I'm so excited to be kicking off the Boldly Bookish Blog Tour today! The tour features titles from four lovely authors: Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt, Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen, The Devil You Know by Trish Doller, and The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord. The corresponding book tour is going to be phenomenal, and I'll be sharing a list of the tour stops below!
Today, I'm honored to be sharing a guest post from Trish Doller, author of Something Like Normal, Where the Stars Still Shine and the upcoming The Devil You Know. I love chatting with Trish on Twitter, and she's been on the blog for an interview... twice. So looking forward to meeting her when she's in New York City, but for now, please enjoy her thoughts on the unique family situations she writes into her stories.
When I started working on Something Like Normal, I had already figured out what life was like in Afghanistan for Travis, but I wasn’t sure what he would find when he came home. So it occurred to me that if he returned and found a mess—a metaphorical minefield after leaving the real one behind—it would complicate his recovery.
It was a similar experience with Callie in Where the Stars Still Shine. I knew she’d had a rough life with her mom, so it was tempting to make everything fall into place when she went to live with her dad. But life is rarely that easy, right? I started thinking about what her new family might look like. What if she had half-siblings? A wicked stepmother would be an obvious cliché, but what about a stepmother struggling to find a middle ground between supporting her husband’s child and looking out for her own children? What about an well-meaning extended family?
For The Devil You Know, I already knew the story would be the road trip. The “escape” that Cadie wanted from her real life. But what made that life something from which she felt she had to escape? I started piling on responsibillties—work, school, family—and that’s when I started playing with the idea of Cadie as a surrogate parent to her little brother. Where is the boundary between sibling and parent? When does being a surrogate parent become too much? And when must the actual parent step in and take responsibility? In the beginning, Cadie’s family is not functioning well, but they love each other and I think that’s a pretty accurate representation of a lot of families.
I think if a writer is going to do justice to contemporary YA, family is important. I mean, I could write all my character as sibling-less orphans—but wait—they would probably end up in a foster care situation or maybe a group home and there you…a different kind of family. I don’t think it was ever my intent to make family such a big part of my writing, but now it’s woven into the seam work of who I am as an author. Family is messy and really interesting and it’s usually where you find the best story.
Thank you so much, Trish, for sharing your thoughts on families, especially in contemporary YA. I've always found the way family is portrayed in your novels to be very honest, and I love that you mentioned each one in your post. And, for you readers, if you haven't yet checked out Trish's novels, you should most definitely do so.
TRISH DOLLER is the author of Something Like Normal and Where the Stars Still Shine. She's a former newspaper reporter and radio personality who now works as a bookseller at the Ft Myers B&N. She lives in Fort Myers, Florida, with her two mostly grown children, two dogs, and a pirate. (For real.) Visit her online: Website || Twitter || Tumblr.
Eighteen-year-old Arcadia wants adventure. Living in a tiny Florida town with her dad and four-year-old brother, Cadie spends most of her time working, going to school, and taking care of her family. So when she meets two handsome cousins at a campfire party, she finally has a chance for fun. They invite her and friend to join them on a road trip, and it's just the risk she's been craving-the opportunity to escape.
But what starts out as a fun, sexy journey quickly becomes dangerous when she discovers that one of them is not at all who he claims to be. One of them has deadly intentions.
A road trip fling turns terrifying in this contemporary story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Thanks to the lovely ladies over at Bloomsbury, we have a giveaway! The winner will get their choice of any of the four books featured on this tour: The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord, The Devil You Know by Trish Doller, Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen, and Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt. This giveaway is US ONLY and entrants must be 13 years or older to enter.
Don't forget to check out the rest of the blog tour:
May 18th -- Alexa Loves Books
May 19th -- The Eater of Books!
May 20th -- Mary Had A Little Book Blog
May 21st -- Jessabella Reads
May 22nd -- Blue Sky Shelf
May 25th -- Ageless Pages Reviews
May 26th -- Mundie Moms
May 27th -- Reading Teen
May 28th -- On Starships and Dragonwings
May 29th -- The Quiet Concert
And catch Trish Doller, Emery Lord, A.C. Gaughen & Tiffany Schmidt at a tour stop near you!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment! I love seeing what you have to say, and will try to reply (here or on Twitter) as soon as I can :)