I would like to congratulate the winners of Chasing Alliecat by Rebecca Fjelland Davis, April's Author in the Spotlight. I would like to thank Rebecca for giving away two copy of her book to Booksnob followers.
The winners are:
Keitra from Tear Through Pages
Kulsuma from London, England
Congratulations Ladies!
If you didn't win you can still order a copy of Rebecca's book, from
Amazon. Chasing Alliecat is a young adult mystery and a wild bike ride through the woods of southern Minnesota. It will have your heart pumping.
April Author in the Spotlight Wrap-up and Giveaway.
Chasing Alliecat Giveaway Ends tonight at midnight!
Guess what? It is the end of April already. How does time go by so fast? It is time to get out there and ride your bike, walk, go fishing and enjoy reading in the great outdoors and it is time for me to wrap-up the month of April by
highlighting Minnesota author, Rebecca Fjelland Davis.
Today is the last day to enter the contest to win a copy of Chasing Alliecat The contest ends at midnight tonight.
The contest is open Internationally. Good Luck and as always
thanks for following Booksnob!
Click Here to Enter: Chasing Alliecat Contest
Please check out my book review of Chasing Alliecat. This young adult novel is a mystery set in a southern Minnesota town. It is an exhilarating read as the characters race on their mountain bikes through the woods. It may even get you thinking about riding your bike this summer. Me, I have to go and buy a bike. I seriously want to.
Be sure to check out the author interview with Rebecca Fjelland Davis as she provides insight into the back story of Chasing Alliecat. Rebecca provides us with personal details of her life and her dog Freya, who is Huge!
You need to read Rebecca's guest post called Praire-Dogging Your Way to a Story. I absolutely loved it. It has great ideas on how to take weird things you see in everyday life and transform them in a great story.
As April comes to a close I would like to thank Rebecca for being the April Minnesota Author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob. She is a
great writer and teacher and she really inspires me to get creative and to get myself on a bike. Please
visit Rebecca at her website at: http://www.rebeccafjellanddavis.com/
It is summer in Mankato, Minnesota and Sadie is stuck spending it with her Uncle Scout's family. Her only consolation is the mountain bike she brought with her and her goal to enter a race. Then she meets an unlikely friend named Allie and they begin a unique friendship racing through the woods on their bikes. Soon Joe enters Sadie and Allie's life. Joe just moved to Mankato for the summer and now lives in Uncle Scout's very crowded house. The three are fast friends and all begin training for a mountain bike race on the 4th of July. That is, until they find the bloodied and beaten body of a priest in the woods and Allie disappears.
When Allie disappears, Sadie and Joe realize they don't really know her at all, even though they rode together every day. Sadie has no idea where Allie lives and she wouldn't give out her phone number. Allie admitted her father is in prison but she never mentioned her mother. Allie is one powerful, mysterious young woman and Sadie can't help but admire her strength and fortitude but she is really worried. Thus begins the heart pounding race to find Allie and discover the true meaning of friendship.
Chasing Alliecat is a wild ride through the woods where the main characters are chasing a killer, chasing Allie and chasing their dreams. The story is compelling and takes the reader for a daring ride through the pages. The characters are bound to each other through circumstance, become life-long friends and protect each other through life's dangers. In short, they ride through the chicken. They do what they are afraid of, support each other and grow stronger.
Every once in awhile a book comes along where the reader has a lot in common with one of the main characters. Allie is the character that I related to the most and we had so much in common that by the end of the book I was crying. I can't give you all the details because it would spoil the book for you but know that Chasing Alliecat does not shy away from difficult issues.
Chasing Alliecat is a suspenseful mystery and a page turner. My advice is to chase down this book. It would make a great read for the gym while your riding the stationary bike.
Rebecca Fjelland Davis Author Interview + Giveaway
Rebecca is the April author in the Spotlight here on Booksnob. She agreed to answer some questions about her book and her busy life. Let me tell you what I like about Rebecca, she is kind and open-hearted and a teacher, like me! If you like to get out into nature and ride your bike, you will enjoy this fast paced mystery of a novel. Please read this great interview that provides great insight into her young adult book, Chasing Alliecat.
1.Tell
us a little bit about yourself?
I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I always wanted to write (see
#3). I loved riding ponies in the fields, and I missed that when I grew up and
moved away. I think that’s why I became a runner, and then a cyclist—because I
still needed the feeling of moving through the air outside. I have run
marathons and raced my bike. I still race a little bit. Right now, I live in
the country, and I have a Newfoundland dog named Freya who weighs 170 pounds.
