Caught red-handed and Kidnapped

To keep up with all things interview related I've asked the lovely and talented Tamara Heiner to join us in all the fun!!!! Below is the interview I hope you enjoy!!!

1.Your book Perilous is due to release in fall 2010, could you tell us a little bit about it?

Let’s see, Perilous! In brief, it follows the story of four teenage girls who witness a crime, and in a desperate gamble to silence them (and make a little money), the criminal kidnaps them, dragging them thousands of miles from home across the Canadian border. However, they manage to escape, and spend the majority of the book trying to get back to their families, all with the kidnapper hot on their trail. It doesn’t end with the first book either! There is some resolution, but the kidnapper isn’t caught. That remains for the second book. And in true YA-style, there is, of course, romance (sigh), complete with a love triangle. (I did have to really tone down the love triangle, though, and keep the novel more of a thriller. Sad!)

2. Do you have a critique group, online, in your neighborhood?

Yes. Online only, I’m afraid. I’d love to have a neighborhood one, but we seem remarkably short on local authors.

3. How did you decide what agencies to query through?

I knew I wasn’t going to query agents with this novel. I felt it was a starter novel, kind of like a starter home, and therefore I decided only to query small presses. At the time I thought it was going to be a Christian, religious novel (which it is not now—everything’s been edited out until the novel is mainstream, for the sake of a larger audience), so I limited my queries to small Christian presses. Did you use certain websites to help decide who was best? In particular I found the LDS Storymakers publishing website very helpful. I didn’t realize how many small presses there were! (So many!)

4. How many queries did you send out? How long before you heard from a publisher?

I sent out 8 queries, I think. It took two months to get my first rejection. I actually only got one rejection. I might have gotten others if they had had the chance to reject me (one had my query for 8 months and still hadn’t made a decision), but I was offered a contract by one of the companies before they could. It was a very fun feeling to reject them!

8 . Do you have any other works in progress? Of course! Care to give a few details?

Oh, sure, I love to talk about my books! I have the sequel to Perilous (working
title: Altercation) in second draft form. I’ll finish it after Perilous goes to press, that way I know there are no more changes I need to make. I have a completely
revised novel that I’m currently querying, called White as Snow. It’s a fairy-tale retelling, the story of Snow White, with equal parts historical and fantasy woven in. I’ve started the ‘sequel’ to that one, currently untitled, but it’s a fairy-tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast. At the moment I’m working on a stand alone YA novel called Inevitable. It’s about a teenage girl who is psychic, but only around certain people. She spends her whole life avoiding these people because she only sees negative things. And then she meets a boy that she knows (psychically) will break her heart. Yet nothing she does can keep them apart.

Fun and Random Questions
Favorite restaurant: Tucanos
Favorite book: A Rustle in the Grass
Favorite writing spot: The corner of the couch, propped up by pillows.
Chocolate or Gummy Bears: Depends on my mood. Usually gummy bears.
Favorite writing snack: I don’t really eat while I write…
Favorite book series: Harry Potter
Favorite movie: Lord of the Rings

Isn't she awesome!!!! Be sure to check out her blog and support her in her writing dream!!!

Tamara Heiner at Chasing Dreams