Interview and Giveaway with Author Sydney Salter!

Today, I'm excited to host an interview and signed book giveaway with Sydney Salter, the fabulous author of My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, Jungle Crossing, and (most recently) Swoon At Your Own Risk.Sydney and I share the same publishing house, and she was the first fellow author I contacted upon signing my publishing contract. Not only is she nice, funny and incredibly talented, her books are an absolute delight to read! Do you want to know the best part? One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Sydney's fabulously fun new book, Swoon At Your Own Risk! The entry details will follow this interview:

How would you sum up Swoon at Your Own Risk in one sentence?

After a junior year of dating disasters, Polly Martin has sworn off boys; now she’s just trying to survive her summer job at Wild Waves Water park (under the supervision of ex number three, Sawyer Holmes) and focus on herself for once.

If you could be any character from your book for a day, which one would you be and why?

I’d be Xander Cooper, mostly because I’ve always wanted to know how to skateboard, but my first attempt resulted in elbow scars, so I haven’t tried again. Plus, as a writer, I’d love to truly see things from a male perspective for a day.

What inspired you to give Polly, the main character of Swoon at Your Own Risk, a job at a water park?

Every summer I take my daughters to our local water park; I love watching the teen employees, all the crazy kids, and the distracted parents…and I suppose I’m one of those with all my people watching! I’ve always thought it would make a great setting/summer job for a story.

If you could ask Miss Swoon a question, what would it be and how do you think she'd answer?

Dear Miss Swoon,
I used to think that becoming a published author would make me feel so confident and secure. But now I’m worried about so much more: will my book get good reviews? How many copies will it sell? Will people like my next story, too? It’s so much more complicated than I expected. How do I cope?
–Obsessing Author

Dear Author,
Just write! Ignore all the stuff you can’t control and focus on writing the next story. Isn’t that why you started doing this in the first place?
–Miss Swoon

Polly has a bunch of ex-boyfriends in this novel. Do you have a funny or interesting breakup story of your own to share?

I married my first boyfriend! I haven’t experienced an official boyfriend breakup, but I’ve been hurt by crushes gone wrong, lost friendships, and the end of professional relationships. I tapped into those emotions while writing Swoon At Your Own Risk.

What's your best advice for writers wanting to get published?

Write the next novel, and the next one after that—you never know which one will sell first, and each new story will teach you something that you can apply to earlier manuscripts. (BTW, I sold my fourth manuscript first, my seventh manuscript second, and first manuscript third.)

Thanks so much for the enjoyable interview, Sydney! For more information about Sydney and her books, be sure to check out her AUTHOR WEBSITE and BLOG.



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SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK Signed Book Giveaway Entry Details:
1) You must be a follower of my blog for a chance to win.
2) You will be entered once by reading and commenting on this post.
3) You will receive an extra entry by adding what (or who) makes you SWOON in your comment.
4) You will also receive an extra entry for each online shout-out you give about this giveaway (tweet on twitter and/or blog about it). Be sure to leave links to your shout-out(s) in the comment section of this post.

***That means you have the chance to be entered up to four times in the random drawing, increasing your odds of winning. The lucky winner will be chosen at random from all the entries I receive and will be announced next Friday (June 11th). Good luck!***

This contest is open to international entrants.