She’s bigger than I am! I also teach English, Humanities, Creative Writing, and
Children’s Literature at South Central College in North Mankato. I write all
summer and every chance I get.
2.What
inspired you to write to Chasing Alliecat?
Well, my guest post goes into some of this. I wrote this
story by “prairie-dogging.” That means that I had a bunch of fun, unrelated
ideas that I thought would be good in a story. My job was to “dig the tunnel”
that connected all the ideas into one coherent story, just like a prairie dog tunnel
connects its holes.
I wanted to write a story about a competitive female
cyclist. The first part of the book I wrote is now on page 179—the scene where
Allie finishes the race. Then I wanted to include a cannon shot blowing up a
neighbor’s building because some friends of mine actually did that—but not
nearly as destructively as in the book. When I stumbled upon the real Junk
Woods, and thought that someone could hide a body there….I had a story.
When I saw the “chainsaw” sign in the Junk Woods, all I
changed was the name and number. That was too good not to use. I needed Allie
to be connected to the priest in the woods, and maybe to whoever wrote that
sign, and all those pieces fell in place. I wanted to have dogs play a major
role in the story because dogs are so important to me. The rest was making it
all fit together.
The thing that I struggled with at the beginning was that I
wanted Allie to be a really gifted cyclist. As I started writing, I realized I
couldn’t have Allie be the narrator because I wanted the narrator to admire
Allie. That’s when I knew this would be the story of two girls, not just
one. And of course Joe just showed up at
the truck stop and Sadie was attracted to him immediately. I wasn’t expecting
him, but there he was, and it was kind of funny to cram him into an
over-crowded house where he wouldn’t be Sadie’s cousin at all, and he had
enough of his own issues that he was there to stay. And Sadie couldn’t help
falling for him…
3.Can
you tell us why or when you decided to become a writer?
I have wanted to write since before I learned to read. My
mom read to me a lot, and I loved stories.
It never occurred to me not to want to write stories. I honestly thought
everyone in the world wanted to be a writer because wanting to write was so
natural to me. I guess I thought in words, too, and I liked narrating to
myself…probably sounded like I was having psychotic episodes if you listened to
me as a six-year-old talking to myself, but I was always narrating what I was
doing, as if I were putting it in a book at that moment. I actually remember
moments like this: “She scuffed along the driveway, kicking dirt up between her
bare toes.” I have no idea how old I was when I said that aloud to nobody.
4.Usually
an author puts some of her own life experiences in the book. Did you do
that?
Yes, indeedy. I always do, I
guess. I’ve explained a lot of that about Chasing AllieCat in #2.
Both “Mars at Night” (the short
story in Girl Meets Boy) and my first
novel, Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged
take place on farms in Iowa like the one where I grew up. Neither one of those
stories of much of anything to do with what happened to me, but the place—the
place is real—and it’s so fun to write about the farm because it’s like
being back there again.
5.Do
you like to read? What authors or books
influence you?
Do I. I’m always, always in the middle of a book, and a book
on CD whenever I’m driving. I read whenever I have five minutes to wait or in
between things, and before I sleep.
Authors that influence me. Lots. Whoever I’m reading at the
moment influences me, because I try to pay attention to what that writer does
that I like—or that I don’t like.
Authors I have LOVED in my life are Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird, my all-time
favorite), Carol Ryrie Brink (Caddie
Woodlawn, my favorite as fifth and sixth grader; I think I read it twelve
times), Mary Calhoun (I loved all the Katie John books), Lois Lenski (I read
every single book of hers I could find; her stories let me travel and live all
over the U.S.), Marguerite Henry (Misty
of Chincoteague and many other horse stories, which I devoured. Also, she
was the first “real live” author I met, when I was about 28 years old). More
recently, my favorite is Barbara Kingsolver—I love all her novels. I also have
a growing list of writers for young people that I admire.
6.How
do carve out time in your day to write when you are busy teaching college? Are you writing another book? (see #9)
Sometimes I really don’t know how I make time. I don’t
always get time. When I’m busiest at school, writing gets shoved to the back
burner until the weekend, and then sometimes, I’m grading papers all weekend.
I write all summer. I refuse to teach summer school so I can
write, write, write. I start to feel panicky by the end of the first week of
summer that I’m not going to get enough written. Then I settle down and get
into a routine of writing, biking, and doing other summer stuff in between.
