Interview, Review & Giveaway: Keris Stainton ~ Jessie Hearts NYC

Paperback, 255 pages

Published July 7th 2011 by Orchard

ISBN: 1408304287 (ISBN13: 9781408304280)

Jessie's just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex.

New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend's girlfriend.

They might be perfect together but in a city of eight million people, will they ever find each other?

Jessie Hearts NYC is an amazingly written novel about Love, New York, Friendship, Coincidences, and The Empire State Buliding. What's not to love about Jessie Hearts NYC? I loved reading every page of this book and you would to.

We get to meet alot of characters in this book and that makes it all the more interesting. The book itself is obviously based Jessie and Finn. But with them comes there families, friends and their own stories.

Jessie is in New York visiting her mum (Natalie) she has also taken her bestfriend with her (Emma) along for the journey. We see alot of strain between Natalie and Jessie which in understanding on both there halfs. We then get to meet Ben which is Jessie's crush (kind of) and Jessie finds out in an embarressing way that he is Natalie's bouyfriend.

Her and Emma then flee to a hotel and go up to the roof where Finn is holding his 18th Birthday. That's how they first meet. We've alreadt met Finn thought and his bestfriend (Scott) and the girl Finn's in love with (Sam) which is Scott's girlfriend.

After that Finn and Jessie keep meeting coincidently. Later on in the book Jessie's dad (John) and his boyfriend (Rhys) comes into the book and announces some new to Jessie. (I won't tell you as I don't want to ruin the surprise).

Anyways, before I babble on about this book for hours which btw I could do as it's amazing I'll stop. Just wnter the comptition below orr buy a copy of this book. You will NOT be disappointed.

Interview with Keris:

~ First things first, Can you tell readers abit about yourself as well as Jessie <3 NYC?

I can! I've been writing for years and had my first YA novel published in 2010 (Della Says: OMG!). My second, Jessie Hearts NYC, came out in July this year. I live in Lancashire with my husband and two sons and I'm obsessed with Twitter. 

 ~ I loved Jessie <3 NYC as it's such an amazing book, Can you tell us where you got your inspiration from?

Thank you so much! New York was my main inspiration. I absolutely love it there and I've always wanted to write a book set there. Then I was listening to a song by Jason Mraz called If It Kills Me - it's about a boy who's in love with his best friend's girlfriend and I started thinking about how stressful that would be (but it's also quite a romantic idea, don't you think? Someone being secretly in love with someone they can't have) and Finn popped into my head, standing in Times Square, wearing a tuxedo, holding a bunch of red roses and trying to flag down a cab! 

~ Do you relate yourself to your characters? (Such as putting some of your traits in them)

I do. I think it's hard not to and that authors who say they don't are probably kidding themselves! None of the characters are exactly like me, but they've all got aspects of me, definitely. 

~ Why should people read Jessie <3 NYC?

Ooh! Well one reviewer described it as "a love letter to New York" so if you like New York, you should like the book. Apart from that, I'd hope they could maybe find some aspect of Jessie to identify with or maybe fall in love with Finn. Or just because it would make me do this -> :)

~ I love the Gold backround on your book with New York on the front cover who designed your cover?

Thanks for asking. Well, I actually came up with the idea for the cover in a dream. In my dream, the cover was white with the Empire State Building in black and the title in a square (like the title on the cover of Della Says: OMG!). I told my editor about it and she asked if I could draw it and send it to her. I did a mock-up instead, which you can see here http://www.melissacwalker.com/keris-stainton/

The artwork was done by an illustrator named Mike Lemanski, who is amazing. I'd actually seen and loved his illustrations before (like this one http://www.mikelemanski.co.uk/?p=484) so I was thrilled when I found out he'd done the cover.

~ What has your writing journey been like so far? (i.e when and why did you start writing, any struggles along the way?)

I actually started trying to write a novel in the mid-90s, but it took me until 2005 to finally finish one. That one was a novel for young adults called FORGET ME NOT. I sent it out to agents and was luckily enough to sign with my agent quite quickly, but then it took quite a while to find a publisher. I signed with Orchard Books in Summer 2008, I think it was. They decided that FORGET ME NOT wasn't right for the first book and so I wrote DELLA SAYS: OMG! and then they asked me to write something else, which turned out to be JESSIE HEARTS NYC. So it wasn't a particularly difficult journey, but it was quite a slow one with a bit of an odd speed-bump on the way! 

~ Can you tell us what a normal writing day is like for you?

Three days a week, I take my 7-year-old son to school and then come home and play with my 2-year-old until about 11 when he goes for a sleep and then I write like a mad thing until he wakes up at about 1.30. Or I *should* write like a mad thing, but mainly I faff about online and on Twitter until I start panicking at about 1 o'clock. 

The other two days, my 2-year-old, Joe, has preschool and then goes to his grandparents' for the afternoon, so I have from 9.30 til 3 to write. Again, I probably start writing in a panic at about 2.30. When I've got a deadline, though, I'll write in the evenings too. 

 ~ Do you have a specific writing style?

I think I almost certainly have, but I wouldn't know how to describe it. I try to be chatty and straightforward without being patronising. Hope I've succeeded so far.  

~ Are your currently working on anything new atm? If so, can you tell us anything about it?

I am! And I can sort of tell you a bit about it. While I was waiting to hear if I was going to be writing a new book for Orchard, I started writing a book set in Italy. It's almost finished (I'm hoping to finish it this week) and I've really loved writing it, but that's NOT the book I'm writing for Orchard. And I don't think I can tell you about that one just yet, but I'll be writing the first draft during NaNoWriMo next month. (I wrote the first draft of Jessie for NaNoWriMo too.) 

~ There are alot of aspiring authors out there atm, Do you have any advice for them?

The best advise is really to read as much as you can. And don't worry about trends in publishing - write whatever you want to write. If you're passionate about it, it will come through. 

~ Author what?

~ Night Owl or Early Bird?Early bird. I start falling asleep at about 9.30pm.

 ~ Colour?
Green. Or pink. 

~ Book?
I've just really loved Lola & the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

 ~ Author?I LOVE Meg Cabot.  

~ Film?When Harry Met Sally 

~ Random Fact?

I'm also watching Would I Lie to You on the iPlayer as I'm writing this. I love David Mitchell. 

I'd like to give a big massive thanks to Keris for taking the time out and answering the above questions. I really means to me and I'm sure it does to you readers to.

Contact Info:

Twitter @keris
My website http://www.keris-stainton.com
Girls ♥ Books http://girlsheartbooks.com
The Big Zeroes http://thebigzeroes.wordpress.com
Ready for Ten http://www.readyforten.com/users/Keris/posts

Now for the competition!

It will end 31 October and the winner will be named on 1st November. :)
I'm giving away one copy of Jessie Hearts NYC to one lucky reader.

Open Internationally.

You MUST be a GFC follower of Reading A Little Bit Of everything to Enter.

Leave a comment below with your email address so I will be able to contact you if you're the winner.

GOOD-LUCK!!

Thanks Kerry-Ann