2017 Debut Authors Bash with Giveaway - Featuring Alexandra Ballard Talking about Her Inspiration and Research for Her Debut Novel: What I Lost #17DABash

I'm participating in this fun yearly event once again hosted by YA Reads.  I'm lucky enough to be posting about two authors this year, so make sure to check back later this month for another fun post.  I read What I Lost this past summer, and you can check out my review of it HERE.

Book info:
Title:  What I Lost
Author:  Alexandra Ballard
Genre:  YA Contemporary, Eating disorders, Anorexia
Release Date:  June 6th, 2017
Publisher:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Pages: 304
Formats:  Hardcover, ebook 

Synopsis:
What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again.She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size-zero obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they from her ex-boyfriend, a secret admirer, or someone playing a cruel trick?

 

This eloquent debut novel rings with authenticity as it follows Elizabeth’s journey to taking an active role in her recovery, hoping to get back all that she lost.

Find it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble. The Book Depository, iBooks, Goodreads


For this post I've got some great information to share with you from the author.  I asked her where she got her inspiration for What I Lost, as well as what kind of research was needed for a book on the serious topic of eating disorders.  Here is what she had to say:

Back in 2012, I joined a writing group and sat down to write, seriously, for the first time. I'd just left my job as a middle school teacher and had this vague idea that I might try to fulfill a dream I'd had since I was a little girl--to publish a book. I had no idea what stories, if any, would come out of me. All I wanted to do was write--something, anything. And for a few weeks, I did just that. I wrote about my life, my kids, my husband. And then, slowly, a voice started to form. It was my main character, 16-year-old Elizabeth, a typical American teenager who was screwing up her life in a big way. She shoplifted from Target, inadvertently gave her friends’ secrets away, constantly fought with her parents, and was, in general, miserable. It wasn’t until a few weeks in did I realize what was really going on with her. She had an eating disorder (ED), like I had years ago, and it was getting worse.

Over time, I realized that the heart of the story wasn’t with Elizabeth’s antics at school or with her friends. It was with her illness and the people she met when she was forced to get help at an inpatient treatment facility I named Wallingfield. That’s when WHAT I LOST was really born.

While the events and characters in the book are all fictional, many of the emotions and feelings (especially towards ranch dressing!) came from the heart.

That said, I still did quite a bit of research not only on anorexia, but also how to treat it. I studied up on everything from what a patient eats at a facility like Wallingfield, to how group therapy sessions are run, to the medical complications, to the latest genetic research, to how to portray EDs responsibly when writing. I spoke to therapists and tried my best to make sure I represented the disease in a realistic, responsible light.

One element that was extremely important to me was that my book do no harm. There are all sorts of guidelines online on how to write responsibly about anorexia. The last thing I wanted was for my book to be able to be used as a how-to guide to not eat, but at the same time, I wanted my novel to be specific and real. I did my best to carefully balance what details and behaviors I included so that readers would get a clear picture of the disease while also not including so much that anybody with an eating disorder would come away with new techniques and tips for restricting his or her food intake. I did have to include some details, like specific weights and meals, so that the reader could accurately picture the characters, but I did so as sparingly as I could.

When I finished writing WHAT I LOST, I realized that this book had been burning a hole inside me, waiting to come out for a long time. That’s what is so fascinating about writing--it’s like a portal into the inner workings of your mind. Maybe that’s why I love it so much. It continually surprises me. I didn’t sit down to write a book about a girl in an ED treatment center, but that’s the story I needed to tell, and so I did, and I am thankful every day for Elizabeth and the rest of the cast of characters in my book. They made me a better person and writer.

About the Author: 

Alexandra Ballard has worked as a magazine editor, middle-school English teacher, freelance writer, and cake maker. She holds master's from both Columbia (journalism) and Fordham (education) and spent ten years in the classroom, beginning in the Bronx and ending up in the hills of California. Today she writes full time and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. What I Lost is Alexandra's first novel.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

Giveaway:

• 1 copy of What I Lost - open to US and Canada

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

2016 Debut Author Bash - Featuring Janet B. Taylor and an Interview with the Characters of Her Debut Novel: Into the Dim (Giveaway!)

