Crossroads Blog Tour Day 4: Amanda Ashby

It's day 4 of The Crossroads Blog Tour! If you're not familiar with how the tour works, you can check out my kick off post here, and then be sure to visit The Crossroads Tour main page for a full list of participating authors and bloggers as well as details on prizes, giveaways, and collecting the mystery clues!

Amanda Ashby is popping in today and I'm excited to welcome her to the blog!




Your zombies become zombies via a virus, how exactly is it contracted?

Normally you would just be bitten by a zombie to catch the virus, but in Mia’s case she did a spell, which inflicted the virus onto people! Now, that’s unlucky!

You were just elected zombie prom queen; can you describe your winning ensemble?

Honestly, I would wear the dress that Mia is wearing on the cover of Zombie. I love it so much that I even wrote it into the book after I saw it!!!!!!

What made you continue your pursuit of a writing career after your initial rejection?

Stubbornness and ego!!!

Do you find it harder to come up with a concept for a novel or a catchy title?

I find concepts really easy to come up with and I have them all the time—ask my long suffering husband!!!! Ditto on titles. Unfortunately I find the whole sitting down and writing the book thing slightly harder!!!!!

Do you write the novel first and then come up with a title, or do you have a title in mind when you’re writing?

I’m either really great at titles or really bad!!!! With Zombie Queen of Newbury High, the title came first and I wrote the book around it (as in, I asked myself the question of how would one become a zombie queen!). Ditto with Fairy Bad Day—I sent my agent a proposal. She hated the story but loved the title so we brainstormed a new book. However, with my first book was originally called Heaven Bent (I know, awful!!!!) before my agent came up with You Had Me at Halo!

Can you write an acceptance speech for Mia if she’s elected prom queen?

I’d like to thank everyone for electing me and if any of you have noticed gravy stains on your clothing or hamburgers under your fingernails, please don’t blame me. Also, if you suddenly feel like you’ve eaten your body weight in steak and rissoles, again, totally not my fault. And finally, if I can give you all one piece of advice as your newly elected prom queen, don’t try doing love spells because they seriously don’t work!

Can you elaborate on your extreme hatred of bananas?

Hahahaha – seriously, this is the funniest question I’ve ever been asked!!!!! And no, I have no idea where the banana thing came from but my mother will assure you that it’s been with me all my life!! It used to drive her crazy that I wouldn’t eat them as a baby, since nothing is easier than mushing up a banana. But bleurgh. I hate everything about them. For a start they make a mushy sound when you bite them, then there is the whole smell thing. Honestly, I feel ill just thinking about them. Though weirdly, I can eat banana flavoured things, it’s just the actual fruit itself I can’t stand!!!!!

A huge thanks to Amanda for answering all my questions! Her next young adult novel, Fairy Bad Day, releases June 2011 from Puffin. For more information on this upcoming release and her other books, you can find tons of fun information here:

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