Scattered Figments: GIVEAWAY AND INTERVIEW with special guest, Karly Kirkpatrick!

Scattered Figments welcomes Karly Kirkpatrick, author of The Green!

Hi there Karly! Thanks so much for stopping by! I loved The Green and am so excited to be able to giveaway a free prize copy to one lucky winner! First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Karly Kirkpatrick, I write books, I love to read, I'm a big movie fan, I love to travel, I speak German and French, I have a 5 year old daughter, and a very nice husband. And I live near Chicago, smack-dab in the middle of the US.

What inspired you to write about a young girl with a promising academic future, who also happens to be a drug dealer?

Someone quite close to me had people in the family that dealt drugs, yet this person was a very good student, participated in sports, etc. and is/was a very law-abiding and straight-laced person. I always find that to be an interesting combination, the stark difference between the choices people make, even when they're in the same family.

A few years ago, I had a student who was the biggest overachiever I had ever met. Very smart and cool, but wanted to be in EVERY club at school. And she was! It was insane. So I thought to myself, what if I took a girl like her and put her in the situation I had come to learn about. And what if she had to do the unthinkable, sell drugs herself, but not because she wanted to, because she had to keep up her image for her future?

What books have influenced you most?

Oh, the Harry Potter series, for sure! I have read so many books in my life, but those influenced me in so many different ways.

What book are you reading now?

I'm re-reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I just started Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I'm usually running my daughter to soccer or Irish dance practice, watching my favorite shows (like The Vampire Diaries), going to the movies, or hanging out with friends. I also work full-time as a teacher, so it's a delicate balance.

Can you describe how you write?

I actually have a Harry Potter room that I write in, but I also write at my desk at work at lunch, or on the couch, or in bed, or at the kitchen table, or wherever! I usually use notes these days in order to stay efficient. And I often listen to Spotify. Lately, it's been the same three albums. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Ellie Goulding's Lights, and Mumford and Sons.

And now, just for chuckles, a quickfire quiz!

Sweet or savoury? - Sweet!

Beach or Countryside? - Beach!

Comedy or Horror? - Comedy!

Late sleeper or early riser? - Late sleeper!

Wild night out or quiet night in? - Quiet night in!

Winter or Summer? - Summer!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and extra thanks for offering a copy of your book up for grabs!

The Green

Publisher: DarkSide Publishing

Release Date: January 15th 2012

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Ariceli Pisa is a senior at the prestigious Cambridge High School and has her sights set on Northwestern University. She's a cheerleader, a member of the National Honor Society, and a drug dealer.

That’s the secret she has to keep from her best friend Naomi, in addition to the fact that she’s madly in love with Naomi’s ex-boyfriend.

Trying to balance her life at Cambridge High with her new demanding job keeps her teetering on the edge of disaster.

Mini-Review

I get a lot of review requests in my inbox. I try to accept as many as I can but that often means that my TBR pile grows much faster than I can tackle it! It takes a little something special for a new addition to my TBR pile to leave the list almost as soon as it arrives there. Karly Kirkpatrick's The Green had just that.

Just read that blurb! How could anyone read that and not want to know more? I read this on my iPhone Kindle app and it only took me an evening. It was a quick and engaging read which is going to be a perfect eBook for the coming summer months when you're lounging on a beach somewhere, wanting a good story which isn't flimsy, but which also isn't going to give you a headache by being too challenging.

Ari, the first person narrator, was prone to speaking like a teenager might on Facebook, she had a thing for her best friend's guy and also used more than one exclamation mark at a time: all decidedly dislikeable traits! And yet she had gumption too. She was flawed, but show me a person who isn't. Show me a teenager who isn't and I'll double your money! No offence teens, but life's a learning curve and your part is steep.

Overall, a fantastic read which had me hooked. I'm so thrilled to be able to share a copy with one lucky winner, thanks to Karly's generous offer of a giveaway!