Thursday, March 14, 2013

Virtual Book Tour: Saving Casey: Liza O'Connor

Today please welcome author Liza O'Connor, who has bravely answered my infamous Rick Reed questions and is going to talk about her new release, Saving Casey.  Liza will award a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Other random commenters at blog stops will receive: $5 Amazon GCs, tattoos like Casey's, or offer to place tattoos like Casey's on a jpg picture supplied by winner.


Liza Responds to the really, really, really, hard
Questions

1)    You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do you have?

Barack Obama and a firestarter. Here’s why.

 I ran through a great deal of scenarios with various people. It turns out I need my computer AND an Internet connection, so it doesn’t matter who I’m with, I’m not going to be happy. I’m going to be hungry and grumpy in short order. So I turned to getting rescued as quickly as possible. (That’s called thinking out of the boxif you don’t like the game, change it.)

Now the choice was easy:  Barack Obama. Seems like a cheerful, levelheaded, pleasant fellow. And being the President, I expect a massive search and rescue would occur within seconds of him disappearing.

So why did I choose fire? To build a massive bonfire to aid in the rescue. And while we wait, sitting by the toasty fire, I can have a fascinating conversation with someone I would otherwise never meet.

Then when I return to my home and log in, I can tell everyone about my time with my new friend Barack. They, of course, will not believe me.

2)    Which musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?

I was beginning to think my life really didn’t mimic any musical. But then I found one. Urinetown.  It’s a satirical musical that attempts to achieve a great many things at once, all the while, bordering on the nonsensical.  I am none of the characters. I am the musical and all those voices are within me.

Urinetown satirizes the greed of capitalism, the inability of people to be socially responsible, bureaucratic idiocy, corporate incompetence, and dirty local politics—all the while singing ridiculous songs and being silly. And it ends badly, but everyone leaves laughing. In other words, it’s rather like my blogs.


3)    Take these three words and give me a 100 word or less scenario using them:  internal, condensed, wait

My internal sense of humor cannot wait to be condensed like milk and canned for the massesbought, stored, and consumed.

4)    You’ve just been let loose in the world of fiction, with permission to do anyone you want. Who do you fuck first and why?

First of all, I prefer the phrase ‘getting frisky’.
For one, no censoring bot will tag it and remove my answer. Secondly, it sounds more fun.

To me, ‘fuck’ is for cursing.  And I don’t want to curse with or at John Cusack. He’s reported to be intelligent, edgy, and charismatic. To me, those are far more important than a six pack.





5)    What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?
Do a fun, life-endangering activity, such as jumping out a plane (with a parachute) or rafting down a class four river that revs up the adrenaline. At the end of said adventure we’d take a quick shower and get frisky.

6)    When you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?
I actually begin with a dream where my muse gives me a scene or two with a vague plot. So when I wake up,  I focus on the characters , teasing facts out of them as they meet each other. Once I understand who they are, I set them free to interact and the story goes where they want to take it, which is almost always in a different direction than my original plot concept.

7)    If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?
The comedienne, Erinn Hayes (Dr. Spratt- Children’s Hospital,  Guys with Kids,  It’s a Disaster – Indie film). She has the range to play both the crazy and serious parts of me.












  8)  Who’s your favorite horror villain and why?
Hannibal LecterHe’s such a soft-spoken, gentle psychopath. However, I would be reluctant to accept a dinner invitation from him, in fear I’d become the main course.






9)    Do you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?
Ernest Hemingway.
 Besides being a fabulous author, he was also easy on the eyes and a bit of a rake.  A great bit of a rake. He was a rake’s rake.


  10)                    Is there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to receive it?

That probably describes ten of the novels I’ve written. Sometimes my characters go off in a direction that either skirts or downright tramples our current mores and laws.

However, I was once told the plot of my current novel, Saving Casey, was ‘unpublishable’ because it begins with the suicide of the main character and entertains a budding romance between a 17 yr old girl and a 30 yr old guy.

