Interview of Bloggers!

Author interviews are pretty common in book blogs. Even I've interviewed a few authors on my blog! 
But I wanted to interview my fellow bloggers- to know them better and also to give them a space to share their blogging experiences. Hence, I decided to create this section for the Interview of Bloggers!

The first blogger I interviewed on Books Are My Best Friends is Rose from Desert Rose Reviews.

Here's what we talked about:

Me: Hey Rose, welcome to my blog! It's such a pleasure to have you here!! To start the interview first tell us something about yourself.

Rose: Well, I am an aspiring musician, as well as an artist and amateur writer- amateur in the sense that I'm unpublished, for now.  

Me: When did you start blogging and why?

Rose: I started Desert Rose Reviews in May, 2013.  I was reviewing books as a hobby, and wanted a way to share my reviews and love of books with people.  A blog seemed like a great way to do that, so I thought I'd give it a try! :)

Me: Tell us briefly about your blog and what do you do over there?

Rose: Well, my blog seems to be forever changing and growing.  It started out as simply a catalog of my book reviews, then grew into reviews and tour/event hosting.  Now, as of Oct 2013, I'm starting my own tour service, so my blog has taken on that aspect as well. 

Me: What you love most about blogging?

Rose: Probably the ability to connect to people I'd never meet otherwise, and share my love of books with people.  

Me: How do you promote your blog? Whenever there's a new post, how do you connect to people and let them know about your blog?

Rose: I generally share my review or event on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.  I'm still looking for other outlets to share my posts with, actually! haha

Me: What is the most interesting thing that has happened to you during the course of blogging?

Rose: It's all been incredibly interesting- I don't think I could pick just one instance.  I've met and created relationships with some incredible people, had some good laughs, and found some amazing books!  It's all been awesome so far :)

Me: What do you think is the most challenging part about blogging?

Rose: Probably reaching people, and getting my blog out there.  I'm not naturally a person who likes to flaunt herself in front of people, so it's a little hard for me to go around and say “Hey, come look at my blog!”  

Me: What are your top 5 favourite books? Name some of your favourite authors.

Rose: Wow, that is a hard question.  Those are lists that seem to be forever changing as well!  At the moment though, my top 5 fav books would be: 

1. The Mark of Cain, by A.D. Seeley

2. Blood Roses/Morning Stars, by Jason T. Graves

3. Nightshade, by Andrea Cremer

4. Firelight, by Sophie Jordan

5. Eric Elmoor and The Gauntlet of Godric, by Thomas A. Meyers

Some of my fav authors, besides the ones listed above, are:

Shakespeare

Chaucer

Mark Twain

Ally Condie

Those are all the authors that come to mind at the moment, but I'm sure there are more :)

Me: Besides blogger are you on any other blogging social networks? If yes, which one do you prefer most and why?

Rose: Not any more.  I tried Wordpress and LiveJournal, but I prefer blogger.  Desert Rose Reviews & Tours is actually my second blog- I have a personal blog as well (which has taken a hit in posts lately, with me spending so much time on DRR&T)- when I was searching for a good blogging social network, I tried several out, and blogger won my vote.  I like the template design and layout, and the fact that I can use html and javascript in my widgets and posts.  Plus, blogger blogs seem to be the easiest to promote and share with others, which is a big plus to me. 

Me: What's unique about your blog? Why is your blog different from that of other book bloggers? 

Rose: This question kind of puts me in that uncomfortable area of flaunting myself/my blog, haha.  I suppose if I had to compare my blog to other blogs I've seen recently, I think my blog looks a bit more put together and clean, easy to navigate.  It's more user friendly than a lot of blogs I visit.  Besides that, my blog isn't really for me, it's for others.  A lot of bloggers use their blog as a personal outlet, which is completely cool!  For me though, the whole point of my blog is to promote others, so I'm always thinking about how my blog looks to others, and I try to make it the best it can be for my followers and visitors.  I also put a lot of effort into making sure I'm honest and respectful, esp to the authors I work with.  Finding the balance between sharing my opinions and the things I like or don't like, while still maintaining respect for the author's work.   Honesty and respect- that's what it's all about! :)

Me: Your favourite blog that you follow?

Rose: Ah, I always dislike this question.  I know it probably sounds bad, but I don't have a fav blog that I follow.  There are several I like to visit occasionally, but I don't really spend much time following other blogs.  I like certain posts, and enjoy browsing when I get a spare minute, but I can't say I have a fav blog.

Me: Lastly, any tips for fellow bloggers?

