THIS IS IT! THE HOLLY SCHINDLER HOP STOP!

 

 

      I'm so excited today, because the one and only YA and middle-grade author, Holly Schindler, has been gracious enough to include my blog as a stop in her blog hop promoting and celebrating (see: balloons, above) the recent release of her first psychological thriller, FERAL.  That title, of course, makes me think of images like this one:

and, in fact, FERAL is in part about wild cats, but they're the small, pet-sized kind, nothing like Leo up there.  But feral housecats can be pretty terrifying too, especially if they're possibly not just cats, but something much more sinister... and they show up in your new town everywhere you turn...

Take it away, Holly!


FERAL, AUTHENTICITY, AND TIMES OF CRISIS ( by HOLLY SCHINDLER)
FERAL falls squarely into the realm of the classic psychological thriller. While the book features mystery, horror, and paranormal elements, the emphasis is on the "psychological" rather than thriller / action. The novel features a Hitchcockian pace and focus on character development (here, we’re exploring the inner workings of the main character, Claire Cain). Essentially, every aspect of FERAL is used to explore Claire’s inner workings—that even includes the wintry Ozarks setting. The water metaphor is employed frequently in psychological thrillers to represent the subconscious, and here is incorporated in the form of a brutal ice storm (that represents Claire’s "frozen" inner state). The attempt to untangle what is real from what is unreal (another frequently-used aspect of the psychological thriller) also begins to highlight the extent to which Claire was hurt in that Chicago alley. Even the explanation of the odd occurrences in the town of Peculiar offers an exploration into and portrait of Claire’s psyche. Ultimately, FERAL is a book about recovering from violence—that’s not just a lengthy or hard process; it’s a terrifying process, too. The classic psychological thriller allowed me to explore that frightening process in detail.

While the focus is on Claire’s inner workings, we do see other characters struggling, too. Actually, FERAL takes place in a time of town-wide crisis: Peculiar has been hit with a paralyzing ice storm. And a local teen girl is missing.

I often get asked what parts of my books have been taken from real life. In 2007 (and again in 2008), my hometown was hit with a paralyzing ice storm. And over twenty years ago, I was a high school student when two girls from my school went missing. I know how both incidents impacted my town…While there is a bit of neighborly sharing during those times of disaster, the true concern (at least, from my own observations) tends to turn inward. Toward your own family, your own home. And as time goes on, it becomes increasingly easy to overreact, to let your own worries make you edgy and strange. I remember how frazzled and easily annoyed everyone could get three days (or in some cases, three weeks) without power during the ice storms. And after the disappearance of two students, the atmosphere in my high school completely changed; teachers turned increasingly protective of their own students, hallways were locked down during lunch, cheerleaders were given pepper spray for protection, etc.

In many ways, FERAL reflects my own experiences and observations of the way a small(ish) town behaves in a time of crisis. Fear over safety and grief over the loss of a friend makes the characters in FERAL behave oddly. Those odd behaviors only feed into the overall tone of the book—force the reader to ask, "What is going on here? Who’s responsible for Serena’s disappearance—and death?" (The reader is involved in the attempt to figure out what is real, which, as I stated, is a tried-and-true element of the psychological thriller.)

In many ways, Claire walks into a perfect storm. Perhaps, if she had arrived in Peculiar three months after that ice storm, or had Serena not died, her classmates would have seen her own behavior as strange. Claire would have stood out; her problems would have been obvious from the get-go. But everything is strange in Peculiar when Claire arrives. Everyone is on edge. Everyone is grieving and caught up in the web of their own bad feelings, remorse. The moments when Claire overreacts, giving the reader a clue that she isn’t quite as okay as she insists (pointing a box cutter at Rich the first time she meets him, running into the woods upon getting an offer for a ride home) are surrounded by hardships: the desperation associated with an ice storm, the discovery of a dead girl’s body. So Claire’s behavior simply meshes into the other strange things that occur in the course of the book.

In a sense, the ice storm and the brutal death of Serena make the characters wild, crazed, too—the cats aren’t the only untamed creatures walking the streets of Peculiar in FERAL…
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Thank you, Holly!

Weird...  Holly looks so sweet, doesn't she?

    
What's that they say about not judging a book by its cover?  Oh, and just in case you're not terrified enough yet,  you probably need to watch this book trailer: http://vimeo.com/90169956.

 
And here's what some other people have to say about FERAL, in the jacket copy:

The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.

It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened.

But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….

Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.

