Celebrating Our New Look!

We are super excited about our website’s new shiny look created by the talented Patrick Samphire and Grant Gaither. In fact, we are so excited that we’re throwing a party with awesome reader and writer prize packs donated by us!

We’ve made it simple to enter. Click on the Rafflecopter link here or at the bottom of this post. Earn extra entries by following us on our various social media sites and helping us spread the word. Contest is open until May 31st midnight EST.

READER PACK 1 (worldwide)

1. Copy of THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR by Mindee Arnett donated by Lori M. Lee (GATES OF THREAD AND STONE, Spring 2014)

2. Copy of REBOOT by Amy Tintera (worldwide) donated by Michelle Krys (HEXED, March 11, 2014)

3. Dragon charm and sticker + PROPHECY by Ellen Oh donated by Christina Farley (GILDED, Mar. 11, 2014)

4. $10 Itunes card donated by Jaye Robin Brown (No Place To Fall, Fall 2014)

READER PACK 2 (worldwide)

1. Copy of THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina LaCour donated by Dahlia Adler (BEHIND THE SCENES, 2014)

2. ARC of I HEART BAND (worldwide) donated by Michelle Schusterman (I HEART BAND, Jan. 9, 2014)

3. Copy of SIEGE AND STORM by Leigh Bardugo donated by Rachel Searles (THE LOST PLANET, January 28, 2014)

4. Copy of THE 5th WAVE by Rick Yancey donated by Meredith McCardle (THE EIGHTH GUARDIAN, Feb. 25, 2014)

READER PACK 3 (US only)

1. ARC of DARE YOU TO by Katie McGarry donated Mary McCoy (DEAD TO ME, Fall 2014)

2. Copy of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE donated by Kelsey Macke (DAMSEL DISTRESSED, October 2014)

3. ARC of QUANTUM COIN by E.C. Myers donated by Elle Cosimano (NEARLY GONE, March 25, 2014)

4. ARC of IN TOO DEEP by Coert Voorhees + SEMV bookmarks donated by Julie Murphy (SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY, March 2014)

READER PACK 4 (US only)

1. Signed ARC of SOLSTICE by PJ Hoover + SEMV bookmarks donated by Julie Murphy (SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY, March 2014)

2-4. TWINMAKER by Sean Williams, ACROSS A STAR-SWEPT SEA by Diana Peterfreund, and CONTROL by Lydia Kang all donated by Emily Lloyd-Jones (Illusive, Spring 2014)

5. Signed paperback copy of GRAVE MERCY by Robin LaFevers + SEMV bookmarks donated by Julie Murphy (SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY, March 2014)

READER PACK 5 (US only)

1. Finished, autographed copy of Tessa Gratton’s THE LOST SUN (US only) donated by Natalie C. Parker (BEWARE THE WILD, Fall 2014)

2. ARC of IN TOO DEEP by Coert Voorhees + SEMV bookmarks donated by Julie Murphy (SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY, March 2014)

3. Signed ARCs of THE TESTING by Joelle Charbonneau + SEMV bookmarks donated by Julie Murphy (SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY, March 2014)

4. ARC of INDEPENDENT STUDY by Joelle Charbonneau + SEMV bookmarks donated by Julie Murphy (SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY, March 2014)

WRITER PACK 1

1. One free entry to Critique Camp, http://nataliecparker.com/critique/ donated by Natalie C. Parker (BEWARE THE WILD, Fall 2014)

2. 5-page critique donated by Corinne Duyvis (OTHERBOUND, spring 2014)

3. Critique of first chapter donated by Patrick Samphire (SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB, Fall 2014)
4. First chapter critique donated by Kate Kelly (RED ROCK, September 12th 2013)

WRITER PACK 2

1. First chapter critique donated by Robin Constantine (The Promise of Amazing, Winter 2014)

2. First chapter critique donated by Rebecca Behrens (WHEN AUDREY MET ALICE, February 4, 2014)

3. Query and first chapter critique donated by Stefanie Gaither (FALLS THE SHADOW, September 2014)

4. Query critique 1^st page critique donated by Stephanie Diaz (EXTRACTION, Spring 2014)

WRITER PACK 3

1. Query and first 5 pages critique donated by Lauren Magaziner (THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN WITCHES, Summer 2014)

