The Best Reader:
joy preble

1. Can you tell us one of your favorite lines from Anastasia Forever?

My Sourcebooks editor, Leah Hultenschmidt share the same favorite Tess line which comes near the end of the book. “I think Anne just told destiny to suck it.” Makes me laugh every time I read it.

2. What can you share with us about Sweet Dead Life?

Oh how I love this book! I love it so hard! I think the blurb on Amazon gives you the gist:

Fourteen-year-old Janena Samuels is having a very bad 8th grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold what's left of the family together by working two jobs--difficult, as he's stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Janena is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead. Janena wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Weirder, he makes her feel better. Before long, Janena figures out that Casey didn't survive the accident at all. He's an"A-word." (She can't bring herself to utter the truth.) Soon they both discover that Janena isn't just dying: she's being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother's mysterious depression and father's disappearance.

Also, when Casey returns as Janena’s guardian angel, he comes back with all his bad habits firmly intact. Which I also love.

3. Can you describe your writing process? What steps do you take before writing?

I make a huge mug of green tea with honey or Agave. I sit down. I open a new document. I type.

Beyond that, I also do some basic outlining and character brainstorming. And often there’s a number of hours of research involved – like for the book I’m working on right now, I ‘ve extensively researched film noir, both reading it and watching the movies.

4. Do you have plans for any other series or stand-alone books?

Well, as I’m typing this, we have just announced that there will be a follow up book to next year’s THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, It will be out in spring of 2014 and will be the rest of Casey and Janena’s story. I am thrilled! Beyond that, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Anastasia Forever by Joy Preble
Publisher: Sourcebooks (August 1st, 2012)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Paperback: 304 pages
Series: Dreaming Anastasia, #3
Stories within stories. Secrets within secrets. In accepting powers from the legendary witch Baba Yaga, Anne must tackle a complex set of missions: Discover the secret of their enemy's newfound immortality; decide whether she can kill him to free her family from a vicious curse; come to terms with the magic that now resides inside her; and finally find true love with Ethan. The riveting conclusion to the trilogy that began with Dreaming Anastasia.

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HOW THE TOUR WORKS Each day of The Crossroads Blog Tour, a new research question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page: http://judithgraves.com/events/the-crossroads-tour/crossroads-2012/ and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all answers by the end of the tour.
Answers are to be emailed to judithgraves @ ymail dot com by October 28th at MIDNIGHT. Winner of the grand prize will be announced on OCTOBER 31st – HALLOWEEN.
The GRAND PRIZE you’re vying for? A brand new KINDLE, preloaded with a title from each of the participating Crossroads Blog Tour Authors. That’s right folks, a free KINDLE and 13 free EBOOKS!

This year we have 23 authors that I'll be featuring over 7 days and each day you'll have a chance to enter to win! There's also a scavenger hunt going on, so be sure to check out The Crossroads Tour Post to see what questions will be asked, what blog you'll be able to find the answer on and enter to win!
Today I am featuring Joy Preble Amy Christine Parker and Victoria Scott. Be sure to check out the rafflecopter giveaway, too!

1. The cover of Gated is super creepy and perfect for Halloween! What did you think when you first saw the cover?

I was instantly in love with it! I think I might’ve jumped up and down a bunch of times and gotten teary-eyed. I actually have a huge framed version of it hanging up in my house now.

2. Tell us 5 things we will learn about Lyla’s personality from reading Gated.

You’ll find out that she’s: observant, much stronger than she thinks, intelligent, struggling to figure out who she is and what she believes in, and above all, hopeful.

1. Of all the characters you have written, which one has been the most challenging for you to write?

Baba Yaga the witch in my DREAMING ANASTASIA series was probably my most challenging because she exists as a character in so many other stories by so many other people. My challenge was to create a version of her that worked for the series, that melded with the Romanov story and that also connected to the sub text of everything that contemporary Anne, my MC, was going through—her

journeys, personal, romantic, heroic. I was delighted when a very different type of backstory for Baba Yaga emerged as I wrote. I wanted to know how she became Baba Yaga. And why. And so a narrative of beauty vs. power came about. Among other things. I love it when I hear from readers and they say that they actually kind of like her! That’s so cool to me.

2. The Sweet Dead Life involves Janena and her brother Casey. Can you tell us a little about each character?

Sure! Janena is fourteen when the series starts, and in 8th grade. (Although let me interject here that this is a YA novel and although she is on the young side for YA narrators, she will be aging up during the series and it is NOT a middle grade book, although it could be read by 8th graders for sure). Janena is feisty and mouthy and sassy. She is brave a loyal and manages to keep her head up through a variety of crazy shenanigans. She narrates through her diary entries, so you get to see her more or less uncensored thoughts about her life, her brother’s antics, the bad times that have befallen her family and definitely her world view on the Texas suburbs and mall culture. Janena calls it like she sees it. Careful readers will be able to pinpoint who Janena’s first love interest will be in next year’s sequel THE A WORD. I am so excited for you all to read that, too!

As for Casey, he is sixteen as the series begins. He is smart and athletic and also brave and loyal, but since their dad disappeared 5 years ago and their mom progressed into a depressed state, he’s had to be the man in the family, quitting football to work two jobs. He’s hanging out with the stoner crowd, spending his spare time on weed and other bad habits. But he’s there for his sister no matter what! Including rushing her to the hospital in their beat up Prius when it seems as though she’s dying. Of course then he’s the one who bites it… and comes back as his sister’s less than angelic guardian angel…

1. rocks! We all know this: ) But, what would we be surprised to learn about our favorite bad boy?

That he loves musicals. Not that he’d ever, ever watch them in front of anyone, but he totally does.

