It’s All About the Book…
Please tell us about your current or upcoming
release.
My current book is In Her Own
Time, Bean 2. It’s the sequel to Time
Runs Away With her.
Summer 1970: Bean Donohue’s sixteen, she’s finally got a
good band together, and she’s crazy in love with her artist boyfriend Zak.
She’s also about to get the coolest summer job ever, and her impossible mom’s
conveniently out of town. So why does she keep ending up in 1953…or 1779? And
who's that guy with the black ponytail and the Kent State t-shirt? He knows way
too much about her. Should Zak be worried—or should Bean?
What is this book’s genre? Is this the genre you usually write in? Are there any genre’s you haven’t written
that you’d like to try?
This book is a paranormal
romance, YA. And yes, this is my
genre. It’s time travel, which is my
favorite form of paranormal writing.
I’ve thought about writing contemporary new adult fiction, but lately,
I’m being called by the ghostly stuff again.
I’d like to do a series with some kids who get involved in ghost
investigations. I live in a 1740-era
house that has ghosts, and I’ve had the local ghost busters by with their
equipment. It was good spooky fun. You’re never lonely in a haunted house!
What inspired you to write this book?
I needed to find out what
happened to Bean Donohue after the end of Time Runs Away With Her! I’m a pants-er, not a planner, which means I
fly by the seat of my pants instead of charting things out when I write. The only way I was going to know what
happened to Bean and her cool boyfriend with the long, long silver-blonde hair
was to write the book. So Bean and Zak
kind of acted it out for me. When I’m really
writing hard, it’s kind of like watching a movie. Hint: what happens is a lot scarier than the
first book!
How did you pick its title? Did it come first or did you have to write
the story first?
I almost always have to write
the story first. This book deals with my
belief that there have to be rules for time travelers, and that we are all
owned by our own times. So: In Her Own Time. Bean can travel backwards, and she can only
observe; she doesn’t affect the things she sees. But suppose someone broke the rules…
How did you create your characters? Did you use any real life people in their
making?
Absolutely I use real
people. Bean is partly me as a young
woman, but she’s much more confident.
Her boyfriend Zak is a mash-up of a good boyfriend I had when I was
younger, a not-so good boyfriend I had when I was younger, and my very
supportive husband. My younger sis had a boyfriend who drew with a Rapidograph,
like Zak. And I stole Zak’s name from an old college friend. Bean’s mom plays classical piano beautifully,
like my mom did. Bean’s colleague at the FM radio station she
gets a job interning at is based on a dear friend of mine who works at ABC
radio news, and also upon the news director at an FM station I was involved
with in the mid nineteen seventies. But when I get writing, the characters come
to life and turn into…well…characters. Fiction’s
kind of magic that way.
Who is your favorite character of this book and
why?
I have two favorite characters
in this book: Samantha Thorne, Bean’s hyper-privileged private-schooled gal
pal, who turns out to be an absolute rock in this book—if a bit zany. Sam isn’t
always the most careful, but she has a huge heart, and there’s a wisdom in her
impulsiveness, believe it or not. Also,
she’s funny. And I like my villain, who
is really complex and heart-breaking. I
can’t say more—or even name-- that character without getting into
spoilers!
What is your favorite part of this book? Can you share an excerpt from that part?
I
like it when the book is just getting going—Bean’s first trip into the past in
the opening of the book. Bean calls her time traveling “It.” She gets to see her
parents bringing her infant self home from the hospital, sixteen years
earlier. And there’s a little surprise
at the end…
…And
in the next moment, Bean found herself alone, just outside the house. The air was sharp. Tall trees that had just
been in full summer leaf were suddenly bare, and smaller than they’d been
seconds before. Bean tried to peer back in through the kitchen window, but the
lights were off, and she couldn't see anything. She stood in her side yard,
sometime in the past. It was
happening again…
And
It was enough of a shock that she
didn’t even know how she felt. She’d been glowing from the night before with
Zak, happy to have had Sam pound on her door with music and laughter. Bean
stuck her hands in the pockets of her thin blue cotton robe, and looked up. The
sky looked like early afternoon: pale sunlight behind a thin, high layer of
clouds. In front of her house, underneath the living room windows stood three
overgrown barberry bushes. Bean had never seen them before. The ground was hard
and cold, and she was barefoot.
Alrighty, then. Damn it. Lately, Bean had
been perfectly fine with life in 1970. What year is this supposed to be?
She had no idea.
