Author Interview: Lisa Nowak

Hi Lisa, Welcome back to the blog, since we last had you on the blog your have released the second book in the Full Throttle Series. How has the response been with the release of the second book in the series and is there any plans for more in the series?


Thanks for having me back, Megan. My second book, Getting Sideways, has been well-received by fans of Running Wide Open, and the reviews have been great. I have five books planned for the series. Running Wide Open is currently free on Amazon.com and other retailers, if any of your readers would be interested in downloading it to see if my series is right for them. (It’s not free on Amazon UK yet.)




In May you released a new novel called Driven, can you tell us a little about it?

Driven is actually book 3 in the series, and though it shares characters, it has a new protagonist.

Sixteen-year-old Jess wants to be a mechanic, but no one will take her seriously because she’s a girl. She’s never even considered having a boyfriend because she thinks no guy would look twice at her. When she lucks into the opportunity to work on a race car, she’s befriended by a boy who doesn’t mind the grease under her fingernails (Cody from the first two books) and drawn into the family-oriented speedway community. These new friendships make it increasingly difficult for her to keep her mom’s alcoholism and neglect a secret—something she must do at all costs to avoid gettingstuck in a foster home.

Where did you get the idea for Driven?

I’d already written the original version of Running Wide Open and wanted to do something more with the characters, and I also had an idea for a book about a girl mechanic from a broken home who street raced a tricked-out Gremlin. I melded the two ideas together, but made the Gremlin into a Pinto because it’s much more impressive to cram a V-8 into a 4-cylinder engine compartment. A Gremlin engine compartment is actually quite roomy. I’m sure that’s more than you wanted to know about the mechanical aspects. :)

We know you write coming of age books that somehow involve amateur stock car racing but is there another genre you would like to explore?

I’ve got a first draft written of a dark paranormal YA book, and I’m also working out the details of a series of YA paranormal novellas about a girl who’s a plant whisperer—she can hear plants talk. Of course there’s a whole mythology to it, and a threat to the world as we know it. And a hot love interest.

　

Why should we read Driven in one sentence?

Driven is a deeply layered, character driven book that covers some serious subject matter while containing plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and a touching account of first love.

　

Are you working on any other books at the moment?

I’m doing edits to the next book in the Full Throttle series, Redline (which has some real emotional sucker punches).

Summer questions!

　
What are your plans for this summer?

Editing Redline, doing some in-person speedway promotions (I sponsor a 16-year-old race car driver), running my landscaping business, and learning Photoshop. There’s a lot of graphic design stuff I’ve been wanting to do with my blog, newsletter, Facebook page, etc. and I hope to have time to tackle that, too.

Beach or Lake?

I really love the ocean (I live about a hundred miles from the north Oregon coast), but it’s usually so much warmer inland at a lake. I guess it depends on the time of year. In the summer I’d go for the lake. Any other time I’d go for the beach.


Ice-cream or ice-lolly?

Is ice-lolly the equivalent of our American Popsicles? I’d have to go for ice cream.

Favourite holiday destination?

The place I went to college, Eugene, Oregon, which is also the setting for my books. I love that town, and someday I plan to live there again. It’s a hundred miles from my current home, but I go down to visit several times a year. They have this incredible little chocolate shop there, Euphoria Chocolate Company, so I have to go get my truffle fix from time to time. Oh man, I just drooled on my keyboard.


Favourite thing about summer?

Warm weather, long days, bright blue skies and golden sunlight. Days like that make me feel like I won the lottery.

　


Buy Lisa Books @

Amazon.com



Amazon UK



Barnes & Noble


Smashwords

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Blog: http://lisanowak.wordpress.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Lisa_Nowak
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LisaNowakAuthor