Sunday, December 16, 2012

Page Turner Tour (Buy The Book) The Adventures of Austin Girl by Carrie Crain


Little Blurb about yourself:

I received my bachelor of arts in Sociology from the University of Oklahoma and studied graduate-level screenwriting and creative writing in fiction at UCLA. I am a housewife and writer who is challenged with bipolar, anticipatory stress, and generalized anxiety. My debut children's (tween) novel, The Adventures of Austin Girl and the Legend of Diablo, published by Two Crain Publishing, is out and available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony Reader Store, and iTunes for ebook readers, Kindle, iPad, and Nook. Also available as a paperback. Twitter the book @LegendofDiablo and fan the page on Facebook.com/LegendofDiablo

1. Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

I blame the Walt Disney book collection my mom gave me as a little girl. Those timeless fairytales swept me up and transported over the rainbow to fantasy land.

2. How long did it take you to write The Adventures of Austin Girl and the Legend of Diablo?

It’s safe to say roughly around 8 years. The story started out as a screenplay and morphed.

3. While writing how many times do you go back and rewrite a plot?

I don’t rewrite the plot per say, rather I delve in and expand or take away what’s not needed, tweak. I’ve tweaked this story so many times, I honestly can’t remember exactly how many. LOL.

4. You run into a bookstore, where do you go first?

The bathroom, then grab a latte, browse cookbooks, magazines before darting over to the children’s section. I’m such a goober!!

5. How many books in a month do you tend to read?

One. I’m an extremely slow reader. My goal is to read a book a week, but I’m not there yet.

6. In all the books you've read. Who is your most favorite character and why?

Chigurh in No Country For Old Men & Bateman from American Psycho. I am drawn to the bad guy. I’m fascinated with what makes them tick and do the things they do in the story. Chigurh is heartless and ruthless. Well, so is Bateman. They’ll stop at nothing to get what they want. Who they are drives the stories. 

7. State 5 random facts about yourself.

1. I am obsessive-compulsive and must, must, must clean house every day to the point of being ridiculous.
2. I can’t keep a plastic plant alive.
3. I collect custom cowboy boots. That’s probably one of my weaknesses as far as shopping goes. LOL.
4. I bite my nails.
5. I keep an ample supply of peppercorns around. I love to grind pepper. The smell stimulates my mood. Okay, wait, that sounded weird.

8. Your favorite Genre?

Tween adventure fantasy and rom/com

9. What are you currently reading?

After Dark by Haruki Murakami and Jay Rubin, it’s under literary genre  

10. What is the best book you've read?

American Psycho and Running with Scissors are two of my faves. I can’t limit to just one!! ;)

11. Any new projects coming up?

I’m doing the NaNoWriMo with hopes in finishing my erotic horror novel called “The Contract.”

Author Bio:


Carrie Crain received her bachelor of arts in Sociology from the University of Oklahoma and studied graduate-level screenwriting and creative writing in fiction at UCLA. She is a housewife and writer who is challenged by bipolar, anticipatory stress, and generalized anxiety.

Her debut tween novel, The Adventures of Austin Girl and the Legend of Diablo will be published by Two Crain Teen, an imprint of Two Crain Publishing, LLC in October 2012 and available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony Reader Store, and iTunes for ebook readers, Kindle, iPad, and Nook. Also available as a paperback online and at select indie bookstores.

If you’re on Goodreads, follow her there, now. She plans on doing some kind of #LegendofDiabloBookClub.

Crain wrapped up her first independent short she wrote and produced called Sould, which was filmed in Oklahoma last summer and included local talent as well as a Hollywood comedian and LA director. The story is about a zany film director desperate to enter a film competition and reluctantly picks a screenplay about a woman who sells her soul. The short will be entered in film competitions both in the States as well as abroad. For more information about her short, visit the Facebook Fan Page at ww.facebook.com/souldshort and follow along on Twitter @SouldShort.

Crain is currently penning her memoir, a collection of humorous essays, Sould: Memoir of Bipolar to be published in 2014, and is the story of a middle-aged housewife’s adventures with bipolar as she struggles to write the next Great American Novel.

She has been a freelance writer for Austin Monthly Magazine and was a contributing writer at Crazytownblog. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three dogs. For speaking engagements or book inquiries, please e-mail: wildcatterswife@gmail.com or tweet her @CarrieCrain.

Creative Influences: Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Tim Burton, and Wes Anderson

Author Links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Buy Links:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Print
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Excerpt:



THE ADVENTURES OF AUSTIN GIRL AND THE LEGEND OF DIABLO by Carrie Crain - The Kidnapping

The sound of a backfire rattled store windows on the downtown street as Lucky Stevens parked his piece of hippy junk on the East side of Lucky’s Antiques located at 13 Concho Avenue. He drove a flower power Volkswagen bus. The bus was one of those rare 23 windowed jobs with curtains—a residence on wheels.

Straightening his suspenders, he stepped out into the dusty landscape, newspaper in hand. He moseyed past a 1960 black Chevy Pie Wagon parked up ahead, admiring the car. The hot rod was decked out custom style with red and orange flames painted horizontally across the sides and hood. He tipped his beaver Stetson hat to the female driver and grinned handsomely. The pink-haired woman was preoccupied with talking to a Magic 8 Ball and didn’t notice the fifty-year-old cowboy.

Scratching his chin, he leisurely strolled up to a period oak and stained glass door. He reached in his Wrangler jeans front pocket and extracted a set of keys. He put the key in the lock and opened the door to a familiar sight. His antique store was housed in a red brick building in Checkered Past, Texas. He could sniff out valuable antiques just by employing his sixth sense.

Lucky adjusted his string tie that matched his belt that matched his ostrich quill boots. He was in love with ‘vintage everything’ including his clothes and gentleman accouterments. Ambling through the door, he removed his Panama Jack sunglasses. His gait was deliberate, like a sore racehorse. Bells jingled like rowels on a spur letting out the sounds of commerce. Lucky may have been a little deaf, but he wasn’t so deaf that he couldn’t hear money jingle in the pockets of those who entered into his world.

Lucky flipped on the lights and made a silly face at the store’s security camera. Lucky laid his morning Austin American-Statesman newspaper down on the cracked countertop beside the turn of the century cash register, and looked at the time on his 40 year-old Rolex he’d won in a bidding war at an estate sale of one of Lyndon Johnson’s cousins so many years ago. It was still early for shoppers, just a little half past seven a.m. on Friday. A set of white pine plank stairs off to the side began to creak. They led to the attic. Lucky housed antiques there that were part of his private collection, including one secret item in particular that oddly wasn't for sale.

He ditched his attention to the paper and walked over to the bottom of the stairs, looking up into the darkness. “Skinny, you up there?” Lucky hollered sharply. His young stock boy didn’t answer. Shrugging, he turned around to walk off. A thump on his noggin sent Lucky crashing to the hardwood floor. His Stetson flew off of his gray haired head and skidded across the floor like ice on marble. Staggering to his feet, he rubbed the back of his head. “What the—?”

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