Hello! Let’s welcome the author of Fall from Grace, Charles Benoit, with us today for an interview! Welcome Charles!

What were your “plans” and what were your parents’ “plans” for you?
I don’t know if it was my parents or the time I grew up in, but there were never any “plans” for me or my sisters (I’m the only boy, and one of those amazing middle children.) Neither of my parents graduated high school (they both dropped out to join the Navy in WWII and that’s when they met). Sometimes they would suggest the military, but I think they just wanted me to stay out of trouble. As for my plans, I can say that when I sat there at graduation, it suddenly dawned on me that I had none. I drifted for a few years–from job to job, apartment to apartment, girlfriend to girlfriend—then I joined the Army at 21 for something to do. Wow, looking back, I guess I really was a clueless as my teachers said.

Did you ever think that you would become an author?
No, but I did know I’d be a storyteller since that is the gift/curse of my family. It’s genetically impossible for any one of us to answer simple question, even one like, “What did you have for dinner last night?” We have to tell you a story—complete with flashbacks, foreshadowing, a few celebrity walk-on cameos, a comic sidekick, a villain, maybe a dream sequence—just to tell you that we went to McDonalds. Our family motto, given to us by the Emperor Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo, is “Nunquam permissum a res prosterno a bonus fibula.” (Never let a fact ruin a good story)

How long did it take you to write Fall From Grace?
It usually takes me about a year to write a book. For reasons I can’t explain, I wrote Grace in about 5 months. It was like the story was already in my head and I was just typing it out. I’m a two-finger typist, so I guess if I could do that freakish type-without-looking thing with all my fingers, I would have been done in a week. The first line of the book—“I need you to steal something for me”—came to me when I was listening to the song Into Action by Skye Seetnam and Tim Armstrong. I started the book that night and before I went to bed I knew exactly where it was going and how it would end. It was kindda scary, actually.

Do you relate to Grace or any of the other characters from your book?
Most of my male characters are semi-losers with huge flaws and little clue as to what’s really going on, so yes, I’m like my male characters. I wish I had the devil-may-care attitude of Grace. Or the demonic-cool of Zack, the evil character from my first teen novel, YOU. Or the tough-guy street smarts of the main character of my third mystery, Noble Lies. But no, I have the what-just-happened naiveté of Sawyer or Kyle or Doug (Relative Danger) or Jason (Out of Order) or Eric (the as-yet untitled book I’m writing now). But at least I got the girl!

Can you share a little something from your book with us, please?
How about the first 6 Chapters? http://files.harpercollins.com/HCChildrens/OMM/Media/FallFromGraceexcerpt.pdf

Thanks for the post, Charles!

Grace always has a plan. There’s her plan to get famous, her plan to get rich, and—above all—her plan to have fun.

Sawyer has plenty of plans too. Plans made for him by his mother, his father, his girlfriend. Maybe they aren’t his plans, but they are plans.

When Sawyer meets Grace, he wonders if he should come up with a few plans himself. Plans about what he actually wants to be, plans to speak his own mind for a change, plans to maybe help Grace with a little art theft.

Wait a minute—plans to what?

Hello! Please welcome the author of While He Was Away, Karen Schreck, with us today for an interview! Welcome Karen!

Karen Halvorsen Schreck’s new Young Adult novel, While He Was Away, will be published by Sourcebooks in 2012. She’s also the author of Dream Journal (Hyperion), which was a 2006 Young Adult BookSense Pick, and the award-winning children’s book Lucy’s Family Tree (Tilbury House). Her short stories and articles have appeared in Literal Latté, Other Voices, Image, as well as other literary journals and magazines, and have received various awards, including a Pushcart Prize, an Illinois State Arts Council Grant, and in 2008, first prize awards for memoir and devotional magazine writing from the Evangelical Press Association. Karen received her doctorate in English and Creative from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She works as a freelance writer and editor, teaches writing and literature, and lives with her husband, the photographer Greg Halvorsen Schreck, and their two children in Wheaton, Illinois.

Where do you write? Is it always the same place that gives you the motivation or do you visit different places to get the motivation and ideas to write?
I am all about having “A Room of One’s Own,” as Virginia Woolf once advocated. And for a while, I did. It was in our basement, and I loved the rituals I could establish there, which included candles, incense, and music on some days, and always the comfort of sitting down at the same place, with all that I need spread before me. I’m kind of Pavlovian, if you know what I mean—the bell rings and I write. But a couple years ago our basement flooded horribly and the room was destroyed, and I really won’t risk going through that again with my computer, etc.. Now I’m a Bedouin. Depending on my mood, I write on the couch, at the kitchen table, in libraries, coffee shops, on trains. It’s good, I think, learning to do the work wherever, whenever I can.

Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write While He Was Away?
When I was fourteen, my mother died. At the end of her life, she told me she’d been married before, to a man who died in WWII. It seemed to explain so much of who she was, and yet I never understood it, because I never got a chance to ask her more. My dad told stories about WWII, too—he was a soldier who fought in France, the Philippines, and Japan. So I’ve always thought a lot about war—and when the Iraq war started, I wanted to understand as much as I could about it, and the difference between our citizens, soldiers, and conflicts from the past to now.

If what happened to Penna happened to you, what would you do in that circumstance?
I like to think that I would try to learn from the hard stuff, and grow, too. I like to think that I would try to solve any mystery that came my way, understand what I don’t understand, and make the world a little more beautiful.

Did the title of your book undergo any title changes? If so, what are they?
Yes! I love that you ask this. I began by calling the book Gold Star Girl, which was related to Justine’s reality as a Gold Star Wife (having lost her first husband in war). My editor then suggested Hold Me Forever. Together we decided on While He Was Away. I’m happy to say that I like this title the best!

If the world is about to end, what five books would you try to save?
Wow. Um. OK.

• The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare
• So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
• The collected poems of Rumi
• Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
• The Bible

Thanks for an interesting post, Karen! I like the title Hold Me Forever too!

“This is just something I have to do, okay?” I hear David say. “The right thing.”

He cradles my face in his hands. He kisses me hard. Then he lets go of me. His eyes dart from me to whatever’s next.

All she wants is for him to stay. She’s been doing pretty well, pretending he doesn’t have to go. But one day, after one last night to remember, she wakes up and there’s no denying it anymore. He’s gone.

When Penna Weaver’s boyfriend goes off to Iraq, she’s left facing life without him. As summer sets in, Penna tries to distract herself with work and her art, but the not knowing is slowly driving her crazy. Especially when David stops writing.

She knows in her heart he will come home. But will he be the same boy she fell in love with?

Hello! Today we have an interview with the author of The Summer of No Regrets, Katherine Grace Bond! She will be answering the interview questions with book line answers. Welcome, Katherine!

How did you feel when your book was being published by Sourcebooks Fire?
It felt both delicious and terrifying. I was shooting the rapids—about to go over the falls.

Was editing a fast process or slow process for The Summer of No Regrets?
It was like watching a movie. I couldn’t think what I was supposed to be doing next.

Where did you get the idea for this novel?
That bizarro place in the woods.

Was it hard to write this novel or easy?
It wasn’t so bad. No stranger than the people who channeled Mamda, Warrior Spirit.

Did you have multiple titles before choosing “The Summer of No Regrets?”
There were 8,000,000 results. 8 MILLION. I should have kept searching on cougars, but I was so brain-dead. Trent Yves stared out at me with long hair, with short hair, blond, brown, in a Mohawk. Trent with a shirt, Trent without a shirt, Trent without much on at all. Sad Trent, happy Trent, sexy Trent. Trent looking dodgy in Rocket, heroic in Imlandria, smart-alecky in Presto!, resilient in Sparrowtree, even small, cute and Triumphing Over Evil in Laser Boy.

If you could only choose one favorite scene in the book, which would it be?
He held his hand out to me. I took it. “Thanks,” he croaked and pulled me to him. He wrapped his arms around me. He was shaking, too. We stood that way for a long time. I smelled the wet wool of his sweater. He put his chin on my hair as if we’d always known each other. I felt the fear drain out of both of us. Devon had never, ever held me like that. No one had.

Are you currently writing any more books?
I nodded. “And I’m not any nearer to figuring out what to feed them.”

Thanks for an interesting interview, Katherine! 

The day Brigitta accidentally flings herself into the lap of a guy she’s never met, her friend Natalie is convinced he’s Trent Yves, egotistical heartthrob-in-hiding. When the boy, who calls himself Luke, is nearly eaten by a cougar, Brigitta finds herself saving his life, being swept into his spectacular embrace and wondering if she wants Natalie’s fantasy to be true.

As the two spend the summer together raising orphaned cougar cubs, Brigitta still can’t be sure of his true identity. But then again, since her grandparents’ death, her father’s sudden urge to give away all their possessions and become a shaman, and her own awkward transition from girlhood into a young woman, she isn’t sure of anything. What is the truth? More importantly, can she accept it?

Buy it on: Amazon, B&N, and IndieBound

Hello. Please welcome the author or Fractured Light, Rachel Mclellan, here with us today for an interview! Welcome Rachel!

If you weren’t an author, what other jobs might have you pursued?
What haven’t I considered? One of my goals is to discover a way to immortality because I really want to do it all – lawyer, veterinarian, teacher, train conductor, chocolatier, pilot, politician, news anchor, nurse…see my dilemma? For now I’ll stay an author and write about all these cool jobs.

