Author Spotlight on: Kendell Shaffer

I'm excited to introduce you today to a YA writer I met several years ago through an online class, Kendell Shaffer. A screenwriter, a teacher and most recently a radio show host (!), Kendell has combined her background in entertainment with her current hometown of Venice Beach, to create a novel that feels different from your typical angsty teen stories, totally raw and real.

Welcome, Kendell!

Let's start with the basics. How long did you work on this novel? How many versions did you go through?
I started writing the novel in the online writing class through mediabistro.com where we met! Once I finished it I did two more drafts then sent it to an editor, Winslow Eliot. The self-publishing part was fairly quick once the manuscript was ready. I had fun with the cover art. I found a girl with blonde dreadlocks, like Kalifornia, and did a photo shoot on Venice Beach. My husband designed the cover.

I love that Frances Bean was an inspiration for writing this story and I also love the relationship that Kal develops with her dad. Who were your rock star idols growing up?
When I was a teenager, hair bands were popular and I really didn't like those. I grew up in Baltimore and the summer before 10th grade a radio station in Washington DC, DC101, played only music from the 1960s the entire summer. So my best friend Virginia and I listened to that nonstop and I gained an education and love of the music from that decade. The funny thing was that the following school year we found the boys who had the done the same thing we had, so our first boyfriends were discovered because of the shared love of sixties music.

That's so cool that the radio station focused on the sixties for the summer. I know I've dated guys based on musical tastes in the past :-)

I like how you placed your characters in a lot of real locations around Venice, almost making the city another character in the story. What made you decide to set the story there?
I live in Venice and it's so vibrant and ever changing. It doesn't know if it wants to be a beach town or Rodeo Drive or Silicone Beach or all of those at once. It's restless and unpredictable, sort of like a teenager, so yes, Venice Beach is very much a character in KALIFORNIA BLU.

Yeah, anyone who has spent time in Venice knows what a crazy, fun place it is. My kids like going just to people watch. Do you plan to set additional novels there?
I'm working on a sequel to KALIFORNIA BLU. It will take Kal at first to Europe with her mom, but then she returns to Venice and all the characters we met in the first book.

As if writing books isn't fun enough, in your other life you're a screenwriter. How does writing a novel differ from writing a screenplay?
In novels you get to take the characters much further then you would in a screenplay. You can explore details in more subtle ways and you aren't limited to the number of characters you have or pages you write.You have much more room to play and don't have to limit yourself thinking about the reality of a budget and locations.

In addition to working on VFX on "Knight and Day," you've also worked as an associate producer on several films and television shows. Do you think that production background has helped you with the business side of self-publishing?
I am finding the ability to walk up to strangers and say, "I wrote a book, will you read it?" has been helped by my living and working in Los Angeles. You can't really be shy when you do that and I have learned to be able to talk to anyone while working as a producer. The organization skills help with self-publishing; the "I can do that" attitude helps too. In production and post production you are constantly given problems that need to be solved quickly and cost efficiently. So yes, all that helps.

It definitely helped with your book trailer. The production value on this is just amazing. It's one of my favorite book trailers EVER.


Just gorgeous! It makes me want to see a movie of KALIFORNIA BLUE. I think you might need to get working on that ;-)

So tell me – what do you think is tougher: the writing, the publishing or the marketing? Why?
The publishing is a piece of cake. CreateSpace has been remarkable and they have unbelievably good customer service. Writing is just a joy. But marketing is a challenge. You have good days when something great happens like an interview with you, Sherrie, but there is no direct route so it's challenging to navigate all the different directions you could take. Also it does take time away from writing. I have a radio show once a month called WriteSpa Teen where I interview YA authors so that helps with the marketing and it's really fun!

And you've gotten to interview some incredible authors like Amy Timberlake and Jane Yolen. I'm so impressed!

So what are you working on right now? What will your next book release be?
I'm working on a sequel to KALIFORNIA BLU which will come out at the end of the summer. And I started a middle grade reader about a boy ballet dancer called THE BUN TEST. Both my kids are in a serious Russian ballet program so I spend a lot of time in the dance studio. My eleven-year-old son is the only boy in a company of 60 girls. I thought that would make a good novel.

Love the title! My son did ballet for a very short time. I told him he should have stuck with it  because there will come a day when he appreciates being the only boy in the company of 60 girls!

Thank you so much for stopping by, Kendell. It's been great catching up with you!

