Blog Tour: Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly | Author Interview + Giveaway!

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to the SERIOUSLY WICKED by Tina Connolly blog tour!

Today is my post day and I will be sharing with you all an author interview I've done with Tina and there is a giveaway below. Enjoy!

Title: SERIOUSLY WICKED
Author: Tina Connolly
Pub. Date: May 5, 2015
Publisher: Tor Teen
Pages: 384
Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Genre: YA - Paranormal, Fantasy

The only thing worse than being a witch is living with one.

Camellia’s adopted mother wants Cam to grow up to be just like her. Problem is, Mom’s a seriously wicked witch.

Cam’s used to stopping the witch’s crazy schemes for world domination. But when the witch summons a demon, he gets loose—and into Devon, the cute new boy at school.

Now Cam’s suddenly got bigger problems than passing Algebra. Her friends are getting zombiefied. Their dragon is tired of hiding in the RV garage. For being a shy boy-band boy, Devon is sure kissing a bunch of girls. And a phoenix hidden in the school is going to explode on the night of the Halloween Dance.

To stop the demon before he destroys Devon’s soul, Cam might have to try a spell of her own. But if she’s willing to work spells like the witch...will that mean she’s wicked too? 

Purchase @ Amazon | Barnes & Noble

1. Tell us a little about yourself?

Sure! I live with my family in Portland Oregon, but I’m originally from Lawrence, Kansas, which is a lovely little college town. I used to do a lot of theatre, and I still occasionally work as a face painter (a really fun job!) but mostly these days I focus on writing and podcasting and small children-wrangling.

2. When and how did the idea for Seriously Wicked come about?

I started this book pre-children, at a time when I had a goal to write 500 words every day. Ideally the words would be on a current project, but they could also be on some random new project. One day I sat down and this Rapunzel-ish story about a girl who lives with a *seriously wicked* witch just jumped onto the page.

3. What was your favorite part about writing the book and is there a character you had the most fun with?

I loved getting to write a book that was just flat-out fun. So my favorite parts all had to do with that. I loved thinking up the funny-horrible stories about terrible things the witch does to Cam (like turn her fingers into noodles) and I loved writing all the side characters. One of my favorite side characters is Kelvin, my sweet, clueless 4-H boy who tries to tutor Cam in math.

4. Personally I love books about teen witches, are there any you enjoyed reading and what ones are they?

I also love teen witches! One of my all-time favorite books is probably technically about pre-teen witches – Diana Wynne Jones’ Witch Week is so lovely and hilarious. Also I have to give props here to the movie Teen Witch, which my friend and I watched obsessively one summer (dancing around to all the songs.)

5. Will Seriously Wicked become a series or is it a stand-alone book? If a series, can you tell us more about it and what plans you may have for them?

It is both a stand-alone and the first in a series! I really loved these characters and wanted to tell more stories about them, so I was pretty excited when my editor felt the same way. Wicked witch Sarmine always has a new clever plan to take over the world, and my heroine Cam has to stop her. So each story is a complete stand-alone story, and so much fun to write. I’m working on the second story right now and I can’t say much about it because I’m still in the middle of it, but I will say I’m having a lot of fun writing it and cackling gleefully. Oh, and I’m working on a Seriously short story as well, about a disastrous pool party full of witches. Hopefully we’ll see that later this year. :)

6. How long did it take to write the book and tell us a little about your writing process?

This book wrote itself very quickly! I think I wrote the first few chapters in a couple weeks, and then it was summer and I had a busy face painting season that year, so the book got put down for a bit. I came back to it in fall and finished it up in a month. So the first draft was really very fast, during the times I was working on it. It was really my first full-length finished novel. But then, it went through a LOT of drafts. And in between those drafts I wrote what would be my first published novel, Ironskin, and sold that trilogy to my publisher...and then did some more drafts on this book... So the answer is both very quickly, and a very long time.

And now I have two small children, so my current writing process is: think very hard about my next scene while pushing the baby in the stroller or making dinner or whatnot...and then, as soon as the kids are asleep, write like mad.

7. Who inspires you to write? Do you have a favorite author you look up to?

Oh yeah, let me mention Diana Wynne Jones again, as she’s one of my all-time favorite authors. And for some reason, I also always want to write directly after reading her books. Perhaps it’s because she’s one of those rare writers whose books you can enjoy at any age, and I discovered her young enough that her books are somehow inextricably tied up in my conception of what a book is.

(TL;DR: Diana Wynne Jones is marvelous and everyone should read her!)

8. Describe your book in 6 words.

In 5 words, I’ll give you the title the book had during the 2nd draft: Witch Girl Hearts Demon Boy.

Thanks for being here today on Bittersweet Enchantment. Is there any final thoughts you'd like to leave my readers?

Thanks so much for having me on the blog!

About The Author: Tina Connolly

Website  | Twitter | Tumblr | Pinterest LibraryThing | GoodReads | Facebook

Tina Connolly is the author of the Ironskin trilogy from Tor Books, and the Seriously Wicked series, from Tor Teen. Ironskin, her first fantasy novel, was a Nebula finalist. Her stories have appeared in Women Destroy SF, Lightspeed, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and many more. Her narrations have appeared in audiobooks and podcasts including Podcastle, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, John Joseph Adams' The End is Nigh series, and more. She runs the Parsec-winning flash fiction podcast Toasted Cake.

She is originally from Lawrence, Kansas, but she now lives with her family in Portland, Oregon, where it is nice and green and wet. Photo credit Caroline M. Yoachim.

Giveaway Details:

5 winners will receive a finished copy of SERIOUSLY WICKED! US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour hosted by: Rockstar Book Tours

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/27/2015- Pandora's Books- Interview

4/28/2015- Bookfever- Review

4/29/2015- On Starships and Dragonwings- Guest Post

4/30/2015- GenGen's Book Blog - Review

5/1/2015- Bookhounds ya- Interview

Week Two:

5/4/2015- The Midnight Society- Review

5/5/2015- Alice Marvels - Guest Post

5/6/2015- Book Briefs- Review

5/7/2015- Bittersweet Enchantment- Interview

5/8/2015- Stories & Sweeties- Review