Interview with Elizabeth Norris, the author of Unraveling and Unbreakable and INT giveaway!

Goodreads Book Description: Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.

And that was before she died...and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet. 

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 

Goodreads Book Description: Four months after Ben disappeared through the portal to his home universe, Janelle believes she’ll never see him again. Her world is still devastated, but life is finally starting to resume some kind of normalcy. Until Interverse Agent Taylor Barclay shows up. Somebody from an alternate universe is running a human trafficking ring, kidnapping people and selling them on different Earths—and Ben is the prime suspect. Now his family has been imprisoned and will be executed if Ben doesn’t turn himself over within five days.

And when Janelle learns that someone she cares about—someone from her own world—has become one of the missing, she knows that she has to help Barclay, regardless of the danger. Now Janelle has five days to track down the real culprit. Five days to locate the missing people before they’re lost forever. Five days to reunite with the boy who stole her heart. But as the clues begin to add up, Janelle realizes that she’s in way over her head—and that she may not have known Ben as well as she thought. Can she uncover the truth before everyone she cares about is killed?

I have this one coming to me in the mail, will have a review up after I read it!!!

 

Author Blurb:  

Elizabeth Norris briefly taught high school English and history before trading the southern California beaches and sunshine for Manhattan's recent snowpocalyptic winter. She harbors dangerous addictions to guacamole, red velvet cupcakes, sushi, and Argo Tea, fortunately not all together. Her first novel, UNRAVELING (Balzer+Bray, April 2012), is the story of one girl's fight to save her family, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming.

Author Interview

1. I love that you were an English high school teacher before you were a YA writer. Can you talk a little about your journey and how your experiences as a teacher influenced your writing? 

I was! I taught high school English in San Diego for six years. Being a teacher is what brought me to YA literature in the first place. I liked to know what my students enjoyed reading, so I read Gossip Girl and Twilight. At first I read YA novels in order to recommend good ones to my students, but I fell in love with them. I loved that they had everything: romance, great writing, high stakes. You can also actually see one of my lesson plans in Unraveling. The scene where Ben and Janelle argue about marriage proposals--that's from the AP class that I taught.  

2. Your main character, Janelle, rocks! I know a lot of people have been comparing her to Veronica Mars. Can you tell us what fictional character other than Veronica Mars (and maybe they are too similar to be friends) would be best friends with her and why?  

Thank you! I do really love Veronica Mars. I'm excited for the movie! I think Janelle and Katsa from Graceling would be best friends. They both work so hard to protect the people they care about. As long as they didn't have opposing causes they would be a great team. 

3. Did any of your characters surprise you? If so, which one?  

My minor characters always surprise me a little. Cecily was the biggest surprise in Unraveling. She actually wasn't even in the first draft--or really, she was but she didn't have a name. She was just a girl Janelle occasionally ate lunch with. But as I was editing, Cecily demanded to have a presence. 

4. If you could be sorted into a Hogwarts house, which one would it be and why?  

Ravenclaw. I actually did the sorting test with Pottermore and I think it's the love of knowledge and learning.  

5. What was your favorite YA read of the past year?

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood 

6. Favorite show of all time?  

There are so many! Probably X-Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer 

7. Tell us about your dogs. 

I have a boxer and a pit lab mix. They're big and lazy and sometimes quite excitable. They also really enjoy playing ball. My pit lab mix loves her the ball and the boxer loves her so we do a lot of throwing it around the apartment. 

8. I love how on your blog you say one of your most favorite things is used books with inscriptions to other people. Do you have a favorite book and inscription that you could share with us? 

I have a copy of Pride & Prejudice that says "To Deena, may you find a love like this." 

9. Can you tell us what you are working on now? 

I'm working on another YA novel for Harper. In short, it's about a girl named Maya who has to work as an informant for federal agents and falls in love with a guy who's being recruited by the mob.

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