So what’s 13 ON HALLOWEEN about?
Twelve-year-old Roxie wants to be like Adrianne, the peacock who gets everything she wants––a trampoline, a flock to prowl around the mall with, and most especially invitations to parties. But everything changes when Roxie invites all the peacocks (code word: popular kids) in the eighth grade to her thirteenth birthday party on Halloween and they all come. And a boy, the boy, actually talks to Roxie.
Roxie has the best night of her life until the peacocks decide they want to celebrate her birthday in a way Roxie never expects––in her attic, with a pact to never tell a living soul what happens there.
What inspired 13 on Halloween?
My friends made me write it! They always laugh at me when I say “I hamster,” or, “I gopher.” They said I should write the way I talk. I sort of rolled my eyes. But then it dawned on me, teenagers have their own languages too. So I decided to explore a character who uses animals as verbs, as I do, and looks at the world through a Wild Kingdom prism in order to understand her changing world and her role in it. I wanted the book to be funny.
I actually started to write a trilogy a while back, when I first started writing. The first book in the trilogy was called Wanda and the Witch Kingdom. Wanda is Roxie’s same age and her family has lots and lots of secrets! WWK takes place in a Chicago suburb like 13 ON HALLOWEEN. The story of WWK never left me. I see Roxie and Wanda as friends. Wanda meets Roxie in SHADOW SLAYER (Shadow Series #2).
How much of yourself is on the page?
In middle school I had a very best friend. And one day, that very best friend became really good friends with another girl. It was the three of us for a while. But for some reason the threesome didn’t work out and my best friend became very best friends with the other girl. Middle school is dramatic. Friendships are important. I wanted to write a humorous book that explored popularity and friendships probably because of what happened to me in middle school.
So much of 13 ON HALLOWEEN explores what it means to be lucky. I think the way we look at things has a lot to do with luck. I think positive people get lucky more often. I don’t really have one good luck charm or a lucky outfit like Roxie, but I do have some yellow polka-dot socks like her because they are just so adorable and I like to write in them. My husband and I lived in Big Sur for two years. It’s a very remote place along the coast of central California. It’s beautiful and so rugged even the Spanish missionaries wouldn’t venture into the wild. The Spanish labeled the region El Sur Grande [which means Big Sur]. They settled and built missions in every other part of California but Big Sur. After I lived there for a while, I noticed that people who live in nature [or make their living from it] seem to have more good luck charms than people who live in urban areas.
When I first moved there a lovely woman named Helga asked if I had a piece of jade. When I said I didn’t, she said I must carry a piece with me all the time. For protection. It wasn’t just Helga that believed this, I found most people who live in the area also believe that jade has the power of protection. I lived in LA up until that time. I’d never lived so remotely in my life. I asked Helga what I needed protection from. She said, “Boulders falling. Trees. Windy roads. You never know what might happen.” I bought a small piece of jade that day. I still keep it with me.
What are you working on now?
I am about to release my first adult romantic suspense novel called THE STORYTELLERS. It’s a Raiders of the Lost Arc meets Thelma and Louise story about four women writers who’s stories all come true for each other when they unknowingly evoke the powers of an ancient Mayan idol named Escrito. I’ve just finished designing the cover and will reveal it in the next few weeks.Also I’m writing two short stories for a few anthologies that are top secret at the moment, and in the midst of writing Moon Killers, book 3 in The Shadow Series.
FOR MORE ABOUT THE SHADOW SERIES INCLUDING CHARACTER INTERVIEWS, DREAM CAST, BOOK TRAILERS & SERIES PLAYLIST CLICK HERE.GET YOUR FREE COPY HERE:
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Updated from the original Interview on Reader Girls Blog given 10/16/2011:
Oooh a new book? Can’t wait!!
Loved 13 on Halloween 🙂
xx
Thanks Suzy 😀 Yes…this Halloween! ((hugs))