2. Vintage daisy necklace AND one chapter critique of a middle grade donated by Tracy Holczer (THE SECRET HUM OF A DAISY, May 2014)

3. Three chapter or 30 page critique donated by Erica Cameron (SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE, March 2014)

Click on this link to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kate Kelly: RED ROCK

We have a lot of fantastic authors at OneFour KidLit and are excited to introduce them all to you. Today we’re talking to Kate Kelly, author of RED ROCK coming from Curious Fox/Capstone Young Readers in 2013. One author, four questions. Here we go!

Hey, you’re getting published! How’d that happen?

I have been writing ever since I could hold a crayon but a few years ago I started to take things a bit more seriously. I started out, like many SF authors do, with short stories and had some success with placing them in various magazines and anthologies.

But I had always felt I wanted to write for kids. And so Red Rock was born.

I met my agent at a 1-2-1 meet an agent session at a small literary festival not far from where I live. I went along hoping for some useful feedback, but I ended up signing with her and about a year later Red Rock sold.

When she called I was jolting down a rutted track on my mountain bike. I took her call sitting in the sunshine on a grassy bank beside a farm, swallows flitting overhead. It was a magical moment.

What’s your debut book about? Can you share any cool details with us?

Red Rock is a thriller, set in a not too distant future. The climate is changing and the Greenland ice cap has all but melted away. But as the ice retreats something is revealed….

What do you do in your daily life outside of writing?

In my day job I work as a Marine Scientist. I used to spend a lot of time at sea on survey ships (before having kids) and was fortunate enough to visit the Arctic – this was part of my inspiration for Red
Rock. I’m also keen on hillwalking and I’m fascinated by local history and archaeology.

What are you most excited about in the debut process?

The thought of people reading my book and, hopefully, enjoying it. Holding it in my hand and stroking its cover and thinking ‘I wrote this’.

By day Kate Kelly works as a Marine Scientist, by night she writes SF thrillers for kids. Kate has written all her life and has had a number of science fiction short stories published in various magazines and anthologies. Her debut novel, RED ROCK, a SF thriller for the 10+ age group, will be published in 2013 by Curious Fox.

Lori M. Lee: GATES OF THREAD AND STONE

We have a lot of fantastic authors at OneFour KidLit and are excited to introduce them all to you. Today, we’re talking to Lori M. Lee, author of GATES OF THREAD AND STONE. One author, four questions. Here we go!

Hey, you’re getting published! How’d that happen?

I’m totally a cliché in that I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote so much as a kid that I had a monstrously deformed middle finger on my right hand due to a ginormous writing callus. I started my first novel in elementary school. It was a terrible romance with unicorns and faeries and magical princes and demons. I even drew a cover:

(I was ten. No judging.

Just kidding, judge away lol.)

Isn’t it fab? 😛 I even began writing the sequel, but I fortunately never finished it.

Fast forward to 2009 when I wrote my first ms-with-intent-to-query for NaNoWriMo. It was a mess. After a year and a half of editing, I queried it in 2011 and wrote a second book. That second one turned out to be the lucky ms because a year later, in 2012, it sold to Skyscape.

What’s your debut book about? Can you share any cool details with us?

From the PW announcement, the book is about a girl who must keep her ability to manipulate the threads of time a secret. But when her brother goes missing, she risks getting caught up in a revolution in order to save him.

It actually began as a hybrid of science fiction and fantasy, but I ended up overhauling it to be 100% fantasy.

What are you most excited about in the debut process?

Everything. I’m sure that’s cheating, but seriously, I’m excited for all the stages of editing, for the cover, for ARCs, for getting to know my fellow debuts, for promoting, for blog tours and potential book signings, for readers (!!!). And for reviews, good or bad, because it’ll mean people are reading my book holy cows is this real.

What cool facts might readers not know about you?

I’m going to take “cool” to mean “dorky, random, and/or embarrassing.”

