Interview With Katelyn Schneider (Teenage Author of Tweaked)

(www.goodreads.com Katelyn Schneider)

Today I had the chance to interview teenage author, Katelyn Schneider. She published her first novel Tweaked at 13. When Books4Girls Blog found out about Tweaked and its author, we found her fanpage and asked if we could interview her. Ms. Schneider has been kind enough to answer our questions. :)
First though, here is a brief description of Tweaked (from Amazon.com).

(click to enlarge)

I didn't hear a vehicle pull up, but when I turned around, there was a white Toyota Sequoia parked on the curb behind me. As I turned to continue down the sidewalk, I saw a man blocking my path. His eyes were so intent on me I had to hold back a shiver. "Hello," he greeted me. "Hi," I said dismissively as I walked past him. He put his arm out to keep me from going any farther. "My name is Felix Garrickson," he said, as if waiting for me to be afraid. "Hi," I repeated. He still wouldn't let me past him. "That name doesn't ring a bell?" he pressed. "No, sorry," I mumbled, again attempting to get around him, to no avail. "I guess daddy was going to try and protect his little girl." He chuckled. It was a dark and evil sound. Now my fear was coming back. I remembered what my father had said last night, about how dangerous it was for me to know what his job was. As he reached to grab me, I threw out my fist, but he neatly dodged it. I began sprinting in the direction of my car. He ran after me. This was just like my nightmare. Felix was faster than me. He caught up to me and grabbed me from behind. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out. I felt something prick my leg, and it reminded me of getting a shot at the doctor's office. As soon as it came into contact with my skin, I became immobilized. The last thing I remember before blacking out was him carrying my limp body back to his Sequoia.

Interview:

Books4Girls: Can you please tell us about Tweaked? What was your inspiration?

KS: Tweaked is the story of a teenage girl named Mickey who has spent her entire life not knowing what her father's job is, only that it requires them to be moving from city to city almost constantly. Ironically enough, the day after Mickey's father finally trusts her enough to tell her what his job is, she is kidnapped by a convicted (and escaped) psychopath, intent on getting revenge on Mickey's father. In 220 pages, Tweaked will take you all over the country in a wild attempt to get Mickey back home. Tweaked is classified as a YA adventure romance, and was published in December 2010 by Inkwater Press. I was thirteen when I wrote it, fourteen when the publishing process began, and days away from turning fifteen when it came out. I got the idea for the scene in the lunchroom, the first time Mickey saw Rod since they were little, while I was on my way to my grandparents' house for Easter. I started thinking about how they got to that point and why they were being reunited, then just went from there, thinking about it as I went along. My inspirations came from lots of places; my friends, my family, music...everything helped.

Books4Girls: How long did it take you to write Tweaked?
KS: It only took me about three months. I never left the computer.

Books4Girls: What is your favorite book?
KS: My favorite book would probably have to be STAY by Deb Caletti. I actually had the pleasure of meeting her in person over the summer at a writer's conference; she recognized me off of Facebook, so I had a little bit of a fangirl moment. It was great.

Books4Girls: I read that you are currently working on another novel. Could you tell us about that?
KS: I'm working on several novels right now, actually. But I'm trying to focus the most on DESIRES. It's the second book of a trilogy; I've already finished the first, SECRETS. Fatherless, nearly friendless, and confined to repeating the same boring routine every day, seventeen-year-old Victoria Laine is just living to get by. There is never anything exciting, never anything new. Just the same old thing, every day: get up, go to school, come home, do homework, go to sleep, and then do it all over again. So Victoria can't help but be curious when something new is thrown into the mix: Nick Avery, a boy with silver eyes whose obsession with isolation makes Victoria want to figure out exactly what he's trying to hide. What if there has always been more to this life, but humanity is too blind to realize what possibilities are right in front of them? What if Victoria has been living in this secret world her entire life without ever knowing it existed? What if she is more than what she seems? Not like any of the other paranormal fantasies on the shelves, Secrets introduces a new kind of mythical being who are committed to protecting humans from another species called Valkyrie that humans don't know exist but that stalk them in the shadows and hunt them like prey. Victoria realizes she has more in common with Nick than she had originally thought, and she discovers that trying to figure out everything about someone else is the key to finding out who she really is and unlocking a future she had never thought possible. And now she is being forced away from the ignorant way human life and into a life that holds so much more excitement, so much more pain, and so many more secrets.

Books4Girls: What advice would you give to aspiring teenage authors?
KS: The best piece of advice I can offer is to just keep going. Don't give up because you're "too young" or because you feel like you're an "amateur." When it comes to writing, there's no such thing. If it's a good story, and you tell it well, that's that. Experience, age, a big name...none of that matters as long as people want to read your story. So just write. Don't compare it to other authors' work, don't beat yourself up about it and try to make it perfect your first time through. Just write it, and THEN go through it and fix all the little things. Then put it away for a month, and do it again. Re-read it, edit it, rewrite it even. Then put it away for another two months, and re-read it twice, fixing things or adding to it as you go. And if you're wanting it to be published, don't give up just because you might get a few rejection letters. I've gotten eight rejection letters for SECRETS already, but I'm still continuing to submit it to agents. So, whatever you do, don't give up on your writing and never think that, just because your book isn't as popular as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, it isn't good. Because just being able to finish a book is brilliant.

Thanks to Katelyn for the amazing interview.
To buy Tweaked you can click HERE. Our book review is coming soon but for now you can check out Tweaked's Goodreads reviews: Goodreads
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-Cimmy