What’s your favorite flower and why?

The tiare – which is a Tahitian gardenia. I love this flower first of all for the amazing fragrance, but also for its simplicity. I’ve been a Polynesian dancer for most of my life, and it is a much-loved flower that our group often uses in costumes.

Oooo! So pretty I had to include a shot. Gardenias mean “ecstasy and transport” in the language of flowers, and they’re one of my favorite fragrances.

Is there a quotation you live by or have posted at your desk?

Chocolate fixes everything. LOL. Actually, I love quotes, and though I don’t keep one by my desk, I often have a particular one running through my mind. The one I’m remembering most these days is: Fear ends where faith begins.

Agreed! It takes a lot of faith to write a book, don’t you think?

Which book do you wish you could live inside?

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson is one of my favorite novels, and while I would not want to be around during some of the extremely painful situations Kate and Teri had to navigate their way through, I did love the feel of the small town and loved the characters. That would be a great book to live in I think!

I thought Catalyst was fascinating, too.  Who’s your favorite dead writer and what book of his/ hers would you recommend? (We don’t want to hurt the feelings of the living here!)

I’m having to think really hard here, because I only recently (in the last ten years) discovered my love for reading. As a young adult, I read almost nothing, and feel like I have so much to catch up on now. I haven’t (yet) read any Jane Austen or even Catcher in the Rye. (Don’t throw things at me, please! I’m trying really hard to make up for my life-long lack or reading!)

I’m going to have to say F. Scott Fitzgerald, as The Great Gatsby is one book I loved that comes to mind.

What book have you read more than any other and why?

Like I said above, I’m playing catch-up, so I rarely read a book more than once. There have been a couple, though, that I’ve read twice: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen.

Love, love, love Wes in The Truth About Forever.  How do you structure your writing time? (specific details appreciated)

I write for about an hour a day. My son (by the grace of God) still naps at six years old, and I put all other things aside during that one hour. “Slow and steady wins the race” is my motto for this stage in my life, and at least six days per week I spend that hour working toward outlining, first drafting, or revisions on one of my works in progress. I always have more than one project on the go at a time, and depending on my mood or focus, I may focus on a book that only needs line-edting one day, and maybe on another book that needs major structural changes on another day. Or if I have a spurt of creative ideas, I may feel the need to just outline or write out a scene I’m seeing in my head for no particular purpose at all. But it all keeps my creativity flowing. I find it difficult to get back into writing after even just a few days off.

What was the hardest part of writing Losing Faith?

The hardest part of writing Losing Faith was making the mystery element work. In fact, it took me a long time during the outlining and early drafts to admit it was a mystery! Getting all the clues to surface at the right time, adding in red herrings, etc. these are all things I needed an incredible amount of help from my critique partners to make work.

Why did you choose to write about a cult-like group?

Initially, I just had the idea of a dead sister with a secret. As I started to play around with ideas of the secrets the sister could have he`ld, I received very encouraging “oohs” and “aahs” from friends and critique partners when I hit on the cult idea. As I started to write the outline for Losing Faith, the idea really came alive to me.

What’s the best part of being a Tenner?

You! Well, okay, you and the other ninety(?) something people who have given me their support and words of encouragement! It’s so wonderful to feel like you’re not alone on this amazing but scary journey. I’ve had so many questions answered (without even having to ask them myself) and had so many friends pick me up when I’ve been down. I really couldn’t ask for a better support system on this roller coaster ride!

I know what you mean.  Writing would be so lonely without the gang.  Thanks so much and best of luck with the launch!!

Thank YOU, Amy! I can’t wait to hear what the language of flowers says for tiare!

You can find out more about Denise and her novel at her website or follow her on Twitter, @denisejaden.

Giveaway Alert!!!