♥ I dressed up and went trick-or-treating for Halloween all the way up until high school. FREE CANDY, OKAY? *cough*

♥ Junior year of high school, I got my entire Spanish class in trouble for falling asleep during a film after the teacher specifically said we’d be punished if anyone fell asleep. It was first period. I had been up until 5 am reading. I was mortified.

♥ I’m totally inept at flirting. I can’t even tell when someone’s flirting with me. I think I ran off several guys in college because I just couldn’t get a clue. (I was married most of my time in college, so this is probably a good thing.)

♥ As a teenager, I thought crushing on pop stars was lame (says the girl who hung up pictures of unicorns instead).

♥ I crushed on anime characters though. (I know, it doesn’t make any sense.) I wanted to be Sailor Moon if for no other reason than because I was in love with Tuxedo Mask.

♥ My first kiss was a total cliché. My friends locked me in a closet with my sort-of boyfriend and wouldn’t let us out until we kissed. It was lame. I dumped him a week later.

♥ I don’t like coffee or tea. Hot chocolate all the way.

Lori M. Lee is an avid writer, reader, and artist. She also has a borderline obsessive fascination with unicorns, is fond of talking in capslock, and writes young adult fiction. She should probably spend less time on the internet (but she won’t). Her debut GATES OF THREAD AND STONE will release Spring of 2014 from Skyscape (Amazon Children’s Publishing).

GETTIN’ LUCKY: An Interview with Polly Holyoke, Author of THE NEPTUNE PROJECT

Today’s Lucky13 interview is with Polly Holyoke, author of the middle-grade deep-sea adventure THE NEPTUNE PROJECT. Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:

THE NEPTUNE PROJECT is set in a future where the seas are rising and global warming is out of control. Nere Hanson and her teen companions are shocked to learn that they have been genetically altered by their desperate parents to live in the sea. Protected by her loyal dolphins, shy Nere leads the rest on a perilous journey to her father’s new colony. Fighting off government divers, sharks and giant squid, can Nere and her companions learn to trust each other before their dangerous new world destroys them?

Judging by your website, I’m fairly convinced you live underwater, so the inspiration for your book isn’t hard to find. But was there a particular event or moment that sparked the idea for the story?

Well, there was this moment when a huge, ugly moray eel sunk his teeth into my dive flipper… just kidding! Actually, I have to give you an honest and not very exciting answer. The premise of The Neptune Project grew in my mind over time. I’ve always cared about the environment, and at the rate we are polluting and overpopulating the land of our planet, it just makes sense to me that we may have to colonize the oceans someday. I’m also fascinated by genetic engineering, and we are drawing closer to being able to “engineer” kids who can breathe seawater.

You’ve mentioned being both claustrophobic (like your heroine, Nere) and being a “chicken about heights.” Do you foresee the latter (or other phobias!) making an appearance in future novels?

That’s a great idea! I’ve considered writing a story about a girl who gets bitten by a rattlesnake in the desert just like I was a few years ago, but I think that storyline could get melodramatic in a hurry. I do like the idea of having a serious teen climber survive a bad fall which will impact her ability make challenging ascents. I feel a new story brewing – thanks so much for the nudge!

In Neptune 2, I do follow up on Nere’s claustrophobia and have her imprisoned in a small, dark cell with Tobin (we authors can be so cruel to our characters), and he helps her through the worst of her terror.

You’ve done a lot of scuba diving, but what challenges (if any) did you find in writing an underwater setting?

There were so many sensory details I wanted to convey and get right. It’s quiet and muffled under the waves compared to the surface world, but the sea has its own music. I love the whisper of sand shifting with currents, and the whistles and squeaks of dolphins. The light becomes green or blue depending on where you dive, and it vanishes quickly the deeper you swim.

In the publishing process, what did you feel most and least prepared for?

I was prepared to spend a great deal of time revising a manuscript until it was perfect, and my editor Lisa Yoskowitz was wonderful about helping to make The Neptune Project a better book. I didn’t realize, though, how much time I’d have to spend mastering social media and using it. I now enjoy twitter (like many authors, I perhaps enjoy it too much) but it was a little scary learning how to use it at the start.

