Good Morning! My name is KC Sprayberry. Kay LaLone of I Love
Books has let me hijack her blog today. The purpose is to tease all of her very
dedicated readers with information about my soon-to-be-released YA coming of
age novel, Take Chances.
It's an author interview. I'm pretty sure that by now, all of
you won't believe how much I hate being in the public eye, but I do!
What are
some of your favorite things to do?
These aren't related to writing, which of course is my most
favorite thing to do, but I really do have a life.
a.
Family get togethers, where there is a lot of
fabulous food, good times, and laughter.
b.
Singing along to my favorite song when I'm
driving. Yeah, I look like a nut, but I'm a safe nut!
c.
Getting so involved with a new novel that I can
see, hear, smell, and feel everything that's going on.
d.
Playing tug of war with my dog. She usually wins,
but she's much younger than me.
e.
Finding new friends, getting to know them,
learning they're a lot like me. New friends are our best bet against
stagnation, but old friends are like a comfortable blanket – you can't go wrong
with them because they know everything about you.
Do you
have a favorite author? Favorite book?
Yikes. This question always fills me with dread. I hate
condensing this down to a single person, a single book. My tastes in reading
are varied, I'll read anything good. That's a huge area, but I do have those
who I'll read over and over again.
a.
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Yes, the series is
finished, but I can't get enough of this one. Jordan spun a beautiful, active
young adult series. Some will say it's far too old for young adults, but it's
not. Even my teen enjoys this series. Often, I'll have to fight him for the
next book when we're rereading it at the same time.
b.
Stephen King – anything, absolutely anything by
Stephen King. I've been a fan of his since I bought Carrie many, many years ago.
He was this great but as yet unknown writer. I just he knew would be a
fabulously famous writer. I wasn't wrong.
c.
P.A. Estelle (aka Penny Estelle). I discovered
this multi-talented woman after I signed my contract with Solstice Publishing
for Softly Say Goodbye. She's
fabulous. Her stories get right to the heart of things, and best of all, for a
huge history buff like me, she makes history fun to learn.
What are
some of your other favorite authors to read?
This falls into my escape mechanism. I love Lisa Gardner's
suspense novels, Mary Higgins Clark's mysteries, Donna Alice Patton's sweet
stories for children, and Ann Rule's true stories.
What do
you think of critique groups in general?
I think critique groups are very important to writers. We are
a lonely crowd, we tend to live within our stories, so we don't catch the big
problems, and a lot of the little ones. I own and manage two online critique groups,
one strictly for children's writing, while the other runs from middle grade to
adult books.
A good critique group can help you fill in plot holes, pick up
on when you're going on and on about a
trivial point that does nothing for plot movement, or just let you know that
you're on the right track. I firmly believe in a critique group for all
manuscripts.
Where do
you see yourself in five years?
Five
years from now, I pretty much see myself where I am now. Writing new stories
that come into my head, hoping my publisher(s) will love them, and watching
people tell me their views of what I've done. A nice dream is that at least one
of my books is a popular movie, and the general public is clamoring for more,
more, more, but even if that doesn't happen, I won't stop writing. There are
still so many stories to tell!
Blurb:
Julie Bond grew up in Europe as a military brat. She found her
very first permanent home in Landry, GA as a teen going into high school.
Almost four years later, she's having pre-graduation jitters and flashing back
to an incident of school violence she experienced in Europe. She attempts to
convince herself that it can never happen again, but continually finds herself
flashing back to that day no matter how hard she tries.
The people around her present any number of problems for
Julie, and she's hard put to keep from drowning under all the issues. Then Michael--a cool guy she's had
a crush on for the last three years—returns
from traveling the US as a photographer, and
Julie now has one more thing to distract her as she prepares to leave high
school. One thing she firmly believes in: no one
will ever invade her classroom with violence again.
Once again, the impossible happens.
Once again, she's in a classroom with a madman holding a gun. Once again, she must survive.
Teaser Excerpt:
"Don't
think we'll ever do anything else. I won't let that happen."
As the last
sentence slips out of my mouth, a sense of unease falls over me. I look around
to see if someone dropped their books or is having a panic attack.
Thoughts of my
parents first assignment in Germany comes to mind. Again. Twice in one day. I try to shove the images away, but they
stay.
Bio:
KC Sprayberry started writing
young, with a diary followed by an interest in English. Her first experience
with publication came when she placed third in a Freedoms Foundation at Valley
Forge contest while in the Air Force, but her dedication to writing came after
she had her youngest child, now a in his senior year of high school.
Her family lives in Northwest
Georgia where she spends her days creating stories about life in the south, and
far beyond. More than a dozen of her short stories have appeared in several
magazines. Five anthologies feature other short stories, and her young adult
novel Softly Say Goodbye, released in 2012. During 2013, more young
adult stories have been released: The Ghost Catcher, Who Am I?, Family Curse
… Times Two, and Amazon
Best Seller, Canoples Investigations Tackles Space Pirates.
You
can find her on the web here:
Hello! Here's the day you
were waiting for, through Sunday, September 29. You can pick up my other YA
coming of age books, Softly Say Goodbye and Who Am I? free on Amazon:
Thank
you Kay LaLone of I Love Books for hosting me today. Tomorrow you find the next
Teaser Tour on Sabina Bundgaard of Sabina's Adventures in
Reading .