Denise has generously agreed to send a copy of Losing Faith to one of my faithful followers. So you will receive one entry for every way you follow me or Denise. Please link (if possible) and list how you do it, including blog followers, Facebook friends, Facebook Fans of Forget-Her-Nots, Twitter followers, @denisejaden & @amybrecountwhit. Contest for US & Canadian addresses. Contest ends on 9/13 at noon. You must be 13 years old to enter. Please comment below to enter. Thanks!!

Most of my summer has been focused on promoting Forget-Her-Nots wherever I happened to be. I did some school visits, a camp visit, arboretum visits, a bunch of bookstore visits, conservatory visits, and lots of cold calls to flower lovers and book store owners. In short, I was very extroverted for a writer. It’s been awesome, and I’ve met a TON of wonderful people who love my book or can’t wait to read it. But now it’s time to get back to writing and figuring out what the next book will be about.  I need some quiet writing time. That’s new school year resolution Number One.

Number two: I also want to get back to my interview series with writers, bloggers, librarians, etc. This weekend Denise Jaden, a Tenner buddy, whose novel Losing Faith releases soon, will drop by.  So stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are a few pics from Bring YA2PA! I had such a wonderful time hanging out with writer buddies Shannon Delany, Josh Berk, Jenn Hubbard, Jeri Ready-Smith, Jon Skovron, Holly Nicole Hoxter, Stephanie Kuehnert, and others. I’ve had the privilege of running into them quite a lot lately, and it’s been amazingly fun. Thanks so much to Children’s Book World in Haverford, PA, for lugging all our books there to sign and donating a percentage to help PA libraries!!  And I was also excited to see bloggers Kristi, aka The Story Siren, James, aka Book Chic, and StephSu there to support Harmony. Amazing!!

For budding writers, here’s the something to file away: BringPA2YA was completely new this year, but the blogger/organizer, Harmony, is so wonderful and enthusiastic that she talked a bunch of writers into coming and doing workshops, including me. And, did I mention, that Harmony is only 15 years old!!  What an impressive woman.  Before the main author signing, unpublished authors could register for workshops with writers, like me, Stephanie, Shannon, Jon, and Josh.  But since the event was brand-new, not many new writers signed up. So those that did were three on three;  that’s three published writers critiquing the first chapters of three novice authors. Just try to beat those odds. Jon, Shannon, and I had a great time working together to help the writers, and it was all for a great cause:  Pennsylvania libraries.

A mini Tenner meet up!!  Holly, me, Berk, and Jenn at the signing.

And here’s me signing a book for the wonderful Anne, who blogs as Potter, Percy, and I. She and her mom drove all the way from Pittsburgh to come see the 18 authors and more. Harmony’s in the coral dress in the middle. (below) Now to find that author cave … it’s here somewhere ….

August 21st      1pm-3pm

And, the authors* signing will be

That’s EIGHTEEN fabulous authors signing from 1pm-3pm on August 21st.

But there’s more…during this time, we’ll also have other fundraisers going on, including:

-a basket raffle (featuring things like a signed book from MEG CABOT)

-a bake sale (so you can feed your chocolate addiction AND your book addiction)

-a used book sale (we’ll have everything from picture books to YA to adult books!)

For the aspiring writers out there, it gets even better! We’ll be holding TWO writing workshops!

Listen & Critique Workshop – Authors Josh Berk, Amy Brecount White, Stephanie Kuehnert, Jeri Smith-Ready, Jon Skovron, Meg Medina, and Shannon Delany will each be speaking on an aspect of writing they feel is most important. Attendees will then be split into groups of 3-5, each with an author, based on genre of writing. Each members of the group will read the first three pages of a WIP from another members and critique it as a group. The author will lead the discussion and answer any specific questions about writing by the members of the group. This workshop will run from 10am-noon and will cost $40.

Teens on Writing Workshop – Teen authors Chelsea Swiggett and Kieryn Nicolas will give an hour-long workshop on writing as a teenager. This workshop is geared at those 13-18 with an interest in writing – no work-in-progress is necessary. The workshop will run from 1pm-2pm and cost $10.

