#17DABash – Cindy's Love Of Books

Author Q&A with Wendy McLeod MacKnight

Posted on December 28, 2017November 29, 2017 by Cindy

Today I am truly honored to be able to host Wendy McLeod MacKnight debut middle grade author of It’s a Mystery, Pig Face! Her second book coming out and its called The Frame Up! is scheduled to be released in 2018.

About the author:

Wendy McLeod Macknight wrote her first novel when she was nine-years-old. Her entire life she wanted to be a children’s book author, but kept getting sidetracked by her work for the Government of New Brunswick, where she held various posts, including Director of Early Childhood Services, Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for children’s programs, senior’s programs, child welfare programs, housing and low income programs.

After serving as the Deputy Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, she decided it was now or never. She left her position and began work on It’s a Mystery, Pig Face!, which is a love letter to the town where she grew up, St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

Married, she has a daughter and a son, a dog, three squirrels she has helped rescue who hang about, and a groundhog who lives under the gazebo. Besides writing and reading, Wendy loves cooking, Paris, New York City. gardening, New Brunswick, shoes, and most of all, her family. It’s a Mystery, Pig Face! Is her
debut novel.

Cindy: Hi Wendy, I was beyond thrilled when I discovered you were a Canadian author and excited to find out you were from New Brunswick. I am originally from Bathurst, NB and lived there for almost 23 years until making the move to Quebec. I have to admit that I had to google where Hanwell was because that’s a new to me location.

Wendy: YAY Bathurst!!! I love Bathurst!!!

Cindy: What inspired you to become a writer?

Wendy: I wanted to be a writer as soon as I knew a person could be a writer, but I suspect that when Anne Shirley starts trying to sell stories for publication in Anne of Avonlea, I was hooked on the idea. Of course, I took a LONG detour to get to my first book, but never say never!

Cindy: What was your favorite childhood book to read growing up?

Wendy: This is like asking me who’s my favourite child! I adored Anne of Green Gables, A Wrinkle in Time, All-of-A-Kind-Family, Harriet the Spy. Basically, anything I could get my hands on!

Cindy: That has to be one of my favorite questions to ask because everyone’s answer is always so different. I have never heard of All of a Kind Family and I have to say you peeked my interest. I will need to see if I can find them. Did you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Wendy: It’s a Mystery, Pig Face! is a love letter to the town I grew up in, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and there are all kinds of mentions throughout the book of local places—new and old. And I had to throw in a character named Trixie after my beloved Trixie Belden!

Cindy: Who is your favorite author? What is one book they wrote that you would recommend?

Wendy: I’m picking a classic and a contemporary author to try and get around the rules!

Classic:

L. Maud Montgomery and of course Anne of Green Gables, but all of her books are wonderful and they make me so proud to be Canadian!

Contemporary:

In middle grade, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War That Saved My Life is amazing.

In young adult, I bow down to Philip Pullman. Start with The Golden Compass and rejoice!

Cindy: I think one of the books all east coast girls read was the Anne of Green Gables series and I absolutely loved the books and to this day I still love Anne. Thanks for your recommendations I have not read any of those books but definitely will in the new year. If your looking for more suggestions be sure to click on this to see what else Wendy enjoyed reading. What was the inspiration behind It’s A Mystery Pig Face?

Wendy: I loved mysteries when I was a kid, and was always looking for one in my neighbourhood. Alas, we were mystery-free, but not for lack of trying! When I decided to write my first middle grade novel, I knew I wanted to start with a mystery, and have a very flawed main character (which is basically me!) and so It’s a Mystery, Pig Face! was born! And proudly set in New Brunswick!

Cindy: I am so happy that you decided to write with a New Brunswick setting. Since this is your debut book and I noticed you have a second one coming out will this become a series?

Wendy: My next book is completely different. It’s called The Frame-Up and is being published by Greenwillow Books in June, 2018.

It’s a fantasy set at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, and many of the characters are from actual masterpieces the Gallery owns, including a Freud, a Dali, a Gainsborough. The premise is: what if every original piece of art is actually alive, living parallel lives to ours, only in the world behind the frames?

I love the book so much and can’t wait to share it with the world! And Greenwillow is making it a truly beautiful book, complete with full colour images.

As for whether there will be more Pig Face books – I would sure love that! We’ll see!

Cindy: If we were to look at your desk what would we be surprised to find or discover?

Wendy: Well besides the fact that it’s a mess right now because I’m editing my next book? They might be surprised that I have a little figurine of Wendy from Peter Pan, which is there to remind me to soar!

Cindy: What are you currently reading?

Wendy: I just finished The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, which made my jaw drop continually, and am about to read Lindsay Eagar’s new middle grade novel, Race to the Bottom of the Sea. I think she is wonderful!

Cindy: Wonderful suggestions. I just added both books to my chapters wishlist. How important is it for you to write your books with a local setting?

