Rock This! Thursday with Mindi Scott + GIVEAWAY!

This week's post is a part of Teen Book Scene that I am super excited about! You guys have no idea how pumped I am to have debut author, Mindi Scott, hanging out with us to answer a few questions. If you want to read how much I loved her book, check out my review here.



How does it feel to be a debut author?
Like veggie corndogs dipped in ketchup. In other words, delicious and amazing!

You're walking down the street - what song is following you?
“Lazy Eye” by Silversun Pickups.

I'm always curious of an author's main character (especially ones that I love). How to did Seth come about and what made you want to tell his story?
On July 14, 2006, I wrote this on a sheet of notebook paper: Okay, so this is the story of a social reject who falls in love with a somewhat popular girl.

I went on for four pages describing this decent guy getting totally used and abused by this girl with capital “I” issues. For some strange reason, I thought it sounded like a worthwhile thing to pursue and decided to write it.

Luckily, “our social-reject hero” turned out to be much cooler and more complicated than I’d first imagined and the evil girl turned out not to be evil after all. But that’s from where Seth first came. Just a tiny spark of an idea that evolved into something that is (thank goodness!) nearly unrecognizable.

Tell us a song that you think would make a great read.
“Starcrossed” by Ash. Although, come to think of it, that story was originally called “Romeo and Juliet.”

I know with writing there are always bumps in the road. What sort of obstacles did you face with Freefall?
Oh man, Amber. Most of the process with getting Freefall ready felt like obstacle after obstacle, I have to say.

Very early in the process, I was told by a writing instructor that, essentially, I’m too much of a girly girl to write a male narrator, my character was unlikable, and no publisher would ever touch the manuscript. I pressed on with writing and revising (and revising and revising) for 1.5 years because I absolutely believed that my instructor was wrong.

When it was finally ready, I sent it out to agents and spent nine months collecting nearly 100 rejections. Many of them said that my writing was “solid,” but they “couldn’t connect” with Seth. Those were some dark, dark times for me because it seemed that I’d been wrong, and that it was never going to happen for this story after all.

(Bright side: After my mostly awful writing year that was 2008, I got an agent and my book deal in 2009!)

WHAT!? How could they not connect with Seth? He's one of the most relatable characters I've came across. Those people were blind! (Okay, I'll stop my rant. Onward with the questions): If you could hang out with one musician - living or dead - who would it be and why?

Not to sound all whatever, but a lot of musicians that I might think I want to hang out with, I probably really wouldn’t. That said, Brandon Flowers is very pretty and he seems like he might be fun! (But don’t anyone tell me if that last part isn’t true . . . )

We're always down for new music so if Rosetta could share 5 songs with us, what would they be?

“Hollow” –Alabaster
“Twilight of the Innocents” –Ash
“Want and Need” –Everything is Energy
“I Was Never a Normal Boy” –Nightmare of You
“Muzzle of Bees” –Wilco

I loved that Seth was in a band and how well it was written. Have you ever been in a band or wanted to be?
Aww, thank you for the compliment! Years ago, I sang backup vocals and played maracas for two shows with my husband’s former band. It was not really my thing. Still, while I was writing this book, I got the notion that I wanted to learn to play bass. My husband bought me this really awesome Fender Mustang for Christmas. It now sits around looking all sexy, but it gets zero action. Sad, really.
Bottom line: I’m not a musician, my singing voice is mediocre, I’m a terrible dancer, and I look and feel ridiculous on stage. Me being in a band was just never meant to happen.

Have you experienced any rock star writing moments?
Just these: Reading reviews of Freefall where the reviewer totally gets it, and receiving emails from people who are excited to read my book or who have already read it and love it. Those are the rockingest moments I can imagine! :-)

If you want to find out more about Mindi and her writing, check out the following sites:
http://mindiscott.com/
http://twitter.com/mindi_scott
http://www.youtube.com/user/authormindiscott
http://www.thecontemps.com/

Now onto the giveaway! Mindi has offered to giveaway the following:

* 1 signed personalized copy of Freefall
* Albaster CD
* The Wages of Sin CD
--These are groups the bands from Freefall would open for, ya know, if the bands from the book were real!

To enter, you have to answer the following question from Mindi:

"Is there a song out there that can pull you out of a funk no matter what?"

Her answer: Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups

*US ONLY!
*Giveaway will end October 21st at 11:59 pm central time. I will be announcing the winner on the blog. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me with their mailing address or another winner will be chosen.
*Make sure you answer the question above! 


Extra entries:
+2 entry points if you leave a comment on my review
+1 for every place you link this giveaway to. PLEASE LEAVE THE LINK IN YOUR ENTRY!


GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!


♥amber