HAPPY 200 GIVEAWAY!!

As promised - to thank you for helping us reach 200 followers on Facebook, we're giving away an AUTOGRAPHED book!

One signed copy of Kendare Blake’s Girl of Nightmares
Contest ends at midnight on 12/4/2012
One entry will be chosen at random and notified no later than 12/7/12
One group of entries per email address
Limited to residents of the United States only

Required: Leave a blog post comment with your email address so that you may be contacted in the event your entry is chosen as the winner (+1)
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GOOD LUCK!!

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An Interview with Anita Bunkley

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A. I really enjoyed writing my historical novel, Wild Embers.  Set during World War II, it looks at the African American experience during the war through the eyes of an African-American nurse.  The research was fascinating and it is a period in time where black women's voices were seldom heard.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster. What is your grain of sand? Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: If it is an historical novel I try to find some unusual or little-known aspect of history to center  the plot, then the characters are introduced into that setting.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: I have been fortunate to have developed a large following of readers who enjoy my novels, both historical and contemporary.  They enjoy my strong women characters very much.

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults or Children or Adult (whichever is pertinent)?

A: I write books that I, as an adult would want to read, and that I hope my target audience will embrace.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A. I don't have a favorite, but I enjoy stories with strong women characters who take charge of their lives and overcome great obstacles.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: I would like them to know that I write for my readers, not myself.  I always put myself in the reader's place as I launch a new book and strive to deliver a good read that they will enjoy.

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)? Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: No pets, just a large vegetable and herb garden that I dote on. Getting outside and working in the garden is great relief after a long day at the computer.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released? 

A: That is usually the busiest time, planning promotional activities and getting reviews.  You just hope the reviews will be good.

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: Rarely, but I think about the characters all the time.

Thank you so much for your time, Anita! We look forward to seeing you at the festival.

To learn more about Anita Bunkley, visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Anita Bunkley

Anita Bunkley is the author of more than twenty successful mainstream novels and novellas. A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and an NAACP image award nominee, she enjoys researching the lives of interesting African Americans whose stories have not been told. Her book Emily, the Yellow Rose creates the legend of a woman whose place in Texas history and connection to the folksong, The Yellow Rose of Texas, had been lost. Twenty three years later she is still uncovering interesting stories and is currently at work on a new novel set in Pre-Civil War Oklahoma that delves into the intertwined lives of Blacks and Native Americans. Represented by Marcil-O'Farrell Literary LLC. New York, NY
　

An Interview with Carolee Dean

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: I'm proud of all my books for different reasons. COMFORT was my first novel, and at the time, just completing it felt like a miracle.  My second novel TAKE ME THERE is about a boy who's running from a gang in California after a botched initiation where someone dies. He goes to Texas looking for his father who is in prison to find out if badness is in his blood or if it is something he can outrun. Many teens have told me how strongly this book reflects their personal experience. I'm very proud of that, especially since the story is so different from MY personal experience.

My third novel, FORGET ME NOT, is about another tough subject, cyber bullying that leads to an attempted suicide. I wanted to approach it from a different angle without becoming overly dark and I wanted it to be hopeful without an overly cheerful ending. Ally, the main character, finds herself on an abandoned hallway with a group of teens who have killed themselves. She must decide whether to go back and walk through the pain that made her want to end her life or stay on the relative "safety" of the hallway.

FORGET ME NOT comes out this month (October) and there is a GHOST TOUR with prizes going on at my blog at http://caroleedeanbooks.blogspot.com

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: A germ of sand is a good metaphor, but I tend to think of my writing process more like a pot of soup. I encounter images, ideas, and experiences everyday that go into the pot to simmer. These very different tidbits bubble to the surface in combinations I never would have imagined.

Here are some of the "soups" I've cooked up and the images and experiences that helped create them.

COMFORT - My experiences as a Texas high school student preparing for the UIL  poetry interpretation competition... A cafe with terrible service and frozen food with a video running constantly of the owner's husband playing guitar... a classmate showing up to school with a black eye, telling everyone her father hit her because she thought if she embarrassed him, he wouldn't do it again...

TAKE ME THERE  - A local poet, Jimmy Santiago Baca, who taught himself to read and write in prison and became known around the world for his art... A boy who ended up in prison because he stopped at a fast gas so his friend could get cigarettes, not knowing his friend intended to rob the place at gunpoint... A girl left alone her senior year in a million dollar house because her parents were getting a divorce and wanted to move on with their lives... Texas high school football...

FORGET ME NOT - A girl sitting inside with her boyfriend during lunch, looking out the window at the kids on the quad as if she'd rather be anywhere but where she was... The raven who left a dead pigeon outside my office door... The boy in my seventh grade class who hung himself...

Q: Why do you write for teens?

A: I'm very lucky because I get to spend every day in high school. I work at a high school as a speech- language pathologist. Seeing what my students are going through reminds me of my own troubled adolescence. There are things that happen to us when we are young that we don't have the perspective to fully understand. When I go back and revisit those things now, it helps me process and understand what  happened. Every story I write for teens helps me grow up just a little bit more.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: I have a strong sense of humor, despite the dark subjects I write about, which is why there are always humorous (or at least quirky) elements in my books - like the mother who wants to make her husband into a country and western superstar, even though he doesn't really want to be one... the grandmother who treats her pig like a household pet... and the boy who spends a month speaking in iambic pentameter when he returns home from the psychiatric hospital.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: I was very religious. My favorite book was the Bible. One story that stood out in my mind because it was so disturbing was the one about the man who cut his wife's dead body into twelve pieces and sent the  pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel. I could hardly believe my parents were letting me read such racy stories, and wondered if they were really reading them as closely as they claimed.

We moved to Lubbock when I was 15 so my father could attend preaching school and my senior year we moved to Happy, Texas where we lived next to the church on Main Street.

As I've gotten older, I've become more spiritual and less religious. My family sometimes wonders about the dark subjects I write about. If they had read the book of Judges a little closer, they might understand.

Thanks so much for your time Carolee! We look forward to seeing you at the festival.

Visit Carolee Dean's website or follow her on Twitter at @caroleeJDean

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Carolee Dean

Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher conferences. In addition, she was a featured author at the 2002 Texas Book Festival. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music therapy and a master’s degree in communicative disorders. She has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist and has helped to sponsor poetry slam teams at both the middle school and high school levels.

In addition to working with students of all ages in the public schools, Carolee has also worked with teens in a psychiatric hospital and a head trauma rehabilitation unit. She teaches creative writing through a summer program.

