Emily White: Interview and Elemental ARC Giveaway

Welcome to the kickoff of the very first Spencer Hill Press Giveaway Week! For those of you that don't know about Spencer Hill Press, here's a little background. Spencer Hill Press is an independent publishing house that specializes in science fiction, paranormal romance and urban fantasy for the Young Adult audience. 

With a host of talented authors and dozens of fantastic titles under its belt, Spencer Hill Press has become a veritable powerhouse. And, as luck would have it, yours truly is hosting the fantastic crowd with a whole bunch of goodies for all of you! Be sure to follow the week (through Sunday), and check out the great features and giveaways!

Welcome, Emily White, author of Elemental! 

Find Emily: Blog. Facebook. Twitter.

1. Can you describe your perfect place/time to write?

Hmm...definitely on my living room love seat between 10:00 in the morning and 1:00 (that's when my kids are napping :) ). 

2. When did you decide that becoming an author was your goal, and why? 

I've played around with writing since elementary school. I have lots of loose sheets of paper lying around with unfinished stories on them (all of them written on my parents' old type writer--you know, the one that came in a big honking suitcase). But I don't think I really took it seriously until my second year of college. That's when I realized that, not only could I write for fun, but I could make it my career too. 

3. Why YA? 

For a long time, I didn't write YA. In fact, up until a couple years ago, I didn't even know a YA genre existed. I guess I was a lot more like boys growing up. I went right from MG to adult. The funny thing is, I did make some exceptions in my reading. I used to love the Sweet Valley High series, but I never really thought about it as belonging to the YA genre. But a couple years ago, I was in the middle of writing a book geared towards adults, feeling stuck and not knowing why, and I read Twilight and I literally had an epiphany moment. I can't even describe how blown away I was. Ever since, I've completely devoted my writing to YA and, out of everything I've read lately, this genre has taken up about 95% of it. I love the emotion involved in YA. Adult books have high stakes and great stories, too, but YA is about the character, the emotion, the soul deep down at the heart of the book. It makes you feel first love again. It gives you promises, and sometimes it rips them away. There's a newness to everything in the Young Adult genre, those earth-shattering first experiences you can't always get in Adult or even MG sometimes. 

4. How long did Elemental take to write, and was there anything crazy or special about the process?

ELEMENTAL went through a few phases and it took a little over 2 years to write. It was the book I'd been working on when I had my YA epiphany. So ELEMENTAL actually used to be Adult. It had a different name and everything. The Adult version took over a year to finish. And I didn't like it. I knew something was wrong. After the epiphany, I completely rewrote it in 3 months, and I changed the title. But other than that, there was nothing too crazy. I wish I could say I'm one of those authors who needs to travel the world to find inspiration (though maybe my husband would fall for that...hmmm... :) ). And I don't have any interesting quirks I have to go through to coax my muse out. I'm pretty boring. I just sit down and write. I will say, though, that at least one of the locations in ELEMENTAL was inspired by a country I'd been in during my deployment overseas. 

5. Describe Elemental in five words or less, please! 

Contain the monster within. 

6. Is there anything else you'd like to tell your readers? 

Just thanks for listening to my ramblings! And if you'd like to friend me on Facebook or stop by my blog, please do! I would be very honored. :)

Emily has graciously offered an ARC of Elemental, pictured to the left, as well as some sweet swag including a signed t-shirt, bookmarks AND a surprise prize! 

This giveaway is US & Canada ONLY, and it will end promptly at midnight EST on February 4, 2012. 

 As always, you do not have to be a follower to enter, but it is always appreciated! 

 Still want to enter? Click HERE to fill out the form!