Monday, May 05, 2014

Author Interview: Mary Elizabeth Summer: Trust Me, I am Lying



About your education

·  I went to Wells College and got a Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. I think my education played a pivotal role in getting me prepared to take the first steps toward becoming a published author. 

What career did you plan during your education days

·  I started out thinking I was going to become a mechanical engineer. I took one course in college-level physics, and that was enough to convince me that the sciences were never going to be my strength. So I returned to my first love--writing. Language and communication have always come really easily to me, so it was a natural fit. I just needed to stop resisting it. 

What is your favorite genre and why?

·  I write mystery for young adults. I read tons of mystery during my formative years, and the twisty path that truth often takes still fascinates me today. Those stories I read as a teen solidified my addiction to books. Someday I hope to write a story that hooks kids into reading the way the books I read at that age hooked me.

When did you start writing? What is the purpose of your writing?

·  I started writing at an early age, but nothing extensive. Just short, mostly derivative stories. After college, I dithered for awhile, getting distracted by life. But in 2005, I attempted (and successfully completed) November's National Novel Writing Month challenge. That experience changed my whole outlook on writing. It showed me that I could actually finish a not-too-awful novel in a few months. Since then, I've been working more steadily toward the goal of getting published. I wrote two other books after that first novel before writing the novel that got published. (If you're counting, that's novel number four.)

The purpose of my writing is to entertain, though at the heart of what I write are a set of themes that I seem to be working through in my own life: perseverance, meaning of family, sacrifice, and the nature of good and evil.


Which of your work has been published so far? Would you like to share a synopsis of your work?

·  My debut novel TRUST ME, I'M LYING is coming out from Delacorte Press in October 2014. It's about a teenage con artist whose father is abducted. She has to follow a trail of clues her father left her, dodging deadly hitmen and the meddling dean of students, while using every grift in the book to find him, before his mark finds her.


What are your forthcoming writings?

·  TRUST ME, I'M LYING is the first in a trilogy. I'm editing the second book now, and then I'll jump right into writing the third. There's also going to be an e-novella between the first and the second book in the series. After all that, I have two other works-in-progress going--one about an evil reform school and another super secret project I'm keeping under wraps for the moment. 

Is high level of imagination important to have for an Author?

·  Yes. But even more important is easy access to the Internet. Wikipedia, Google image search, and Pinterest will fill in more details than your imagination ever could. You do have to imagine the scenarios first, of course, but the inspiration and description and explanation you get from digging through the Internet is priceless. 

Your zodiac/ sunsign?

·  I'm a Sagittarius--both sun sign and moon sign. Double Sagittarius! Double the foot-in-mouth moments! But my rising sign is Virgo, which totally explains my obsessive alphabetizing. 

Your favorite color and why?

·  Purple. Because it's the best. :-) 

State your signature line/ tagline/ best quote

·  Know Thyself. (inscribed on the Greek Temple at Delphi) 

Links: 
Website: www.mesummer.com 
Twitter handle: @mesummerbooks

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