In her first novel, Comfort, Carolee explores how words and poetry have the power to change one young man’s life. Comfort was published by Houghton Mifflin. It was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, received awards from the International Reading Association and the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list.

In Take Me There (Simon Pulse, Summer 2010), she follows the journey of a budding young poet who cannot read or write, but dreams of using words to escape a life of crime and deprivation.
Forget Me Not (Simon Pulse, October 2012) is a paranormal verse novel that tells the story of a girl whose life is devastated when a scandalous photo of her is texted around the school.
       
Carolee lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband and children. In addition to poetry, she loves hiking and biking along the beautiful Rio Grande River and skiing wherever there are mountains and snow. She is available for author/poet visits as well as educator workshops.

For more about Carolee, visit her website.

An Interview with David Macinnis GIll

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: I'm most proud of INVISIBLE SUN, which came out March 2012. It's very difficult to write a novel, but it's exponentially more difficult to write a sequel that both stands on its own as a story and adds to the mythology of the world created in the first book.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: For me, the grain of sand is usually a premise that is so intriguing that a world and characters form around it. For Soul Enchilada, it was what would happen if a demon were interested in repossession? For Black Hole Sun, it was what kind of frontier would a terraformed Mars have?

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: Most readers write about how much they like the characters or how they are like the characters. They also want to know the plots for the next books!

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults?

A: I write for young adults because I'm fascinated by those moments that cause/allow/propel a child to become an adult.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: My favorite is and always will be Bug from Soul Enchilada. She's smart and feisty, humble and heroic, beautiful and completely unaware of it. I admire her.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: I'm really 17 inside.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: Brainy book nerd geek with flair for politics who didn't find his voice until senior year and then wouldn't shut up.

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: I have two adopted dogs. They help my writing because they go on walks with me.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: Waiting for readers to find the book and then react to it. That seems to take a lifetime.

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: When I'm drafting a first draft or revising, I often dream in the main character's voice. When that happens, I know that I understand my character.

Thank you so much for your time, David. We look forward to seeing you at the festival!
Learn more about David Macinnis Gill at his website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, David Macinnis Gill

David Macin­nis Gill is the author of the debut novel, Soul Enchi­lada, from Greenwillow/Harper Collins. His sto­ries have appeared in sev­eral mag­a­zines, and his crit­i­cal biog­ra­phy, Gra­ham Sal­is­bury: Island Boy, was pub­lished by Scare­crow Press. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English/creative writ­ing and a doc­tor­ate in edu­ca­tion, both from the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee, as well as a M.ED. from Tennessee-Chattanooga. David is the Past-President of ALAN (The Assem­bly on Lit­er­a­ture for Ado­les­cents) and an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­sity of North Car­olina at Wilm­ing­ton. He is rep­re­sented by Rose­mary Sti­mola of the Sti­mola Lit­er­ary Studio.

Read more at his website.

An Interview with Sophie Jordan

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults or Children or Adult?

A: I write both young adult and adult fiction because I love to read in both genres - bottom line. I was a reader first, before I ever started to write. It was only natural for me to write in the areas that I love to read so much.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: While I'm waiting for a book to release, I have moved on to writing a new book. By the time the book releases, I'm possibly even two projects ahead. It's super satisfying to hear from and meet with readers, but sometimes it feels strange to talk about a book I finished a year ago.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: Mostly, they all want to know about the Firelight movie ... When is it going to happen? Is it going to happen? Who is going to play Will/Jacinda/Cassian? My answer is that the movie is scheduled to begin production in 2013! Yay! And stay tuned for casting and director announcements...

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: Right now, I'm writing the story of a girl who lives in an age where genetic testing is the norm, and in her senior year of high school she is informed that she has tested positive for HTS (Homicidal Tendency Syndrome). Basically, she's told she's a sociopath. Without having ever done anything wrong, everything is ripped away from her. In so many ways, this character was/is me. She leads a very privileged life with great friends/family/boyfriend until the moment she's labeled an HTS carrier. It's like I'm writing me my senior year of high school ... with an obvious exception -- I never tested positive for a kill gene. But it's been so fascinating to write a girl that's so much like the girl I was ... and to imagine what would happen and how I would react in a world where genetic profiling was the standard. (UNINVITED will release in early 2014.)

Thank you so much for your time Sophie! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival!

To learn more about Sophie, visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Sophie Jordan

Sophie Jordan grew up in the Texas hill country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she's a New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author of young adult and romance fiction. Her novel, Firelight, has been optioned for film by Mandalay Entertainment and is set for production for 2013. When she's not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes and Diet cherry Coke preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her kids), and cramming her DVR with true-crime and reality-TV shows. You can visit her online at: www.sophiejordan.net

An Interview with Kimberley Griffiths Little

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: It’s impossible to pick a favorite book (like choosing a favorite child – unless you only have one!) because each one has a unique back story in the writing of it, and I wouldn’t have written it unless I’d been passionate about it, but at the moment, I’d probably say that I’m most proud of my novel, The Healing Spell (Scholastic, 2010) for several reasons. First, I spent more than 8 years researching, writing, and revising it. Second, I never gave up on trying to get it published. And third, The Healing Spell is a story I loved so very much because of the unique setting and the important themes of family and faith and forgiveness. It’s also important to me because of what the main character, Livie, goes through in the story, and the universal feelings of guilt and mother-daughter relationships and healing ourselves. Even after I’d shelve the manuscript after lots of rejections, I’d start thinking about it again because it kept drawing me back to it; this family and their life on the bayou. I guess the book just needed the right editor at the right time—which ended up happening in a bigger way than I ever expected—and now I get so much fan mail about it, which makes my heart very happy knowing that the story has affected other people in such powerful and emotional ways.

In 2014 I’ll probably say the same thing about my upcoming YA trilogy. It’s going to be a lead title with Harpercollins Fall 2014 – and it’s a project I’ve spent 10 years researching, a story about the world of the ancient goddess temples and the roots of belly dance—as well as a delicious romance. Sometimes I think I’m a slow learner, but finally selling that book in a major deal is enormously satisfying and exciting.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: Setting has always been my jumping off place. I love to travel and explore unique spots in the world, and getting to know the history and people of an area. My mind will often start buzzing with story ideas. I love the research and challenge of bringing it to life.

