Tenner- Day 1

I will not be posting who the winners of my contest are but they will be emailed.

Today I am introducing something I have going on this month and next! Bringing out the tenners!!!!

Today I have Dia Reeves, author of Bleeding Violet. This is of course her first YA Book, and it just came out a few days ago!

1. What has been the most exciting part of getting published?
I think the most exciting part was when my book was listed in Amazon. I remember feeling like a complete superstar just because I had an ISBN. But it's such an awesome ISBN: 9781416986188. I dare you to find an awesomer sequence of numbers.

2. How long did it take you to get published?
Not long. My book went out on submission the beginning of August 2008, and on August 28th, Simon Pulse made an offer.

3. Were you faced with rejection at first? How did you handle it?
Well, rejection is always the first thing. Bleeding Violet got rejected by all sorts of people, even within the short while that it was out on submission. But even before I wrote BV, I wrote short stories back when I was in college that all got rejected pretty much by everybody, so there's no way around rejection. My way to deal with it is to brood for a bit and then watch something funny/silly like Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Giggling until milk comes out of your nose helps to put most everything, even rejection, into perspective.

4. Where did you get your ideas for this book?
From brainstorming. I wrote down a bunch of ideas one day and just picked the one that resonated--in this case, monsters and a really cool, crazy girl.

5. What do you think or hope readers will gain from your novel?
BV isn't one of those books that crams morals and values down your throat like some lame afterschool special from the eighties. It's just a fun book full of people thumbing their noses at convention and basically getting away with murder. Literally, in some scenes.

6. When writing do you outline or just begin?
I outline. Then I write. Then I write a new outline based on what I wrote. Then I rewrite. If I'm lucky it ends there. I am almost never lucky.

7. What authors inspire you?
Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Laura Kinsale are the three biggest influences: Kinsale for romance and moodiness, Rice for characters and description, and King for just being an all-around genius.

8. Complete this: While writing this book I learned...
...that sometimes manic-depressive people hallucinate (usually when they're manic). I also learned that a person needs to have a LOT of self-confidence to make it as a writer. Self-confidence and stubbornness, because the urge to give up can be overwhelming.

9. Complete this: You should buy my novel because...
I can almost guarantee you've never read anything like it before.


This book became available January 5, 2010! You should check it out! I know I will!