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Monday, October 7, 2013

Interview and Giveaway with author Mary Beth Bass


I'm so excited to have author Mary Beth Bass here today! Mary Beth's YA novel, everything you know, is releasing soon and she is holding an awesome book trailer contest for it! This is a great contest for all you creative types who love to make book trailers, plus you can win some fabby fab prizes. I had the chance to interview Mary Beth about the contest and her book, which you can read below. AND, Mary Beth has offered a $25 Amazon Gift Card giveaway on this post..

everything you know
by Mary Beth Bass
Releasing Soon
Boroughs Publishing Group

A dark forest, a screaming woman and blood. These are the images that haunt seventeen year old Emma from the moment she meets Joe Castlellaw. And so much more awaits.

Emma Mathews never believed she was like everyone else, but neither did she think herself crazy. Meeting Joe Castlellaw, Henry Dearborn High’s newest student, was like waking on a cold rock in a strange place, the world bathed in liquid moonlight. Everything is different now…and fraught. Visions of a dark forest, a screaming woman and blood have begun to haunt Emma’s dreams, and not only at night. But Joe’s lonely beauty makes her float on air, and she would follow him anywhere—out of high school and through the great tree, to a world of poetry and political savagery, of magic and murder, to a life that is entirely theirs and yet unlike anything they have ever known.

About the contest:

WS: Why did you decide to hold a book trailer contest for your book everything you know?
MBB- I’m fascinated by things I’m not good at –ballet dancing, understanding science, dressing nicely. I don’t know how to create something visually beautiful or compelling. And I love books and book trailers. I thought a trailer contest would be a fun way to promote my book and give other creative people a chance to promote themselves, too.

WS: What makes a book trailer great and what are you looking for in a book trailer for everything you know?
MBB- A great book trailer stops you, and makes you pay attention and want to find out more. All four of my favorite trailers (below) made me stop whatever I was doing. I remember seeing them all for the first time and how I felt when I was watching them. A good trailer should capture what’s appealing about a story using sound and images and some text. And, hopefully, it should make someone want to read the book.     

I’m looking for someone else’s perspective on the story.  Maybe someone will see something I never saw before.  That would be cool!   

WS: Can you tell us a bit about who will be judging the book trailer contest?
MBB- I’m super excited about our judge.  I think he’s actually the coolest thing about the whole contest (sorry, book and self). Jim Strouse won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Audience Award at Sundance for his first film Grace is Gone (How awesome is that!) and his other films include Lonesome Jim and The Winning Season.     

Jim Strouse IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1475479/

WS: What kinds of prizes are up for grabs? Any important details entrants should know before entering?
MBB- The top three winners will receive cash prizes ($150, $75, $50 USD only) and will be shown at a launch party at an art house movie theatre. All of the trailers submitted to the contest (and approved) will be shown on the contest website and my author facebook page throughout the run of the contest (until January 24, 2013). There is no purchase necessary and the deadline for entering is December 2, 2013.  


WS: What are some of YOUR favorite book trailers?
MBB- Maggie Stiefvater is a spectacularly talented writer, artist and musician. The Shiver trailer was the first gorgeous book trailer I ever saw and it’s still amazes me when I watch it. Shiver is the first book in Stiefvater’s Young Adult, Wolves of Mercy Falls, Shiver trilogy (Shiver, Linger, and Forever). The stories are lyrical, emotional and romantic and this lovely trailer captures all of those elements.   


This awesome trailer for the first book in Libba Bray’s new Diviners series is cool, fun and actually scary (I’m seriously, seriously afraid of the creepy song). The trailer perfectly captures the essence of The Diviners. Super fun. Super cool. And a little bit scary (or if you’re a big chicken like me, super freaking scary). I love it.  

The Diviners book and trailer link: http://www.thedivinersseries.com/#!/page=Book/Videos

This trailer and book are a bit out of my reading familiarity/comfort zone, but I loved the trailer so much I ordered the book. The Strange Tale of Panorama Island! is a graphic novel version of a Japanese pulp fiction classic. The music and the art (and the flash of the upside down kiss) sucked me right in.     

