The TORN Giveaway!

I am very excited to welcome Erica O'Rourke to YA Fresh, to talk about her writing and her debut novel, and to offer up a copy of the book (plus other TORN goodies) to one lucky commenter!


As a little backstory, a summer ago, while I was attending the Romance Writers of America conference in Orlando, Florida, I had the pleasure of meeting Erica, whose manuscript, TORN was a finalist for the YA Golden Heart award. Not only did Erica go on to win (and to deliver a delightful and poised speech) but she also sold the book...well, I'll let HER tell you that part!

Hello, Erica, thanks for visiting with us! Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?

Erica: I’ve always been a huge fan of young adult literature -- when I taught junior high and high school, I always had a classroom library of books available for my students to read. I tended to go for fantasy and science fiction, but I tried to stock a variety of genres. When I started writing seriously, it seemed like a natural fit.

My first sale was fairly atypical. I was lucky enough to be named a Golden Heart finalist, and one of the final round judges asked to see my full manuscript. A month later, she called and made an offer, and I quickly followed up with an agent who had my partial. She read the full over the weekend, offered representation, and handled everything from there. One year later (363 days, to be exact) Kensington published my first book as part of their new KTeen imprint. I’m still a little dazed, honestly.

Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.

Erica: It’s summer vacation right now, which has thrown a wrench into things. But my typical schedule involves sending my kids off to school, including the baby. (At almost-three, she’s not actually a baby anymore, but she will always be MY baby.) Once they’ve all been dropped off, I sit down with the first of many cups of coffee and check email and twitter and my favorite blogs. The internet is a hugely addictive timesuck for me, so I try to limit myself to half an hour. Then I turn on MacFreedom, which blocks my internet access, and get down to the day’s writing or revising. There’s a lot of pacing and talking to myself and reciting dialogue out loud. It’s much easier to do this when no one else is home, I’ve found.

At some point, I take a shower, grab something easy for lunch, and get back online to check email. I’ll also return phone calls and make a half-hearted attempt to clean the house or do laundry. I drink more coffee, panic that the kids will be home so soon, and try to eke out another page or two.

Once my kids are home, there’s no point in trying to get work done, so I do mom stuff until the oldest one is in bed. My husband and I will watch The Daily Show and try to have a bit of grownup conversation, and then I go back to work, usually until about 1 am. I read for a little bit, think of a brilliant line for my story, tell myself it’s so brilliant, I will definitely remember it in the morning, and fall asleep.

Please tell us about your novel, TORN, and what we can expect from your characters.

Erica: TORN is the first of a trilogy about Mo Fitzgerald, who wants to avenge her best friend’s murder. Mo’s family is rumored to be connected to the Chicago Mob, and that her friend’s death is related. But she discovers her friend was fated to fulfill a magical prophecy, and in order to get justice, she’ll have to take over her friend’s destiny, despite having no powers of her own. At the same time, she inadvertently becomes a pawn in a Mob war.

Both worlds are dangerous, and both have cute boys -- Luc is a mysterious Southerner who knows more about the magical world than he’s telling, and Colin is the bodyguard Mo’s uncle hires to keep her safe. And ultimately, Mo has to choose which life she wants -- the one she’s fated for or the one she’s always wanted.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.

Erica: I just turned in the edits on TORN’s sequel, TANGLED, and now I’m working on the last book of the trilogy, BOUND, which will be released sometime in the fall of next year. Mo continues her dealings with both the magical world and the Mob, and copes with the fallout of her actions in TORN. There’s this notion that the truth will set you free, but in Mo’s case, the truth has a tendency to complicate things.

Would you like to close with a writing tip?

Erica: Revise. Revise, revise, revise. I firmly believe the best books are the product of a critical eye and a willingness to dig deeper. And I also think how you go about revising is entirely a matter of personal preference -- there are many roads to Oz, after all.

I know a lot of immensely successful writers who write a scene and then revise it before moving to the next one, and by the time they type “The End,” they’ve got a polished manuscript. And I know a lot of immensely successful writers who lay down an entire draft, start to finish, and then go back and take another pass. Both styles work -- neither one is superior to the other.

The one type of immensely successful writer I’ve NEVER met is the one who says, “I never revise. My books are so good I don’t need to.” Maybe that’s just coincidence, but I kind of doubt it.

LOL, well said, Erica!

And now on to our readers. In order to be entered in our random giveaway of a copy of TORN (plus swag, including a link to hidden content on her website!), all you need to do is leave a comment below, telling us either WHY you want to read it...or your favorite place to read. Or both!

Thanks again to Erica for joining us!