Both of these workshops will have limited spots and require pre-registration. Official registration forms will be coming later this week but if you’d like to reserve a spot now, send an email to bringya2pa[at]yahoo[dot]com.

In the meantime, you can catch me revealing one of my many deep dark secrets (ha!) on the grande finale to Holly Cupala’s Tell Me A Secret blog tour. Holly did it up and this is a very fun vlog with lots of authors –L.K. Madigan, Lisa Yee, Janet Fox — revealing secrets. Just click here to see it. Love the safety-pin shirt, Holly!

And — woo hoo! — the awesome trailer for TMAS also debuts today. Catch it here. And be sure to head over to Holly’s site for lots of cool giveaways.

Congrats to another Tenner buddy of mine, Blythe Woolston, whose book, The Freak Observer, is just out. Get a taste of her novel from her trailer here.

Both of these novels will reassure fans of contemporary YA fiction that the genre is thriving. Congrats Holly and Blythe!

I am headed to my summer haunt on the beaches of Lake Michigan with my large family. This summer has been blistering, and I’m thrilled to be able to escape the craziness that is D.C. for awhile. I have a huge stack of books to read by lots of my YA friends. And, if you haven’t read The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson yet, do so. It’s lovely and poetic and whimsical and wrenching.

I will, however, be making stops along the way at some fine indie bookstores to sign Forget-Her-Nots. So please come see me in you live in Michigan. I’ll be in Ann Arbor at Nicola’s, in Traverse City at Horizon Books, and in Leland at Leelanau Books. And please keep your fingers crossed that I hear some good news about a certain manuscript soon. Also, I hope to see you at the amazing Bring YA to PA on August 21st in West Chester, PA.

Sweet basil and orange crocuses to you!

Today I’m also excited to be hosting an interview and ARC giveaway for fellow Tenner, Kiersten White. Her debut novel, Paranormalcy, hits the stands in August. It’s a fun, fast read, and I could already see the movie in my head. Welcome, Kiersten!

What’s your favorite flower and why?

Lilies—both Day Lilies, a beautiful bouquet of which my husband gave me the first Valentine’s Day we were together, and Lilies of the Valley, because my grandmother used to sing me a song about them and I think they’re so dainty and lovely.

Lovely! In the language of flowers, day lilies are for flirtation while lilies of the valley are for the return of happiness. What a combo!

Is there a quotation you live by or have posted at your desk?

You know, there really isn’t.  I’ve never been one to put a lot of stock in quotes.  My theory is that if I can’t be inspired to do it on my own, I probably shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.  Besides which, I don’t have a desk!  I write at the kitchen counter next to the stove during the day, and on the couch at night.  Although there is a very nice painting of a shark that watches me while I write.  But he doesn’t offer any quotes.

Which book do you wish you could live inside?

Wouldn’t that be terribly small and cramped?  I can’t imagine it being at all comfortable to live inside of a book.  Plus, think of the mildew when it rains!

Oh.  Probably not what you meant.  The first book that always comes to mind is Harry Potter.  Who doesn’t wish their adolescence was spent in Hogwarts?

Who’s your favorite dead writer and what book of his/ hers would you recommend?

Willa Cather.  My Antonia is a beautiful, rich book, and O’Pioneers has one of the most devastatingly beautiful kisses ever written.

[Note to self:  Reread Willa Cather!]

What book have you read more than any other and why?

Other than the scriptures (I’m a pretty religious person and read them daily), I have probably re-read the Harry Potter series more times than any other books.

How do you structure your writing time?

I really don’t structure it at all.  I’m a full-time mommy, so I used to write during naptime and as soon as my kids went to bed. Then naptime disappeared (a fact I still mourn daily) so I would write after their early bedtime.  Then somehow the bedtime ritual with my rather difficult but infinitely adorable son turned into an hour-and-a-half long ordeal.  I really wish I could have a regular schedule, but I write when I can, where I can, and however much I can.  If I’m on a deadline, I go to the library as soon as my husband gets home in the evenings and get a couple of hours in before it closes.  Otherwise I just take what I can get and am grateful that I’m a pretty fast writer.

