Author Q&A with C.D. Bell


Hello! And welcome to my new blog post! Today I will be featuring a Q&A with Author C.D. Bell! This is about her up coming novel, WEREGIRL. I originally received this book from Netgalley inexchange for an honest review but a couple days after I requested it, I received an email from the publisher asking if I wanted to be part of the BLOG TOUR. Without a second thought I applied and managed to get a spot! I don't think I need to say anything more about this amazing book! Enjoy! 





 

WEREGIRL by C.D. Bell 

SYNOPSIS:

Nessa Kurland is running for her life. 

C. D. Bell's WEREGIRL is a fast-paced teen thriller set in Tether, Michigan, a town on the brink of shutdown since it was stripped of its resources by corporate polluter Dutch Chemical. 
High school junior, Nessa Kurland, is a cross-country runner with her eyes set on one thing: a college scholarship as her one-way ticket out of Tether. 
Talented teammate Cynthia Sinise invites Nessa on a nighttime run through Tether's overgrown forest trails. But she speeds ahead, leaving Nessa alone to discover a trapped wolf. Nessa tries to free the animal but is badly bitten, seemingly ruining her hopes for a strong fall season with the cross-country team. 
Instead, Nessa's freakishly quick recovery is followed by improved running times. All her senses are heightened. Nessa has transformed. 
She has become a werewolf. 
In her new state, Nessa learns there are things about Tether that powerful people want to keep hidden. Why does a Nobel Laureate work at the small-town medical clinic? Are top college athletic scouts really interested in her emerging talent? Can she trust Chayton, the motorcycle-riding guide her friends have faith in? WEREGIRL's Nessa must navigate her junior year and true human darkness, while making peace with her new, wild nature. 




PURCHASE INFORMATION + LINKS

WEREGIRL [Chooseco LLC] will be available in hardcover and e-book formats via all online and select brick-and-mortar book retailers as of November 1, 2016. Pre-order your copy today on Amazon or the WEREGIRL website: http://weregirl.com/products/weregirl


About the Author:

What inspired you to start writing?



I've always wanted to write. I'd finish a book I loved and want to keep the story going, reenter it under my own steam. My first attempts at writing would be called fan fiction today. At the time, that wasn't something people talked about. 

If you could give any advice to a non-published writer, other than to just push through it, what would it be?

Stick with what you love. If there was a mood, or a voice, or an idea that inspired a story or a novel you're working on, keep going back to that. Sometimes chaining yourself to the desk is the only solution, but other times you can approach writing with a little more lightness. If it's not beautiful and fun for you, it won't be beautiful and fun for someone reading. 

At what point in your life did you just know that you wanted to become a writer?



I always knew, but I can remember the first time I decided to attempt it seriously. I'd just read a novel that was both absorbing and badly written. I put it down and thought to myself, I can do that! I wrote something after that I really loved in the style of that author. 

If you have done the Pottermore Houses test ,what is your house?



I haven't done the Pottermore Houses, but I think I am a Hufflepuff. I have only recently encountered this truth about myself after decades of assuming I was Gryffindor. 

If you have done the Pottermore Patronus test, what is your patronus?

Okay, now you've lost me!

What books have influenced you the most?



I grew up loving 19th century fiction and stories set in what I then referred to as "the olden days." I continue to love historical fiction of a gritty nature and to see all fiction as historical in nature, but as an adult I'm drawn to stories with grit. Writing Weregirl, I was thinking about strong stories in YA fiction - looking back to Twilight, Harry Potter, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, as well as realistic YA such as Waiting for Normal, that helped set a tone. 

What are your future projects?



I've been meeting with the team at Chooseco about starting the second book in a planned Weregirl trilogy. We've had a lot of exciting ideas and I can't wait to get started. 

If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?

I have always wanted to work as a short order breakfast cook. I love eggs, pancakes, waffles, muffins, and I like the idea of working fast and furiously and being all done by noon. 

What is your preferred method of getting in touch with your readers?



Readers mostly get in touch with my by email. I answer every note I receive and can't stress how important each and every one is to me. 

Have you gone on any literary pilgrimages?



I spent one day in London in my life, and I decided to walk the entire city. The only building I entered was the National Portrait Gallery, all to see the reportedly poor portrait of Jane Austen. But it was worth it. 

What was the first book that made you cry?



I can't remember the first, but I can tell you a book that made me cry recently. Charlotte's Web. Reading it with my daughter I wasn't just shedding decorous tears. I was full-on weeping. 

Does writing energize you or exhaust you?



Both! When it's going well, I feel like I could go outside and bench press my minivan. At the same time, I'm not always sure I can spell my own name. 

What is your writing Kryptonite?



Coffee and chocolate. 

Have you ever been in a reading slump? If yes was there a specific book that put you in the slump?

Many times! I feel like every book has put me in a slump at some point. To get out, it's just a little of this, a little of that, and not stopping. Also not necessarily showing it to anyone except the most trusted writing friends until you have a sense of where it is going. 

How many unpublished/un-finished/ work in progress books do you have?

I used to think I maintained a 1:1 ratio of books that never went anywhere with novels that were published. 

how many hours a day do you write?

Generally between three and six. When I was writing Weregirl, there were days where I did nothing but write--6 AM to 11 PM, with a few hours here and there for meals, walks, and sanity check-in phone calls. 

Do you read your books reviews? How do you deal with the bad or the good ones?
Such a good question. I try not to read them but I do. I try to learn from the bad, and celebrate the good. 

About the books:
How do you develop your plots and characters?

Weregirl was created through a collaborative writer's room. Many of these characters were created before I joined the project. 

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

The timeframe. We moved very quickly once we got going it was only three months from the first word to the first draft. 

What was your favorite chapter or part to write and why?

I loved the chapters where Nessa transforms into a wolf. To create the wolf characters, and Nessa's wolf character in particular, I drew heavily on all the dogs I've known. 

Is there a message in your books that you hope readers will grasp?

I hope readers will feel grounded in these books and be able to see themselves. The story is fantastical, but the impulses and emotion behind it are not. Nessa relies on herself, and is a credit to her community without being rich or privileged, and I think it's important to remember that that is an option for everyone. 

Will you be writing any more books in the world of Nessa?

Yes! The series is planned as a trilogy and we're starting in on book two this winter. 

What did you edit out of this book?

Too much of a romance between Cassian and Nessa. It was getting hotter and heavier between them than we meant it to be. Sigh. I'm kind of a hopeless romantic. 

What was your hardest scene for you to write?

I don't want to spoil the plot, but the hardest scenes to write were the scenes at the end, where Nessa is investigating the nefarious plots impacting her family and her town. We knew the least about these as we were plotting out the story, so they involved the most invention and I had the most help with them too!


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