Friday, July 31, 2015

GUEST POST: This or That with author Ellen Hopkins!


 
This or That: Getting to know you….


Favorite Authors

Stephen King, Ken Kesey, John Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Hunter S. Thompson

Favorite Books

Sometimes A Great Notion, Hotel New Hampshire, Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, Little Big Man

Favorite Literary Characters

Mac McMurphy,

Things That Inspire You

The little oasis I’ve created, the view from my front windows, people who conquer obstacles, early morning runs, being alone in the wilderness.

Books That Made You Want To Become A Writer
Sometimes a Great Notion, Of Mice and Men, The Lord of the Rings, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird


Bookish Pet Peeves

Plot in favor of character, jumping straight into an action scene on page one, motiveless characters, overabundant dialect, unsatisfying endings

Pieces of Advice you have for aspiring writers.

Don’t write to trends. Character in favor of plot. Don’t write for fame, money, reviews or awards. Write courageously. Write the stories that keep you awake at night thinking about them.
Favorite Movies/TV Shows


Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Mad Men, Modern Family, Vikings

Things you wish you knew before you published

The value of early platform building; that publishing one book is rarely life-changing; how hard it is maintaining balance between career and family; the stress involved with touring/promotion; never to leave promotion completely up to your publisher.

Places you would consider paradise

The Gold Coast of Australia, Costa Rica, The Virgin Islands, Greece, Italian Wine Country

Foods you wish you could and never gain a pound

French fries, Haagen Dazs (almost any flavor), thick crust pizza, Kettle Chips, lobster mac and cheese

Things that bring a smile to your face

My kids’ accomplishments; my goofball German shepherd pup, Wyn; the smell of sagebrush after it rains; quarter-sized snowflakes; my garden in full bloom.

Words you try not to use.

Dude, fabulous, totally, dimwad, f**k (though you wouldn’t know it to read some of my Facebook posts)

Words you love.

Copacetic, capricious, delectable, pogonip, emanate

Places you'd like to take your laptop to and write.

Big Sur, Cape Cod, Yosemite, Lizard Island (Au), Sequoia National Park

Favorite desserts

Crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, gelato, éclairs, cherry pie

Cities you want to visit or your favorite cities?

Sydney, Paris, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Prague



Words that describe yourself

Outspoken, engaged, funny, compassionate, strong

Games you like to play

Monopoly, Sudoku, Scrabble, Solitaire, Yahtzee

Things you have in your purse/bag/wallet now

iPhone, sunglasses, keys, $20, heart-shaped piece of agate

Pet peeves

Rude drivers, Fox News, people on their phones in inappropriate places, airplane seatmates who invade my limited space, the newly-coined term “religious liberty”

BLOG TOUR: LOVE LIES BENEATH by Ellen Hopkins

About The Book:


By: Ellen Hopkins Publisher: Atria Books Publication date: July 21, 2015 Pages: 320
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Collateral comes a gripping novel about a woman caught in a love affair that could be her salvation...or her undoing. Tara is gorgeous, affluent, and forty. She lives in an impeccably restored Russian Hill mansion in San Francisco. Once a widow, twice divorced, she’s a woman with a past she prefers keeping to herself. Enter Cavin Lattimore. He’s handsome, kind, charming, and the surgeon assigned to Tara following a ski accident in Lake Tahoe. In the weeks it takes her to recover, Cavin sweeps her off her feet and their relationship blossoms into something Tara had never imagined possible. But then she begins to notice some strange things: a van parked outside her home at odd times, a break-in, threatening text messages and emails. She also starts to notice cracks in Cavin’s seemingly perfect personality, like the suppressed rage his conniving teenage son brings out in him, and the discovery that Cavin hired a detective to investigate her immediately after they met. Now on crutches and housebound, Tara finds herself dependent on the new man in her life—perhaps too much so. She’s handling rocky relationships with her sister and best friend, who are envious of her glamour and freedom; her prickly brother-in-law, who is intimidated by her wealth and power; and her estranged mother. However perfect Tara’s life appears, things are beginning to get messy. Writing in beautiful prose, Ellen Hopkins unveils a new style while evoking her signature poetic form that readers fell in love with in Collateral and Triangles.
Goodreads | IndieBound | B&N | Amazon | Powell's
Follow The Tour:


July 20th Fangirlish – Review, Author Interview
July 20th - J & J Book Bangers – Review
July 21st - Bookhounds – Review, Top Ten
July 21st - Reads All The Books – Review
July 21st - Fiction Dreams – Guest Post
July 22nd - Between The Pages Book Blog – Review, Interview, Top Ten
July 23rd - Actin' Up With Books – Review
July 23rd - All For Love of the Word – Review
July 24th - Books & Bling – Review
July 24th - Ramblings of a Perpetual New Girl – Review, Author Interview
July 27th - Backseats and Airports – Review
July 28th - Books and Ladders – Review
July 29th - Journeys & Life – Guest Post
July 29th - Book Chic – Review, Author Interview
July 29th - Room With Books – Spotlight/ Excerpt
July 30th Bibliophilia, Please – Guest Post
July 31st - Alec John Belle – Review
July 31st - Bookish - Debbie – Review  
July 31st - Pixie Vixen Book Reviews – Review
July 31st - Heather Ann Book Reviews  - Review 
  

About The Author:


“After eight highly successful young adult novels-in-verse, I decided to explore more mature subject matter and wrote my first two novels for adults utilizing my signature verse-style formatting. I changed directions with my third, Love Lies Beneath, choosing to write in prose to better connect with an older audience, some of whom might be resistant to the fiction/verse merger. I will continue to write YA, of course. (My twelfth YA novel publishes Fall 2015.) Teen characters are hugely appealing to me. But some topics I want to write about demand adults as main characters. My first adult novel, Triangles, explores midlife directional changes, and my second, Collateral, follows a Marine couple through four deployments, with the inevitable consequences. Please visit the BOOKS page here to learn more. Love Lies Beneath is sexy, chilling noir fiction about a woman who has it all—wealth, beauty, possessions; everything, except love, which she finally discovers at forty, after three failed marriages. While everything is perfect at first, things change when the doctor’s teenage son moves in. It’s then the lies begin to appear. But who, in fact, is the liar? Expect the sequel to Love Lies Beneath in 2016 and more books for mature audiences in the future.”
Goodreads | Website | Twitter |Facebook | Pinterest | Tumblr
Giveaway:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Event Hosted By: