  This is romantic fiction at it's best!  4 out of 5 stars for The Castaways!

Please join us at Elin Hilderbrand's Nantucket where you can find drink recipes and more about The Castaways as well as Elin's other books.

Blog Tour Review: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

 

Title:  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Author:  Grace Lin

Review Copy Provided by:  Little, Brown

Grace Lin's book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, will be released on July 1st.  She is hosting an online book launch on her facebook fanpage and on her online book launch page.  She would love it if you would join her as she launches her book! 

Grace was nice enough to answer some questions for those of us on the tour, so make sure you check out the other tour stops to see what she has to say.  Here are my questions and her answers.

In the story, Minli's father tells her folktales.  Did you listen to folktales growing up?  If so, what were they?

I did not listen to folktales when I was growing up, but I did read them.  I loved fairy tales and my mother sneaked in some Asian folktale/fairytale books into my library.  So, as a child I read almost all the traditional European ones—from Grimm’s , Hans Christian Anderson,  to Howard Pyle and Kate Greenaway; and a good many of the Asian ones. “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” is very, very roughly on a Chinese tale called “Olive Lake.” However, I took quite a bit of creative license—there is no Fruitless Mountain, Magistrate or Paper of Happiness in the tale and the protagonist of that story is an adult male!

Your sisters are scientists.  What did your parents think of your career choice? Have their thoughts changed?

Well, my parents were quite horrified when I decided to go to art school to pursue children’s book illustration. But even though they did not really understand, they tried their best to support me.  But over the years, they have really come around and seem to be very proud! My mother is always telling people to buy my books. And they were especially pleased on how I portrayed them in “The Year of the Dog,” though my older sister insists my father was never that funny.

The story was somewhat inspired by your travels; what else inspired this book?

Well, this story first was inspired by the folktales and fairytales of both Asian and European/American cultures that I read and loved as a child.I grew up in Upstate NY, the only Asian (except for my sisters) in my school. Because of this, my childhood was always tinged with a strange sense of identity. Was I Chinese? Taiwanese? American?

Books and stories were always a source of comfort. I loved folktales and fairy tales as a child. I loved the classics, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” “The Light Princess,” and "The Wizard of Oz"—all with gorgeous illustrations, which I devoured and gazed at in awe.

It was because of my love for these stories, that my mother knew she could pique my interest with the Chinese fairy tale books. At the time, she regretted that I knew and had so little interest in our cultural heritage—this was a way of “sneaking” it in. And it worked!

I began reading the Chinese folktales, and was at first disappointed. Used to lush illustrations and descriptions, the Asian books were plainly translated with an occasional simple b/w line drawings and seemed an inadequate comparison. However, slowly I discovered the stories had a magic and I began to imagine details of my own, tinged with Asian-American sensibilities. When I grew older and was able to travel Hong Kong, Taiwan and China--the stories came alive.

And "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" came into existence. An homage to the folktales and fairy tales I read in my youth, it is a mixture of Asian fairytales and North American classics. Not a traditional retelling of stories from either cultures, it is a mix-- like me, Asian-American. Hopefully, it is full of the magic from both that will satisfy readers everywhere.

My travels to Hong Kong, Taiwan and China brought the settings of the story to life for me, inspiring the imagery. Well, when I first began writing this book, I had visited Hong Kong (http://gracegoeshk.blogspot.com/) and Taiwan which were wonderful trips. Being Asian-American (and more American than Asian) it was a fascinating experience to be surrounded by a culture that was so foreign and familiar at the same time. Whenever I viewed the landscape, saw a temple or a sampan in the water, I suddenly would remember the Chinese folktales I had read as a child. I could see them happening in the setting around me and I knew in there was a book waiting to be written.

I was almost 3/4th finished with the writing the book when I went to visit China (http://gracegoestochina.blogspot.com/). This was the perfect time to go, as I had an idea of what kinds of things I wanted to see and research there but the book was still open enough to be changed. And it was wonderful! Actually seeing China with my own eyes and experiencing it added such a rich layer to the story. For example, one of the excursions we took especially for the book was a visit to a tiny mountain village (http://gracegoestochina.blogspot.com/2008/11/cold-village.html). I wanted to see a mountain village because I knew Minli (the main character in “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” ) would be visiting one. The whole time we were there, we were freezing cold but the villagers were so friendly and red-cheeked (which I was to find out later was wind-burn, not good circulation). So, those element of mountain cold and a warm, friendly shelter became the back drop of the village Minli visits.

Wow!  Thank you so much for sharing your inspiration for the book and other thoughts with us.

About the Book:  In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer.

My Review:  What a good book!  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon  is just a fun, inspiring, feel good read.  I enjoyed the mix of narrative with the folk tales in this book.  It gives you a glimpse into the lifestyle, culture and beliefs of the Asian people.  Without the folk tales, you wouldn't fully understand the story.  Each one is put in the book, in a certain place, for a reason.  This middle-grade book is a different read with a great message.  Children don't always understand that they can be happy with what they have, they always long for more.  Minli shows us that sometimes it's better to sacrifice what you want for the sake of a friend.  This is something that all children can learn from.  I really like the message in this story.  