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     In case anyone reading this doesn't know from my umpteen previous posts about her, I am a diehard Holly Schindler groupie, constantly dazzled by her talent, range, and fearlessness.  It seems that there's no subject matter she's too afraid to tackle, and she is always testing her own limits and setting herself new challenges.  This is her official bio:

Holly Schindler is the author of the critically acclaimed A BLUE SO DARK (Booklist starred review, ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year silver medal recipient, IPPY Awards gold medal recipient) as well as PLAYING HURT (both YAs).

Her debut MG, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, also released in ’14, and became a favorite of teachers and librarians, who used the book as a read-aloud. Kirkus Reviews called THE JUNCTION "...a heartwarming and uplifting story...[that] shines...with vibrant themes of community, self-empowerment and artistic vision delivered with a satisfying verve."

FERAL is Schindler’s third YA and first psychological thriller. Publishers Weekly gave FERAL a starred review, stating, "Opening with back-to-back scenes of exquisitely imagined yet very real horror, Schindler’s third YA novel hearkens to the uncompromising demands of her debut, A BLUE SO DARK…This time, the focus is on women’s voices and the consequences they suffer for speaking…This is a story about reclaiming and healing, a process that is scary, imperfect, and carries no guarantees."

Schindler encourages readers to get in touch. Booksellers, teen librarians, and teachers can also contact her directly regarding Skype visits. She can be reached at hollyschindlerbooks (at) gmail (dot) com, and can also be found at hollyschindler.com, hollyschindler.blogspot.com, @holly_schindler, Facebook.com/HollySchindlerAuthor, and hollyschindler.tumblr.com.

 

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And now, to truly make this an all-Holly Schindler day, this is what you need to do at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time:  attend this Google+ hangout chat with Holly and other authors!  http://nblo.gs/103tYw.

Hear Holly herself tell you about FERAL!

And on the off-chance that you don't win the FERAL giveaway that accompanies that chat, here is an added bonus:

 

Rafflecopter form for a giveaway of a signed hardcover of FERAL (running Sept. 17-Sept. 28):

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/69914cbc26.    

I mean, really?  Why would you NOT want to take advantage of TWO chances to win a free copy of FERAL?  Have you not been paying attention here????

 

 

STAY TUNED FOR HOLLY SCHINDLER'S GUEST POST!

     On September 20th, one week from today, I'll be hosting a guest post by Holly Schindler, part of her blog hop to celebrate the August 26th release of her YA psychological thriller, FERAL.  Holly's post will be a fascinating study of the psychological-thriller genre in general, and of how she sees FERAL as fitting into that framework.  There will be lots of other goodies too, including links to the tour banner, a book trailer, and a Rafflecopter giveaway!  So please don't forget to stop back here again next Saturday.  And in the meantime, watch some Alfred Hitchcock movies to get yourself in the mood. 

     Remember: you can run from the past, but you can't hide.



p.s....  and if you want to make this coming Saturday an All-Holly-Schindler day - and really, who wouldn't? - read my post first, obviously, and then here's where you need to be at 4:00 p.m. EST: http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2014/09/come-see-me.html.  I bet it will be awesome.

FERAL!

  

Anyone who reads my blog, even sporadically, knows that I'm a devoted Holly Schindler groupie and that I have excellent reasons for being one.  One is that she's always willing to challenge herself by trying something new and different with her writing.  Her first published novel, A BLUE SO DARK, was a YA about a girl dealing with her mother's mental illness.  Her next, PLAYING HURT, also a YA, was a (hot!) romance.  Next came a middle-grade novel, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, about a girl who both helps her community and discovers her own "shine" by creating folk art.  And now I'm delighted to share some news about Holly's next achievement: FERAL, a YA thriller due for release on August 26th.
     Here's a link to a spine-tingling video/reading by Holly of an excerpt from the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TClG_Ik0-mo&feature=youtu.be.  Watch it... but not just before you go to bed!  And here's what the Publisher's Weekly starred review has to say about FERAL:
"Opening with back-to-back scenes of exquisitely imagined yet very real horror, Schindler's third YA novel hardens to the uncompromising demands of her debut, A Blue So Dark...This time, the focus is on women's voices and the consequences they suffer for speaking...This is a story about reclaiming and healing, a process that is scary, imperfect, and carries no guarantees."
     Ready to pre-order?  Go to Holly's blog and she'll tell you how: http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2014/04/pre-order-feral.html.

SNEAK PEEK: HOLLY SCHINDLER'S NEW THRILLER, FERAL!

