Interview with Jennifer Walkup, Author of THIS ORDINARY LIFE + Giveaway

Hi Jennifer! Welcome to Teen Readers' Diary and congratulations on your upcoming release. Can you tell us some things about yourself that the bookish world may not know about yet?

Thanks so much for having me here on your blog! Hmmm, some things you may not know about me … Well, Halloween is my favorite holiday and favorite day of the year! Also, I love daisies and hate roses, and I love reading, hiking, and hanging out with my family. I could also spend an endless amount of time at the beach.

I read in your bio that you are an advocate for Epilepsy awareness; just by reading the blurb for This Ordinary Life, I can tell that it is manifested in the story. What ultimately lead you to this particular cause?

Epilepsy is a topic that is near and dear to my heart and my family, as a few members of my family suffer from the disorder. I wanted to write a book that shows a little bit more about epilepsy, but even more importantly, a book that shows that these characters having epilepsy is secondary to them just being regular teens who like to do teen stuff. Epilepsy is a part of their life, but certainly not what defines them.

Did you have a playlist while you were writing the book? If yes, what are some of the songs in the playlist?

I didn’t have a specific playlist for This Ordinary Life, but I do listen to music when I revise, and often before I start writing, to clear my head and get me in the writing mode. I listen to lots of instrumental/background music when I’m revising, as well as a good amount of classic rock, and lots of Red Hot Chili Peppers (my favorite band!).

Do you have any other books currently in the works?

I’m working on a few different projects – all YA contemporary. My favorite at the moment is a summer YA where an unlikely duo teams up and tries to lose their real-life fears and worries in one crazy-fun and insightful summer at the beach.

This Ordinary Life
by Jennifer Walkup

Publisher: Luminous Books, Inc.

Release Date: October 1st, 2015

Blurb: 
Sometimes Hope is the Most Extraordinary Gift of All.

High-school radio host Jasmine Torres's life is full of family dysfunction, but if she can score the internship of her dreams with a New York City radio station, she knows she can turn things around.

That is, until her brother Danny’s latest seizure forces her to miss the interview, and she’s back to the endless loop of missing school for his doctor appointments, picking up the pieces of her mother’s booze-soaked life, and stressing about Danny’s future.

Then she meets Wes. He’s the perfect combination of smart, cute, and funny. He also happens to have epilepsy like her brother. Wes is living a normal life despite his medical issues, which gives Jasmine hope for Danny. But memories of her cheating ex-boyfriend keep her from going on a real date with Wes, no matter how many times he asks her.

Jasmine can’t control everything. Not who wins the internship, not her mother’s addiction, not her brother’s health--not even where her heart will lead her. She wishes she could just have an ordinary life, but maybe what she already has is pretty extraordinary after all.

Follow the This Ordinary Life Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

  

Award-winning author Jennifer Walkup is most often found writing, reading, and spending time with her husband and young sons. A member of SCBWI and RWA, Jennifer also works as an editor and creative writing instructor, and is an advocate for Epilepsy awareness. This Ordinary Life is her second novel.

To hear about Jennifer's upcoming books, sign up for her newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/belmjH.

Follow her on these sites

Win (1) hardcopy of SECOND VERSE by Jennifer Walkup and a swag pack (INT)

Win (1) of (2) swag packs (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday: Trust Me, I'm Lying and Lailah

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.

Here are my WoW picks this week (click on the title for the Goodreads page):

Trust Me, I'm Lying

by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Release date: October 14th, 2014

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pre-Order: The Book Depository | B&N | Amazon

Fans of Ally Carter, especially her Heist Society readers, will love this teen mystery/thriller with sarcastic wit, a hint of romance, and Ocean’s Eleven–inspired action.

 Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average.

But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.

Lailah (The Styclar Saga #1)
by Nikki Kelly

Release date: October 7th, 2014

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Pre-Order: The Book Depository | B&N | Amazon 

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

Why I'm waiting on these books: Trust Me, I'm Lying caught my attention at first sight, and then I read the summary and it's an auto-add on Goodreads for me. It has mystery and adventure and the MC reminds me of Veronica Mars: witty and badass. Lailah, on the other hand, also has an interesting blurb. I'm very curious as to how the author will offer a fresh take on angel and vampire mythology. Anyway, I want these books now!

What are you waiting on this week? Leave a comment with your WoW link and I'll make sure to stop by your blog!