Interview + Giveaway: Alice Kuipers (Lost for Words)

Everyone please welcome Alice Kuipers, author of Lost for Words. Thank you to Kim for reaching out and including me in this tour! I appreciate Alice taking the time out to complete this interview and look forward to reading her book.

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Alice Kuipers is the author of Life on the Refrigerator Door, which was published in twenty-eight countries and won several awards. She was born and raised in London, England, and now lives in Saskatoon, Canada.

For more info on Alice, visit her site(s):
-Website
-Life on the Refrigerator Door Site
-Facebook
-Twitter

Books by Alice:
-Lost for Words
-Life on the Refrigerator Door
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Lost for Words by Alice Kuipers
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 224

Summary: My New Year's resolution: I'm moving on from everything that's happened. I'm not going to talk about it, think about it, let the memory pounce upon me like a waiting tiger, nothing. All Sophie wants to do is forget. But it's not easy now that everything's changed. The house feels too big, school drags on for too long, lights are too bright, the room spins, and her hands get sweaty for no reason. And she can't remember why she was ever best friends with Abigail, who is obsessed with parties and boys. Only the new girl, Rosa-Leigh, with her prose poems and utter confidence, might understand. But talking to her seems impossible. Lost in memories of the life she once had, Sophie retreats into herself. But there's only so long she can keep everything bottled up inside before she explodes. Maybe by confronting the tragedy of her past she'll figure out how to fix her future.

Now Available in Bookstores!
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Author Interview:

1) Thank you Alice for taking the time out to do this interview! It's an honor to feature you on my blog. I was curious to know, what inspired you to write your recent YA book, Lost for Words?

AK: Thank you, Eleni. I'm glad to be on your blog talking about Lost For Words with you. I was inspired to write it because I'd been thinking about two ideas. Firstly, I was interested in the experience of anxiety attacks after listening to a radio talk show about them. I wanted to explore as a writer those terrible feelings of panic and fear that can sometimes overwhelm a person. I decided that my main character, Sophie, would suffer from these and the book became an exploration of why. Some people don't have as dramatic a cause for anxiety attacks as it turns out that Sophie does, in fact, lots of sufferers have no discernible cause but as a writer, I realised I wanted more background for the story. The second idea was to write about the effect of terrorism on a family. I was in outer London during the bombings of 2005 and I saw how they affected everyone in the city, not just the people who were on the trains and buses who suffered so terribly. Sophie, my anxious, creative, lost girl, became the perfect character to tie these two strands of thought together.

2) Sophie, the female protagonist in your book uses reading and writing poetry as emotional therapy, what do you do to relieve stress?

AK: If I don't write for a few days, I feel stress building up. I don't know why I find writing so soothing, but I do. Other ways that I relax are to do Pilates or go to the climbing gym. With a small baby, it's hard to do either of those things. Fortunately, the baby naps sometimes so I can still write.

3) Which character in Lost for Words did you enjoyed creating the most?

AK: Good question. Hmmm. I enjoyed many of the characters for different reasons. Sophie because she is so vivid to me. Emily because I loved her. Their mother because she is suffering so much whilst trying to parent. Abigail because she is so vulnerable but she pretends to be tough. Rosa-Leigh because she is so calm. And then Dan because it's great to write about someone so self absorbed.

4) What is one random thing about yourself that you don't normally share with others (don't worry, we can keep secrets.)?

AK: I'm answering this email in my pyjamas. My sister is walking the baby around the room - we're staying with her in Manchester - but she hasn't realised that I've stolen her Starbucks coffee. I look pretty innocent in pyjamas.

5) Do you have any other projects you're currently working on?

AK: Yes, I've just finished my third novel which is called Forty Things I Want To Tell You. Books take about a year and a half to turn themselves from big piles of paper into gorgeous objects so I'll be sending Forty Things to my editors soon.

Giveaway:

Kim is kindly giving away three copies of Lost for Words! Thank you! :) Read below for further details...

CONTEST IS CLOSED.

::Contest Rules::

-There will be three lucky winners.
-This contest is for U.S. residents only.
-Deadline will be July 10, 2010 at midnight EST time.

(Please enter through form and not comments, thanks!)

!! FILL THIS FORM OUT TO ENTER !!