Rose: Always think about your readers.  Your font, layouts, colors, etc- are they simple to navigate, or are they complicated and an eye sore?  I've seen many blogs that have conflicting font colors, and it gives me a headache to read, which is a bummer.  That's probably my biggest tip- make sure your blog is easy to read, and is inviting people in, not turning them away.  That is, if you're wanting to have readers and followers.  If you're just having fun, and don't care about who follows your or if your posts get read, then my only tip is to just have fun!  :D 

Thank you so much Rose for responding to my initiative and sharing your experiences! It was a pleasure to talk to you. :)

Here's the beautiful button of Rose's blog:

You should really visit her blog. It's amazing! :)

Also, I must mention that the idea of interviewing bloggers came to mind as Jazmen from This Girl Reads A Lot interviewed me for her own blog! So, I'd like to thank Jazmen for coming up with the idea. :)

You can interview bloggers on your blog too. It's really fun! If you do, share your link here (in the comments), I'd love to read them. It always feels great to know about more and more bloggers! 

What's New: Week Three

This idea occurred to me while I was thinking about doing some non-review stuffs on my blog.

What's New will be a weekly blog post where  I'll be blogging about 3 books (each week) that are recently released.

I'll be posting this on every Monday.

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Book One:

Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac

Information Regarding The Book:

• Author(s): Joseph Bruchac
• Publisher: Tu Books
• Genre(s): Dystopian
• Release Date: October 1, 2013
• You'll Find This Book At: Amazon, IndieBound.

Plot: 

Years ago, seventeen year old Apache hunter Lozen and her family lives in a world of haves and have-nots. There were the Ones (people so augmented with technology and genetic enhancements that they were barely human) and there was everyone else who served the Ones. Then the Cloud came, and everything changed. Tech stopped working. The world plunged back into a new steam age. The Ones' pets — genetically engineered monsters — turned on them and are now loose on the world. Lozen was not one of the lucky ones pre-C, but fate has given her a unique set of survival skills and magical abilities. She hunts monsters for the Ones who survived the apocalyptic events of the Cloud, which ensures the safety of her kidnapped family. But with every monster she takes down, Lozen's powers grow, and she connects those powers to an ancient legend of her people. It soon becomes clear to Lozen that she is not just a hired gun… Lozen is meant to be a hero.

Book Two: 

Wild Card by Simone Elkeles 

Information Regarding The Book:

• Author(s): Simone Elkeles
• Publisher: Walker Childrens
• Genre(s): Contemporary, Teen Fiction, Family Drama
• Release Date: Oct 1, 2013
• You'll Find This Book At: Amazon, IndieBound.

Plot:

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama. 

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain - people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek - someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

Book Three:

Hitler's Secret by William Osborne

Information Regarding The Book:

• Author(s): William Osborne
• Publisher: Chicken House Publishing
• Genre(s): Historical Fiction, World War II, Adventure
• Release Date :Sept 23, 2013
• You'll Find This Book At: Amazon, IndieBound.

Plot:

Otto and Leni thought they were safe: They escaped -- barely -- from war-torn Europe and are living as refugees in England. But now the Crown has recruited them: Great Britain wants them to go back. As spies!

Dropped behind enemy lines, Otto and Leni embark on a top-secret operation. Code name: Wolfsangel. Their mission? Capture the one person who can defeat the ultimate evil of Nazism! Der Fuhrer has destroyed Otto's and Leni's families, but what if the tables were turned? What if Hitler's ultimate legacy was in their hands?

By the screenwriter of Goldeneye, HITLER'S SECRET is a cinematic tale of revenge with an unexpected twist. A note by the author explains the truth behind the fiction and lets readers know what really became of history's greatest villains.

Review: What Young India Wants by Chetan Bhagat

How I came to Know about The Book: I bought this.

Format of The Book: Paperback

Genre: Non-fiction

Length of the Book: 181 pages.

A Short Synopsis: In his latest book, What Young India Wants, Chetan Bhagat asks hard questions, demands answers and presents solutions for a better, more prosperous India.

Why do our students regularly commit suicide?
Why is there so much corruption in India?
Cant our political parties ever work together?
Does our vote make any difference at all?
We love our India, but shouldnt some things be different?
All of us have asked these questions at some time or the other. So does Chetan Bhagat, Indias most loved writer, in What Young India Wants, his first book of non-fiction.

