What's Fresh with Iva-Marie Palmer!

We welcome Iva-Marie Palmer to YA Fresh today, to talk to us about writing and her young adult novel, The End of the World As We Know It.  

Hi, Iva-Marie!  Tell us about your novel!

The End of the World As We Know It is the story of four teenagers – not friends – who get locked in a basement together during the biggest party of the year. As if that’s not already ripe territory for a disastrous, anxiety-ridden evening, aliens attack their Midwestern suburb and they are the party’s only survivors – and the only people around for miles. They take it on themselves to find out what’s going on and maybe save the world.

Sounds great!  Now, please share your typical writing day schedule.

Nothing is as typical as I want it to be, because I’m balancing writing with a day job and a toddler and all the other fun facts of grown-up life.

But when I’m really cranking on a project, or am working toward a tight deadline, I have to make time in whatever parcels of the day are available to me. My most reliable habit is that I get up early, around 5:30 a.m. most days to write.  I love writing in the early morning, because everything is quiet. Not just the house and the world, but my mind. If I don’t get the morning writing in, then I go to work or go about my day and, by evening, there’s a good chance all of the day’s stressors and anxieties have worn me down or are crowding up the creative parts of my brain. So, I like getting something down at dawn.

Tell us about another project in the works.

I have a few things spinning in my crazy brain, and I know I need to pick one soon. I think what’s calling to me most is another humorous YA, in which a ‘90s-obsessed music store clerk has to fend off a corporate takeover of her beloved but dilapidated mall. I have a lot written but I’m reworking some aspects. Does “All’s fair in love and retail” work as a tagline?

Sure does!  In closing could you please share a writing tip?

Being a writer is writing. So write, already! I think there are some great things about the internet for writers, like so much research at your fingertips, not to mention all the book blogs (and being featured on them. Thank you, YA Fresh!), plus Facebook and Twitter, etc., for connecting with fans or potential readers. But I also think all this technology has made it harder to just write. 

Thanks for visiting with us, Iva-Marie, and we wish you wonderful things with your book!