There are never enough hours in a day, but every now and
then, I get to the end of the week and think, wow, I really got a lot done. Other times, it’s I didn’t get anything done all week! But
you know what? It’s never enough! There’s so much more to do, and I have so
many more book ideas that I want to write.
7.Have
your students read your book? What is
their reaction to having a published author as a Humanities teacher?
Lots of my students have read my book, and lots haven’t. Usually,
they come tell me when they’ve read it and then we talk about the story. I
haven’t had anybody tell me (yet) that they didn’t like Chasing AllieCat, but it could happen! I tell them at the beginning of the semester,
when I’m telling them a little about myself, but they don’t pay attention
because they don’t know me yet. Then later, when they’ve actually started to
like me (hopefully) as a teacher, if they find it out, that’s when they get
excited to read it. I also teach
Composition and Children’s literature and creative writing…so it comes up in
some of those classes, too.
8.What
is the most important lesson/idea you want readers to take away from Chasing
Alliecat?
Wow. I don’t think anybody has asked me that before. To LIVE life to the fullest. Sometimes that
means being a great friend. Sometimes that means taking care of yourself, and
sometimes it means protecting a friend. Sometimes it just means being kind.
Sometimes it means being brave and doing stuff you don’t want to do. Sometimes
it means pursuing your dreams, no matter how hard you have to work and if other
people disapprove. It also means being honest—with yourself and with everybody
around you. It also means being physically active so that you can feel strong. I
think a balance of a physical life and an intellectual life is essential.
I would love it if this book inspired girls or guys—or
adults—to want to be strong and physically active.
9.Are
you working on another book? How did get
involved in the anthology Girl meets Boy?
I’ve finished another book. My agent has it right now. Slider’s Son is a murder mystery set in
North Dakota during the Depression. The main character wants to be a major
league pitcher and his dad is the sheriff. They’re the ones who find the body…
I’m working on another after that, but it’s too early to
talk about it. I have to use the energy to write it, not talk about it at this
point.
I had written the story, “Mars at Night,” and Terry Davis
had read it. When Kelly Milner Halls asked him to be in the anthology, he asked
me if he could write a companion story to “Mars at Night.” It was hard giving up “control” of Rafi—the
character I created but from whose point of view Terry wrote…but I had to let
Rafi be the way Terry conceived him, and then I had to edit my story somewhat
so that the two matched. Terry and I found a way to sort of compromise and meet
in the middle. (Terry, by the way, wrote Vision
Quest). He’s my ex-husband, but we are still very good friends.
10.In one
sentence tell readers why they should read Chasing Alliecat?
Chasing AllieCat is a biking adventure in southern Minnesota
that hopefully makes you want to get out and ride your bike, be a great friend,
and get rid of all the creeps in the world!
That sentence makes me laugh, but it’s true.
If you are interested in winning a copy of Rebecca's book Chasing
Alliecat click the link: Chasing
Alliecat Contest
Welcome to April's Hometown Track Author in the Spotlight, Rebecca Fjelland Davis. Rebecca has written a great guest post for Booksnob readers about story ideas. I love it and it is great advice for aspiring writers or students. Read On!
Prairie-Dogging Your Way to a Story
“Where do you get your story ideas?” If you’ve ever been to
any author event anywhere, I’m sure you’ve heard this question. Amy King (A.S.
King—author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz and
Everybody Sees the Aunts) and I read
together at the Loft in Minneapolis on Saturday. We got a version of that
question, of course.
The answer, I think, lies in a few key ideas—and they are
ideas that everybody who wants to write can use.
says that every story starts with a CROOKED PICTURE. What? A crooked picture. Something out of
kilter—something that your natural tendency is to want to fix, or at least to
ponder. Something’s wrong in any story—that’s what conflict is. That’s what plot is—finding out how the protagonist
is going to fix his or her problem. So that’s where any good story starts.
But wait! You say. I
thought any good story was supposed to start with a great character. Yes,
yes. But that character has to have a
problem. You have to have both or you don’t have a story.
So, second, COLLECT
CROOKED PICTURES. Collect weird
things that could make it into a story: weird things you see, strange things
you hear, news items that make you stop and ponder. KEEP A NOTEBOOK, and fill
it up with your collection of weird things or strange things. Things you notice
because they are not quite normal. While you’re at it, collect people, too:
quirks, names, characteristics, and then you’ve got character ideas as well as
problem ideas, all in your writer’s notebook. Think of it as being a
photographer with words—collecting snapshots of crooked pictures (and people). When
you need a story idea to keep you going, page through your notebook(s) until
you find something that you might use.
