Aloha to C.M. Smith and FOURTEEN

Hey Fourteen
Let's find something in common
Let's review this book
Please share your thoughts
About this peer pressure
(borrowed from Steely Dan's Hey Nineteen)

I have a fourteen year old son who reads faster than me. I invited him to help me review C. M. Smith's FOURTEEN from The Writer's Coffee Shop (TWCS) Publishing House at this link. Plus I invited C.M. Smith to join us for a chat .... 

C.M. Smith doesn’t remember ever not writing or reading. Like so many young children, her mother and grandmother read to her every night before she went to bed and before long, she’d decided to try her hand at writing something of her own. She has spent the better part of her life writing short stories or novels that she’s only shared with a few select people. She finally took the plunge in late 2009 and decided to publish her first novel, FOURTEEN.   C.M. lives in upstate New York with her family.

nymag.com

Kim:  Tell us about where you live - your favorite sight, smell, and sound.

C.M.:  I live in upstate New York, in the Adirondacks, near Lake George. We moved up here in 2000, and I can’t say that I regret it. At least, not ow. I was an unruly teenager when we first moved up here, so I didn’t like anything. Now, though, I love it here. Fall has always been my favorite season, but up here, it’s gorgeous. Everywhere I go, there are trees, and when the leaves change, it’s absolutely beautiful. It also helps that I went to college to be a photographer, so I’m like a mad woman with my camera during the season.  To get to my house, I have to cross over a bridge, and the falls there are beautiful. There are always people lining the bridge during the summer and the beginning of winter to take pictures of them. 

panoramio.com

Kim:  You wrote, "she's only shared with a few select few. She finally took the plunge ...." Tell us about your road to publishing and the experience of finally sharing your work to others (critique partners and editors).

C.M.:  Sharing my work with anyone is always so nerve-wracking to me. I’m shy and kind of private, so showing anyone anything that I’d written has always been terrifying. I’m always afraid that they’re going to hate it and tell me that it’s not worth anyone’s time, and the fear of that always kept me from showing anyone anything. I finally ended up showing “Fourteen” to one of my good friends, and when she was finished with it, she told me that I needed to publish it. I’d heard about The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House and decided that I’d push all my fears aside and just send in a few chapters. I figure that the worst that could happen was that I’d never hear from anyone ever again, and was pleasantly surprised when I was told that they wanted to read more. Then, of course, more nerves showed up when I sent the whole thing in, and I swear I spent about three weeks pacing the floors waiting to hear something back from my editor. When I did, even though I had a lot of editing to do, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. My editor is great, and so easy to work with, which made the process much less terrifying. 

Kim:  Why YA? Can you share its rewards and challenges?

C.M.:  I don’t know why I chose to write a Young Adult novel. It was just the direction the story took. There are so many rewards, but one of the biggest ones that I can think of, is being able to see these young adults enjoying my work, and hopefully connecting with it on some level. Some of the challenges would have to include language. I’m a curse-word person, and having to censor myself while thinking about my audience wasn’t really an issue, per se, but I definitely had to think twice about what I was writing. 

bookpatrol.net

Kim:  What inspired FOURTEEN?

C.M.:  I know that I should have a much better answer for this question, but I honestly have no idea what sparked the idea for Fourteen. I just remember that I was driving home from getting ice cream with my family, and this idea came into my head about a slightly overweight high school girl being tormented, and then falling for, the most popular guy in school. The rest of the story just went from there, and I finished it within a few months. 

Mahalo, C.M., for joining us today!  And let's see what Andrew thought of FOURTEEN:

High school is hard enough when you do fit in, but if you don't look a certain way or have the right friends, you'd better hope you grow a thick skin to defend yourself from the ones that do. Arianna Weller and Evan Drake are worlds apart, moving in different circles until they are forced together for a science fair project. Putting aside their differences from the past is not easy for either of them, but can they do it long enough to realize that they're not that different after all.

Kim:  What was your first impression of this book?

Andrew: It was a Cinderella story.

Baseball cleat instead of glass slipper?

Kim: Did Arianna transform herself?

Andrew: Actually, Evan transformed his attitude towards Arianna.

Kim: What motivated Evan's transformation?

Andrew: Evan has known Arianna since they were little kids. They even played at the park together. But when they went to middle school, he became popular.   Evan even joined the other students in making fun of Arianna for being overweight.   In high school, he was assigned to partner with her on science fair project.  Evan He complained about it to the teacher and his friends. One day he dropped his stuff and papers flew everywhere.  Arianna helped him pick up his papers and Evan realized what he had been doing was wrong. 

blog.sciseek.com

Kim:  What happened next?

Andrew: At first, Arianna was suspicious of him being nice.  But as Evan spent more time with her, even breaking up with his girlfriend, she began to trust him.  

Kim: What did this story teach you?

Andrew: Don't judge a book by its cover.

Kim: How was the writing?

Andrew: The story flowed easily from one chapter to another.

Kim: Was the story realistic?

Andrew: I think it would be realistic on the mainland.

Kim: Can you explain?

Andrew:  In Hawaii, we have so many shapes and sizes - Hawaiians, Samoans, Asians, Haoles, military kids.  We just blend together.  

Hawaii Governor Abercrombie with military children

Mahalo, Andrew, for sharing your thoughts on FOURTEEN.  TWCP Publishing House is giving away two ecopies of FOURTEEN.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about a special accomplishment from high school - solo effort or group activity.  Marching band?  Sports Team?   Pep Club?

I recall 9th grade social studies when I was partnered with a popular jock (I could relate to Arianna).   We had to present the "every day life" of an ancient culture.  I talked him into a Mayan version of  DALLAS (I was obsessed with the show).  Funny that I don't remember my partner's name.  

Dallas then ... 

2.  This giveaway is open to all readers.

3.  Comments open through Saturday, November 5, 10 pm in Hawaii.   I'll post the winner on Sunday, November 6.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

To learn more about C.M. Smith, check out her author page at this link.

To learn more about TNT's revival of DALLAS, coming in Summer 2012, check out this link. 

... Dallas next summer!