Overprotected Tour: Felicity Character Interview

 Thanks Felicity for taking the time to answer my questions!

So, how have you been? Has everyone recovered from all the craziness that happened with Ashlyn and Steward?

It's STUART, not Steward, but, haha... I won't tell anyone you messed up. Um, yeah, I'm good. That was the craziest thing EVER. Ash is fine now. She's totally happy living with her mom in the penthouse. Her dad? He still has some issues.  


What is the first thing you remember thinking when everything happened?
I wasn't sure I'd ever see Ash again. I mean, Stuart's always had a few wires loose, you know? The guy's just creeeeepy. I kinda wasn't surprised he went after her. I just hoped she'd be okay.  


What do you think your parents might have done if you'd been put in a similar situation? 
Flipped. What parents wouldn't go nuts?


What are you doing now? School? Work?
I got into Brown. YAY! Have no clue what I'm going to major in, but that's cool. It'll come to me.


Are You and Ashlyn still close?
Oh yeah. I don't head up to school for another month. I don't think that'll change, we're pretty tight.


Wha't happening with Ashlyn and Colin? Are they still close?
Colin. SWOON. The hottie's a stud. I want him - jk. I joke with Ash all the time about it. In all honesty, I'm glad she has him. She's still having a hard time adjusting to and dealing with everything her dad's done. Colin's her support right now. Between you and me, I think Charles is up to something. I dunno. Just a feeling.


Thanks for stopping by Felicity!

Ashlyn:A lonely society princess living in New York City.

Daddy hired you to be my bodyguard.

Colin: Childhood enemy, now her protector.

Daddy thought I’d be safe. He thought I’d never fall in love. He thought he could keep me forever.

Charles: obsessed with keeping her safe, keeping her his, he hires the one person he knows she could never fall in love with: Colin.

Daddy was wrong.

Don't forget to go by the other stops on the Overprotected Tour (click the banner below to see the others stops)!

Interview with M.J. Putney

 Q&A with M.J. Putney

(author of Dark Mirror)

1. What books did you read growing up that inspired you to write?

MJP:  I read everything: horse stories, science fiction, girls’ mysteries, boys’ sports series.  But always it was stories.  Popular fiction. 

2. Was there any specific person that made you a better writer, or inspired you to want to write?

MJP:  I always had stories in my head, but writers who particularly influenced me are Mary Stewart (romantic suspense}, Dorothy Dunnett (historical adventure), and Georgette Heyer (Regency romance.)

3. How much of the final version of Dark mirror came from your first draft vs. rewriting?

MJP:  I’m a plodder, editing as I go along, and not proceeding until I feel that what I’ve done so far is right.  So I don’t do a first draft.  What I send in to my editor is pretty much the final book, with the addition of whatever tweaks she asks for. 

4. What kind of research did you have to do for Dark Mirror?

MJP:  I’ve written enough Regency romances that I didn’t have to do much on that time period, but WWII is far more difficult, and within living memory.  I read books on life in England at that time, and visited any number of websites about Dunkirk and that phase of the war.  One of the most useful pieces of research was the Weather Channel’s “When Weather Changed History” show on Dunkirk.  I taped that off the air and watched it about four times with a notepad in one hand and the remote in the other to insure I got the weather patterns right for the days of the evacuation. 

5. Are you like any of your characters? Are any of your characters similar to people you know in real life?

MJP: All of my important characters have to resonate with some aspect of me, but none of them are me.  Though I’ll use traits I’ve see seen in others, ultimately the characters are creatures of my imagination.  The cats, however, are real cats.

6. What is your writing process like?

MJP:  I spend a lot of time feeling guilty about wasted time until panic sets in and the book starts to move. The hardest part of writing for me is not the actual writing, but sitting down and getting to work. 

7. With this series, do you know how it’s going to end or does it just come to you as you go along?

MJP:  I have ideas for future books, but really, it’s pretty much up in the air until we see how well the books sell.  I’ll do my best to insure that my characters end up in satisfactory places. 

