Lorie Ann Grover swings by readergirlz to chat with Janet Lee Carey about her new book HIT on its launch day! Welcome Lorie
Ann.
JLC -- HIT is a riveting read! Tell us what inspired you to write it.
LG -- Thank you, Janet! HIT was inspired by a true story. Ten years ago, my daughter's best friend was hit in a
crosswalk on the way to school. With her life threatened, her urgent brain
surgery sent her family and friends spinning through a dark wait.
Inspired by her experience, my novel tells the story of one girl struck down by
the very grad student she is crushing on. Plans, goals, and dreams are
shattered, as everything comes screeching to a halt.
JLC – You chose to
write the book in two viewpoints: Sarah, the girl who’s struck by a car, and Mr.
Haddings, the young man who was behind the wheel. I was amazed by your choice
which worked beautifully! Can you tell us when you decided to write the book this
way and share some of the challenges faced?
LG -- Well, it was originally six voices!
JLC -- Wow, six?
LG -- :~)
JLC -- Who were they?
LG -- Sarah, Haddings, Cydni, Luke, Janet, and Mark. Different editors along the publishing journey suggested reducing it to four, then finally two. Without introducing some sort of fantastic element, like Sarah wandering the hospital in spirit form, I needed at least two voices to tell the story as she is so long in surgery.
JLC – You write so deeply and truly about family and family relationships in HIT. Can you give us a peek into your process for this?
LG -- I think the real
event was so charged and poignant, gestures, words, and phrases became haunting
notes in my mind. It was simple to stream those straight into the novel. I also include the
struggles I’m having or have had in the past: how to mother and let go, how to
love the right person, how to separate your identity from another, etc. By
digging deeply and bringing battles to light, there’s a chance the work will
ring with a reader.
JLC—They say every
story is about character change. Sarah’s accident forces not only the central
characters but every character in the book to change. How did you determine the
way each of these unique personalities would change through the events of the
story?
LG -- Thank you for
noticing, Janet! I started from a place where everyone was caught up in the
everyday. They were selfishly focused. The accident arrests each of them,
giving them a chance to stop and assess where they are and what is important.
So often, this is one of the gifts within a hardship. I naturally landed on
their starting points, riffing off my friends and my own traits. I amplified
every facet to better the tale. Seriously, my friends are blessed with so much
grace, I had to work hard to weaken them. :~)
JLC— What would you
like readers to take away from this book?
LG --’d really like
readers to consider the concept that within every hardship there are sweet red
seeds. Like Dottie tells Sarah, under the leathery pomegranate skin, there is
beauty. We just have to look for it. The truth lines up beautifully with Hit-and-Run: the Gratitude
Tour. We're doing. Both Justina
Chen and I tend to write about
this.
JLC-- The tour will bring out HIT and Justina Chen's A BLIND SPOT FOR BOYS.
JLC -- Tell us more bout the tour!
Hit-and-Run: The Gratitude Tour:
When trials hit, how do we run in triumph? When we have
a blind spot for blessings, how do we embrace gratitude? Award-winning authors
and readergirlz co-founders, Lorie Ann Grover and Justina Chen, share the
trials and triumphs within their own lives and their books’ characters,
inspiring teens and adults to #hitwithgratitude.
JLC -- I love this idea!
LG -- There are so many ways
we can encourage each forward, right? Let’s do it.
I officially
#hitwithgratitude: readergirlz and Janet Lee Carey!
JLC -- :~)
Hit
By Lorie Ann Grover
Blink, 10/07/2014
Blink, 10/07/2014
No comments:
Post a Comment