Welcome to the 2016 Debut Authors Bash hosted by YA Reads.  I've participated in it for the last few years.  It's a great way to meet new authors and learn about new books. There are also a lot of giveaways.  You can check out the other posts by clicking on the highlighted Debut Authors Bash link at the beginning of this paragraph.  Make sure that you scroll all the way through, and if you think this book sounds great, like I thought it was, there is a giveaway at the end!

Book Info:
Title:  Into the Dim
Publication:  March 1st, 2016
Category:  YA
Genre:  Science Fiction

Synopsis:
When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing. 

You can check out my review of the book HERE. 

Characters Interview:

1.      This first question is for  all four:  Hope, Bran, Collum, and Phoebe.  What is the one time period or event that you would most like to travel to see, or hope to visit in the next book?

 Well, since Hope just got the hook up on her all-time number one time-travel destination, medieval London, I’ll let the other guys answer for themselves.

Bran:  Well, as we are speaking in confidence, I feel I must make a confession. I know, I know. I come across as urbane--even irreverent. But you see, that sophisticated candy shell conceals a romantic center of the most melted variety. The truth is that all I really care about is being with the girl I love. The setting matters little. Waltzing (in the most-fashionable ballrooms) of the genteel Austen’s Edwardian England. Engaged in intrigue at Louis XIV’s Versailles. Sunset cruises on the Nile as we feeding each other grapes on our Pharaonic barge. If you’re sensing a luxury theme you would not be mistaken. However, to make her smile, I would happily spend the rest of my life mucking about with the cave people. As long as we are together. As long as I can watch the the sunset flicker in her eyes...I shall die a happy man. Let the sighing ensue.

Phoebe: Thank you! You know, no one ever asks me that question! Lu and the Grands, they make the decisions, and then it’s all ‘Phoebe wear this and Phoebe go there’. I’m not complaining, mind! Really! But cheese ‘n rice, wouldn’t it be nice if just once, I got to choose? My answer’s been the same since I was ten years old, and watched a documentary about the ‘Roaring Twenties’. I know what you’re thinking. It’s not the hooch or the gorgeous parties or the sexy flapper duds. Well...all right. It’s not only that. In the 1920s, women began to break open that ‘be a good girl and do as you’re told’ framework. They spoke out, and for the first time in history...people listened. Women like Josephine Baker and Zelda Fitzgerald and Amelia Earhart. Ohh...how I hope to one day meet Amelia Earhart and tell her thank you. Thank you for being so absolutely bloody brilliant! 

Collum:  {Shrugs} What a barmy question. You don’t get to choose just for the enjoyment of the thing. You do your duty. You go where you’re needed. The end. All right, fine. If--as you say--the world were going to end because I didn’t pick a favorite...I suppose I’d have to say the height of the Roman Empire. My father once traveled there and brought back a Gladius, a sword used by the Gladiators. The Roman Army was the greatest army in history. And if I was given the opportunity to spend some time leading my own legion, well...I suppose I wouldn’t turn that down.  

2.      Hope – We know you like to read, and you love Harry Potter, now that you’ve done some time traveling, what do you think of Hermione’s time turner? 

You know, the first few times I read PRISONER OF ASKABAN I got so irritated. Why not go back and take out Tom Riddle before he graduated Hogwarts and became Voldemort? Why not warn Dumbledore much, much earlier and leave little Tommy at the orphanage in the first place? But now that I have a bit of experience in time manipulation, I understand that there are severe limitations. You have to be so careful when you’re messing around in the past. All in all, I think Hermione did the best she could. And hey, she did save Buckbeak, after all.

3.      Hope – Can you tell us what your favorite time travel books or movies are?

Oh, I absolutely adored ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ by Madeline L’Engle. I probably read it a hundred times when I was a kid. And I loved all the classics, The Time Machine, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Time Train. Recently however, Moira’s been lending me copies of a series called ‘Outlander’ by Diana Gabaldon and oh...my God. They are freaking amazing! Every chance I get I ride out on the moors, settle in next to the river, and just read all day!  Also, Doug had been bugged me forever about watching this British TV show called ‘Doctor Who’. Have to admit, I was really skeptical. Now though? I am proud to call myself a full-blown Whovian!  