What Young India Wants is based on Chetan Bhagat's vast experience as a very successful writer and motivational speaker. In clear, simple prose, and with great insight, he analyses some of the complex issues facing modern India, offers solutions and invites discussion on them. And, at the end, he asks this important question: Unless we are all in agreement on what it is going to take to make our country better, how will things ever change? Non-fiction If you want to understand contemporary India, the problems that face it, and want to be a part of the solution, What Young India Wants is the book for you.

Review: 

Please note that this review is not written by me. While going through the reviews on this book on Goodreads I came across this review written by Subroto  (to view his profile on GR use the link given) and seriously there was not a single word to which I wanted to disagree. It was so well written and moreover, it says exactly the things I felt while reading the book. Hence, instead of writing a review myself, I opted for posting his on my blog. Here it goes:

"If this book does even 1/10th of the magic of what he has been able to do with his earlier books (brought reading back in fashion for a net addicted generation, inspired hundreds and thousands of indians to write, with his simple straight english reached hinterlands of india where english language reading was scarcely there ) - he would have made a much more significant difference to India than a lot of intelligent thinkers out there. 

This book will be remembered less for the exact solutions he's proposed for the problems of India (many might debate that they are too simplistic and also India is not that simple an animal) but more for what it stands for - his encouraging us to start thinking - and to start thinking in whatever capacity we are and to never stop thinking cos that is to lose hope - lose hope in our country ever getting better and thus letting the problem fester. He encourages us to be impatient and to try and use all juggad one can to solve the problems of this country :) 

Chetan through his own example leaves back a message for us to not just oppose and debate - but to propose a solution - however simple or rudimentary it might sound. He challenges us to have the balls to propose a solution on (as a lot of intellectuals / politicians would call) incomplete knowledge, even as a lot of other supposedly much qualified people (who have themselves not been able to solve it except cry foul and debate) knock you down with study and data. In such times, he makes a case for us to keep looking for solutions in his own inimitable style. 

Some of his own common sensical solutions make you whoop with joy - allow educational institutions to run on a for profit basis to encourage quality educational set up by private entrepreneurs, run a political party where young professionals are paid salaries /stipends so that people aspire to be one, cut defense expenditure by leveraging strategic defense partnership and astute foreign policy and divert those funds for education / health care set up. 

His style of writing remains what many would say high school. Simple sentences. No words for which you need to use the dictionary. It takes some time to get used to it but after some time you start enjoying his simplicity. Most appealing about this book is the part where he on his own confesses that he may not be right about whatever he's stating here - that's not the intent. There could always be many solutions to a problem. All he's saying is that lets not in all our analysis paralysis forget that the problem exists. Don’t let it drag to its own death or be pushed by another bigger problem. Debate is good for college hall rooms and year long research and theses are better suited for phd students - not to take decisions for a billion strong country. 
Chetan Bhagat haters be damned - I totally loved this book and will recommend it to each and every young man and woman I meet!"

Rating: 

My Reaction: 

Review: The 3 Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat

How I came to Know about the Book: I bought this.

Format of the Book: Paperback.

Gene: Indian fiction, Contemporary, Romance.

Length of the Book: 258 pages.

A Short Synopsis: In late-2000, a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind dreamt of having a business. To accomodate his friends Ish and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. Govind's wants to make money and thinks big. Ish is all about nurturing Ali, the batsman with a rare gift. Omi knows his limited capabiltiies and just wants to be with his friends. However, nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize their goals, they will have to face it all - religious politics, earthquakes, riots, unacceptable love and above all, their own mistakes. Will they make it? Can an individual's dreams overcome the nightmares offered by real life? Can we succeed despite a few mistakes?


Characters of the Book: Govind, Ishaan, Omi, Vidya, Bittoo mama, Ali, Ali's father and others.


My Review:  It opens with Bhagat receiving an emailed suicide note from someone in Ahmedabad he's never heard of before. Intrigued and worried he wants to do something to help, but doesn't know what to do. Fortunately, "there are advantages in having a wife who is smarter than you" and she tells him to call an old college professor there... Finding out the unknown suicide's name and what hospital he's in, Bhagat can't relax at all and flies from Singapore to India to talk to him.

From there it's all Govind's story about his and his two oldest best friends' ambitions and the three big mistakes he made that drove him to kill himself.

Set against a backdrop of real events in Gujarat and India, earthquake, religious riots and international cricket, we follow the rise of Govind, Ish and Omi's small business as they try to balance their individual interests. Only Govind has a head for business, math and logic, but he learns about passion from his friends, like Ish's passion for cricket and Omi's for his family's political ambitions. And when he curses strongly in front of Ish's younger sister and apologizes she says he needn't, it's a sign of passion and she likes when he does it.

