2013 YA UK Debut Interview: Cracked by Eliza Crewe

We all like supporting YA and New Adult debut authors, but this year, rather than just read their books, I'll be highlighting them on my blog too, so you can hear about these wonderful authors.

Today I'm interviewing YA UK author Eliza Crewe whose debut YA novel, Cracked, is being published by Strange Chemistry in the UK on 5th November 2013. Read on for more:

Cracked by Eliza Crewe - Meet Meda. She eats people.

Well, technically, she eats their soul. But she totally promises to only go for people who deserve it. She’s special. It’s not her fault she enjoys it. She can’t help being a bad guy. Besides, what else can she do? Her mother was killed and it’s not like there are any other “soul-eaters” around to show her how to be different. That is, until the three men in suits show up.

They can do what she can do. They’re like her. Meda might finally have a chance to figure out what she is. The problem? They kind of want to kill her. Before they get the chance Meda is rescued by crusaders, members of an elite group dedicated to wiping out Meda’s kind. This is her chance! Play along with the “good guys” and she’ll finally figure out what, exactly, her ‘kind’ is.

Be careful what you wish for. Playing capture the flag with her mortal enemies, babysitting a teenage boy with a hero complex, and trying to keep one step ahead of a too-clever girl are bad enough. But the Hunger is gaining on her.

The more she learns, the worse it gets. And when Meda uncovers a shocking secret about her mother, her past, and her destiny… she may finally give into it. from Goodreads.

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill Book Trailer - Interview with Actress Hannah Mariska

Earlier today we heard from Casey Davoren of Dark Readers about the experience of creating the official trailer for All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terill for Bloomsbury Children's Books. Now it's the turn of Hannah Mariska of My Book Journey, who starred as Em in the trailer.

How did you get into acting? And, more specifically, acting in book trailers? How long have you been acting in them?

I’ve wanted to act since I was a kid, but in school I was really shy and didn’t have drama lessons I could go to. I started going to theatre groups almost 10 years ago, and eventually got the courage to audition for Cardiff’s Everyman Theatre production of Closer by Patrick Marber and got the part of Alice! As my passion is to act on screen I was really excited to be thrown together with other lovely book bloggers as the divergent team to promote Veronica Roth’s first book Divergent. That was when I met Casey from Dark Readers and The Bitter Productions, and since then we’ve been working together on book trailers.

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill Book Trailer - Interview with Director Casey Davoren

Our UK bloggers are quite a talented lot. You may know quite a few bloggers who are also aspiring writers, but there are other skills are putting to use in an effort to get people hearing about books. Like creating book trailers, and starring in them.

The lovely - and super talented - Casey Davoren of Dark Readers and Hannah Mariska of My Book Journey have their own fan-made book trailers production team, The Bitter Productions. So talented is Casey, she was contacted by Bloomsbury Children's Books to create the official UK trailer for All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, with the help - and acting talents - of Hannah. Both ladies have agreed to talk to us about how that came about and their experience. First up is Casey.

How did you get into creating book trailers? How long have you been making them?

I started making book trailers maybe two years ago. I was making random videos for awhile on my YouTube channel but its mostly book trailers now. When I attended college and studied film my passion just grew. I wanted a big production company one day were we help promote children to read in any forms of video. Technology is only getting bigger. I am working on it.

On Hiatus

As you will have noticed, there haven't been that many posts from me lately.

Life has taken a bit of a turn for me, and, due to necessity, blogging has had to take a bit of a backseat.

So for now, I'm on hiatus until further notice. Hopefully it won't be for too long, and there will be a few posts that will go live in the interim. I'm still reading and making notes for reviews, but once I'm back, you may find I'll be reviewing books a little differently.

Thanks for your understanding.

Winners: Every Day by David Levithan

The giveaway for Every Day by David Levithan has ended. Thank you to everyone who entered. The winners are:

Ruan P

&

Tabitha P
Congratualtions! Your details have been passed on to my contact at Egmont, will will be sending you your prize. Happy reading!

2013 YA UK Debut Interview: Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve

We all like supporting YA and New Adult debut authors, but this year, rather than just read their books, I'll be highlighting them on my blog too, so you can hear about these wonderful authors.

Today I'm interviewing UKYA author Laure Eve whose debut YA novel, Fearsom Dreamer by Laure Eve, is being published by Hot Key Books in the UK on 3rd October 2013. Read on for more:

Fearsom Dreamer by Laure Eve - There is a world where gods you’ve never heard of have wound themselves into hearts, and choice has led its history down a different path.

This is a world where France made a small, downtrodden island called England part of its vast and bloated empire.

There are people here who can cross a thousand miles with their minds. There are rarer people still who can move between continents in the blink of an eye.

These people are dangerous.

And wanted. Desperately wanted.

Apprentice hedgewitch Vela Rue knows that she is destined for more. She knows being whisked off from a dull country life to a city full of mystery and intrigue is meant to be. She knows she has something her government wants, a talent so rare and precious and new that they will do anything to train her in it.

But she doesn’t know that she is being lied to. She doesn’t know that the man teaching her about her talent is becoming obsessed by her, and considered by some to be the most dangerous man alive... from Goodreads.

Interview with David Levithan + Giveaway!

Today, I have the immense pleasure of having YA author David Levithan stopping by my blog to talk about his latest release in the UK, Every Day! I know! I am so incredibly excited! Read on to see what he had to say, and then check out my review of Every Day.

What inspired Every Day? How did you come up with the idea for the story?

I loved the notion of waking up in a different body and different life every morning. For A, this raised the question of who we are when our appearance is stripped away – if we were truly our inner selves and didn’t have to worry about being interpreted because of biology, who would we really become? And for Rhiannon, it’s the question of whether you can love someone who changes every day. I didn’t have the answer to either of these questions when I started, and in many ways I wrote the novel to see what my answer would be.