Third: ask WHAT IF? Something weird—a crooked picture—is not a
story by itself, either. You have to see something weird in your mind’s eye and
say, what if…? Push it, make it even weirder, make it more
of a conflict or problem, and you might have a great story idea.
Fourth: You have to weave the weird things together with the
right character. That’s where the “PRAIRIE-DOGGING”
idea comes in. Prairie dogs pop up across the prairie from little holes that
lead to underground tunnels that lead to other holes that pop up on the
prairie. OUR JOB as writers is to dig
the tunnels that make the idea-holes CONNECT in seamless tunnels. That makes
for stories that fit together perfectly.
If we do that, we have a story with a great character and
ideas that started out unrelated, but ended up in a seamless whole.
Want an example? This part is long, but here goes:
I took my dog for a walk along the Blue Earth River and
found several acres of woods INFESTED with garbage. I could walk a mile and walk
the entire path on garbage with each step like steppingstones: discarded
clothes, shoes, tires, furniture, dishes, tarps, appliances, and on and on. You
get the picture. (And I’m not even
kidding. I wish I were; but the place exists, in the 21st century,
in Minnesota).
I thought, “Man, you could hide a body here and nobody would
find it.”
I was mountain biking with my friends one day, came home,
and wrote two paragraphs about a gifted girl mountain biker—way better cyclist
and bike handler than I am. But that’s all I had: a girl named Allie who kicked
butt on the bike.
I had some friends who shot a Civil War canon. They blooped
out the first shot about fifteen feet, so on the next try, they loaded that cannon with gunpowder, let
me tell you. They shot up into the air and blew up their neighbor’s
milkhouse—about a mile away!
I also have a friend whose nickname is Scout, who is almost
big enough to play the part of Hagrid in Harry Potter…who shoots black powder
rifles. I had made some notes about him in my notebook, too, ‘cause he’s such a
character all byhimself.
So I thought about the Junk Woods, and thought, WHAT IF there were a body hidden in the Junk
Woods? Who would find it? A mountain biker! I had a mountain biker character. WHAT IF that mountain biker girl was
stuck for the summer with a relative—maybe an uncle named Scout who was as big
as Hagrid? If Scout shot black powder rifles, it would be logical that he might
shoot a cannon and blow up his neighbor’s…wait. WHAT IF he blew up more than an abandoned milk house? What if it
were something important? Expensive? And he got in legal trouble, and the
mountain-biking girl was in the middle of it? What if all this happened while
she was trying to unravel the mystery of the body in the woods? Could it all be
connected?
Those are some of the ways that Chasing AllieCat came into being.
Prairie-dogging takes time, but it’s fun. And if you collect
enough in your notebook, you are never, never
at a loss for story ideas.
Thanks Rebecca
If you are interested in winning a copy of Rebecca's book Chasing Alliecat click the link: Chasing Alliecat Contest
Contest: Chasing Alliecat by Rebecca Fjelland Davis
Hometown Track, Minnesota Author in the Spotlight, Rebecca Fjelland Davis is giving away 2 copies of her book, Chasing Alliecat to Booksnob followers. She has agreed to send internationally as well! Rebecca is a fellow Humanities teacher who loves dogs and competitive bike racing.
Here is the synopsis of Chasing Alliecat from Goodreads:
While training for an off-road bike race, Sadie, Allie, and Joe find a priest, badly beaten and near death. After calling for help, Allie mysteriously disappears from their lives. It's not until the day of the race that Sadie learns the truth about Allie, and her connection to the priest.
Welcome to the great month of April, the first month of Spring and the celebration of Easter. April is the month of Venus, National Poetry month and National Autism Awareness month. It is also the month that Rebecca Fjelland Davis is the author in the spotlight on Booksnob. Yeah Rebecca!
I met Rebecca at the Minnesota Book Fair in October. Her Young Adult book is called Chasing Alliecat and she has also contributed to the anthology Girl Meets Boy.
Here is the synopsis from Goodreads for Chasing Alliecat:
While training for an off-road bike race, Sadie, Allie, and Joe find a priest, badly beaten and near death. After calling for help, Allie mysteriously disappears from their lives. It's not until the day of the race that Sadie learns the truth about Allie, and her connection to the priest.
This month you can expect a book review, a contest, an author interview and if we are lucky a guest post by Rebecca. You can find Rebecca at her blog,
http://rebeccafjellanddavis.blogspot.com/ You can also expect rain, hopefully some sunny weather and lots of good book reviews from Booksnob. Enjoy the month of April.
