Book Blitz: The History of Hilary Hambrushina by Marnie Lamb Hey! This week I've got another book blitz to share with you and this time it's for The History of Hilary Hambrushina by Marnie Lamb. The History of Hilary Hambrushina is a YA Contemporary novel that was released in May last year. As part of the blitz, I'll be sharing an excerpt and guest post as well as an international giveaway that I'll share at the end. Carry on reading! The History of Hilary Hambrushina by Marnie Lamb Publication date: May 31st 2017 Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult Synopsis:Hilary has one goal for her first year in junior high: to become popular. But her plans are turned upside down when her best friend leaves for the summer and a quirky girl named Kallie moves in next door. Kallie paints constellations on her ceiling, sleeps in a hammock, and enacts fantastical plays in front of cute boys on the beach. Yet despite Kallie’s lack of interest in being -cool, – Hilary and Kallie find themselves becoming friends. That summer friendship, however, is put to the test when school begins, reigniting Hilary’s obsession with climbing the social ladder. As Hilary discovers the dark side to popularity, she must decide who she wants to be before she loses everything. Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34099515-the-history-of-hilary-hambrushina?ac=1&from_search=true Purchase: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/History-Hilary-Hambrushina-Marnie-Lamb-ebook/dp/B06XXPDWF5/ B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-history-of-hilary-hambrushina-marnie-lamb/1126076019?ean=9781771802000 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-history-of-hilary-hambrushina iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-history-of-hilary-hambrushina/id1221530717?mt=11 A Journey Prize nominee, Marnie Lamb earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Windsor. Her short stories have appeared in various Canadian literary journals. Her first novel, a YA book named The History of Hilary Hambrushina, is forthcoming from Iguana Books. When she is not writing fiction or running her freelance editing business, she can be found cooking recipes with eggplant or scouting out colourful fashions at the One of a Kind Show. Author links: https://www.marnielamb.com/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16372160.Marnie_Lamb https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014358460826 Excerpt: Kallie’s room was the first on the left. Swinging open the door, she spread her arms out and said, “Ta-da!” Although I was expecting something unusual, I wasn’t prepared for what greeted me. The walls and ceiling were black, and the ceiling had a pattern of white dots and lines that reminded me of the night sky. A huge hammock stretched like a crescent moon between two walls. Some sort of rope-and-wheel apparatus that looked like something we’d built in science class last year was attached to the wall and ceiling above the ends of the hammock. In front of the window was a telescope pointed outside. At least a hundred stuffed animals sat against the walls, and books and clothes lay scattered on the floor. “What do you think?” asked Kallie proudly. I didn’t know what to say. It was the strangest room I’d ever been in, but also the most interesting. I thought of my own room, with the shiny new Damian Sámos poster (the same one as Lynn’s) on one wall and the old wallpaper my dad still hadn’t taken down on the other. The wallpaper had faceless Victorian ladies holding flowered parasols, and I loved it — when I was six. Then there was the squeaky hinge on my closet door (another thing my dad hadn’t fixed). Even my new lavender chenille bedding, which I’d begged my mom to buy, looked so boring compared to Kallie’s room. Finally I mumbled, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Really? Fantastic! I wanted to make it unique.” “Is that the night sky?” I asked, looking at the ceiling. “Yeah. Those are the constellations. Razi and I finished painting them last night.” I stared at her. “You painted them? You mean it’s not wallpaper?” “No, but if you thought it was, it must mean we did a good job.” “You did an amazing job!” I exclaimed. I looked around the room in awe. How could Kallie have painted such a complicated pattern? I couldn’t imagine painting a wall so well, let alone a ceiling. Kallie was beaming. “Thanks. We did it mostly at night because we could see the sky then. We had a big map to help us during the day, but you can’t really get the feel of the stars without looking at them, you know?” Actually I didn’t. I’d never thought about that before. “But the real reason I asked you to come over,” said Kallie, grinning, “was because I was wondering if you wanted to help me paint stuff on the walls.” For the first time, I noticed that the walls had no patterns on them. “You want me to help paint your room?” I was surprised and kind of honoured. After all, she barely knew me. “O.K.” “Great! Stay there!” She dashed out. I looked around. That’s when I realized something was missing. When Kallie came back, pushing a wooden cart with jars of paint in dozens of colours, I asked, “Uh … Kallie, where’s the bed?” “What bed?” “The bed you sleep on?” “Who says I sleep on a bed?” She moved some stuffed animals to the hammock. “Where do you sleep then?” “In the hammock, of course.” I was stunned. “You sleep in a hammock? Why?” “Why not?” “Well … isn’t it uncomfortable?” I said, starting to feel impatient. Why did she always have to answer my questions with another question? Guest Post (Interview with Marnie Lamb) This interview was conducted by Tanya Kuzmanovic. Check out Tanya’s blog, Pencils and Popcans. 