Thursday, July 29, 2010

Take Me There Blog Tour & Giveaway!

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with the wonderful author of Take Me There, Carolee Dean. We met for an interview and to talk about her book at the River Oaks Barnes and Noble and let me tell you that me being the really shy and nervous self  that I usually am around authors was actually able to relax for a bit. Carolee was super nice and had a huge contagious smile that you just can't help but smile back which helped me a lot with my nerves. We talked about Take Me There,  her high school experiences and what she thinks about high school now that she's working in one as a Speech Pathologist. Most of Take Me There takes place in Texas and I'm glad that Carolee decided to come here for her tour, I learned a lot about Texas that I didn't even know.


With Carolee Dean holding books about Texas and Bluebonnets!

Why did you hate high school so much when you were a teen?
We were moving around a lot while I was in high school. We moved from California to Texas and I thought high school was very boring to me. I wanted to get out, get my GED and become a nurse. The only class that was interesting was Creative Writing but I never thought I would become a writer.

Why do you love high school now?
I like to make things interesting with the different subjects the way I wished they had made things interesting when I was in high school. I wished they had taught history class in story form. I've worked with different age groups and older kids are able to grasp the ideas a lot more than younger kids can.

Did you add any of your current experiences from working in a high school into your books?
I worked with a lot of boys that have the same disabilities as Dylan that struggle to choose the right path.

How do your students feel about you being a YA writer?
Whenever I say it they seem surprised, like they're not able to wrap their minds around it. After I tell a few people they usually just go along with it and don't really believe me until I show them the final copy of the book. That's one of the reason's why I think you should treat everybody as if they were interesting.

If you were able to go back in time and give advice to yourself when you were in high school what would it be?
Relax, have more fun. Don't spend a lot of teenage years worrying about certain stuff that will amount to nothing.

Make sure you stop by The Teen Book Scene to check out all the blog tour stops and enter their giveaways, Carolee is having a Texas Trivia Challenge and a grand prize giveaway, and to find out where you can get a signed copy of Take Me There Carolee Dean has a list on her livejournal blog here.

Giveaway: A Riverwalk Pen, a Take Me There tote bag and a good luck charm bracelet all provided thanks to Carolee Dean, all you have to do is fill out the form and winner will be chosen on August 30th. *US Only*


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8 comments:

  1. I think it's really cool when Highschool teachers are YA writers! And thanks for the great contest!

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  2. Great Job Cynthia! I think you do a Awesome Job!

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  3. Awesome picture and post!!! I love learning about what it's like to be a High School teacher and read and write YA!!!

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  4. Very interesting interview from an English teacher point of view it made me sit up and listen too. Thanks

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  5. Awesome from what you have told me this sounds like a great book!

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