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Interview with Author Brenda Rufener
Today I’m pleased to welcome author Brenda Rufener to the blog. I hope you enjoy getting to meet Brenda and don’t forget to check out her debut novel, Where I Live.
1. What made you decide to start writing?
Hello, and thank you for having me on your site. I started writing at a young age, but the spark ignited in elementary school when my fifth-grade teacher said, “Guess what? You’re all going to write a short story!” In a terrifying turn of events, my teacher submitted our stories for a contest and I ended up winning the grand prize. Thanks, Mr. Keefer! From there, I majored in English in college, became a boring technical writer, and as they say, the rest is history.
2. In your adventures in Oregon in search of bats, caves, and Bigfoot, did you find anything that inspired your writing?
My debut young adult novel, Where I Live, is set in a fictional town in central eastern Oregon–similar to the town where I grew up. While I don’t mention the bats, caves, or Bigfoot in my novel, the High Desert Pacific Northwest landscape does find its way onto the pages.
My adventures in Oregon always involved friends. Inseparable, joined at the hip kind of friends. Friendship is a major part of Where I Live. Linden, the book’s main character, creates a makeshift family among her friends.
3. In college you double majored in English and biology, do you find that your major in English has helped your writing? What about your major in biology?
I think the single creative writing course I took helped my writing more than either of my majors. That course taught me to be brave and write from the heart. But my English degree ignited a love and appreciation of literature and poetry, and studying biology took me to Sweden where I spent a summer researching bees. I think the bees may find their way into a book someday.
4. Your debut novel, Where I Live, is about a homeless teenager who secretly lives in the halls of her high school. Is there anything else you can tell us about the story? Anything at all? 🙂
Absolutely. Here’s a little snippet from the publisher:
From debut author Brenda Rufener comes a heart-wrenching and evocative story perfect for fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, Girl in Pieces, and All the Bright Places.
Linden Rose has a big secret–she is homeless and living in the halls of her small-town high school. Her position as school blog editor, her best friends, Ham and Seung, and the promise of a future far away are what keep Linden under the radar and moving forward.
But when cool-girl Bea comes to school with a bloody lip, the damage hits too close to home. Linden begins looking at Bea’s life, and soon her investigation prompts people to pay more attention. And attention is the last thing she needs.
Linden knows the only way to put a stop to the violence is to tell Bea’s story and come to terms with her own painful past. Even if that means breaking her rules for survival and jeopardizing the secrets she’s worked so hard to keep.
5. What is it like to be pre-published? Are you nervous/excited about your upcoming release?
The pre-pub journey is a mix of excitement and panic, but working on the next book and the book after that helps keep you grounded and focused on what’s truly important–writing! Author friends, those ahead of me on the journey and those traveling alongside, have made the experience incredible. If you can, go out and get author friends! They’re simply the best.
6. If you could make everyone read one book and one book only by an author other than yourself, what book would it be and why?
An impossible question to answer, considering so many amazing books have been published! I could go the easy route and suggest Harry Potter because seriously! But in recent years, I’ve discovered Celeste Ng, and her books are now on auto-buy. I recommend her debut, Everything I Never Told You, to everyone I meet. It’s a heart-breaking journey about a family facing the unthinkable and explores everything from broken relationships to interracial marriage. Plus the book has amazing YA and adult crossover appeal, which is another reason why I’m drawn to the pages.
7. What is the best advice you would give to young writers?
Read everything you can get your hands on. Read stories different from those you write or those you think you want to write. Memoirs and poetry and the Modern Love section of the New York Times. Read all the words.
About the Author:
Brenda Rufener is a technical writer turned novelist who spent her childhood stomping through the woods of Oregon in search of bat-filled caves and Bigfoot. She successfully located one of the two and spent the rest of her time penciling short stories. A double major in English and biology, Brenda graduated from Whitman College. She lives in North Carolina with her family and is an advocate for homeless youth.
Visit her online on Twitter @BrendaKRufener, on Instagram @brendarufener, and on her website at brendarufener.com.
About the Book:
From debut author Brenda Rufener comes a heart-wrenching and evocative story perfect for fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, Girl in Pieces, and All the Bright Places.
Linden Rose has a big secret–she is homeless and living in the halls of her small-town high school. Her position as school blog editor, her best friends, Ham and Seung, and the promise of a future far away are what keep Linden under the radar and moving forward.
But when cool-girl Bea comes to school with a bloody lip, the damage hits too close to home. Linden begins looking at Bea’s life, and soon her investigation prompts people to pay more attention. And attention is the last thing she needs.
Linden knows the only way to put a stop to the violence is to tell Bea’s story and come to terms with her own painful past. Even if that means breaking her rules for survival and jeopardizing the secrets she’s worked so hard to keep.