4.      Bran – When did you first know that you would not be able to betray Hope in the way that your adoptive mother wanted you to?

The day my stupid horse tossed me in that river, and I opened my eyes to find her standing there in that freezing water, glaring down at me. She was shivering, but so fierce and so damn beautiful...I knew I would die before I would ever let anything happen to her.

5.      Collum – We know that you weren’t really excited about Hope coming at first. But, what is the first thing you noticed about her that you did like?

Hope is terrible at almost everything I need for a member of my team. She can’t shoot a bow. She can’t fight. She stabs herself more often than the target. But...I have to admit that she has a keen mind. Probably the most brilliant mind of anyone I’ve ever known. She can be funny, too, though usually when she doesn’t mean to. And…{mutters this last part as he’s stomping away}...she smells nice.

6.      Hope – You’ve got two hot boys you’re working with, Collum and Bran, one with a British accent, and one with a Scottish accent.  My favorite accent is Irish, but what is your favorite?

Hmm. That’s a tough one. Though Bran’s posh Brit accent makes me go all jelly-kneed, all in all, I like the natural, rustic sound of the Scottish accent best.

7.      Bran – What do you think would be different about your life if you’d been raised by Hope’s adoptive parents instead of your adoptive mother?

{Shudders theatrically} Oh don’t. Please. My childhood was a nightmare, no doubt about it. But I would live it over again a thousand times. If Sarah had taken me along with Hope that fateful night, Hope and I would’ve been raised as brother and sister. And as much as I adore the Game of Thrones franchise, I would hate to think of the two of us as some kind of time-traveling version of Jamie and Cersei.

8.      Phoebe – Of all the time period clothing you have available for your trips, if you could pick one of those to wear as a Halloween costume, what do you think you’d pick?

Ohhh...there is this seventeenth-century Venetian masquerade ball gown in all these shades of silver and violet that I’ve been dying to borrow since forever! It is sublime, but Gran swears if she ever catches me coming within ten feet of it, she’ll come after me with her old wooden spoon!


I have to say thank you so much to Janet, as well as her wonderful characters, for this awesome interview! I loved this book so much, and the interview answers from some of them (Bran and Collum) definitely made me swoon once again!

About the Author:

 Janet Taylor lives in such a small town in Arkansas that if you happen to sneeze when you pass by, you'll totally miss it. (Cause, you know, you can't sneeze with your eyes open. For real--try it--it's impossible)

Her debut novel, INTO THE DIM (coming 3/1/2016 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is about a 16 year old girl who travels through time. Totally on purpose and stuff.

She's a reader/fan first and a writer second. She lives with her fantastic husband, two hilarious sons, and Dorda the diabetic dog who won't win any beauty contests, but has a "nice personality".

She would think you're the coolest thing since AC on a hot day if you'd like her on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter or visit her web site. And if you felt like adding INTO THE DIM to your Want to Read well golly! She'd probably come over to your house and do cart-wheels on your front lawn. (probably)

(PS-check out the bracelet on Janet's pic. That's a teeny-tiny Tardis. Uh, Whovian much?)

Giveaway:

• Signed, hard copy of Into The Dim plus lots of ITD swag! Open to US/Canada!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: Review, Author Interview, and Giveaway - True Born by L.E. Sterling

About the Book:

Book Title: True Born
Author: L.E. Sterling
Release Date: May 3, 2016
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Fantasy

Your fate is in your blood…

Welcome to Dominion City.

After the great Plague descended, the world population was decimated…and their genetics damaged beyond repair.

The Lasters wait hopelessly for their genes to self-destruct. The Splicers pay for expensive treatments that might prolong their life. The plague-resistant True Borns are as mysterious as they are feared…

And then there’s Lucy Fox and her identical twin sister, Margot. After endless tests, no one wants to reveal what they are.

When Margot disappears, a desperate Lucy has no choice but to put her faith in the True Borns, led by the charismatic leader, Nolan Storm, and the beautiful but deadly Jared, who tempts her as much as he infuriates her. As Lucy and the True Borns set out to rescue her sister, they stumble upon a vast conspiracy stretching from Dominion’s street preachers to shady Russian tycoons. But why target the Fox sisters?

