Summer Kickoff with Sarah Darer Littman (and a contest!!)

Let’s Kick off Summer right with a chance to win a great new book and a terrific interview with a terrific author! And a new trailer to watch for that great new book by that terrific author and made by yours truly J Enjoy.

Personal:

5 things readers would be surprised to know about you

1) I’m named after my great grandmothers Sarah and Esther, but I had another great grandmother called Clara and my parents seriously considered calling me Sarah Clara Darer. Is it any wonder I grew up with deep psychological problems - and a sense of humor?

2) After having lived ten years on a farm in South West England, I’m probably one of the few women living in Greenwich, CT who could have a reasonably intelligent conversation about the lactation yield curve of a dairy cow. Unfortunately it’s not a topic that ever comes up at cocktail parties.

3) The all-girls school I attending in England from the ages of 7 to 12 didn’t just have a school uniform. We had to wear regulation UNDERWEAR. Synthetic granny pants, just like

these but in maroon. Really attractive – NOT!

4) My older brother and I used to recite entire Monty Python skits from memory, complete with silly accents.

5) I have a large collection of “Bad Mummy Awards” from my kids, which I have displayed on my bulletin board. The first one, drawn by my son, has a delightfully unflattering picture of me complete with devil horns, a trident and a whippy tail with a little speech bubble saying: “I AM EVIL!” It’s really awesome.

4 things you wish you knew in high school

1) Get help for those eating and food issues because why waste so much time and emotional energy hating your body when it can be spent on more productive and interesting things?

2) The best is yet to come - and all of this will be material for your books someday.

3) Be glad that you didn’t peak in high school. It’s much better to be a late bloomer, even though it might not feel like it when you’re a teen.

4) If you can survive the humiliation of high school gym class, you can survive pretty much anything.

3 things you are embarrassed to own/love/have done

1. I own a Hanson CD. Mmm-Bop, baby!

2. I let my cousin visiting form California apply an overdose of Sun-In. Instead of blonde highlights, I ended up with brazen, brassy hooker hair.

3. In college, I did a summer program at New College, Oxford. When it was my turn to eat at the High Table with the professors, I was told there were very strict rules about passing the port wine served at the end of the meal. It had to be passed to the left, and must not be allowed to stand on the table. Oh, and you had to empty your glass before the decanter came round again. Alas, I obeyed the rules to the letter. Apparently, I was the life of the party that evening, but paid for it dearly the next day when we had a bus excursion to Bath. I haven’t touched a drop since.

2 careers you might have chosen if you weren't an author

· Librarian

· Editor

I would definitely still want books to be a part of my life!

1 thing you can't live without

My iPhone. For many reasons, but the most important is because it’s what my kids refer to as “Mummy’s Electronic Brain.” Without it I have no idea who is supposed to be where, when. I also love that I can set audible alarms, because I have been known to get so caught up in my writing that I’ve forgotten to drive the carpool, thereby earning myself yet another “Bad Mummy Award”.

Bookish:

5 words to describe your book

· Raw

· Funny

· Authentic

· Moving

· Hopeful

4 reasons you love writing YA

1) The teens who read my books are Just. So. Incredible. They inspire me every day.

2) YA is the best of grown-up literature but without the…er… pretentiousness. (I was going to say something else, but I’m trying to watch my language.)

3) I get to live through high school again the way I wish it had happened instead of the way it did.

4) Other YA authors are seriously fun to hang with. Just sayin’.

3 reasons everyone should read your book

1) Jill liked it enough to make an awesome book trailer. That’s got to tell you something.

2) How many of us have looked in the mirror and given ourselves unflattering self-talk about how we look? Even if we don’t have a full-blown eating disorder, it helps to understand the issues around distorted body image and why food, eating and diet have such a grip our lives.

3) Because if you don’t I’ll feel like a loser and it’ll be like high school all over again. And you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?

2 YA books you adore

· The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

· A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti

1 tip for aspiring YA writers

· Stock up with dark chocolate and coffee, get your rear end in the chair and write. Then revise. Repeat as necessary. There are no shortcuts.

WIN A COPY OF PURGE OR SOME ABSOLUTELY AWESOME SIGNED BOOKMARKS!!!

I have 2 copies or Purge and 5 bookmarks to give away so enter away!

This “Kick off to Summer” Contest starts today and ends June 15^th so hurry and enter and spread the word!

Want bonus entries?

+1 follow Sarah on Twitter @sarahdarerlitt

+1 Become a fan of her page on Facebook http://bit.ly/buMdqn

+1 post about this contest somewhere and include a link (Facebook, Twitter, Your blog, etc.)

Or go HERE to enter

Thank you so much for stopping by Sarah! I’m so glad you were the first author for me to host to kick off the start of summer! It has truly been a blessing getting to talk to you so much! You are fantastic! Sorry for the delay in posting this though……

And to everyone else……….don’t hesitate to buy Purge! It’s now available in a wonderful paperback too so you have no excuse J And also don’t forget to check out Life, After hitting stores in July!

Love, Jill