2. For those who haven’t read The Liberator yet, what can you tell us about the new “bad girl” we meet here?

Aspen is a tough girl that is very similar to Dante. She’s been hurt by those she should have been able to trust, and now she has a thick exterior that’s hard to get past.

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1. Can you explain how you first got the idea for Dreaming Anastasia?

The kernel of the idea for DA came one afternoon when it was raining to hard for me to get to my car after school and I was hanging around my classroom waiting for it let up. This girl characters came to me. She was funny and smart and sarcastic – and she was sitting in history class writing a note to her friend. I loved her voice. So I kept writing. And somehow a story unfolded. Because when the bell rang and I wrote her leaving the class, I knew she was about to bump into a mysterious and handsome stranger. The rest is history!

2. I read that the original title was Spark, did you consider any other titles for this book, and what caused the change?
Ha! You’ve done your research! Basically Dreaming Ansatasia was called Spark for a very long time. But somewhere around the time we entered copy edits, my editor decided that the title didn’t sufficiently brand the book. He wanted readers to pick up the novel and immediately have some sense as to what it’s about. And Spark really didn’t cut it in that regard. Interestingly, Haunted has always been the title of Book 2! So in publishing, anything can happen.

3. What has been the most shocking thing to happen to you since becoming a debut author?
Well, the most shocking thing was having my dream of being a published novelist come true and then getting diagnosed with thyroid cancer this past February. That definitely knocked me around for a bit.

4. I love the covers of Dreaming Anastasia, and book 2, Haunted, what did you think when you first saw the covers, and the book in print?
I fell in huge love with both covers as soon as I saw them. Although I loved the HAUNTED cover more immediately because it was so absolutely what I’d seen in my head that it was uncanny. The DA cover actually evolved some; Ethan was not originally on the cover! But we’re all glad that the art department decided he needed to be added.

5. Can you tell us a little more about where this series will go, how many books, and what you are currently working on?
Well, I hope to be able to do a third book in the relatively near future. Here’s the blurb for book 2, HAUNTED: Anne Michaelson’s world turned upside down last year when handsome, blue-eyed and temporarily immortal Russian Ethan Kozninsky showed up. Now six months later, Anne still has powers she doesn’t fully understand. She’s still dreaming about Baba Yaga’s forest. And she’s definitely still got feelings for Ethan, even though she’s got a new boyfriend—the very normal and very sweet lifeguard Ben Logan. But things are about to get even more complicated. There’s a wicked Russian folklore mermaid stalking Anne. With her heart torn between Ben and Ethan, Anne’s search for the rusalka’s identity reveals deep and startling secrets — including the true source of Anne’s powers. As the romance heats up, so does the danger. Will Anne’s powers be enough to help the rusalka get what she wants? Or will the longings of her own heart get in the way?

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble Publisher: Sourcebooks Reading Level: Young Adult Paperback: 310 pages Series: Dreaming Anastasia, book #1 What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?
Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.
In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

Find out more about Joy Preble Joy Preble / Blog / Twitter

Purchase Dreaming Anastasia Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

Book Trailer

By: Joy Preble

I’ve been scared many times – that breathless, stomach dropping sensation that comes with illness, being broke, doing poorly on a test or at a job; worry that my child might be in trouble of one sort or another – the normal stuff, really.
But the spookiest true event I’ve ever experienced happened for about two weeks straight not long after my mother passed away from a sudden heart attack. Her death was totally unexpected; we’d spoken in the morning and by the afternoon she was gone. It would be a long time before I came to terms with it.
We’d had a routine, my mom and I. Every afternoon around five o’clock, either she’d call me or I’d call her. Usually I was home by then – trying to figure out dinner or supervising my son’s homework or whatever it is one does after a day of teaching and parenting and life. We’d talk for five minutes or ten or sometimes longer. I don’t remember what we said to each other; I doubt it was anything special. But it was a given. Somewhere between five and six in the evening, we connected. If the phone rang then, I knew without looking at caller id that it would be her.
Maybe when someone dies so abruptly, things are different. I don’t claim to know or understand. But the week after the funeral, around five thirty, my land line rang. When I picked it up, no one was there. It wasn’t a dial tone or a wrong number. It was just dead air until I hung up. It didn’t happen again that night. But the next evening, the phone rang. Same thing – just silence. I pressed the receiver to my ear and said hello. But no one answered.
Every evening for the next two weeks – and I swear this is true – my phone rang. Every evening there was silence. Eventually, it stopped.
I’ve chosen to believe that maybe she just wasn’t quite ready to go. Because what other explanation is there? Two weeks of phone malfunction? Two weeks of merry pranksters? Or my mother – reaching out to say hello, a few last times before she finally slipped away.
Joy Preble

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble Publisher: Sourcebooks Reading Level: Young Adult Paperback: 310 pages Series: Dreaming Anastasia, book #1 What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?
Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.
In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

Prize:

• 1 winner will receive a signed copy of Dreaming Anastasia and stickers and bookmarks.

• You must be at least 13 to enter.
• Name and email must be provided and counts as 1 entry.
• Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
• Contest is US ONLY and ends October 27th.
• Once contacted the winner will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address.
• The form must be filled out to enter.

Haunted, book #2 in the Dreaming Anastasia series will be released January 1st, 2011.

- Thanks so much Joy for the story and the book and swag donation!
Find out more about Joy Preble Joy Preble / Blog / Twitter

Purchase Dreaming Anastasia Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

Book Trailer

* Check out Lisa's Haunted Halloween post.

*Reminder: If you are interested in the COMMENT CONTEST, remember to include your email address with your comment for an extra entry! Please read full entry rules here.