The Strange Tale of Panorama Island! trailer

The Strange Tale of Panorama Island! book

I wanted to highlight just three trailers because three is such a good number but I couldn’t resist including this one. This is the first book trailer I ever saw and it’s still awesome. Tessa Dare is one of my all-time favorite writers and I adore her historical romance series, The Stud Club. Watching this trailer again made me want to re-read all three books.

Tessa Dare links:
Trailer

Books:

About the book:

WS: What three words best describe everything you know?
MBB- Kissing. Flying. Loss.

WS: Can you give us your best one sentence pitch for everything you know?
MBB- Visions of a dark forest, a screaming woman and blood haunt seventeen year old Emma Mathews from the moment she meets shy, beautiful Joe Castlellaw, and everything she thought she knew about life, her family and herself is about to change forever.  

WS: If you were to create and bake a cupcake inspired by everything you know what would it look and taste like, and what would you call it?
MBB- Okay, I put a lot of thought into this. Full disclosure, my brother is a chef, my mom is an amazing cook who baked a cake from scratch every Friday when I was growing up, and my daughter works in a somewhat famous NYC restaurant and bakery. And I really love cake. I wanted the cupcake to be really unusual because of the fantasy and otherworldly elements of everything you know but the more I thought about it the more I realized that the most important themes of the story of everything you know were concerned with universal ideas of love and loss, forgiveness and courage. And the perpetually shifting mix of sorrow and happiness that makes up every life, and is such a huge part of growing up.  So…

Lyrical Lemon Cream:
The cake part would be a lemon pound cake, soft yellow from all the butter and eggs, and spiked with lemon zest.
A dollop of raspberry filling would be piped into the middle where you might expect lemon curd (swoon, lemon curd) but, Surprise! bright, tart-sweet raspberries because life never turns out quite the way you expect.

And, classic Mom-style, buttercream frosting.  Just butter, confectioner’s sugar, a little milk, and lemon extract. Spread across the top with the back of a spoon, with a tiny curl at the top.  Because some things, like kissing the one you love, are perfect just the way they are.  




Mary Beth Bass

Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!
Mary Beth Bass has generously offered one $25 Amazon gift card for one winner.
DETAILS
-US/CAN only
-will end 10/18
-must be 13+, one main entry per person
-winner will be emailed and must claim prize within 48 hours
Fill out the Rafflecopter form:



13 comments:

Janhvi said...

O don't watch many book trailer but I loved Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.
Thanks for the interview and giveaway!

Aparna said...

I loved the trailer of the Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare ^_^

Carl Scott said...

I don't tend to watch many book trailers, I prefer to read a synopsis and get a better idea of what's in the book. Having said that, I did watch the trailer for The Diviners that you posted and found it pretty good. It's actually long enough to get me interested, most of them are far too short and don't convey much information. Thanks.

Batch of Books said...

This is probably my favorite book trailer of all time. That isn't saying too much, since I haven't seen many, but here it is nonetheless:
http://youtu.be/vB1VQJ2W6Yg

JoanneMarie Faust said...

I think I'm more likely to watch book trailers after having read the book. That way I can see how it meshes with my understanding and feeling about it.

Oh, and those lemon cupcakes sound seriously yummy!

Unknown said...

Well, I don't view book trailers. I prefer reviews or reading snippets of them.

Patricia Lopez said...

Endless Knight by Kresley Cole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P1MTIRMj3M

Galadriel said...

Ted Dekker's Green
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iooUj1UBF9E

Elena said...

I have never viewed any book trailers. I like reading the reviews instead

Unknown said...

I actually never watch book trailers, just read the synopsis to see if it hooks me!

♡♥♬ Carolsue ♡♥♬ said...

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ58juqllFQ
Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net

Unknown said...

I like the trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children :)

http://youtu.be/XWrNyVhSJUU

dv8 said...

Someone beat me to it- I like the trailer to Stephen King's Doctor Sleep. I even saw it on TV tonight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmyZGrS91A