Wendy: So important. When I realized Anne of Green Gables was set only four hours from where I lived as a kid, I remember being gobsmacked. When I do school visits, especially in New Brunswick, I spend a lot of time talking about how important it is to tell your stories and not be afraid to set them where you live. I have a book in a drawer set in England in the 1800s which may yet see the light of day, but I love writing and talking about New Brunswick; who I am is very much shaped from being a Maritimer!

Cindy: Even though I have been in Quebec 19+ years I still consider myself a proud Maritimer. What is the hidden jewel that one should visit when they go to Hanwell/Fredericton?

Wendy: Well, I’d say I’m the hidden jewel in Hanwell, but go to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, which isn’t really a hidden jewel, but not enough people know about what a world class gallery it is. Of course, they’re about to read all about it in my next book…

Cindy: Wendy thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions. I truly appreciate it and loved having you on my blog today. Please come back and I hope everyone will pick up It’s a Mystery Pig Face! to read and support this fantastic Canadian author.

Wendy: Thank you! I loved your questions!

Ways to connect with the author:

website: http://wendymcleodmacknight.com/

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WendyMcLeodMacKnightAuthor/

twitter: https://twitter.com/wendymacknight

goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14223581.Wendy_McLeod_MacKnight

pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/WendyMacKnight/

Thank you to YA Reads Book Reviews for making this interview possible.

Author Q & A with Rebecca #17DABash

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Cindy

I just quickly want to take a moment and thank Nichole from YaReads.com for putting together this huge debut authors bash. This has been happening since 2013 but my first time hearing about it so after hearing about it I quickly signed up. There was 112 debut authors taking part and its happening all this month. You can check the tour schedule by clicking THIS.

This is day 10 of the Debut Authors Bash and today I am going to talk with Rebecca Christiansen author of Maybe In Paris. I will be reviewing her back as well.

About the Author:

Rebecca Christiansen tried to study creative writing at university, but kept skipping classes to write YA novels in the library, so she decided to pursue that instead. She loves boy bands and diet soda and suffers from incurable wanderlust. Rebecca lives with her boyfriend in a house packed full of books in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I have to thank Nichole for arranging this and to Rebecca for taking the time out of her busy schedule to do this interview with me.

Cindy: What inspired you to become a writer?

Rebecca: I’ve always been a writer, since I first learned to write. But two people in particular inspired me to “go for gold” and take it more seriously: my third grade teaching assistant, Miss Shillum, who started a creative writing period in my class, and a French author (whose name I can’t remember) who visited my french literature class in eighth grade. She had published a book and told us that it was 40,000 words long — I remember my mind being blown, because I had just put the finishing touches on a fanfiction I had written that was 50,000 words long. I realized I had written a novel-length story, one as long as already-published books. That was when I really decided I wanted to be published someday.

Cindy: What was your favorite childhood book to read growing up?

Rebecca: Harry Potter was big for me, but for a more unique answer, I’ll say EMILY OF NEW MOON by L. M. Montgomery. She’s more famous for writing ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, but the Emily books really awoke me. Emily Starr is a budding poet and writer and an orphan who has just been shipped off to live with her mother’s relatives, who she has never met, at their ancestral farm on Prince Edward Island. It was the first truly beautiful book I ever read, and it was absolutely instrumental to me becoming a writer.

Emily Of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery Cindy: I loved the Anne of Green Gables books growing up. I think its time to dig them back out and read more of L. M. Montgomery. Did you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Rebecca: Good question! There are actually a few nods to my favourite musician in MAYBE IN PARIS, Andrew McMahon. The main characters live in Shoreline, WA, a town where Andrew once recorded an album with his band, Something Corporate.

Cindy: Who is your favorite author? What is one book they wrote that you would recommend?

Rebecca: My favourite underrated author is Marcus Sedgwick! He’s a British YA author who has written a ton of books, and most of them win big awards in the UK, but he’s barely known in North America. Most of his books are historical fantasy tinged with horror, but they’re all incredibly unique and well-written. My faves are THE GHOSTS OF HEAVEN, SHE IS NOT INVISIBLE, MIDWINTERBLOOD, and WHITE CROW. His adult novel MISTER MEMORY is also incredible.

The Ghosts Of Heaven SHE IS NOT INVISIBLE Midwinterblood White Crow Mister Memory

Cindy: Every time I am at my local bookstore I always pick up one of his books and end up putting it back but I think the next time I have to pick it up. What was the inspiration behind Maybe in Paris?

Rebecca: In MAYBE IN PARIS, Keira’s family’s lives are shattered by her brother Levi’s attempted suicide. That happened to my brother, too. I was an adult when it happened, but as my brother got better and we had to learn to live with a new normal after his new mental health diagnoses, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I might have reacted if I had been younger and less mature. I wouldn’t have been as good a sister, and I wanted to explore that sibling dynamic as a way of healing in real life. That’s often how I work through issues: I fictionalize them and write about them.

I also went to Paris when I was fifteen and always wanted to write about the city, so I put those two ideas together!

