Winner and April Henry

I apologize for posting this a day late. We've had all sorts of Internet weirdness going on and I finally gave up yesterday. To make it up to you, I'm bringing you a bonus GCC interview with YA author April Henry.

But first, the winner of Liz Funk's SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT is...

Sunkissed

Please send your mailing instructions to gerb (@) lindagerber (.) com and we'll get that sent out to you.

Meanwhile, be sure to come back here on Friday when we kick off the DEATH BY DENIM countdown with a special FREEBIE FRIDAY!

And now, please welcome GCC sister April Henry to the blog. April is the award winning author of six mysteries and thrillers, with many more to come. Her latest book, TORCHED, is filled with "Romance and big explosions … thrills and action (that) will keep readers interested," according to Kirkus reviews. Booklist praises its "thrilling action" and TeenReadsToo gave it five stars.

Here's the official blurb:

When Ellie’s parents are busted for growing marijuana, the FBI gives her a choice: infiltrate the Mother Earth Defenders (MED), a radical environmental group, or her parents will go to jail. At first Ellie is more than willing to entrap the MEDics, but the more time she spends undercover—particularly with Coyote, the green-eyed MEDic that she can’t stop thinking about—the more she starts to believe in their cause. When talk turns to murder, Coyote backs out, but Ellie is willing to risk everything to save her family—even if it means losing Coyote and putting her own life on the line.

And now for the interview:

What inspired you to write TORCHED?
The Earth Liberation Front has long been active in the Northwest. The FBI considers them domestic terrorists. I was driving to work one morning, listening to the news, and the broadcaster said, “The FBI says they have been unable to infiltrate ELF.” And I thought, what else are they going to say? Yeah, we have someone who is working there undercover? And then I started thinking that most Elves are young, and FBI agents have to be at least 23, and they might need an informant.

Are any of your characters based on real people that you know?
Just bits and pieces. I used to work in a natural food store, so all those old hippies helped me with the characters of Ellie’s parents. I don’t think you ever take a person wholesale. Maybe take someone’s appearance and combine it with another person’s personality and a third person’s verbal tics.

What excites you?
A cookbook full of recipes I really like. When I first get the idea for a book and I can see a million possibilities. Planning a vacation.

What turns you off?
Smoking. Crabby people. People who drive an inch away from your bumper – when you are already going 10 miles over the speed limit. Yelling.

What's the biggest lie you ever told, and what happened as a result of the telling?
In seventh grade, my best friend wanted to spend more time with me than I wanted to with her. So I told her that my mom and I spent Fridays helping my aunt, who had lost a leg to cancer, clean house. Eventually, I was caught in my lie, and I had to admit it wasn’t true. The worst part for me was that my friend thought I had only lied once. She didn’t realize I had lied week after week. Having to spell it out for her was awful.

All stories are built on suspense. What's the most suspenseful thing that's happened to you in real life?
I was in the shower when a man forced the kitchen window to my apartment. The apartment was so old that it was out of true and the bathroom door didn’t even close all the way, let alone lock. So I’m standing there, naked and shivering, staring at the door with was ajar, and hearing footsteps in my apartment. I got very lucky and managed to escape before I was raped or killed. I used that idea in FACE OF BETRAYAL, a book I co-wrote with Lis Wiehl, which is coming out April 7.

If you could invite anyone you wanted - living or dead - to hang out with you at a weekend retreat, who would you invite and why?
Jesus. It would be fascinating to ask him questions, although part of me is afraid it would also be very challenging.

What's one thing most people don't know about you?
I used to be a pretty good belly dancer.

What's your favorite quote?
“A good laugh is as good as a prayer sometimes.” - LM Montgomery

Milk Chocolate or Dark?
Yum, dark, preferably with nuts.

If you'd like to read more about April and her books, check out her website at Aprilhenrymysteries.com.

FREEBIE FRIDAY with Liz Funk

Happy Friday! It's the last full day of Spring Break around here and I'm about ready to take off for the day and live it up to the fullest before we head back home tomorrow.

But first, I'd like to introduce you to today's FREEBIE FRIDAY guest, author Liz Funk. Liz is a self-professed recovering Supergirl, i.e. "a girl who believes that in order to be happy, she must excel at her job or career, have the best grades, wear the coolest clothes, date the best-looking boy, and have the perfect body size."

In her new book, SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT, Liz follows five other Supergirls and discusses how their need for perfection in all things dominates their lives. She offers advice on recovering from their 'overzealous tendencies and habits' in a voice that Booklist calls "honest, urgent."

I must confess that I am a stranger to this phenomena. I'm too disorganized and mellow to get around to being an effective Supergirl and I don't understand the kind of drive that would make a girl let herself be miserable just so she could be all things to everybody. Apparently it's a very common affliction, though, especially with the kind of pressure girls are facing now. So to see what makes a Supergirl tick...

What inspired you to write Supergirls Speak Out?
Honestly, I wrote "Supergirls Speak Out" because I had to.  I observed
so many young people around me in high school and college who were
consumed by the pressure to succeed... and often we'd see a "perfect
girl" in the community go on to have a mental breakdown or an eating
disorder, and I wanted to really investigate why so many girls felt
such pressure to try to be perfect and make doing everything look
easy.  It's interesting that so many girls intellectually know that
being perfect is impossible and they don't need to try to look as
gorgeous as the women they see in the media, but emotionally, they
still want to adhere to these impossible standards.

When did you realize you were an overachiever?
When I wrote the proposal for Supergirls, I saw myself as a
workaholic, but not necessarily a Supergirl.  But upon listening to so
many girls' stories and viewpoints, I realized that I too had a
diseased relationship to not just working, but also my approach to my
appearance, my relationships, and my goals.

Having identified the supergirl syndrome in your own life, do you
still feel the same pressure to succeed?
Honestly, yes.  As I mentioned earlier, one of the ironies of being a
Supergirl is that you can intellectually know that you do enough and
that you're good enough, but you emotionally want to do more and be
better.

What advice do you have for girls in middle school or high school
who think they have to do it all?
I think that girls need to understand that they value and that they
matter for reasons outside what they look like, what they accomplish,
and how others perceive them.  They need to discover their intrinsic
worth, and develop identities outside what their communities expect
from them!

What excites you?
A really great book.  I read the same ten books over and over again;
the children's book 'Eloise' is my favorite.  I also love really silly
or cute movies, with Seth Rogen, Kate Husdon, and Anne Hathaway.  And
a rainy day at a museum.  That's probably the best the world has to
offer.  Ha!  The cool thing about recovering from being a Supergirl is
that you get more comfortable being eccentric.

What turns you off?
Cell phones!  I wish they'd never been invented--people are so rude
with them!  Sometimes when I see people talking too loudly on flip
phones, I have fantasies of grabbing their phone and smacking it
against the nearest hard surface.  I have a BlackBerry that I'm
admittedly rather addicted to, but I'm always discreet with it and
never use it in movie theaters or at the dinner table or at parties.

If you could invite anyone you wanted - living or dead - to hang
out with you at a weekend retreat, who would you invite and why?
I would have loved to have met the feminist Betty Friedan.  She wrote
the book the Feminine Mystique and she arguably started the second
wave of feminism in the 1960's.  I think she would be so interesting
to talk to!

What's one thing most people don't know about you?
I love to paint!  In my spare time, I make paintings on canvas with
acrylic paints.  They're rarely very good or even look like what I set
out to paint, but I love doing it.

What's your favorite quote?
"It was a musical thing, and there was supposed to be singing and
dancing while the music was being played."  It's from this youtube
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4

Milk Chocolate or Dark?
Milk.  I actually don't like dark chocolate at all!  And I'm weird
about my chocolate stuff; I don't like chocolate flavored things, like
ice cream or cake.  I just like the real thing!

Liz is offering a signed copy of SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT to one lucky FREEBIE FRIDAY reader. To be entered to win, leave a comment below telling me what you think about Supergirls. Are you a Supergirl? Do you envy them? Feel sorry for them? Know any personally?
This contest will remain open until Tuesday.

P.S. I'll apologize right up front because I won't be around today or tomorrow to monitor or respond to your comments, so I'm trusting you to play nice and keep it PG. I'll be back Sunday to check in. Meanwhile, have a great weekend!

Winner!

Greetings from beautiful Myrtle Beach. This has been such a great break so far, even though it's too chilly to go into the water much. Doesn't matter... I'm all about catching up on all the books I kept adding to my list while I was pushing for the deadline. Nothing like sitting on the beach (albeit in a sweater) with a Diet Coke and a pile of books. Ah. Heaven. : )

Congratulations to this week's Freebie Friday winner, who will receive a signed copy of GOING TOO FAR by Jennifer Echols:

xdaisyx

Please drop me a note at gerb(@)lindagerber(.)com with your mailing info and we'll get that sent out to you!

Meanwhile, I wish you all a spectacular week! I'll see you right back here on Friday for a FREEBIE with Liz Funk, author of SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT.

Ciao!