Now I get fan mail from readers who think I actually grew up in Louisiana instead of just being a long-time visitor of the bayou and swamp country – it’s pretty exciting as well as satisfying to know that I met my goal and brought my recent books which are set there to such real life. I also adore castles (I stayed in a haunted tower room once in Scotland) and anything ancient and musty so those settings will definitely appear in future books!

Q: Why do you write for Children?

A: Books had such a huge impact on my life as I grew up, and they were like real friends to me due to the fact that I was extremely shy—and because books are better than real life, aren’t they? :-)

I started scribbling stories when I was about 8-9 years old. While I was still in college, I began the two year course at the Institute of Children’s Literature, and I knew without a doubt that I was meant to write for children and teens. Books for kids are powerful and meaningful and magical in countless ways—and can turn them into readers for life. What better job could I ever have?

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: I’ll make up a new one from your list: Shy Book Nerd! That was me in spades, and I spoke so little when I was very young that my parents and teachers were worried about me. I was always lost in the world of a book and after I became an adult (I think I was even married by then) my mother confided to me that she’d received a letter from my 5th grade teacher when I was ten, Mr. Thiessen. He told her that he was worried I might be losing touch with reality because I had my head buried in a book so much of the time. I’d rather read than play during recess.

What is interesting about that story is that my parents never took away books – they encouraged reading and bought me books and took me to the library often. Of course, they also knew I *was* involved in church activities and had a few good friends (as well as 5 siblings!) and took piano lessons and dance lessons and was, in the end, fairly well grounded.  But books are definitely my BFF!

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: I don’t tend to dream that much at night—and when I do my dreams are very peculiar indeed and don’t make any sense! But I’m a *huge* day-dreamer and I often have ideas that come right before I go to sleep at night, or when I’m first waking up in the morning; that semi-conscious state. I’ve had to train myself to keep paper, pen or notebook by my bed to write things down so I don’t forget. Of course, because I’m scattered and disorganized I often forget the notebook on my nightstand and, like a silly goose, I’ll lie there in bed and repeat my idea over and over again to myself so I won’t forget it in the morning. I’m lazy to get up once I’m cozy under the covers—especially in the winter time when it’s cold!

Thanks so much for your time Kimberley! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival!

To read more about Kimberley Griffiths Little, visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Kimberley Griffiths Little

Kimberley Griffiths Little is the critically acclaimed author of the Southwest Book Award, Winner of the Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, Bank Street College Best Books of 2011, Crystal Kit Finalist, and New Mexico Book Award Finalist. Her books have sold several hundred thousand copies in the Scholastic Book Fairs and have been chosen for many state reading lists. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer, and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has also been a keynote speaker at various conferences. She is a co-founder of SPELLBINDERS, a national newsletter for Educators and Librarians to create life-long readers.

Read more about Kimberley Griffiths Little at her website.

An Interview with E. Kristin Anderson

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: My first book is Dear Teen Me, and I'm so so so proud of it.  When Miranda Kenneally and I took on the project, we had no idea how much hard work would go into organizing an anthology.  But I have to say that every drop of sweat was worth it.  I'm so privileged to have created a book with so many fantastic and talented authors.

As far as my novels go (none of which are out yet) I think there's something to be said about that first novel.  I have no idea if it will ever sell, or if it does when it will come out.  But the first book I wrote is about a girl struggling with her own identity in the wake of loss, and it takes place in a small Maine town a lot like the one where I grew up.  I drew on some hard truths of my own life as a teen to write it, and I think that's what makes it the book of my heart.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand? Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: This is different for each book.  For Dear Teen Me, it was a Hanson concert.  I wrote myself a letter on my blog about seeing my favorite band for the first time at 27, which I'd been waiting to do since I was like 14.  It sparked the Dear Teen Me blog and eventually the book.  For my novels, it's usually either a character or a theme that comes to me first.  Either way, I have to work to make sure that the character has a compelling obstacle to overcome, or that the theme is wrapped around a compelling character.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: One thing I really love about the response to Dear Teen Me is that we're hearing a lot from both adult and teen readers -- and they have a lot of the same things to say.  I think it speaks to the fact that the high school experience is the same for a lot of us, no matter who we were then, and no matter when we grew up.  People leave us comments on the website saying things like (I'm paraphrasing here) "Thank you for sharing your story, this happened to me, too" and "This makes me feel less alone."  It makes me feel especially privileged to be able to share these non-fiction stories.  Because high school is lonely, no matter what kind of kid you are, jock or nerd, prom queen or skate punk.  I'm happy to be able to connect kids with adults who remember that -- not all adults do!

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults?

A: This is a great question.  I think for me writing YA was a really natural choice.  I was a poet before I was a novelist/non fiction author.  And I was really struggling to find my voice in prose.  If you could see some of the work I was trying to scratch out before I found YA -- oh God, it's just wrong. I found contemporary YA when I was about 25, and I read SWEETHEARTS by Sara Zarr and THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX by Mary E. Pearson.  Something just clicked.  I sat down and started to rewrite something I'd been working on for years, and I found that the voice I'd used in my poetry transitioned to YA better than it ever could as an adult.  I think it's a combination of two things: One being the slight surrealism that I love in poems and the fact that being a teen is a beyond surreal experience, and, two, well, something inside me is stuck at like 17, and I'm finally okay with that.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: I think that my favorite character to write about is always going to be the character I just finished writing about.  As of writing this, I just finished a first draft of a time travel novel taking place in New York City in 1986.  And I love, love, loved writing the protagonist, Eileen Archer.  She's so bubbly and devil-may-care, and she just embraces life in a way I think a lot of people will enjoy.  Plus, her love interest, Rahul, is super sexy.  (I co-wrote the book with my friend Priya Chand.  She's fantastic.  I hope she lets me work with her again!)

As far as reading goes, there are so many characters that I love.  But there are two that just always pop for me.  Hassan, the sidekick/BFF in John Green's AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES cracks me up, and I've made all my friends (even the grown-ups who mostly read grown-up books) read that book for all of Hassan's jokes (and also the footnotes, which are brilliant).  And Rob, from the grown-up book HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby.  This was probably the book that made me want to write a novel when I was like 19.  I love Rob's voice, I love how he breaks the fourth wall, and I love how he translated to the screen in the film that is TOTALLY different from the book, but is still so so so Rob.  Also, I worked in a record store in high school and made lots of top 10 lists in my journal, so Rob's record store and his top 5's make me all giddy.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: I'm a giant nerd.  Seriously, huge, crazy nerd.  I watch too much TV and love mix tapes and am obsessed with postal mail.  I watch Shark Week.  I sometimes get so excited about something that I stutter and I still trip and fall in heels sometimes even after my stint in NYC where I was a fashionista in my head.  I like Nintendo and cats and poems and Mythbusters.  I am so nerdy.  And I'm okay with it.  I think you should be, too.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: I was a bit of a mix.  I was on the track team, but I did the 1600m racewalk so I wasn't one of the cool kids on the track team. (Even if I won all my races -- and I mostly did!)  I sat at a lunch table with a mix of skaters and AP students and kids who were into the swing revival (it was a thing in 1999) and the occasional hockey player.  I sometimes made my own clothes and they were ridiculous.  And I eventually gave up trying to be liked by everyone and spoke my mind a lot, which didn't get me invited to parties, but it did get me voted "Most Unique" in my senior yearbook.