However, with careful handling of these matters, the book has been very well received. While my main character does kill herself in chapter 1, she awakens in chapter 2 in the body of a 17-year-old troubled teen.  Thus, it is the old woman’s soul in a teen’s body who has fallen for her security guard. However, he is as honorable as they come, so while he does love her, nothing happens until they become older. There’s also one other forbidden topic, but I don’t want to spoil the story for you.

The good news is that Saving Casey’s current success makes me hope that with deft handling, I can bring my other ‘forbidden’ novels to light as well.



Saving Casey
by Liza O’Connor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Eighty-year-old Cass wakes up in the body of a troubled seventeen-year-old girl named Casey, which all believe has survived a suicide attempt. Cass intends to turn the girl’s life around, only it’s harder than she expects. All Casey’s troubles have now become Cass’s and someone wants her dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT :


EXCERPT : Troy admits he loves Cass

Any chance you’d be willing to go to a different doctor to get another treatment on your face?”

“I really like Dr. Grey.”

“I know, but we can’t take the chance. You’d visit a doctor in Montana after office hours.”

“Does he have the equivalent experience and skills as Dr. Grey? Because I already have nightmares where I’m blind and irreparably scarred.”

“He won’t touch your eyes. He’ll just work on the cheeks.”

“And if I’m scarred, causing little children to scream at the sight of me, will you still love me?” She expected him to flounder with his response because it required him to actually admit he loved her, something he’d refused to do. To her shock, he replied at once.

“Absolutely.”

“No hesitation?”

“Nope.”

“So explain why you’ll love me without hesitation if I’m hideously scarred, but won’t even kiss me when I’m just ghoulishly tattooed?”

“Simple. Dan wouldn’t mind if I’m the only man in the world who still thinks you’re beautiful. But as long as millions of better alternatives exist, Dan would never forgive me for stealing your future.”

She hated it when he nailed the truth. If she were really seventeen, she would agree a hundred percent. Sighing heavily, she muttered, “I’ll see the doctor.”

“He’s not going to leave you scarred, Cass.”

“I hope not, but if he does, I’m holding you to your word.”

“You have it.”

She smiled at the turn of this conversation. “So you think I’m beautiful?”

“Inside and out,” he replied. “We need to change the conversation now.”

“Why? I like this conversation.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Adventure Bio:

I live in Denville, NJ with my dog, Jess. We hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, I learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. I’m an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through my entire life, my first love has and always will be writing novels. I love to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

SAVING CASEY BUY LINKS

Bonobookstore: http://bonobookstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_54&products_id=79

Amazon Link to Saving Casey:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7KRSOO

Barnes&Noble Link to SC: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/saving-casey-liza-oconnor/1113795362?ean=2940015849295

Video links:

Saving Casey Trailer: http://youtu.be/WxcaMP0Dgzc   

Abridged My Crappy New Life series: http://youtu.be/p6QzYsxJ7jQ

Liza links:

Blog and Website: http://www.LizaOConnor.com

Facebook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/liza.oconnor.90

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Liza0Connor




 Special note:  Saving Casey will be reduced from $5.99 to $2.99 for the duration of the tour (March 5th-April 11th) at Amazon, B&N, DP/Bono, ARe, Coffee Time Romance, BookStrand and Smashwords. Don't forget about the prizes she's offering too. Comment often for more chances to win!


28 comments:

  1. Julie,
    Thanks for having me on your site. I love the pics you put with my interview.

    I just want to remind your readers to leave an email address when commenting. That’s so I can find you if you win the gift. If you don’t like spambots grabbing your email, just spell out AT and DOT.

    As Julie mentioned, for the duration of this blog tour, the price of SAVING CASEY has dropped to $2.99 at AMAZON. Once the tour is over (April 6th), it goes back to $5.99, so buy it now.