In Paranormalcy, accessorizing is important to Evie.  What’s your most important accessory and why?

Flip-flops.  I simply can’t live without them and can’t abide other shoes.  I really ought to go for heels since I’m severely lacking in height, but my aversion to socks and discomfort is too strong.  It’s a good thing I live in San Diego and can wear sandals year-round!  It’s funny because Evie is very girly (in a positive, fun way—I don’t think it’s a bad thing) but I’m really not.  Just another example of how we are not our characters!

If you could be any paranormal creature, what would you pick and why?

I know my faeries are kind of amoral, if not downright evil, but the ability to walk between our world and the Faerie Realms and use the Paths to get to anywhere on earth they want to go at any time?  Yeah, that wouldn’t suck.

What’s the best part of being a Tenner?

It can be a scary, stressful, lonely journey figuring out this whole author thing.  It’s so nice sharing experiences with other authors and realizing we’re all floundering, learning as we go.  I’ve met so many perfectly lovely authors I never would have otherwise, and been introduced to some seriously rocking books as well!

I know just what you mean. Thanks so much for coming by, Kiersten!

And if you can’t wait to get your hands on Paranormalcy, you’re in luck. I picked up an ARC at ALA and would love to give it to a deserving reader, along with some signed Forget-Her-Nots swag. Here’s how to enter:

+ 1 entry for following me on Twitter (@amybrecountwhit)

+ 1 entry for following Kiersten on Twitter (@kierstenwhite)

+ 2 entries for friending Kiersten on Facebook

+ 2 entries for friending me on Facebook

+3 entries for telling me what’s your favorite flower and why

Good luck and please comment below with entry details.  Contest is over on 7/26 at midnight, because I’m heading on vacation. Yay! Contest is open to anyone over 13 with a U.S. mailing address. Thanks for entering.

What’s your favorite flower and why?

My favorite flower is the Peony. Is there anything better than a handful of spring peonies in  a vase?

I adore peonies too.  In the Victorian language of flowers, they mean shame or bashfulness, but the Chinese meaning is good luck.  Let’s go with the Chinese this time!

Is there a quotation you live by or have posted at your desk?

I’ve always loved this Emerson  quote:

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

Which book do you wish you could live inside?

Frances Hodges Burnett’s The Secret Garden wins by a mile! One of my biggest recurring dreams is finding a door and discovering some wonderful space behind it—I think that has been entirely inspired by reading The Secret Garden as a child and wanting that so badly!

That’s one of my favorites too, as you could probably guess. Who’s your favorite dead writer and what book of his/ hers would you recommend?

My favorite dead writer is Herman Hesse. I love, love, love his coming of age novel, Demian and Siddhartha made a huge impact on me as a young person.

What book have you read more than any other and why?

It’s a tie between East of Eden, Damien, and The Fountainhead. I’m so over The Fountainhead now but for years I’d read it every fall!

How do you structure your writing time?

I have two kids, a husband, and an intense full-time job, so unfortunately “structure” and “writing time” are not words that are usually uttered in the same sentence! I write when I can steal the time, usually at night after the kids are in bed (which really cuts into my trashy TV watching time). My favorite way to write is to go to my family’s cabin for the weekend—no phone, no internet, no interruptions! I set the time for 40 minutes (a trick I learned from author Teri Hall) and write without stopping, then take a 20 minute break. I can do this for about three hours then I need to nap or take a walk before sitting down to do it again. I can get a LOT done in a weekend away.

That cabin sounds wonderful, and I’m might borrow Teri’s trick too.  How did you become interested in Mayan mysteries?

About ten years ago, I read a book called Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martin Prechtel, an American guy who moved to Mexico and ended up becoming a Maya shaman. That book introduced me to Maya cosmology, and once I dug deeper into that I discovered the Mayan Calendar mystery of 2012. There wasn’t much written about it back in 1999, but it completely captivated me and became the engine for what would become Prophecy of Days.

