CROSSROADS BLOG TOUR DAY #6

Today's featured authors for The Crossroads Blog Tour are the awesome Shannon Delany and Carrie Harris!  Shannon's books are the 13 To Life series.  The titles are 13 to Life, Secrets and Shadows, Bargains and Betrayals, and the 4th book in the series Destiny and Deception will be released on January 31, 2012!  Carrie Harris is the author of Bad Taste in Boys (Kate Grable #1), the second book in the series Bad Hair Day, will be released November 13, 2012.  Below are the synopsis of each author's first book in the series followed by an interview with each.  Enjoy!

Synopsis of 13 To Life from Goodreads - Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing.  Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie’s small town.  It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid...

1.  How did you celebrate when you found out 13 to Life was going to be published? 

I think I stumbled around in a daze and eventually dragged the family out to eat and made some travel arrangements. I work hard and play hard but I occasionally forget how I celebrate certain things because it’s just a wonderful fleeting moment.

2.  What was your favorite book as a child? The Giving Tree and The Velveteen Rabbit.

3.  What is your favorite candy? Reeses Peanut Butter cups. Usually.

4.  The best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? I had this really cute tiger costume when I was a kid, but, as an adult I’d like to think I’ve done okay dressing as a Renaissance Period pirate. I worked at Renaissance Faires (sometimes with costumers and sometimes with jousters) so I obtained some pretty cool stuff.

 

 Synopsis of Bad Taste In Boys (Kate Grable #1) from Goodreads - Someone’s been a very bad zombie.

Super-smartie Kate Grable gets to play doctor, helping out her high school football team. Not only will the experience look good on her college apps, she gets to be thisclose to her quarterback crush, Aaron. Then something disturbing happens. Kate finds out that the coach has given the team steroids. Except . . . the vials she finds don’t exactly contain steroids. Whatever’s in them is turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless, flesh-eating . . . zombies.

Unless she finds an antidote, no one is safe. Not Aaron, not Kate’s brother, not her best friend . . . not even Kate . . .
It’s scary. It’s twisted. It’s sick. It’s high school.

 

1.  What is your favorite way to relax and get your creative juices flowing?

I get a lot of ideas from my friends, so any way that I can interact with them is good. I might have them over for a bacon party or a game night, during which someone will do an impression of Forrest Gump in Silence of the Lambs (which is really disturbingly hilarious) or we will end up shouting “Heal my butt growth!” for some strange reason. You know those moments where everything is hilarious, but then later when you try to explain them to someone, you can’t stop giggling and they look like they’re ready to have you committed? Those moments are the inspiration for my books.

2.  What is your favorite movie of all time?

Uh…ag…hrgh…my brain is melting. I only get ONE? I don’t think I can possibly do it. I have problems answering my favorite zombie movie let alone my favorite MOVIE movie. I love the rules from Zombieland, and the record flinging in Shaun of the Dead, and the zombie dogs from Resident Evil. Can I just say YES to this question? Or POPCORN?

3.  What was your favorite toy as a child?

I went crazy with the Barbies. My Barbie stories were always very convoluted, and none of my friends could follow them. I believe I also went through a phase where I was watching a lot of Scooby Doo, and my Barbie was Daphne and Ken was Fred, and they hunted a lot of monsters and then went out on dates in Fred’s pink convertible. Because we all know that Fred had a pink convertible in secret, right?

4.  What made you decide to write in the YA genre?

I’ve been writing for about fifteen years now, and a lot of that time was trying to figure out what the bleep I wanted to write! I did short stories, and a stage play about a couple of girls that held an actor hostage in a laundry bag, and poetry, and enough freelance nonfiction to make anyone start doubting their sanity. And when I started to write books, I started writing these dark and depressing things that quite frankly sucked some serious suckables. Finally, I came up with the genius idea to write what I like to read—funny paranormal. And since my sense of humor hasn’t really matured since I was fifteen, YA was a total fit. I’ve always been a YA reader.

Thanks for joining us today!  Head on over to Judith Graves' website to answer the question of the day!  I should have my swag package in the mail any time now and I will be posting giveaways!  Stay tuned!