As they say in Dominion, it’s in the blood.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114621-true-born

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/True-Born-L-E-Sterling-ebook/dp/B0166SEV0O

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/true-born-le-sterling/1122537957

iBooks: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/true-born/id1046533172

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/true-born

Amazon.co.uk:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Born-L-E-Sterling-ebook/dp/B0166SEV0O

Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/True-Born-L-E-Sterling-ebook/dp/B0166SEV0O

Entangled Publishing: http://www.entangledpublishing.com/true-born/

Review:
First I have to say thanks to YA Reads Book Tours and Entangled Publishing for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  The synopsis above is what sold me right away.  When I finally picked it up, I was hooked, and when I finished, all I know is that I need a sequel now!

The main character is Lucy Fox.  She is a twin, at birth she was joined to her sister Margot's foot with one of her own feet.  Margot is kind of the "perfect" daughter, although she is the one who has lately found something, a boy probably, who is keeping her sneaking out of the house, and also making her not be as open with Lucy as normal. The two of them have a connection, they can communicate when they're not even in the same room, they feel emotions and can send pictures or thoughts.  Margot and Lucy are very close to their own "Reveal" Party.  That is where they will find out if they are Splicers, or True Borns.  But something strange is going on.  They have to keep going back to do the tests over and over.  It is about this time that their father has hired some new security people.  They are True Born, people who are born with genetic "throw-backs" or traits that seem to go back to our ancestors in the evolutionary path.  For instance the guy in charge of security, Storm, has antlers.  

Then there is Jared, the snarky, cocky guy that Lucy first runs into, literally, at the top of a staircase at her school.  There is something about him, but she uses her "status" to look down on this guy that she doesn't know, even though he's very cute, just because of the way he comes across in their first meeting.  Turns out that he also works for Storm, as part of the new security detail, and he is also a True Born.  But there is something between them.  Even though it is wrong for them.  Lucy must be with whoever her parents decide.  And Jared, he doesn't want to be interested in a girl like her, a privileged girl, that stands for all the things that have kept people like him, True Borns, down.  

About this same time, Lucy senses something is wrong with Margot one night when she's snuck out.  Lucy gets Jared to go with her to find Margot.  And they end up at the clinic where the testing goes on, only someone is not testing Margot, but drawing something out of her body, blood or something.  They have to rescue her, and it doesn't happen without a fight.  Jared shifts into his panther-like body to do this, and then there feels as if something has changed between them. But not only that, with their parents having gone out of town, Margot is now not herself.  You can tell she feels traumatized.  In order to keep the girls safe, they go to Storm's headquarters.  While they are there they find out that maybe something else is going on.  Maybe there is something in the girls' blood that could be very highly sought after by people wanting to save themselves against the plague.  At the same time the Lasters, the people who cannot fight the plague, are beginning to rebel.  

The story has so many twists and turns it keeps you on the edge of your seat.  All the different types of True Borns are neat to hear about, and to try to picture in my head.  The heat between Jared and Lucy is really good, I enjoy the back and forth between them.  I enjoy all of the stuff that builds into the world.  My only problem was that I feel there are still so many questions left unanswered.  And I wish there would have been one or two more of these answered. But I guess the author knew what they were doing, because I'll need to read the next book soon!  

Author Interview:

1.  What does your writing process look like?  Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, note cards, post-it notes, etc.?

I typically start with a burning image in my mind - either a scenario or a final scene -  and I just work through the tangles until I have all the threads sorted. Sometimes I’ll start with a scene, stop, then start developing the rest of the narrative. Planning, especially for long projects, is essential! Having said that, I always maintain flexibility as my imagination adds to the world, layer by layer.

I keep track of everything in what I some authors call a Story Bible (and sometime, as with True Born, I have more than one floating around). Right now, for instance, as I work on the True Born series, I have 3 or 4 different story bibles filled with notes, as well as a chapter by chapter breakdown of what I think is going to happen… and I fill that with obsessive notes, as well!

