Meeting Andrea Cremer, Author of Nightshade!

I love meeting authors! Especially enthusiastic, fun ya authors! I enjoy hearing their unique stories about how they got into writing and how they were published because no two experiences are alike! Andrea Cremer was no exception to the rule, and was certainly a pleasure to meet. She is energetic, bubbly, adorable and bonus I love her books!
Her story particularly resonated with me because she has a full time job as a professor and has three published books with two more on the way. I asked her how she juggled writing and a full time job, something I'm struggling with a bit with now. She replied, writing in every spare moment, dropping to part time at work and even taking time off. She also said to keep writing time sacred and make sure to stick to a schedule. So after that tip, I know I must protect my Sunday writing times. They are sacred!
Some other things from her Q&A that I enjoyed, she said she broke rules. Lots of them. As a new writer with little knowledge of the publishing world she did a lot of things new writers probably shouldn't. For instance pitching a series. Agents take gambles on new writers/clients and when they pitch a series its an even bigger gamble but I love that Andrea went for it and that it worked. A sure sign that some rules are made to be broken! I love a rebel!
When asked about where she got the idea for the series, she said she had a strong female voice in her head that was also a wolf. This was a bit problematic, the wolf part not the voices, (as a writer hearing the voices of your characters is totally normal, I swear!) because werewolves are typically seen as grotesque creatures that are always being hunted in stories. But Andrea didn't want anything like that. Especially since werewolves spend minutes experiencing the change, including a serious of bone cracking transformations that leaves them vulnerable during the shift. She wanted her characters to be able to change at will and not have to worry about having a change of clothes.
So here's the really cool part, she borrowed from physics and string theory. Using the idea that there are an infinite number of dimensions, when transformations of her wolves occurred instantaneously, the human part, clothes and all would be put into another dimension, a closet if you will, until they were ready to use it again. Therefore no crazy long vulnerable, transformations and no naked people running around! Which although can be humorous, has been done many times before. I give her major props for the physics nod, plus I'm a big geek and like that sorta stuff!
One more thing! She signed in colored sharpies! This totally made my day! I love color! And although her signature sentences are related to her series, I think its also great advice, both for aspiring writers and life!

So when I read great books and meet great authors I love to recommend them to others. If you haven't checked out the Nightshade series I highly highly recommend you do! It's a beautifully written series about werewolves, that definitely breaks the mold! Calla is a strong protagonist as an alpha wolf and the leader of her pack. She ends up torn between her destiny, Ren another alpha wolf from a rival pack who she is set to unite with to form a new pack, and Shay a mysterious human who shows up at her school and the new pack is asked to protect. After reading Nightshade I was so torn between the two boys that I didn't know who I wanted Calla to end up with more! I've never read a book and not had at least a small opinion one way or the other about a pairing. So run over to your favorite book buying spot and grab this series! The books are cool and so is the author! I definitely had a hard time putting these books down!