PRAISE
“Where I Live is hard-hitting and real and filled with hope. It makes you want to find your voice, find your people, and tell your story.” – Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe
“A touching and timely look at a girl on the brink of disappearing. Rufener writes compassionately about homelessness, teen dating abuse, and the search for home.” – Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces
“Where I Live tempers the precarious existence of homelessness with the saving grace of friendship. A poignant, hopeful and unvarnished story of courage and resilience.” – Kerry Kletter, critically acclaimed author of The First Time She Drowned
“A powerful, stirring debut, Where I Live, takes us on a journey into a hidden world that exists all around us–exploring homelessness, poverty, love, and grief with insight, sensitivity, and most of all, hope.” – Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be and The Last To Let Go
“A compelling and deeply felt debut, Where I Live is an unflinching portrayal of homelessness, abuse, and love. Linden’s story grabbed me and didn’t let me go.”- Carlie Sorosiak, author of If Birds Fly Back and Wild Blue Wonder
“Readers will empathize with Linden’s matter-of-fact attitude and bravery. VERDICT: Fans of Jennifer Niven and Nicola Yoon will enjoy this realistic debut novel, which brings to light heavy topics of homelessness and abuse.” – School Library Journal
Join me…I’m helping girls to #ShineLikeAurora!
I am so excited about the #ShineLikeAurora campaign! Please help me help girls all over the world. To participate click here!
Interview with Author Audrey Rich
Today I’m pleased to welcome author Audrey Rich to the blog. I hope you enjoy getting to meet Audrey and don’t forget to check out her Stonehaven High Series.
1. Hello Audrey and welcome to my site. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing?
Honestly, I didn’t know I would become a writer until the moment I began writing and I say it was an answer to a prayer back in 2008. It happened one night without any thought. Too wired to sleep, I went to check out FB and emails but instead I opened Word. My fingers flew across the keyboard. The story poured out of my fingers the entire night. The next morning I had written thirty pages. When I showed my husband, he read the first six pages and encouraged me to continue. For the next three months, I couldn’t stop writing. Every single moment I could find in a life full of two children, volunteering at school, and holding the position of Treasurer in my Homeowner’s Association was spent on this story until I finished.
2. What made you decide to write for teens instead of another age group?
The characters picked me. But I like the innocence of the age and that they don’t have the usual adult baggage. While teen characters do have their own pains, issues, and problems I love how their internal fight is bigger than anything else and revolves more around them. Presenting their internal struggles is one of the things I love about writing teenage characters.
3. Your debut novel, Masquerading Our Love (A Stonehaven High Series Book 1), features two characters in love but forced to hide their relationship due to their feuding families. Was the story inspired by Romeo & Juliet? If so how are the stories similar and how are they different?
Deep down I do believe that Romeo and Juliet played an influence in my subconscious. The obvious similarities are that it’s about the two teen’s parents who haven’t spoken to each other in over a decade. These two teens aren’t allowed to even talk to each other much less form a romantic bond. The difference is that Thalía wants to obey her parents and Christopher is pushed by this constraint to hatch out a plan if he wants to hang out with her and, of course, there is a happily-ever-after.
4. How did you come up with the names of your main characters, Thalía Reynari and Christopher Cooper?
The names just came to me as I wrote late that night. I would stop as each new character entered the scene and I could see who they were with their unique names.
5. What was it like to go from studying literature (to get your B.A. in Comparative Literature) to writing?
I read the great writers not only from England and America but from all over the world for my Comparative Literature degree. It allowed me to read the world classics, which helped me to learn the structure of how novels work from so many cultures. Once I learned how the great writers structured their stories, it helped me to follow similar paths.
6. What is the best advice you would give to young writers?
Besides reading and writing as often as possible, young writers should also live life. It’s harder to write about pain if you haven’t experienced pain, love, joy, friendships, etc., should be experienced to be able to write about it. Not that you have to experience everything that a character experiences but a writer needs to know what it is to have butterflies in your insides when that special person touches your arm or gives you a certain look.
7. What can readers look forward to from you next?
My second and third books cover the romance of Thalía’s friend, Trina Weber and her romance with Stuart Grant, Mr. Perfect. Thinking About Love, Part 1 is already available for sale and the second part will be released either in the late summer or early fall.
About the Author:
Audrey Rich is a New York City transplant living in South Florida, who writes sweet YA and NA Contemporary Romances and is an avid reader of novels where love conquers all.
She’s married to her own happily-ever-after Hero, is an inactive CPA, and a stay-at-home mom homeschooling her teenage daughter.
Audrey enjoys volunteering with children of all ages at church and teaching the Junior Achievement curriculums at local middle and high schools. She also loves to travel with her family.
Find Audrey online:
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
About the Book:
Can faith trump love?
Seventeen year old, Trina Weber has the world at her feet: beautiful, part of the in-crowd, and with almost enough college credits to earn her AA while only a junior at Stonehaven High School.
With her whole life planned, all she needs to complete her perfect world is a boyfriend.
But not any guy will do.
She’s searching for a partner, who will accept her goals and all the studying that goes with becoming a family doctor.
When the gorgeous, equally ambitious college freshman Stuart Grant blazes into her South Florida paradise, he fits right in. He’s everything she dreamed of and more…except he doesn’t agree with the most important part of who she is.
Interview with Author Leila Tualla
Today I’m pleased to welcome author Leila Tualla to the blog. I hope you enjoy getting to meet Leila and don’t forget to check out her book.