2.  How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?

Ha! Great question – and very difficult to answer! Every story is different. But, in general I would say that the imagination is like a vast library. Like most people, I think I file everything that I have ever experienced, read, thought into that library, so that when an idea pops into my mind, it’s drawing from a hundred different sources: history, the state of the world, an extrapolation of where I think we’re headed, science articles I’ve written, researchers I’ve interviewed, and so on. 

3.  How long have you been writing?

I published my first article in Owl, a kid’s magazine, when I was in grade three, so I must have started around then! I went on to write my first novel at age eleven… it was terrible! I started taking Creative Writing classes in High School, then continued studying Creative Writing in University…I can’t remember a time when I didn’t not know that I wanted to be a writer.

4.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

Read. A lot. I have met people who aspire to being published authors who claim (proudly) that they never read anything. But honestly, I can learn more from reading a single page of one of my favourite authors than I ever did listening to anybody, or attending any class. You need to trust your gut, but you can learn so much from how other people tackle writing problems: an action scene, for instance, or paranormal characters.

I would also say that the more I write, the better I get. I’ve been keeping a daily journal for nearly 20 years now. I write in my journal before I get started on my books. Every day. It’s now so much a part of me that I couldn’t imagine my days without it. It’s cheap therapy, for one thing – and it frees my mind up so much for more imaginative work!

5. How important are names in your books?  Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the meaning?  Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?

Names are so important! Some names I draw from myth or classic literature that adds layers to the story. For instance, with my last novel, Pluto’s Gate, the heroine’s name is Percy (short for Persephone) Clare (meaning light). The narrative is a contemporary retelling of the Pluto (or Hades)/Demeter/Persephone myth, so this works really well.

In True Born, this process is a little more intuitive. My lead character, Lucy Fox, is named for a character in Dracula, believe it or not! True Born, while not a vampire story, is a novel obsessed with blood!

6.  Since this has a science fiction feel to it, did you do any research into the science parts?

I actually worked for some of the world’s top scientists for a couple of years. I would get to interview these amazing biomedical engineers about the crazy stuff they are working on (like: engineering living, beating heart tissue, or nanoparticle delivery vehicles for chemo drugs) and all of that really made its way into the world of True Born.

7.  As a former teacher, one of the best parts of that is hearing back from students who learned something or felt they got something from being in my class.  Can you name a teacher that you felt was important in your life in some way?

One of my mentors was a man named Matt Cohen. He was a Governor General award winning author (this is the holy grail of writing prizes in Canada). I kept winning ‘best story’ prizes in his writing workshop – I think I won three of the four prizes that year – and he pushed me to consider going on to a Masters in Creative Writing (I did). To be honest, I feel like he was really the only person who ever made me feel like I was talented or could really do this. I have never forgotten him for it. Sadly, he died shortly before the publication of my first book. It’s dedicated to him anyway.

Some fun questions

Favorites:  

Books/authors/genres

Sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy: Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Cassandra Clare, Tanya Huff, Ilona Andrews, Karen Chance, Maria V. Snyder.

Movies/TV Shows

Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica

Music

Arcade Fire, Billy Holiday, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen

Food/writing snack

Coffee!

Social Media Site

? I’ll let you know when I find one.  

About the Author: 

L.E. Sterling had an early obsession with sci-fi, fantasy and romance to which she remained faithful even through an M.A. in Creative Writing and a PhD in English Literature – where she completed a thesis on magical representation. She is the author of two previous novels, the cult hit Y/A novel The Originals (under pen name L.E. Vollick), dubbed “the Catcher in the Rye of a new generation” by one reviewer, and the urban fantasy Pluto’s Gate.

Originally hailing from Parry Sound, Ontario, L.E. spent most of her summers roaming across Canada in a van with her father, a hippie musician, her brothers and an occasional stray mutt – inspiring her writing career. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Author Website: le-sterling.com

Author Twitter: @le_sterling

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LESterling22/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/LESterling

The Excerpt:
-->

“Isn’t it a little weird that we have to do our tests again? Was there some kind of mistake with the first one?” Margot says it innocently enough, a slight twang to her voice to match the nurse’s rabble-like twang.

           “Well, hon, sometimes they get mixed signals, you know? Like when you think a boy likes you but then he goes all hot and cold?” She winks. Margot’s fingers tighten on mine.

