Literary / YA (older teen)
Publisher: Cur Dog Press
Published Date: February 7, 2019
Seventeen-year-old Kelly is in a spartan boarding school in northern Idaho, sent away for drugs—as planned. Her little brother Sammy is left home in Missouri, getting ready for high school. He is twitchy, quick, writes dark poetry and longs to play football. He’s also got a nose for trouble, and Kelly has left a sordid truckload. Her sadistic ex is involved, so is one twisted teacher, and so is the object of Sammy’s crush. He’s in deep, and Kelly’s warnings fall flat, and the consequences will be dire.
Interview with Author Idyllwild
Eliot
As a writer, what would you choose as your
mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
A panther. I’ve liked them since I was little.
They’re beautiful—lean and graceful and sleek.
How many hours a day do you put into your writing?
Usually it’s about an hour. I often have other
obligations, so I try to squeeze in time when I can. When I’m free to write,
and focused on a goal, I up it to four, usually twice a day.
Do you read your book reviews? If yes, do they
affect what you write in the future?
Yes. And yes, they affect me. But I’ve been lucky.
Well Below Heaven is my first novel, and the early reviews have been solid.
Along the way though, particularly with other pieces and as I was learning, bad
critiques would set me back.
Do you leave hidden messages in your books that
only a few people will find?
Not on purpose. I’m not that sneaky. But a couple may
have found their ways in.
Can you tell us a little bit about
the characters in Well Below Heaven?
Sammy and Kelly are the protagonists. She’s older and in a boarding
school in Idaho, with communications restrictions that force the letters.
Sammy’s her little brother, back home, with unhappy parents, suddenly without
the shelter of his older sister. He’s quirky, a bit nervous, and what he really
wants more than anything is to play football. Football’s big in the midwest,
and I used to watch the boys play in the snow. I remember how much fun they
had.
They’re both conglomerates of kids I knew growing up, and there’s a
little of me in each as well.
Can you tell us a little bit about
your next books or what you have planned for the future?
A Well Below Heaven sequel is in the works.
It’s a different story, and not just about Sammy and Kelly. But I liked them so
much I’m keeping them around. And I’ve got a middle-grade fantasy started as
well. That’s kind of like a hobby at this point.
Do you allow yourself a certain
number of hours to write or do you write as long as the words come?
Nothing set in terms of time. I write as often as I
can, wherever I can. Until deadline time. Then I have to focus.
Do you have a certain number of words
or pages you write per day?
Normally no. But come deadline time, or when I
absolutely have to finish a project, then I fall back on some word-count
workplans, with daily and weekly targets. They’re ugly, not creative, but they
help me finish.
What inspires you to write?
Life. Adolescence. Pain.—The usual seeds. Well
Below Heaven was a gut cleansing, like a colonic of my adolescent angst. As
usual with my writing, I only realized that in hindsight, but now it’s clear.
Would you rather
Read fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction. And the occasional spirituality/self-help book, but
seldom.
Read series or stand-alone?
Most of what I read tends to me stand-alone, but that might just
be that I don’t read much sci-fi or vampire books. Recently, however, I have
picked up some middle-grade fantasies, and they’re all series. It seems to be a
requirement of the genre.
Read Science fiction or horror?
If I have to choose, science fiction.
Read Stephen King or Dean Koontz.
Stephen King.
Read the book or watch the movie?
Book. Serious topics are better in books. Once I see the movie, I
don’t go back because I hate spoilers. But I will invest two hours after a good
read, just to see how the adaptation was done.
Read an ebook or paperback?
Paperback. I have a Kindle, but it’s rarely charged.
Be trapped alone for one month in a library with no computer
or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi only?
Library. One of my fantasies is to have one of those two-story
personal libraries with thick chairs, wooden furniture, and big wine glasses
that I can fill with old red wine.
Do a cross-country book store tour or blog tour online?
I’d like to do a cross-country book tour, but I’m still not
really comfortable with crowds. That might take a while. So blog tour.
About the Author
After adolescence survived in the Midwest and a few obligatory years at the university, Idyllwild Eliot embarked on a journey of internal and external exploration. With stints in Houston, Louisiana, and even Thailand, where she studied yoga, Ms. Eliot has become a semi-professional vagabond. Most recently (at the time of publication) she has been experiencing the North American west. If not sipping a cocktail on a deck in the northern Rockies, she might be found bodysurfing in Southern California, watching Bald Eagles in Montana, or in some other picturesque town hiking, meditating, or sitting with her laptop open and, at its side, a stout mug of black coffee. Well Below Heaven is her debut.
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1 comments:
thanks for hosting
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