Mundie Moms

Monday, May 23, 2011

Interview with Between Here & Forever Author, Elizabeth Scott

























I am so excited to have Elizabeth Scott on Mundie Moms today! I recently had the chance to meet her at both the Teen Book Festival in Houston and at TLA, and what an amazing person she is.

Recently I was able to talk to Elizabeth and ask her a few questions about her upcoming release, Between Here and Forever, which releases tomorrow May 24th. Here's a little bit about the book:

Abby accepted that she can’t measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister Tess a long time ago, and knows exactly what she is: Second best. Invisible.

Until the accident.

Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby’s life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it's nothing compared to living without her.

She's got a plan to bring Tess back though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli, but then Abby learns something about Tess, something that was always there, but that she’d never seen.

Abby is about to find out that truth isn't always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could...

What is something you admire the most with your characters Abby and Eli?
I loved writing Abby because she was so strong, but had no idea of it. I think so many of us are that way--we don't know our own strength, and I love watching Abby come into her own. And Eli? Eli is..heck, I have a crush on him, and I wrote the book! He's this amazing guy who doesn't see how amazing he is, and that's why he and Abby are so right
for each other!

Abby is someone I think a lot of people will be able to relate to in some way. What inspired you to write Abby's story?
I knew I wanted to write about what it was like to live in someone's shadow, and I also knew I wanted the character to not be your typical upper-middle-class heroine. I wanted Abby to be someone everyone could relate to (even if it makes readers remember that being a teenager involves a lot of worry about who you wish you were/think you should
be!) and the story really came about because I wanted to write about a truly normal girl trapped in a horrible situation, and how she tries to fix things.

I like that Eli, one of the main characters in Between Here and Forever has OCD. I think it's one of the accepts about the story that makes it so relatable. What inspired you to write a character with OCD and what research did you do to create this character?
I always like my male characters to have something going on besides being cute, and when I thought about Eli, he was *so* amazing looking that I knew there was more to him than met the eye. Finding out that he had OCD was a surprise, but I read about it, and talked to doctors, and as I wrote, this gorgeous, yet totally vulnerable guy came out.

What advice would Abby give to readers who are struggling with feelings of insecurity, or feeling like they can't live up to someone they see as "perfect"?
It's so hard to be a girl, or even an old lady like me, because we're all constantly bombarded with how we need to be thin and pretty and perfect and it's even harder when you're younger and have a sibling who seems to have hit that perfection that society says we should all want. Plus, I think the dynamics between siblings is fascinating, and I love writing about it, so Abby's view of Tess, and how it changes, made writing the book fun for me--I'd want to keep going just to find out what would happen next!

As for advice, I fully admit I'm not the best person to ask, but I will say this: letting go of being perfect is so, so hard, but once you do, there's so much freedom that it's totally worth it. I'm not perfect, and yes, there are times I wish I was, but I know that I'm the best I can be (most of the time :-) -- and that is all anyone can ask for.

What author has been a huge inspiration to you as an author?
Honestly, no one. I never wanted to write fiction, and when I did, it was such a shock that it took me years to come to grips with it! I've always been a reader, so to this day, I don't read books to learn or anything like that--I just want the book I'm reading to suck me in! (And I love it when that happens!)

Have you read any YA books lately that you'd recommend to our readers?
I had the privilege of reading Jennifer E. Smith's new novel, which comes out in 2012, and it is AMAZING. When you see The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight in your bookstore next year, be sure to pick it up!

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Thank you Elizabeth for joining us today! Be sure to follow Elizabeth on her site here and twitter here.
Per Elizabeth's site, if you're in NYC this week you'll be able to visit here at the following places:

May 23rd-Teen Author Carnival with loads of awesome YA authors at the Mulberry Branch of the NYPL starting at 4 PM--seriously, take a look at the line-up! Plus there will be candy and books as well!

May 25th--I'll be signing at BEA in Booth 3774 starting at 10:30 AM--supplies are going to be quite limited, so be sure to get there early!

May 27th--I'm going to be on a Speed Dating panel at the Book Blogger Convention! I'll be on starting at 1 PM in Javits on the first floor of Hall E in room 1E15 and I hope to meet loads of you!

Mundane Monday #85

Happy Mundane Monday!!! This may be a little bit of a spoiler if you've not read Clockwork Angel or City of Fallen Angels yet.

Picture found here.

"Camille," Magnus said. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

She smiled. Her skin looked whiter than he recalled, and dark spidery veins were beginning to show beneath it's surface. Her hair was still the color of spun silver, and her eyes were still as green as a cat's. She was still beautiful. Looking at her, he was in London again. He saw the gaslight and smelled the smoke and dirt and horses, the metallic tang of fog and the flowers in Kew Gardens. He saw a boy with black hair and blue eyes like Alec's. A girl with long brown curls and a serious face. In a world where everything went away from him eventually, she was one of the few remaining constants.

And then there was Camille.

- Pages 258-259, City of Fallen Angels

Armchair BEA Kicks Off Today!!!

Like many of you, we're really bummed we're not in NYC right now for BEA. Lucky for all of us, some fantastic bloggers have gotten together and put a lot of hard work into bringing us the second annal Armchair BEA! Be sure to read this week's agenda so you don't miss out on live author chats, author interviews, giveaways and other things that are planned.

We've had the privilege of being apart of the Armchair BEA promotional team and it's been a lot of fun. There are a lot of amazing bloggers behind this event and you can meet them all here. We're looking forward to getting to meet many of you via the author chats we will be hosting on MM's this week.

Don't forgot to go to the Welcome To Armchair BEA post to take part in the daily posts from all our participants and learn how to be entered to into the daily giveaways. There are a lot of fabulous prizes to be won.

To answer today's question, "Who Are We & How Do We Armchair?"

Mundie Moms is a YA and Children's book review blog and Cassandra Clare fansite. We love promoting the books we read, hosting live author chats, author interviews, and giveaways. We keep our fans updated with the latest Cassandra Clare news, and the latest book release, author and publisher news and more.

We Armchair by being apart of the team who has helped promote this fabulous event. We're also looking forward to hosting the live author chats for Armchair BEA. This Wednesday we will be chatting live with author Kendare Blake at 8 pm CST/9 pm EST here on the blog. More information will be posted the morning of the chat.

To those at BEA, have a fabulous time and to those of us who will be enjoying the comforts of our armchairs this week, CHEERS to us!

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