Want Blog Tour: Author Interview

Hello book lovers!  Today I am particiating in the Want Blog Tour!  I'm super-excited to share it with all of you.  Today I just have an author interview for you but I hope that's okay! :)

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Julianne counts the days until she can pack her bags and leave her old-money, tradition-bound Southern town where appearance is everything and secrecy is a way of life. A piano virtuoso, she dreams of attending a prestigious music school in Boston. Failure is not an option, so she enlists the help of New England Conservatory graduate Isaac Laroche.

Julianne can’t understand why Isaac suddenly gave up Boston’s music scene to return to the South. He doesn’t know her life depends on escaping it before she inherits her mother’s madness. Isaac knows he must resist his attraction to a student ten years his junior, but loneliness and jealousy threaten his resolve.

Their indiscretion at a Mardi Gras ball—the pinnacle event for Mobile’s elite—forces their present wants and needs to collide with sins of the past.

Will Julianne accept the help she’s offered and get everything she ever wanted, or will she self-destruct and take Isaac down with her?

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After collecting a couple English degrees in the Midwest, Stephanie Lawton suddenly awoke in the deepest reaches of the Deep South. Culture shock inspired her to write about Mobile, Alabama, her adopted city, and all the ways Southern culture, history and attitudes seduce the unsuspecting.

A lover of all things gothic, she can often be spotted photographing old cemeteries, historic buildings and, ironically, the beautiful beaches of the Gulf Coast. She also has a tendency to psychoanalyze people, which comes in handy when creating character profiles.

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~Author Interview~

1. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I can sneeze eighteen times in a row; I'm allergic to sodium lauryl sulfate, a foaming agent in soaps, shampoos and toothpastes; I made out in a hotel room in England when I was 18; I've been skydiving; I have a small tattoo (my dad still doesn't know about it!); Disney movies with dogs make me cry; I hate airports and stinging insects; my favorite color is periwinkle blue; I love to make people laugh; and I once dated three Jasons in the same week. (I married the second one!)  

2. Why did you become a writer?

Books have always been my biggest love. I was just waiting for a story to come along, and moving from Ohio to the Gulf Coast kicked that into high gear! I think it was culture shock that made me finally begin putting words on the screen. Before that, I'd only done nonfiction writing (academic, TV news, newspaper copyediting, blogging, etc.).

3. Who were your biggest influences?

In general, my biggest influences are/were my mom and grandmother. In writing, I adore Jane Austen, Cassandra Clare, Maggie Stiefvater, Jennifer Donnelly, and the late L.K. Madigan.

4. Where and how did you get the idea for Want?

I got the idea at a Mardi Gras parade in Mobile, Alabama, for one of the oldest, most elite mystic socities. One of the members' wives was standing next to us in her full fur coat (it does NOT get cold enough down here to warrant a fur coat!) and heels and pearls and she made sure everyone around her knew that we were commoners compared to her. She was very rude and it made me wonder what it must be like to live that kind of life with all those pretenses. I wondered if she had any kids, because I would feel sorry for them. And that's when Juli started talking in my head. :)

5. What is the craziest thing you've done while researching a book?

I haven't really done anything crazy ... yet. :) I've visited locations (museums, the Mobile Symphony, etc.) and taken lots of pictures, searched through online archives and even grilled people who've been to Mardi Gras balls, but nothing illegal. I do plan to go on an actual ghost hunt, though, and I was recently "read" by a psychic. This summer I plan to dive into the world of homesteading for research.

6. What's your favorite food?

My mom's homemade stromboli. No one in the South knows what that is!

7. Favorite movie?

I have three and they couldn't be more different: Fight Club, Pride and Prejudice (2005), and Sixteen Candles. I can quote almost all of them!

8. Favorite season?

Unfortunately, we don't really have seasons on the Gulf Coast (hot, hotter, and OMG-someone-shoot-me-now), but autumn in Ohio is my absolute favorite. I love the crispness and the smell of falling leaves.

9. Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Both and neither. I really couldn't make up my mind, though I agree with Katnis's reasoning at the end for why she chose who she chose. I think the other one (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here!) was more of a brother.

10.  Is there another book in the works?  If so, what can we expect?
I have a full manuscript that I'm currently querying. It's a fast-faced Southern ghost story set in modern times at a real antebellum mansion here in Mobile, Alabama. It's very different from Want, and would probably be a hit with fans of FX's "American Horror Story." I'm just starting a third manuscript.

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Isn't she so much fun?!  I literally laughed out loud when I read her answers to the questions.  Seriously, I love it when authors are funny!  Thanks for hanging out with  me today Stephanie Lawton!  It was soooo fun!!  And I hope all my readers enjoyed it too!  Oh, and btw, I LOVE COMMENTS *hint**hint*