Now that your debut’s out in the wild, what’s up next?

I’ve finished Neptune 2, which Puffin UK has already bought. I’m hoping Disney Hyperion buys it as well and agrees to publish the third and final book in the Neptune series.

As this community is All for One and OneFour KidLit, we’d like to know what two or three books inspired you as a kid.

BTW, that is one clever name for a debut author group! My father and grandmother used to read Johann David Wyss’ THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON to me by the hour, and I liked to imagine I was a member of that family shipwrecked on a desert island. I also loved MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George about a boy who goes off and tries to survive on his own in the wild. Those books were so vivid, and the characters in them had to be incredibly brave and resourceful to survive. You’ll see those themes in The Neptune Project. My shy heroine Nere eventually learns that she is capable, brave and resourceful.

Thanks for stopping by, Polly, and best luck with THE NEPTUNE PROJECT!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Polly Holyoke has been imagining stories since she was in fifth grade. When she isn’t writing, Polly loves reading, camping, skiing, scuba diving and hiking in the desert (where she quite stupidly got herself bitten by a rattlesnake). She lives with three rescue dogs, two spoiled cats and a nice husband who is tolerant about the piles of books all over their house. Her debut middlegrade novel, THE NEPTUNE PROJECT, is the story of a young girl leading a group of genetically altered teens fighting to survive in the sea. She is thrilled that this novel will be published by Disney/Hyperion and Puffin Books UK summer, 2013. She thinks the best part about being an author is going to work in her sweatpants and getting paid for daydreaming!

WEBSITE     GOODREADS     TWITTER     PINTEREST     FACEBOOK

Here’s where you can buy THE NEPTUNE PROJECT:

Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Books-A-Million     Indigo Books     Powell’s Books     IndieBound

R.C. Lewis teaches math to teenagers—sometimes in sign language, sometimes not—and resists defining herself further since that definition remains in flux. Coincidentally, she enjoys reading about quantum physics. Her debut novel, STITCHING SNOW (Disney-Hyperion, Summer ’14), takes Snow White into space.

YouTube: Music by Jaye Robin Brown

This month’s YouTube topic is Music, and Jaye Robin Brown, author of No Place To Fall is here to talk to you about the music that inspires her protagonist, Amber Vaughn.

Jaye Robin Brown, or JRo to most everyone but her mama, lives and writes in the Appalachian mountains north of Asheville, NC. She’s fond of dogs, horses, laughter, the absurd and the ironic. When not crafting stories she hangs out with teenagers in the high school art room where she teaches. Her debut novel, NO PLACE TO FALL (Harper Teen, Fall ’14), is a love song to small town girls and mountain music.

YouTube: Music by Christina Farley

This month’s YouTube topic is MUSIC, and Christina Farley, author of GILDED, is at Disney’s Music resort today talking about the song that inspired GILDED’s first chapter, the emotions of her main character and the songs that would make a great fit for GILDED’s soundtrack.

You can also visit her website extra page to listen to the full playlist.

After teaching and traveling internationally, Christina Farley started writing about her adventures, tossing in a little fiction for fun. This inspired her to write GILDED, a YA about a Korean-American girl with a black belt and deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows to be published by Amazon Children’s spring 2014. Besides writing, Christina loves traveling, running, hanging out with her two Jedi warriors, and eating dark chocolate.

May News!

I think those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are pretty happy right now. Winter is receding (slowly, here where I live), the flowers are in bloom, and everything is fresh. As fresh as our news! (Sorry, Southern Hemisphere folks. We’ll say “it’s all fresh” for you, come November.)

And now, for our glad tidings:

Rosamund Hodge’s book is now officially titled CRUEL BEAUTY, Emily Lloyd-Jone’s book is now called ILLUSIVE, and Jaye Robin Brown’s book is now NO PLACE TO FALL.

Yay for fresh, official titles! (Everyone clap now.)

Elle Cosimano’s NEARLY GONE has a release date of March 25, 2014.

Michelle Krys sold UK rights of HEXED to Random House UK. Her first foreign rights sale!

Corinne Duyvis is in an anthology that is already out! (Her story it titled “The Applause of Others.”) (Link to anthology.)

