Thursday 11 August 2011

Author Interview: Rebecca Weinstein


Rebecca Weinstein is one of the authors featuring in the September giveaway. Rebecca has written Nashoga and Seraphim.



1. What is your name and where do you call home?
Rebecca Weinstein, New Jersey

2. What is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less words, what would you say?
My latest book is Seraphim, a YA novel about Serafina Jones, a private school girl who meets a transfer student who seems too good to be true.

3. Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series?
I am currently finishing the last edits on a new novel, due to be a series. I am also working on Redstone Series #2.

4. What or who inspired you to start writing? And how long have you been writing?
I have been writing since the seventh grade, when my English teacher gave us a creative writing assignment I really liked. The topic was “How to Fit an Elephant Through a Keyhole.” I'm a very creative individual. I love to write and paint. All of my work tells a story, whether it's a novel or a painting. I have so many stories to tell!

5. Do you gift books to readers for book reviews?
Absolutely!

6. How did you come up with the cover? Who designed the cover of your book?
As an artist as well as an author, I create the cover work for all of my books. Nashoga's cover started as a class example for my students (teaching high school art is my day job) to teach them the chiaroscuro style of oil painting. Coincidentally, I had already written Nashoga, so the two were a natural pair. Seraphim's cover has a different story. The book came first, and I turned to Photoshop to create the cover. Originally, the wings on the cover were white and I had spray-painted cerulean blue specks all over them, to make them “tinged with blue” as in the book. Then I turned off the white wing layer to see something for a moment, and I realized it looked so much better that way.

7. How did you come up with the title for your book?
Nashoga is the main character's name of that book, and Seraphim, well, I guess you'll just have to read that one to find out. Also, our high school mascot is the Seraph. So, not a far creative stretch.

8. Is there anything you would change about your book? And why?
I'd have them professionally edited. I know I'm not perfect. I can't be author, cover artist, editor, and marketer all rolled into one. A few typos are bound to slip by.

9. Do you have a book trailer? And what are your thoughts on book trailers?
I have a book trailer, I don't think it's the best, but it's definitely not the worst. I'm on the fence about trailers. When I think trailer, I think mini-movie. Something to pique my interest and make me want the whole thing. When I see some of these trailers out there, they seem pretty bad. I don't like the fact that the majority of them are a bunch of typed words over a few pictures that might have something to do with the book, and set to music. I don't find that very appealing. If we did that for movie trailers, no one would go to the movies. So how do they sell books?

10. Do you prefer e-books, paperbacks, hardcovers or audiobooks?
My favorites are paperbacks. I love to hold them, feel them, smell them. There's nothing like the smell of a book, new or old. My second favorite are ebooks. I like having access to an entire library without taking the whole building with me.

11. Have you ever read a book more than once? And if so what was it?
Of course! I've read the Gunslinger series by Stephen King two or three times and the Harry Potter series twice.

12. What book are you reading at the moment? And in what format?
I'm ready Katie McAlister's Holy Smokes in paperback, and And Come to Dust by Drew Bacigalupa in ebook.

13. Do you have any advice for other writers? And what’s the best advice that you have been given when it comes to writing?
My advice for other writers, is write, write, write, and read, read, read. You need to read the genre that you write. The best advice I was given is that explanation kills fiction. Another spin on the show, don't tell advice.

14. Where can your readers follow you?


Facebook page: I have a private profile, but a public fan page for Nashoga at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nashoga-Book-1-of-the-Redstone-Series/147811008613786


Twitter: www.twitter.com/rweinstein6 or @rweinstein6



Other sites of mine include: www.theredstoneseries.webs.com andwww.authoropportunities.webs.com (just started for contests and other ops)




Thankyou so much for taking the time to do this interview and allowing us a glimpse into your writing world!

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