Open Minds: Author Interview with Susan Kaye Quinn

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.



Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.

Susan left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees, but she was drawn back to writing by an irresistible urge to share her stories with her niece, her kids, and all the wonderful friends she’s met along the way.

She doesn’t have to sneak her notes anymore, which is too bad.

Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.

1. How did you come up with the title?

Titles either come to me in a flash early in the process, or fight me every step of the way. This one was easy, being a spin on the telepathic nature of the world as well as its closed-mindedness.

2. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

I firmly believe that everyone takes their own meaning from a story. But I also intentionally wove in strong themes about intolerance and its impact on individuals and society in general. Whatever the reader takes from the story, is what they’re needing to hear at that time. And I’m good with that. J

3. Can you share a little of your current work with us?

I’m working on Closed Hearts, Book Two of the Mindjack Trilogy. I just sent the second draft off to my critique partners. While I wait for that, I’m drafting a detailed outline for the As-Yet-Unnamed Book-The-Third.

4. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

All of writing is challenging. I had to conquer a lot of fear about my writing in order for it to really flourish, and I still occasionally struggle with fears – that it won’t be good enough, that people will judge the work, or simply not like it. Once my fears are beaten into submission, writing is like an addiction. I can truly say there’s no part that I dislike (except maybe for fixing commas. I just stink at that).

5. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

I’m a serious Scott Westerfeld fangirl. He’s brilliant, he takes chances with his work, his writing and imagination are fantastic. Simply brilliant! Did I say brilliant? The guy is wicked good at his craft.

6. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Let me know what you think of the books! I always love hearing from readers. #makesmyday

7. How did you come up with the idea for Open Minds?

I wanted to enter a 1^st paragraph contest online, but I didn’t like the 1^st paragraphs in my current novels. So I made one up for a novel that didn’t exist. The idea of it captured my imagination and I was pretty much forced to write the novel from there.

8. Who is your favorite or least favorite character to write?

I love all my characters. Seriously. Although I have a teensy crush on my bad boy characters, which you can probably tell from reading the stories.

9. There were a couple scenes in open minds that made me want to cry. Were there any scenes you didn't want to write?

I cry while writing all my novels. Partly because I’m a mush, and partly because I try to put my whole soul into writing. That makes really tough scenes very difficult to write sometimes. There’s one in particular in Open Minds that took me several months to finally push through and write (you can probably guess which one, if you’ve read the book). I kept trying to find a way around writing it, but the story demanded that it be there, so I had to write it.

10. On the other hand, were there any scenes you liked that didn't make it to the final revision?

Oh lots! In fact, I rewrote the thing so many times, I’ve lost track of the scenes that were cut or rearranged beyond recognition. But just because I really liked a particular kissing scene (hm, they always seem to be kissing scenes), doesn’t mean that it needs to be there in the final cut. I’m a big fan of only having what is necessary for the story.

Fun time!

• In the point of view of any character you choose, answer these: In the POV of Simon.

1. What is your dirty little secret? I’ve got a lot of secrets. It’s hard to pick just one. Not that I would tell you, in any event.
2. You're walking along and a dragon appears in front of you. What do you do? Slay it with my awesome mind powers. Or mindjack someone else into running slower than me.
3. What is your heart's desire? To have Kira choose me, even if she finds out who I really am.

Bonus round!
Do you have any questions for me?  

What was your favorite scene in the book? 

 My personal favorite has to be towards the end, when everyone is having nightmares and them *ahem* suddenly start having good dreams. I think it was really sweet.

Which one made you cry?

*Spoilers* It's a tie between when they took Laney and when Simon never made it out of the camp. Thinking about it now, it's definitely when Simon died. That was just cruel. ;) 

Is there one last thing you want to tell your readers? There’s a short prequel story to Open Minds called Mind Games coming out in an anthology on Valentine’s Day. It will be free on Smashwords, and the story gives you a taste of Raf’s POV, and what it’s like to be a mindreader in love with the only girl in school that doesn’t read minds. You can add it to your TBR here. 