           “Uh huh.” Margot nods. “So there’s a problem with your machines? Or with the staff?”

           The nurse frowns. “Not this staff. They’re five-star amazing. Must have just been a bad sample or something. Try not to worry about it, sweetie.” She pats Margot’s arm just before she shoves the needle in my sister’s vein.

           I squirm on my seat. The skin on my arm crawls from the sharp pain originating in my sister’s arm. Relaxed beside me, Margot doesn’t move a muscle. She knows what I’m feeling even if she can’t do anything about it. This is just how it is with us.

           “How much are you going to take this time?” My voice shakes as our coltish nurse comes around to me and drives a needle into my arm. It doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as Margot’s did. Our hands stay folded together. There’s a note in our file about letting us. One of the perks of being born us.

           “Oh.” For the first time she looks a little dismayed. “I’m sorry, hon. Didn’t they tell you? We gotta go through the whole protocol again. The whole shebang.”

           My twin and I did know. We’d been told. Still, it bothers us. A full day’s worth of giving blood, going through tests, having your organs measured and documented. Urine samples, more blood samples, hair samples. We’d already been through this two times in the last two months. We no longer believe they’d gotten “bad” samples—not that we’re going to let on to the nurse.

           And funny thing is, each time we come, the Protocols Nurse is new. This is the third we’ve had, each as clueless as the last.

           We know better than to ask our parents. The deepening silence and constant rounds of testing and lies must mean the news is the worst. Late at night we lie together, holding hands and whispering under the deep canopy of one or other of our beds. We’ve thought about what it will mean if one of us turns out to be a Laster. We’ve talked until dawn about what we’d want, what we’d do. I tell Margot I’d want to go with her, but she’s against the idea.

           “One of us needs to survive,” she said to me, her gray-green eyes as serious as I’ve ever seen them.

           “What if it’s not that?” I asked her.

           “What do you mean?”

           “What if we’re, you know,” the words mere whispers, “True Born?”

The Giveaway:

• $10 Amazon Gift Card  

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

  Tour Schedule

Debut Author Bash and Giveaway: Lance Rubin

So  I'm back with another great author for the YA Reads Debut Authors Bash, Lance Rubin.  Lance Rubin is the author of Denton Little's Deathdate, a book that I just loved to death, and if you didn't already, you can go read my review of it HERE.  I had his book as my staff rec for a couple months this past fall because I loved it so much.  For my post today, I gave the author my favorite interview questions, which you can see his answers to below!

Author Bio (from Goodreads.com):

Hey there, I'm Lance Rubin.
 My first book, DENTON LITTLE'S DEATHDATE, came out from Knopf in Spring 2015. I'm from New Jersey. It's a way better state than people give it credit for. I went to Brown University, and now I live in Brooklyn with my wife and son. They are delightful people.

Before I became an author, I was primarily an actor. "Anything I'd recognize you from?" you might ask. Probably not, unless you watched the short-lived NBC hospital show MERCY, in which I guest-starred as a patient with a naked sleepwalking problem. By my late 20's, the acting business was making me sad, so I started to focus more on writing. Now I'm primarily a writer and it makes me incredibly happy.

Harry Potter is one of my favorite things of all time. JK Rowling is a storytelling genius, I'm endlessly impressed by what she did there. AZKABAN is my favorite, if only because it has one of the most satisfying climaxes ever. And involves time travel.

BACK TO THE FUTURE is my favorite movie. When I was younger, I dreamed about being Marty McFly. Now I dream about being an amalgam of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. I don't really dream that. But I love the screenplay they wrote.

I also love Pixar, the New York Knicks, Joss Whedon, and the Before Sunrise Trilogy.

Some last things:

-I have a podcast with one of my best friends, Ray Munoz. Our guests are often people with careers in the arts. We talk about creativity and make jokes. Always 20 minutes or less. Listen on iTunes or here: www.thelanceandrayshow.com

-I often battle the demons of procrastination. In fact, I shouldn't be writing this bio right now. I'm supposed to be working on my second book, a companion to the first. I will get back to it in two minutes. I swear.

-I am not a cat person, but I respect people who are. Kind of.