     If you read this blog fairly regularly, you know that I think the world of Holly Schindler's writing.  I've interviewed her about her first two YA novels, A BLUE SO DARK and PLAYING HURT, and posted a video of her discussing her writing process with regard to her first middle-grade novel, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY.  Changing it up once again, Holly has now written a mystery/thriller, FERAL, scheduled to be released by HarperCollins on August 26th.  Per Goodreads: "THE LOVELY BONES meets BLACK SWAN in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know."  And to whet your appetite even further, here's a sneak peek of Holly reading the first few pages: http://vimeo.com/95024582.  So now that you know you must read this book the instant it's available, here's a link to various ways in which you can pre-order your very own copy: http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2014/04/pre-order-feral.html.

 

 

     I'm also planning to be a part of Holly's blog tour for FERAL some time between now and August, so keep checking back.  The more Holly groupies in this world, the better!

AGAIN WITH THE HOLLY SCHINDLER!

Sorry, folks, but can I help it if Holly Schindler is one of my favorite MG/YA authors?  And can I help it if she's not sitting around on her laurels after releasing THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, her debut MG, but is instead forging ahead and releasing the cover of her forthcoming YA thriller, FERAL?  No.  I have no control over either of those things, and so I have no choice but to post this teaser:

It’s too late for you. You’re dead.

Those words float through Claire Cain’s head as she lies broken and barely alive after a brutal beating. And the words continue to haunt her months later, in the relentless, terrifying nightmares that plague her sleep. So when her father is offered a teaching sabbatical in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out of Chicago, away from the things that remind her of what she went through, will offer a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire quickly realizes something is wrong—the town is brimming with hidden dangers and overrun by feral cats. And her fears are confirmed when a popular high school girl, Serena Sims, is suddenly found dead in the icy woods behind the school. While everyone is quick to say Serena died in an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it—for she was the one who found Serena, battered and most certainly dead, surrounded by the town’s feral cats.

Now Claire vows to learn the truth about what happened, but the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to discovering a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley.　.　.　.

With an eerie setting and heart-stopping twists and turns, Holly Schindler weaves a gripping story that will make you question everything you think you know.
 

                                          *************************************

              

       And I am also forced to share this amazing cover:

 

  

     FERAL won't actually release until August 26th, and I'm as sad about that as you are, but here's a bit of a silver lining: you can preorder it now, and then rest secure that a copy will be in your own little hands immediately after that!
     And in case you were wondering: no, I am not a paid shill for Holly.  I just think she's awesome, and I want to share her news with as many readers as I can!

HOLLY SCHINDLER BLOG TOUR STOP!!!

   


  Hi everyone!  Are you as excited as I am (which is extremely) for the next stop on Holly Schindler's blog tour for THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY? 

Well, I'm really sorry I overslept this morning, but you need wait no longer.  My question to Holly was: "JUNCTION is all about found objects.  What are some of the things you've 'found' by writing each of your three published novels?"  And here's the link to Holly's wonderful vlog answer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSN8NzEht5I&feature=c4-overview&list=UUEbR2dtGpLFbkhRZhNoWOoQ

     Please make sure to visit Holly's next blog stop tomorrow, at http://taffyscandy.blogspot.com!

     And by the way - you only have about 12 more hours to enter my giveaway contest for Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando's new YA novel, ROOMIES!  Get those entries in, folks!  You have nothing to lose and a pretty cool book to gain!

REVIEW: HOLLY SCHINDLER'S DEBUT MIDDLE-GRADE, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY

    

