Interview with Chris Rylander

Earlier this week I reviewed Chris Rylander's The Fourth Stall, now I'm happy to share an interview I was able to do with him! This was a super fun book and I'd recommend going and picking it up if you get a chance!

A Reader's Ramblings: Can you tell us a bit about The Fourth Stall and how the story came about?

Chris Rylander: Well, when I first started writing, I actually was writing books for adults. And then I queried an agent who suggested that I might have a good “voice” for writing YA or MG. And so that’s how I first was pointed toward children’s literature. As for THE FOURTH STALL itself, there really was no cool story or moment or dream or anything like that. Essentially, it was me sitting down and asking two questions: 1) What cool and funny and action-packed book did I never get to read as a kid? 2) What’s something adult, that I can put a kid-friendly spin on that lends itself well to the school structure? And so I came up with this idea to do like a noirish organized crime type thing. Well, that’s what I told my cat to write about, anyway. I mean, I didn’t actually do the writing myself. My cat is much better at that part of it, I’m more like the idea guy.

ARR: Mac run’s a pretty tight business, and so does rival Staples, where did the idea for the competing Middle School Mafia families come from?

CR: Definitely The Godfather and other such organized crime stories. The idea of rival mob families and crime bosses I thought could be transitioned to school fairly well and that it created a lot of opportunities for humor and action and mystery.

ARR: Your website has a lot of great drawings, did you ever consider adding drawings to The Fourth Stall?

CR: I actually never did think of it that way. I always considered it strictly a novel. I mean, I don’t hate the idea, but it never really occurred to me when I was writing it. That said, I’m not opposed to someday maybe getting to illustrate my own book. The only problem will be that I can only draw sharks and stick men who meet violent ends. So I’m not sure if that will fly as a kids book, even as awesome as it sounds to me.

ARR: Books for tween and teen girls seem to rule the marketplace sometimes, did you always want to write for Middle Grade boys?

CR: Not really, it never was a conscientious decision that I made. I just wrote what appealed to me and sounded fun to me. And, being a guy with the mindset of a 13 year old, I think it was only natural that the end result can be considered a “boy book.” That said, I’m pretty happy to say that a lot of middle grade girls have told me they loved the book, too.

ARR: The Fourth Stall ends with a bit of a teaser about a girl- will we get to hear about how this girl with “…damp hair and a swagger…” sometime in the future?

CR: Actually, yes. There will be a sequel coming out in February 2012. It picks up pretty closely after the first one ends, so you’ll definitely get to meet that girl a lot better in part two.

ARR: If Mac could give boys advice about dealing with a bully like Staples, what would he say?

CR: It would be to not put up with it! If you have a problem, then solve it! But he’d also say to be smart about it. I mean, if some giant kid who weighs 270 pounds of muscle is bullying you, he wouldn’t recommend going up to the kid and starting a fight. There are countless possible ways to solve a bully problem, or any problem for that matter, and that’s why Mac is so good at what he does. He finds the best ways to solve those problems, instead of always the easiest or most obvious.

ARR: Do you have any upcoming books or events you can tell us about?

CR: The only upcoming book for now is the THE FOURTH STALL sequel sometime next year. As for events, I will be speaking at the North Dakota State Reading Conference in Fargo, ND, April 14-16. Also, I serve as the Regional Advisor for SCBWI Dakotas, and we’ll be hosting our annual spring conference in Sioux Falls on May 14, 2011. We have some great speakers lined up for that this year.

Review, Interview & Contest! The Emerald Talisman by Brenda Pandos

**This post will stray from my normal format because instead of just a review it will have a little bot of everything! After the review, check out my interview with the author, and then enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of the book! **

Summary: To be normal, sixteen-year-old Julia Parker would shed her empathic gift in a second. Life has been difficult since her mother's mysterious disappearance ten years earlier - an event she witnessed, but can't remember. Julia's situation becomes more complicated after a near death experience from a blood thirsty stalker. As high school students go missing it is clear there is a connection to her own experience--past and present. Someone has to stop the madness and a chance encounter with a creepy psychic foretells that only Julia is the key to stopping the madness, but it may require the life of the one she loves

Review: I enjoyed this book. Admittedly it took me a fair bit to get into. I thought that at the start it seemed a bit contrived, with the main charecter, Julia, being able to sense other people's emotions and the brooding, mysterious vampire coming to her rescue and changing her life. However, once I got into the book, I saw the similarities to other vampire books fade away, and a good read emerged.

