LINDSEY KLINGELE INTERVIEW AND THE MARKED GIRL GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday Everyone! I’m excited to have debut author Lindsey Klingele here to share about her YA fantasy THE MARKED GIRL. One thing that really excites me about this book is that Cedric and his friends come from another world into modern Los Angeles.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads: 

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Los Angeles)…

When Cedric, crowned prince of Caelum, and his fellow royal friends (including his betrothed, Kat) find themselves stranded in modern-day L.A. via a magical portal and an evil traitor named Malquin, all they want to do is get home to Caelum—soon. Then they meet Liv, a filmmaker foster girl who just wants to get out of the system and on with her life. As she and Cedric bond, they’ll discover that she’s more connected to his world than they ever could’ve imagined…and that finding home is no easy task…

Hi Lindsey! Thanks so much for joining us!

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

Hi! Thanks so much for having me. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I stapled together my own stories as a kid, read everything I could get my hands on, and studied creative writing in college. After school, I worked as an assistant and then an associate editor for some trade publications in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles to become a TV writer. I was fortunate enough to work as an assistant on some teen TV shows, and it was during that time I wrote, revised (and revised, and revised), and eventually sold THE MARKED GIRL.

2. Awesome that you work as an assistant for teen TV shows too! Where did you get the idea for THE MARKED GIRL? And what made you decide to have Cedric come to our world? Usually a main character goes from our world to a new one.

I’ve always loved portal stories (many of those early, stapled-together books I wrote as a kid were portal stories), and the idea of doing a portal story in reverse intrigued me. I also loved the idea of taking these characters from a fantasy world and putting them not just in our modern world, but in a city that many people think of as kind of a fantasy place in itself – Los Angeles.

The very first kernel of an idea for this story came about when I was showing my family around LA for the first time. I was excited to see all of these cool parts of the city through their fresh eyes, and it was almost like I was seeing them for the first time again, too. A lot of people have preconceived notions (often negative) of LA, but I love it, and I wanted to share what I loved about it with people who were unfamiliar with it, or even wary of it. Liv in THE MARKED GIRL tries to do the exact same thing, although in a much more heightened situation. It’s a powerful feeling, to love a place enough to call it home, and that’s a lot of what this book series is about.

3. Ha! Ha! Los Angeles does seem like a fantasy--maybe a scary one for someone who doesn't like big cities like me. Since much of the story is in Los Angeles, what world building did you do for Caelum? How much if of did you need to know even if it wasn’t in the story and why?

I did want to have a strong understanding of Caelum – how it operates, how old it is, how it’s

connected to our world. Even though most of THE MARKED GIRL is set in LA, it’s important to know where Cedric and his friends came from so we can better understand who they are. I wanted to use a lot of very well-known, established fantasy-land tropes to build Caelum (for instance, it has a castle and royalty, swordfights and monsters), because I think there needed to be that kind of short-hand to establish that these are traditional fantasy characters coming to a modern world.

4. Who was the most challenging character for you to develop? How did you overcome it?

The most challenging character for me was the main villain, Malquin. I wanted him to be traditionally evil in the vein of many fantasy stories, but interesting villains aren’t evil just for the sake of being evil. They have reasons that make a lot of sense to them – they are the heroes of their own stories. So giving my villain a relatable back story that propelled him, without taking away all of his mystery, was a difficult line to walk.

5. Yes, villains are real people too, not just evil. You live in Los Angeles, and I read you’ve been a writer’s assistant for ABC Family’s The Lying Game and Twisted. I’m curious about what that job is like. Also, did it help you at all in writing YA stories and/or THE MARKED GIRL?

I loved being a writers’ assistant! On most TV shows, all the writers sit together in a room every day and come up with, or ‘break’ stories. My job was to write down and organize everything the writers said so everyone could keep track of the various storylines being created. You have to listen hard and type fast, but it’s incredibly rewarding to be around smart people who are making things up all day for a living.

I learned a lot about writing YA while working on those shows. I learned how to keep story flowing, how to write to act breaks, and how to create emotional and plot-y cliffhangers. All of those things translate well to YA. I think (or at least, I hope) that learning from those writers and watching them work also taught me how to give information well in dialogue and visual cues, rather than just through internal narration.

6. Your job sounds so fun. Your agent is Reiko Davis. How did you obtain representation, and what was your road to publication like?

I reached out to Reiko in the traditional way – through a query. Previous to that, I had revised THE MARKED GIRL a LOT. I had close friends read it and give notes, I reached out to other writers who were friends of friends of friends to get notes (thankfully, they were kind enough to do so), and I absorbed those notes into many, many drafts until I felt strong enough to start querying. Then, working with Reiko, I revised some more, and she sold the book to HarperCollins just a few months later, because she’s a rock star.

7. You did your cover reveal on YA Book Central. I’ve seen other authors have cover reveals there too. What was your experience doing your cover reveal there? How would an author set up one of these?

It was an excellent experience! I follow YA Book Central on Twitter, so I knew that they did cover reveals and I always thought they did a good job with them. I created an account there and contacted them directly, letting them know the details of my book’s publication and when I was hoping to do a cover reveal. They set everything up from there and were incredibly easy to work with.

8. That's good to know they do a good job with cover reveals. How are you marketing your book? Do you feel that it’s helping you to live in Los Angeles in terms of opportunities?

Living in Los Angeles has been really helpful in terms of marketing my book. There is a great YA community here, which makes it easy to meet people, participate in panels, go to events, etc. I think being here is also an automatic benefit because it gives me access to a lot of other creative people, many of whom are helpful and have great ideas. For instance, I was able to get some great people on board when it came time to make my book trailer. Because my main character, Liv, is an aspiring director, I really wanted to trailer to be cinematic, almost like a movie trailer. Living in LA made that a lot easier to pull off.

9. Yes, I think you're at an advantage living in Los Angeles. What are you working on now?

I’m working on the sequel to THE MARKED GIRL. It’s called THE BROKEN WORLD, but I’m not sure what else I can share about it yet…except that it will be out next summer!

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Lindsey. You can find Lindsey at:

www.lindseyklingele.com

https://twitter.com/SisterLindsey

https://www.facebook.com/lindseyklingeleauthor

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8294212.Lindsey_Klingele

Lindsey has generously offered a signed copy of THE MARKETED GIRL for a giveaway. 
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 through June 4th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry.This is for U.S. and Canada.

Here's what's coming up:

I'm off next Monday for Memorial Day. My first Monday off since the first of the year!

Next Wednesday I have a guest post by Fauzia Burke, who has spent her career working in book promotion and marketing and has worked with authors like Sue Grafton, Tim Burton, and Deepak Chopra, and a giveaway of her book, ONLINE MARKETING FOR BUSY AUTHORS: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE.

The following Monday I have a guest post by Cassandra Brown, a freelance editor, with a query, synopsis, 10 page manuscript critique, or 30 minute consultation--winner's choice.

Thursday that week I'll be participating in the Debut Author Book Giveaway Hop. I'll have both YA and MG debut books to choose from.

The following Monday I have a guest post by debut author Jen Bishop and a giveaway of her MG contemporary THE DISTANCE HOME.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Hope to see you next Wednesday!