     Folk art is deceptively simple.  Its distinguishing feature is often a kind of naivete that other forms of art strive to avoid, but what draws us to it is not technique - it's something more primal.  Folk art is an extension, and in many ways a celebration, of the ordinary; and appreciation of folk art is a form of recognition that the ordinary is also the universal.  Norman Rockwell was a folk artist.  What set him apart was his extremely sophisticated technique, which made his work acceptable to sophisticated people.  But nobody adored Norman Rockwell for his technique.  He was adored for his observation of, and devotion to, the most mundane of human experiences.
     THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY is a piece of folk art disguised as a middle-grade novel, and it takes a very clever author to pull off that trick.  On its surface, JUNCTION is the story of Auggie Jones's year in fifth grade: her rocky transition to a new school, where for the first time she has classmates who aren't from her own little pocket of town; the loss of her best friend, Lexie, who decides that Vanessa, one of those new classmates, is more exotic and alluring than Auggie; the fact that Auggie has not yet discovered her "shine," her word for the individual quality that makes each person she knows special in some way; and her relationship with her grandfather, Gus, her de facto parent and the only blood relative she knows.
     But Auggie's personal circumstances represent only the most obvious layer of meaning in this novel.  From the first few pages of the book, we know that Auggie's connections to her community, known as Serendipity Place, run deep.  Gus is Auggie's anchor, but the neighborhood is her place in the world.  And just when Auggie's personal equilibrium is threatened by Lexie's desertion, the equilibrium of the entire community is suddenly faced with a threat too: the appearance of the House Beautification Committee, whose motto - "making our city beautiful, one house at a time -" begins to seem more ominous with each letter it sends to the bewildered residents of Serendipity Place.
     At first, the letters are fairly neutral in tone, requesting only that the neighborhood's residents make efforts to improve the appearance of their houses and properties.  Many people are skeptical and/or worried, because no one on Serendipity Place has a lot of money for anything beyond basic necessities.  But after much thought, Auggie comes up with a solution: since Gus makes his living hauling trash, why can't some of those discarded cars and appliances and pieces of big equipment be repurposed to help with neighborhood beautification?  The idea catches on, and people start making inexpensive improvements to their properties, but it's Auggie whose imagination takes flight.  Remembering that Gus used to be a welder, she starts dreaming up projects for reusing old metal, instructing Gus exactly how to carry out her plans.  The two of them start out making flowers, but before long their sculptures take the form of people, and a metallic community starts to fill their front yard.  Perhaps not surprisingly, every member of the "company" in Auggie's and Gus's front yard is entirely different from every other one.
     But it turns out that the Committee judges all of the neighborhood's renovation projects to be merely "eyesores."  The people of Serendipity Place have tried to do what they thought the Committee wanted them to, only to learn that their efforts have been deemed "substandard," which apparently means "outside of the box."  And it appears that the chief proponent of keeping everything rigidly inside the box is Mr. Cole, a member of the City Council who just happens to be the father of  Vanessa, Lexie's replacement best friend.
     The situation on Serendipity Place becomes increasingly dire.  Fines on each property keep adding up, no one can afford to pay them, and finally the entire neighborhood is declared "blighted."  And that's when the City Council starts advising the residents to sell their now-almost-valueless homes back to the City, so that the houses can be demolished and a shiny new Community Center built in their place.
     Which brings us to the deepest layer, one that will not be apparent to most eight-to-twelve year old readers, but will be absorbed by osmosis all the same.  This is the South, but this book is not TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  Times have changed since the 1930's, and the most destructive and polarizing undercurrent of society in Auggie's fictional city is no longer race.  In fact, Schindler makes it clear that Serendipity Place is racially mixed.  Lexie has bright red hair; Auggie, on the other hand, when she is feeling especially defeated, thinks that her own skin is the color of mud.  The "Suits" on the Council are not trying to destroy Auggie's neighborhood because the people who live there are black.  They're trying to destroy it because the people who live there are poor, and the Suits don't want to look at them or have to accept them as human beings.  The dark underbelly of this story is a gaping divide between social classes, the Haves and the Have-nots.   The Haves want to make all the rules to serve their own purposes, which include ensuring that the Have-nots will lose what little they do have and, if all goes according to plan, just slink away and disappear.  I hope you will be pleased to see how utterly that plan fails.
     A lot more happens in this book, which is why you should immediately buy it and read it, but I don't think I'm spoiling too much by revealing that in the end, right triumphs over might, and Auggie finds her shine.  And it glows brighter than the brightest star.
     JUNCTION will be released by Dial Press on February 6th, only a few weeks away.  And remember that on January 25th, a week from tomorrow, Holly Schindler will be making a blog stop right here, and answering my question: "JUNCTION is all about found objects. Can you talk a little about what you've 'found' during the process of writing each of your three published novels?"
     Be aware that Holly not only writes beautifully; she speaks beautifully too.  You really don't want to miss this vlog.  And meanwhile, you can visit Holly's website, www.hollyschindler.com, where you'll be able to see book trailers and reviews; her blog, www.hollyschindler.blogspot.com; or her site for young readers, www.hollyschindlermiddles.weebly.com,  where her tween fans will be able to post their own reviews!  And Holly's on Twitter, too.  If you can't find her somewhere, it's totally your own fault!

GOODBYE, POLAR VORTEX; HELLO, SUNSHINE & LUCKY!