You can find out more about Kendell and her projects (including the upcoming Japanese translation of her novel!) by visiting some of her virtual hangouts:

Website: http://kendellshaffer.com
YouTube: http://youtu.be/xHaiGnXCmvg
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kaliforniablu
Radio Show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/writespa
Buy the Book: http://www.amazon.com/Kalifornia-Blu-Kendell-Shaffer-ebook/dp/

Getting Mindjacked with Susan Quinn

Susan Quinn is one of the hardest working writers I know. She's frightfully organized, incredibly generous and often quite lucky. And did I mention talented? And super nice?

Today I'm proud to be part of the virtual party celebrating the release of the second book in her Mindjack trilogy. I've been lucky enough to be one of the beta readers for both books in this series and let me just say they are more than worth the $2.99 Ebook price.

But don't just take my word for it. Read a sample.

Book Two of the Mindjack Trilogy

When you control minds, only your heart can be used against you.

Eight months ago, Kira Moore revealed to the mindreading world that mindjackers like herself were hidden in their midst. Now she wonders if telling the truth was the right choice after all. 

As wild rumors spread, a powerful anti-jacker politician capitalizes on mindreaders’ fears and strips jackers of their rights. While some jackers flee to Jackertown—a slum rife with jackworkers who trade mind control favors for cash—Kira and her family hide from the readers who fear her and jackers who hate her. But when a jacker Clan member makes Kira’s boyfriend Raf collapse in her arms, Kira is forced to save the people she loves by facing the thing she fears most: FBI agent Kestrel and his experimental torture chamber for jackers.

Now available! $2.99 Ebook 
at Amazon (and Amazon UK) and Barnes and Noble

Request a Kindlegraph Paper copies available at Amazon or get signed copies from the author
 

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling YA novel Open Minds,  Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy, available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. Susan's business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist," but she mostly plays on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

CLICK HERE to join the Virtual Party for Closed Hearts

(including bonus content for the Mindjack Trilogy and writerly guest posts) 

and/or 

ENTER TO WIN prizes below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Spotlight on: Susan Kaye Quinn

 I love hearing about the successes of other bloggers. I mean, at some point, some of their fairy dust has to rub off on me, right? One of the blogs I read on a regular basis is Inkspells, from Susan Kaye Quinn, where she focuses on MG books for boys. So imagine my surprise last month when she announced that it was release day for her first novel, a YA romance. Never saw that coming!

Of course I bought the book, gobbled it up and asked if I could interview her. If you haven't already heard the amazing story of how the publisher found her and invited her to submit, do yourself a favor and check it out. Trust me. It's like porn for aspiring authors. And when you're done, come back and read this interview to learn more about former California girl, debut author Susan Kaye Quinn.


You obviously know how to keep a secret! Seriously, how hard was that not to spill on your blog about this novel?
I share so much of my writing process on my blog, it was hard to keep from blurting it out. But I respected my publisher’s wishes to keep it under wraps until we were able to launch and give people something to hold.

On Ink Spells you focus on books for boys. How did your boys feel about LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT?
They want me to write more science fiction! My boys are 7, 9, and 11, and don’t have much interest in romance. My oldest read the back cover, shrugged, and walked away. They want to know when my middle grade novel is going to be published, and I have to keep explaining that publishing is a very long process. Seems like eons to them.

Oh, trust me. I can sympathize with them there!
Are you working on anything they'd be interested in?
I’ve written a middle grade science fiction novel called Byrne Risk. It’s a story about a girl struggling to save her clone caretaker from the Peace Police, who want to arrest her for stealing secret wormhole technology to help the clone resistance. My boys like the technology and the genetically engineered pets, as well as the broader themes of slavery and standing up for what’s right. Byrne Risk is in final edits, and I hope to start querying it soon.

I’ve promised them I’ll start writing another MG book this fall.

Wow, Byrne Risk sounds like a cool story! I hope someone picks it up once you get the queries out there. I'm pretty sure my son would enjoy reading that as well.

You’ve named Eoin Colfer, one of my personal favorites, as an influence on your SF/MG writing. Who are your YA romance literary heroes?
This is a tough one, as I haven’t actually read a lot of YA romance. My niece was enamored with Twilight, and I wrote LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT as a love story for her that was grounded in reality and didn’t require magical creatures to create the compelling tensions of the love story. Not that I have anything against fantasy – far from it. But life is epic all by itself.

