Guestopia: Rebecca Carpenter

Today, on Guestopia (yes, we've changed the date this month!), we are delighted to welcome author Rebecca Carpenter to YAtopia! Here's a little bit about Rebecca...

Rebecca Carpenter is a native of western Colorado. She is married with two grown children and four awesome grandchildren. She owns and runs a large childcare center where she shares her love for books. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, and exploring the beautiful mountains of Colorado.

And let's commence with the interview!

Is this your first published book?

It’s the first one traditionally published. I self-published a memoir about my teen pregnancy in 2012 called, The Total Deconstruction of Chloe Wilson.

What’s it called?

Butterfly Bones

Which genre?

Contemporary soft science fiction. I use soft because it’s character driven with bits of sci-fi.

Which age group?

Young adult

Is it a series or standalone?

It’s the first in the Metamorphosis Series.

Are you an agented author?

No. I submitted to Lakewater Press, and they don’t require an agent.

Which publisher snapped up your book?

The amazing Lakewater Press.

How involved have you been in the whole publishing process of your book?

I have been involved in every choice made for Butterfly Bones. The team at Lakewater want it to be a positive experience and they do a great job of making the author feel important.

Do you have another job?

I own a run a large childcare center/preschool in Grand Junction, Colorado. A typical work week is at least 60 hours. And I work part time as a copy editor.

Did you receive many, if any, rejections prior?

I had made the mistake of entering contests early on, before the book was ready. So yes, I’ve had a few rejections. But they were right in doing so.

What created/what were you doing or watching when the first idea for this book sneaked up on you?

I was listening to a song called, ‘Caterpillar’ by The Cure. It sparked the initial story ideas, although in my mind it played out as a horror story about a girl becoming a powerful creature and taking revenge on the bullies from school.

How long did you plot/plan until you started writing it?

This project started so long ago, that I don’t’ remember how much time I spent. Generally I take about a couple of days to plot.

Once you started, did the story flow naturally or did you have to step in and wrestle it into submission?

I had to do a lot of wrestling, but it was the other way around. Bethany didn’t want to star in a horror novel. She had other things in mind. Once I listened to her wants and goals, the story flowed beautifully.

How many drafts did you write before you let someone read it? Who was that someone?

My critique group was reading it while I was writing it. I would finish a chapter and bring it to the next meeting.

Did you employ an editor/proofreader or did you have a critique partner/beta readers before you started querying?

I had critique and BETA readers. This was over a couple of years in the making.

Roughly how many drafts did it take before you sent the manuscript off into the real world?

I’m thinking it was four. Mainly the beginning kept changing.

How many drafts until it was published?

Two. Very. Painful. Drafts. But all worth it in the end.

Has the book changed dramatically since the first draft?

It’s the same storyline, but I needed to add more description as well as keep the theme of the story woven throughout each chapter.

Are there any parts you’d like to change even now?

Nothing I’d change. I love it the way it is.

What part of writing do you find the easiest?

Dialogue. It flows naturally for me. And humor.

What part do you find hardest?

Narrative. Keeping the right balance between what needs to be told, in the character’s voice, as well weaving in bits of backstory can be challenging.

Do you push through writing barriers or walk away?

I barrel through them. Don’t have time to let them stop me.

How many projects do you have on the go at the same time?

Too many. Usually three or four books at once, and sometimes a screenplay in there as well.

Do you think you’re born with the talent to write or do you think it can be learned?

Both. Some people have a gift. But anyone can learn the craft if they’re willing.

How many future novels do you have planned?

Two more at the time for the Metamorphosis Series. But many more to come.

Do you write other things, such as short stories, articles, blogs, etc?

I write picture books, middle grade, and screenplays.

What’s the highlight of being published so far?

Just seeing your sweat and blood out there in the world. And the great reviews. Those are awesome.

Give me one writing tip that works for you.

Just sit down and write. Let it flow. Edit later.

And one that doesn't.

