What's Fresh with Eileen Cook's Unraveling Isobel

A darkly comic novel that blends paranormal mystery and romance with humor, from the author of The Eductation of Hailey Kendrick and Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood.

Hello, Eileen! Great to have you back with us. Please tell us about your latest novel Unraveling Isobel and what we can expect from your characters.

Eileen: Unraveling Isobel comes out January 3, 2012 and is published by Simon Pulse.

Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother.

But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.

What's up next for you?

Eileen: I am working on a book that we’re currently calling Shady Sadie (stay tuned I suspect the title will change!). It’s the story of Sadie, who is a teenage con artist. When she realizes that she looks like an age enhanced photo of a missing child she decides to pull the ultimate con… until she begins to suspect she may actually be the missing child.

Wow, that sounds terrific! Thanks again for sharing with us, Eileen, would you like to close with a writing tip?

Eileen: Read! I am a big believer that the best writing teacher is other books. If it’s a book you love, try figuring out how the author did it, what made the book so interesting for you? Even if it is a book you disliked, there’s still a lot to learn- why did you dislike it? How can you avoid doing that in your writing?

Eileen Cook is a multi-published author with her novels appearing in six different languages. She spent most of her teen years wishing she were someone else or somewhere else, which is great training for a writer. Her latest release, The Education of Hailey Kendrick came out in Jan 2011

You can read more about Eileen, her books, and the things that strike her as funny at www.eileencook.com. Eileen lives in Vancouver with her husband and two dogs and no longer wishes to be anyone or anywhere else.