Zak said love is always why this
happens, she
thought. But then she felt the happiness beginning to leak out of her. If Zak
were right, why had she slipped backwards just now? She had a whole June
weekend to spend with him, feeling nothing but love…and now, this.
It made no sense. All she could do
was watch, deal, and
try to keep warm.
It really was pretty chilly. She
tried jogging in place to warm up, which helped a bit. Her toes were soon numb,
though. After a few minutes, a black car
with big, round bumpers pulled into the driveway and clattered to a halt. There
was the rasp of an emergency brake being set.
And Bean’s
father — very young, and too thin for his thick, grey winter coat — got out of the
driver’s side. Bean
put a hand over her mouth, and watched as he ran urgently around to the
passenger’s door.
He yanked it open.
“Can you make it?” Bean’s dad called
into the car.
“Of course I can
make it,” said her mother’s
voice. A high-heeled shoe and a nylon stocking-covered leg emerged. Then came
the rest of Bean’s mom, wearing a brown tweed overcoat and a floppy green
beret. She walked a bit unsteadily, clutching a bundle of white blankets
wrapped around a baby, which began to wail.
“Sh-sh. Sh-sh-sh,” said Julia as she
wobbled up the walk. She stopped when she got to the front door.
“You wouldn’t happen to have
remembered the house keys,
would you, Tom?” she called. Tom patted down three pockets in his coat before
something jingled. He rushed a key into the lock. Then he looked back at the
car. Both its front doors
now stood wide open,
and he sprinted back down the walk toward them. Bean sucked in her breath hard,
taking it all in. Was that her days-old self,
crying, inside the house? Sixteen-year-old Bean felt a little weepy,
too. It’s 1953, then, she
thought. Just after my actual birthday. Wow…
The wind blew and she shivered.
And
then there was a hand on her arm.
What was the hardest part of this book to write?
Can you share an excerpt from that part?
This book has some violence in
it. Not a whole lot by TV or movie
standards, for sure, but I found it tough to write. I’m a peaceful sort. Without spoiling the plot, here’s a taste of
that scene:
“Bean,
nobody’s here,” Zak called. “C’mon. Let’s go back to the car.”
“Yeah, maybe we should,” she said. “I
really don’t need to get sucked back into this crap. Nobody’s here, anyway. ”
Zak was disappearing into the darkness past the powder room window’s light, and
she hurried to catch up to him.
…But then Bean felt a searing heat
on her shoulders. Something stung her arm, needle-sharp. A bee? At night? No—a
spark! She slapped at it. Just behind her, an outbuilding — some sort of
woodshed—was on fire. There was no swimming pool to reflect the flames, but
they illuminated the clapboard siding of a house that would become the radio
station’s commune almost 200 years later. Its one downstairs window glittered
orange and yellow.
Bean
ran away from the blaze, back into the yard. The air around her was bitter,
punishingly cold, really, but
the woodshed was fast becoming a furnace. She raised a hand to shield her eyes
from its glare, and saw a tiny red mark on her arm where the spark had landed. It
smarted.
Two
men with muskets ran by just in front of her, so close that their coats brushed
against her jeans as they passed. She squinted into the night in the direction
they ran, but lost them in the shadows. The brilliance of the fire dazzled
Bean, and made it hard to see into the yard. But the space in front of the shed
— the door, the side of the house, a few feet of ground between them — was lit
up like a stage.
“Whoreson!” someone yelled, and Bean
knew that voice…
Did you have any special rhythm or quirks while
writing this?
I wrote the opening of this
novel right after I finished Time Runs
Away With Her, and then I put it away for a while while I promoted that
book. Most of the body of In Her Own
Time was written during National Novel Writing Month, racing to finish the first
draft with some of my Evernight Teen colleauges. It was really intense writing that hard—a
whole book in a month—but I think it gave the plot a sense of urgency it might
not have had otherwise. I’m looking
forward to NaNoWriMo this year!
Is this a stand-alone book or is it part of a
series? If so, we want to hear about it
and what’s next in the series. If not a
series, what comes next to be released?
This is the second book in what
I’m calling The Bean Series. There will
be one more, also time travel, with mostly the same cast of characters—but like
Book Two, I’ll be introducing some new ones.
All I can tell you about Book Three is that it’s two years on—1972—and
Bean is in college. She is a more
experienced time traveler, and there are some very big surprises.
Christine, thank you so much for spending the day with us, we were thrilled to interview you and find more about you as a YA writer !!! Hope you come back to visit us soon !
