Author Interview and Contest: Shannon Greenland: The Winning Element

First up, last week's winner of Down to the Wire is....

Brenna!

Congrats and send me your mailing address so I can pass it on to Shannon (my e-mail address is in the sidebar).

Now let's talk with Shannon about book 3 in the Specialists Series: The Winning Element.

What's book 3 all about? GiGi learns about a notorious chemical smuggler currently at large. Not only is he a present danger, but he was responsible for the deaths of GiGi's parents. The government has been trying to track him down for years, and with GiGi's fierce determination (and TL's help), the Specialists are hired to capture him. And this time, GiGi's in charge of the mission. Only, she can't do this alone. She needs Beaker's chemistry expertise. But when their cover has to be cheerleaders at a national cheerleading competition, Goth-girl Beaker is not too pleased.

All of your characters are really different. Do you ever incorporate parts of your personality into your characters? Or any traits/quirks of friends/people you know? I get asked this question a lot. I have a notebook that I carry around with me. Every time I see someone do or say something unique, I jot it down. And when I’m building a character, I refer back to that notebook. For example, I once saw a Goth girl sitting in the mall. She was clearly upset about something as she scowled and chomped a piece of gum. I looked at her and thought “Beaker!”

Most of the Specialists lost their parents at an early age, but Beaker's mother is still alive. How does this affect her psychologically? Actually, someone else’s parent is alive, too. But you’ll learn that in Native Tongue. It does affect Beaker, though, in that she’s the only one with crappy memories of her parent. The rest came from loving homes, but various circumstances took their parents at different times.

GiGi and Beaker have to pose as cheerleaders on this latest mission. Did you ever do any cheerleading yourself? I never did cheerleading, but I attended a cheer camp a few summers ago as I was researching to write this book. I’ll tell you something—those girls work hard!

Thanks Shannon!

Now for this week’s giveaway! You have a chance of winning a signed copy of The Winning Element just by commenting on this post.

Extra entries? Sure!

+1 entry for blogging about this contest
+1 entry for commenting on my review tomorrow
+ 1 entry for leaving Shannon a comment over at her blog (may I suggest her summer top 5 post?)

If you do all 4, I will double your entries for a total of 8. And they also count towards the grand prize drawing for all 4 signed books – what a deal!