Happy Tuesday!! It’s time for another Literary Junkies Link Party!!
Grab our button, grab the questions below, write your post and link up with us!! Our link party is now happening the LAST TUESDAY of every month (so mark your calendars!!).
Literary Junkies Hosts: Christine from Life with a Side of Coffee and ME!
Before we get going with this month’s questions, the Literary Junkies is starting something new this month. Author Interviews!! Our first author interview is Meredith Rachek.
Meet Meredith, y’all!
Here’s what we asked Meredith & how she answered:
1. What moment in life did you know that you wanted to write a book?
There was never any moment when I decided I had or even wanted to be an author. I just started dreaming up this idea one summer; about a girl who loses her boyfriend in a fatal car crash just before they are set to go to college…morbid right? Anyways unlike a lot of the other stories I had dreamed up, up to that point this one hung around and I just couldn’t stop developing it in my head and eventually started outlining it on paper. After 90+ pages of outlines and character development I decided I had to take the risk and try writing even if I was horrible at it. And that February morning almost five years ago now was when Accidental Happiness was born.
2. How do you manage fear as a writer?
With writing there are two different fears that I have encountered. The first is the fear of not being good enough. That slowly begins to evaporate the more people read and like your story. My advice would be to have as many people as possible read your work. It doesn’t do much when your Mom says you did a good job simply because she is your Mom and that is her job, but when a stranger comes up to you and tells you they love your story, they related to your story, it pretty much takes all the fear away. The other fear is hearing people actually read your own words, thoughts, and feelings out loud or in front of you. It makes my skin crawl because I feel so exposed. I actually made a rule for any family or friends who buy the book…I’ll give it to you if you promise to read it somewhere other than in front of me. And when they do it anyways I put my fingers in my ears and run out of the room yelling “LA LA LA LA LA”.
3. Who is your favorite character in Accidental Happiness?
Honestly my favorite character is Max. I love Brian and Becky for who they are but I created Max to be the guy everyone loves and everyone wants to be around. I also tried to make him the most flawed so that everyone could find a little piece of themselves in him. Maybe I’ll write a spin off about him one day.
4. Do you have a writing role model? Someone who really inspires you that you look up to?
Hands down, Jodi Picoult. I am awed by her imagination and attention to detail every time I read something new by her. She draws parallels between the most unique topics and it always works out beautifully in the end.
5. What inspired you to write a story about young love? <-- Question by Literary Junkies member Brenda from The Daily Mayo
I wanted to write something that would help people remember the firsts in life. First kiss, first love, first fight, first time you demanded freedom from your parents. Who doesn’t want to fall in love again for the first time. With Accidental Happiness you do.
Check out Meredith’s debut novel, Accidental Happiness
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
What if your life changed overnight?
For Brian and Becky, the late hours of an early August night young love was irrevocably transformed into tragedy. In a story that declares the strength and resilience of those on the cusp of adulthood and represents all that young love can be; Accidental Happiness takes its reader on an emotional journey which explores every facet of love and loss.
The start of Brian’s senior year meant life was just as it should be for an eighteen year old about to realize his dreams. Yet only moments into his first soccer practice, despite barely catching a glimpse of the girl running through his peripheral, his world as he knew it stopped. What he never expected was for a new student to change his outlook on commitment, family, and finding the strength to fight for what you want from the people around you. His story progresses through the next nine months as he falls in love, questions the power of that love, falls out of faith with the meaning of family, and is ultimately forced to identify what he truly wants and needs in life, even if that is at the expense of losing those who mean the most to him, possibly forever.
Becky’s past year in Memphis was a roller coaster ride she had no recollection of boarding but never regretted living. Now on the brink of a college soccer career at her dream school, hundreds of miles away from family and the love of her life, freedom feels empowering. That is until the night her world gets ripped from her side. Waking up in the hospital the following day to find out Brian didn’t survive the accident; Becky is forced to pick up the pieces of life despite wanting to escape everything that meant something in her relationship. Throwing herself into a sport that has always provided a release, life’s circumstances soon make it impossible for her to even carry on with that last piece of herself. Over the course of her freshman year Becky finds that despite her loss, the issues which haunted Brian during their relationship did not die with him that night. Beaten down over and over again as she attempts to heal the heart broken on that dark night when two young people felt they could take on the world as long as they had each other by their side; Becky now has the ultimate questions to answer. Can anything be forgiven through love? How do you carry on when your foundation is continuously knocking you off your feet? What if it was all a lie?
Now on to the link party!!
Here are this month’s questions…
1. What are you reading right now? Tell us about it.
2. If you were a writer, what kind of books would you write?
3. Are there any favorite books you like to go back to when the weather starts cooling down?
4. If you could have a chat with any author, past or present, who would it be and why?
5. What book are you looking forward to reading this fall?
Here are my answers:
1. What are you reading right now? Tell us about it.
Click: An Online Love Story by Lisa Becker
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
Fast approaching her 30th birthday and finding herself not married, not dating, and without even a prospect or a house full of cats, Renee Greene, the heroine of Click: An Online Love Story, reluctantly joins her best guy pal on a journey to find love online in Los Angeles. The story unfolds through a series of emails between Renee and her best friends (anal-compulsive Mark, the overly-judgmental Ashley and the over-sexed Shelley) as well as the gentlemen suitors she meets online. From the guy who starts every story with “My buddies and I were out drinking one night,” to the egotistical “B” celebrity looking for someone to stroke his ego, Renee endures her share of hilarious and heinous cyber dates. Fraught with BCC’s, FWD’s and inadvertent Reply to All’s, readers will root for Renee to “click” with the right man.
Becoming Ellen by Shari Shattuck
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
Ellen Homes is done being invisible. Well, sort of.
Living with her closest friends, Temerity and Justice, has helped her step out of the shell of invisibility she once hid away in. She still seeks refuge in solitary time and observing from afar, but she has pushed herself to open up to others in ways that bring her unexpected happiness.
But when a terrible bus crash upends her normal routine, Ellen finds herself on a whirlwind crusade for the unseen and downtrodden. Only this time, helping others—including two young children with no one else to turn to—will mean facing a pain from her past that she’s long tucked away.
Picking up where Invisible Ellen left off, Becoming Ellen returns us to the touching, poignant, and compassionate world of Ellen Homes as she learns how to navigate the world she has decided to become a part of.
2. If you were a writer, what kind of books would you write?
Chick Lit or Mystery
3. Are there any favorite books you like to go back to when the weather starts cooling down?
No. I’ve got too many on my shelves that I need to read to go back and re-read any.
4. If you could have a chat with any author, past or present, who would it be and why?
I would love to sit down and have a drink with Mary Kay Andrews. I love her writing. I met her at a book signing last year and came close to asking her if she’d be up for drinks. But I chickened out. She’s a junker (antique hunter) like me, so I’d love to go junking with her too!
5. What book are you looking forward to reading this fall?
Honestly, there are so many! And my TBR pile is still so stacked up! But, if I have to pick one…I’m excited to read The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs by Matthew Dicks.
Goodreads.com Synopsis:
Caroline Jacobs is a wimp, someone who specializes in the suffering of tiny indignities in silence. And the big ones, too. But when the twinset wearing president of the local Parent Teacher Organization steps out of line one too many times, Caroline musters the courage to assert herself. With a four-letter word, no less.
Caroline’s outburst has awakened something in her. Not just gumption, but a realization that the roots of her tirade can be traced back to something that happened to her as a teenager, when her best friend very publicly betrayed her. So, with a little bit of bravery, Caroline decides to go back to her home town and tell off her childhood friend. She busts her daughter out of school, and the two set off to deliver the perfect comeback . . . some twenty-five years later. But nothing goes as planned. Long buried secrets rise to the surface, and Caroline finds she has to face much more than one old, bad best friend.
The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs is an enchanting novel about the ways in which our childhood experiences reverberate through our lives. It’s the story of a woman looking to fix her life through an act of bravery, and of a mother and daughter learning to understand one another. Deceptively simple and highly engaging, this latest novel by Matthew Dicks is perfect for those of us who were last to be picked at sports, and for everyone who is thrilled not to be in high school any more.
Now it’s time for you to link up!
(Where I Party)
Leave a Reply