-I am the voice of the Berenstain Bears audiobooks.

-I am very bad at baseball.

I'm so glad to be here. Can't wait for you all to read DENTON LITTLE'S DEATHDATE. Reach out and say hello! 

Author Links:

• Twitter
• Tumblr
•  Goodreads
• Instagram
• Facebook

Book Info:

Fans of John Green and Matthew Quick: Get ready to die laughing.
 
Denton Little’s Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. For Denton, that’s in just two days—the day of his senior prom.

Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle—as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend’s hostile sister. (Though he’s not totally sure—see, first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton’s long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters. . . . Suddenly Denton’s life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.

Debut author Lance Rubin takes us on a fast, furious, and outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager’s life as he searches for love, meaning, answers, and (just maybe) a way to live on.
Purchase Links:

• Amazon
•  Barnes and Noble

 Author Interview:

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1.     What does your writing process look like?  Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, note cards, post-it notes, etc.?

            My writing process looks like a very confused miniature zebra. (I know that’s not what you meant. Though, that is kind of what I imagine my process would look like in animal form.) Jokes aside, I definitely fall into the seat-of-the-pants category, or, as I’ve heard many people put it: I am a pantser. I know some things when I start, usually broad ideas about where the story is going and who the characters are, but for the most part, I am fumbling forward in the dark with a tiny flashlight. (And a tiny zebra.) This does not always seem to be the most efficient way to write a first draft, but I’ve found it’s what I like best.

            In the case of my second book, I wrote 25,000 words of a first draft and then realized I didn’t like the direction I’d gone in at all. I scrapped it and started over, keeping some of the sections I liked but mainly writing all new things. It was a little disheartening, but I really believe I needed to write those scrapped words to understand my story better. 

            In the case of my third book, which I’m currently working on, I wrote 40,000 words of a first draft (about 160 pages), and then felt like I couldn’t go any further until I assessed what I had. Now I’ve been rewriting the pages I have and trying to understand my story better, after which I’ll move onward and complete the first draft. It feels really odd, since I didn’t do that with my other books, but I’ve found that each book has had its own unique process; the more I can listen to my gut and not force myself to do it a certain way just because it worked with previous books, the better off I am. 

           

2.  How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?

            I think I generally end up writing about things that fascinate me, that I’m passionate about, that I find thought-provoking. For example, the idea for Denton Little’s Deathdate came to me because I love to think about time. I often find myself thinking about the passage of time, about what’s changed in my life in the past year, the past two years, the past five years. One day, the thought occurred to me: I wonder how much time I have left? From there, I thought of what it might be like to know my deathdate, and then I thought, What if everyone knew when they would die? So it’s usually one thought that snowballs into a bigger idea.

            In general, I’d say a big part of idea-generating is observing and listening to the world around you and reading lots of things. And I find taking a shower, going on a run, and lying in bed as I’m trying to fall asleep at night are great times for creative thinking. 

3.  How long have you been writing?

            I’ve always enjoyed writing, but interestingly enough, I only started to identify primarily as a writer in the past few years. From the time I was five or six, I always thought I was going to be an actor, so for much of my life, the writing I did was in service of my performing, whether it was comedy sketches/videos or the solo show I performed my senior year of college. There was other writing, too—including a humor column called Random Thoughts that I wrote for my high school newspaper—but mostly, I was writing things that I could perform.

            In early 2011, I became disenchanted with my acting career (which is my nice way of saying I’d just been dropped by my agent and manager in the same month and I was feeling unfulfilled and miserable) right around the time I read and loved The Hunger Games. I’d been sitting on a screenplay idea for a while, and I thought, “Maybe I’ll take that idea and try writing it as a YA novel.” It was a leap, as I had no clue if the writing chops I’d honed from other mediums would apply to writing fiction. That idea, of course, was Denton Little’s Deathdate, and several years (and more than several rewrites) later, here we are.

            So, to recap: I’ve been writing things since I was really young—mainly comedy sketches and creative AIM away messages during college--but I didn’t start seriously writing fiction until five years ago.

