I'm beyond excited today as I get to publish this very special interview with the author of one of my absolute favorite 2018 books: Erin Cashman!  Erin is the author of The Exceptionals as well as   her latest novel, Uncharted - out now!  I was intrigued by the Uncharted from the very first moment I glimpsed its cover and description. And I just knew then I was going to love it, and... I did! I mean, what I can say; this book is pretty much my 'catnip' of a story: a dark mystery, mysterious parents, secret societies, ancient legends brought out of the shadows and into the light, and a determined, uniquely voiced protagonist. I loved every moment! And so I reached out to Erin and invited her to answer some questions about her writing, reading, and everything.  Here it is:) Please check it out!  Hi Erin, and welcome! As it's become a tradition on my blog, I start all my author interviews with this question: What was the book that influenced you the most w...

Today I'm pleased to host this interview with a dear friend of mine, and a fellow 2018 debut Lucia DiStefano! Lucia's debut YA novel is BORROWED and I had a pleasure to read and review an early copy - and, WOW, this book, THIS BOOK.  Have a read, and if you feel like it, leave your impressions and well wishes to Lucia's on her debut's publication in the comments.  About BORROWED Love, mystery, and danger collide in this new literary thriller with the dark heart of a Gillian Flynn novel and the lyrical prose of Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun . A triumph of authenticity, grace, and nail-biting suspense, Lucia DiStefano’s ingenious debut is an unflinching, genre-bending page-turner. As seventeen-year-old Linnea celebrates the first anniversary of her heart transplant, she can’t escape the feeling that the wires have been crossed. After a series of unsettling dreams, inked messages mysteriously appear on her body, and she starts to wonder if this new heart...

Can you imagine how excited I am to be taking part in Tara Gilboy's blog tour for her Middle-Grade debut  Unwritten !? VERY. I'm very excited.  I had a pleasure of reading an early digital advanced copy of  Unwritten  awhile back and I loved it. A lot. It's a very unusual book that deals with the matters of good and evil as well as our evolving identity. The book also asks the question of how much our nature and nurture define us. Plus, the protagonist's voice was absolutely mesmerizing - I simply couldn't stop reading! So today, I'm so happy to publish my Q&A with Tara and share my ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review of her debut. Plus, I was so thrilled to read Tara's book that I became its official blurber! As authors, we get asked a lot to 'blurb' new books and, even though I'm a debut myself, I was asked to blurb four books already (and I was happy to do it), but - to my knowledge - Unwritten  is the first book that actually contains my ...

Today I'm very pleased to share this interview I conducted with fabulous Candace Robinson! Candace is the author of  Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault ,  The Bride of Glass  and many other books. She is also a blogger, book reviewer (find her reviews at  Literary Dust ) and overall a great human! I hope you all enjoy our exchange of words. Katya de Becerra [KdB]: What book influenced you the most when you were a child (and why)? Candace Robinson [CR]: My parents let me watch a lot of horror movies when I was small, probably not the best thing in the world. But I loved them! I don’t like a lot of the newer ones, but I still cherish the classics! When it came to reading books, I didn’t really start getting into anything until I picked up The Haunted Mask Goosebumps book. Those books were all kinds of cheesy awesome! KdB: I seem to cause a lot of controversy with this question on my blog but I keep asking it anyway because I’m just a very controversial person I ...

Hi All, This year as my own debut publication is looming on the horizon, I've been lucky and privileged to get to know many of my fellow debut authors. In particular, joining the Electric Eighteens support group (run by 2018 debuts for 2018 debuts!) has been fantastic. Not only I now have access to the brilliant hive mind that is this group, I can also celebrate my fellow authors' successes. What makes me especially happy is to see my author friends debut at last and witness all the love they get from their readers.    In this vein, I'm restarting my Industry Interview series and am happy to present to you the following interview with Diane Magras, whose medieval adventure THE MAD WOLF'S DAUGHTER is hitting the shelves as I type this sentence!    And so, without further ado, I present to you this interview, in which among other things, Diane talks about her writing journey, the in-depth research she's done for her stunning debut and her love for the m...

When I met with my editors in New York last November, we talked about all sorts of things, from the origins of ideas, to the reasons why we write, to our motivation to use non-traditional literary formats to tell a story. But this one thing in particular resonated with me: inspiration. I find myself going back to ponder one of my editor's questions in regards to inspiration behind What The Woods Keep : 'But why [spoiler removed]? Why not something else? Why this particular bit of mythology?' Why indeed! In response, I mumbled something along the lines of: 'When I was a kid, I remember reading this book... called '100 mysteries' or 'legends' or something... and [spoiler removed] stuck in my brain like a splinter and I don't know why but here's me twenty years later writing a book about it. I really don't know!' Today, as I smoulder in the summer inferno that is Melbourne in February, I return to the question of inspiration onc...