Sunday, February 17, 2013

Author, author...

...read all about her !!

Today we are interviewing Liza O'Connor... please come join us !!


Krista: Tell me about yourself

 

Liza: Well, I was raised by feral cats, one of which had rabies, which is why I have a DOG now, and we take therapeutic hikes throughout the beautiful woods of NJ.

 

Krista: Hold on. That’s not the bio I have on you.

Liza Bio

Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

 

Liza: That’s true too.

 

Krista: More or less true than the feral cats?

 

Liza: It’s factually true, which I suppose makes it ‘more true’ to some people. But as a writer I am free to state my truths in clever ways. I use those feral cats to explain my lack of proper social skills, my propensity to get in trouble by pushing boundaries, and state emphatically that my parents could have done better raising me.

 

Krista: That’s a pretty common attitude.

 

Liza: Yes. Unfortunately, we don’t come out of the birth canal with instructions attached to our butts explaining precisely how we need to be raised. So normal human parents just do the best they can. However, feral cats should not be allowed to raise happy cute human babies, especially feral cats with rabies.

 

Krista: Does that explain why so many bad things happen to your characters?

 

Liza: Maybe. My main characters tend to have a weird sense of humor and get into a double dose of trouble.

 

Krista: Would you like to share your troubles?

 

Liza: Nope. The only time you’ll get a hint of my troubles is when I speak of them metaphorically, or write about them in my books. I was born happy and once I ditched the feral cats, I returned to being happy.

 

Krista: If you could, would you go back and attach some instructions to your newborn butt?

 

Liza: No, the feral cats would have probably just used it as a cheap diaper anyway.

 

Unlike my characters’ lives, I can’t change my past. Nor would I if I could. I am very happy where I am today. And I believe my past makes me a better writer.

 

Just like all my adventures give my characters the ability to do things, my past traumas give my characters difficulties to overcome.

 

So I don’t want to change a thing.

 

Krista: If you had a child, would you want to raise her the same way.

 

Liza: Absolutely not. However, my fear I would become a feral cat with rabies if I became a parent prevents me from having anything but a dog.

 

Krista: No husband?

 

Liza: Tried that, turned out worse than the feral cats.

 

Krista: What could be worse than a feral cat?

 

Liza: A hippopotamus. Do you know they kill more people than any other animal in Africa? The reason is they attack for no apparent reason, and you don’t see them coming until they’ve rammed the bottom of your boat, knocking you into the water. Then they’ll grab a hold of you and hold you under the water until you drown.

 

They make terrible husbands. So I’m sticking with my dog, Jess, who is a real dog, not a metaphorical one.

 

Krista: Well this went darker than I’d anticipated.

 

Liza: Much like my stories. I usually start with the intent of writing comedy, but then night comes and the monsters come out.

 

So I end up writing humorous characters in deadly situations. Sadly, funny trauma is not an accepted standard genre.

 

Krista: Maybe it should be. Saving Casey sounds like a fabulous novel.

 

Liza: Thanks, it’s classified as a Young Adult Suspense Thriller, but that should be Mature Young Adults, so I don’t traumatize them into a fetal position.

 

 
Saving Casey by Liza O’Connor
 
Long Blurb:
 
Having been diagnosed with cancer, Cass Goldman decides to opt out of any futile medical care and end her life. While she has some thoughts on afterlife, she never expects to reincarnate into the body of a seventeen-year-old girl named Casey Davidson.
When she awakens in a hospital, Cass discovers two disturbing facts: One, she is now inside the body of a troubled teenager, and two, the former owner of this body committed suicide, but only Cass knows that. Everyone else believes Casey has survived, but suffered a complete memory loss. Cass has two choices: to take on Casey’s life and turn it around, or to confess the truth about her reincarnation and end up in a mental asylum. Given this second chance to life, Cass decides to take on the future life of Casey—the frightening ghoul-faced teen with short, black, spiky hair.
Every person around Cass has an ulterior motive and discovering the truth of Old Casey’s life is more complicated than the “new math” she is forced to learn in school. In addition, Cass has to contend with raging teenage hormones and the prior crimes of Old Casey, which she might not remember, but everyone else certainly does. However, her biggest frustration concerns her feelings for her father’s rugged security specialist who sees her only as a teenager and doesn’t want to explore the mutual attraction between them.
As determined as Cass is to turn this life around, Old Casey’s enemies are just as determined to end her life. She has no idea whom she can trust, but she’ll never survive going it alone.
 
Excerpt:
 
Upon settling down on the toilet, Cass noticed the floor to ceiling mirror facing her and screamed at the sight of the creature within it. Short black hair spouted about its head, black circles surrounded both eyes and fell like triangular knives down the cheeks. Black lips, stretched in horror as if in a nightmare. Pulling up her pants, she moved closer to the mirror.
She was a ghoul, an honest to God ghoul!
The door crashed open and her father stared at her, fear and panic clear in his eyes.
She touched her face. “Please tell me these aren’t permanent.”
His panic remained a second longer as her words filtered into his brain and then he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, we will get them removedif you want to…”
“If? Oh, I definitely want them removed,” she said.
How can I turn around my life if I look like the walking dead from a low-grade monster movie?
 
 
 
 
 

SAVING CASEY BUY LINKS

 

BonoBooks     Amazon     Barnes&Noble

 
 
Check out the Saving Casey Trailer:
 
 
 
 
You can find our fabulous author
Liza O'Connor
here...
 
 
Blog and Website: http://www.LizaOConnor.com
 
 
Liza, it was a pleasure having you here today and please come back any time !!
 
Readers, thanks for stopping by today and make sure you get your copy of Saving Casey !
 
Until next time, happy reading~
 
Krista




8 comments:

  1. See, I can really make trauma funny. It should be a standard genre. Humorous Trauma. Whose in charge of deciding genre classifications?

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  2. I know about feral cats, but I went on to marry my 2d husband and we raised a normal son. Unfortunately, he married a feral cat. Great interview. I tweeted.

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    Replies
    1. lol. He marries a feral cat, I marry a hippotamus. Species should remain in their own slot.

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  3. Feral Cats can be tamed, it just takes a lot of patience.
    Liza can make anything funny, even trauma.
    Great interveiw

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Nancy. Feral cats with rabies cannot be tamed. Don't try. you'll end getting shots. I'm glad you enjoyed the interview.

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  4. We had one once. We didn't want her, but the cat lady (true, we had one) next door had to seek homes for them all. She picked us to take the crazy one.

    Damn thing hated us for about 3 years. Then one day she sort of came around. Or maybe realized there was no way out.

    We had her for 13 years. She was an adult when given to us...hissing. In a cage. So she lived a long life.

    Casey got cat scratch fever didn't she? Is that what happened?

    Dana

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  5. Ah, the real feral cat vs. the metaphorical one.
    There is a difference. The real one being so much nicer.

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