Today is publication day for Laura Whitcomb and we will be giving away both of her latest books to one lucky winner!
Laura has an amazing imagination. I also like her writing instruction books for Writer’s Digest, Novel Shortcuts and Your First Novel written with her agent, Ann Rittenberg. If you like YA and any kind of supernatural writing, you really must check out Laura’s books. Please help me welcome Laura!
Introducing Laura Whitcomb
Laura Whitcomb is the author of the supernatural YA novels A Certain Slant of Light (a Discover Great New Authors pick at Barnes and Nobel) and its companion novel Under the Light (published May 14) as well as The Fetch (in the Top Ten YA books of 2009 by the Indy Next List.) She has also written two books on the craft of writing, Novel Shortcuts and Your First Novel which she co-authored with her literary agent, Ann Rittenberg. Laura’s fiction has been published in nine foreign languages, produced as audio books, and Slant is optioned for film by Summit Entertainment, the producers of the Twilight movies.
Laura grew up in a mildly haunted house, which may be why she writes about ghosts, death escorts, and (soon) fairies. She got her English degree from California State University at Northridge and taught Language Arts in California and Hawaii. She has won three Kay Snow writing awards and once was runner-up in the Bulwer-Lytton contest for the Best First Sentence of the Worst Science Fiction Novel Never Written.
She broke in as a professional novelist after writing twenty manuscripts over a period of twenty years. To keep her life interesting she works with the Portland Christmas Revels and sings madrigals with the Sherwood Renaissance Singers at fairs across Oregon and Washington. In August she will be teaching a workshop called “The Ten Day Revision” at the Willamette Writers conference. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon with her son.
Learn about Under The Light
Helen needed a body to be with her beloved. Jenny had to escape from hers before her spirit was broken. It was wicked, borrowing it, but love drives even the gentlest soul to desperate acts.
And Helen, who has returned to help Jenny, finds herself trapped, haunting the girl she wished to save. Jenny and Billy’s love story begins out-of-body and continues into the tumultuous realm of the living, where they are torn apart even as they slowly remember falling in love.
Learn about A Certain Slant Of Light
In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now.
And Helen — terrified, but intrigued — is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.
Here is an example fan trailer made for A Certain Slant Of Light.
I asked Laura three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:
1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?
Yes, self expression is important in my life. Absolutely. It’s what it’s all about.
2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?
Being a novelist and being a mom, the two jobs that take up most of my time, are all about self expression. Telling stories draws on my true self and beliefs, my most personal ideas and deepest emotions–it’s a big messy wonderful self expression circus. And being with my son, loving him, showing him what I find delightful in life, opening up to him every day my flawed self and yet saying by demonstration, “It’s okay to look up to me and be like me, because I survive life well and I’m a happy person who loves myself” . . . these things are all about self expression, too.
3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?
If you spend most of your time storytelling and learning all over again from a three-year-old how to live in The Now and to enjoy the wonder of simple things, you are rewarded with mountains of blessings. People who get and love what you write tell you why when they run into you at book events, or when they send emails or FB messages, or even when they send snail-mail letters, or fan-made videos. They give you a piece of themselves–they tell you the secret of what made them cry or why they fell in love with your fictional hero or which chapter was like a painful chapter of their own lives. Or if they’re fellow writers they’ll start up fabulous conversations with you over tea about how they struggled with the same bit of self expression you dealt with in your last draft. And if you walk around with your self expression set on “maximum silly” because of hanging out with a preschooler all the time, you become almost impossible to embarrass and people will let their hair down around you, even strangers, and give you wonderful gifts: smiles, shared jokes, spontaneous anecdotes, cool advice, and sudden inexplicable friendships.
And Now, Your Turn…
You remember how this works right?
Please read the complete rules at least once!
I ask you a question.
You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.
Please just respond once, even if you make a typo. 
Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).
Quickly, without censoring or over-thinking write your top five favorite movies of all time. Then pause, and look at the list. What are the themes? What do the themes mean in connection to you? Whatever you notice quickly counts.
Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.
Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!
And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.
View the complete list of authors and books.
View the giveaway Pinterest board.