You read and write a lot of different types of books, from MG sci-fi to YA romance. Do you think it will be a challenge to reach such varied groups of readers?
There are definitely different paths for different markets. Cynthia Leitich Smith is my hero for crossing genres and showing it to be acceptable (she writes picture books, MG, and YA). It’s easier to reach YA readers because they are online, and there are a growing number of adults that like to read YA. MG is still a more traditional market, which is why I’m pursuing a traditional agent/publisher route for that book. And why it will be much harder to break into.

There are some incredibly steamy scenes between David and Eliza. Is it more challenging to write a love scene or create a dystopian world?
I wanted to create some realistic scenes to drive the tension in the story, so David and Eliza kiss. A lot. But there is no sex in the story, and it was important to me to keep it clean, yet realistic, for teen readers. I would say it’s more technically challenging to write a dystopian world, just because you are creating something you’ve never experienced, whereas I’m familiar with love scenes. However, getting the emotional part of a love scene right is very challenging, so I think it depends on your strengths as a writer.

I know you grew up not far from where I live on California’s central coast and your father worked at the Naval base in Port Hueneme. He wouldn’t by chance be named David, would he?
No, but he did come from a Polish family raised near the Great Lakes Naval Station, which is where David attends boot camp! My dad actually consulted on a few of the navy terms in the book, and went through boot camp himself (although as a Marine, a long time ago).

LLP has a lot of great detail about David’s life in boot camp. How much did you have to research and how much did you learn from childhood through your father?
The consults with my dad didn’t come until the final stages of editing with my publisher, to make sure we had the right terminology between “mess deck” and “chow hall!” So almost all my research was done online – I actually followed the blog posts of a young navy recruit who went through confidence training in the gas chamber. A lot of our navy personnel are young and used to being online, so there’s a wealth of material.

Very true. I am constantly amazed by how much you can find on the internet. 

You also have a background in science. Is that going to show up in some of your future books?
Byrne Risk is rife with technology, from anti-matter engines to dark matter to genetically engineered clones. My next YA book, a paranormal novel called Open Minds, has a few tech elements because it’s placed 70 years in the future, but I would call it more science fantasy than science fiction. I have ideas for another MG book rumbling in my head, and I would like to fill that with more technology. My ulterior purpose is to get kids excited about science, but my boys also simply love the tech.

Note: The photo above is taken with my fellow engineering students at NASA Langley in front of the X1E, the experimental aircraft Chuck Yeager used to crack the sound barrier. I’m the wacky one on top. (I was about to fall off, hence the look of Holy ….! )

I love the story of how you were discovered by your publisher, Omnific. Have they expressed interest in any of your other stories or are you looking for an agent?
Omnific is terrific and they have asked about a sequel to LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT (I’m not planning one). I’m sure they would be interested in any future work that fell within their niche (mostly romance), because I know they are very supportive of growing their authors. However, I’ll be looking for an agent for my middle grade work, as that’s not the kind of novel that Omnific publishes.

Well, having read LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT, I don't blame Omnific for wanting a sequel. I would certainly read another book about these characters (hint, hint). 

Small publishers are known for being able to get books to market sooner. How long did it take from when you turned your story in to your release day?
It was about a month from submitting my full MS to having it under contract. And about four months from contract to publication. That’s lightning fast in the publishing world, and you are right that small publishers are nimble and able to get books to market faster. Interestingly, I’ve seen a few larger, traditional publishers trying to shorten up their publishing times. I wonder if it is a trend.

Yes, I know Simon and Schuster has some very tight turnarounds with books like Jessica Burkhart's Canterwood Crest series. She has a new book out about every other month, so it is possible for big publishers to get books out faster.

Now I've heard of businesses having a Mission Statement, but you’re probably the first author that I’ve known to write one. What prompted you define your mission as a writer?
Well, I worked in industry (GE aircraft engines) and academia (National Center for Atmospheric Research). Writing mission statements or project plans is practically in my blood. Plus, I have a personal need to know why I am headed down a certain path. What’s my goal? How will I measure it? What is driving me, and how will I know if I’ve achieved what I’m striving for? The mission statement helped me think through and put all that into words. I’m surprised more writers don’t do this! We put things into words. It’s what we do.

Well, the mission statement obviously worked for you. I just might give that a try...

It's been a pleasure talking to you, Susan. And I'm looking forward to seeing you in person at SCBWI-LA in a couple weeks! Yay!

Thanks so much for the opportunity to interview!

Where you'll find Susan on the internet:
InkSpells blog
Life, Liberty and Pursuit website
Twitter