In the end, all three mistakes are resolved, of course. One is resolved long before the end and hardly seems a big mistake at all. The others take a bit more time.

I love Chetan Bhagat's ability to connect with his readers, his simple language flow just grips you. Yeah, there sure are some limitations, but highly ignorable. 

Apart from a few events like Omi's death, the story was a light and enjoyable read. Instead of bothering about the literary content too much and criticizing Bhagat for it, if you want to enjoy reading the book, it's surely suitable for you.

Rating:

My Reaction: 

 

Review: Lajja (Shame) by Taslima Nasrin

How I came to Know About the Book: I heard about Taslima Nasrin and her books (especially this one) a long time ago, but I wasn't allowed to read those back then since I was said that 'these books are not suitable for your age'! But a couple of months ago I read this borrowing it from a friend.

Format of the Book: Hardcover

Genre: Cultural, Religion.

Length of the Book: 216 pages.

A Short Synopsis: The Duttas - Sudhamoy, Kironmoyee, and their two children, Suranjan and Maya - have lived in Bangladesh all their lives. Despite being part of the country's small Hindu community, that is terrorized at every opportunity by Muslim fundamentalists, they refuse to leave their country, as most of their friends and relatives have done. Sudhamoy, an atheist, believes with a naive mix of optimism and idealism that his motherland will not let him down... 
And then, on 6 December 1992, the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in India is demolished by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists. The world condemns the incident but its fallout is felt most acutely in Bangladesh, where Muslim mobs begin to seek out and attack the Hindus... The nightmare inevitably arrives at the Duttas' doorstep - and their world begins to fall apart.

My Review: 
"Let another name for religion be humanism."

The book presents story of a hindu family living in Bangladesh/East Pakistan in 1992 when Babri Masjid riots were going on in India. The book tells the story of Dutta family which loves Bangladesh, even though they see clear discrimination, violence and hatred for Hindus. The nation of Bangladesh was created for people who called themselves as 'Bangla', but slowly a movement started which converted Bangladesh to an Islamic country. The vision of the nation was to be a secular country, but it ended up as an Islamic country. The story revolves around the lives of a family consisting Sudhmoy(husband, doctor), Kiranmoyee(Wife) and their two kids Suranjan and Maya. The book shows in the beginning Suranjan is patriotic and wants to bring social justice in his country Bangladesh. His father is as patriotic as he is and ridicules Hindus who are leaving Bangladesh during the troubled times. However, after the Babri riots happen, all hell breaks loose and the family faces really hard times. Slowly Suranjan starts identifying himself as Hindu and not Bangla anymore. The story ends with the family giving up their hopes and aspirations to be knows as citizens of Bangladesh.

The tale is very touching and shows how a nation betrays its citizens, even when the only emotion they have for their country is patriotism. The nation of Bangladesh has failed to live upto the dreams and aspirations of its Hindu citizens which helped in its creation.

However, there are certain aspects of writing which make the book less appealing. There are real life facts/events which have been directly copy pasted in the middle of the text. It becomes very boring to read them after a few pages. The characters seem to have a flawless memory of all these events as they remember and narrate them without any problems at all. All this happens way too often and it becomes annoying. The patriotism seems to be impractical, even when your daughter is being kidnapped and raped, its impractical to imagine that you will still praise your nation without any complains!

I can certainly understand or rather feel the reason behind writing the book, but I didn't like the way it was written.

Rating: 

My Reaction: 

Review: Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars: Book One) by Sara Shepard

How I Came to Know About this Book: After watching the TV show based on these books.

Format of The Book: Ebook (epub version).

Genre: Suspense, YA, Mystery, Thriller.

Length of the Book: 286 pages (paperback).

Characters of The Book: Alison, Spencer, Emily, Hanna, Aria, (and their respective parents), Mona, Toby, Jenna, Noel, Sean, Ezra, Maya, Kate, Isabel, Mike, Melissa, Wren, Ben, Wilden, Ian Thomas, Carolyn, Meredith and of course 'A'!

A Short Synopsis: Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by some one in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back? A strong launch for a suspenseful series.


My Review: 

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." 
-Benjamin Franklin. 

Once upon a time, there were five 'best' friends: Alison, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer. Alison is the girl everyone loves, but secretly hates because they’re envious. She is what you could call the secret keeper of the clique, the one that holds the deepest and darkest secrets of each of the girls that nobody else knows and that they wouldn't dare share with another person. Then one day, Alison disappears mysteriously during a girls' sleepover night for celebrating the end of their seventh grade. And things change. Aria's family moves to Iceland and their friendship falls apart.