I don’t know of anything that doesn’t work except for not writing.

Can you give us a clue or secret about the next book?

It’s told in multi POV.

What question have you always wanted to be asked but never have? What would the answer be?  

Maybe why I chose to write a young adult book. Especially since I work with children and spend my days immersed in picture books. I love all books. For all ages. But young adult has a special place in my heart. Figuring out who we are. First love. First kiss. First heartbreak. Relationships with peers. The whole self-esteem roller coaster that teens go through. Puberty. This time period intrigues me where there is so much inner and outer growth, so many irrational choices, experimentation, and a taste of adulthood. It’s a difficult transitionary time—one in which we all have the privilege of experiencing—good or bad. Or maybe it’s good and bad. And that’s what I want to write about—the crazy, scary, funny, sad, wonderful, horrible experiences of a teenager.



Fabulous! Thank you so much for joining us today, Rebecca. Lakewater Press are currently offering a pretty awesome contest if you purchase a copy of Butterfly Bones in December. Send them proof of purchase and they'll enter you in the draw to win a Kindle! Wow! Here are a few links that might help!

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com.au
Barnes & Noble

And if you want to follow Rebecca, these links might help too!

Website
Twitter

Guestopia - Ampersand Prize winner, Cally Black

Today, we've switched things up! Instead of our Guestopia Interview going live on the 26th, we've brought it forward - and for good reason!

First, let's meet today's very special guest... Australian author, CALLY BLACK!

Cally is a winner of Hardie Grant Egmont's Ampersand Prize, and her debut novel In the Dark Spaces will be published in 2017.

She has travelled throughout Asia, Europe and Africa and now lives in Melbourne with her family. When she's not writing YA sci-fi, she teaches TAFE, writes for the educational market, and works with gifted children.

Awesome! Now click here for a little info about the Hardie Grant Ampersand Prize, which closes this year on Friday, September 16th, to find out what a massive writing prize this is!

So, let's gooooooo!

Is this your first published book?

Yes, this is my very first trade novel. It's very exciting.

I've had short stories published for children in Educational Publishing and in SF magazines before but have been focussing on YA novels for the last couple of years.

What’s it called?

In the Dark Spaces, which has a double meaning, and, I feel, invokes a mood similar to one of my favourite stanzas from a Robert Frost poem, “Desert Places.”

Which genre?

Science Fiction Thriller

Which age group?

Young Adult

Is it a series or standalone?

This is standing alone, and if it does really well... who knows?

Are you an agented author?

No. Unagented.

Which publisher snapped up your book?

Hardie Grant Egmont selected it as their Ampersand Prize novel for 2016 from their annual competition. Very exciting for a first novel to hit the ground with an award behind it!

How involved have you been in the whole publishing process of your book?

I'm very hands-on. Marisa at HGE has a lot of advice and ideas for tweaks and I see it as my job to realise that potential, so it's a lot of hard and rewarding work. I don't think anyone else could do it for me. There's an unusual voice and it's set in an unusual world. I wouldn't want anyone else to do it for me!

Do you have another job?

I have two other jobs. I work for a private educational company that works with children during the day and I teach at TAFE at night. Fortunately, I get school holidays off both of those.

Did you receive many, if any, rejections prior?

Only about a gazillion! Actually the last couple of years I'd stopped sending work out (this stops rejections!) and turned inwards to focus on my writing to try to understand why it got attention but never an offer, and to try to improve. It was a process that involved reading a lot of essays and articles by writers and reading their novels and picking apart how they did the things I loved. I'm still in that process. I may always be in that process. There's so much to learn!

What created/what were you doing or watching when the first idea for this book sneaked up on you?

 I'd read Hunger Games and then I read 5^th Wave and I thought you know what? These authors are having fun and letting go and not censoring themselves. Gloves off! I'm going to go into a novel swinging and punching. What's the worst that can happen? I told myself I didn't have to show it to anyone. It was just for me. And there were a few new techniques that I wanted to try so it was all useful.

How long did you plot/plan until you started writing it?

I don't plot. I write to tell myself a story, to entertain myself. If I plotted, I will have told myself the story and the process of writing it would change. What I do is I write scene by scene, and when I get to the end of the story. I put it aside and write it again in a more orderly fashion from scratch, and try to fully realise the motivations and quirks of each character. So I write and then I plot, and then I write again. This second time, I guess is with a writer hat on, whereas the first time, I suppose I'm inhabiting the viewpoint character. This is a very slow way to do things, even if you can type 40wpm, but I think, if the writer is enjoying themselves and connected with their character, you can feel that in the words.

Once you started, did the story flow naturally or did you have to step in and wrestle it into submission?


I started it. It went in a weird direction after 20,000 words. I turned the page and started it again, and I've been wrestling it ever since!

How many drafts did you write before you let someone read it? Who was that someone?

 Well, you understand this was a novel just for me. I made about half a dozen passes over it. Put it aside, came back to it, and I still liked it far too much for the strange thing it was, the experimental thing I was never going to show anyone. So I showed the opening to an online writing group in the US, and they were really accepting of it. They didn't bag anything I thought they would. So then I showed the opening to Dee White who is a great friend and great writer and she liked it. So then the thing I didn't have to show anyone, became something I could actually show people.

Did you employ an editor/proofreader or did you have a critique partner/beta readers before you started querying?


Only the opening with Dee before querying. The Ampersand was a bit of a spur of the moment thing. Normally I would run the whole thing via friends, do a novel swap. I'm pretty good at editing, so it's the story that I need examined. Dee has read the whole novel since to help me with the HGE edits.

Roughly how many drafts did it take before you sent the manuscript off into the real world?

Probably around eight. I'm obsessive about getting things right. Not good at keeping track of numbers.

How many drafts until it was published?

Another four implementing big and minor changes with Marisa.

Has the book changed dramatically since the first draft?

The core main character has remained the same and the core story, but another character was added, and a lot of work expanding characters and their motivation has improved it significantly. It basically grew a heart.

Are there any parts you’d like to change even now?

Yes! Always! Marisa's just pried it from my hands! I'd keep working on it forever. If only there was more time, if only I could have another 10,000 words!

What part of writing do you find the easiest?

I find being the character and writing the openings the easiest. I love writing dialogue. Finding a voice. I love setting the character free to tell her story.

What part do you find hardest?

Endings are hard. Being bound by word counts and pacing is also hard. Not letting the dark parts of the stories overwhelm the light... as might be judged by a YA reader is difficult, because clearly I'm a dark person! My darkometer is a bit stuffed.

Do you push through writing barriers or walk away?

I'm diseased with writing. Did you see above where I said even though no one wanted to publish me, I wrote just for me for two years? I write to entertain myself. I write to learn more about writing. I write because it's a habit I just can't kick, but at least it won't damage my liver.

How many projects do you have on the go at the same time?

Erm... three lately but usually two.

Do you think you’re born with the talent to write or do you think it can be learned?

100% learned. I'm not “writer material” whatever that is. I wasn't read to or raised among bookshelves, we didn't own many books. School libraries were my only source of books. I was good at English but it wasn't my favourite subject. But I am from a family of storytellers. The things we did, became stories told at late night fires after hard day's work. The things we survived, were relegated to stories, told over and over to friends. My history is a collection of stories that have been garnished for entertainment value. There is the truth softened and made entertaining by the story. I am a collection of stories. Maybe we all are.

Early on in my daydream of learning to write, I read Dare to Be a Great Writer by Leonard Bishop. Bishop told me it didn't matter where your starting point was, as he was once a hobo who won a typewriter in a dice game, your voice can be as relevant as any other, more so, if it's honest and raw. It's taken me a long time to trust my voice.

How many future novels do you have planned?

 100s but how many get published is up to the readers, and whether they like this novel.

Do you write other things, such as short stories, articles, blogs, etc?

