Guest Post with Author Shannon Greenland
May •
11 •
2012
“Elizabeth Margaret—better known as Em—has always known what life would contain: an internship at her father’s firm, a degree from Harvard and a career as a lawyer. The only problem is that it’s not what she wants. When she gets the opportunity to get away from it all and spend a month with the aunt she never knew, she jumps at the chance. While there, Em pursues her secret dream of being a chef, and she also learns that her family has kept some significant secrets from her, too. And then there’s Cade, the laid-back local surfer boy who seems to be everything Em isn’t. Naturally, she can’t resist him, and as their romance blossoms, Em feels she is living on her own terms for the first time.”
Today I have a guest post from the lovely author Shannon Greenland!!
I cruised the Books With Bite site before I wrote this post and had to laugh at the About Me page when I read, “Though I may not be a teen, I wish I could be!” I can totally relate. When I was a teen I could think of nothing better than growing up. When I was in college so many of my friends used to say how much they wanted to go back tohigh school. Ugh. I could think of nothing worse.
Now that I’m older and wiser (ha, ha) I would totally get into being a teen again. There are so many things I would do differently . . . and so many things I wouldn’t. I often wonder, though, where my life would be now if I had a “do over”.
I suppose that’s why when I walk into a bookstore I naturally gravitate toward the Young Adult section. I suppose that’s why when I decided to be a writer I latched onto the YA voice so quickly.
Bottom line is I adore the age and live vicariously through my characters. That’s the beauty of writing, you can have as many “do overs” as you like. When I wrote my spy series, The Specialists, I created a fabulous group of characters with teeny bits of myself in each of them. There are so many scenes parallel to my personal experiences that I used them to explore my own sort of “do over”.
Same thing in The Summer My Life Began. There is so much about Em that is crazy
similar to me. I used her and the book to navigate how my life might have gone if I’d made different choices.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore my life! But I love tinkering with bits and pieces in the pages of my novels to have fun with how things might have turned out.
Thanks so much for being here today!
Where to buy the book:
Happy Reading!
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I think after a certain age we all wish we were teens again haha. I’d do so many things differently! If only we could go back with the knowledge we have now huh!? But YA is definitely a great vacation from reality!
“When I was in college so many of my friends used to say how much they wanted to go back tohigh school. Ugh. I could think of nothing worse.”
I was the same way! Even now I have no desire to go back to high school, but having a teenage “do-over” outside of that would be fun I think, and a huge part of why I enjoy YA books so much as well. There is just something fascinating about that period in life, and I enjoy going through it again and again with different characters:)
I wasn’t a fan of HS either and enjoyed college more.
I also think it’s fun to live vicariously through the characters. I think that is why I read so much. 🙂