Three years later, the girls begin to receive threatening texts, IMs, and notes about their secrets- past and present from an anonymous source "A".  Aria is flirting with her English teacher Ezra; Emily is hanging out more with the new neighbour girl, Maya (in a way more than just friends do); Hanna has a dirty way of keeping thin, and Spencer is out for her perfect sister Melissa's boyfriend, Wren. 

Initially they begin to think that "A" is Alison and she is back (because the secrets "A" knows were known to Alison only, not even known by the other friends.) But as Ali's dead body is found out under a concrete slab in her house, things change and so do the girls' way of thinking! The four of them- Hanna, Emily, Aria and Spencer are brought together again for the "A" secret but they hesitate to share their 'pretty little' secrets with each other.

At the beginning, I had a hard time differentiating the characters from each other, but as I got further into the book, the characters became more and more alive. My favorite was Spencer. She was nerdy (like me), and that is probably where our similarities begin and end. I really felt bad for her, being overshadowed by her older sister, clamoring for her parents to see her and pay attention to her. Aria left to live in Iceland for three years and came back to Rosewood. Hanna's story pulled at my heartstrings. I can understand her desire to be perfect and thin. Lastly, we have Emily, she is the goody-two-shoes--she does everything her parents say and doesn't complain. But secretly, she wants to give up swimming and figure out how she feels about the neighbour girl, Maya. I thought the exploration of her sexuality was well-done. No over the top drama.

The other characters--the various family members and classmates--are seen through the eyes of these girls, and they are pretty well developed too (for secondary characters). I loved Mona's transformation from Outsider to Popular girl; Andrew was sweet (even if he seemed a creepy stalker); Maya was fascinating.

The story does get you hooked and make you interested in what happens to each girl. Instead of being aloof and unmoving, I found myself drawing closer to these characters and wondering what happened next, frantically turning pages. As for the texts from the mysterious "A"-- I highlighted them all and it was they were mysterious as hell, specially the last one: “I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything."

The book ends on not-quite a cliffhanger. It's a fairly well contained story with an obvious series sequel hook.

It was a quick enjoyable read. And if you're into YA and suspense, this book is recommended for you; this is a perfect combo of the duo!

Rating: 

My Reaction: 

Author Interview: Jamie Baywood

Please welcome Jamie Baywood, author ofGetting Rooted in New Zealand for an exclusive interview in my blog, Books Are My Best Friends. I'm really very glad to have her here and I want to thank her for giving me the time to interview here. Thank you, Jamie!
I asked her a few questions about her book and here are the answers she gave for those questions.

Interview of Jamie Baywood-->

Me: Hey Jamie, first of all welcome to Books Are My Best Friends. It's a pleasure to have you here. To start the interview I'd like to ask you first who are your target audience? And which genre do you prefer writing about?

Jamie: I think anyone that enjoys reading Bill Bryson, Chelsea Handler or Elizabeth Gilbert would enjoy reading my book Getting Rooted in New Zealand.

I love making people laugh.  I feel very grateful that most readers understand my sense of humor. I’m always surprised and grateful when I receive a positive review. I thought my book would mostly appeal to young women in their 20s or 30s. I was happily surprised by having a couple of men emailing me telling me they loved my book and can’t wait to read the next one.

Me: When did you first know that you wanted to be an author? Did you always want to be one?

Jamie: My education is in fine arts. I had a lot of art shows in California and New Zealand and even managed an art collective in Auckland.  I was bored with the fine art scene. Everything has already been done before in painting, but I am the only person that can tell my own story. Writing feels like a more honest form of art than any other method I’ve tried. While I was in New Zealand I meet a director named Thomas Sainsbury, he asked me what I was doing in New Zealand. My everyday stories made him laugh and he asked me to write a monologue for him. I had never done anything like that before. I was shocked by the adrenaline rush that came with storytelling and making people laugh. 

The stories made people laugh so I decided to organize the stories into a book and publish in the hopes to make others laugh too.

Me: What is your work schedule like when you're writing a book?

Jamie: I constantly make myself notes. This summer in Wales, I was scribble stories on the backs of maps and Google directions as a passenger in the car. I also send myself text messages or emails riding in trains or buses. It might not look like I’m writing a book if one was to observe me, but I am constantly watching, listening and thinking about writing.

Me: How did you come up with the idea behind "Getting Rooted in New Zealand"?

