DIANA RODRIGUEZ WALLACH

So I was recently invited to join a group of young adult authors called the GCC (Girlfriend Cyber Circuit). It’s an impressive group organized by Karin Gillespie (author of the Bottom Dollar Girl Series), and includes such fabulous authors as Melissa Walker (Violet on the Runway), Stephanie Kuehnert (I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone), and Alyson Noel (Cruel Summer), among many awesome others.

Once a year, each author in the group “tours” and gives interviews on the other authors’ blogs. And we all put together our own set of fun questions to keep things spicy. Now I haven’t interviewed anyone since I wrote for trade magazines (ahem, a few years ago), so I hope you enjoy my first swing at this!

Everyone please give a warm welcome to Laurie Faria Stolarz.
Her newest book, DEADLY LITTLE SECRET (A TOUCH NOVEL) just debuted in time for the holidays.

Here’s a little bit about her book to get you hooked:

Some secrets shouldn’t be kept…
Until three months ago, everything about sixteen-year-old Camelia’s life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at an art studio downtown. But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia’s life becomes far from ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She’s reluctant to believe he’s trouble, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. Instead she’s inexplicably drawn to Ben…and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help – but can he be trusted? She knows he’s hiding something…but he’s not the only one with a secret.

And now my first ever GCC Interview! Here’s what Laurie had to say:

Q: In AMOR AND SUMMER SECRETS, Mariana discovers a hidden family secret. Are you a good secret keeper? Why or why not?

LAURIE: I’m the best secret keeper. Seriously, when you tell me something in confidence, it’s like locking it up in a vault. I feel flattered when people feel they can open up to me by telling me something private. I’d never want to betray that. Even if I stop speaking with the person, I feel it’s not my place to tell their secret or story.

Q: What is the favorite place you ever traveled to, and what was the coolest thing you saw/did there?

LAURIE: In college, I studied abroad in Cannes and Paris and had the time of my life. I backpacked across Europe with some friends, staying in hostels and sleeping on trains. It’s hard to choose the coolest thing I saw or did because it was all so amazing.

Q: I often tell the story of how a psychic once predicted that I would go on to write children’s books. Have you ever visited a psychic?

LAURIE: No, I never visited a psychic, but once when I was in TJ Maxx, Laurie Cabot, Salem, Massachusetts’ official witch, shoved a crystal cluster rock into my hand and told me the entire plot of my novel (one that had already been written and was sitting in the hands of my thesis advisor). She didn’t “sense” it was a novel, however. She pegged me as the main character and she told me my life was in danger and that I had 4 days to do something about it. She went on to describe the killer and told me not to go anyplace alone for one week. All the while she was talking to me, I just kept thinking: this is my novel. Blue is for Nightmares came out about a year and a half later. There’s no way she could have read the novel beforehand. Only some fellow classmates and my thesis chair and reader had access to it.

Very cool story, Laurie!

Q: My character Mariana spends her summer in Puerto Rico connecting with her father’s heritage. Have you ever researched your family tree? Or visited the place you parents/grandparents/etc. were born?

LAURIE: I’d love to go to Ireland and trace my grandfather’s heritage. Unfortunately, I never got there when I was in Europe.

Q: Where were you when you found out that your book was going to be published?

LAURIE: I actually got the contract in the mail before I even got a phone call. I thought it was a little odd, so I wasn’t really sure it was real.

Thanks for stopping Laurie! Now, everyone go out and buy books, lots and lots of books!