Julia is trying to find her place. She has the gift, to feel emotions, and this enables her to sense danger before it gets to her. There were moments that I wanted to scream at Julia, at her stupidity (heading into the woods, at night, alone...not smart) or the way she was pursuaded my the bad guys so easily. Still, I thought that the charecter was written in a way that made it realistic to how a 16 year old might react if the world she had always thought existed, was really so much more. She also grew alot during the book, and I have high hopes that she will emerge stronger and smarter in the next book in the series. Nicholas, our badboy vamp isn't quite all that he seems. He holds the key to the night that Julia's mother dissapeared, and he is turns out to be a stand up guy. Plus, not only is he half-vamp, he is also a vampire slayer, a combination that really intrigued me!

One thing I always like to mention is the parents. So often we see absentee parents, who leave the children to fend for themselves, making stupid mistakes. Here, while the mother has dissapeared, we do get some great parental involvment from Julia's father, and also her brother. While their not all clued in to who and what Nicholas is, they are present and concerned about Julia and her welfare, and I really enjoyed that.

I'm looking forward to continuing the story when The Sapphire Talisman comes out this winter, and I think that fans of vampire stories would enjoy this addition to the genre.

Rating:

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Instead of my normal "about Brenda Pandos" section of my review, I was lucky enough to interview Brenda. So we can hear all about her and The Emerald Talisman straight from her!

That was the inspiration for The Emerald Talisman?

The inspiration came from making lemon-aid out of my lemons. When our oldest son was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, my life came to a screeching halt. Two months later, his little brother was born. My routine became 24hrs of caring for a newborn, and having therapists come into our home 35 hrs a week to tutor our oldest. So, to keep my mind busy and have something fun to think about, I decided to write my own vampire story, never planning for it to see the light of day. I’d gotten the idea after I’d begun to read Twilight and Stephenie’s bio, and thought I’d try writing myself. I put down her book, and started my own.

Your book delves into the world of vampire’s. With all the other vampire books on the market, were you worried about making your book stand out?

You’re right. It’s hard to stand out when there’s a lot of vampire books to choose from that all touch the same types of elements. I haven’t even read many vampire books to know but I only hoped to compliment what’s out there, giving readers hungry for more vampires stories a new one to feast upon.

Nicholas is not only half-vampire, but a vampire slayer as well. What was your inspiration for Nicholas?

Nicholas is all encompassing good bad-boy. He’s attractive, fearless, there when you need him, but mysterious, haunted and not around when you want him. I thought I was being super creative with the ½ vampire thing, until I realized it’s pretty common. The slayer part came around somewhere in the creation of his character. He’s just the kind of guy I’d like to rescue me.

Your main character Julia has some powers of her own. Did you know right away what “super-power” she would have?

I wanted her to feel the blood-lust of the vampires, and be confused, but not know why they felt that way. But the power fed into other areas of her life, creating unique parts of her character and I liked how that ended up playing out. I’d like to say “Yeah, I had it all figured out from the beginning” but I didn’t. Her past and interactions with people developed into deeper things as the story progressed.

One thing I liked about The Emerald Talisman was the mix of action and romance. Which was your favorite to write (or was there something else that you like best)?

I enjoy both. The mixture is like a dance during an earthquake. You don’t know what’s about to happen, so you hang onto each other and prepare to roll with it. I have a short attention span, so for me, books or movies must have the element of suspense and the carrot of romance, or I might put it down and never pick it up again.

Is this book the first in a series? If so, do you know how long the series will be?

The Emerald Talisman is the first book of a potential trilogy. The Sapphire Talisman is scheduled to release this December 2010 which I’m super excited about it. The third, yet to be named, should be out sometime in 2011, I’m not sure the date yet.

