Switchback
Danika Stone
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: May 28th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
An epic YA adventure story about two friends lost in the Canadian wilderness from Danika Stone, the author of All the Feels.
Vale loves to hike, but kind of hates her classmates. Ash is okay with his classmates, but kind of hates the outdoors. So, needless to say they are both fairly certain that the overnight nature hike with their PE class is going to be a hellish experience. But when they get separated from the group during a storm, they have worse things to worry about than bullies and blisters.
Lost in the Canadian wilderness with limited supplies, caught in dangerous weather conditions, and surrounded by deadly wildlife, it’s going to take every bit of strength, skill, and luck they can muster to survive.
Praise for Danika Stone:
“An enjoyable, fast-paced read.” — School Library Journal on Internet Famous
“The book is a dream. I loved absolutely everything about it. … From the chapter headers to every mention of nerd culture, All the Feels is a blast!” —Seeking Book Boyfriends on All the Feels
Interview with Danika Stone
As a
writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
My dad used to read tea leaves, and “luck”
always appeared to him in the form of a dragon. For my Patronus I’d choose a
Chinese dragon like he described. It would appear in a swirl of clouds,
catching on the possibilities and dragging them into being – the same way I do
when I write.
How
many hours a day do you put into your writing?
The quick answer is “as long as it takes”,
but it really depends on the season and what’s going on in my life. Summertime
I usually do five solid hours of writing a day, but mid-winter, I’m lucky if I
get an hour. It depends.
Do
you read your book reviews? If yes, do they affect what you write in the
future?
Believe it or not, I read all the reviews
and for some reason they never bother me. I figure that every person has “one
true book”, and if someone hated mine, it wasn’t meant for them. (At the same
time I also think “Yeah, but you
still bought it. Didn’t you!”) Neither good nor bad reviews affect what I write
in the future. I go where my inspiration takes me.
Do
you leave hidden messages in your books that only a few people will find?
I have tiny little links between all my stories—in
both YA and mystery—so if you’ve read one of my books, you’ll likely find an
Easter Egg in another one. I think of it as the Danika-Universe. It only makes
sense that those connections are there!
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Switchback?
Ashton Hamid is a hardcore gamer
who would rather die than step outside his basement. He’s fun-loving and
outgoing and everyone’s friend. A bit of a goof, but fiercely loyal. His best
friend since kindergarten is Vale Shumway.
Vale is an aroace teen who is
struggling to find her place in the social strata of high school. She has one
best friend—Ash—but very few close friends. She’s smart and resourceful and
knows more about the outdoors than any character I’ve written. If I was stuck
in the woods, Vale would definitely be
the one I’d take with me!
Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have
planned for the future?
I’m currently writing a new YA and
I’m super excited about it! I’m also editing my latest mystery—the final book
in my Waterton trilogy.
Do you allow yourself a certain number of hours to write or do you
write as long as the words come?
In the summer, I try to get in
three solid hours of writing before noon, but if the words are coming fast and
furious, I literally cannot stop
them. There’ve been days when everything clicks and I spent ten hours at my
laptop. It’s incredible! And those balance out the days when every word feels
like pulling teeth.
Do you have a certain number of words or pages you write per day?
I work toward a word count: 1000
words a day, bare minimum. Everything after that is icing on the cake!
What inspires you to write?
Everything.
Would you rather
Read fiction or
non-fiction?
Fiction.
Read series or
stand-alone?
Stand-alone (since I hate waiting on next books).
Read Science fiction
or horror?
Science fiction.
Read Stephen King or Dean
Koontz.
Stephen King.
Read the book or
watch the movie?
Read the book.
Read an ebook or
paperback?
Paperback.
Be trapped alone for
one month in a library with no computer or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi
only?
I’d take the computer, since I have a kindle app on my
laptop and although I prefer to have
paperbacks, I read a lot of books on devices too. Goodness – a month with just ebooks
and time to write? Sign me up!
Do a cross-country
book store tour or blog tour online?
Cross-country book store tour (though I LOVE online blog
tours too).
Thank you so much for the interview! It was great to visit!
Your welcome! Thanks for visiting with us today!
Author Bio:
Danika Stone is an author, artist, and educator who discovered a passion for writing fiction while in the throes of her Masters thesis. A self-declared bibliophile, Danika now writes novels for both teens: INTERNET FAMOUS (Macmillan, 2017) and ALL THE FEELS (Macmillan, 2016); and adults THE DARK DIVIDE (Stonehouse, 2018) and EDGE OF WILD (Stonehouse, 2016).
Ms. Stone’s work has received both recognition and literary praise. In 2017, Chapters included EDGE OF WILD in “Our Favourite Canadian Fiction”, and INTERNET FAMOUS was nominated for the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature (2018) as well as selected as one of Fierce Reads’ “9 Perfect Summertime Reads” (2017). EDGE OF WILD (previously entitled TATHAGATA) was a quarter-finalist in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel of the Year Award (2013), a finalist in the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize (2015), and took second place in the Publish or Perish contest (2015). ALL THE FEELS was selected for Swoon Reads’ fourth list (2015) and was nominated for YALSA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (2016), and for CYBILS’ Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (2016).
Ms. Stone’s books have been reviewed by VOYA, Teen Reads, and School Library Journal. Danika has also featured in the BN Teen Blog, Clash, Quillable, Fierce Reads, Lethbridge Living Magazine, CJSR’s Word, and on CBC’s Daybreak.
When not writing, Danika can be found hiking in the Rockies, planning grand adventures, and spending far too much time online. She lives with her husband, three sons, and a houseful of imaginary characters in a windy corner of Alberta, Canada.
Ms. Stone is represented by Morty Mint of Mint Literary Agency.
1 comments:
Thanks for hosting! :)
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