Author, author... Shari Green with Following Chelsea and a #giveaway

...read all about it !!

It’s All About the Author…

1)  Please tell us 5 interesting facts about yourself that readers might not know about you …

I’m a total Harry Potter geek. I never get tired of the books or the movies, and I once came close to totally losing it in church when we were asked to turn to page 394.

I have “maskaphobia” – clowns, mascots, and anyone wearing a Halloween mask all freak me out. No full-blown panic attacks, fortunately, but some serious discomfort for sure. *shudders*

For three years, I lived in a tiny mining camp in the middle of the Yukon…and loved it. The first time I saw the Northern Lights was about three weeks after moving there. I was walking alone on the way home from midnight Christmas Eve service at the tiny church, when the Lights danced through the stars above the dark valley. No wonder I love that place….

I’ve held a human heart in my hands. And a brain. And a spleen. (I used to work as an autopsy assistant. The pathologist I worked with was a great teacher, so I learned tons. Fascinating stuff, if you don’t mind the clean-up.)

I lovelovelove the beach. I have jars of sea-glass and piles of stones and shells tucked into little corners around my home. Sea air makes me happy, and salt water mends my soul. It’s magic.

2)  What do you like to do in your spare time?

Read, play the piano or guitar, watch hockey on TV or catch up on any Doctor Who episodes I’ve missed, bake cookies, eat cookies, walk on the beach.

3)  Is there one book that you love to read over and over again?  If so, what is it and what is it that keeps you coming back to it?

There aren’t many books I re-read, because my TBR pile is so immense. But every year I’ll re-read one or two books from the Harry Potter series, because I love them so much—the pacing, the plotting, the characters…all so compelling. J

4)  How did you get started writing and have you always wanted to be an author?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but no, I didn’t always want to be an author. I’ve kept journals since I was a teen, and I wrote songs way back when (mostly pretty awful ones). I also dabbled in non-fiction for several years when my kids were little. I jumped into fiction-writing by taking part in 2005 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), because…what the heck, right? Turned out, I got totally hooked on writing fiction during that mad month of words. Still writing!

5)  If you for some reason couldn’t be an author, what would your other choice be?

I work as a Practical Nurse on a surgical unit, and I love my job. If I couldn’t be an author, I’d still write, but I’d also probably dedicate more time to hospital work.

6)  Did you like school?  Were you a good student?

I didn’t mind school (high school, I mean…in later years when I went to college, I loved it). I was one of those perfectionist, must-get-100%-or-I’ll-be-mad-at-myself people, and I was, for the most part, a pretty responsible kid, so yeah, I was a good student. ;)

7)    When you write, is there a specific way you have to write, ie:  certain room, noise or quiet, computer or paper etc…

 

Nope! When I first got serious about writing, I had four little kids and all the noise and chaos (albeit happy noise and chaos) that comes with that. So, I’m used to getting words down in noisy little snatches of time, just about anywhere. That’s not to say I like it that way – I like to be at my desk, working on my laptop, headphones on with my WIP’s playlist softly playing. But life isn’t always ideal, so I try to make use of the whenever-wherever method I started with.

8)   If you could write a collaboration with another author, do you have one in mind and what would you write?

I’ve never considered that, but with the right person, it could be a blast! I’ll have to think on it…

9)    How do you come up with your story ideas?  

Usually a setting or a character will drift into my mind, and I’ll spend a lot of time mulling, adding other little wisps of things, before a story idea actually begins to take shape. (All these little bits go in my journal, of course, because who knows when they might be needed! So many weird little “seeds” in my writing notebooks…)

10)             Do titles stump you or do they come easy?  When do you pick a title, before the story is written or when it’s done?

All of the above? Ha! The title for FOLLOWING CHELSEA was there very early in the writing process. It never changed. That’s definitely not always the case, but I do like to have a working title that feels right before I’m very far into a project. It just helps, somehow.

11)             Do you keep a notebook near you for when new ideas pop into your head?

I have notebooks in my purse, car, at my bedside… Oddly, I never take anything to write with when I go walking, and yet walking is prime sorting-out-plot-problems time for me. Go figure.

