Interview: Miranda Kenneally +Things I Can't Forget

Today I'm thrilled to welcome young adult author Miranda Kenneally to the blog to answer a few questions about her newest release, Things I Can't Forget. I have absolutely adored all the books in this fabulous contemporary series, and I highly recommend it to any reader who loves very character-driven stories. Thanks so much for stopping by Miranda!

This series focuses on a variety of different sports including football, softball and horse racing. What's one sport you'd love to work into a future novel just so you can learn more about it?

Curling. Pushing a big piece of steaming metal across the ice with a broom sounds fun! For real though - I would probably want to write about lacrosse, because I have no idea what goes on in that sport. I never even knew it existed until I moved to DC when I was 18.

If you were to sit down with Kate for a promotional interview, what's the first thing you'd ask her? What might she ask you?

If we're talking Kate at the beginning of THINGS I CAN'T FORGET:

I'd ask Kate why she didn't get the guts to ask out Will Whitfield until senior prom, when it was too late for her. Kate would ask me why I haven't been to church in 12 years!

If we're talking the end of the book:

I'd ask Kate if she's going to try out for intramural soccer in college, now that she can run well again. Kate would probably invite me to come back to church with her. And I would consider it, because she asked.

Let's say in a few months you're going to be a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp along with Kate. What camp activities have you most and least excited?

Most excited - Swimming, hiking, singing, and making smores.

Least excited - Cooking over a campfire. It's hard to build a fire with wet logs! Also, I am terrified of spiders, so I would not look forward to using a bathhouse where spiders may have nested.

If you could spend five minutes with pre-Catching Jordan Miranda, what would you most like to tell her about the journey she's about to embark on?

I'd tell her not to spend so much time obsessing over whether or not her books are going to fail and to just keep writing the best books she can, because if the books are good, they will sell. I'd also say don't put too much stock in one bad review, but look at the individual lives you influence. If you help just one reader, it's all been worth it.

What's one thing you learned about Kate while writing Things I Can't Forget that you didn't know about her from just your outline or notes?

So many things. I didn't know she was a soccer player in high school. I also didn't know she was a daddy's girl. And I didn't know she liked green beans so much!

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MIRANDA KENNEALLY

Miranda Kenneally is the author of CATCHING JORDAN, STEALING PARKER, THINGS I CAN'T FORGET (March 2013), and RACING SAVANNAH (December 2013). Miranda is the co-creator of Dear Teen Me. The Dear Teen Me Anthology was published on October 31, 2012. She enjoys reading and writing young adult literature, and loves Star Trek, music, sports, Mexican food, Twitter, coffee, and her husband. Miranda is represented by Sara Megibow at Nelson Literary Agency.

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

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THINGS I CAN'T FORGET

Some Rules Were Meant To Be Broken.

Kate Kelly has always been labeled the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. Kate turned her back on everything she’s been taught to help her best friend Emily, who accidentally got pregnant. And the guilt over her decision is weighing on her. This summer, she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. Unexpectedly, she runs into Matt – the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt – with her. He’s inspiring feelings in her that make her question everything she’s been taught about the world – and help her understand what Emily experienced. Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy.

Home Run Blog Tour: Review of Stealing Parker

STEALING PARKER
(Catching Jordan #2)
Miranda Kenneally
Contemporary Young Adult
256 pages
Sourcebooks Fire
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

MY THOUGHTS
Ms. Kenneally initially impressed with Catching Jordan, showing a unique proficiency for wrapping up an emotional story in a deceptively simple package, and she continues to illustrate that gift in Stealing Parker. What could have been a cute and fun coming-of-age story with an adorable (and at times naïve) teenage heroine turns into a captivating tale that touches on a wide variety of issues to wring from us every drop of varied emotion we possess. While not entirely religious in nature, there is a stronger undercurrent of faith and God than was seen in Catching Jordan, but Ms. Kenneally manages to feature Parker’s struggles with her Christianity somewhat prominently without tossing it in our faces. Though some may balk at the portrayal of those who tend Parker’s church, the beautifully tense and infinitely layered relationships between Parker and a myriad of hugely appealing secondary characters are highlights, drawing us in even when certain elements may throw up a red flag.

Parker is an endearing young woman, someone we can see is battling with herself and those around her after her mother’s very public departure from her life after admitting she was gay to her family and friends. Those who claim to be Parker’s friends – as well as the church community that seems to hide behind the word “Christian” as though being labeled as such automatically makes them good people – abandon her, her brother, and her father, casting them out and rescinding their precious stamps of approval to leave them in emotional tatters. Parker then has our automatic support, our desire to stand at her back and bolster her against a torrent of ignorance and hate for something completely out of her control strong from page one, and while we often want to shake her for her sometimes willing blindness to how her actions affect her and those around her, our connection to her never wavers in its strength.

One of the most appealing aspects of this story is the growth we see in Parker in such a short number of pages, going from a confused, hurt, and somewhat oblivious girl to a still confused young woman, but one who has her eyes and heart open far wider than when she started. She makes a myriad of mistakes, allowing the opinions of others to drive her actions rather than acting for herself, but while the actions themselves are those of girl lacking a bit in maturity, her handling of the repercussions of her decisions is that of someone far older. She accepts the pain she causes and does her best to remedy it, never whining or breaking down even when we are tempted to drop to our knees in dejection on her behalf. She recognizes and owns her poor judgment when it boldly confronts her, learning from the experience and leaving us with the knowledge that she’ll be more self-aware moving forward.

As with Catching Jordan, the romance takes a more meandering route to get to its final destination, delighting us with tension while also sometimes cruelly playing with our fragile hearts to keep us coiled tight the entire time we’re reading. Ms. Kenneally is quickly becoming a favorite contemporary young adult author, and I am more than eagerly anticipating what romantic roller coaster she’ll take me on next.

Rating: 4/5

Don't forget that Miranda is a part of Get Real: Contemps on Tour with fellow YA authors Janet Gurtler and Lisa and Laura Roecker, so be sure and check the full schedule HERE to see if they're stopping in a city near you!