Playing Hurt Blog Tour – Interview with Holly Schindler

I just realized that I’ve never done any author interviews in this blog ever since I started it. I remember hosting only one interview with Camy Tang back when my book posts were in my personal blog but I never really did any here. I guess I was really just too busy writing reviews that I never really followed through on my plans on interviewing some authors. Oops, my bad.

But let’s change that. Here’s my first author interview in One More Page! Let’s all give a warm welcome to Holly Schindler, author of A Blue So Dark and recently released Playing Hurt, for this leg of the Playing Hurt Philippine Blog Tour! :)

Playing Hurt Philippine Tour1. I find it really interesting that you’d write about a female jock. Were you one back in high school?

Not at all! I’m terribly uncoordinated. I swear, I can fall around corners! Just awful…If
you told me a few years ago that my second book would feature a couple of athletes, I
would have laughed in your face…

2. Basketball is a really huge thing here in the Philippines, even if…well, we’re shorter than other basketball players are. It doesn’t stop us from watching or playing, though! Do you play any sport or would you rather watch? Or both?

I’ve really come to have a much greater appreciation for athletes as I’ve gotten older…I
realize, now, how mental sports are! My brother likes baseball, so I wind up watching
more baseball than anything else…

When I was in graduate school, though, I fondly remember our Lady Bears going to the
Final Four—so exciting…

Playing Hurt3. What was the hardest part in writing PLAYING HURT? How different was it from writing your debut novel?

My debut, A BLUE SO DARK, wrote EXTREMELY quickly—I wrote the first draft,
edited it, and submitted it in just about two months!

I did have to rewrite the book several times. But every rewrite went every bit as quickly.

PLAYING HURT was a slower write…And it changed the most from the original draft to the final published version.

4. What was the last book you finished? Did you like it?

Some of the last books I’ve read (and loved) are: JUMPSTART THE WORLD and THE
NIGHTMARYS. I also really, really love Brian Katcher (cool work, cool guy—met him
last summer at a teen lit festival). And I’m taking the plunge (finally) into THE GIRL
WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

5. This may sound totally random, but it’s one thing I must always know: what’s your favorite dessert? :)

I’m a HUGE cheesecake fan.

6. I’m one of the Municipal Liaisons for NaNoWriMo Philippines, so in their behalf, I must ask: any message you can give to the aspiring novelists in the Philippines?

Love Books? Write One!First of all—I just want to give everybody who takes part in NaNoWriMo enormous applause! That’s the most important part of all—just planting yourself in the chair and getting the work done. Everybody’s had an idea that would make an incredible book, but actually getting that idea onto paper is excruciatingly hard work.

…Really, though, the best thing you could ever do is just keep going. One foot in front of the other. The thing about writing is there’s always one struggle after another. First, it’s getting the book on the page. Then, it’s finding an agent. Landing a book deal. Getting through book development, finding a readership, learning what promo methods work, growing a readership, changing genres…There’s absolutely no shortage of struggle in writing. Focus on the small triumphs, celebrate them, and tackle the next struggle with fervor!

* * *

Thanks for dropping by, Holly!

I’m only the second leg in the blog tour — make sure you visit the other blogs participating in the next few days! Thanks to my good friend Kai of Amaterasu Reads for hosting the tour. :)

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