12)             If you write a series, do you re-read your previous books before you begin the new one?

All my stories so far have been stand-alones. 

13)             How does your family feel about your writing?

They’re very supportive! They probably think I’m a bit (a lot?) obsessed with words and stories, and more than a little odd, but they accept that that’s just who I am. They’re exceptionally loving, and very respectful of my goals and dreams. I’m lucky, I know. J

Thanks for sharing “you as an author” with us !  We hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

            Thank you so much for having me here!

*****

Following Chelsea

Shari Green

Evernight Teen Contemporary Romance

48.5k words, released Oct. 17

Walking in the footsteps of a dead girl isn't easy...

After her social life flatlines, seventeen-year-old Anna Richards wants nothing more than to lie low at her new school. But it seems Anna looks an awful lot like Chelsea, the sweet and popular girl who recently died, and Anna finds herself stepping into the void created by Chelsea's absence.

Anna is determined to make the awkward situation work in her favor, though, because Chelsea didn't just leave a spot open with the in-crowd; she also left a gorgeous—and now available—boyfriend. But it turns out that following Chelsea might be a lot more complicated than Anna anticipated.

Buy Links:   Evernight Teen    Amazon

Excerpt:

“Can I have my knife back?”

I’m sitting across from Principal Feinstadt in her office. My knife is on the desk between us, partially hidden from my view by an I Heart My Cat mug stuffed with pens. That knife cost me thirty bucks, so she’d better give it back.

“No, Anna,” she says. “Why would you even bring it to school in the first place?”

It goes everywhere with me. Without it, I never would’ve been able to get through the heavy-duty packaging of my new graphing calculator this morning. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t have been able to slash The Leech’s tires last week, either. That’s not going to help my case here, though, so I just say, “I use it to open stuff.”

She seems to be waiting for more of an answer.

“It’s got a screwdriver, too,” I say. “You never know when you’re going to have to screw something.” Mrs. Feinstadt’s mouth twitches. “And there’s a bottle opener.” Tucking my overgrown bangs behind one ear, I reach forward to demonstrate the wonders of my knife, but she covers it with her hand and slides it closer to her side of the desk. “Not that I personally need a bottle opener,” I say, slouching back in my chair, “but it comes in handy when my mom’s on a bender.”

Mrs. Feinstadt raises a hand to interrupt me. “This is serious. It’s a potential weapon, Anna. You can’t bring a potential weapon onto school property.”

“It’s not exactly a switchblade.”

Her arms folded across her chest, she glares across the desk at me.

“Oh, come on,” I say. “You think I’m going to pull a knife on one of my ever-so-charming fellow students?” I look down and pick at the chipped blue polish on my thumbnail. Trust me—if I ever pull a knife on someone, it’ll be you.

Mrs. Feinstadt’s hand smacks the intercom button and she hollers for someone to get in hereright now. Stink. Did I say that last bit out loud? Must’ve, because before I know it, both the secretary and old Mr. Jasper have moved into place for backup. Great.

“This student just threatened me with physical violence,” Feinstadt says. Suddenly I’m not Anna anymore. I’m this student. The secretary knows the drill. She calls the police. She calls my mother. And, thanks to this year’s new safety policies, she initiates a lockdown of the whole freaking school.

As Feinstadt deposits my knife in the Drawer of Doom, into which many students’ belongings have entered and from which none has ever returned, I try to explain. “I said if I ever pull a knife, which I wouldn’t. It was hypothetical.”

“It was a threat,” Feinstadt says. When the cops arrive, they naturally take her side and I get the total third degree. After the officers finish impressing upon me the seriousness of my offense, Feinstadt exerts her principalian authority and suspends me for two weeks … until right before finals.

I don’t get my knife back.

 

Bio:

Shari Green writes Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction and occasionally masquerades as a poet.

When she’s not glued to her laptop, she can often be found wandering in a blissful daze on the beach near her home on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

In her non-writing life, Shari works as a Licensed Practical Nurse. She’s married to her high-school sweetheart and has four children.

Links:

Website: http://www.sharigreen.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sharigreen

Giveaway:   Following Chelsea ebook and “book of your choice” from Book Depository.

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