Kiersten White on Paranormalcy (eGalley ARC giveaway!)

The winner of the Harlequin Teen books is

Jesse Harrell!

Congrads and email me your address (sjohannes@bilaninc.com)

Now for Kiersten!

For those of you who are not following Kiersten's blog, you are so missing out. I've been following her blog for about a year now and not only is she hilarious but she's adorably cute. The kind of person you want to be your friend and critique partner b/c she tells it like it is in a funny way.

She stopped by to talk about her book coming out in September, Paranormalcy (as if you haven't heard about it! :)

I'm reading an ARC now and it is funny and different and pulls you through.

Today, I am giving away 2 copies of her eGalley ARC that I got at BEA. If you comment and tell us what is the most abnormal thing about you, I will put you in the drawing.

Remember - you must be a Follower of my blog to win. (come on its only fair right? Do you know what I had to endure to get these eGalley Arcs for you! I'm still not OVER it.)

Extra points for following me on twitter (+1), following Kiersten's Blog (+1), following her on Twitter (+1). Add up your points in the comments,

Hi Kiersten! I am so excited for you and your book coming out. I am just finishing it and loving it. Can you tell us about Paranormalcy and your journey?

Paranormalcy is about a sixteen-year-old girl, Evie, who works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. Turns out all of those creatures of legend and myth do, in fact, exist, and it's her job to make sure the rest of us remain blissfully unaware of the various monsters that walk among us. But that's a pretty big job for a teenager who is more interested in boys, and school, and boys, and normal life, and also boys.

When a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormals starts coming true, though, it's up to Evie to save the paranormal world. After all, normal is so overrated.

Paranormalcy is actually the fourth novel I wrote. I got my fabulous agent, Michelle Wolfson, for another novel. While that one was on submission I wrote Paranormalcy on a whim. When the first failed to find a home, I edited Paranormalcy like a maniac and sent it to Michelle. We both thought we had something special, and fortunately many editors agreed. It sold to Erica Sussman at HarperTeen in a pre-empt, and I couldn't be happier with how things worked out.

I'm amazed every day at where this journey has taken me.

How did you get the idea for Paranormalcy?

It was a combination of elements. A friend had asked me if I'd ever write a vampire novel--to which I firmly responded no--and my husband had been talking about writing vampires as nothing more than hideous, living corpses. Which got me thinking about what you'd do with a vampire if you didn't want to kill it, which got me thinking about a government organization created to do just that, which gave me Evie in all her pink Taser-toting glory. Three weeks later I had a finished draft!

What do you wish you knew now about publishing that you could have used before you got a agent/book deal?

Honestly, I'm so glad I didn't know as much as I know now! If I'd had any idea starting out on this journey just how bad the odds were, and how hard I'd have to work, and how much rejection would be involved, I think I would have picked a different hobby. That being said, I wish I'd tapped into the amazing resources out there sooner. There's a wealth of information on the process of pursuing publication (once you have a finished, edited book) that I was pretty clueless about in the beginning. Blogs like Nathan Bransford's and Pubrants are an excellent place to start. It's good to know exactly what you're getting into and not to waste a year on a bad query for a worse book.

Not that I, uh, did that. (Okay, I totally did.)

If you were a letter of the alphabet, which one would you be and why?

K, of course. Underutilized, but not a floozy like C who thinks it can just take the place of K and S whenever it wants to. C, your only function is for CH. Leave the K sound to the experts!
I mean, umm, K because it's how kissing starts, and heaven knows we can't have YA novels without some good kissing.

If you believe in past lives – what/who do you think you were?

I don't believe in past lives, but if I did, I'd probably have been a cat. What's not to like? (Aside from gross food and litter boxes. Those I could handle for the sheer luxury of sleeping all day, every day, everywhere I want.) (Also, clearly I would have been a lazy house cat and not a useful mouser or stray.) (Also, I may or may not be fixated on sleep at the moment because I've been getting so very little of it.)

What is one thing we don’t know about you that you want us to know but might be afraid to say?

Anyone who reads my blog can tell you there's very little I'm afraid to say : ) I can't think of a secret that is a) funny or b) not too revealing. And that's the glory of the Internet--you can always be funny and you can always hide secrets! So I guess that's my thing. I like writing because I can be whoever I want, and I like writing YA fiction because I can create characters who can be whoever they want. Yay fantasy!

You can also follow Kiersten on Twitter or Facebook.
Harperteen on Twitter for latest updates.

Thanks Kiersten! :)

Comment for an eGalley!