Interview with YA author Jo Ramsey

Reviews and Interviews is a Goddess Fish VBT stop today for YA author Jo Ramsey as she promotes her newest novel Reality Shift 3: Cutting Cords. Details on how to enter a drawing for a chance to win a copy of this novel are below.

Welcome, Jo! Please tell us about your current release.
Cutting Cords is the third book in my Reality Shift series. Shanna Bailey’s home life, which is already bad because of the way her mother treats her, takes a turn for the worse when her father moves out. Fortunately, Shanna has her best friend Jonah Leighton to help her cope. Shanna has begun to rely on Jonah a lot, but when her friend Tammi asks for help dealing with an entity that claims to be Tammi’s guide, Shanna has to go it alone. Tammi doesn’t trust Jonah and won’t accept his help. The problem is, Shanna isn’t sure she trusts herself enough to help her friend.

What inspired you to write this book?
The entire series was inspired by events in my life, and the friendship between Jonah and Shanna is based on a friendship I had a few years ago. And then I threw in demons and malevolent dead spirits to make it interesting.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I just finished the first draft of a new YA contemporary novel about a boy whose mother abandons the family when she can no longer handle taking care of the boy’s autistic younger sister. I also just finished edits on Reality Shift 4 and submitted the second book in my new series, The Dark Lines. (Book 1 in that series is due out in May.)

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve always considered myself a writer, but I didn’t consider myself an author until I signed my first publishing contract.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I work part-time for my father-in-law in the office of the marine towing company he owns. But I would say I write full-time, because between writing and promoting I put in 30-40 hours a week. My writing work day is not structured enough for me to describe, though.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I have to have everything in sight. Writing notes, research notes, goals, all of it is typed up, printed out, and hung on the wall around my desk. Otherwise I not only can’t remember the information, but sometimes I can’t remember where I’ve put it.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer. I started writing when I was five, but I was making up stories long before that. I learned to read when I was about two-and-a-half, and from that point on I knew I wanted to see my stories in books like the ones I read.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to drop me a line on my website, follow me on Twitter, or friend me on Facebook. There’s also a Reality Shift group on Facebook that readers are welcome to join. My publisher and I post occasional updates about the series there, and sometimes I have a group-only contest.

Jo Ramsey is a former special education teacher who started writing when she was five years old. Through middle school, high school, and college, she wrote about twenty manuscripts, all longhand in spiral notebooks which now live in the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet. Jo’s favorite genre to write and to read is urban fantasy. Her Reality Shift and Dark Lines series are being published by Jupiter Storm, and she recently signed a contract for a YA contemporary with Featherweight Publishing. Jo lives in Massachusetts with her two daughters, her husband, and two cats, one of whom occasionally tries to help her type.

Remember to check out the full schedule of tour dates for Jo's blog tour and leave a comment for a chance to win an autographed print ARC (advanced review copy) of Cutting Cords.