About Joshilyn

Novels

Good Reads A Grown-up Kind of Pretty

Backseat Saints

gods in Alabama

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Between, Georgia

Calendar

May 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
«  
  »

3 Questions: Lydia Netzer (& a CONTEST to win the AUDIO BOOK!)

Monday, 23rd of July 2012 at 03:01:30 PM

Okay, I have a GREAT and entertaining interview with Lydia in a sec, but first…would you like to win a copy of the audiobook, which I read? I have THREE copies up for grabs this go round…

All you have to do is, HELP ME GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT THIS BOOK. A book from a previously unknown writer has about six weeks to catch on and find its place, and then BOOM, it is gone. We are about to head into the FIRST FULL WEEK of release. And let me tell you, this book deserves to find its place!

SO far so good – critical acclaim is spattered ALL over it. It’s gotten a rave in the NYT, been People Magazines BOOK OF THE WEEK in a 3.5 (out of 4 stars) review, is the Apple Store’s book of the week, an Indie Next Pick, the Amazon SPOTLIGHT Best Book for July, and been specially recommended in one form or another by Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, Audiofile and more…

Critical acclaim is GREAT, but MANY good books pass by under the radar in spite acclaim, and… we must NOT let that happen, not to this one. It’s too damn good.

You can enter up to FOUR TIMES. Here is how.

1) Leave a comment here promising you will tell someone you love about the book!

2) Mention the book and LINK to it on your blog, and leave a SEPARATE comment here saying you have done so.

3) Mention the book and LINK to it on facebook, and leave a SEPARATE comment here saying you have done so.

4) Mention the book and LINK to it on Twitter, and leave a SEPARATE comment here saying you have done so.

So yes, to enter 4 times you will have left 4 comments, and the NUMBERS of those comments will be your drawing numbers. Your links can lead to THIS PAGE for the contest, or anyplace that a person might buy the book. Here are some links to ;pages that are selling it:

Indiebound or Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million. or Audible dot com!

Write a tweet or FB post with one of those links, or for SUPER EASINESS, you could simply cut and paste one of the following—–both are 140 characters or less

Win SHINE SHINE SHINE, summer’s hottest read about what it means to be human, true love, marriage, murder, and robots http://www.joshilynjackson.com/ftk/?p=2113

Discover the enthralling story of one family finding out how beautiful it is to be different “Extraordinary” —NYT. http://www.lydianetzer.com/

And now, here is Lydia

JJ: What do you think of your cover and how does it compare to the cover you imagined when you were writing the book?

LN: I love my cover, but it is nothing like I imagined. I was very lucky in that my publisher didn’t listen to a single cover suggestion I made.

Early on in the book’s production, my editor invited me to put together some images, sort of an idea board that she might pass along to the cover designer. This was one of the most fun things about getting published — wandering through stock images on the internet and pulling together a virtual lightbox of ideas.

I had a lot of robot pictures, some blonde wig images. I shared them with you at the time, and as I recall you liked the brain made out of circuit board. This guy’s artwork just blew me away, and I linked to his whole web site. Looking at it in thumbnail form, the predominate color was orange. I waited for a glimpse of what the designer would come up with.

When it came, it came in the mail: a package with a mock up of the cover wrapped around someone else’s book, so I could see how it would look. It was absolutely nothing like I’d imagined, totally different from the images I sent, and I fell immediately and irreparably in love with it. Articulating exactly what I felt at the time, my eight-year-old daughter came toward it as if hypnotized, her hands outstretched, saying “Spaaaaarkly.”

The UK Cover

My cover designer is Rodrigo Corral, who also designed Chuck Pahlaniuk and Junot Diaz books, and he is a genius.

Months later, I saw the UK cover from Simon & Schuster. It’s completely different from the US cover, but totally enchanting and interesting in its own way! The color of the orange is Pantone 805, and I’m looking into getting my hair dyed that color. No, I’m kidding. Sort of. You know I’ve done stuff like that before. I might look awesome in nuclear salmon.

JJ: Of course you would. Can you talk a little about the significance of your title and how you came up with it?

LN: I am trying to remember the point where Shine Shine Shine went from a placeholder title that we all knew was going to change, to a permanent title that everyone agreed could stay. It’s inspired by a lot of things — a song by Carbon Leaf, a scene about Maxon imagining Sunny’s bald head as a light source, the behavior of the moon, the exhortation to be yourself, be weird and awesome and noticeable.

When I first wrote this story, it had the uninspiring title “Cul de Sac” and then I think “Baldy Goes to Burma” and we also considered “Until You Return From The Moon.” The final title was only final after the sales and marketing team at St. Martin’s confirmed they thought they could sell it, and early opinion-makers came back with the okay. I love the title because it’s quirky and memorable and sort of reminds me of an LED flashing on a robot. I like that it’s unpunctuated, urgent, and odd. I’m glad I got to keep it!

JJ: Who do you imagine as your ideal reader for Shine Shine Shine? Who should be reading this book?

LN: Well, of course everyone should be reading it, preferably holding one copy in each hand with another on order for backup. But I do like to imagine a reader for the book…

I imagine a mom reading this book in a stolen hour while she’s waiting for the kids at karate class. Maybe she’s sitting in her car with the book in her lap, feeling like crap because she forgot to pack a healthy snack for dance camp and had to buy a Lunchable instead, or because the dog barfed on the baseball pants and possible she’s the only one that can see the outline of the barf stain but she knows it’s there.
At some point in reading SHINE SHINE SHINE I hope she closes the book for a minute and says to herself, You know what, forget this elusive “Perfect Mom” measuring stick, and forget this comparing myself to everyone else. I’m a kick-ass mom, I own this job, and my kids are awesome.

I imagine a man reading this book on some high-tech device, who could get some satisfaction and encouragement from the fact that other people see human relationships as engineering problems, and don’t cry when people die, and count simple declarative sentences as poetry, and memorize what to say to their children.
I’d like that man to know that a scripted response counts as heartfelt, and that you can be a great dad and husband and still never really know what to say, or how to say it. I don’t know if this book will ever find that guy, but maybe it’ll find someone who knows him.

Share
July 23rd, 2012 | Category: 3 Questions, Contests

86 comments to 3 Questions: Lydia Netzer (& a CONTEST to win the AUDIO BOOK!)