4.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

            Jumping off my last answer, I would say: don’t pigeonhole your creativity! Do lots of creative things; experiment with lots of forms. If you think of yourself as a novelist, try to write a song! Try to write a play! Try to make a sculpture! Nothing you make will go to waste; it’s all educational, and it all informs who you are as an artist and person. If you’d told me ten years ago I’d now have a career as a Young Adult author, I would have been shocked and confused. But, the truth is, it’s been an unexpectedly great creative fit for me.

            My other big piece of advice is this: if you’re hoping to have a career as a writer, it absolutely has to start with you taking yourself seriously. If you don’t, no one else will. Don’t wait for people to ask you to make things or to assign you projects; make the things you want to make TODAY. Operate with a professional mindset: establish writing routines and work even on days you don’t feel inspired (which, honestly, will be most of the days). The more you write, the better you will become. That’s a fact. The bad writing you do will generally teach you more than the good writing, which is a freeing thing to realize because it means you can’t lose! If you write something bad, you know it’s gonna help you to become better. If you write something good, then congrats, you’ve written something good! Either way, keep writing.

            (It’s worth mentioning that I’m delivering this advice so enthusiastically because I’m also saying it to myself. No matter how much I know this stuff intellectually, I struggle with it daily. We’re all in this together.)

5. Does Denton Little resemble you as a teenage boy in any way? What parts of the book do you feel come from things in your life, or are there any?

            Ha, yes, Denton Little resembles me as a teenage boy in lots of ways because I totally used me at age seventeen as the foundation for the character. I figured it was intimidating enough to write a novel at all, so I wanted to make it as easy for myself as possible. 

            In the same vein, the primary foundation for Denton’s best friend Paolo is my close friend and comedy partner Ray Munoz. He and I have written a few two-person comedy shows together, so I infused the general vibe of our comedic banter into Denton and Paolo’s friendship. The rest of the characters in the book are imaginative amalgams of people I know, but none correlate as directly to real-life counterparts as those two.

            Other things in the book inspired by details from my life include Denton’s made-up New Jersey town, Marstin. Though it’s not a real place, I was very much thinking of my New Jersey hometown Matawan when I wrote about it. In Matawan, for example, there’s a place called Eli’s Bagels. In Denton’s town of Marstin, there’s a place called Harold’s Bagels. (See what I did there?)

            This is all to say that I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to write any more books because I’ve probably used up all my material.

           

Some fun questions:

Favorites:

Books/authors/genres –

This is such a common answer, but man, my love for JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books is boundless. Those really expanded my idea of what storytelling can and should be.

Other books I love include Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay, Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge, and John Irving’s The World According to Garp. YA that I love includes Coe Booth’s Tyrell, Becky Albertalli’s Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Daniel Handler’s Why We Broke Up, Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, and Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle. (But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.) And my favorite books about writing are Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and Stephen King’s On Writing.

Movies/TV Shows –

My favorite movie of all-time is Back to the Future. It was a huge influence on Denton. Others I love very much include Bottle Rocket, Waiting for Guffman, and most Pixar films. Favorite TV shows of all time include The Office (BBC version, though I also love the American one), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friday Night Lights, and Freaks and Geeks. Most recently, I absolutely loved Master of None. And Nathan for You makes me laugh harder than most things.

Music –

I really love 80’s music, and I often end up listening to that while writing. Just this morning, “Luka” by Suzanne Vega and “I Want to Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston were in the rotation, and they both made me very happy. Other artists I listen to a lot include Ben Folds, Mates of State, the Weepies, Lord Huron, Jack’s Mannequin, and Passion Pit. Recently, I’ve been loving the new album by CHVRCHES. All stuff that’s pretty poppy. 

Food/writing snack –

I often get a bowl of yogurt, granola, and fruit at the coffeeshop where I write. That, or a frittata. I also drink water or tea. This answer is pretty boring.

Social Media Site –

Twitter. But I’m pretty wary of all forms of social media.  

Giveaway:

•  One signed Denton Little's Deathdate audiobook (which is narrated by author), only open in the U.S.   
• Copy of Denton Little's Deathdate, International if The Book Depository delivers to you! 

The author is providing the audiobook for US entries, and I will be  providing a copy of the actual book for International entries.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on the button below to go to the schedule for the other Debut Authors participating!