    PRIZE FOR THIS BLOG STOP:
    In addition to the GRAND TOUR PRIZE-$25 Amazon Gift Card, I am offering a special gift for one commenter on this blog stop. $5 Amazon Gift Card or temp facial tats so you can mar your pretty face just like Saving Casey’s. Winner’s choice

    Feel free to ask me questions. I love hearing from you. I’ll be popping in through the day and evening to catch any comments. Hope to hear from you guys. Have a great day!

    Liza O'Connor

    ReplyDelete
  2. Omgod Liza, your interview had me lol'ing in very inopportune places this morning! Probably best interview I've read all year :) you are hilarious!

    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then you should definitely read the first half of Saving Casey. However, then it turns serious and you'll have to cry and yell at characters, but it ends well. Also you should check out my blogs. They tend to be very funny.

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  3. It sounds like such an interesting story and I love the interview, you have some well thought out answers. My question is do you actually believe in re-incarnation or is this just a "what if" theme for a book?

    fencingromein at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No I actually believe in reincarnation. I believe we go from life to life learning things. This time around I'm supposed to be working on Forgiveness. Which turns out to be a great thing to learn, because when you stop being angry at people, you can focus on the wonderful parts of life and become happy.

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  4. Great excerpt. Glad Saving Casey is doing well.

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  5. This was undoubtable one of the best interviews I've read. Great job ladies. Saving Casey is on my Kindle in my TBR pile. I tweeted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ella. Julia gets all the credit for asking the really hard questions and then hunting down pictures to go with my answers.

      Delete
  6. Each interview you get better and better, Liza!! Your book is great

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On this one, I have to credit Julia for her really hard questions...which made me think for hours before I could respond...my dog thought I was napping, but I was thinking.

      And then she traveled the world (of the internet) to locate all the people I speak of in my answers.

      Delete
  7. I am enjoying the excerpts, thank you.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know, if you enjoy the excerpts you have a very high chance of loving Saving Casey if you read it.

      I like to point the obvious. Fewer people argue with me when I do.

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  8. What a fun interview, thanks for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by an enjoying. If you want to be in the running for $$$ or temp tats, you will need to leave your email address.

      Delete
  9. I had to laught at your your first answer, I agree I would be unhappy as well strandet in nowhere, a president would come handy, probably any would do, since they all would be missed. Hm, on second thought, one that knows something of surviving in the wilde an is a sport freak could be better, just in case the search parties take some time. :)

    lyra.lucky7 at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I considered Bear Grylls but he would try to make me eat grubs, so something even worse. No, I'll put my faith in the secret service finding us quickly. I'm sure with the president so logical and me so clever, we'd survive just fine until they arrived.

      Delete
  10. Great interview, actually I love reading the interviews a lot, since they give away something about the books as well as about the writer. A


    lennascloud AT gmail DOT com

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    Replies
    1. I can't imagine what I gave away about me, but can you give it back. I probably need it.

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  11. Hm, I don't see the suicide at the begining as a problem, I thought that was certainly something different.

    elaynelost AT yahoo DOT de

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is very rare to kill off the heroine in chapter one. For most authors this would make writing the rest of the book a challenge since you'd be missing your main character...unless you tell the story in reverse. Then you could do it.

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  12. The excepts and the interviews are a great fun to read.

    anzumerlin(at)mail(dot)ru

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    Replies
    1. The reviewers say the book is too. And it's on sale...half price until April 5th.

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  13. LOL That had to be the best interview yet. I love the part about your internal sense of humor. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, my external sense of humor is very jealous.

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  14. Loved the interview thank you. Obama is the obvious choice really. Every man & his dog would be looking for him.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  15. And he'd be pleasant company in the meanwhile. No better person to get stranded on a deserted island without electricity, internet and my laptop.

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  16. I enjoyed this book.

    http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2013/03/book-saving-casey-2012-liza-oconnor.html

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