     I am really honored and really excited, because Holly Schindler is going to make this blog one of the stops on her virtual book tour for her debut middle-grade novel, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, releasing on February 6th.  There are quite a few of us Holly Groupies, and Holly made us an offer that was impossible to refuse: we could compose a list of interview questions to ask either her or her main character;  have her do a guest post on our blogs; or... or...  I don't remember what most of the other choices were, but I do remember the one I chose: ask her a question and have her record her answer in a vlog, which we would then be able to post.  Well, Holly just sent me her vlog in response to my question, and it's just what one would expect: informative, insightful, and down-to-earth.  I'll be posting it here on January 25th, so please make a note of the date and show up here to listen to Holly's words of wisdom!
     And, although you won't get to meet young Auggie until February 6th, in the meantime you can buy and read Holly's two published YA novels - about which I've interviewed her - just to get yourself into the mood! And also because in the vlog, Holly talks about all three of her books, so you'll want to have read the first two.
     So, is it a date?  Check back in here any time you want, but make sure to meet me and Holly here on January 25th!!

DID I NOT TELL YOU??

     So The Real John Green very favorably reviewed A.S. King's REALITY BOY in this past Sunday's New York Times Book Review.  Hello?  What is the big surprise here?  Have I not been telling everyone who will listen that A.S. King is an exceptionally talented YA author whose game only gets better with each book she publishes?  Yes, I believe that I have been doing exactly that, loudly and often.  So why doesn't anyone listen to me???  Because, let's be totally honest here: whether or not I ever get any of my own books published, I have always been blessed with excellent literary taste.  IF I TELL YOU A BOOK IS GOOD, IT IS, OKAY?  But, clearly, I am chopped liver at best, because for some obscure reason A.S. King is gobsmacked when John Green reviews her book in the NYT, but seemingly unmoved when I do so in this blog.  Go figure.  But by the way: A.S. King is not just humblebragging and pretending to be gobsmacked.  She is simply humble.  Don't you wish humility was spread around more fairly in this world, concentrated heavily in people who actually deserve to be humble?  I know I do.
     Oh, and Holly Schindler's debut middle-grade novel, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, is going to be released in a little over a month from now, and has already garnered some stellar reviews, including from Kirkus.  Now, have I TOLD you to keep an eye on Holly Schindler?  Hmmm???  Yes, I believe that I have.  But have you been following her the way you should have been as a result?  I dunno - have you?  Well, in case you haven't, will these reviews and trailers convince you to run right out and preorder SUNSHINE AND LUCKY immediately?  I sure hope so.  If not, I have taught you nothing.  And another thing: are you going to check back in with me on January 25th, when Holly will send me a vlog about SUNSHINE AND LUCKY to post here?  The answer had better be yes, that's all I can say.  Don't make me come after you.
     I hope that those of you who celebrate Christmas are having an extremely merry and bright one, surrounded by people you love and a pile of newly-gifted books.  And for the rest of us, and in honor of the late, great Roger Ebert: I'll see you at the movies!!

Another YA On Its Way from Holly Schindler!!

     I'm a huge fan of Holly Schindler (see my interview with her), and I'm so excited to help her promote her forthcoming new YA novel, "Feral."  Check it out: 

I don't know anything about "Feral," but I know that it's written by Holly, which means that it has sharp, credible dialogue, startling observations of the physical world, and complex, three-dimensional characters who act as mixed-up, brilliant, stupid, cruel, and kind as real people do.  You can track Holly down on her blog,  http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/, and find out more about her, her two previous YAs, and her middle-grade novel.  Do it!!  You'll be glad you did!

It's the Megatalented-Holly-Schindler Interview!!!!

                                                                         

I am THRILLED to be able to post my interview with Holly Schindler, the unfairly gifted author of YA novels "A Blue So Dark" and "Playing Hurt," as well as the forthcoming middle-grade novel, "The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky." 

Holly's debut novel

And here is Holly's second novel, Playing Hurt

Holly can be followed at many places on the Web, if you know where to look.  There's her website, http://www.hollyschindler.com/;  her blog,  her Facebook page, ; her twitter account,  and her two group author blogs, one for YA - http://www.yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com/, and one for middle-grade - http://www.smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com/.  After reading her books, I contacted Holly on her website and she immediately agreed to an interview.  Since then, she's been incredibly open, friendly, and generous with her time, and I love her thoughtful answers to my questions.  Here now, without further ado: our interview.