Cindy: My brother in law was diagnosed with Schizophrenia many years ago and we had to learn a new normal when you have a family member like that. Do you have any books in the works that you can share?

Rebecca: Nothing under contract yet, but I’m working on a few different manuscripts that I’m really excited about. Can’t wait to have some real news soon!

Cindy: Oh I can’t wait to hear the news. Fingers are crossed for you. If we were too look at your desk what would we be surprised to find or discover?

Rebecca: I have some cool things on my desk! A beautiful hand painted sugar skull from my trip to Mexico earlier this year, a pair of Eiffel Tower bookends that hold up my author copies of MAYBE IN PARIS, and a framed fortune from a fortune cookie I got at an Andrew McMahon show. The fortune is a line of lyrics from his song “All Our Lives”: it says “Skeletons and plans, you’ve gotta let them go.”

Cindy: What are you currently reading?

Rebecca: Right now I’m reading THE PEARL THIEF by Elizabeth Wein. It’s the recently-released prequel to CODE NAME VERITY, which is one of my all-time favourites. I cried while rereading it on the bus a few days ago! THE PEARL THIEF is very different, but it’s wonderful to get to see my favourite character and what she was like before the war started.

The Pearl Thief Code Name Verity

Cindy: Another book I need to get to as I have it sitting on my TBR pile. Who is your all time favorite boy band?

Rebecca: Growing up I loved Backstreet Boys, but oh man, One Direction are my loves. I’m a huge fan, as anyone who follows me on Twitter will know. I love their music, and they’re just the sweetest little cupcakes. Really, the nicest people in show biz.

Image result for one direction 2017

Cindy: If you want to follow Rebecca on twitter here is her link https://twitter.com/rchristiansenYA What is the hidden jewel that one should visit when they go to Vancouver?

Rebecca: Stanley Park is a must-see — it’s a huge wooded park just steps from downtown, surrounded on three sides by the ocean. It’s home to the Vancouver Aquarium, acres of parkland, a lot First Nations art, and horse-drawn tours. It’s also home to the best concert venue in the city, an outdoor amphitheatre called the Malkin Bowl. Every show I see their ends up being one of the best I’ve ever seen.

Cindy: I have never been to Vancouver but hope to visit there one day soon. Thanks once again Rebecca for sitting down and doing this interview with me.

Review/ Maybe In Paris (#17DABash)

Posted on December 10, 2017December 10, 2017 by Cindy

Maybe in Paris by Rebecca Christiansen
Format: Hardcover
Published by Sky Pony Press on June 20th 2017
Pages: 240
Goodreads

Keira Braidwood lands in Paris with her autistic brother, Levi, and high hopes. Levi has just survived a suicide attempt and months in the psych ward—he’s ready for a dose of the wider world. Unlike their helicopter mom and the doctors who hover over Levi, Keira doesn’t think Levi’s certifiable. He’s just . . . quirky. Always has been.

Those quirks quickly begin to spoil the trip. Keira wants to traipse all over Europe; Levi barely wants to leave their grubby hotel room. She wants to dine on the world’s cuisine; he only wants fast food. Levi is one giant temper tantrum, and Keira’s ready to pull out her own hair.

She finally finds the adventure she craves in Gable, a hot Scottish bass player, but while Keira flirts in the Paris Catacombs, Levi’s mental health breaks. He disappears from their hotel room and Keira realizes, too late, that her brother is sicker than she was willing to believe. To bring him home safe, Keira must tear down the wall that Levi’s sickness and her own guilt have built between them.

This is day 10 of the Debut Authors Bash and today I am going to talk about Maybe in Paris by Rebecca Christiansen.

About the Author:

When I found out that I was actually going to host Rebecca Christiansen’s book Maybe in Paris I was super excited because she is a Canadian author and the book sounded really good.

This was a super quick read and I pretty much devoured it all on rainy Saturday.

Keira has always wanted to go to Paris. She loves everything about Paris and I could relate I am like that about New York City. She even went to her prom dressed like Marie Antoinette. Now that is some serious obsession with the city of love.

Her school has hosted a french foreign exchange student all year and she has had a little crush on him. She is determined to spend the summer in Paris with him and she knows the only way she can go is if she saves up for it and she does. Every nickel and dime goes towards this trip of a life time.

Just before leaving there is a huge problem that is possibly going to put a kink in the plan. What will Keira do? Will she be going to Paris as played or will this trip go down the drain?

I can totally understand how upset she is about not being able to go but family is everything and we all take that for granted. We think we will be around for ever and sometimes we are and sometimes we aren’t. Not wanting to give up on her chance to go to Paris she comes up with a plan that will mean bringing Levi with her and following the rules her mother has set out for her in regards to looking after Levi and his medication.

Keira has their days planned out and sadly not once does she really think of Levi and what he might want to do as he just seems to be following behind her this whole trip. Before long Keira has left him behind and gone to do what she wants and not taking in to account she has left her brother for so long. When she gets back she is in for a rude awakening.

Will Keira be able to cope or does she realize she is in over her head?