And lastly: Where can we all follow you?

Here’s all my online deets: blog, twitter, facebook, Mindjack website. You can also subscribe to my author newsletter to get information about giveaways and upcoming releases

Project Tell Taylor

Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's high school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, fighting fate isn't going to be easy.

Listen up! All you writers out there, how many of you have unraveled whole novels in your head from one song? Michelle did, and Remembrance is based on the Taylor Swift song "Love Story".

I think this is just so cool! If I were a singer, I would definitely want to know if someone wrote a BOOK based on one of my songs. It would be such a huge honor. So that's what this project is all about. It is our mission to let her know about all this going on.


So here's from the host blog post:

As a lot of you know by now, my debut novel Remembrance was inspired by Taylor Swift's "Love Story" music video. I talked all about it in a blog entry a few months ago, discussing how Remembrance was inspired by Taylor Swift's "Love Story" music video. I even wrote a letter to Taylor Swift and sent it to her, along with a signed book!

It's been a few months now, and I have yet to hear back from Taylor that she received the letter and book. I don't even know if she ever saw it (I kind of doubt she did). 

I really want to tell Taylor about how inspiring she and her music have been to me, but since Taylor Swift is an international superstar, she’s a little hard to reach. This is where YOUR help comes into play! I am giving away the biggest prize pack I've offered yet, and the ways to enter to win are by telling Taylor Swift about Remembrance.

The Goal: Get Taylor Swift to Tweet about Remembrance!

Got your attention now? Cool! Go here to read the whole post.


Here are a few things that inspire me:

1: Things like this. Dreams and big campaigns and getting lots of people to try to get one person's attention. It's amazing.
 2: Several books. Particularly Christmas stories. My favorite inspirational books: What child is this by Caroline B. Cooney and Paper Angels by Jimmy wayne.



Before I go off, a few more things:

The prize pack video:

  The prize pack itself:


The giveaway:

scene from a book I'm writing

I was going to say "next book", but my next book is already written and on its way to shelves. So this is from "Sarah Claus," which may or may not turn out to be a series.


      Tangle was a good elf. The best of her kind. No one quite remembers when she came into the North Pole, but her hot chocolate was the best on the planet. She had a certain ability to know exactly what goodies to add to which cup. One month before Christmas eve, Tangle was making her favorite person’s hot chocolate.
     “Skim milk boiled with dark chocolate…oops, not too dark!” Tangle giggled as she gently placed a pure dark chocolate back in the cupboard to find a milder one. “Add just dash of peppermint while it’s in the pot. There! Boiled.” Tangle carefully poured the drink from the saucepan to the biggest cup she could find.
     It was the start of November on the planet Earth, but Santa’s village had been busy for months already. People were starting to send in letters to Santa, and the naughty and nice meters were working overtime trying to compile a general list.
     Meanwhile, Tangle the Hot Chocolate Elf was still dancing around the kitchen on the tips of her toes, singing the special recipe to herself as she added ingredients. “Powdered cinnamon...No, no cinnamon. Whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle. And finally…a candy cane.”
     Tangle sat back, admiring her creation. “I love hot chocolate!” With this, she bounced around, jingling her bells, until she remembered the most important part of making hot chocolate. “Delivery! Oh, Where is he?”
     Tangle rushed to the sugar snowflake that cleverly concealed a computer. “Not in the toy room…not in the present room? He’s not even with the reindeer or in the mail room! Where is he?”
     “Tangle?”
     The Hot Chocolate Elf spun around and smiled at the sound of Jangle’s voice. “Jangle! I’m so very happy to see you, my love, but I have to deliver this cup before it gets cold!”
     “I know, my sweet. I was only going to say he’s in his office.” Jangle waited, knowing what the response would be.
     Tangle glanced around and skipped over to her partner before imploring him with big brown eyes and whispering, “Does Jingle know he’s not working?”
     Jangle played along, lowering his voice. “I don’t think he needs to know just now.”
     “Okay!" Tangle moved the cup from the warming counter to a tray and set off for the recipient’s office. The most important person in the north pole and sometimes on Earth.
She took a deep breath at the door before knocking.
“Santa! Santa, are you awake? Sorry if you’re not, but I have some cocoa for you! Just the way you like it, but without cinnamon. You usually like cinnamon but it didn’t seem right this morning…”
     Tangle quieted as she realized what that meant, what the hot chocolate had told her, and her face fell.
     “Santa?” She pushed the door open slowly with her foot, to find exactly what she had feared. Santa was looking out the window, at the snow, sitting in a rocking chair. He was not moving or singing or whistling or laughing. Santa was going through the Nice List Archives.
     “I brought you hot chocolate.”
     Santa turned around, confirming Tangle’s fear. He was…old. Not in the sense that he was over two thousand years old, he was—but now it showed. And that was never a good thing.
     “What’s wrong?” Tangle was unusually calm. She set the hot chocolate down and waited. No bouncing, no singing.
     “My, my. Little Tangle, I have never seen you so serious. Not since you first arrived here.”
     “I remember. Jingle said I wasn’t a real elf.”
     “And then Jangle arrived, becoming your mate with a rhyming name, proving your…elf-ness.”
     Relaying this story usually made Tangle giggle to no end, just hearing Jangle’s name and then ending with a silly word like “elf-ness”. But right now was not a time for giggles. Santa looked at her with sad, ancient eyes and sat down.
     “The population is too big, and I am too old. Time goes too fast, and I can’t keep up.”
     “You have us. We keep up for you.”
     “What does cinnamon represent, Tangle?”
     “Spirit.”
     “Why is it not in my cup?”
     Tangle looked away and clenched her fists. Santa was the only one who understood how she made her cups of cocoa. Each cup represented the person who would be drinking it. A person who had cinnamon usually didn’t suddenly not have it anymore. She shook her head as she realized this was his way of reasoning with her. Using his understanding to talk her out of denial. Tangle wasn’t about to let it work.
     “And dark chocolate.”
     “As always.”
     “Five percent, like always?”
     “No…ten. But ten is still a small number!”
     Santa smiled and pointed to the Nice list Archives.
     “I have found a girl who has never been on the naughty list, not once.”
     “So she’s nice.”
     “She has a tremendous amount of Christmas spirit,”
     “I don’t care.” Tangle whispered, as tears graced her usually happy eyes.
     “She is of a decent age,”
     “She’ll still be too young.”
     “And I have chosen her.”
     Silence filled the room. Every elf knew what choosing someone meant. People at the North Pole didn’t choose anyone. Even their spouses were predestined, easily identified by a rhyming name. Girls starting with T, Boys starting with J. It made things simple. Santa had chosen a mortal girl who was nice and had Christmas spirit to be the new Santa. Meaning, of course, that the current Santa…Tangle’s Santa, had to…
     “I won’t let you.”
     “I officially retire.” Tangle sniffed back tears, still unused to crying. She could do nothing but watch as the current Santa laid down a blank sheet of paper and started disappearing in a swirl of dust. The dust formed itself, became darker, and imprinted a name and place on the paper.

SARAH CARLS, DAYCARE ACROSS FROM JETSON HIGH SCHOOL

     Tangle wiped away her renegade tears and picked up the piece of paper. Everything but the first name was really unneeded. The paper acted as will, and would lead any elf to the new Santa.
     New Santa. Just thinking the words made Tangle feel her sadness all over again. The merry cup of hot chocolate caught her eye.
     “I should have added the cinnamon anyway.”
     Without another word, Tangle turned around with the paper in hand and walked out of the room to find Jingle, the head elf. The cup of hot chocolate, specially brewed with a now-melting candy cane, was left to cool down on the vacant desk in the unused office where Santa used to spend his time napping instead of making toys.

Remembrance Review

Goodreads summary: Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet.
Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's high school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she get him out of her mind?
Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, fighting fate isn't going to be easy

In all honesty: I wasn't going to read this, much less buy it. I saw the cover a while back, and glanced at the summary. "Oh," I thought. "Taylor swift. Cool." And I went on with my day. But while I was on amazon buying new books ANYWAY a few weeks later, I looked at it and thought "Why not?"

I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was super pleased.

 The third grade summary report would read: "A girl meets a new mysterious guy at school and falls in love."
 Face it, I wasn't good at summarizing in third grade. Because that describes a lot of books. Among them: The much debated 'Twilight'.

 This brings me to point one of what I like about this book.

 Point One: Madow writes about a real teenage girl; not a real "literary" teenage girl, who shrinks when the boy of her dreams (or memory) tries to ignore her. When *Spoiler alert from now to a while down* Drew starts his hot and cold act, Liz calls him on it and tells him to cut it out. I loved this, seeing as most books I read have the girl feeling insecure and moping about it.

Point Two: Liz's loyalty to Chelsea is admirable. We've all heard of the girl code, but how often do you read it? She's head over heels in love with this guy, but her best friend wants to go out with him so Liz backs off.

 Point Three: I admire the way she snuck the ideas of previous lives well before it became obvious. I found myself understanding Drew's broodiness as frustration without having to be told "Hey, he knows something." It's almost masterful how Michelle snuck that in there.


Few more things: I have a favorite line. It's not a gushy love line, though I had my share of favorites in that category. It's a line that I've thought many times myself.

"It [soccer] would be much more interesting if every so often, the ball spontaneously exploded.
"Madow, Michelle (2011-07-25). Remembrance (p. 83). Dreamscape Publishing. Kindle Edition." 


Also, a debate topic. Because every book needs a good debate.
 Discuss: Considering the past lives of Drew, Liz, and Chelsea; Who is Drew really meant to be with? Point: Drew and Liz love each other, and don't love their respective partners. Opposing point: Drew and Chelsea probably got together in the old life, considering Elizabeth's fate.

And....GO.

In My Mailbox

In my Mailbox is a little something thought up and hosted by the story siren. I thought I'd give it a shot. So this week, in my mailbox, I have:


 Spy Goddess Manga Volume 1: Chase for the Chalice by Michael Spradlin

 Originally, this series was in novel form. I actually emailed the author, and he explained how sales weren't going so hot so they (the publishers) tried manga. It's a good series, though, I wish there was more to  this.



 Spy Goddess Manga volume 2: Quest for the lance by Michael Spradlin
 
 This is the last ever spy goddess book that is out there. :( Time for fanfiction?



 EBooks:


 Pandora's Reading Room by Pandora Poikilos

Paper Angels by Jimmy Wayne and Travis Thrasher

  


 The Mind Readers By Lori Brighton  -- Free on amazon right now

 

Review: Open Minds by Susan Quinn

 general summary:  Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.


My review: I usually don't opt for buying books on my 4-12 hour a week salary. But this intrigued me, and I'm elated that this book did not disappoint me. New words (demens, mesh, etc) threw me off a bit at first, but by chapter two they were an easy addition to my vocabulary.

Kira stole my heart right away, and I was rooting for her the whole book through. Once I got to the more emotional parts--I can't help it. I cried. Ms. Quinn is an exceptional writer, and I can't wait for the next books.

In fact, during halloween, I trick-or-treated with my little sister for two streets, and gave her my candy in return for some reading time.

I can't possibly give justice in a review to how amazing this book is. All I can say is: Buy it. Buy it now and start reading right away. You'll love it.

Guess what's coming in march!?

That. the Kick Butt Characters giveaway hop! I have read a splendid amount of books with characters that kick butt, so I'll be joining in this one too. ^_^

Come by here around March 23rd and enter.