Interview, Guest Post, and Contest with Author Lee Nichols!

Today Lee Nichols is here, and she is an Adult Romance author who has a debut YA book,  Deception, coming out this year! Below is an about me about Lee, Deception description and cover, then her guest post, followed by our interview, and finally contest information. Enjoy : )

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Lee Nichols is the author of five romantic comedies with Red Dress Ink: Tales of a Drama Queen (2004), Hand-Me-Down (2005), True Lies of a Drama Queen (2006), Wednesday Night Witches (2007) and Reconstructing Brigid (2008). This spring, Lee will be debuting on the YA shelves with the first book in her haunting paranormal trilogy, Deception ~ A Haunting Emma Novel (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, June 2010). Follow her on Twitter at LeeXNichols or Friend her on Facebook at Lee Nichols. 

http://www.leenicholsbooks.com/

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I can still remember some of my favorite young adult books. Passed back and forth between friends who loved to read as much as I did. It's thrilling to me that I may encourage a young reader to love books in the way that S.E. Hinton and Judy Blume excited me. Not to mention all the authors I've forgotten, but whose stories still live on in my mind.

 
My goal has always been to write books that you're so content reading on a Saturday night, you don't feel like you've missed out on something better. I loved creating Emma Vaile and her ghosts and hope that readers happily lose themselves in her world for a couple of hours. 

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Deception: A Haunting Emma Book One 
By Lee Nichols

Release Date: June 8, 2010! 

When Emma Vaile’s parents go missing while away on a mysterious business trip, she’s left all alone in her creepy old house. But her brother’s very cute best friend, Bennett Stern—Emma’s knight in J. Crew armor—arrives unexpectedly to whisk her away to New England. There, Emma settles into his family’s museum-like mansion and enrolls at an old-fashioned private school. She quickly finds friends in the popular legacy crowd at Thatcher and spends her free time crushing on Bennett. But the eerie visions she’s been hiding from everyone have gotten worse. Emma has memories of Thatcher that she can’t explain—it’s as if she’s returning home to a place she’s never been. Finally, Emma confides in Bennett and learns she is a ghostkeeper, a person who can communicate with ghosts. Bennett brought Emma to Thatcher to protect her, but now he needs her help tracking an other-worldly murderer. 

A rich New England setting filled with mystery, tradition, and prep-school intrigue make Deception the perfect choice for fans of series like Kate Brian’s Private, as well as all those paranormal fans. The shocking ending will leave readers desperate for book two. 

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How did you come up with the idea for the story of Deception? 

I was knocking around some ideas with my agent for an adult novel about a woman who moves into an old New England house that she soon realizes is haunted. The more I worked on the character and plot, the more I realized it was better suited for a YA novel. That I really wanted to write about a seventeen year old girl who could control ghosts. So the house is still there and so are the ghosts, but it took on a completely different nature: less gothic, more kick-butt young heroine. 

How many books will be in the series? 

Deception comes out this June, followed by Betrayal next winter, and I'm just starting to write the third in the Haunting Emma series which will be titled Possession. 

How was writing a Young Adult book different from writing books for adults? 

I don't really find it that different. I'm still building plots and characters which then lead to the settings. So while they may be at school and proms instead of work and bars, the process is very much the same. The voice came easily to me. I think inside, I'm still seventeen. 

What was your favorite book when you were little? Right now? 

The Gift of Magic, by Lois Duncan. It was the first book I can remember loving that hadn't been handed to me by my mother. I think parents influence children's book choices for so long, and my mother and I did not agree on what made a book fun. The Gift of Magic began my love affair with reading. Right now, I tell anyone who asks to read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, which funnily enough was handed to me by mother. We still have very different tastes, but this one we both loved. 

What is your favorite genre to write? Read? 

Right now I'm completely involved with YA books. The genre has just exploded and I think it's most exciting place to be as a reader and a writer. 

Who inspired you to start writing? 

My husband, Joel N. Ross, who's also a writer. He gave me the confidence to think this could be something more than a dream. 

What is one or a couple things you just have to have when you are writing? 

A comfortable spot. I am not a desk person. I write on the couch or the bed. It surprises me that I can write whole books that way, but I do. 

Finally, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! 
Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure!

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Contest:
Dedrie and Lee have offered to give away one of Lee's older books to one of my readers, so without further ado a contest for Hand-Me-Down! Here's the description from Goodreads and the cover: 

For Anne Olsen, new and improved is the only way to live. So how'd she fall for a secondhand man? Charlotte had the Malibu Barbie with a full wardrobe. Emily inherited a slightly used Barbie with two outfits and Anne was left with a one-armed, bald Barbie who enjoyed nudist colonies. It's little wonder that at twenty-nine, Anne drives a new car, eats only from freshly opened packages and thinks. 

After growing up in the shadows of her older sisters -- one a swimsuit model, the other a pop-feminist -- Anne's personality is one part sibling rivalry and two parts VD (stands for Vague Dissatisfaction, and yes, it itches). Now she's the self-professed underachiever in the family, determined to find happiness on her own terms. But when her sister's ex-boyfriend -- seemingly perfect, potentially interested -- reenters her life, Anne's got to ask: Could she possibly fall in love with a hand-me-down man.