Love the origami-making monkey and the Feng Shui master. Did you intentionally give the novel an international feel?

I think we write about what we love, don’t you? We have to spend so much time with the material it would be difficult to write about things that we were not passionate about. I love travel and anything that has an international feel so naturally that was a big part of the book.

Why did you decide to set the novel in Scotland?

Well, mostly because I love everything about Scotland! I was inspired by the Isle of Skye and the big/boxy Dunvegan Castle that sits on it. I wanted a setting as far removed from the Mayalands of Mexico as possible, and a place that had a rich history with ancient cultures, sites, and symbols.

What are you working on now?

I’m taking a short writing break! I have another finished manuscript, completely different from Prophecy of Days, that I need to do a bit of revision on but I’m trying to enjoy the summer and my kids before I go on lockdown. I’ll be getting my editorial letter on Prophecy of Days, Book two: The Serpent’s Coil any day now and once I get that I’ll be on a serious revision schedule. I’m also in the dreaming stages for the next book. I have two ideas and am trying to figure out which one I’d be more passionate about writing. One would take a lot of research; the other would take some intricate plotting. I guess I’m weight the advantages/disadvantages before diving headlong into writing.

Thanks so much for the interview, Amy!

Thanks for coming by, Christy, and hope you have a wonderful summer! You can find out more about Christy and her novels here or at her blog.

First off, Holly Cupala. We met at the Teen Author Carnival at BEA and later offered to host interviews for each other. She’s a readergirlz diva too.  Next thing I knew, she was staying at my house for the ALA long weekend. (I did invite her!) We had nearly matching schedules, and it was so fun to hang out together. Her novel, Tell Me A Secret, just released on 6/22.  I highly recommend it, as do Deb Caletti and Ellen Hopkins! Holly is sweet, thoughtful, and always beautifully accessorized. Here we are (above) at the terrace of the W hotel after meeting lots of cool librarians at the HarperCollins breakfast and getting to wear Author, Author! buttons. The wonderful Jackie Dolamore, author of Magic Under Glass and a forthcoming mermaid novel, also stayed at my house, but I didn’t get a shot of us. I know lots were taken, so if you have one, please send it my way.

Holly and Jackie got lost on the way to the DC Kidlit night, which isn’t fun when it’s about 110 degrees out, and you have luggage. I rescued them from the horse and rider statue they had ended up at, and we had a fabulous time at the DC Kidlit drink night on Friday night. Huge thanks to Tami Lewis Brown and Sara Lewis Holmes for organizing it!! It was great fun to see Sara, Tami, Erin Murphy, Anne Marie Pace, Moira Donahue, Susan Kusel, and lots of other Kidlit locals.

After wandering through the booths on Saturday morning and picking up some great ARC’s, a bunch of Tenners met up for lunch at a tapas restaurant. Starting from the left and going clockwise, it’s me, Karen Kincy, Christina Gonzalez, Lindsey Leavitt, Holly Hoxter, Margie Gelbwasser, and Jackie. It was so fun to meet everyone in person and exchange writing adventures and misadventures. We ordered the unlimited tapas and had TONS of yummy food, but I didn’t want to eat anytime soon.

Except I did. Next up was a fantastic party at the home of Tami Lewis Brown to celebrate Katherine Patterson and the Vermont College writing program. Wow, was that party star-studded!! My highlight was getting to meet Carrie Jones and actually having a conversation with Nancy Werlin. I picked up her latest ARC, Extraordinary, and can’t wait to read it. I really enjoyed Impossible.

I’m thinking about having a very fun ALA ARC giveaway soon, so stay tuned. (I also got both Elizabeth Scott’s latest releases, although I had to do a double-take at one booth, as in … why is the Elizabeth Scott, whom I’d just met earlier that day at another booth, signing books for someone named Ivy Devlin. Duh, paranormal pseudonym.)