I don't have time to blog. Lately nothing on the short story front. But perhaps some more in the future.

What’s the highlight of being published so far?

The first meeting with Hardie Grant Egmont when a young woman from marketing came to meet me with Marisa and I asked what her role in the meeting was (feeling nervous I was being assessed for marketability) and she said, she adored the book so much she had to meet the person who wrote it! My first fan!

Give us one writing tip that works for you.

'Don't stage direct the senses.' Your main character is usually too busy seeing something to think about the fact that her eyes are doing the seeing or pointing in a particular direction. Just plunge on in with what's happening.

And one that doesn't.

'Start with action.' Don't start with action, start with some movement, but something that allows your reader an insight into your character. Don't expect a reader to care that an unknown character is under threat of death in the opening paragraph. This is my Ampersand Prize entry tip too.

Can you give us a clue or secret about the next book?

Erm... I haven't got that far along yet. If readers want a sequel, they'll have to let me know next year after they read In the Dark Spaces, but at the moment, I'm writing another YA set closer to home, in small town Victoria, which involves a lot of missing people and a bit of an invasion.

What question have you always wanted to be asked but never have? What would the answer be?

You realise I can say almost anything because as a new author, I've not been interviewed!

But maybe I can share what I was like when I was the age of my protagonist, with the question, “What were you like as a young adult?”

And the answer is: angry, stupid, a lanky goofy thing with no identity or sense of value with a deathwish ambition to be burnt out before 20 (told you I was stupid). And I'm so glad that was one of the many things I failed at.

And that's a wrap! Fantastic. I for one cannot wait to read In the Dark Spaces, it sounds awesome. Thank you so much for joining YAtopia today, Cally!

A Crying Girl

I’ve been working on a new project that is set to be released later this year. It’s a YA mid-apocalyptic Sci-Fi with chemically-induced vampires and a very human, female protagonist.

I’m really proud of the project. My leading lady – Nola – is one of the few chosen to live out the apocalypse in comfort and safety. But she can’t do it. She can’t watch the pain of the people around her and just keep pretending that everything is fine. Her empathy distinguishes her. She is a loving human in a world where terrible things happen. And she cries.

Not all the time. She never cries because she’s hurt or just can’t rally to keep moving forward. But she cries. When she loses people. When she knows there is nothing else to be done. She also stumbles and falls. She gets hurt and bleeds. All normal things to happen when fighting for your life.

But then I worry. Can I have her get hurt and cry? Will that completely derail her as a strong female? Nola’s training as a botanist, and I’ve already been told more than once that Botany isn’t “a real STEM field.”

So then what do I do for sweet Nola? I want her to be a strong woman; I want her to care and to feel. I need her to want to save the world even if she can’t do it all on her own.

And is fighting without super powers or arrows or a perfect back kick still fighting? Can’t we have a girl who is strong but not a warrior?

I know it seems that, in an age where women fighting is becoming normal, it should be okay to have a book where a girl doesn’t. But by making girls have powers, have we moved to the point that without a sword or dragon you are assumed to be diminishing the power of females?

I don’t have an answer. I don’t know if people will see how strong Nola is and allow her heart to be her largest asset even when it’s breaking. Maybe they’ll call her just another weak girl waiting on a vampire. Only time will tell. But I’m proud of Nola, and until her story goes out into the world that will have to be enough.

Happy Christmas from me and Winell Road!

I'm being naughty today and hijacking my YAtopia blog to be the warm up for my own book's blog tour! Smack bottom, off to bed I go! Before I do, look at me in the snow all Christmassy!

When Winell Road: Beneath the Surface was released back in April, I didn't embark on a great deal of promotion. Because of a lot of 'things'. So, to make up for that and to kick off the festivities for my favourite time of year - Christmas! - I am taking Winell Road on a little tour, hoping to spread the word and introduce lots of new young readers to, what I believe is, a great big dollop of sci-fi fun and adventure.

Here's a little info...