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: I have two cats, Telemachus (Tele for short, named for Odysseus' son in the Odyssey) who is an unnaturally clever Maine Coon/Siamese mix, and Turkleton (named for Dr. Turk on Scrubs...and the nickname Kelso gives him halfway through the series) who is a not-so-clever tabby that I found under my porch when I first moved to Texas.  Neither of them are very useful to my writing.  And neither of them has a problem sitting on my laptop or notebook.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: The waiting itself, probably.  I'm pretty good at pretending to be patient, but in reality, I'm not.  It does help that there's a lot to do between turning in the final draft and having the book on shelves, though.  Sprucing up websites, booking events, printing promotional materials, setting up book trailers.  So I keep myself busy.  And I'm always writing the next book.  Best to keep myself distracted!

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: Often!  A professor I had for a poetry class in college -- Charles O. Hartman -- told me that some poets felt that dreams were legitimate material for poetry -- that they were as "true" as actual life events.  I want to say that Galway Kinnell was a big part of this movement, but I can't quite remember, and either way, Galway Kinnell is brilliant and you should check out his work.  Anyway, after that class, I started writing down scenes from dreams, and, years later, a few of my novels have started this way.  Usually just a snippet of a scene, but when I wake up and write it down, I can build from there, and sometimes it works.  Other times, not so much.  But I think it's a good idea to write down dreams even just for practice -- you never know where that next great idea is going to come from.  I mean, I heard that Stephenie Meyer built TWILIGHT around a dream, and that worked out pretty well for her!

Thanks so much for your time, Kristin! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival.

Learn more about E. Kristin Anderson at her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, E. Kristin Anderson

E. Kristin Anderson grew up in Westbrook, Maine and is a graduate of Connecticut College. She has a fancy diploma that says “B.A. in Classics,” which makes her sound smart but has not helped her get any jobs in Ancient Rome. Once upon a time she worked for The New Yorker magazine, but she decided being a grown up just wasn’t for her.

Currently living in Austin, Texas, Ms. Anderson is an assistant editor at Hunger Mountain for their YA and Children's section. With her pal Miranda Kenneally, Ms. Anderson is the co-editor of the upcoming DEAR TEEN ME anthology (Zest Books, 2012), based on the website of the same name. As a poet she has been published worldwide in around two dozen literary journals from the indie-queen Fuselit, to the prestigious Post Road and Cimarron Review. She hand-wrote her first trunk book at sixteen.  It was about the band Hanson and may or may not still be in a notebook at her parents’ house.

Look out for Ms. Anderson's work in the forthcoming anthology COIN OPERA II, a collection of poems about video games from Sidekick Books and FUTUREDAZE, an anthology of YA SciFi from Underwords.

She blogs at EKristinAnderson.com and MetreMaids.com

An Interview with Jacqueline Kelly

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: My husband and I have three cats (Callie, Tiger Lilly, Petunia) and two dogs (Molly, Laika).  Callie Cat likes to sit on top of me when I read in bed, and she likes to sleep on top of whatever I'm working on.  She is a talkative calico, and we have long, involved conversations about reading and writing.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: I get lovely fan letters, mainly from young girls, but occasionally from boys as well.  They send me drawings and little bits of nature, such as leaves and bug stickers (but not real bugs). One girl sent me a piece of her grandmother's tatting!

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: In high school, I was definitely the shy/scholar type.  When I got to college, that all changed.  One of the great things about going to university is that no one cares or remembers what you were like in high school. No. One.  (Hurray!)

Thanks so much for your time Jacqueline! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival.

Visit Jacqueline Kelly's website to learn more about her. 

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Jacqueline Kelly

Jacqueline Kelly was born in New Zealand and moved with her parents to western Canada at an early age. She grew up in the dense rain forests of Vancouver Island, so you can imagine her shock some years later when her family moved to the desert of El Paso, Texas. She attended university in El Paso and medical school in Galveston (lovingly known as “Galvatraz” among the inmates). She practiced medicine for many years and then attended the University of Texas School of Law. She practiced law for several more years before realizing that what would really make her happy is to write fiction. Her first published short story appeared in 2001 in the Mississippi Review (one of her proudest accomplishments). Her debut novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, was released by Henry Holt on May 12, 2009 (another one of her proudest accomplishments). The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate was named a Newbery Honor book in 2010.

Learn more about Jacqueline Kelly at her website.

An Interview with C.C. Hunter

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A. Don’t you know this is like asking a mother which of her children she loves the most?  LOL.  But…I will admit to being partial to the Shadow Falls series.  And I think this is for several reasons.  First, when I was approached to write a young adult paranormal series, I almost said no because I wasn’t sure I could do it.  Plain and simple, I was afraid.  It suddenly occurred to me that I was trapped in a comfort zone.  I wrote romance, had built a good audience, and felt like I knew what I was doing.  This series made me stretch myself as a writer and grow.   Writing a book in a singular point of view was a new experience and learning how to tell so many characters' stories through only one person’s POV was very educational.  The second reason I think this series is extra special is because I’ve written five books, so I’ve stayed with these characters and this world for a lot longer than I normally would with a stand-alone book.  I’m working on the last book in the series now, and it’s going to be very sad when I have to say good-bye.  Good thing I stocked up on tissues.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster. What is your grain of sand? Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A. You know, every writer is different.  As for me, well, I’m a very character-driven writer.  Once I have my characters created, once I know who they are, what they're afraid of, what they want most in the world (and how far they are willing to go to achieve it), my plot sort of falls into place.  But until I have that handle on who my characters really are, the story doesn’t flow.  So I guess my characters are my sand.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: Goodness, I get tons and tons of emails.  But more at my C.C. Hunter site than my Christie Craig site.  I think teens get so excited about books and they are just more apt to write the authors.  They all want to have their say about which hero Kylie will choose.  They also want to tell me how they love the friendship in the series.  Because Kylie has sort of always felt a bit like a fish out of water, a lot of teens want to share with me a little about how they feel the same way.  It's been an amazing experience.

