A couple weeks ago my amazing friend and critique partner, Kurt Hampe, http://www.kurthampe.com
invited me to participate in a chain letter type interview series designed to link readers to authors they may have not discovered yet. So here's my interview.... Hope you enjoy!

THE NEXT BIG THING blog tour interview...

The ten questions are:

1. What is the working title of your next book? RUNNING ON EMPTY

2. Where did the idea come from for the book? As cliché as it sounds, the idea came from a crazy dream I had years before I allowed myself to put pen to paper. There was a scene where four girls were rushing through an airport to get away from someone. It was so vivid and haunting--I couldn’t get it out of my mind so I started building a story around it. I fell in love with the story and characters and about five years ago, I decided to write it.

3. In what genre does your book fall? Young Adult Contemporary (romantic suspense)

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in the movie rendition? Hmmm…looks-wise, there’s an actress in the Blake Shelton music video, She Wouldn’t Be Gone, that I think looks like my main character, River,--especially her amazing Siberian Husky blue eyes.

Justice, (River’s love interest), looks similar to the adorable actor on George Strait’s video, The Seashores of Old Mexico. Except Justice is a little taller and lankier. 

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  Here’s the June 27^th 3013 PUBLISHER’S MARKETPLACE announcement:

Colette Ballard's debut MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, when a seventeen-year-old girl is brutally attacked by her controlling boyfriend, she accidentally kills him in self-defense and with the help of her closest friends eludes police until she can find evidence to clear her name and face the boy who has stood by her for years and who she has loved for as long as she can remember, to Marie Romero at Tulip, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (World English).

**Note: the title’s since been changed to RUNNING ON EMPTY.

6. Who is publishing your book? Spencer Hill Press’s newest line, TULIP ROMANCE.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? Maybe close to a year, then another year to seriously rewrite. I had so much to learn!! Still learning!

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? An editor who took it to acquisitions once referred to it as SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS meets THELMA & LOUISE. One of my critique partners once said it reminded her of a modern day female version of THE OUTSIDERS.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? A crazy, ambitious notion that somehow I could do it, and an intense love for characters that wouldn’t let me ignore them.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest? Like Kurt Hampe, my friend and blog-poster before me said, RUNNING ON EMPTY has girls, horses, and murder! I’d like to add hot guy to that list! :)

RUNNING ON EMPTY is scheduled for digital release November 25, 2013. Print date to follow...

Thank you for visiting!! 

 Now I get to tag two other authors who I think are a Next Big Thing;

Cole Gibsen, http://www.colegibsen.com/

Author of BREATHLESS, KATANA, AND SENSHI

Helene Dunbar,  http://www.helenedunbar.com/blog/

THESE GENTLE WOUNDS is about a boy with PTSD and survivor's guilt who must call upon strength he didn't know he had in order to save himself and those he loves when his abusive father reenters his life.