I’m pleased to welcome Liza O’Connor to my blog today! She’s going to be talking about her release SAVING CASEY and she’s got a giveaway to one lucky commenter!
CERIAN: So, tell us a little about yourself, Liza
LIZA: I live in Denville, NJ with my dog, Jess. We hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, I learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. I’m an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through my entire life, my first love has and always will be writing novels. I love to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.
CERIAN: Wow! I’m impressed! What a wonderful way to spend your life! I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was younger (I have a family connection to Sue the T-Rex-my cousin owned her briefly as she was found on his ranch). But my first love was writing too. When did you start writing?
LIZA: Given I was an experienced verbal bardette long before I learned to write, I may have been born telling stories. Only when I would try to share my dramatic and sad tales, someone would plug my mouth with a bottle or pacifier and change my diaper.
However, once my ability to spell got beyond ‘See Spot Run, run Spot run’, I shifted to the pencil and notebook, although I lacked the sense to keep my writings from those early years for prosperity. However, by the third grade I began collecting my prose and keeping it safe from people looking for fire starting material. (My brother was a bit of a fire bug).
My reply to history questions were usually so witty and satirical the teacher would have me read them aloud. I managed to make history fun. I was her favorite student. Good thing she had a sense of humor. Otherwise I would have failed five time over.
CERIAN: Oh, I wish you had been in my class because history was unbelievably dry. What does your writing area look like?
LIZA: It’s a mess. Any chance someone wants to clean it? It should look like a living room. That’s right, I write in my living room. Yes, that means I have no significant other—too high maintenance. I do have a dog. She hangs in my gorgeous glass solarium. But here she comes, even as I write this. What? No. It’s not time yet. Jess gets walked twice a day. And she wants her second walk early today. Go away! I’m working. (Good things I don’t plan to have children.)
CERIAN: My desk (located in the dining room) is pretty messy too. My kids don’t help, they’re constantly leaving stuff on it. I wish I could help you out on the cleaning thing. And I’m sure my dog will be looking for her walk soon too. Where do you get your inspirations for your stories?
LIZA: I dream about something odd and interesting. I’ll play around with it for another half hour in that fuzzy area between sleep and consciousness. Then if I think it has promise, I come down stairs and write a brief note about it, so I don’t forget. I don’t have much time before Jess arrives demanding her walk, so I have to get it down fast.
CERIAN: That’s sometimes the best times to come up with great ideas. What inspired you latest story?
LIZA: The teens of my friends inspired Saving Casey. The teens all seem to struggle more than I did, and they have great parents, so I wondered why. Were they just ignoring the good advice of their parents, or has their environment changed so much that our life experiences have no relevance to their problems. So, in a dream, I had a well-experienced, sensible old woman die and then awaken in the body of a seventeen year old troubled teen. And just to make sure she didn’t have an easy time with this turn around, I gave her ghoulish facial tattoos.
That of course made my main character dig deeper as to why the prior Casey had destroyed her life, face, and future over the last four years—what had happened that turned a sweet blonde cherub into ghoulish demon? I won’t ruin your read by telling you what happened, but turning this life around proved much harder than Cass initially thought. When you combined everyone’s negative opinion of her based on the prior Casey, her surging hormones which sent her into rages all too easily, and enemies actively getting her in trouble, all her life experiences weren’t helping that much.
CERIAN: Sounds fascinating! And definitely unique! What do you like to do besides write?
LIZA: When I’m not writing, I’m either hiking, gardening, or marketing these days. I have my life on an hourly schedule just to ensure I get everything done. I go from 7:30 to 12:00 midnight seven days a week. But don’t feel sorry for me. When you love what you do, that’s like saying I play all day long.
CERIAN: That’s the main thing, loving what you do and it sounds like you do. Okay, now for the quick question section.
LIZA:
Pick one word to describe yourself: funny
Favorite animal: my dog Jess. (She’s sitting right here staring at me. I can’t write anything else.)
Favorite comfort food: popcorn
Spring, summer, autumn or winter? For gardening: Spring, for writing: summer, and for hiking: autumn
Favorite book: Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice
Favorite movie: Clueless because it’s an update of Jane Austen’s Emma and it’s very funny.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you want to do? I would write music.
Best vacation ever: The 4 months I spent in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji doing every life endangering activity possible.
Now let’s talk about SAVING CASEY, which is on sale on Amazon for 2.99 during the blog tour. The price goes back to 5.99 on April 5th!
BLURB:
Eighty-year-old Cass wakes up in the body of a troubled seventeen-year-old girl named Casey, which all believe has survived a suicide attempt. Cass intends to turn the girl’s life around, only it’s harder than she expects. All Casey’s troubles have now become Cass’s and someone wants her dead.