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults or Children or Adult?

A: I write both adult and young adult fiction.  And I write them both for the same reason, because I love telling stories.  I love knowing that my stories are entertaining, inspiring, and are feeding my readers some much needed laughter.  One of the reasons St. Martin’s came to me to write the series was they felt my “writing voice” would work in the genre.   As a matter of fact, I actually asked my editor, “Why do you think I can do this?”  Her answer was, “Because you are a smart-a$$ and teens love that.” She was right.  My voice does seem to work.  Now, just because I’m sassy in tone and add lots of humor, doesn’t mean my books don’t have heart.  As a romance writer, I already had to delve into the reader’s emotions.  I had to write characters that a reader could fall in love with.  Then, as a young adult author, I wanted to write characters who were sort of role models for other teens.  I enjoy writing stories about characters who have to overcome something, characters who are going through some change in their lives.  I want to show characters who can laugh in the face of adversity.  Who find that friendship and love are the most important things in life.  And this is in all my books, the young adult books as well as the romance novels.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A. Hmm…I think my favorite character is Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web.  She had so much to offer all the other characters of that book.  I loved her soft-heartedness and desire to save Wilber.  And let's face it, I'm just a sucker for interspecies romances.  LOL.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

A: That I consider myself the luckiest person alive to do what I love and get paid for it.  And that if I can make my dream come true by becoming a New York Times Bestselling writer, they can make their dreams come true, too.  Never give up on your dreams.  I don’t care if it’s writing, losing ten pounds, running a marathon or getting a college degree.  Hold tight to your dreams and never give up.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: I was shy, but not the quiet scholar.  I was the kid who faded into the woodwork, the one that a lot of people didn’t know was in the class.  Because I was dyslexic, I struggled with my grades, but I spent a lot of time running off into my imagination and making up stories.

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)? Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A. My animals are a big part of my life.  I have four cats, one dog, and a rabbit—all rescues.  (Did you know there are actually stray rabbits?  I didn’t until my son brought one home that came up to him at work and rolled over for him to rub its belly.)  Basically, all of my animals are very unique.  I think animals make us better humans.  And I use animals in my writing all the time to help make my characters better characters.  When a person shows love to an animal, it shows that they are caring individuals.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A. Just wanting to hold your baby in your hands.  Seeing it just makes it all that sweeter.  And then there’s the self-doubt.  What if this book isn’t as good as I thought it was?  Maybe I need to go back and change a few things?  After sixteen books, one would think the self-doubt would disappear, but nope.  It’s like a bad penny, it keeps showing up.

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: I think my subconscious is always working on my books. So sometimes I wake up with great scene ideas.  I love it.  I try to tell my subconscious that it should do that all the time.  It doesn’t listen to me, of course, but I’m always thrilled when it does offer me a little help in the dream world.

Thank you for your time, CC! We look forward to seeing you at the festival!

For more about CC Hunter, please visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, C.C. Hunter

C.C. Hunter grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of Alabama bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she's still fascinated with lightning bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals. She now lives in Texas with her four rescued cats, one dog, and a prince of a husband, who for the record, is so not a frog. When she's not writing, she's reading, spending time with her family, or is shooting things-with a camera, not a gun.

C.C. Hunter is a pseudonym. Her real name is Christie Craig and she also writes humorous romantic suspense romance novels for Grand Central. www.christie-craig.com

C.C. would love to hear from you. Because of deadlines, it may take her a day or so to get back with you, but she will reply.  cc@cchunterbooks.com

Read more about CC Hunter at her website or follow her on Twitter.

An Interview with Deeanne Gist

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: The hardest part of the process (for me) is writing the first draft. I can edit things I’ve already written without too much difficulty, but those 500 blank pages staring me in the face is a killer. So typing “The End” on any of my manuscripts never fails to bring feelings of great joy, pure relief and an overwhelming sense to go par-tay!

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: I begin with a premise. I search high and low for some interesting fact my history teachers never seemed to mention. Like the time I discovered that in the 1860s a man in the Washington Territory could get 650 acres of land for free if he had a wife. All the lumberjacks up there immediately wanted to get married (so they could capture a bunch of land for free), but there were no women. So this savvy entrepreneur (this is all true) told those lumberjacks that if they’d each give him $300, he go to the east coast and find them brides.

But when the entrepreneur got to the east coat, he told the women he’d guarantee them *jobs* as housekeepers, nannies or school teachers. He NEVER mentioned that they’d be brides. (And he made them pay their own way.) So these gals arrived in the Washington Territory and knocked on their “employers” doors. The lumberjacks quickly opened their doors expecting brides.

I fictionalized what happened to one of those girls. (A Bride in the Bargain)

Q: Why do you write for Adults?

A: I want to write in a way that is relevant, but doesn’t offend.  I don’t think it is necessary to be graphic, but to dismiss out of hand or to avoid our God-given sensual natures that attract us to our mates is not very realistic or honest, even. As a result, I don’t censure my characters. If they feel desire, I let them feel desire.  If they have uncharitable thoughts, I let them have uncharitable thoughts. If they want to be willful, I let them be willful.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: My nickname was Texas Twiggy because I was so short and little. (I weighed 89 lbs when I graduated high school.) There was this one guy in Speech class that teased me mercilessly. So when we gave our demonstration speeches, I asked him to be my “volunteer” for my “How To Tie A Person Up” demonstration.

Once I had him tied good and hard to that chair, I draped a shower curtain around his neck, put a shower cap over his hair, and announced this wasn’t really a speech on how to tie a person up. It was a speech on how to throw a pie in someone’s face.

I proceeded to take a pie crust out of the tin (pie tins hurt), filled that crust with a ton of whip cream, held it right by his face while I continued my speech, then ended with:

“The most important thing to remember when you’re throwing a pie is you must always … splat … catch them by surprise.”

My teacher let me leave early while someone else untied him. :)

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: My border collie, Cowboy, is scared of thunderstorms. We have to give him anxiety medicine, but he still tries to climb in my lap. It’s hard to type, let alone concentrate, when you have a 50+ pound, shivering dog in your lap.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: That's actually the best time.  I can finally take a breath, relax and start thinking about my next book.  But you're right, the book doesn't seem "real" until it finally gets here.  I remember typing “The End” on my very first manuscript. It had taken me a good three years to write it.  That night I could barely contain my excitement as I told my husband I’d finished the book.