Did you always want to be a writer?

No. Actually, The Emerald Talisman is my first attempt at writing anything. Its crazy I’d discover in my 30’s that I love to write as much as I do but I’m happy it happened the way that it did. I enjoy keeping busy and get bored easily, so this fits perfectly into my life with my boys and being a SAHM.

What are some of your favorite books and authors?

Chantain’s Guardian by Robin Hardy, The Harry Potter Series, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and John Grisham’s books are some of my all time favorites. Since becoming a writer, I’m reading more YA these days and recently read and enjoyed The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Knight Angels by Abra Ebner.

Do you have any upcoming projects you can tell us about?

I do plan to write more fantasy for my next series but not about vampires and I’ve been mulling over a more serious story involving Autism, but I need to write book 3 first. We’ll see.

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And now- How about a contest!! This contest will open now and run through Thursday (9/16) at around 11:00. This contest is open in the US only and the book will be mailed directly from the author, so any information shared with me, will be shared with Brenda. Please see my complete Contest Policy for more information.

Fill out the form below for your chance to win!

Interview: Mozelle Richardson

A few weeks ago I read and reviewed The Thyssen Affair by Mozelle Richardson- and loved it. It was a great cross of a bunch of things I love, Indiana Jones, James Bond, history and cowboys. Essentially the perfect book for me! So I was extremely excited to get the chance to interview Richardson about this book.

First, a mini-bio of Richardson (from the back of the book & Amazon.com)
Mozelle Groner Richardson was born a Texan but she and her husband W.T (dub) raised their four children in Oklahoma City. She know calls Sante Fe home and her favorite activity is traveling the by-ways of New Mexico with her friends. Mozelle received her BA in Journalism in 2004 at the ripe age of 90 from the University of Oklahoma.

I just finished reading The Thyssen Affair, where did you come up with the idea for this story?

There was a newspaper account of vandals stealing a German Major’s skull—buried 35 years before—from a POW cemetery at Ft. Reno, Oklahoma. A writer automatically asks “Why?” I turned to a dentist friend and wondered if one could bury a microdot film in a tooth filling. He told me how. There was my plot.

Your main character Canyon Eliot is an ex-OSS agent and current Colorado rancher who is called back into action. Did anyone inspire the character of Cane?

No. I just pictured a 60-year-old rancher (I’ve known some) and made him my protagonist.

One thing that struck me was how much information there was about so many different cultures and events. How did you go about researching all the different aspects of the story?

I did lots of research from history books on WWII, Goebel’s diaries, autobiographies, etc. I spent a month in Munich, drove through the Bavarian Alps, into Italy and into Rimini.

In addition to Cane working with the CIA, we also saw Anya (KGB), Magen (Israeli Mossad) and members of the Nazi party’s Spider group at work within the story. How did you research these somewhat secretive groups?

There was a book by Frederick Forsythe called The Odessa File that gave me ideas.

With so many different personas and aliases for Cane, Anya and Magen, were you worried about it becoming confusing for the reader?

Not really, because early on I introducted the aliases and what they could be used for.

The book ended with Cane and Anya getting together, did you know they would end up together or did it happen as you wrote?

Of course. There had to be a love interest—but not one that was easy.

You written numerous other books, do you have any plans to write any more?

I’m working slowly and intermittently on an autobiography. My children and grandchildren hope that I’ll finish it.

What are some of your favorite books and authors?

So many. Mary Stuart to start out with. PercivalChristopher Wren’s wonderful books (Beau Geste). Donn Byrn’s book Destiny Bay which I stole from the Library when I was 16 and have probably read 50 or a hundred times. Mary Renault’s books on the Ancient Greeks—if I ever lived a former life, I lived it as a Greek. Jack Higgins books. I love most all mystery writers.

Thank you for taking the time to answer some of my questions. I thoroughly enjoyed The Thyssen Affair and can’t wait to get my hands on some of your other books.

A Special Big Thank You for enjoying my book. M.R.