Okay, you guys know I get very excited about cornering authors for these interviews. Today is a treat because I bring you a cornered author interview with JACKIE YEAGER who interviewed me on her blog last year. Her Middle Grade book SPIN THE GOLDEN LIGHTBULB releases January 9th, 2018, you won't want to miss book one in THE CRIMSON FIVE series.
Here is a short blurb:
The year is 2071.
Kia Krumpet is eleven years old.
She bites her nails (a lot) and flies an aero-scooter.
And she dreams of building her sixty-seven inventions at PIPS, the Piedmont Inventor's Prep School.
The event is the Piedmont Challenge.
A challenge in which all 6th grade students solve a series of tasks.
The winners compete in teams to earn a place at PIPS, a place where they can let their imaginations and creativity run free.
The rest are forced to study only one school category for all of 7th and 8th grade.
(That’s two whole years!)
The place is Camp Piedmont.
The coolest and most innovative camp around. But in a world full of floating playgrounds, switching bunk beds,
and robotic monkey assistants, there’s more at stake than solving a task, creating an invention, or winning a Golden Light Bulb…and only one team with the courage to figure out what that is.
Meet The Crimson Five.
Because sometimes it takes a friend (or four) to help make your dreams come true.
Are you as excited as I....uh, I mean my kids, yeah, the kids... are for this SPIN THE GOLDEN LIGHTBULB to come out? It's available for preorder now!
Amazon:
Barnes & Noble:
IndieBound:
Just in case you're not excited enough, check out this awesome book trailer on Jackie's page:
Jackie Yeager is a middle grade author whose stories inspire children to think more, work hard, and dream big. She holds a Master’s degree in Education and spent several years coaching Odyssey of the Mind, where her team once-upon-a-time competed at the World Finals. She lives in Rochester, NY with her real life prince charming and two royally amazing teens. When she’s not writing imaginative middle grade fiction or living in her own fairly-tale world, she can be found conducting creative problem solving/writing workshops for kids and blogging at www.swirlandspark.com.
Find her on Social Media:
Twitter: @JackieYeager
Instagram: jackie_yeager
Facebook: Author Page of Jackie Yeager
Me: Jackie, thank you so much for letting me corner you today.
Jackie: Thank you so much for having me on your blog. I love reading your Cornered Author interviews, so being one of them now myself, is so fun!
Me: I'm glad to get to feature you. Let's kick this off learning more about your title, you have my full attention with just the words Golden Lightbulb, tell me more.
Jackie: Without giving too much of the story away, the title comes from a key invention in the book. I had played with several titles before deciding on this one and most of them had to do with the five prominent characters as a group. Even though the story is told in first person by Kia Krumpet, one of those five characters, it follows the adventure of all of them as a team. A few early versions were The Crimson Five at Camp Piedmont and The Crimson Five Spin the Golden Light Bulb. Finally, I settled on THE CRIMSON FIVE as a series title and Spin the Golden Light Bulb became the book title.
Me: Oh, you're killing me with teasers over here. LOL. Fine, I'll wait a few more weeks to find out. Speaking of time, how long did it take you to complete this project?
Jackie: It took me about a year to solidify my ideas for Spin the Golden Light Bulb, and two years after that to draft and revise it. I continued to revise it even while I queried it also because even though it was polished, I never felt like it was perfect. So during my year of on and off querying, I continued to revise it further. It was like an endless saga of polishing up this story! The time from idea to offer of representation was four years. I made minor edits with my agent, Rebecca Angus right before it went out on sub and then I completed two rounds of revisions with my editor, Jenny Miller over the course of a few months as well. So, I’ve spent a long time on this book to make it as strong and sparkly as I can!
Me: Tell me about it, does any book ever really feel done when you could just tweak that one chapter again. How did your process for this book differ from other projects?
Jackie: My process was pretty much like it is for every book I write. I started drafting SPIN THE GOLDEN LIGHT BULB in 2012 and it took a really long time! I tend to revise as I draft, which is not always the best way to get a story out of your head. But I needed to be sure the story was making sense and coming to life the way I envisioned it before I could move on to the next scene. Even though I revised as I wrote though, the story really became what I hoped it would be during revisions, after my critique partners gave me their feedback. I definitely needed their objective input! My CP’s are like gold to me and none of my stories would be half as strong without their feedback. Plus, CP’s make the whole process more fun. I mean, who else understands your story and your characters as much as you do? So really, the voice, the characters, the details in this book—all came to life well after I originally wrote the ending scene.
Me: CPs are life's breathe in this business. I know exactly where you're coming from there. Okay, let's have some fun. What part of your life would your characters be shocked to find out about their author?
Jackie: Hmm, I’m pretty much an open book, but they may be surprised to know that every single one of the inventions in their story is something that I wish I had invented myself. I spend way too much time thinking up ideas for the next big thing! The problem is that I have no idea how to bring my ideas to life. So I guess this book is my way of turning my ideas into a reality—at least in someone’s world!
Me: I love that. You found a way to make it happen. Okay, I love food, something that I find is a pretty universal thing among writers. What is your favorite writing snack?
Jackie: The one I want to eat or the one I do? If I could eat anything while I write it would be snicker doodle cookies, Snickers, M &M’s, Swiss Cake Rolls, or donuts—or all of them! I have a giant sweet tooth. But I don’t actually eat anything while I write. I drink vanilla flavored coffee with gobs of sweet cream creamer instead…or spiced chai lattes. Those are my go-to writing drinks.
Me: And now I'm hungry for all kinds of things that aren't lunch. I think I need to go get about ten snacks. But first, lets finish off today with your favorite bit of writing advice that you would give to yourself if you traveled back in time.
Jackie: I definitely would not tell myself that it would take me 10 years to get my first book published. I may have been completely discouraged. But I would tell myself to enjoy the process, take more deep breaths, and have faith that things in life happen at the exact time they are meant to. Oh, and I would definitely tell myself to trust my own writing voice. It took me a long time to figure out what mine was when in reality, if I had just written the way I felt and talked for a bit, I think my voice would have appeared much sooner!
Me: That is beautiful advice! Thank you so much again for letting me corner you today Jackie. I look forward to release day in January!