He nodded and in an offhand manner said, “That’s nice.”

I smiled, thinking he was teasing me, then realized he was serious.  He had no idea what a monumental moment this was. (He’s a jock.)

So I tried again.  “Honey, I said I finished the book, not a chapter.”

He immediately froze.  “Oh! I’m supposed to say something, aren’t I?”

Yep.  It was a big moment for me.  ;-)

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

Never, thank goodness. But right before a book is released I feel really vulnerable and I have a succession of dreams about needing to use the ladies room very badly, but I can never find a commode that has doors around it. The toilets are always plopped down in the middle of these really public places (like the main walkway inside a mall). It’s awful. I go place after place after place, but none of them have doors. It’s happened with every book. :)

Thank you so much for your time Deeanne! We look forward to meeting you at the festival!

To learn more about Deeanne Gist and her books, check out her website.

An Interview with Jonathan Maberry

 Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

JONATHAN MABERRY: I’m fickle when it comes to my own writing. I’m in love with whichever book I’m currently writing. Same goes for the latest book to hit stores –that one will always be my favorite. But…if I was forced at gunpoint to pick one book, it would probably be ROT & RUIN, the first in my teen series of post-apocalyptic zombie novels. More than anything else I’ve written, that one has opened more doorways to meaningful conversations with young readers, librarians, teachers, booksellers, and parents.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand? Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

JM: My starting point varies. I usually have a lot of projects going at once –I write 2-3 novels per year, scads of short stories and novellas, and also comic books. ROT & RUIN began with a thought: “What would it be like to grow up in a world after the zombie apocalypse has already happened?” My first adult thriller, PATIENT ZERO, started when two characters I didn’t yet know began having a conversation in my head. If you’re not a writer, that’s a cry for help. If you are a writer, it’s both normal and exciting.  For my 2011 horror novel, DEAD OF NIGHT, it began with a line of poetry from T. S. Eliot: “This is how the world ends” (from THE HOLLOW MEN). Sometimes, like with THE DRAGON FACTORY and THE KING OF PLAGUES, it was something in a news story or a bit of science I was reading about.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

JM: I have a strong and fairly constant interaction with readers, and that conversation happens in a lot of different ways. I’m on an extended national book tour, I Skype in for library and school visits, I am very active on Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads and LinkedIn, and I get scads of email. The response to the books is so much fun and always positive. We’re all having fun geeking out and talking pop culture, talking character, swapping reading suggestions, and exploring the process of writing. I love it.

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults or Children or Adult?

JM: I write stories of all kinds and for all kinds of readers.  Often I don’t plan for a certain demographic; instead I concentrate on telling a story that absolutely fascinates me. My agent is usually the one who points out that this story is YA or that story is better suited to adults. That said, now that about half of my writing is for teens, I love the freedom that YA offers. The genre lines aren’t as rigid as in adult fiction, which allows the author to concentrate more fully on the story he wants to tell instead of slanting it for a genre.  Plus, today’s teens are so smart that it coaxes a writer into really bringing his creative A-game to any project.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

JM: Joe Ledger is my favorite character. He’s the star of my adult thriller series (PATIENT ZERO is the first book; ASSASSIN’S CODE is the latest, and EXTINCTION MACHINE is next).  Ledger is a survivor of deep emotional and physical trauma as a child who has spent his life becoming as strong as possible so that he can be the one who stands between the Big Bad and the innocent. He’s the kind of person who embodies the concept of ‘being stronger in the places where you’ve been broken’. He’s also funny –and, strangely, he’s funnier than I am. Not sure how that works.  In the adult series, he’s recruited by a secret government agency to fight groups using cutting-edge science as weapons of terror.  However Joe also enters the world of the Rot & Ruin in book 3, FIRE & ASH.  Joe’s the one character who I will probably never kill off. No one else is really all that safe in my books.

Q: What is one thing you would like your readers to know about you?

JM: I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve had a strange life. I’ve been practicing/teaching jujutsu for forty-eight years –I currently hold an 8th degree black belt and was even inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame. I worked as a bodyguard in the entertainment industry. I used to be a college teacher (Temple University, teaching Martial Arts History, Jujutsu, and Personal Defense for Women). I’ve written sarcastic greeting cards, psycho-drama plays, and over a thousand magazine articles. I used to skydive.  I competed in boxing, wrestling, fencing, and full-contact martial arts (with a record of 102 wins, 2 losses, 2 ties). I was in the traveling company for the musical GODSPELL, and also appeared in regional theater productions of CAMELOT, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, ROCKY HORROR SHOW, and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. And my office is filled with pop culture junk and oddities that includes a robot clock, Marvel Comics action figures, a genuine cat skull, a vampire hunting kit, many odd little rubber ducks, a Steampunk pistol, a Dalek, dancing skeletons, and antique Halloween decorations.  I am not entirely normal.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

JM: I was a brainy jock who was in debate, choir, art class, theater and the wrestling and boxing teams.

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

JM: Six months ago my wife, Sara, and I adopted a rescue dog –Rosie.  She’s part rat terrier, part Cavalier King Charles. Thirteen pounds of ferocious energy and absolute love.  While she’s not my muse (she’s too young to read my novels), she is my coach. She gets me out of the chair and makes me take long, brisk walks. It’s good for health, it’s good for the dog, and it’s good for giving me time to think up dreadful things to do to my characters.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

JM: As soon as I write ‘THE END’ on a manuscript I start longing to have a copy of the finished book in my hand. I love it when the editor sends me a jpeg of the cover art, and later when I get Advance Reading Copies. And my pulse quickens when I know that the publisher is sending my author copies of the finished book. Opening that box is better (for me) than opening a present on Christmas morning.

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

JM: I doubt I’ve ever had a night’s sleep where I didn’t have story dreams. I can remember story dreams back when I was a little kid, even before I could write. Next day I’d use toys to tell those stories to my family and friends. I believe I am hard-wired to be a writer.  And, as a result, I now get to play in my imagination all day long.

Thank you so much for your time Jonathan! We look forward to seeing you at the Festival.

To learn more about Jonathan Maberry, visit his website.

