ASIN: B00GISKFWQ
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Pages/File Size: 198pages/473KB
Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book
BLURB from Goodreads
When the past and the present collide…
Hailey Kent knows how she wants to spend the summer before her junior year in high school: hanging out at the pool with Jenna, her BFF; riding her new trail bike on Vermont’s country roads; and flirting with Jenna’s hot older brother, Cody.
Hailey’s plans are shattered when a post-graduation accident puts her brother into a coma. Feeling guilty for not stopping him from going out that night, she seeks solace in exploring an old house and its overgrown gardens.
A mysterious correlation of events propels her back in time to the Vietnam War era, where she realizes she can use her knowledge of one boy’s fate to save his life.
But first, Hailey needs to convince him of her sanity.
BOOK LINKS
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is your name,
where were you born and where do you live now?
Mia
Grace is my pen name. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and have lived in
Vermont for the past forty years.
Did you always want
to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?
While
I have always been interested in writing, I also had a love of biology and
chemistry and pursued that as my college degree. I currently combine my
interest in writing with my interest in science, in that I write and edit
nutrition information for consumers as my profession.
Did it take a long
time to get your first book published?
I
have been writing “seriously” since the 1980s, but first made the effort to
publish in 2011. In between, my writing often took a backseat to family needs.
What is the name of
your latest book, and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what
would you say?
Correlation: Time-traveling
teenager seeks to redeem herself for previous tragic mistake by saving a young
man from going to Vietnam.
Who is your publisher?
Or do you self publish?
Red
Adept Publishing is my publisher for Correlation.
I have also self-published Found Days.
Which of your books
were easier/harder to write than the others?
Found Days was easier. I knew
exactly where I wanted it to go, and it moved along quickly. Correlation had its fits and starts and
required a significant rewrite before I was happy with it.
What can we expect
from you in the future?
I
have two different books coming up. One is another young adult time travel. The
other is historical fiction.
Where do you get your
book plot ideas from?
So
far, all of my ideas have come from experiences in my own life. The genesis of Found Days was a near-fatal accident on
a turnpike. In Correlation, it was my
own experience in discovering an abandoned house that inspired all kinds of
ideas about the stories it might tell.
Do you read all the
reviews of your book/books?
To
date, I’ve self-published four books, three of them under another name. Correlation will be the first published
with a publisher. While my books have not generated a lot of reviews, the ones
I have received have been extremely helpful in giving me information about what
readers find most appealing and most annoying. One of my books also was
fortunate enough to inspire an online discussion group which provided me with
insight into what the readers liked and disliked. It was great.
Would you ever ask a
reviewer to change their review if it was not all positive about your
book/books?
Would
anyone actually do this? A review is meant to be a service to the public, and
it needs to be honest. As long as a review is based on the right things, a
tough, but fair, review is the most useful for the writer who wishes to grow. Five-star
reviews are nice, but if they don’t offer information about why the book rates
a five, that doesn’t tell me much. Likewise, I do have to chuckle at the
low-rated review that is based on the reader not liking the character’s
behavior. If the reader finished the book, I assume it couldn’t have been that
bad. Very few people profess to love Scarlett O’Hara, but they still read Gone With the Wind from cover to cover.
Do you choose a title
first, or write the book then choose the title?
I’ve
done both. Correlation had three
previous titles. It started out as On Borrowed
Time, became The House on Redemption Hill, then just
Redemption Hill. The final title was the publisher’s choice.
Do you decide on
character traits before writing the
whole book or as you go along?
Character
traits are defined before I start the book. My stories are very
character-driven, so I need to know my characters before the story starts.
Do you basic
plot/plan for your book, before you actually begin writing it out? Or do you
let the writing flow and see where it takes the story?
I
rarely know where my stories are going. I take strong characters and put them
into a situation, then let them take the story where they will. I may have a
basic idea of what I think is going to happen, but stories generally reveal
themselves as the characters take over. Once, I tried writing a out of sequence
and found that didn’t work. The later chapters that I had pre-written no longer
fit by the time I reached them. The characters inevitably take the story in
their own direction and things change.
Have you ever
suffered from a "writer's block"? What did you do to get past the
"block"?
I’ve
had stories get to a point where I can’t see my way out of a dilemma. When that
happens, I accept the fact that it may take a while, but the answer will come
to me. And so far, it always has. I spend a lot of time thinking about my
writing as I travel to my day job. So far, my answers have come on that drive,
and I just have to have faith that it will happen.
