"When I'm not writing..." with Gina Damico + giveaway!

Today's guest is Gina Damico, author of CROAK and SCORCH, YA novels about a teenage reaper named Lex Bartleby. She's currently doing a real life blog tour around the eastern half of the United States (!) but she's graciously made time to join us in the virtual world to tell us what she does when she's not working on her next story.

Do you want to know what Gina does when she's not writing? Well then, you better stick around! And don't forget to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of SCORCH!

When I'm not writing, I'm keeping busy somehow or other, no matter what. If I'm not being productive in some way, I feel like a useless lump, and then I get cranky, and then I yell at my cat, and then the entire situation devolves into a feline staredown, and there's just no way I'm winning that.

So, productive it is. Here is a list of ways that I keep busy:

1. I market. Writing is fun and all, and I wish I could do it all the time, but these books have got to sell, sell, sell, baby. Or get checked out of the library, checked out of the library, checked out of the library, baby. However they're read, people aren't just going to wake up one day with the idea that they should read this book they've never heard of, and so it's (partially) my job to get the word out there about it. So I blog, I make swag, I do these lovely blog interviews. One of these days I'll get a sandwich board made and take to the streets.

2. I crochet or knit. Yes, I'm one of these nerds. I knit garments, and I crochet all sorts of things - including this little grim and other kinds of monsters and freaks of nature. You should see my yarn stash. It's embarrassing.

3. I travel. I'm writing this from a hotel room in Chicago, where I have stopped on my big Slapdash Road Trip Book Tour. I'm driving from Boston, MA to Austin, TX and then back again - in part to accomplish a bit of #1 - but mostly because I realized I'd never been on a road trip before and wanted to see some more of the country through the windows of a poo-colored rental car. So far I have determined that Ohio has a lot of farmland, Indiana has a lot of Amish, and hotels have a lot of crappy coffee that I will suck down regardless of their taste or ability to perk up.

4. I watch TV. A lot of it. Less than I used to, but still enough for me to feel guilty that I'm wasting my life away.

5. I deal with the puppy. My husband and I rescued a dog a few months ago, and he was only three months at the time, and HOO BOY puppies are a lot of work. I do a fair amount of following him around the house, hoping and praying that he's not going to start peeing everywhere. This, one might argue, is the least productive thing of anything on this list, and that would be correct. I can't tell you how many times this summer I've had to stop working on my third book just to get up, drag the dog outside, and lovingly coax some bodily fluid out him. Quite a talent, that.

Thanks for having me, and happy reaping reading!

---------------------------------

Thanks for visiting, Gina, and good luck on the book tour!

For more information about Gina and her books, check out her website or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

---------------------------------

Here's the scoop on SCORCH (coming October 25):

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby is a teenage grim reaper with the bizarre ability to Damn souls. That makes her pretty scary, even to fellow Grims. But after inadvertently transferring her ability to Zara, a murderous outlaw, Lex is a pariah in Croak, the little town she calls home. To escape the townspeople’s wrath, she and her friends embark on a wild road trip to DeMyse. Though this sparkling desert oasis is full of luxuries and amusements, it feels like a prison to Lex. Her best chance at escape would be to stop Zara once and for all—but how can she do that from DeMyse, where the Grims seem mysteriously oblivious to Zara’s killing spree?

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

You should also check out CROAK, the first book in the series:

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

Christine's thoughts

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

---------------------------------

Gina is generously offering one (1) lucky reader a signed copy of SCORCH!

To enter the giveaway, obey the Rafflecopter!

US only

Ends Monday, October 8, 2012

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---------------------------------

Do you guys have suggestions for who you’d like to see featured on the blog? If so, you can make your suggestions on this page. No guarantees that your favorite authors will be able to participate but we’ll try!

Authors, would you like to visit and share with us? Please email me at jennblogs (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll set it up!

Posted by jenn at 06:07

 Gina Damico, giveaway, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Reaper, When I'm not writing  26 People left their mark

Born and raised in the Toronto area, Jenn moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, eight years ago for school. She's still in school (thankfully on another degree!), now trapped in her dissertation. When she's not dissertating, which happens more often than it should, Jenn spends her time reading, watching movies, playing volleyball, travelling, and enjoying the local music scene. Her latest addictions: yoga and Almond Crunch cereal.