EXCERPT:
Thornton entered with a tall glass of green tea and bowl of nuts and dried fruit. “Thought you might want some nutrients after your work out.” He set down the tray. “And for future references, there are extra slippers in the bathroom closet where you found the robe.”
“Okay, now you’re creeping me out. Do you have a camera in the bathroom?”
“Of course not! However, I do monitor the gym. Your father put a camera in after his first heart attack.”
She had been about to take a sip of the tea when his words slammed her like a two ton truck.
The next moment Thornton knelt at her feet, scolding her for her lack of shoes, all the while picking up shards of glass.
“When did that happen?” Tears swelled in her eyes. She couldn’t lose her dad. Despite the terrible thing he did to Old Casey, he’d been nothing but wonderful to her. She needed him…damn it, she loved him. “Is he okay now? Is there something he should be doing but isn’t?”
Her butler-parent checked her feet to insure she hadn’t been hurt.
“Thornton, talk to me!”
He sighed heavily. “It’s not my place to discuss this. Nor should I have said anything. Most remiss of me.”
“I’ll keep your remissive moment a secret. Just tell me if he’s okay now.”
Thornton sighed heavily and looked up, meeting her worried gaze. “Turning your life around is the best thing you can do for your parents and yourself, and that is all I’m saying on the matter.”
“All right. If I ask Dad, I won’t mention this conversation. I have to look out for my butler-parent, too.”
He actually smiled before standing up. “I’ll bring you another green tea.”
“How about a diet Dr. Pepper in a can—since I’ve proven unreliable with glassware.”
Another smile. What a great day!
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said and left the walk-in closet.
SAVING CASEY BUY LINKS
Video links:
Abridged My Crappy New Life series
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I live in Denville, NJ with my dog, Jess. We hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, I learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. I’m an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through my entire life, my first love has and always will be writing novels. I love to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.
Liza links:
GIVEAWAY!! Liza will award a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Plus, one lucky commenter on this blog stop today will receive: $5 Amazon GCs, tattoos like Casey’s, or offer to place tattoos like Casey’s on a jpg picture supplied by winner. Make sure you leave your email address when you comment! (spell out “at” and “dot”).
To follow Liza’s blog tour, just click here! The more visits you make the better chance you have to win!
Cerian Hebert 
Thank you for hosting today
Those are some really unique tattoos. The book sounds great!
kaylyndavis1986@yahoo.com
Kaylynd, If you want to be in the running for the prizes, you’ll need to come back and provide your email address so I can find contact you.
A winner from this blog site will get the choice of a $5 amazon card or temp tattoos like Casey, winner’s choice. (That’s in addition to being enrolled into the tour prize for a $25.oo Amazon gift card.
Thanks for having me on your site. I just want to remind your readers to leave an email address when commenting. That’s so I can find you if you win the gift. If you don’t like spambots grabbing your email, just spell out AT and DOT.
For the duration of this tour, Amazon has dropped the price of Saving Casey to $2.99. Once the tour is over, it goes back to $5.99 so buy before April 5th.
Feel free to ask me questions. I love hearing from you. I’ll be popping in through the day and evening to catch any comments. Hope to hear from you guys. Have a great day!
ABOUT TODAY’S PRIZE: I am giving away, to one commenter from this blog, a $5 Amazon Card or Temp tats like Casey’s from my book. Winner’s choice.
Thanks for the interview and excerpt! This story sounds absolutely unique and I can’t wait to start it 🙂
andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com
Expect to laugh, cry, and yell at some of the characters. Everyone does. So don’t try to read it at work. You’ll be caught for sure. 🙂
I think the tatoos are sort of pretty, but not for a permanent thing. Loved the excerpt.
Oddly, they look better on paper than my face. I think they do better on a rounder face (like the pic of Casey) than mine. I like this excerpt as well. Thanks for stopping by Ella.
Wow, sounds like you’ve led a busy life. I enjoyed the excerpt, thank you.
Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com
I have had a busy life. It’s fodder so my characters can do a great many things. I’m glad you enjoyed the excerpt and hope you’ll buy Saving Casey. It’s well liked/loved by its readers.
Thanks for the chance to win!
hense1kk AT cmich DOT edu
You are most welcome. I hope you’ll give Saving Casey a chance to win you over as well.
I love Pride and Prejudice as well and Clueless, you are the only other person that I know who likes the movie or at least has admited that it was their favorite as well, nice to meet people with common interests 🙂
lyra.lucky7 at gmail dot com
I am certain it’s a guilty pleasure of many more than just us, After all, it did very well at the box office.
I love Clueless too! I didn’t realize that it was based on a Jane Austen novel.
Clueless was loosely, very loosely, based on Emma. Emma is a young and spoiled rich young woman, but you like her anyway. As the book progresses, she begins to grow up and realizes the person she truly enjoys being with is an older (thirty something) friend of the family who is also her brother in law, Mr. Knightley. It’s been turned into a movie as well.