What do you like best about being an author?
I want to make a difference in this world, for the positive. Being an author gives me the chance to do this. I really hope that somehow through my writings I can inspire others to rise to their full potential. Can you imagine the world we’d have if everyone could do this?

Where did you get the inspiration to write?
I always wanted to be an author, but never believed I could. Because of certain life experiences I didn’t have much confidence in myself. I wandered through life letting fate control me, but then I traveled to Ireland. I can honestly say something happened there that forever changed me. I became inspired and made the choice to become the hero in my life story. I would control fate, not the other way around.

How did you develop the idea for this book?
It came to me after over hearing a couple of people talking about aura’s – the light that supposedly surrounds a person. I thought it would be cool to take this “light” and turn it into a power. The second I thought this, Llona’s character came to me loud and clear.

Do you relate to any of the characters? If so, who and how?
I relate to Llona most. At first she didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin, but, like me, she decided to take control of her life. She learned to use the Light inside her as a way to save not only her life, but those around her, too.

Thank you for fantastic interview, Rachel!

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After a Vyken killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

Buy it on: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound

Hello! Today we have the author of Deadly, Julie Chibbaro, here with us today with an interview! Welcome Julie!

Julie Chibbaro is the author of Deadly (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster 2011), a medical mystery about the hunt for Typhoid Mary. Deadly, Chibbaro’s second novel, has received excellent reviews from such journals as The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Booklist, Historical Novels Review, The New York Journal of Books, Examiner.com, and Teenreads.com.
Her first book, Redemption (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster 2004), an epic tale of love, kidnapping, and white Indians, won the 2005 American Book Award. Redemption appeared on several lists: Pennsylvania School Librarian Association’s Top Ten, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) Recommended Reading List, and the Children’s Literature Choice Recommended Reading List. In 2006, Redemption was nominated for an ABE Award (Illinois High School Book Award).

A number of Chibbaro’s short stories have been published in literary journals such as The Prague Revue, Catalyst Magazine and Slingshot, and her articles have appeared in The Prague Post, The Montreal Gazette and Central Europe Online, among others. Two of her short stories, Skin, and Fractal Swing, appear in a literary anthology (ed. Louis Armand, Litteraria Pragensia, Charles University, 2010).

Chibbaro studied writing at The New School, and with Gordon Lish. She received scholarships to study with Clark Blaise at the Prague Writers Workshop, and with Janet Fitch, Lynn Freed and Mark Childress at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. At the New York Writers Institute, she took a Master class with Marilynne Robinson and Ann Beattie. Chibbaro teaches creative writing in New York

What influenced you to write a book and to write Deadly?
Deadly is my second novel. I write because I find that is the best way to think about something, to get to know it fully. I wanted to write about Typhoid Mary because she is so misunderstood. She’s not really the serial killer everyone assumes her to be.

What was the hardest part in writing Deadly? And how did you overcome it?
The hardest part of writing Deadly was finding the right voice. I first wrote it as a boy. Then as a series of letters. Finally, I found the diary form, and Prudence, and I was on my way. I rewrote it from scratch at least five times.

Do you relate to any of your characters?
I relate mostly to Prudence, my 16-year-old girl who longs to use her brain at a time when girls just weren’t encouraged. I grew up wanting to be an intellectual, but my background didn’t allow it. I just didn’t have the confidence. I think this is still a problem with girls today.

If you were stuck in your novel, what would you do differently than what has been written?
Ah, you’re giving me magic powers! How cool. Well, I keep thinking of Benny, Pru’s brother. He dies after an accident because they didn’t know about antiseptics. I think I’d go out and buy a bottle of rum and clean his infected leg with it. Probably would’ve saved his life.

If there was a mysterious outbreak of typhoid fever, what would be 5 things you’d like to do before you might die?
Oooo, a bucket list? I’ve never made one of those. And this one has time constraints. Let’s see. First, I’d write a letter to my loved ones telling them of my deepest, passionate love for them so they’d always know and never doubt it. Second, I’d write a will (I don’t have one, call it superstition). Third, I’d buy life insurance! Fourth, I’d eat a chocolate cake and a pint of ice cream (if I wasn’t too too sick). Last, I’d go through my most private papers and burn them.

Prudence Galewski doesn’t belong in Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls. She doesn’t want an “appropriate” job that makes use of refinement and charm. Instead, she is fascinated by how the human body works—and why it fails.

Prudence is lucky to land a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of a mysterious fever. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, Prudence explores every potential cause of the disease to no avail—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. But she’s never been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in solving one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century?

Buy it on: Amazon, Barnes & Noble