1. The inception, writing, and publication of The History of Hilary Hambrushina has been about a twenty-year process for you. What sorts of updates did you have to make to the story in order to fit it into the context of the present day? The most important update was the introduction of an online aspect to the bullying that one of the characters experiences. The ubiquity of the Internet and cell phones means that most bullying, especially by teenagers, now contains, or at least has the potential to contain, an online aspect. So not including such a component would have dated the story. Most of the other changes were small and involved updating references to technology, such as referring to a DVD player instead of a VCR. The early drafts also talked about two sisters, one a twelve-year-old and the other a seventeen-year-old, fighting over the use of the family landline phone. While I think it’s believable that a twelve-year-old might not have her own cell phone, today most seventeen-year-olds in Canada have their own phones. So I changed the source of conflict to something different. Otherwise, I didn’t feel the need to modernize the story. The themes dealt with are enduring and will speak to today’s readers the same way they did to readers twenty years ago. 2. Themes of bullying, friendship, and self-awareness (to name a few) appear throughout The History of Hilary Hambrushina. How do you feel you have specifically strived to set your story apart from other YA novels that portray similar themes and issues? I strived to broaden the examination of the major issues. For example, the depiction of bullying features not only incidents from the lives of younger characters but also glimpses into the experiences of older characters (mothers and grandmothers). The role of schools in tackling bullying is also addressed. As well, I tried to give Hilary, the narrator, a distinct voice and cultivate a strong writing style that includes humour and the use of original similes. Finally, the novel examines other important themes, such as mother-daughter relationships and the development of young writers and artists. Hence, the story is not just about what happens at school but offers a wider perspective on the lives of tweens and teens. 3. What major changes and/or omissions did you make to The History of Hilary Hambrushina when looking at its earliest drafts compared with the currently published YA novel? The first draft was actually a forty-eight page “short” story. That story’s ending was simplistic and Pollyannaish. Without giving too much away, I can say that the current ending is hopeful yet realistic. The first draft of the novel contained a chapter that dealt with the resolution of one of the relationships in a way that undermined the growth of a major character. My MA thesis supervisor at the University of Windsor, the late Alistair MacLeod, advised me to delete this chapter, which I did. The early drafts of the novel also included a chapter in which Hilary and Kallie visit a historic house in Toronto. While interesting, the chapter didn’t advance the plot, so it was jettisoned, too. Finally, in one post-thesis draft, I introduced an anorexia plot. Based on the feedback of a publisher, I realized that this plot made the book too complex and unwieldy, so I deleted that storyline. 4. Based on one of your earliest drafts of The History of Hilary Hambrushina, it was important to you that the story unfold from a tween’s perspective. What steps did you take to ensure that this tween voice was believable and accurate? The main step was to share the early drafts with readers and solicit their feedback. My first readers were the students in my MA creative writing seminar and a couple of professors in the department. One of the students in the seminar also had a teenage sister, who agreed to read the draft. Everyone who read the story felt that the voice was believable. Several years later, I had the manuscript evaluated by a publishing professional. Voice was one of the categories addressed, and the evaluator, too, thought that the voice sounded authentic. Aside from this feedback, I read several Canadian YA novels to get a sense of how other authors have handled a teenage voice. Based on that research, I felt that I had created a voice that was both believable and original. 5. What advice do you have for writers in terms of dealing with favourable and/or unfavourable reviews of their published work? I think the only downside of too many favourable reviews is that they might swell your head to Brobdingnagian proportions. However, I once read a quotation by another writer who stated that bad reviews usually have a more profound impact on a writer’s psyche than do good reviews. So I think that the risk of an inflated ego is Lilliputian. Bad reviews, contrarily, have an acute and a chronic downside. Ideally, you should avoid reading negative reviews of your work. Realistically, most of us will probably be too overcome by morbid curiosity to bypass those early one- and two-star critiques. And that’s fine up to a point. Indulging your curiosity about bad reviews is a part, albeit a painful one, of the writing journey. But dwelling on the negative is a sure path to self-doubt and anxiety. So after your curiosity is sated, redirect your energies to the positive. Share your heartache with compassionate, supportive people who are good listeners, will let you rant, and won’t shell out that useless advice, “Don’t worry.” Keep copies of positive reviews and reread them when you’re feeling down. Most importantly, take breaks from your book. Detaching yourself from your art can be very difficult. But you are not your book. For your own emotional health, you need to separate the two. GIVEAWAY - ENDS MARCH 8TH 2018
Blitz-wide giveaway (INTL)
BYE!
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AuthorHello and welcome to Books With Beth! I'm Beth and on this blog I share a mix of all my bookish thoughts through reviews, book tours and hauls. Have fun! Categories
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