8. What book or character do you wish you'd created?

MJP: Tough question!  I love Sherri L. Smith’s Flygirl.  And Sharon Shinn’s Archangel.  And Dorothy Dunnett’s Francis Crawford of Lymond.  And…I could go on all night!

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!

MJP:  Thanks for having me~

Guest Post:Lauren Kate + Giveaway

Guest Post: Lauren Kate Q&A

I’d like to thank Lauren Kate for taking the time to answer my questions.

In honor of Young adults, I wanted to have a themed Q&A. There are three (kind of four) categories – Books, Movies/TV shows, and Music.

Books

What books were influential to you or popular in your teen years?
When I was in middle school, all my friends and I were reading The Babysitters Club books, The Sweet Valley High books, anything by Louis Sachar or Roald Dahl. I also secretly devoured all the Clan of the Cave Bear books, which were really very smutty. In high school, I loved The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Do you recommend any of those books now?
All of them! Particularly Dahl, Dickens, and Fitzgerald.

Movies/TV shows
What were your favourite movies?
Sixteen Candles and the Breakfast Club (in high school, people always told me that I looked like Molly Ringwald). My friends and I loved Dazed and Confused, So I Married an Ax Murderer, and The Princess Bride. I also used to watch Gone With the Wind with my mom every year on Thanksgiving.

What were your favourite TV shows, and do you miss any of them?
I miss My So Called Life so much—and I know I’m not alone in this! Jordan Catalano was the biggest stud of all time. I also watched a lot of MTV and I long for the days of awesome music videos.

Which do you like better, movies and TV then or now?
I’m not sure I could pick. I’d definitely pick My So Called Life over any reality show today, or really any show ever. But I love The Office (UK version only!) and Gossip Girl and The Colbert Report nowadays. As for movies, new releases like Hot Tub Time Machine and Inglorious Bastards can definitely hang with all my favourites from childhood.

Music
What were some songs you liked or were popular?
I was in high school during a grunge and punk era, so we loved Pearl Jam, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Green Day. I was also big into Madonna and Gwen Stefani. To this day, my go-to karaoke song is Spiderweb by Gwen Stefani.

Which do you like better, music now or then?
With music (more so than with movies, books, or TV), I have a very strong sense of nostalgia related to the songs of my youth. A Pearl Jam song will remind me of the first car ride I took with a boy, Time of Your Life by Green Day reminds me of my high school graduation. Even though there’s some amazing music coming out these days, it can’t compete with the memories I have tied to all those songs from the 80’s and 90’s!

Additional Question
Is there anything else that really influenced you growing up?
My older brother. Robby is two years older than me and I worshipped him growing up. (I still do, really, but in a different way now.) For so much of my childhood, I thought everyone in the whole world thought of me as Robby’s little sister. I was always trying to keep up, to do as well as he did in school, play the same sports, and all of that. I definitely have younger child syndrome! But, even though he did leave very big shoes to fill, Robby was always, always kind to me. He always included me, always let me hang out with him and his friends, and I never realized how special that was until I got older.

Contest:

Contest Update: I've changed the rules of the contest, as well as the deadline(again... for the very last time). For those who have already entered, I will add 1 extra point to each entry. I also garantee that I will select atleast one winner from the set of people that have already entered.

Thanks to the people at Random House (aka Lauren), aside from being able to interview the awesome author of Fallen and Torment (out September 28, 2010), I also get to throw a contest! 5 winners will get a copy of Torment (amazing right?)!! 3 winners will be from the UK, and 2 International (aka everywhere else).

To enter, you must go somewhere on the internet, such as a blog (must be your own), Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and tell me why you liked Fallen, or why you're excited for Torment. You MUST also be a follower of my blog.

Extra entries include:

+1 - Commenting on Lauren Kate's Guest post here

+3 - Blog post on contest

+1 - Linking giveaway on sidebar or tweeting

To enter fill out this form

http://fallebooks.co.uk/