Minli is such a strong character.  She knows what she wants and goes for it!  Even when faced with adversity, and nay-sayers, she presses on.  Her goal, to find the Old Man of the Moon.  Along the way, she meets some very interesting animals and people who help her and whom she'll never forget.  Each character is important to the story.  My favorite, besides Minli, are the twins, Da-Fu and A-Fu.  They add alot of humor to the story.

Grace Lin gets 5 out of 5 stars for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

Make sure you visit the next stop on the tour: The Mommy-Files.

Review and Giveaway: Twenty Boy Summer

 

Title:  Twenty Boy Summer

Author:  Sarah Ockler

Review Copy Provided by:  Little, Brown

About the Book:  

"Don't worry, Anna. I'll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."
"Okay."
"Promise me? Promise you won't say anything?"
"Don't worry." I laughed. "It's our secret, right?"

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie---she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

My Review:    The perfect summer, beach read.  Not just because it takes place on the beach or because summer is in the title, but because this book just screams summer: vacation with friends, California, teenage love, love lost, best friends, growing up.  What more could you ask for?  I really enjoyed Ockler's debut YA novel.

Anna, the main character is so easy to love and such a typical teenager.  She has a best friend, well two, but one's a boy, they live next door, and they spend ALL their time together.  Everything is perfect, until Anna's 15th birthday.  The best friend, who's a boy, becomes more and Anna has to hide it from everyone, including Frankie, her best friend.  Anna's conflict is with herself; should she tell, did Matt really love her, what would have happened with them, is she cheating on a ghost if she dates other guys?  That's more than one teen should have to deal with at a time.  But, Anna is strong.  She finds solace in her journal until she learns that even the journal can't bring Matt back.

Ockler unfolds a great story as two friends learn more about each other in 3 weeks on the beach than they ever thought possible.  Will this friendship survive the ABSE (Absolute Best Summer Ever) when everything backfires?  You'll have to read it for yourself and see.

5/5 stars for Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer.  Take it with you to the beach, and enjoy!

TBS was not due to hit shelves until June, but someone let it out early and it's being spotted in bookstores all over the states.  To see TBS on the map, make sure you stop by Sarah's blog.  She is hosting the Put Twenty Boy Summer on the Map contest on her blog where she's giving away a beach prize pack, and she's also giving away a copy on Goodreads.  Other bloggers have gotten in on the excitement and contests are popping up everywhere!  Here is the list:

Beautiful Creatures Book Club has an ARC and Swag Bag of goodies - ends 5/29

The Story Siren has 5 hardcover copies - ends 5/30

Reader Rabbit has 3 hardcover copies - ends 6/2

Well, I have one to add to that list.  Little, Brown has given me 5 copies to giveaway to my readers as well.  I know, you want to know how you can win one?  Well, it's easy; all you have to do is leave a question for Sarah in the comments.  You have until Friday May 29, at midnight (CST) to ask your questions.  After Friday, I will send all the questions to Sarah, she will choose 5 to answer on my blog, and those 5 people will win a copy of Twenty Boy Summer.  So, what are you dying to know?  Start asking!  Be sure you leave an email address so we can get in touch with you. Contest is open to anyone in the US/Canada; no PO boxes please.

Review: 2 Board Books for Baby

If you follow my blog, you know that my brother and sister-in-law are expecting my first nephew, Brayden, in March.  My brother knows, that as a teacher, I believe in giving books as gifts, and my nephew will be no exception.  I have recently received 2 board books, that I'm sure he'll love; he just doesn't know it yet. :)

Title:  Peek - a- Boo, I love you!

Author:  Sandra Magsamen

Review Copy Provided By:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

About the Book:  This adorable peek-a-boo book invites little ones to play along with their favorite animals, with soothing rhymes and engaging illustrations as only Sandra Magsamen can deliver. The anticipation of what's hiding on the next page will keep kids guessing and giggling all the way to the surprise ending - when a heart-shaped mirror reveals who's loved most of all!

My Review:  This is a cute book to give as a baby shower gift.  I would not recommend letting baby have it alone because of the flaps in the book, but it is great for reading to baby.  The rhymes are catchy and the pictures give clues as to what's under the flap.  I like the script used in this board book.  It is not your typical block font, but it's large enough for little eyes to notice.  Magsamen has given us another wonderful book to enjoy with babies!

Title:  Listen, Listen

Author:  Phillis Gershator

Illustrator:  Alison Jay

Review Copy Provided by:  publisher, Barefoot Books via The Picnic Basket

About the Book:  Introduce young readers to the sights and sounds of the year - from summer's sizzling sun to winter's crackling snow. Featuring breathtaking illustrations by internationally renowned illustrator, Alison Jay, this book will open your child's eyes and ears to the world around them!

My Review:  I enjoyed this oversized board book.  Kids love noises, and this book is full of them, from the noises the insects make in summer, to the silent sounds of winter.  I can just hear young children mimicing the sounds that are read to them in this delightful book.  Children love to learn about the differences in the seasons and this book will help them to do just that.  The muted colors and rustic looking illustrations by Alison Jay, add character to this book.  I especially liked how she added faces to the flowers and made them come to life on the page as you read, "Pop, pop, bulbs sprout.  Leaves grow, flowers shout."  An added bonus at the end is an "I Spy" like page for each season that I'm sure kids are going to enjoy.  Even though this is a board book, usually for babies, toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy it as well.  This is a review for The Picnic Basket, so this book receives a 4 - recommend without reservation.