Cover Reveal + Author Interview + ARC Giveaway: Everything Breaks by Vicki Grove | Coming Fall 2013 from Penguin

Everything Breaks by Vicki Grove

Hardcover, 240 pages

Expected publication: October 3rd 2013 by Putnam Juvenile
Young Adult Fiction

Tucker was supposed to be the designated driver. But there was something about the beauty of that last true summer night, that made him want to feel out-of-control just once. He drank so much and so quickly that he was instantly sick. That left Trey to drive. "I'll catch up to you later," were the last words Tucker would ever say to his friends as he heaved by the side of the road. It was the last time Tucker would ever see them alive.

Tucker’s grief and guilt are just about unbearable and he wonders how he can continue living himself. When he meets the Ferryman who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead, Tucker gets a chance to decide: live or die. The temptation to join his three best friends on the other side may be too much for Tucker to overcome.   A gripping, haunting and emotional read.

Hi Vicki! Thanks for being here today and agreeing to be interviewed. So very nice to meet you. So let's get started.

Me:  Tell me a little about yourself? 

Vicki:  Hey, Becky!   I'll introduce myself by saying I live in a tiny yellow house deep in the woods of the Missouri Ozarks with my husband, Mike, who's a music theory teacher.  We have two grown kids and the two most adorable little grandsons in the world.  My dog's name is Imogene and I have several cats, all too indistinguishable to name since they are all black.  The last time my daughter and the little boys visited us from Indiana someone had abandoned eight black kittens in the woods and they found them and brought them home to me.   I'm taking piano lessons, I love to collect rocks, love to hike and to read (of course) and to ride my bike.  I've been a freelance writer for about thirty or so years.  It's embarrassing, talking about yourself like this! :)   Do I sound boring?

Me:  Have your always known you wanted to be an author? If not, who or what inspired you to write? 

Vicki:  I can't remember anyone ever asking if I always wanted to be a writer~ I love that question!  I know I fell in love with writing in third grade, when we learned cursive and Mrs. Peters told us that now our pencils could go fast and keep on going forever and instead of just writing paragraphs we could tell stories with our sentences.  We lived on a farm and I would go up to the hayloft after school every night and do just that, tell stories about what had happened during the day and about how much I thought it was unfair for my little brother to get all the attention.  I braided myself a shoulder handle for my notebook and carried it around everywhere with me so I'd look like a real writer.   I was a very shy, self-conscious child without any sports ability, but suddenly I had my own identity.  To this day I don't know how I'd function without writing, since it defines me to myself, if that makes sense.  Thanks, Mrs. Peters!   I got an M.A. in English, but no one taught me so much about the written word.

Me:  Is there any one part in your book, Everything Breaks that was most difficult to write? 

Vicki:  Everything Breaks is about the tenth or eleventh book I've written but the first one that's supernatural.  I don't think it's a coincidence that I worked on it as my parents were dying and while I was grieving their deaths.  The character of Bud is based on my dad, and I cried a lot when I wrote the parts of the book where Bud is more or less handing his last bits of energy to Tucker in the form of stories and car advice.   There are several Greek myths of heroes who, upon losing a friend or a lover, brave the Underworld to try and bring them back to the light.  My narrator and main character, Tucker, is in that mold.   Like Orpheus and Achilles before him, he travels to a very strange place and finds while he's there that he has to face the fact of loss.  Everything ever created will break, that's just how it works.  But life is so rich, and not to be wasted.  And some things do remain, like love.

Me: If you could describe your book in 3 words, what would they be? 

Vicki:  Describe the book in three words?  Becky, you are tough! :)   Okay, let's see.   I think it's scary, too scary for, say, fifth graders.  It's a book about a journey.   The tone is ultimately bittersweet, I think.  So, a "scary, bittersweet journey"?  I don't think you should make me count that little article "a" as a word.  c'mon, now.

Me:  What genre of books do you most enjoy reading? Do you have a current favorite book? 

Vicki:  I enjoy any genre of book as long as character development is foremost in the writer's mind.   I think some people read for plot, some for setting, some for character.  I'm character, all the way, though of course a good book has to have all three things.  

Thank again Vicki! You have been a pleasure to work with and I really enjoyed getting to know you better. I hope my readers will also enjoy learning about you and Everything Breaks.

Becky, thanks so much for your thought-provoking questions!   Mrs. Peters would have really liked having you as a student.  By the way, my website is vickigrove.com and e-mail is vikgrove(at)gmail(dot)com. Again, Becky, thanks so much for your time and energy and for fighting the good fight!  All good wishes. - Vicki

First and foremost I would like to thank Vicki Grove again and Penguin/G.P. Putnam's Sons for asking me to be a part of the cover reveal for this amazing book. It has been a great pleasure working with everyone and....for supplying an ARC of Everything Breaks for a giveaway on my blog. YOU ROCK!

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