And we have a few covers to reveal! They’ve been revealed elsewhere, but just in case you haven’t seen the awesomeness yet, here they are:

That’s Rachel Searles’ THE LOST PLANET, folks!

And that is Christine Kohler’s NO SURRENDER SOLDIER!

Amber Lough lives in Syracuse, NY with an astrophysicist and their two kids, Future CEO and Future Comedian. She spent half her childhood in Japan and the Middle East, but majored in Russian because she likes a challenge. She quit her job in the Air Force to write books. Her Middle Eastern fantasy, THE FIRE WISH, is due from Random House Children’s in Fall 2014.

GETTIN’ LUCKY: An Interview with Barbara Brauner and James Iver Mattson, authors of OH MY GODMOTHER: THE GLITTER TRAP

Today we’re interviewing Lucky13 authors Barbara Brauner and James Iver Mattson, whose debut novel OH MY GODMOTHER: THE GLITTER TRAP hits shelves this week.

First, the blurb:

Middle school is far from a fairytale for adorkable misfit Lacey Unger-Ware. When Lacey ends up with popular girl Paige Harrington’s smart-mouthed fairy godmother, Katarina, trapped in her hair, life gets more magical–just not in a ‘prince charming’ kind of way.

Katarina’s wings are too damaged to continue her fairy duties, and Lacey must take over as Paige’s fairy godmother. Distracted by her new responsibilities, Lacey’s in danger of losing her best friend, Sunny. Can Lacey get the hang of magic, make Paige’s dreams come true, and survive middle school?

I bet I’m not the only one who’s toyed with the idea of collaborating with another writer on a book. Could you tell us a little how it works for you two? How do you divide the work? Do you alternate chapters? Or does one of you draft while the other revises? Or is it more that you’re both doing every step together along the way?

We know that a lot of writing teams divide things up and then go away to work separately, but we write just about every word together. Jim types, and we have two monitors set up so we can both see what we’re working on. There’s a lot of talking and throwing out suggestions; it’s hour after hour of “What ifs.” When we manage to make each other laugh, we know we’re on the right track. We’ve got a pretty good work ethic, and write five or six days a week. Sometimes we even go a full hour without looking at cute cat videos on YouTube.

If I had to pick one word for this book, it would be FUNNY! (Or maybe hilariouslycheeky – that’s one word, right?) There were so many great lines that made me laugh out loud. When you’re writing together, do you ever disagree on what’s funny? Do you find that one of you keeps inserting these lines while the other groans aloud? Or are you both pretty much cracking each other up all day?

We’re definitely our own best audience. We have very similar senses of humor; we’re both 12-year-olds at heart. Once in a while we’ll disagree about a joke, but, if one of us feels strongly about liking it, we’ll leave it in for a draft or two to see if it grows on the one who’s unsure about it. The trick is walking away from the scene for a while and trying to look at it with a fresh eye. As we rewrite, James tends to want to cut out more of the jokes, and Barbara is more protective of them. We hope it all balances out in the end.

Okay, confess. How do you really feel about glitter? And did you stuff your envelope with it when you went on submission?

We wish we had you helping us when the book went out on submission, because glitter-trapping the envelopes is a great idea! We’re proud to admit that we both own industrial-size tubes of glitter glue and aren’t afraid to use them at any opportunity: on birthday presents, Christmas cards, and extra-special yard sale signs. If anyone from Crayola is reading this, please contact our agent for the endorsement deal. Or at least send us free samples.

I see that Book Two is already in the process. When can we buy it and what can you tell us about it?

Book 2 is called OMG: The Magic Mistake, and will be published in February, 2014.

Our reluctant fairy godmother, Lacey Unger-Ware, is back for more magic and middle school. Just when she thinks her life can’t get any weirder, she finds herself planning a wedding, playing on the boys’ basketball team, and herding love-struck frogs. OMG!

And finally, as this community is All for One and OneFour KidLit, we’d like to know what two or three books inspired you as a kid.

Barbara loved Little Women, The Secret Garden, and 52 of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. Jim’s favorites were The Dr. Dolittle books, The Green Knowe series, and The Twenty-One Balloons.

Thanks for joining us, Barbara and Jim! Best wishes on the launch of your new series!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

 

Barbara Brauner and James Iver Mattson are the co-authors of the middle-grade novel series, “Oh My Godmother.”  The first in the series, “The Glitter Trap,” will be published by Disney/Hyperion for Summer, 2013. Barbara and James have worked together ever since they sold a feature film script about a very, very, bad cat, “Fluffy,” to Disney’s Hollywood Pictures. Their romantic comedy film script, “Deliver Us From Eva,” was produced by Focus Features. “Oh My Godmother: the Glitter Trap,” is their first book. Visit them at their website: http://braunermattson.com/

 

This interview was conducted by OneFour member Skila Brown, whose middle grade novel CAMINAR releases from Candlewick Press in Spring 2014. The interview is part of an ongoing series of interviews with The Lucky13s —- YA, MG, and children’s books authors debuting in 2013.

Skila Brown has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut novel, CAMINAR, will be released in 2014 from Candlewick Press.

GETTIN’ LUCKY: an interview with Jacqueline Green, author of TRUTH OR DARE

Hey good-lookins! Emery here. Today, I’m talking with author Jacqueline Green about her ruthless and page-turning YA debut, TRUTH OR DARE. The story tangles the lives of three girls–artsy outcast Sydney Morgan, who has a past that could come back to burn her; ultimate good girl Caitlin Thomas, whose one bad girl moment could ruin everything; and perfect Tenley Reed, who has recently moved back to Echo Bay hoping her secrets won’t follow. At the party she hopes will reestablish her popularity, Tenley strikes up the game she was once known for–Truth or Dare. But mysterious dares keep coming long after the party is over, forcing each of the girls to weigh her options: complete the dark deed or let the mortifying truth be exposed? TRUTH OR DARE is the first of a trilogy, and it’s a good thing, too! The three girls and the vivid cast of characters around them will keep you wanting more truths and dares from a town where dangerous secrets are nothing new.

Here’s the fun part: Jacqueline let me play a little one-sided Truth or Dare with her.

TRUTH: You’re a published children’s book writer already. How has the experience of writing for young adults been different for you so far? Truthfully…boys! With TRUTH OR DARE, I got to delve into romance and kissing, scandal and back-stabbing, crushes and unrequited love…In other words, all the fun juicy stuff.

DARE: Confess who your first celebrity crush was on Twitter and screen-cap it as proof!

(Em note: TOTALLY crushed on JTT as well.)

TRUTH: What are some of your favorite shows, and did any of them help inspire TRUTH OR DARE? I am a total teen TV addict (or, as I like to call it, connoisseur), so I could go on and on about this! Some of my favorite teen TV shows—all of which have definitely inspired TRUTH OR DARE in one way or another—are Greek, Veronica Mars, The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, Wildfire…the list goes on and on. In fact, I once went so far as to write a whole blog entry about this.

DARE: Let’s see a picture of your most embarrassing mid-revision hairdo or outfit. Here I am mid-revisions. It is not a pretty sight. At least my dog still looks cute…

TRUTH: What is your worst procrastination habit when it comes to writing? THE INTERNET. I put it in all caps because it is a bad, bad habit. Sometimes I have to disconnect my internet just to stop myself from procrastinating. And then I’ll go reconnect it “just for one second!” Sigh.

DARE: Blog 5 embarrassing facts about yourself. Done! See the blog for more.

TRUTH: And, finally, as this community is all All for One and OneFour Kidlit, what two or three books inspired you as a kid? It’s always so hard to just choose two or three, but I will go with: A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mandy by Julie Edwards, and Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. And for fun I have to throw in a few series I was completely obsessed with as a kid (I loved series): Friends 4-Ever, The Saddle Club, Thoroughbred, and The Babysitter’s Club.

____

Thanks for being such a good sport, Jackie, and congratulations!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jacqueline Green received a BA from Cornell University and an MFA in writing for children from the New School. She grew up in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and their tiny dog. Truth or Dare, the first novel in a trilogy, is her young adult debut.