A subplot of my ALA weekend was that my husband was out of town, so I had to keep changing from author hat to mommy and back again. Holly and I had to detour back to Arlington (giving Pam, aka MotherReader, a ride to the metro) to pick up my son and his date and take them to Toy Story 3. (He doesn’t drive yet.) Holly was such a great sport! Then Holly and I met up with an amazing bunch of writers, librarians, and bloggers who had waited patiently for us at Austin Grill. Here’s the gang:

(from left: author Jeri Smith-Ready, Holly, teen librarian Tiffany, James (Book Chic), and author Stephanie Kuehnert)

And here I am with two of my favorite teen librarians, Drea, aka Book Blather, and Sarah, aka GreenBeanTeenQueen.

I also saw Harmony, a force behind Bring YA to PA, all over, including at the dinner. Here we are at the Harper booth in front of a poster for the amazing Lynn Rae Perkins’ new novel.  She’s a Greenwillowian too:

I spent Sunday morning giving our golden doodle, Jessie, a long walk and making blueberry pancakes before I deserted my kids to play author again. My signing was at 2:30, and the books were gone – poof - by 2:50. I was thrilled to see FHN so prominently displayed on the shelf in the HarperCollins booth. I got to hang out with my editor, Virginia Duncan, too. Here’s me on my signing high:  (notice book directly overhead)

Holly had her first-ever signing right after mine, so I hung out with some eager bloggers and HarperCollins folk for awhile. Then Holly and I jumped into my car to head to the Newbery Ball — I mean, banquet. We so elegantly changed in the restroom and then had a quiet glass of wine in the hotel bar and discovered that we had even more in common.  Holly and I were both interviewed on the SCBWI red carpet, which was great fun. I forgot to take pictures.

I’m a huge fan of Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, so I was thrilled that she was charming, witty, and warm in her speech. As a special treat, I got to sit next to Mary Quattlebaum, an author buddy from my Washington Post days.

We headed back down to the booths on Monday morning, but we were all feeling a bit glazed. I’m still a bit glazed, but excited to share a couple more shots:

Mitali (Perkins) and Mitali (MitaliandMe on twitter). I picked up a signed copy of Bamboo People and have heard it’s powerful. And another highlight was meeting the REAL John Green while he was standing in line and waiting to sign Heidi Kling’s Sea. (She’s in the background with her editor.) Pretty darn cool, and he was very nice and even congratulated me on publishing my book.

Right now, I’m exhausted after a very fun event last night at Stifel and Capra, a cool and ecletic store in Falls Church, VA. Next time I’ll have to leave my daughter at home, though. She found a few too many irresistables.

I feel like a chapter in my life has just ended, because I don’t have any more events until late July (in Ann Arbor and Leland, MI). I’m taking a much-needed break from the public life, although you can still find me here when I come out of my author/ researcher cave. And I’ll leave you with this lovely shot taken at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. (I visited their exhibit on Emily Dickinson and the language of flowers during my BEA excursion. Food for thought.)

If you’re in town, I’d love to see you on Sunday between 2:30 and 3 pm at the HarperCollins booth where I’ll be signing copies of FHN. And I am super-excited to be attending the Newbery Banquet with the DC Kidlit group on Sunday night. I’m a huge fan of When You Reach Me and can’t wait to hear Rebecca Stead speak.

Hope you can make it and that our paths cross!!

In other news, the marketing maven, Saundra Mitchell, sent our picture into Children’s Bookshelf from a recent books & co. event in Dayton, Ohio, and we made this issue.  Dude, you rock!

And congrats to Jessica, aka Confessions of a Bookaholic, for winning the ARC of Holly Cupala’s Tell Me A Secret in my recent contest.

I’m also excited to be able to give away an ARC of Tell Me a Secret to celebrate its pending release. (See below for details to enter.)  Welcome, Holly!

What’s your favorite flower and why?

