GCC Interview with Caridad Ferrer
About the Book:
A dancer driven to succeed.
A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.
The summer they share.
And the moment it all goes wrong.
Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.
But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.
About the Author:
Caridad Ferrer is a first generation, bilingual Cuban-American, whose young adult debut, Adiós to My Old Life won the Romance Writers of America’s 2007 RITA® for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance as well as being named to the 2009 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list, awarded by the ALA. Her second novel, It’s Not About the Accent was released in 2007 with Publisher’s Weekly stating, “…this twisting book amply rewards readers.”
She has also contributed to the anthology, Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles, and Other Quinceañera Stories. Her newest young adult novel, When the Stars Go Blue, is a contemporary retelling of Bizet’s Carmen, and will be released by Thomas Dunne Books in November 2010. Booklist calls it, “Beautifully written, with contemporary characters and an engaging story line.
Your novel in 140 characters (Twitter-version):
A contemp. interpretation of Bizet's opera Carmen, w/a dancer, musician, & soccer player, in a love triangle marked by passion & betrayal.
If you could be any kind of dairy product, what would you be?
Roaring Forties blue cheese because it's from sweet, smooth, sharp, and strong, all at once.
What about your main character(s) and why?
Hm. Soledad would be Greek yogurt because it's substantial and strong, yet smooth and soothing; Jonathan would be a cheesecake, because it can be both strong, yet fragile, and Taz would definitely be a rich, smooth dark chocolate dusted with sea salt because it's exotic and speaks of faraway places.
Do you think in themes? If so, what’s the theme of your new novel?
I do-- if I had to summarize STARS as a theme, it would be that of dreams-- those you consciously have and those of which you're unaware until they happen to you. Dreams without a name, I suppose.
What piece of fiction or non-fiction did you not write but wish you had?
HEARTBREAK HOTEL by Anne Rivers Siddons which I discovered at the age of fourteen in my junior high's library. It's a magnificent setting (1956 Alabama, just as the Civil Rights Movement is getting underway), with a wonderful lead character in Maggie, a properly bred southern belle who's nevertheless restless and knows there's something more, even though she's not consciously aware of it for much of the book. On top of that, the language is just beautiful and evocative and I think was the book that made me really WANT to be a writer, even though I'd been writing and journaling my entire life.
Do you want to pimp any contests or other guest appearances here?
On the 1st of December I'll be blogging at the new group YA blog of which I'm part, YA OUTSIDE THE LINES and I'll be giving away a signed copy of STARS and a t-shirt that's a copy of one that plays a part in the book. (http://yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com/)
A dancer driven to succeed.
A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.
The summer they share.
And the moment it all goes wrong.
Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.
But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.
About the Author:
Caridad Ferrer is a first generation, bilingual Cuban-American, whose young adult debut, Adiós to My Old Life won the Romance Writers of America’s 2007 RITA® for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance as well as being named to the 2009 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list, awarded by the ALA. Her second novel, It’s Not About the Accent was released in 2007 with Publisher’s Weekly stating, “…this twisting book amply rewards readers.”
She has also contributed to the anthology, Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles, and Other Quinceañera Stories. Her newest young adult novel, When the Stars Go Blue, is a contemporary retelling of Bizet’s Carmen, and will be released by Thomas Dunne Books in November 2010. Booklist calls it, “Beautifully written, with contemporary characters and an engaging story line.
Your novel in 140 characters (Twitter-version):
A contemp. interpretation of Bizet's opera Carmen, w/a dancer, musician, & soccer player, in a love triangle marked by passion & betrayal.
If you could be any kind of dairy product, what would you be?
Roaring Forties blue cheese because it's from sweet, smooth, sharp, and strong, all at once.
What about your main character(s) and why?
Hm. Soledad would be Greek yogurt because it's substantial and strong, yet smooth and soothing; Jonathan would be a cheesecake, because it can be both strong, yet fragile, and Taz would definitely be a rich, smooth dark chocolate dusted with sea salt because it's exotic and speaks of faraway places.
Do you think in themes? If so, what’s the theme of your new novel?
I do-- if I had to summarize STARS as a theme, it would be that of dreams-- those you consciously have and those of which you're unaware until they happen to you. Dreams without a name, I suppose.
What piece of fiction or non-fiction did you not write but wish you had?
HEARTBREAK HOTEL by Anne Rivers Siddons which I discovered at the age of fourteen in my junior high's library. It's a magnificent setting (1956 Alabama, just as the Civil Rights Movement is getting underway), with a wonderful lead character in Maggie, a properly bred southern belle who's nevertheless restless and knows there's something more, even though she's not consciously aware of it for much of the book. On top of that, the language is just beautiful and evocative and I think was the book that made me really WANT to be a writer, even though I'd been writing and journaling my entire life.
Do you want to pimp any contests or other guest appearances here?
On the 1st of December I'll be blogging at the new group YA blog of which I'm part, YA OUTSIDE THE LINES and I'll be giving away a signed copy of STARS and a t-shirt that's a copy of one that plays a part in the book. (http://yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com/)