1. What is one weird fact about you we wouldn’t find in your biography?
I have a strange obsession with feet pictures. In every new place, I’ve ever visited – the zoo, museums, a restaurant, a new park, etc – I have to take a picture of my feet. No worries, I’m wearing shoes. Mostly. My first blog was titled, “Misadventures of Lei’s little feet,” and it would be pictures of where my feet have been. That blog doesn’t exist anymore and I still do take feet pictures but now, it’s mostly of my children’s feet.
2. What inspired you to start writing?
My grandfather was the story teller in my family and his stories were about people, and their fears, whether real or imagined. He could spin a tale! For a long time, I believed his story about being a cook for the Japanese army during the battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. It turns out he went into hiding with his entire family in a bunker. But his stories seemed so believable. I think he wanted to sound braver than having a story about hiding. I didn’t look at him any differently, though. I wish he was alive today so I can write down his stories! Stories with faith, and the human spirit, motives, and the truth behind people’s characters are inspiring to read and that’s what I want to do. I want to write about something a little more real.
3. You have a YA Christian romance novel, Love, Defined, and were a part of an anthology to raise awareness for mental health issues, Letters of May. What is it like to write different genres?
It was fun and interesting! For Letters of May, I had written a letter for a mom with a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I had written something similar for a girlfriend of mine about a year ago whose baby was born at 26 weeks and was just beside herself. I lived in a different city and wanted to comfort her but when you’re in a situation where everyone tries to comfort you, you kind of get sick of these “I’m sorrys,” and “it’ll be okays.” I wrote her a letter saying that I don’t know what will happen to you or your baby, but this is what I know. It’s scary. It sucks. You’re going to cry a lot and you may not be okay……and that’s okay. It’s perfectly okay to ask for help, or ask to be left alone. I wanted her to know that I’ll be here no matter what she decided. There was a lot more tears doing Letters of May than Love, Defined.
4. What is your favorite Disney movie?
Aladdin, hands down….. well, the Lion King is a close second!
5. If you could go on an adventure with one fictional character who would it be?
This is a hard one!! I’ll say Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s the Dresden Files only because my husband is practically in love with the guy (both the fictional character and the author). I’d like to go on an adventure with Dresden just to know why he’s ‘the man.’
6. What is the best advice you would give to young writers?
Find a mentor and then, be one! This writing community is huge and you can easily get lost in the crowd. Find someone that you can talk to about being in the community, and try to help each other as much as you can. It’s easy to read and review someone else’s work. It’s easy to do a tweet or share something of theirs on your Facebook page. I believe in karma. Your success may not be what you pictured but to someone else, you’re already living their dream. So, be nice. Be kind and when you can, help another writer buddy.
7. What can readers look forward to from you next?
I’m in my editing phase of my memoir. It’s a collection of journal entries and poems about my experiences with preeclampsia, premature babies, the NICU journey and my bout with postpartum depression. It was a healing project and somehow I ended up with all these poems for a collection. I don’t know when it’ll be done though.
I’m also editing another Christian YA novella called, Letters to Eleanor. That one, I hope to release in the fall.
About the Author:
Leila Tualla is a Filipino American writer, poet, and Christian author. She is a preeclampsia survivor and advocate, and blogs about “life after preeclampsia,” at www.tuallaleila.blogspot.com. After her second baby, Leila had postpartum depression. She is thankful that her family and those who supported her, stood with her and helped pull her out of her darkness. Her faith in Christ was, and continues to be, her daily lifeline. Leila is humbled daily by God’s saving grace.
When she’s not writing about her preeclampsia or postpartum journey, or chasing after her tiny miracle bosses, she can also be found buried in books. Leila reads various novels throughout the year and her book reviews can be found at www.leilatualla.com.
Find Leila online:
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
About the Book:
In their final summer before graduating college, three childhood friends expect an uncomplicated transition to adulthood…but learn they all still have some growing up to do.
Alex Makapulo is facing a crisis of faith.
Raised a Catholic, Alex is considering becoming a member of her best friend Jack Page’s church—against her family’s wishes—but she can’t quite take the final step of baptism. Jack loves Alex and doesn’t understand her hesitation, and Alex wonders if Jack’s love is a blessing or a distraction to test her religious conviction.
Lori Hanson embarks on the trip of a lifetime.
For her twenty-second birthday, Lori’s grandfather presents her with a summer vacation in England. While preparing for her adventure, she meets British musician Colin Watson online and quickly falls for him. They plan to hook up when she lands in London, but her grandfather forbids it. Due to complicated family dynamics, Lori must regretfully comply with his wishes, though she vows never to forgive him.
Andy Taylor is looking for love in all the wrong places.
When Andy runs into an old crush, she decides she wants a more meaningful relationship with sexy Miles Webber. But when she confides in Alex, her friend warns her Miles only wants her for sex. Andy becomes angry and devises a reckless plan to distract Alex’s attention from her relationship. Things don’t go quite as she expected, though, and Andy is left facing a crushing moral dilemma.
As the summer unfolds, three young women learn love and faith go hand in hand, not everything is black and white, and sometimes in a fast-paced world you have to slow down, breathe a little, and find your own definition of love.