Josie James and the Teardrops of Summer by Lily Mae Walters ** Blog Tour Author Post & Giveaway**
Josie James is an ordinary 13 year old until something
extraordinary happens during her summer holidays.
Whist staying at her Great Grandmother's cottage in the
country she finds herself swept into the cursed world of Suncroft where it is
perpetual winter.
Her new friends believe she could be the Chosen One who it
is foretold will lift the curse, but
there are more pressing matters.
The Teardrops of Summer - magical crystals that render the
owner immortal - have been stolen. Along
with her telepathic husky-dog Protector Asher and her new friends, Josie must
race to find the Teardrops and prevent catastrophe for their world.
Welcome to Cat and Mouse Reading... Lily Mae. Tell us all about creating Josie James.
Lily Mae Walters:
Lily Mae Walters:
Josie James is thirteen years old and lives in
Coventry. She has a small group of
friends that she spends most of her time with, but Becky is her closest and
dearest friend. Like most girls her age
she enjoys listening to music and watching films and is of course slightly
obsessed with fashion and her phone.
One of her favourite past times is making up stories with
her friends. They take it in turns to
write a short adventure with themselves as the main character and tell it to
each other at one of their regular sleep overs.
I have tried to make Josie as real as possible. I’ve thought back to when I was her age and
what I enjoyed doing but as that was the late 1980s I have had to bring her to
the modern age. To do this I have
focused on things my daughter and her friends have done or said in the
past. We never had mobile phones when I
was a teenager and I never really bothered whether I was wearing Nike or
Adidas, as long as I felt good in my clothes that was all that mattered to me.
I didn’t want Josie to be a spoilt child, so although she is
an only child from a fairly well off family she isn’t just given everything she
wants and of course the trauma of her red hair is the absolute bane of her
life. To some people this might seem
vain but we all have our inner turmoil and things we are not happy with and to
a thirteen year old girl that wants to just fit in and slip by unnoticed,
bright red hair is the last thing you want.
I decided to base her in a real school and a real street to
give the character more of a grounding.
Josie goes to my old school and lives in my childhood home and many of
her experiences here are based on things that happened to me, although people
that know the area will know it is another high school at the bottom of the
road and not exactly as I have described it in the books.
Basing Josie very firmly in the real world makes the world
of Suncroft even more magical to me. It
seems to give more of a contrast to the imaginary village and characters. Using my experiences and places I know helps
keep Josie an everyday character, someone you would bump into in the street or
at the local shop and I hope readers enjoy those parts of the stories.
Now Josie has been to Suncroft we start to see Suncroft
filtering into her world more and more and I love writing these bits. How would a teenage girl react to such a
situation? And to answer that I think
back to when I was her age and what I would have done. Josie is a very real character to me, she
lives and breathes inside my head and I love bringing her to life between the
pages of the books.
Thanks so much for stopping by today.
About the Author
Lily Mae Walters chose her pen name in honour of her beloved
grandparents who also star in the Josie James series.
She is married with two teenage children, and two huskies
that are the inspiration behind Murphy and Asher in the books.
Lily Mae lives in Nuneaton, England and finds herself using
local places and even her old school in
her stories.
Family and friends mean the world to Lily Mae and many will
find themselves popping up throughout the series.
Lily Mae also writes for adults under the name of Florence
Keeling.
| Twitter
Book link: Amazon UK
Thanks to Lily Mae Walters and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a place on the tour.
Giveaway (UK only)
To win a signed copy of Josie James and the Teardrops of Summer (UK Only) just follow the link below and good luck!
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box
below. The winner will be selected at
random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter
and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right
to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the
competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with
third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed
to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after
which time I will delete the data. I am
not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Comments
Post a Comment