Great interview, how did you phrase your history answers, do you have some example?
galaschick78(at)gmail(dot)com
I phrased them with wit, sarcasm, and a touch of irony, resulting in the whole class including the teacher laugh. She gave me the Outstanding American History award for the year. However, I cannot recall my exact words on any particular day. They would jump out of my mouth and then run off.
Even today, If I don’t type them down immediately, I lose my witty comments.
What a fascinating idea for a story.
Thank you MomJane. Good thing you left your email at yesterday’s blog so I’ll be able to find you if you win.
oh no! you didn’t leave an email address yesterday either. I need that to find you if you win.
Well I loved history, but sadly our teacher was quite old and humor was not part of her virtues, you lucked out.
lennascloud AT gmail DOT com
My Ancient and Medieval history teacher always amused us though I don’t think that was her intention. She sounded like a cross between a hippy and Valley Girl. We’d keep track of how many times she’d say “okay” during her class. Looking back, though, she was a sweetheart.
I did luck out. I could have been sent to the principal daily if she hadn’t had a sense of humor, because I always spotted the ridiculousness in actions of the past. Now, I make fun of our congressmen.
What was the most dangerous thing you did on your vacation?
emiliana25(a)web(dot)de
Hmmm. I was almost blown off the Routeburn trek in New Zealand, and then at the end of the week a flash flood nearly washed me straight down the mountain. The trail cut across the middle of a section mountain that had recently had an avalanche, so there were no trees or undergrowth, Thus, all the rain ran downstream cutting ravines of water. A six foot section of the trail had a foot of water rushing across it. I had two worries. First, that the water would physical slid me off the trail and send me a mile down the mountain to land in the raging river below, OR that the rushing water had cut a ravine in the trail, which I would fall into and go sailing down the mountain into the raging river below. Both were death scenarios. That was the scariest 6 feet I have every walked. When I got to the other side, I had some unfriendly words to say to my guide I caught up with a half mile down the trail.
In Australia, I think the most dangerous event was when I diving for the great white. I got caught in an underwater cave that had a surge so intense, I could not swim against it. I could barely hold on to a rock and remain in one place. Both me and my dive buddy were slowly being pushed deeper and deeper into the cave. Instead of trying to swim straight out, I began swimming to any rock that was even a few few further up from my current position and after what seemed forever, we both got out of the cave… fortunately before we ran out of air.
Those were two of my dangerous moments. I had more, but they are fair representatives as to why none of my friends wish to vacation with me.
Great interview, I hope your brother lost his fascination with fire 🙂
freetofall00(at)gmail(dot)com
Yes. He gave up setting fires and focused on becoming an only child instead. Neither my sister nor me liked his new goal at all..
Great excerpt, thank you for sharing!
anzuazura(at)yahoo(dot)de
I have no problem sharing. In fact, consensus is that I share way too much. lol. Which you will discover if you follow the entire tour.
Do you have an author that you admire?
moonsurfer123 AT gmail dot com
I have lots of authors I admire, so let me choose one I actually know personally. We critique each other’s work. I greatly admire Rebecca Royce, not just because she’s a prolific writer of wonderful stories, but because she manages to do so while taking care of a husband and three young boys. She’s also the reason you are reading my interview today. She single-handedly pushed me into publishing Saving Casey. And trust me, she isn’t stopping there. She’s rooting about my stories like a dog after its favorite bones. I’m in edits on two other novels which will be published in 2013 and early 2014, and she’s pushing for me to submit four other novels to publishers ASAP.
Author friends are wonderful. I encourage everyone to adopt one.
I was lucky enough to have one a set of these tattoos and I read Saving Casey back in December. It is one of my favorite books that I read in 2012. If you haven’t read it you need to buy it and read it right away. It is an amazing story! sbereza22(at)gmail(dot)com
I love to hear from satisfied readers! Thanks Shannon!
I always loved history at school too. Love the tattoos.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
We history geeks have to stand together. So let me warn you about the tattoos. Never get facial tattoos. The pain of removal is really intense. The specialist I spoke with said I would need to put Cass under, but her father refused to let her be put under…you’ll have to read the book to discover why. How’s that for a tease?
Loved the excerpt and author interview. I have to say I am so jealous of Liza’s Best Vacation Ever…seriously that would be the best vacation ever for almost everyone I would think!
The book description sounds very intriguing. I will definitely have to read this one! Adding it to my TBR list now!
Thanks for the chance at this giveaway and for being a part of the blog tour!
uilani25(at)hotmail(dot)com
Uilani, Thanks so much. It was a life-time vacation, that was for sure. I so glad you plan to read Saving Casey. You can get it at half price if you buy at Amazon before 4/5.
Nice excerpt
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thanks.
I enjoyed this book.