Have you ever based
characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to
you?
My
characters are based on “types” of people I’ve known—the older generation of no-nonsense
women who are the mainstay of a small town’s church suppers, for instance, or a
good person who’s lived a hardscrabble life but has never lost his sense of
humor. I’m always careful to change details enough so no one can point to a
character and identify an individual, but I often have someone in mind when I
start out.
As
for events, absolutely. As I mentioned before, my stories are based on my own
experiences and also on stories I’ve heard about unusual circumstances faced by
others.
What is your favorite
book and Why? Have you read it more than once?
I
have several books I’ve read more than once. I absolutely love Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
and reread it every couple of years. It literally transports me to a
snow-covered island off the coast of Washington state. I’ve read A Tale of Two Cities more times than I
can count. It’s a fascinating story. I also reread Thomas Hardy books
periodically. I love his use of language.
Did you have a favorite
author as a child?
I
read all of Louisa May Alcott’s books, starting with Little Women. I also read every book in the Anne of Green Gables series. I loved The Boxcar Children, and I remember reading The Twins series by
Lucy Fitch Perkins.
Do you or would you
ever use a pen name?
Mia
Grace is a pen name I use for my young adult books. I like separating them from
my contemporary women’s fiction, which I write under my own name, Rosemary
Fifield.
Where
can readers follow you?
Website: www.rosemaryfifield.com
Twitter: @MiaGrace_author. Website: www.rosemaryfifield.com
Goodreads: Goodreads/Mia_Grace
EXCERPT
Chapter
One
“I can’t believe how bad we were!”
Hailey Kent stood on the sidelines of the sunny playing field and brushed the
loose dirt from the front of her Fenton High T-shirt. On the expanse of
trampled grass before her, the two remaining pairs of sophomore
girls moved in perfect synchrony toward the finish of the three-legged sack
race.
Hailey swiped sweat from her forehead
with a gritty forearm as she watched the lead couple. “Look at Lexie and Jess.
They’re speed demons.”
“They’re coordinated,” Jenna Wells
answered. “And they have a system.”
“We had a system. You just don’t know
your right leg from your left.” Hailey rubbed the grass stains from her knees.
“We’re going to have to hit your pool after this.” She stood up and shaded her
eyes with one hand, peering toward the baseball diamond in the distance.
A familiar figure stepped up to bat in
the softball game in progress between the seniors and the faculty. Cody. He
stood poised over the plate, his practice swings confident as he faced the
faculty pitcher. Her heart flip-flopped. “Is that Cody?”
Jenna followed the direction of Hailey’s
gaze and scrunched her cute little pug nose at the sight of her older brother.
“Yep. The weirdo was all psyched this morning about this game. Is David
playing?”
Hailey’s delightful vision of Cody at
the breakfast table faded at the mention of her own brother. “No, he’s skipping
school today.”
Jenna’s chocolate brown eyes went wide
in mock disbelief. “Skip a field day? His last one ever?”
“Don’t remind me.” Hailey turned back to
the grassy field in time to see the last of her sack-racing classmates lurch
across the finish line. “I have to give up my
birthday so we can celebrate his
stupid graduation. He’d skip that, too, if my parents would let him.” Just
talking about it made her teeth clench.
Jenna picked up the sweatshirt she had
tossed on the grass. “What did your mom say about the taco party?”
“I can do it next weekend.” Hailey
mimicked her mom’s voice, “‘David’s only going to graduate once, but you can
have a birthday party any time.’ Like turning sixteen is no big deal.”
“Maybe it’s for the best. More kids’ll
be able to come next weekend.”
Hailey couldn’t resist smirking at her
impish friend, who’d recently dyed a streak of ruby red in her long blond hair
against her mother’s wishes. “Plus maybe you
won’t be grounded by then.”
Their classmates were coming in from the
sidelines to meet at the finish line, a clump of rowdy teenage girls in short
shorts and Fenton tees celebrating the end of the school year with cheers and
high-fives.
As she and Hailey strolled across the
sunny lawn to join them, Jenna asked, “Do you think your folks’re going to get
you that off-road bike?”
“I hope so. We’ve got to stay in shape
so we can kick butt next year.”
Jenna gave her a playful grin. “Uh, we?”
Hailey grinned back at her. “Yeah, we—you and me, sister. We’re biking
every day this summer. And next year, we’re
smokin’ this race.”
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