Titanic Giveaway Blog Hop, Featuring Emily Murdoch, author of If You Find Me and INT Giveaway!

Titanic Giveaway Hop

April 8th to 14th

Featuring Books with 
Tragic Disasters & Epic Love Stories

Co-hosted by My Devotional Thoughts

Welcome back to another great blog hop! I wanted to host a really tragic story, which to me was If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch. I cried so hard when reading this!

Goodreads Book Description: A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Author Blurb: EMILY MURDOCH lives in the Arizona desert with her husband and adopted dogs, spending her days operating a sanctuary for slaughter-rescued horses and burros. At night, she writes furiously by candlelight, capturing the ideas inspired by the day. This is Emily's first published novel.

Author Interview

1. Can you tell us a little about your journey to becoming a writer?

I've always been a writer. Actually, it's something I look back upon with wonder, standing here today as author: how at five-years-old, I already knew.

That doesn't mean writing came easy or that I didn't need to learn craft or practice voice. But there's always been a drive inside me for story, and a burning need to perfect a method for communicating those stories.

2. How did you get the inspiration to write If You Find Me? Tell us a little bit about developing your plot.
I had the idea of "parentally kidnapped girl returns to society after years of isolation" and sat down on November 1st, 2011, for my fourth National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and began to write. (I won! : )

I don't plot or outline. I write 2000 words a day, and let each day take care of itself. I love being done for the day and thinking over what I've written as I go about my house and horse chores. I love the thinking-about as much as the actual writing.

3. Your characters are well thought out, meaningful and three dimensional. Can you talk about Carey and her sister and some of the supporting cast?

Carey worked her way to the surface from rooty, subterranean places. I didn't realize it when I was writing her character, but she resonated so deeply because I, too, was an abused child. I wish I could better explain why it didn't stand out to me at first. Best as I can explain it, when you have brown hair, you have brown hair. You don't think of it especially. You don't notice it, after awhile. It just is.

And in a way, it needed to be that way. The book needed to find a way around my fear or self-consciousness in order to make it's way into the world.As for the other characters, they just showed up. I don't know how to explain that, either. When I write, it's like I see a movie in my head. I write down what happens. The other characters are part of Carey's story, like puzzle pieces fitting together to form the big picture.

You write the picture that's most glorious. You can see it, if you look.

4. Tell us about your other passions other than writing-- in particular, tell us about the great work you do with horses.

Thank you! The truth is, the horses give me much more than I give them; they're just such amazing, intelligent animals.

In an earlier manuscript, I'd decided to make my main character a horse rescuer. I'd just moved to Arizona from the east coast and, although I'd always loved horses, I didn't know a whole lot about them or their history.

As I researched, I stumbled across horse slaughter, and was horrified. I think I'm typical of many east coast, unhorsey people, in that I had no idea horse slaughter existed, let alone the plight of the wild mustangs of the south and west.

Old horses, stolen horses, buyers who lied about why they bought your horse, horses that end up at auction, Girl Scout camp horses, riding camp horses, thoroughbreds (only a handful of those bred for racing actually are good enough, the rest are throwaways) Quarter horses (not all show horses win blue ribbons) to the majestic wild mustangs of the west: rounded up from the wilds, stuffed in trailers and sent off to slaughter.

You'll be hearing more from me on this issue in the future. America's wild horses used to run free in the millions. Now there are a calculated 30,000 or less left on the land, with more than that number already rounded up and warehoused in corrals by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In sum, my character and my writing inspired me to take real action. Here at our ranch, I operate a small sanctuary for horses and donkeys saved from abuse, neglect, starvation and slaughter.

My ranch is heart-shaped. : )

5. What is your favorite YA book of all time, and what was your favorite read in the past year?

Wow. That's not easy to answer on a few levels.

Favorite YA book of all time would be ... The Diary of Anne Frank. But I also wouldn't want to live in a world without Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, or Merlin's Keep -- all of which I still read from time to time.
As for favorite YA read of the past year, I plead the fifth! I've read many, and I'm constantly delighted to discover so many fertile minds and talented voices, both amongst established authors and debuts.

6. What do you have on the horizon?

I have three more manuscripts I hope to share with all of you, and there will be a second book. I haven't announced it officially yet, or decided which story is the best follow-up to If You Find Me. I am leaning heavily toward one, though. I'm also pondering a sequel to If You Find Me.

However, if there were a sequel, it would be my third book, not my second.
Thank you so much for your insightful questions and for helping me share my novel with the world. I enjoyed chatting with you! And I especially appreciate your asking about my horses!

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