GCC Presents...Melissa Walker and SMALL TOWN SINNERS!

The Girlfriends’ Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors which I’ve recently had the great honor to join. Check these posts for the latest releases!

Happy Sunday!  This week I am so excited to feature Melissa Walker and her fabuous contemp, SMALL TOWN SINNERS, which is out in paperback this week.

 

Does falling in love mean falling out of faith?

“Lacey Anne Byer is a perennial good girl and lifelong member of the House of Enlightenment, the Evangelical church in her small town. With her driver's license in hand and the chance to try out for a lead role in Hell House, her church's annual haunted house of sin, Lacey's junior year is looking promising. But when a cute new stranger comes to town, something begins to stir inside her. Ty Davis doesn't know the sweet, shy Lacey Anne Byer everyone else does. With Ty, Lacey could reinvent herself. As her feelings for Ty make Lacey test her boundaries, events surrounding Hell House make her question her religion."

Melissa Walker is a writer who has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. All in the name of journalism, she has spent 24 hours with male models and attended an elite finishing school for girls in New Zealand, among other hardships.
She co-founded I Heart Daily with fellow ex-ELLEgirl Anne Ichikawa in 2009. It’s a daily newsletter about likable stuff.
Melissa lives in Brooklyn and has a BA in English from Vassar College. She would tell you her SAT scores too, but, you know, the math part was hard.

 She loves meeting teenagers, and is game to speak at your library or school about writing, books, fashion, magazines or pop culture (but, you know, in a smart way).


Before we get to the GCC interview, Melissa has a special behind-the-scenes peek at Dean, one of SMALL TOWN SINNERS main characters:

Melissa: Before I write the book, I do little interviews with some characters. That information almost never makes it into the manuscript, but I like having it. Here's a tiny bit from Dean, one of main character Lacey Anne's best friends:

What makes you mad?

This town. My own anger. Hypocrisy.

What makes you happy?

Lacey and Starla Joy, almost exclusively. They are the only ones who get me.

Favorite childhood memory?

All of it. Back when you could play with kids just because you were the same age and in the same spot. That started breaking up early, but it wasn’t really until middle school when everyone else got tall and I got wide that people stopped looking at me. I mean, people like Hunter Patterson, who broke his arm when he fell off my porch playing pirate ship. Does he just not remember that? It’s like I have a disease, or worse, like I’m invisible.

 

AND, as an added bonus, Melissa is running a huge book giveaway over on her blog. Check it out here to enter!

And now for a few hard-hitting questions...
1. Do you have a pre-game writing warm-up? Something you do before you write to help get you in the right frame of mind?

I love to have a large iced coffee with cream and sugar, so that it basically tastes like melted ice cream. With that by my side, I'm good to go.

2. Is there a time of day you like to write best?

In the morning. If I don't do it early, the day gets away from me, sacrificed to the gods of reality TV, snacking and twitter-feed-reading.

3. Where do you write most often? Do you have a picture you wouldn’t mind sharing of your writing space?

I write in various coffee shops all over Brooklyn these days. I'll attach a pic of one of my favorite windows in Manhattan, though, Housing Works!

4. What things do you always have on hand when writing?

Special pens, notepads, snacks…The above mentioned iced coffee and my laptop area all I need!

5. How do you stay focused when writing?

I don't. I find that if I look up, eavesdrop on a conversation, stare out a window, talk to someone next to me... that helps. What doesn't help is getting online and checking fb/twitter/email. I try to avoid that (unsuccessfully, usually).

6. What is your worst writing distraction/procrastination tool?

The internets. Totally. Sometimes I even go to a spot with no wifi to help me focus.

7. Describe your perfect writing day:

Coffee and a sit-down by 9:15am. Done writing 1000 words by 11am and ready to play with my daughter! (This very, very rarely happens... usually I'm plunking along until at least 2pm to get 1000 good words.)

Thank you so much for stopping by Melissa, and I hope there are many perfect writing days in your future!

 

For more about Melissa and her books, visit her website at www.melissawalker.com or follow her on Twitter here