Good day everyone! Today we're one of the 3rd stop for Kissing in America blog tour. Below we had a brief interview about Margo and how she started writing. There's also an audio tour for the book! Join on the giveaway below and follow the tour for more chances of winning! ;)
Blurb:
I loved romances because when you opened the first page, you knew the story would end well. Your heart wouldn't be broken. I loved that security, that guaranteed love.
In real life, you never knew the ending. I hated that.
Sixteen-year-old Eva has never been in love. But when she meets Will, everything changes. With him, her grief over her father's death fades, and she can escape from her difficult relationship with her mother. Then, without any warning, Will picks up and moves to California. So Eva—with the help of her best friend, Annie—concocts a plan to travel across the country to see him again. As they leave New York City for the first time and road-trip across America, they encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way, Eva and Annie learn the truth about love and all its complexities.
Congratulations on your book Margo! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Thank you! I was born in NYC and raised in Sunnyside, Queens, and after living for 7 years in Austin, TX, we now live in the Philadelphia area. I write essays and book reviews for the New York Times, Salon, and The Rumpus, and I’m the author of Kissing in America and Cures for Heartbreak.
When and how did you decide to become a YA writer?
I’ve always loved writing and wanted to be a writer ever since I was a little kid. My first book, Cures for Heartbreak, was actually considered an adult book originally--I wrote an essay about how it sold as YA for the New York Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/books/review/Rabb-t.html?scp=1&sq=margo%20rabb&st=cse
Could you describe the mundane details of writing: How many hours a day to you devote to writing? Do you write a draft on paper or at a keyboard?
I always draft on paper first. I try to write for a good 4 or so hours a day, but not on weekends. When I’m revising I like to print out drafts and then mark them up with a pen and type in the changes.
So far, what has been the most surprising part of the publishing and writing industry for you?
I think the most surprising part is what a small world it is--before I started writing professionally, I didn’t know that the world of writers can feel quite tiny and close-knit. I love that aspect of it.
What is the best piece of advice you've ever received? the worst?
The best piece of advice is from the writer Antonya Nelson: “You have to have a leather ass.” She was talking about how to endure rejection. :) The worst was when I was an MFA student in fiction, and a guy in one of my workshops wanted everyone to set our stories during wartime. Every single story.
Are you working on something right now? What's next for Margo?
I’m working on a new YA novel and lots of new essays that I’m excited to share soon!
“Wonderful . . . Margo Rabb has created nothing less than a women’s map of American mythologies, navigating from Emily Dickinson to Barbara Cartland, from the cowboys of the rodeos to the makeup studios of Hollywood, and from the bottom of the Atlantic to the spacious skies of the USA.” — E. Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars
“A wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence and the inner lives of girls. Margo Rabb writes with compassion and clarity about lives that are worth telling, journeys that need to be taken, peace that needs to be reached. I loved it.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray Love
“That Margo Rabb can write a story so gorgeous, funny, and joyous that is also unsentimental and honest is a testament to her skill and to her heart. I loved everything about Eva and the supporting cast in this beautiful novel.” — Sara Zarr, author of The Lucy Variations
“Rabb eloquently gets grief right in this compassionate, perceptive, and poignant story, deftly leavened with irreverent humor, of a girl in conflict with her mother. Wise, inspiring, and ultimately uplifting-not to be missed.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“With a full cast of multidimensional characters, this novel explores the complex nature of relationships and the many faces of grief and love with equal parts humor and poignancy.” — School Library Journal
“A smart teen’s novel. [The] characters are authentic and complex. Rabb knows the perfect point to interject humor to diffuse a potentially devastating situation—a leavening of sorts to the reality that death and love inexplicitly alter the landscape of a person’s life.” — Booklist (starred review)
“In this indelible coming-of-age story, Rabb seamlessly weaves together multiple narratives. Sprinkled with the poetry Eva reads and writes, this story makes for a hilarious, thought-provoking, wrenching, and joyful quest.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Humor and depth . . . Often entertainingly snarky” — The Horn Book
“It is a marvel and I love every word of it: the carefully structured plot, the memorable characters, the wholly apposite style and tone. It is funny, sad, wistful, wise, and altogether memorable.” — Michael Cart
Follow the Kissing in America AUDIO TOUR that Epic Reads is hosting. You can win lots of prizes and hear excerpts from Margo Rabb's book. Click on the banner below to start following the AUDIO TOUR!
Follow the Kissing in America by Margo Rabb Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.
Margo Rabb's stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Zoetrope: All Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, New England Review, One Story, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on National Public Radio. She received grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in The Atlantic Monthly fiction contest, first prize in the American Fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. She grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two children. A complete list of her published work can be found here.
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