An Interview with Sherrilyn Kenyon

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: That's like asking me which child I'm proudest of... They all fill me with pride, otherwise I wouldn't have published. I'd never put something out to my readership that I wasn't as proud of as possible. They only deserve my best and that's what I promise them with every novel.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand? Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: I always begin with the characters. They drive every part of my stories, and are the most important part of them.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: Everything! I try to interact with them every day. To me, my readers are like family and I treasure them all.

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults and Adults?

A: I write for both because I'm every bit as fascinated by the younger people in my worlds as I am the older ones.

Q: What is the hardest part of waiting for a book from the end of your writing to when it is released?

A: Keeping secrets from my fans. I keep wanting to spill the beans, but know that I can't. And it's doubly hard when they're begging for spoilers. I want to make them happy, but I don't want to spoil any of the surprises.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer our questions, Sherrilyn. We look forward to see you at the festival!

To learn more about Sherrilyn Kenyon, visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Keynote Author, Deeanne Gist

Introducing our Special Lunch Keynote Author, Deeanne Gist!

Deeanne Gist—known to her family, friends, and fans as Dee—has rocketed up the bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere with her very original, very fun historical & contemporary novels.  Add to this four RITA nominations, two consecutive Christy Awards, rave reviews, and a growing loyal fan base, and you’ve got one recipe for success.

She has a very active online community on her website at IWantHerBook.com and at Facebook.com/DeesFriends.

Stay tuned for our interview coming soon!

Introducing 2013 MCBF Keynote Author, Jonathan Maberry

Introducing our Opening Keynote Author - Jonathan Maberry!

Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He's sold more than 1,200 magazine articles, 3,000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, poetry, and textbooks. He also writes fiction and nonfiction books.

Jonathan is a Contributing Editor for The Big Thrill (the newsletter of the International Thriller Writers), and is a member of SFWA, MWA and HWA. He is a frequent guest at genre cons and writers conferences. Jonathan is a founding member of The Liars Club, a group of networking publishing professionals that includes bestsellers Sara Shepard, Solomon Jones, L. A. Banks, Merry Jones, Gregory Frost, Jon McGoran, Ed Pettit, Dennis Tafoya, Keith Strunk, Don Lafferty, Kelly Simmons, and Marie Lamba. On the last Sunday of every month Jonathan hosts the Writers Coffeehouse, a free three-hour networking session for writers of all genres and levels of skill. The event is held at Barnes and Noble, on Park Ave in Willow Grove PA, Pennsylvania.

In 2004 Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame largely because of his extensive writings in that field.

Visit him at JonathanMaberry.com and on Twitter (@jonathanmaberry) and Facebook.

Stay tuned in the coming days for our interview!

Introducing 2013 MCBF Keynote Author, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Introducing our Closing Keynote Author - Sherrilyn Kenyon!

In the past three years, New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has claimed the #1 spot sixteen times. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes. With more than 25 million copies of her books in print in over 100 countries, her current series include: The Dark-Hunters, The League, Chronicles of Nick, and Belador.

Stay tuned in the coming days for our interview!

Read more about Sherrilyn Kenyon at her website or follow her on Twitter @kenyonsherrilyn.

An Interview with Mary Lindsey

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

I love all of my projects, both published and soon to be published. I adore Shattered Souls because it was my first novel, but the project of which I am most proud is Ashes on the Waves. It is impossible to take a famous poem, such as "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe and use it as the inspiration for a book without worrying about doing the original piece justice. I wrote the book not as a retelling, but as an homage to one of the most inventive and influential American writers. There are over three dozen shout outs to Edgar Allan poems, stories, essays and letters in the book. It was a true labor of love and I am thrilled with the outcome.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: I’m a visual person, which affects how I learn and write. Sometimes an idea just pops into my head, but usually I’m inspired by a place, object or a photo.

In the case of Shattered Souls, it was an old photograph. I knew I wanted to write a ghost story and I wanted a disaster to be featured. I had already decided that I would probably use the Great Storm of 1900 in Galveston, but it was an old photograph that cemented the deal.

There’s something about this photo that really got to me. Perhaps it is because most of the pictures I’d seen were of men looking for dead bodies or cleaning up the debris, while this one is of children and women looking for something—anything they recognize as valuable, useful or familiar.

It also reached my heart because the child in the white hat and black dress is standing on a piece of a roof that most likely had served as a life raft the night before when the water was up over the housetops.

This photo crystallized for me the dismal truth that despite the largest loss of life from a natural disaster in this country’s history, people still had to pick up the pieces and survive.

Ashes on the Waves was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "Annabel Lee."

Q: Why do you write for Young Adults?

A: I started writing for young adults several years ago by accident. My daughter had just discovered teen literature and had burned through several popular series. She was lamenting the fact that most male heroes in paranormal books were demons, vampires or some type of inherently evil creature fighting their wicked impulses. She asked me why the hero couldn’t be a “normal” guy who has some kind of special/magical power, but wasn’t evil or didn’t believe himself evil.

I told her that for her birthday, I’d write her a book like that. (To this day, I have no idea why I would offer such a crazy thing. I’d never written fiction and had no desire to do so).

True to my word, I gave her a chapter a day for a month. The result was a 700-page young adult time-travel novel. It had a cool premise, but was awful—truly awful with respect to craft. Reading a book and knowing what works is one thing; writing one is entirely another.

After spending a month writing 8-12 hours a day, I decided I’d found the perfect job.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: I have four favorite characters: Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird), Snape and Harry (Harry Potter Series), and Huck (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

Q: Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: My Cairn Terrier, Annabel, is the newest addition to our family. She is a year old and has learned how to be as distracting as my three teenagers when I am writing.

Annabel Lee Lindsey

Before Annabel,  I had a Welsh Terrier named Cricket and a Wire Fox Terrier named Fig (Go Figure). Fig sat on my feet the entire time I wrote Shattered Souls and is a character in the book (Spook). She died at 17-years-old the week before it sold. The book is dedicated to her.

I also have a 255-gallon aquarium full of Blood Parrots I call my Happy Fish because they have perpetual smiles on their faces. They were a gift from a friend. When I get stuck or stressed out while writing, I go sit in front of my Happies and relax.

Thank you so much for the fun questions. I love to hear from readers and can be contacted through my website contact page: http://www.marylindsey.com

Thank you so much for your time Mary! We look forward to seeing you at the festival!

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Mary Lindsey

Mary's writing is a natural expression of her love of reading and a fascination with the flexibility of the human imagination. Books make the impossible possible.

Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, Mary received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. She has taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school. Currently, Mary teaches acting to children and teens at a private studio in Houston, Texas.