BLURB!

Twelve-year old Jack Mills lives at 5 Winell Road and has probably the world's weirdest neighbours. Like freakishly weird. And to top it off, he lives with Mum: nosy, interfering, a hideous cook, and Dad: unsuccessful inventor of the Camera Belt and Self-Closing Window. All in all, it's a boring, embarrassing, dead-end place to live.


So when Jack arrives home from school one day, a close shave with a UFO is the last thing he expects. But the fact it doesn't abduct him, and that no one else, not even Mum, sees the gigantic flying saucer hovering over the street, adds a whole new layer of strange.Soon after, an alien encounter threatens Jack’s life and he becomes embroiled in a galaxy-saving mission. With the assistance of his new neighbour, frighteningly tall Roxy Fox, he discovers Winell Road is hiding secrets—secrets Jack might wish he'd never uncovered.


REVIEWS!

If you're still not sure, here's a couple of reviews...

'Winell Road: Beneath the Surface is a fast-paced middle-grade adventure story with the feel of Men in Black. Jack is a smart, resourceful boy with more abilities than he’s ever dreamed off, and he finds out that the world is a far stranger place than he imagined. The action is non-stop and will keep readers riveted.' examiner.com

'This book will work wonderfully read aloud in class. There are enough cliff-hanger chapter endings to keep them begging for more. It will also promote discussion about making snap judgments while providing plenty of scope for related art projects.' Buzz Words Magazine 

Go to Goodreads to see a few more.


GIVEAWAY!

It would make a great stocking filler for children. BUT, if you're feeling particularly lucky, I'm giving away three copies just in time for Christmas! Yippee!

Click here to enter!



GO BUY IT!

If you don't win, then the book is available all over the virtual world.

Amazon UK    Amazon.com    Booktopia    Jet Black Publishing

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the book, I would love to hear your feedback.

Book To Movie--The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry is probably one of my mostest favoritest booksies EVAR. Simple and short, but profound and moving, Lowry's dystopian world left an impression on me that I've not forgotten, even years after reading it.

When I saw the movie trailer, I almost SQUEED out loud in the theater. To say I'm excited would be an understatement.

Yet I'm also hesitant. The main character seems older than I remember (bringing back some trepidation I felt for the Ender's Game film), and while the cast is impressive, I'm not sure they fit the images I had in my mind. Some of the scenery doesn't really match what I remember either. (Guess I have a crappy memory, LOL!)

The whole thing has got me kind of nervous about seeing the movie version. I try not to compare the book to the movie (I find it leads to disappointment more than anything), so I hope I can keep an open mind when I roll up into the theater in a couple weeks.

So what say you? Do you like film adaptations of books, particularly your favorites? Do you tend to avoid those flicks, keeping the memory of the book pristine and untarnished, or do you seek out the movie as a bit of entertainment, a perusal of someone else's imagination bringing it to life?

For more info, check out the IMDb page for The Giver, and Lois Lowry's interview with The New York Times on her book becoming a film.

Happy reading and happy watching!

* * * *

Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist and author of all things young adult paranormal, dystopian, and horror. She’s a lucid dreamer, meaning she can direct her dreams while they’re happening. When she’s awake, she pens stories from her dreams and shares them with her readers. Laura has many published titles including the Pride Series (New Pride, Shifting Pride, and Tsavo Pride), the Endure Series (Endure and Evoke), The Zodiac Collector, a novella Sunset Moon in the Lore anthology, and several shorts stories. When she’s not writing, she is working at the hospital, blogging at Author Laura Diamond--Lucid Dreamer, and renovating her 225+ year old fixer-upper mansion.

If you’re interested in reading more about me, or interacting with me on the web check out the following links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiamondLB

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLauraDiamond

Author Laura Diamond: www.authorlauradiamond.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5815639.Laura_Diamond

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Diamond/e/B009Y7L432/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1377733776&sr=8-1

Blog: http://lbdiamond.wordpress.com/