Interview with Lisa Cresswell

Today at Paws 4 Thought I’m happy to welcome YA author Lisa Cresswell in honor of Teen Read Week.

And don’t forget to enter Lisa’s special Rafflecopter Giveaway! – one lucky winner will win 3 ebook copies of Lisa’s books, Hush Puppy, Storyteller and Galamar.

So Lisa, why do you think Teen Read Week is important?

Reading is important any time. My seven-year-old son is getting to that stage where boys start to resist reading and I keep telling him you need to be able to read because you’ll use it every day of your life. How will you be able to read the love letters you get from girls if you can’t read? You’ll be missing out on so much if you don’t read.

How do you think we could encourage youngsters to read more?

By making reading enjoyable and not a chore.

When you were a teenager what books did you like to read, and did you have an all-time favorite character?

When I was a teen there really wasn’t this ‘young adult’ category you see nowadays. We were reading adult books. I enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables books, but I also liked Shakespeare.

Were you writing as a teenager? If so, what were you writing and what inspired you? Did a person inspire you to write?

I was writing then, but I struggled. I didn’t have a writing mentor. I was probably writing poems and journaling more than writing fiction, but that served me well later when I wanted to write a story from the point of view of a teen.

Do you think today’s teens are in a better position if they want to be a writer than you were all those years ago (hee hee)?

I do think there are a lot more online writing communities available to teens today. I’m so old I predate the internet! Writing can be very lonely and it’s so nice to have an online community to support you, even if you don’t have anyone close by.

What advice would you give a youngster who enjoys writing?

Keep at it! Find a critique partner who you can trade stories with. Study writing and read a ton!

What is your latest book about?

Hush Puppy is the story of a black girl who takes the blame for an accidental death to protect a white boy, with dire consequences for herself and her dreams of the future. If you want to know why, you’ll have to read it!

Are you working on anything new at the moment?

I am! I’m putting the finishing touches on the last of my Storyteller Trilogy books. It’s a fantasy series featuring a rather spunky fairy girl. I’m hoping to have it published on Smashwords by Christmas. I also have a paranormal romance book I’m working on and a science fiction/fantasy coming out from Month9Books in February 2015.

What do you love about being an author?

I love it when someone reads a story of mine and tells me they couldn’t stop thinking about it. I write to evoke emotion. If I’ve done that, then I’ve succeeded.

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Lisa, like most writers, began scribbling silly notes, stories and poems at a very young age. Born in North Carolina, the South proved a fertile ground for her imagination with its beautiful white sandy beaches and red earth.

Unexpectedly transplanted to Idaho as a teenager, Lisa learned to love the desert and the wide open skies out west. This is where her interest in cultures, both ancient and living, really took root, and she became an archaeologist. However, the itch to write never did leave for long. Her first books became the middle-grade fantasy trilogy, The Storyteller Series. Her first traditionally published work, Hush Puppy, is now available from Featherweight Press.

Lisa still lives in Idaho with her family and a menagerie of furry critters that includes way too many llamas!

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Lisa’s Links

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Books for Giveaway

Ebook copies of Hush Puppy and 1 set of Books 1 and 2 of The Storyteller Series

Storyteller – Lily Lightfoot can make weird things happen just by telling a story. It’s a gift she can’t always control, making her the queen of seventh-grade outcasts. More than anything, she wants to see her mom, who’s left her in the care of her unconventional grandmother, Gwendolyn, and her only friend, Peter. When Lily finds a strange fairytale book, she’s drawn into a fantasy world where her mother waits for her. Despite the dire warnings of Gwendolyn and Peter, Lily embarks on a mission to find a way into the fantasy land to save her mom. The events she sets in motion with the telling of a story will change all of their lives forever.

Hush Puppy – Hush Puppy is the story of Corrine Lamb, a seventeen-year-old black girl, and Jamie Armstrong, a poor white boy, living in a backwater North Carolina town. Their shared love of literature and a dream of a better life brings them together, and a romance blossoms between them in a secret place of their own in the steamy North Carolina woods. When Jamie is involved in the accidental death of a white girl, he’s terrified of his abusive father. Corrine takes the blame to protect Jaime, with dire consequences for herself and her dreams of the future.