Mary lives in Houston with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (The roaches are long story—don't ask.)

To learn more about Mary Lindsey, visit her website.

An Interview with Dom Testa

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: I love this question, because authors are usually asked to name their favorite book. I think the best writing took place in The Galahad Legacy, so it's my favorite. But I'm most proud of the first one, The Comet's Curse. I wrote that book during a time of personal upheaval, including the death of my father. It's as if I escaped into the world of writing, and the book became a haven. After it was published it began to pick up some nice awards, and I remember on one hand being happy for the accomplishment, but also feeling sad that I hadn't been able to show it to my dad.

Q: Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing being like the sand in the oyster.  What is your grain of sand?  Do you begin with character or setting or something else?

A: All six of the Galahad series books were written to entertain my twelve-year-old self. For those books the grain of sand was a very strong desire to create a series that I would've loved in middle school. But the books I'm writing now have been spawned by the most unusual things. A friend of mine texted a photo to me that her daughter had taken, and I was so startled by this incredible image that I immediately sat down and drafted an outline for a story. And I love it! My germ was an eclectic photo taken by a 15-year-old girl. It was screaming to have a story built around it, and it shall.

Q: Who is your favorite character you have written or read about?

A: Well, if it's a character I've read, then it's no contest: Atticus Finch. I know, that's so cliched, but can there even be an argument? Ms. Lee created the greatest fictional character ever. I'd award second place to Lisbeth Salander. Utterly fascinating, through all three books.

Of the characters I've created, my favorite is the talking/thinking computer named Roc. It was a blast bringing him to life, and he provided a nice element of humor to the Galahad series.

Q: In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: It's funny, because as I write this I'm getting ready to travel back to my high school (Cooper High School, in Abilene, Texas). They're inducting me into their Hall of Fame, which is such an honor. When I first walked through the doors of high school I was likely one of the most shy students on campus. But during my junior year I got a job as a rock n roll disc jockey on a radio station in town, and it was like throwing a switch, at least socially. You could probably lump me into a variety of categories, but of those you listed I'd have to say a combo of Book Nerd, Shy/Quiet Scholar, and a touch of class clown. Weird, eh? But it might explain why, after starting so shy and reserved, at the end of my senior year I was voted the runner-up Friendliest Boy. Ha ha, runner up! I guess if the actual Friendliest Boy had been unable to fulfill his duties...

Q: How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: Most authors - including me - never dream about the story we're working on. No, we dream incessantly about the NEXT book we want to be working on! If you ask me, it's why so many writers have half-finished manuscripts. Our heads are turned by ideas, just like a guy's head is turned by a pretty woman. The key is finding the discipline to keep your head down and finish your current project before you leap into the next. It's almost like we need a mom to tell us that we can't have dessert until we finish our broccoli. And that next story is definitely the dessert.

Thanks for your time, Dom. We look forward to seeing you at the festival!

To read more about Dom Testa's book and his Big Brain Club, visit his website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Dom Testa

Dom Testa is the host of Denver’s top-rated morning radio show, The Dom and Jane Show on Mix 100, a multiple-winner of “Morning Show of the Year” from the Colorado Broadcasters Association.

He’s also the author of the award-winning Galahad book series for young adults. The first volume, The Comet’s Curse, was an International Grand Prize winner from Writer’s Digest, as well as a Top Pick from The American Library Association, alongside some book called The Hunger Something-or-other. Each of the first three Galahad books won an EVVY Award for Best Young Adult Book. More information is available at DomTesta.com.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, Dom is also the founder of The Big Brain Club, a non-profit education foundation. Dom speaks to thousands of students around the country each year, helping them to recognize that Smart Is Cool. Info at BigBrainClub.com.

An Interview with Kendare Blake

Q: Of which book are you the most proud? And why?

A: Honestly, it's whatever book I'm working on at the moment. That's how it has to be. If I'm not convinced that what I'm working on is the shizz, then I'd just stop working on it. After the books are out, in readers hands, they don't feel like something I did. They've left the nest. They don't even let me pack their lunches, anymore.

Q: What do you hear from your readers?

A: I hear that they really like Anna. A black-veined, blood-bathed, murdering rage-monster. Who knew? I mean, I love her, but I thought it would be hard for readers to get past her penchant for killing...everyone. I also hear that I write dudes well. Which I appreciate hearing.

Q:  In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King, Gamer Geek, Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown, etc.)

A: In high school, I was a little of everything. I played ice hockey, was near the top of my class, had a teacher file a complaint because I wrote an essay that may or may not have been a federal offense...and hung with mostly stoners. The one thing I never really dabbled in was Theater. Or glee club, or anything like that. That stuff takes balls.

Q:  Do you have a pet (pets)?  Tell us about it (them) and how they help/hinder your writing.

A: I have two catsons. Tybalt (featured in the books) and Mojo Jojo (I can't have a cat named Mojo Jojo in the books. I just can't.) Tybalt will occasionally try to sleep on my lap while I'm writing. Or if he thinks I'm working for too long, he'll sit on my desk and stare at me while he shoves papers onto the floor. Mojo is very chill. Doesn't bother anyone, unless it's time for his tea, which isn't really tea, just a cup of hot water. Do not, forget, his tea.

I also have a horse daughter named Lassie, but she doesn't live at home anymore.

Q:  How often do you dream about the writing you are working on?

A: I almost said never, but last month I had a dream that I was the lead character in my new Greek mythology series. And I kept trying to fly, but couldn't. I woke up and thought, "I have to finish this stupid book."

Before Anna was published, my agent, editor, and husband had nightmares where Anna came after them. I wished she would come after me, but she never did. I think she knows better than to bite the hand that feeds, you know?

Thanks so much for your time, Kendare! We look forward to seeing you at the festival.

To learn more about Kendare Blake and Anna, visit her website.

Introducing 2013 MCBF Author, Kendare Blake

Kendare Blake is an import from South Korea who was raised in the United States by caucasian parents. You know, that old chestnut. She received a Bachelor's degree in Business from Ithaca College and a Master's degree in Writing from Middlesex University in London. She brakes for animals, the largest of which was a deer, which sadly didn't make it, and the smallest of which was a mouse, which did, but it took forever. Amongst her likes are Greek Mythology, rare red meat and veganism. She also enjoys girls who can think with the boys like Ayn Rand, and boys who scare the morality into people, like Bret Easton Ellis.

To read more about Kendare Blake, visit her website.