You can find out more about Jacqueline Green and TRUTH OR DARE via her website, Goodreads or Twitter!

This interview was conducted by OneFour member Emery Lord, and is part of an ongoing series of interviews with The Lucky13s —- YA, MG, and children’s books authors debuting in 2013.

Emery Lord lives in a pink row house in Cincinnati, Ohio, with an upright piano, a ukulele, one husband, and two rescue dogs. She spends her time impulse shopping, laughing so loudly that other people in the restaurant shoot dirty looks at her and her friends, and reading book after book after book. Her debut novel, OPEN ROAD SUMMER is out with Walker/Bloomsbury in Winter 2014.

GETTIN’ LUCKY: An interview with Ashley Elston, author of THE RULES FOR DISAPPEARING

Today, I’m thrilled to introduce Ashley Elston, author of THE RULES FOR DISAPPEARING (Disney/Hyperion), which releases tomorrow! I had the pleasure of reading this intense YA thriller about a girl living her teen years in the witness protection program. From its irresistible voice to its sink-your-teeth-into-it Southern setting, this is a completely unique story you don’t want to miss. Here’s a little bit about the book:

She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.

Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself.

But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

Ashley, I love how you begin each chapter with a Rule for disappearing. If you were writing the story of your own life, what would be your number one rule?

Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Meg has to be a lot of different people in a very short period of time under the Witness Protection rules. What experiences did you draw on from your own teen years that helped you identify with Meg’s inner journey?

In regards to moving around, I probably had the exact opposite experience of Meg. My dad still lives in the same house that he bought before I was born. I grew up in a small-ish Louisiana town not far from Natchitoches, where this story is set. I knew everyone in town and if my friends and I did something wrong, my mother knew what we did almost before we finished doing it. I went to school with most of the same people from kindergarten through high school. So when I came up with the idea of this story, I thought about how hard it would be to move into a small town where relationships were formed in childhood. And with Meg, this problem was made worse by the fact she had to hide her real identity.

Ethan is smokin’ hot in a very boy-next-door sort of way. Tell us about him! Where can interested readers find a guy just like him? And can we expect to see more of Ethan in the next book?

Come to Louisiana! He is very much like most of the southern boys around here. I think what I like most about Ethan is that he’s strong and smart but not afraid to get his hands dirty. And being from the south, I couldn’t help but highlight some of the more unique parts of our culture like working on a farm, and riding four-wheelers, and all of the other things Ethan enjoys. And yes, you will see more of Ethan in the next book.

Ashley, you saw something you shouldn’t have seen, and you are whisked away into Witness Protection. What name would you chose, what hair color and cut, and what city would you relocate to if it was up to you?

Oh! Good question! I’d have to stay where it’s warm. I really don’t think I could handle a harsh winter…maybe Charleston, South Carolina. I visited Charleston recently and really enjoyed my time there. I have all boys but I would have named a girl Adeline so I guess I would choose that as my new name. I would dye my hair dark but I’d probably keep it long. It’s so curly that if I cut it short, I would look like a Q-tip.

As this community is All for One and OneFour KidLit, we’d like to know what two or three books inspired you as a kid?

My love of reading started with Judy Blume, especially FRECKLE JUICE and TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING. After that, I read anything I could get my hands on and that’s when the dream of being an author was born.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ashley Elston lives in North Louisiana with her husband and three sons. Her debut, THE RULES FOR DISAPPEARING, will be published by Disney Hyperion on May 14, 2013 and the sequel in 2014. The two questions she gets all the time are: Is there really such a thing as “Swamp Pizza” and does it taste good? The answer to both questions is a very resounding YES! If you want to find Ashley and talk about weird food, she’s on Twitter and Facebook.

THE RULES FOR DISAPPEARING is sure to disappear from shelves, but you can be sure to find a copy here:

Amazon

Books-A-Million

Barnes & Noble

IndieBound

Powell’s

Elle Cosimano drinks too much coffee and is a professional puppy and little boy wrangler. She majored in Psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and set aside a successful real-estate career to pursue writing. She divides her time between her home near Washington, DC and a jungle tree house in the Mayan Riviera.