Author Interview: Angie Frazier (Everlasting)

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Angie Frazier is a writer, mom, freelance editor, a good cook, and a horrible housekeeper. Angie’s debut novel, Everlasting, was published in 2010 by Scholastic Press, and is a mixture of everything she loves in a good book: history, mystery, adventure, romance, and fantasy. Her middle grade novel, The Midnight Tunnel: A Suzanna Snow Mystery, will be published in 2011. She lives in southern New Hampshire with her husband and their two daughters.

For more info on Angie, visit her site(s):

-Website

-Twitter

-Facebook

-GoodReads

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Everlasting by Angie Frazier

Reading Level: Young Adult

Release Date: Available Now

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Pages: 336

Summary: Sailing aboard her father's ship is all seventeen-year-old Camille Rowen has ever wanted. But as a lady in 1855 San Francisco, her future is set: marry a man she doesn't love in order to preseve her social standing. On her last voyage before the wedding, Camille learns the mother she has always believed dead is in fact alive and in Australia. When their Sydney-bound ship goes down in a gale, and her father dies, Camille sets out to find her mother and a map in her possession - a map believed to lead to a stone that once belonged to the legendary civilization of the immortals. The stone can do exactly what Camille wants most: bring someone back from the dead. Unfortunately, her father's adversary is also on the hunt for the stone, and she must race him to it. The only person Camille can depend on is Oscar - a handsome young sailor and her father's first mate - who is in love with Camille and whom she is inexplicably drawn to despite his low social standing and her pending wedding vows.With an Australian card shark acting as their guide, Camille eludes murderous bushrangers, traverses dangerous highlands, evades a curse placed on the stone, and unravels the mystery behind her mother's disappearance sixteen years earlier. But when another death shakes her conviction to resurrect her father, Camille must choose what - and who - matters most.

Coming Soon:

The Midnight Tunnel (Suzanna Snow, #1) - March 1, 2011

Tempest - June 1, 2011

Book Trailer:

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Author Interview:

1) How old were you when you started writing?

AF: Since I was seven or eight, or whenever I learned how to write and read. I loved telling stories, mostly scary stories that involved witches and ghosts and murderers. I’m sure my parents were concerned at one point or another.

2) What inspired you to write Everlasting?

AF: In college, I was the editor of the weekly campus newspaper. I wrote and edited nothing but news stories for four years, and when I graduated, I was itching to write something fictional. I was renting a cottage that winter and the ceilings were covered in classy old vintage travel posters, and lots of them were for places in Australia. Being the big history geek that I am, I chose to set my story in the 1800s, throw in some maritime adventure, and have my characters all heading for the unexplored terrain of colonial Australia. Of course, the book needed romance too!

3) Are the characters in the books based on someone you know?

AF: None of the characters are based on any of my family or friends or enemies (not that I have any enemies!). I’m sure that subconsciously I’ve given them qualities that people in my life possess, but I think that’s only natural. That all seems really boring doesn’t it? Maybe from now on I’ll answer this kind of question with, “Yes, actually, I based the villain, Stuart McGreenery, on my Great Aunt Eunice.” My family would all be calling one another in a frenzy trying to figure out just who the heck Aunt Eunice is and what she did to make me hate her.

4) What was the hardest part about writing Everlasting?

AF: The historical research was difficult, but because I love doing research with unnatural zeal, I’ll say the hardest part was developing Camille’s character. I knew her very well in my head, but getting her character out onto paper was challenging. I think I wanted to make her as real as she was in my imagination, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to do her justice. I’m happy with how she turned out, but I’m excited about developing her further in the sequel.

5) If you had to describe your book in one word, what would it be and why?

AF: Adventure would the word I’d choose, because really that’s what the book is. Of course, romance and mystery and fantasy are all involved as well (romance, especially!). Nothing makes me happier than hearing from those who have read the book that it had an Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean feel to it.

6) What are your thoughts on the book cover for Everlasting?

AF: The cover was one of the most exciting parts of the whole publishing process for me. Scholastic did not disappoint! I love my cover, especially the faded world map in the background, the Arabesque border, and the blue color scheme. Its simplicity is my favorite element.

7) I see the first book of your Suzanna Snow mystery series is coming out in Spring 2011, what can we expect from these books?

AF: Yes, the Suzanna Snow books are middle grade mysteries, and it’s exciting because they are the same kind of stories I would have written as a kid—minus the bloodthirsty murderers! The first Suzanna book is set in the sleepy seaside town of Loch Harbor, New Brunswick where Zanna and her parents live and work at the Rosemount, a grand hotel where the wealthy come to summer each year. Zanna wants nothing more than to be just like her famous Uncle Bruce, a detective in Boston, and when a young hotel guest goes missing she has the chance to test her mettle. The Suzanna Snow series is going to be a mix of mystery, history, coming-of-age, and humor.

8) What book are you currently reading?

AF: I’m kind of in a big Jane Austen phase right now. I’m reading Emma at the moment, but will soon be switching into mystery mode to prepare for an upcoming workshop I’m teaching locally. My TBR pile includes more Jane Austen, some ARCs from the Tenners, and the copy of Lisa Manchev’s Eyes Like Stars that has been waiting ever so patiently for a while now. Oh Bertie…I want to meet her so badly!

9) Do you have anything to say to all your readers?

AF: Just that I hope that when they open up Everlasting or Suzanna Snow, that they have fun submerging themselves into the story and escaping from the real world for a little while. That’s the very reason I read and write to begin with, and I hope I can give readers an exciting outlet to do the same thing.

10) Tell us something about yourself that no one knows about.

AF: Ooooh! Personal secrets! Scary. Let’s see…hopefully this won’t humiliate me to any great degree, but when I was twelve or so I taped every single episode of The Young Riders. It was a USA channel show from the early ‘90s that chronicled the Pony Express riders. Basically, I just wanted to drool over all the cute boys but I also loved the Wild West setting and the adventurous plots and the romance between the girl who was pretending to be a boy so she could be an Express rider and one of the other riders. Seriously, now I want to find those tapes…