YA Feature: Erin Danzer

The Author 

I’ve been writing since I was a kid in grade school. I entered a school-wide contest and found my love for the creation of the written word. I’ve also been a reader all my life, so I almost think becoming a writer was a natural course for me.

When I’m not writing or reading, I’m spending time with my husband and two boys. And our cat; my boys won’t let me leave him out. ;)

I also participate in NaNoWriMo every November. Last month was my 8^th win in 9 years. I love the people I meet and still, just the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

Writing

As I said, I started in grade school. On and off up until I got married, I wrote stories, novels and even tried my hand at poetry. I took a Creative Writing class in college, where I wasn’t the best in the room but I learned a lot. After I got married and especially after the kids came, life got in the way and even though I continued to write, my priorities were changed up. Then, almost two years ago, I realized my life was not what I wanted it to be. After some soul searching, a few serious talks with myself and my husband, I decided following my dreams of being a published author is what I would do with the rest of my life. And here I am.

The Book: Into the Spiral 

I have to admit, when I was trying to figure out what to write, I had just finished reading The Mortal Instruments trilogy (before CoFA came out), and I said to myself: “I want to write like Cassandra Clare.” Soon after that, I had this girl pop in my head. She was young, about to start high school and felt like she would spontaneously combust because of all the pressure on her from her parents, living in the shadow of her older brother and being in love with her best friend who’s completely clueless. That girl became Ronnie, my heroine. Into the Spiral tells her story about meeting Gavin, a boy from another planet, and how Ronnie wants to become her own person. Filled with romance, angst and everything I love about teenagers (including their ability to believe anything, as my editor pointed out), in the end, Ronnie must decide between following her destiny to help save Gavin’s planet or returning to her life as a “normal” girl.

Getting to know the authors book habits!

Favourite book genre and why?


Young Adult. I love first love, all the teenage angst, seeing kids “grow up”, the uncertainty that comes with being a teenager and the choices they make. Of course, I do prefer my YA to have some kind of supernatural aspect to it, though I don’t pass up a good contemporary novel either.

Favourite book series and why?


I have a few favorite series, but I’m only going to name two. The Mortal Instruments, because Cassandra Clare is amazing, her world is filled with romance, action, adventure, and her characters are so real it’s like I could walk out my door and meet them on the street. (okay, total fantasy, but it could happen! LOL) I also love the Significance series by Shelley Crane. Her two MC’s, Maggie and Caleb, are again very real people to me. I love their relationship and everything that happens to them, what it means to be a significant (which is a soul mate, in a way, for those who don’t know), and how they deal with what does happen.

Favourite author and why?

 

 Cassandra Clare. Her books rob time from me because I open them, begin reading and the next thing I know, hours have passed. The action, adventure, romance, her characters and the way she puts it all together draws me in every time. The same thing happens when I read Tiffany King, Richelle Mead, Julie Kagawa, and Shelley Crane.

An Author you would recommend we check out and why?

I know it only says one, but I really can’t decide between these two, so I’m going to recommend Tiffany King and Shelley Crane. Both ladies are phenomenal at what they do! The first book in Shelley’s series, Significance, is coming to the big screen in 2013. I love all their books! They both bring their characters to life. Tiffany writes contemporary YA (mostly) and she really makes you care about her characters like their stories could be happening to your best friend.

　

Any book news?

Into the Spiral, my debut novel, was released November 19. A prequel short story, Defending the Spiral (starring my hero, Gavin), is set to be released before Christmas. Both are published by Hydra Publications (a small press that makes me feel like I found the right place to publish).

 

Find author Erin Daner on my Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ErinDanzerYAAuthor

Twitter: @erindanzer

Website:http://www.erindanzer.com

Where to buy Into the Sprial:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords


Also available in the iBookstore for iPad and iPhone

Paperback copies will be available soon from Createspace.com and Amazon.com