Jamie: I consider myself an accidental author. I didn’t go to New Zealand with the intentions of writing a book about my experiences there.  I had funny experiences that I had trouble believing were true. I wrote the stories down to stay sane. I wrote situations down that were happening around me and shared them with friends.

Me: Is any of the characters/incidents in your book influenced by real life people or circumstances?

Jamie: My book is a true story. My life has been so strange it sounds like fiction, but it is really too weird to be made up. My truth is stranger than fiction. Some, but not all of the names of individuals and organizations have been changed to preserve privacy, but the stories are all true.

Me: What is your favourite character of the book? Which character was most fun to write about? And which one was most difficult to portray?

Jamie: Recently on Twitter, the characters in Getting Rooted in New Zealand are described as, “Wicked. Lots of heroes and villains. It’s a story you can read again and again- it’s laugh out loud shocking in parts and cringe worthy, some office peeps are monsters!” by Colin Mathura-Jeffree, a male model and judge for the TV show New Zealand’s Next Top Model. Colin is one of my favourite characters that I meet in New Zealand.

­­­I had good, bad and weird experiences in New Zealand. I’m grateful for all the people I encountered, heroes and villains, the experiences I had turned me into a writer.

Me: What was the biggest challenge while writing the book?

Jamie: Most of the book was written as the events happened; it just took me a few years to work up the nerve to publish. To write my book Getting Rooted In New Zealand, I relied upon my personal journals, e-mails, and memories. In February 2013, I organized my stories into a cohesive narrative. It went through several rounds of editing and then I published in April. 

I am just now starting to go on book talk tours throughout the United Kingdom and being interviewed. Since publication, I’ve mostly been working on networking and marketing.  I haven’t told my family that I’ve written or published a book. They think I’m just living in the UK working on a MA in Design studying book covers. It’s been an interesting dance trying to promote the book and attempting to stay anonymous.

Me: Did you ever suffer writer's block? If yes, what did you do to get over it?

Jamie:I just try to take breaks and focus on something else for a while.

Me: What were your feelings when you first saw the finished copy of your book?

Jamie: My initial reaction was I can’t believe I did it.

Me: Are you completely satisfied with your writing or would you like to change something in your story, given a chance?

Jamie:There are always little memories or stories that keep bubbling up in my mind about my time in New Zealand that I’ll try to weave into sequels. It would be impossible to write down every single thing that happen to me in New Zealand for over a year and it probably wouldn’t be interesting to read. My book is 100% true. These are 100% my experiences.

Me: Is there any person who inspired you to become a writer?

Jamie: While I was in New Zealand, I made an amazingly talented friend named Cyan Corwine. We made a pinky promise that we would both go through with publishing our own books.

Me: What is your favourite place for writing?

Jamie:The passenger seat of my husband’s car is my favourite place to write.

Me: When you're not writing what do you do to relax?

Jamie: I like yoga, pilates and running. I recently ran 10K in York, England raising money for a friend with MS.

Me: Are you working on the sequels? When can we expect the sequel to be published?

Jamie: I plan to divide my books by the countries I've lived in.  I've lived in five countries; America, American Samoa, New Zealand, Scotland and now England.  My next book will be about attempting to settle in Scotland. 

Me: What are your favourite books?

Jamie: May I Ask You Something? by Cyan Corwine.

Me: What are you reading currently?

Jamie: Wild by Cheryl Strayed. 

Author Bio: Jamie Baywood grew up in Petaluma, California. In 2010, she made the most impulsive decision of her life by moving to New Zealand. Getting Rooted in New Zealand is her first book about her experiences living there. Jamie is now married and living happily ever after in the United Kingdom. She is working on her second book.

About the Book: Getting Rooted in New Zealand book description:

Craving change and lacking logic, at 26, Jamie, a cute and quirky Californian, impulsively moves to New Zealand to avoid dating after reading that the country's population has 100,000 fewer men. In her journal, she captures a hysterically honest look at herself, her past and her new wonderfully weird world filled with curious characters and slapstick situations in unbelievably bizarre jobs. It takes a zany jaunt to the end of the Earth and a serendipitous meeting with a fellow traveler before Jamie learns what it really means to get rooted.

Getting Rooted in New Zealand is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482601907

Jamie Baywood can be followed on the following sites:

Facebook.com/jamiebaywood
Twitter.com/jamiebaywood
Pinterest.com/jamiebaywood
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7069448.Jamie_Baywood
amazon.com/author/jamiebaywood