* * * * *
In Her Own Time
The Bean Books, #2
by Christine Potter
Romance/Time
Travel/Suspense
63K,
Evernight Teen Publishing
Summer 1970: Bean Donohue’s sixteen, she’s
finally got a good band together, and she’s crazy in love with her artist
boyfriend Zak.
She’s also about to get the coolest summer job ever, and her
impossible mom’s conveniently out of town.
So why does she keep
ending up in 1953…or 1779? And who's that guy with the black ponytail and
the Kent State t-shirt?
He knows way too much about her. Should Zak
be worried—or should Bean?
Buy Links: Evernight Teen Amazon ARe
14+ due to
sexuality and adult situations
Excerpt:
Bean found herself alone, just outside the
house. The air was sharp. Tall trees that had just been in full summer leaf
were suddenly bare, and smaller than they’d been seconds before. Bean tried to peer
back in through the kitchen window, but the lights were off, and she couldn't
see anything. She stood in her side yard, sometime in the past. It was
happening again…
And It was enough of a shock
that she didn’t even know how she felt. She’d been glowing from the night
before with Zak, happy to have had Sam pound on her door with music and
laughter. Bean stuck her hands in the pockets of her thin blue cotton robe, and
looked up. The sky looked like early afternoon: pale sunlight behind a thin,
high layer of clouds. In front of her house, underneath the living room windows
stood three overgrown barberry bushes. Bean had never seen them before. The
ground was hard and cold, and she was barefoot.
Alrighty, then. Damn
it. Lately, Bean had been perfectly fine with life in 1970. What
year is this supposed to be? She had no idea.
Zak said love is always why this happens, she thought.
But then she felt the happiness beginning to leak out of her. If Zak were
right, why had she slipped backwards just now? She had a whole June weekend to
spend with him, feeling nothing but love…and now, this.
It made no sense. All she could do was watch, deal, and try to keep warm.
It really was pretty chilly. She tried jogging
in place to warm up, which helped a bit. Her toes were soon numb, though.
After a few minutes, a black car with big, round bumpers pulled into the
driveway and clattered to a halt. There was the rasp of an emergency brake
being set. And Bean’s father—very
young, and too thin for his thick, grey winter coat—got out of the driver’s side. Bean put a hand
over her mouth, and watched as he ran urgently around to the passenger’s door. He yanked it
open.
“Can you make it?” Bean’s dad called into the
car.
“Of course I can
make it,” said her mother’s voice. A high-heeled
shoe and a nylon stocking-covered leg emerged. Then came the rest of Bean’s
mom, wearing a brown tweed overcoat and a floppy green beret. She walked a bit
unsteadily, clutching a bundle of white blankets wrapped around a baby, which
began to wail.
“Sh-sh. Sh-sh-sh,” said Julia as she wobbled up
the walk. She stopped when she got to the front door.
“You wouldn’t happen to have remembered the
house keys, would you, Tom?” she called. Tom patted down three pockets in his
coat before something jingled. He rushed a key into the lock. Then he looked
back at the car. Both its front doors now stood wide open, and he sprinted back down the
walk toward them. Bean sucked in her breath hard, taking it all in. Was that
her days-old self,crying, inside the house? Sixteen-year-old Bean felt a little
weepy, too. It’s 1953, then, she thought. Just after my actual
birthday. Wow…
The wind blew and she shivered.
And then there was a hand on her
arm.
Book 1 in The Bean Books series
is now available:
Time Runs Away With Her
About the Author:
Christine Potter lives in a small town not far
from the setting of Time Runs Away With
Her, near the mighty Hudson River, in a very old (1740) house with two
ghosts. According to a local ghost
investigator, they are harmless, “just very old spirits who don’t want to
leave.” She doesn’t want them to.
Christine’s house contains two pipe organs (her
husband is a choir director/organist), two spoiled tom cats, and too many
books. She’s also a poet, and the author
of two collections of verse, Zero Degrees
at First Light, and Sheltering in
Place. Christine taught English and Creative Writing for years in the
Clarkstown Schools. She DJ’s free form
rock and roll weekly on Area24radio.com, and plays guitar, dulcimer, and tower
chimes.
All purpose me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/christine.potter.543
Series FB page: https://www.facebook.com/beanstravels/
My blog: http://chrispygal.weebly.com
Twitter: @chrispygal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrispygal/
* * *
Giveaway:
$10 ET GC and ebook copy
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/fdb586fd87/" rel="nofollow"
data-raflid="fdb586fd87" data-theme="classic"
data-template="" id="rcwidget_k8wl5hgx">a Rafflecopter
giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment