take 5

Take Five: John Vorhaus with Banana Pants Crazy + GIVEAWAY

March 27, 2016 By Writer Unboxed

Today John Vorhaus is here to talk about his latest book, Banana Pants Crazy, releasing on April 1st.

I wouldn’t want to sleep with him but I’d certainly buy his book.”

– Annie Duke, poker diva

John is giving an e-copy of Banana Pants Crazy to the first three people to post a brand new word (authentic neologisms, please, no retreads) in the comment box. AND be part of Team Banana Pants! Join THE NOISELETTER and receive a prize!

Q: What’s the premise of your new book?

That funny nuggets, curated oddities and explosive moments of real drama can add up to a satisfying, quick read. It’s math: ½ comic + ½ serious + ½ strange = all fun. (It’s the third half that makes all the difference.)

Q: What would you like people to know about the book itself?

Well, it’s an exploration. Into language. Humor. Deep word play. A romp inside the author’s mind (if that’s a place anyone needs to be). Just now I used the word “curated,” and that’s how I like to think about the book: as a museum exhibit, but one that you get to take home.

Q: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?

Like a politician deftly pivoting away from a tough question, I shall answer a different one instead: “In 100 words or less, what is really in this book?”

Some fiction, some flotsam, some dances with words, some heart-stopping anagrams, many found objects, things I’ve said about dogs, mashed metaphors and manhandled clichés, twitter tales, sad tales (at least one), true facts, bar facts, hilarious headlines (wait, you’ll see), wisdomettes, a whiff of poker, names needing rock bands, a noun fight, a museum of lies, a war of random words, a bit of wizardry, bad ideas for children, some new dirty words, a brief interlude where writing in the passive voice is done by me and much more, all in fewer pages than you might expect.

Q: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any? [Read more…]

Take Five: Heather Webb and FALL OF POPPIES: Stories of Love and the Great War

March 20, 2016 By Writer Unboxed

Please welcome our own Heather Webb—author of Becoming Josephine and Rodin’s Lover—here today with exciting news of an anthology released just a few days ago: Fall Of Poppies: Stories Of Love and The Great War. In this book, Heather and eight other top voices in historical fiction deliver an “unforgettable collection of short stories set in the aftermath of World War I.”

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month…

November 11, 1918. After four long, dark years of fighting, the Great War ends at last, and the world is forever changed. For soldiers, loved ones, and survivors the years ahead stretch with new promise, even as their hearts are marked by all those who have been lost.

As families come back together, lovers reunite, and strangers take solace in each other, everyone has a story to tell.

Fall of Poppies is already a bestseller on Amazon in Historical Fiction Anthologies, with these exciting reviews:

“An atmospheric homage to one of history’s most emotionally devastating episodes.” –Booklist

“Sure to resonate with readers…looking for historical fiction with elements of intrigue and romance.” –Library Journal

What’s the premise of Fall of Poppies?

HW: The premise is a series of stories set around the first Armistice Day—11/11/ 1918 at 11 a.m.—and the emotions and events that lead up to it. WWI had ended, but life had to go on. In this collection, each author explores a different angle of how people endured, recreated themselves, and the hope that moved them forward.

What would you like people to know about the story itself?

HW: I’ll speak to my particular story called “Hour of the Bells.” As a cultural geographer and former military brat, I find myself perpetually fascinated by the idea of “the outsider” within a culture not their own, what it means to belong, and how our values and ideals can shift as we assimilate. Beatrix is a German-born woman who married a Frenchman, and their only son is ridiculed for being a dirty “boche,” spurring him to join the war efforts. When her son perishes, she can’t forgive herself for who she is and how she has failed him—and sets out on a quest to prove her love in an outward, explosive way. I couldn’t think of a more powerful motivation than a mother’s love and grief and wanted to go down that road, see how it felt.

[Read more…]

Take 5: Catherine McKenzie and SMOKE

October 18, 2015 By Writer Unboxed

We’re thrilled to have frequent contributor Catherine McKenzie here today with her fifth novel, Smoke, releasing on October 20. A graduate of McGill University in History and Law, Catherine practices law in Montreal, where she was born and raised. Her first four novels, Spin, Arranged, Forgotten, and Hidden, are all international bestsellers and have been translated into numerous languages. She also is the author of Spun–a novella sequel to her first novel, Spin.

Here’s what Booklist has to say:

“A fiery, suspenseful story […] McKenzie’s fifth novel assesses the flame resistance of bonds shared by family, friends, and community. Pages keep on turning, questions keep on burning, as Smoke wafts up from between the covers to consume readers.”

Take 5: Catherine McKenzie and SMOKE

Q1: What’s the premise of your new book?

After a decadelong career combating wildfires, Elizabeth has traded in her former life for a quieter one with her husband. Now she works as the local arson investigator in a beautiful, quaint town in the Rockies. But that tranquil life vanishes when she and her husband agree to divorce and a fire in nearby Cooper Basin begins to spread rapidly. For Elizabeth, containing a raging wildfire is easier than accepting that her marriage has failed.

For Elizabeth’s ex-friend Mindy, who feels disconnected from her husband and teenage children, the fire represents a chance to find a new purpose: helping a man who has lost his home to the blaze. But her faith is shattered by a shocking accusation.

As the encroaching inferno threatens the town’s residents, Elizabeth and Mindy must discover what will be lost in the fire, and what will be saved.

Q2: What would you like people to know about the story itself?

It’s the first book I’ve written that takes places in a small town and over a six day time frame. I chose a small town because I wanted to explore how unique an experience that can be – when everyone knows your name, or your business, or thinks they do. The six day time frame was to keep the tension up.

Q3: What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?

At the beginning of the book, Elizabeth’s marriage is falling apart and she’s kind of lost. She also has to figure out who started the fire and why. So she has lots of challenges to overcome! The other main character, Mindy, is also struggling, but in a different way. She feels like she doesn’t have a purpose. And then, when her son comes under suspicion for starting the fire, she has a whole different battle to fight.

Q4: What unique challenges did this book pose for you, if any?

With every book I write, I try to push myself in a different way. With this book, the whole story – in my mind anyway – hinges on one pivotal scene on the fifth day (the whole book takes place over six days). If I couldn’t pull that scene off, the book wouldn’t work. Hopefully I did!

Q5: What has been the most rewarding aspect of having written this book?

I should not write this down, but writing this book did feel kind of effortless. It might be because I thought about it for 2 years before I wrote it. I wrote the bulk of it in 5 months, which is about the fastest I’ve ever written a book; my previous book had taken 18 months. Oh, now I’ve jinxed myself for sure!

Take 5: Shadowfell, by Juliet Marillier

September 10, 2012 By Writer Unboxed

Kath here. Well, she’s done it again. Fantasy author extraordinaire, and valued WU contributor Juliet Marillier’s next book, SHADOWFELL, is the first book in what is sure to become another bestselling series for young adult readers. It releases today with huge buzz, and terrific reviews.

Tough-to-please Kirkus writes:

Marillier’s deep knowledge of folklore and the early-medieval period shine through, but never overwhelm, her latest. In Alban, the Good Folk (widely varied, magical creatures) have occasionally intermingled with humans, and as a result, some humans are “canny.” Canny Neryn can see the Good Folk, which may only be the beginning. But tyrannical King Keldec has turned Alban into a realm of fear and hatred where canny folk are killed or used as weapons. Neryn and her father have fled the king’s Enforcers for years, haunted by their village’s massacre. When a mysterious stranger saves Neryn from her father’s drunken gambling and an Enforcer raid, Neryn finds herself journeying towards Shadowfell, the secret rebel enclave she hopes exists. Neryn’s struggles—to exist day to day, to make peace with the tragedies of her past and the uncertainties of her present and, above all, to grasp and even use her own terrible power—ground this tale. The slightest thread of a blossoming relationship winds throughout, while magic imbues everything but feels real; the Good Folk are other, but not, in this carefully detailed world, fantastic.

Proper fantasy, balanced between epic and personal; this promises to be an engrossing series, with intimations of bigger things ahead.

And Publishers Weekly says:

Marillier presents a classic quest in the high fantasy tradition, but there are no noble warriors to be found in this first book in a planned trilogy. Neryn’s gifts lie in seeing, listening, and asking, and the turning points are marked by belief, not battles. The land of Alban is not a comfortable place, Flint is not a comforting man, and Neryn is up to the challenges of both.

Juliet’s storytelling means this is a not-to-be missed addition to bookshelves. We’re so pleased she’s given us a peek at her writing process and the inspirations behind SHADOWFELL. Enjoy this Take 5 with Juliet Marillier.

Q: What’s the premise of SHADOWFELL?

Shadowfell is about freedom and rebellion. It’s about having the courage to stand up for what is right even when doing so may cost your life and those of your loved ones. Although the story is set in an imagined version of ancient Scotland, I was writing it at the time of the so-called Arab Spring, when we saw ordinary people rising up against repressive regimes, often at huge personal cost. That undoubtedly influenced me in creating the young freedom fighters of Shadowfell. [Read more…]

Take 5: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

June 11, 2012 By Writer Unboxed

Kath here. We’re so pleased that WU contributor Anne Greenwood Brown has agreed to let us pick her brain regarding her first book. The highly-anticipated YA novel LIES BENEATH releases June 12 (tomorrow!) by Delacorte. Anne’s book has been building buzz for months, getting terrific reviews from book bloggers, and in speaking to my own YA kid, word of mouth on this book is strong. I’ve no doubt LIES BENEATH is going to be the read of the summer.

If you’d like a taste of LIES BENEATH, check out the audio book teaser HERE or absolutely killer book trailer Anne has created HERE.

Take it away, Anne!

Q: What’s the premise of your debut novel?

My quick elevator pitch is: “mermaid assassins on Lake Superior.”

To give you a little bit more: LIES BENEATH is the story of Calder White, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids living in Lake Superior, who plan to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother’s death. To draw out their prey, Calder is assigned the job of seducing Hancock’s daughter, seventeen-year-old Lily. “Get close to the daughter,” his sisters tell him, “and you’ll get close to the man. Get him out on the lake, and we’ll take care of the rest.” It all goes according to plan, until Calder screws everything up by falling in love. That little snafu puts Calder in the position of trying to love the girl while simultaneously plotting her father’s murder. For a while he thinks he can actually pull this off, but it doesn’t take long for his plans to unravel.

LIES BENEATH is categorized as a YA paranormal romance; however, the romance is only a symptom of what’s really going on. In my mind, this is an evolution story (as in Darwin). It’s the story of a predatory animal who evolves into a man.

Q: What would you like people to know about the story itself?

[Read more…]