ELLE STRAUSS INTERVIEW AND LIKE CLOCKWORK GIVEAWAY

Hi everyone! First, I'm going to announce the winner of TORN. The winner is:

STINA LINDENBLATT!

Congrats! E-mail me your address so I can send you your book.

Today I’m excited to interview Elle Strauss about her new book LIKE CLOCKWORK that was released on May 17, 2012. I was excited when Elle asked if I’d be interested in interviewing her because her books deal with time travel, something I don’t see in too many books, but that adds a whole different twist to the story.

Here’s a blurb about LIKE CLOCKWORK from Goodreads:

Adeline Savoy had hoped that the move west from Cambridge to Hollywood with her single dad would mean they’d finally bond like a real family, but all she got was a father too busy with his new female friends and his passion for acting to really see her.

Instead she finds herself getting attached to Faye, the divorcee hair dresser she befriends when she travels back in time to 1955. Plus Faye has a hottie, James Dean-esque, bad-boy brother who has Adeline’s heart all aflutter. But bad boys from the past can be dangerous.

Is is possible that Adeline really does belong in her own time and that maybe the right boy lives as close as next door?

Hi Elle. Thanks so much for joining us.

1.  Tell us about yourself and why you became a writer.

I’m a married mother of four grown kids. I became a writer when they were little because they kept getting into my paints.

2.  That's a fun reason to start writing and one I've never heard before. For those of us who might not have read any of your books in the Clockwise series, tell us a bit about them.

Clockwise is about a teen time traveler who accidentally takes her secret crush back in time. Awkward.  In the sequel Clockwiser, Casey accidentally takes her rebellious brother back in time. He joins the union army and she and Nate have to save him.

3.  I love how you can describe the essence of them in one or two sentences. Guys, don't they sound awesome? CLOCKWISE and CLOCKWISER followed Casey’s time traveling experiences. But LIKE CLOCKWORK is a companion book dealing with a new character Adeline. What made you decide to write a companion book rather than continue with Casey’s story?

I hadn’t planned on writing a sequel originally. I had the idea for Adeline’s story from the start and that was why I wrote her into Clockwise. I decided to write the sequel after the fact.

4.  In LIKE CLOCKWORK, you’ve picked an interesting setting, Hollywood, and have Adeline travel back in time to 1955. What research did you have to do to create a realistic Hollywood setting and to get the details of 1955 right? Was this any different than the other books in the series where Casey goes back in time to the 1800’s?

The difference is that there are still people alive who lived through the fifties, plus there is a lot of well known media, like movies and books written in the fifties. On the one hand there’s a lot of material to research, and on the other people know if you get it wrong. I visited Hollywood a few years back and Google Earth was a great tool to study the setting.

5.  So true that people would be able to tell if you make a mistake with the 1950's. I hadn't thought of that. Awesome you went to Hollywood not too long ago. Share a bit about Adele and the challenges of creating her as a character, especially since she feels more comfortable in 1955 than the present time.

Her character came to me quite naturally. I wanted to make sure she was different from Casey, so I made her more cynical and gave her the opposite desire. Where Casey wanted to stay normal in the present, Adeline felt more at home in the past.

6.  What made you decide to self-publish your books and what advice do you have for others who are debating between the traditional vs. self-publishing routes?

I had an agent with Clockwise and even though it went out on submission to editors it didn’t sell. I asked my agent about self-publishing it, since we both believed in it, and she encouraged me to do it.

7.  Awesome that she supported you on this. What tips can you share about marketing as a self-published author that you found worked? How are you getting the word out about your books to teens?

I love hanging out on Wattpad, that’s where a lot of teens hang out. Word of mouth is the best marketing.

9.  No one's ever mentioned Wattpadd before. That's a great idea Elle. What are you working on now?

I’m working on my next series which is totally different in tone. It’s YA science fiction set in the near future where a girl who’s been genetically manipulated needs the help of a “natural” boy to solve the mystery of her missing brother.

But first, my YA merfolk book SEAWEED will be released this summer, so make sure to watch out for it!

Thanks Elle for sharing all your advice. Good luck with all your books. You can find Elle at her blog, Facebook,Twitter, Amazon, and Smashwords.

And CLOCKWISE, Elle's first book, is free. So go check it out!

I'm giving one kindle version of LIKE CLOCKWORK away. Don't have a kindle? I don't either. But I downloaded Kindle on my computer. You can too. It's easy and a great way to read e-books.

To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on June 23rd. I’ll announce the winner on June 25th. If your e-mail is not on Blogger, please list it in your comment. International entries are welcome.

If you mention this contest on your blog, Twitter, or Facebook, please let me know in the comments and I’ll give you an extra entry.

And in case you weren't here on Monday, I want to shout out about Elana Johnson's awesome NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST to celebrate the release of SURRENDER. It's happening all next week. All you have to do is post about a time you didn't surrender to some hard thing in your life. If you don't blog, Elana's got a way for you to post to Facebook or Pinterest. And if you participate, you can enter her contest for 3 $15 B&N gift cards and will get a SURRENDER swag package

Have you signed up yet? I have! I'm busy next week so I'll have to wait till Friday to post my story. But I'm super excited to participate. And I hope many of you will participate too. Elana has given so much to us all--organizing WriteOnCon, giving query critiques and advice, and being a good friend. 

I'd love to see her have a big Blogfest with LOTS of participants all week. I'm giving away an ARC of SURRENDER. And I just won a copy of her e-book REGRET. I'm giving that away too! The link is at the top of our blog. So if you sign up for her Blogfest (that means post a Blogfest post that week), I'll give you 5 extra entries in my contest. And if you shout out about the Blogfest on your blog or Facebook, I'll give you 2 more extra entries for that too. Go here to sign up.

And here's what's coming up:

On Monday, I'm interviewing debut author Jennifer Bosworth and giving away an ARC of STRUCK, an awesome dystopian book. 

Next Wednesday I'm participating in an Indie Book Giveaway Hop. I have an awesome giveaway planned.

And Friday I'll be posting my NEVER SURRENDER BLOGFEST post. I'll be sharing a very personal story so I hope you'll stop by.

And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Agent Spotlights on Thursdays.

Hope to see you on Monday!