It’s hard to pick a favorite! Big, chunky poppies are so scrumptious, as are peonies. I love simple daisies. I have this beautiful blue rose bush in my garden that I haven’t managed to kill yet, even with my black thumb. Maybe…snapdragons? Or lilacs? Lithodora? Is there a classification for multiple flower personality disorder…?

You can never have too many flowers.  And blue roses… cool!

Is there a quotation you live by or have posted at your desk?

My favorite quote comes via my librarian friend, Jackie Parker (http://interactivereader.blogspot.com):

“You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have…arm yourselves! ”

~The Doctor (#10) in Dr. Who “Tooth and Claw”

Love that one !  Which book do you wish you could live inside?

When I was younger, I would have gladly lived inside The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende—I read it no fewer than a dozen times. It’s so rich and layered, the journey with love as its object.   Now, it’s any book that has utterly captured my attention. At the moment, it’s Adios, Nirvana, a debut novel by Conrad Wesselhoeft coming out in October. Gorgeous.

I’ll look for it.  Love the title.  Who’s your favorite dead writer? (We don’t want to hurt the feelings of the living here!)

Italo Calvino. But if he were alive, he would still be my favorite! He wrote these amazing novels of the fantastic —every one of them different and more brilliant and fascinating than the last. My favorite is Invisible Cities, an imaginary conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Kahn. He was writing a book on writing, Six Memos for the Next Millennium, and died before he could finish the sixth essay. True confession: there are a couple of clandestine references in Tell Me a Secret.

I knew we had lots in common.  I’m a big Italo Calvino fan too!

What book do you wish you had written and why?

I would say Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, but then only Laurie could write that book. It’s an arterial root in the YA tree. So instead, I’ll say the next book! My agent and editor are really excited about it, and I’m a little nervous. It will be a stretch, somewhere I’ve never gone before—very intense, with a lot of surprises. It would be lovely for it to already be written instead of yet to be!

What do you wish a fellow writer could have told you long ago?

That’s sort of like asking why nobody told you that pregnancy was the easiest part of being a parent! What I’d really love to know now is how any of them manage to write after they sell a book. Of course, we could ask the same thing about writing after joining Facebook…

LOL, but I do love FB.  Did you draw on any of your own teen experiences for Tell Me a Secret?

A few of my teen experiences, and a lot of my college experiences. Most of the events in TMAS are fictional…with a few notable exceptions, my friends—who are sworn to secrecy —will tell you! But I remember the emotions of those years very vividly. I remember relationships and friendships and longing quite clearly, and I tried to draw on those memories.

The emotions of the novel feel very real!  Who was the most difficult character to write?

I think probably Miranda, the main character, because she’s so complex. She has so much going on—grief and fear and desire and love and hope, against the backdrop of some intense secondary characters…a wild sister, a suffocating mother, manipulating friends, and mysterious men. Perhaps the strongest character of all is the one who helps save her in the end. Miranda has to navigate all of these voices to find out who she is.

Thanks so much for dropping by, Holly! Best of luck with the launch!

And, if you want to get to know Holly up close and personal, check out this video. She even sings! Be sure to stop by her blog on June 22, her book b-day, for lots of fun prizes and partying! You can find the full tour schedule here. She is hosting awesome contests and giveaways for the entire tour, so be sure to comment to enter.

Next on Holly’s tour is my good buddy and all-around sweetheart, James, at Book Chic.

Giveaway Rules:

You can enter to win my ARC of TMAS by doing the following:

- 1 entry for following @hollycupala on Twitter

- 1 entry for following me @amybrecountwhit on Twitter

- 2 entries for tweeting/retweeting about this contest

- 3 entries for becoming a fan of Forget-Her-Nots on Facebook here

-3 entries for becoming a fan of Tell Me A Secret on Facebook here

- 5 entries for posting this contest on your blog

Please comment on this post with your entry details to enter.  Thanks!!

Fine Print:  You must be 13 years old to enter and live in the U.S.