Spencer Hill Press Summer Blog Run--Lisa Amowitz

The SPENCER HILL PRESS SUMMER BLOG RUN will be coming to a close soon. Only a few more awesome authors to meet. Remember everyone who has left a comment on any of the blog posts is automatically entered to win the grand prize--a B&N gift card. 

The next writer extraordinaire highlighted is the awesome Lisa Amowitz. 

*men with incredible abs dancing under a spotlight*

Lisa’s BREAKING GLASS will be released July, 2013. Another book I have to wait for. Sigh! I hope I'm somewhere on the ARC list for this one. You can find it on Goodreads, here. 

The cover is hauntingly beautiful.

Please haunt Lisa while you're here. I'm even taking out the Google search for you. That's right, I did all the hard clicking for you and am providing all the links you need: Goodreads fan page, twitter, facebook, and blog. 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog, Lisa. I'm so happy to have you join me.  

Tell us the very first book you remember loving and had to read over and over again.

As a child I was completely obsessed with the Secret Garden and the Golden Book of Fairytales, two books that inspired me first, as an artist and later as a writer.

Can you tell us about a story you wrote when you were in school?

I am originally an artist, so my childhood was spent with a pencil in hand, drawing and observing the world around me. Anything I wrote, was basically written as an excuse for have something to illustrate. I did write a story about a boy who was taught to play a flute by a ghost, which later became the very first book I stuck in a drawer to gather dust forever.

What is your favorite novel now?

I have so many—But recent faves are Maggie Stiefvater’s THE RAVEN BOYS, Absolutely anything by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and my current reads—THRONE OF GLASS, by Sarah Maas and THE DEMON KING, by Cinda Chima.

Who is the most supportive person in your writing career?

There are so many—though my family still finds the whole writing thing a bit odd, they tolerate it. I have a lot of muses—friends Dhonielle Clayton, Michelle McLean and Colleen Kosinski, along with my writing group The Cudas are my main writing go-to people.

Tell us some other things you enjoy doing in your spare time.

Does reading count? I love reading! And of course drawing, and I also do a lot of book cover design.

Do you have any hobbies?

I love reading, drawing, writing, and designing. I do love a good film and visiting museums.

 Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to share with us?

How about what I just made for dinner tonight---pureed fresh tomato soup with wild rice.

Ingredients:

4 large beefsteak tomatoes

one large onion

four cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon of curry powder

I tablespoon of olive oil

2-3 cups of cooked wild rice

salt and pepper to taste

water

Directions:

Chop tomatoes, onion and garlic—saute in olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add curry and salt, pepper. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook until tomatoes and onion are soft. Let cool for five minutes and either transfer to a blender (can be messy). Easiest method is to use a blending stick to puree until smooth. Serve with a few tablespoons of rice. Delicious!

First thing to pop into your head….

Tex-Mex or Italian?  
Tex Mex

Blizzards or sundaes? 
Sundaes--

If given a choice to live anywhere, where would you live? 
In a huge house with a view of the Hudson River—a few blocks away from where I live now, but a world away.

Jeans or slacks?  
Jeans

Frilly drink on the beach or beer by a campfire?  
Frilly drinks! I love Mojitos and Margaritas!

Most embarrassing moment in your life? (Like everyone else, you have to share...mua ha ha)  
Oh man—I seriously don’t embarrass easily—I am usually the one embarrassing everyone else!

What book is sitting on your bedside table right now?  

The Demon King

What is the scariest novel you ever read? 

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

Can you give us a brief description of when and why the writing bug bit you.  

As I mentioned, I am trained as an artist and graphic designer. I am actually a professor of graphic design, and all my writing used to be about having an excuse to illustrate something until about eight years ago when I decided that for professional purposes, I needed to write something to illustrate that I actually finished. And, to my great surprise, I started to enjoy the writing so much, I forgot about the illustration. And then, I was fully and truly bitten by the writing bug.

Why young adult?

I started writing what I thought was middle grade, but found I loved dark, disturbing themes and romance—which of course, led me to conclude that I was, indeed a YA writer.

Tell us a little about your blog...your main focus.

My poor blog is a very random thing. I’m really lazy about it and only post when I have something interesting to say—which is sadly, not as often as it should be.

Tell us your favorite character in Breaking Glass and why.

Jeremy Glass is the narrator of Breaking Glass, and he is not only my favorite character of the book, but also my favorite character that I have ever written. I find him fascinating and heartbreaking all at the same time—able to muster a really lame joke when his sensitive heart is in tatters. And I guess, the mysterious thing about Jeremy, is that he just walked into my head one day as if he’d always existed. I just wrote everything down.

Breaking Glass blurb... 

On the night seventeen-year-old Jeremy Glass winds up in the hospital with a broken leg and a blood alcohol level well above the legal limit, his secret crush, Susannah, disappears. When he begins receiving messages from her from beyond the grave, he's not sure whether they're real or if he's losing his grip on reality. Clue by clue, he gets closer to unraveling the mystery, and soon realizes he must discover the truth or become the next victim himself. 
  
Time for the Tantalizing Teaser Temptation ... about 250 words. 

 “So where is he?” She cranes her neck, trying to spot Ryan in the crowd.

Heart pounding, my mind hiccups through its storehouse of facts. I reposition myself to block her view. There’s no time to try texting Ryan a warning.

I could tell Susannah. Tell her how Ryan has been sneaking around behind her back for over a year, even hooking up with two college juniors in a motel room during one of our out of town meets. But defying the Morgan machine by pointing this out takes too much energy. Instead I blurt, “Did you realize the Watch Hill carousel was once part of a traveling carnival?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “What? Jeremy, sometimes you can be such a--”

But her voice trails off as her gaze wanders past mine, her smile crumpling like a paper bag. I follow her line of sight and I know this is it. The crowd has thinned around Ryan, enough for her to see him with his mouth smashed against Claudia’s.

“Oh, man,” I gasp. I turn to comfort Susannah, but she is already gone.

I stand, dithering; wanting to run after her and apologize for letting her walk into this ambush.

But, no. This is something Ryan needs to take care of. I might have signed on to sweep his mess under the rug, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to clean up after him. I push through the crowd to get to him.

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For all the lucky people who stopped by, Lisa is kind enough to give away... 

A signed and framed piece of original Breaking Glass themed artwork.

***That is just too cool. I want to enter.***

Just two things to enter:

1)      You have to follow my blog.  Need directions---scroll back up closer to the top, right hand side and click follow 

2)      Tell us your all time favorite character in a book and why.

Contest ends Saturday, Sept. 1st.

Winners will be announced Sunday, Sept 2nd.

Oh, and don’t forget, everyone who comments is automatically entered to win the grand prize of a Barnes and Noble gift card at the end of whole summer run. 

 

Thank you all for stopping by.  Please leave Lisa a comment thanking her for her time and for the ultra-cool prizes.