Interview with YA suspense author Liza O'Connor

Liza O’Connor is here to tell us a bit about her new YA suspense novel Saving Casey.

Liza will award a $25 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. A random commenter at this blog stop will receive tattoos like Casey’s on a jpg picture supplied by winner. For more chances to win other gifts (different gifts offered at different stops), visit Liza's other tour stops and leave comments.

Bio:

Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog, Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet, or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

Welcome, Liza. Please tell us about your current release.

Having been diagnosed with cancer, Cass Goldman decides to opt out of any futile medical care and end her life. While she has some thoughts on afterlife, she never expects to reincarnate into the body of a seventeen-year-old girl named Casey Davidson.

When she awakens in a hospital, Cass discovers two disturbing facts: One, she is now inside the body of a troubled teenager, and two, the former owner of this body committed suicide, but only Cass knows that. Everyone else believes Casey has survived, but suffered a complete memory loss. Cass has two choices: to take on Casey’s life and turn it around, or to confess the truth about her reincarnation and end up in a mental asylum. Given this second chance to life, Cass decides to take on the future life of Casey—the frightening ghoul-faced teen with short, black, spiky hair.

Every person around Cass has an ulterior motive and discovering the truth of Old Casey’s life is more complicated than the “new math” she is forced to learn in school. In addition, Cass has to contend with raging teenage hormones and the prior crimes of Old Casey, which she might not remember, but everyone else certainly does. However, her biggest frustration concerns her feelings for her father’s rugged security specialist who sees her only as a teenager and doesn’t want to explore the mutual attraction between them.

As determined as Cass is to turn this life around, Old Casey’s enemies are just as determined to end her life. She has no idea whom she can trust, but she knows she’ll never survive going it alone.

What inspired you to write this book?

When watching my friends teens struggle, I wondered if they were simply deaf to parental advice or our life experiences can’t help them with their problems. So I took an 80-year-old woman, full of life experience, and dumped her in the body of troubled seventeen-year-old teen to see if life experience helps. Turns out she struggles as much as the prior teen.

Excerpt:

Upon settling down on the toilet, Cass noticed the floor to ceiling mirror facing her and screamed at the sight of the creature within it. Short black hair spouted about its head, black circles surrounded both eyes and fell like triangular knives down the cheeks. Black lips, stretched in horror as if in a nightmare. Pulling up her pants, she moved closer to the mirror.

She was a ghoul, an honest to God ghoul!

The door crashed open and her father stared at her, fear and panic clear in his eyes.

She touched her face. “Please tell me these aren’t permanent.”

His panic remained a second longer as her words filtered into his brain and then he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, we will get them removed—if you want to…”

“If? Oh, I definitely want them removed,” she said.

How can I turn around my life if I look like the walking dead from a low-grade monster movie?

What exciting story are you working on next?

Actually, I’m working on three wonderful stories.

Worst Week Ever is a New Adult humorous sweet romance between a middle-class young woman and her billionaire boss. The story covers a week of non-stop disasters and misunderstandings.

The Ghostlover is a New Adult double sweet romance that begins with a tangled mess requiring a lascivious ancestral ghost to intervene before the family line ends forever.

And

Déjà Vu Déjà Adore. A paranormal romance in which only in death can love blossom.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Long before I should have. However, thinking I was a writer, meant I kept honing my profession, and eventually reality met up with my early delusions.

Do you write full-time?

For the last eight years, I have been writing full-time. Since I became published in 2012, my days are scheduled by the hour to ensure I get everything done. In the morning, I hike with my dog Jess. The rest of my day is split between Email, Marketing, Blogging, Promoting and Writing. In the afternoon my dog and I take an hour walk. Then I’ll work on various publishing/writing objectives until midnight.

Since as writers, we sit an excessive amount of the day, it is vital to get daily exercise. So make sure that gets in your schedule.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My stories are unpredictable. Truth is, sometimes, I don’t even know where they are going. My muse is mysterious and creative.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I think like most children, I was all over the place with careers. I remember wishing to be an actress, a musician, a singer, a lawyer, and a veterinarian. So when I grew up, I ended up working on Wall Street for the meanest man in the entire world.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Never take a job with anyone commonly referred to as the meanest man in the world. Life is too short to be daily tortured. But if you do, be warned, they will throw things when you finally come to your senses and quit. So wear a helmet if you resign in person. Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I’d slip a note under the door and run like hell.

If you would like to have a tattoo imprinted on a picture of yourself, then leave a comment saying TATTOO MY FACE PLEASE and your e-mail address. I will select one lucky person to imprint tats and let you know.

And a special note: Saving Casey will be reduced from $5.99 to $2.99 for the duration of the tour (March 5th-April 11th) at Amazon, B&N, DP/Bono, ARe, Coffee Time Romance, BookStrand, and Smashwords.

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Bono Books | Amazon  | Barnes and Noble