The Lucky 7 Game!

When I’m mad at my dear, dear friend Scott Tracey, I call him Scottopher. It has more heft as a lecture name, don’t you think? “Scottopher Tracey, get down here this minute! And no dessert for you!
Well, Scottopher is getting All The Looks this morning & I’m not mailing him any of the cinnamon buns I made this week. What was he thinking tagging me in a writer chain letter? He knows how I feel about luck.*
My debut novel, Send Me a Sign, is ABOUT superstition— if I break the chain, that’s probably like spitting on a black cat or playing paintball in a funhouse mirror room.
So here are the rules (copied straight from Scott’s post)
Open your most recent novel or work-in-progress.

Turn to page 7 or page 77.

Count 7 lines down.

Copy (or read aloud in a vlog post) the next 7 sentences…in their entirety.
No cheating or editing!!!

Then tag 7 more authors!
And here is my snippet — it’s an email my MC (Della) receives early in the book. And it’s exactly seven sentences.
Della. I’m sorry. So sorry. I never meant for this to get out. I know I promised I’d delete it. I’m so sorry. So sorry.
This is from my current contemp WIP. Codename: Full Nuder**
Oh. And my seven people:
*Scottopher, I’m not really mad. In case you were worried, which you weren’t because my anger is about as scary as a rage-filled cupcake.
** Yes, this does make me gigglefit EVERY time.

*** Remember that book I was raving about in my last post, The Archived? She’s sharing from THAT!

Author Interview — Scott Tracey

Interview with Scott Tracey

I’m pleased as pleased can be to have Scott Tracey, author of WITCH EYES, answering questions on my blog today.

Okay, so that’s a lie. Scott is REALLY answering questions on the Apocalypsie blog today. On this blog, I’m answering the questions for him.

I keep telling Scott he should hire me to do all his speaking and blogging engagements for him — If he did, this is a just a taste of the awesome he could expect.

For those of you looking for TRUTH — head over to The Apocalypsies and find out what’s really going on inside the head of Mr. Tracey. Warning: it’s a very, very strange place.

1)   Describe your writing routine?
Step 1) Put coffee in the coffeemaker
Step 2) Play a game of Bejeweled
Step 3) Check-in with Twitter – read a tweet about coffee – this reminds me to go turn the coffeemaker ON.
Step 4) Open word document
Step 5) Go bother Leah
Step 6) Fiddle with my writing playlist
Step 7) Pour coffee
Step 8) See if Twitter misses me yet.
Step 9) Create some words and sentences
Step 10) Rinse & repeat
2) Which character in Witch Eyes is the most similar to YOU?
Peyton the Princess. (page 70 for those of you with the book in front of you) I may look cute and adorable, but if you so much a blink at me the wrong way, I’ll push you in front of a bus.

Just kidding.

Maybe.

3) You describe Witch Eyes as a modern day Romeo and Juliet with witches — does this mean you’re going to kill off all the best characters?
God, you don’t pull any punches do you? What if I said yes and named names, Tiffany? Wouldn’t you feel horrible about ruining the ending for all of your blog readers? Hmmm?
No, actually, it doesn’t mean that at all. Book three, aka Princess Eyes ends with all of the characters being given a puppy and a cupcake. There are double rainbows, too.

4) If I suspect someone has witch eyes, what should I do?
Treat the situation the same way you would if there were a rogue bear or alligator on the loose. If you’re close to the person, poke them in the nose and run away in a z-shaped pattern.
Otherwise: make no sudden movements. Avoid wearing yellow. Back away slowly. Maybe climb a tree and hide.  If you happen to be carrying sunglasses, try tossing them to the Witch Eyed – if you’re lucky, they may take the bait and leave you alone.


5) Who would you cast as Braden & Trey in a Witch Eyes movie?

Trey:
Mark-Paul Gosselaar – aka Zack Morris from Saved By The Bell

 

Braden:
Joshua Jackson – aka Pacey from Dawson’s Creek
6) What are you going to do on release day?

Didn’t you hear? Witch Eyes was released a few weeks early by Amazon. All of a sudden people were emailing me to let me know their copies shipped – I guess it was too much awesome for Amazon to contain within their warehouses.
On my actual release date – September 8th – I plan to eat lots of pancakes. And perhaps, if it is not raining, go to the local park and do some interpretive Witch Eyes dances.
Or, you know, maybe I’m celebrating by working on the sequel…
7) What is your good luck charm?
My WWE Champion Belt. It’s shiny and it spins. When I’m having a rough day, I put it on.  Did I mention it spins?

Clearly these are the answers Scott Tracey wishes he’d given…

You can find out more about Scott Tracey at his blog, or on Twitter. WITCH EYES officially releases this Thursday, September 8th. If you haven’t already pre-ordered a copy, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I’d Like To Thank The Academy…

When I can’t sleep at night, or when I’m waiting in line at the grocery store, or on hold with the cell phone company I mentally compose acknowledgement pages. I assume that actors write practice Oscar speeches in much the same way.
It occurred to me the other night – while pacing our bedroom at 1 AM with a teething and not sleeping Baby A – that soon I’ll get to write an acknowledgements page for real. And the thought might have made me emit a wee-squee and squeeze him a bit too tight, thus waking him all-the-way up and adding another twenty minutes to my rocking him to sleep.
Of course I spent the time mentally drafting thank yous.
You’ll have to wait until next fall (and buy the book) to read my for real acknowledgements with the scores of people who helped me get this far. (I love you all!) BUT – my gratitude-meter from the past seven days is currently tipped to overflowing – I need to acknowledge some of my lovelies or I’ll implode from appreciation.
Thank you to:

* Everyone who offered support and congratulations – I did a little dance each time my phone buzzed with a tweet or email or phone call or Facebook post. If I could send you each a cookie and a hug, I would.

* St. Matt!

* Tiffany Emerick – librarian extraordinaire – who had my book on GoodReads within minutes of hearing the news. Thank you for accompanying me to a zillion book events over the past few years and telling me after each one That’s going to be you some day.

* Scott Tracey & Courtney Summers – for being my sanity throughout this crazy process and reading countless drafts of my synopsis and bio.

* Emily Hainsworth – For… everything: wearing your lucky shamrock pj’s, dog grooming whilst listening to me chatterbox, and the daily refrains of I can’t wait until you’re an Apocalypsie too.

* And to the Apocalypsies for being so welcoming.

* Team Sparkle for always filling my inbox full of ~*~’s and !!!’s

* Always, always to Joe Monti – the maker of dreams-come-true. Thank you for not putting me in time out for asking Can I announce yet? twelve million and two times.

* … finally, to the Schmidtlets for being ever-ready to participate in celebration dance parties, and for taking an hour-long nap so I had time to write this.