Authors ARE Rockstars Tour: Guest Post by Gretchen McNeil & Giveaway

Today I have a guest post and a giveaway from Gretchen McNeil for this stop on the Authors ARE Rockstars tour, and I'm very excited to have her here as a guest! 

When I first read Gretchen McNeil's debut novel POSSESS, I knew immediately that Gretchen was a rockstar. She managed to write a novel filled with all the elements I love in a story: family, friends, sarcastic narrators, creepy talking dolls (okay, I don’t love this, but it freaked me out so that’s a bonus), diverse characters, sweet guys, and a captivating mystery. Gretchen McNeil is also a total rockstar because she sings with a circus troupe called Cirque Berzerk. How cool is that?  Plus, anyone that can take the song Ice Ice Baby and sing it in an opera style is a rockstar in my mind.  

"Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown.  Her YA horror POSSESS debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011.  Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – will be released September 18, 2012, and her third novel 3:59, sci fi horror pitched as The Parent Trap meets Event Horizon, is scheduled for Fall 2013.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk.  Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as 'Monday.'"

TEN by Gretchen McNeil
Releases September 18th, 2012
Balzer + Bray

And their doom comes swiftly.

"It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives – three days on Henry Island at an exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for wanting to be there, both of which involve Kamiak High’s most eligible bachelor, T.J. Fletcher. But what starts out as a fun-filled weekend turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly, people are dying and the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?" 

Top Ten Things You DON'T Know About My Books

by Gretchen McNeil

1.  While most people know that POSSESS was not the first book I wrote (there's a YA urban fantasy set in Ireland that my agent signed me for) most people don't know that the first book I wrote was actually and adult chick lit book called O'DONNELL WITH TWO L'S.  Also partially set in Ireland.  Go figure.

2.  There is also a shelved YA historical spy adventure novel with pirates and cross-dressing girl spies and a hot, hot Navy lieutenant that's just sitting in a drawer somewhere, waiting to see the light of day.  It's my pet project.

3.  POSSESS was originally titled BANISH.

4.  TEN is an homage to two of my favorite authors of all time – Agatha Christie and Christopher Pike.

5.  When I found out that Christopher Pike was going to blurb TEN, I cried.  True story, I read the email from Mr. Pike and burst into tears.  My boyfriend asked why and I explained that I was reading an email from the Christopher Pike.  His response?  "Why is the Captain of the Enterprise emailing you?"  Tears quickly turned to laughter.

6.  TEN is dedicated to the memory of the mother of a dear friend.  I was flying from LA to San Francisco for her memorial service the day I got the call from my agent that my publisher wanted to sign me up for more books.  It seemed appropriate.

7.  The idea for 3:59 came while I was waiting at a stoplight on my way home from my day job and had a weird doppelganger experience.  By the time I pulled into my driveway, I'd formulated a rough sketch of the plot.

8.  There are two significant surnames in TEN.  Pritchard (a nod to Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson) and Fletcher (from Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote.)

9.  I've always hated my first name. When I was in the second grade, we did a project about other names our parents were considering.  My mom told me that they'd almost named me Bridget.  The next day I started telling people to call me Bridget.  The teacher had to call my mom to clarify, whereupon my mom sat me down and explained that once I was 18 I was welcome to change my name to whatever I wanted, but until then I would be Gretchen.

10.  I pitched my next two books as Revenge meets The Breakfast Club.  Look for the first in 2014…

Thank you for the fascinating guest post, Gretchen! Gretchen's also sponsoring a giveaway for one paperback copy of POSSESS (US ONLY), so enter using the Rafflecopter below: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway